WELCOME!
I hope you find something here to interest you.
The posts on this blog are random, diverse subjects
and mostly my own original writing.
Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me*.
I am open to suggestions for further subject matter.
Respectfully Yours,
Wendy Salter
‘Avia’ is the site name and means ‘Grandmother’, which I am.
*Contact: wendy@wendysalter.com (no spam please)
To survive in this world, Man has had to learn Earth’s patterns and anomalies and work with them to his own benefit. Besides attending to his day-to-day needs he has had to look to the Heavens for help and learn the intricacies of this organic living planet in relation to the cosmos.Yet hard as he has tried, he has been caught out by some extreme and unexpected changes.
His basic needs of food and shelter have progressed from an opportunist approach to one of organisation and husbandry. Both Man and animals have different ways of managing their food supply.
Large herds of beasts, flocks of birds or swarms of insects can completely devastate the local environment from which they are feeding and then move swiftly on. It is not a complete failure, because Nature replenishes the stocks after they have gone.
Family groups, like primates, that like to stay put and make a home, tend to have a more varied diet and make sure that no part of that diet is eaten completely, so that it can continually restore itself. Agriculture gave man a means to grow for himself what he needed.
Many animals learn to store food when there is an abundance, to keep a supply for the lean times.
Early Humans seem to have gone one step further in that they invented a system of praying to the nature gods and goddesses to help them. It is possible that this was after the advent of agriculture, when people realised that they, themselves, could work with Nature and manage their crops and animal stock in a co-operative and conscious way, but there were some mysterious events that they could not pre-empt ad needed to elicit the help of the unseen powers.
There were goddesses of fertility who helped with the setting of the seeds and matings of animals and to be fertile, these goddesses would, of course, need consorts, virile gods. But the ancient folk seemed to also understand that the power of the sun influenced the power of the Earth – the Father and Mother Gods.
There is much evidence of seasonal rituals performed by these ancient people, to celebrate the Sacred Marriage of the gods and goddesses and bestow good fortune on the consummation of that marriage, thereby procuring good fortune on their harvests. By the law of averages, these rituals must have been seen to work when successful and prolific harvests followed. Of course, this may have happened without the added ‘good luck’ from the gods, but one thing would guarantee the belief in the ritual, and that would be a failure due, in the minds of the people, to the failure of the ritual. Superstition works when the appropriate result follows the appropriate action, both negatively and positively.
But did the early people believe something that we have forgotten? Did they believe that they could influence this unseen but powerful energy field of the earth?
As a dowser of natural energy, I am continually shown that the life-force in our world has two distinct ‘polarities’. These can be called + and – , positive and negative, or male and female. Each of these has a flow, or character, or effect, that is different to the other. One has a clock-wise and descending spin – a more direct, highly tuned feel – where the other runs anticlockwise and ascends and is more fluctuating, or rhythmic and soft. In the planet Earth, the ‘Pole’ or focal point of these two energies are in the north and in the south Arctic regions.
Prophecies of old have forwarned us about a ‘Pole Shift’: now that our
scientists can study the physical mechanics of our Earth’s magnetic field, the emanations of magnetism from fluid magma gyrating around the crystalline metallic core, and the positioning of the magnetic poles, they can confirm that we have had Pole Shifts before, and are likely to have more in the future.
The program in the video below explains how by studying the nature of the core of the planet, they have found that the Magnetic Shift has already started and will inevitably cause a ‘flip’ into a Pole Reversal. The South Atlantic Anomaly, which is a weakening area of our magnetic field, affects the instruments on the Hubble Space Station every time it crosses it while orbitting the planet and has shown that this area is allowing an increased level of protons into our vicinity. We will experience different phenomena as this happens but one important effect will be on bird migrations: it is highly likely that the Natural World, and especially the animals, will give us the signs that it is happening.
Geomancers of the past have known about the magnetic nature of the living energy of our planet and have been able to trace lines, commonly called ‘Ley’ lines, or ‘dragon’ lines, and to position megalithic monuments along these lines and at intersections, called ‘nodes’. Our ancestors went to great lengths to put these great stones in place, so there must have been an important reason for doing so. Many of the megalithic circles, or ‘landscape temples’, are also calendars which mark out the solstices and equinoxes and watch the subtle changes in their cycles. They also align to the zodiac constellations and are a gauge on the great cycle of the turning cosmos, called The Great Year. The stones may also have been an attempt to ‘fix’ the energy in that place to stabilise it. Some studies have noted alignments around the world to a different North and South magnetic pole and a different Equator – on which sat the Great Pyramid at Giza. The period of the last Pole Shift may have been around the time of the Great Flood, around 10- 12,000 B.C.
Once the studies of the past and the studies of the present come together, it may present a full picture of how these anomalies not only repeat but can be predictable. Now we have the technology to view what the ancients also seem to have known, we should be well prepared; but what seems remarkable is that this subject still seems to be one of conjecture, one seen as mystical or unfathomable, antiquated or science-fiction, or one that is held within the confines of the laboratory… and one of which the general public seems to be blissfully unaware.
Among the items of clothing that people choose to wear, the hat, or cap, seems to be far more than just functional – that is, to keep the head warm. Remember the game ‘Associations’? When hats and caps came to my attention I had no idea the many paths of discovery it would lead me down, just by associating one train of thought with the next. This is a wonder of the human mind!
In the book that I was reading* a cap worn by the ancient god Attis was described as a ‘Phrygian cap’. I didn’t know what it looked like so I started my research…
The Phrygian cap is a felt, conical cap with a floppy tip, usually depicted as red, but found in the most obscure places. It is famous as a ‘liberty cap’ given to slaves freed by the Roman Empire to cover their shaved heads. So why did Attis wear it?
Attis was the god of fertility in the old country of Phrygia in Anatolia, Turkey. This connection at least identified why it is called a Phrygian cap. His myth is another parallel to the various myths regarding the old pagan rituals around the death of winter and re-birth of Spring. You can find these stories in just about every country in the world, where the seasons move from the dead of winter to the new life of spring and the glorious abundance of life in summer. And Attis is also Mithras, Adonis, Tammuz and Christ, in this symbolism.
So did Attis wear his cap just because his head was cold, like the freed slaves?
The Phrygian cap is commonly confused with the ‘pileus‘, a similar conical cap worn by Greek sailors, like Odysseus, and Albanian peasants, and can be seen on the statue of the Dioscuri twins in Rome.
I started to think about who wears hats, or caps, now. Our armed defenders all wear caps as part of their uniform. Royalty wear crowns. Judges passing the death sentence wear the black cloth. Mexicans wear huge ‘somberos‘ to keep the sun off their heads. Women wear veils and scarves. Fashion brings hats in and then out again.
In the 30′s and 40′s hats were very much in vogue. And the customs of how to use your hat were quite strict. A man would ‘doff’ his hat to a woman, or another respected person, and was not allowed to wear it indoors. It was an item of status, the flat cap being the working man’s hat. But then I found that the original pileus may have been a cloth version of a metal helmet, like the copper and bronze helmets worn by warriors. I thought about the construction worker’s ‘hard hat’. The list of variations is endless but I then went down another curious path.
The Phrygian cap is depicted in many places as an emblem of liberty on national flags, coins, insignia’s, statues etc. (Wiki Gallery), one of which is on the point of the spear in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789. The picture of this declaration (below) is not only interesting for the vast number of symbols used in it, but for another association – the French National emblem – Liberty – a goddess and warrioress of liberty, equality and fraternity, otherwise known as ‘Marianne’ (A form of Mary, or Ma – the universal name for the Divine Mother). The Statue of Liberty in New York is the very same Liberty, so ‘freedom’ seems to be a key to this little red cap. It is interesting to note that in this Declaration the equality of women is included but not the freedom of slaves. In the 2nd Declaration, 1793, the rights are extended to slaves, and the symbolism of the picture has changed to remove Marianne and elevate the ‘bonnet-rouge’ – the Phrygian cap – because this was after the French Revolution.
But then, still following my nose, I discovered that Marianne had only been the emblem of France since it became a republic, after the French Revolution. Before that, the emblem was a Rooster, used, not by the French, but by the Romans, as a pun on words: ‘gallus‘ means both ‘rooster’ and ‘Gaul’, a Frenchman.
There is another use of this image for the French: it is described in the story of Jesus that Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crowed. Remembering Jesus’s words, Peter kept his faith and so the rooster became a symbol of overcoming the Darkness of Doubt, at the time of approaching Light.
One can go round and round in circles when observing the symbolic nature of our world, but the best solution is usually the simplest – like reducing a theory to its simplest equation. In solving a mystery, it is sometimes useful to look at the most natural form of it…
I suddenly saw that the Phrygian cap looks just like the cockscomb on the Rooster!
Did the Roman slave crow like a rooster the moment he was made free? Did the ancient farmers and seafaring heroes see themselves as cock-o’-the-roost? Did the rituals of the pagan gods announce the dawn of creation to the world every year, as the roosters did every morning? Do both the Phrygian cap and the Rooster proclaim not just Freedom but Life?
And then I saw something else familiar – the common, or garden, Gnome. The gnome is a little being who works tirelessly in your garden – the natural world – while you are asleep. His home is the toadstool…
The toadstool Fly-Agaric and other magic mushrooms are famous for their psychotropic properties traditionally used by shamen, medicine men and wizards to have an altered state of mind and an ‘out-of-body’ experience.
The gnome then reminded me of the Seven Dwarfs, who, as you remember, rescued Snow White, the virginal maiden, from her death-like slumber (winter). (This fable is an analogy for the renewal of life).
They all wear the Phrygian cap, which, when one goes back to Attis wearing this cap reminds me again of the purpose of the pagan god – to represent the death of the Spirits of Nature during winter and the re-awakening, re-birth, rejuvenation or resurrection of Life in Spring.
Lastly, the famous red-capped, magical, legendary figure is of course, Father Christmas – that old pagan bringer-of-gifts in the dead of winter, riding his flying reindeers (that eat Fly-Agaric) to herald the new life of Spring by bringing in the evergreen tree.
And Santa wears a Phrygian cap!
Original writing by Wendy Salter, with references and links.
*The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer
At the risk of getting 2012′ed out, I offer another extremely informative addition to what we know to date in the video posted below – An Interview with Geoff Stray.
Also one of the most poignant full feature films I have seen about Planet Earth, called ‘HOME‘, should, I feel, be watched by everyone at this point in time - http://youtu.be/jqxENMKaeCU (You Tube Free films)
Next year is getting a lot of press coverage for a reason – because of its historical, astronomical, astrological and cosmic importance – and therefore it is crucial that we on our little planet understand it and prepare for it as much as we are able. There are those for whom 2012 is just not on the radar screen. Many who are aware of its significance either feel it is so vast a subject and open to so much speculation that they switch off and say ‘que sera, sera’. But if we wish, we can go into this experience with both eyes wide open and experience something phenomenal. There is always something more that we can do and it seems that being conscious, or not, is the foundation of whether it is a positive experience, or not.
To date, the extent of world knowledge has been streamed through academia (state controlled), science, religion and archaeology; it has been lost, burned, deliberately hidden or distorted, censored and limited. Until knowledge brought forward by the spiritual channels, the psychic senses, the free-consciousness and expansive mind explorations (out-of-body experiences or OBEs), psychotropic plant teachers, and dreaming, or journeying, is accepted as real and relevant, we entrap ourselves in this 3-dimensional physical world that we seem to be bent on destroying. Great seers and sages through the ages, even when persecuted for being heretics, sacrilegious, traitors to the state or madmen, have brought into this world new ideas, new knowledge and new perspectives – even new technologies – without which we would never have progressed – and in most cases through nothing more weird than a dream. It is imperative that we have the courage to think beyond the known, the mundane and the involving self-destructive behaviour we have thus far adopted.
It is time to acknowledge the non-physical and invisible (to most) dimensions of life. It is time to break free of our self-limiting, self-destructive negative thought processes and behavioural patterns, and open our minds.
To continue to ravage this planet to satisfy the greedy lust for hedonistic pleasure and comfort without any regard for the future, is to kill the very host we live on – to trample on our garden that provides our homes and food and to foul our own back-yard. To continue to war with each other is absolute madness. How killing our fellow human ever became acceptable as a part of ‘civilisation’, I will never understand. How we can turn a blind eye to the damage we do to man, our children and elders, the birds and beasts, the plant kingdom, medicines and forests, and oceans with no care or conscience, is beyond belief. And so I urge every one of us to ask the simple question -
“What is 2012 asking of us?”
Wendy Salter (original writing)
Geoff Stray found his calling when he discovered that two different sources to the ‘end date’ – 2012 – came from opposite sides of the world – or at least the Pacific Ocean – Mexico and China. It was Terrance McKenna who had discovered the incredible ninth wave in both the Mayan Calendar and the I-Ching when he received psychic communication during a psychotropic plant experience. Geoff takes up the story and delves into the evidence.
I also recommend anything on Graham Hancock’s site www.grahamhancock.com and GrahamHancockDotCom on YouTube
City Riots
When a city erupts in violent riots it gives us an opportunity to pay attention to the cause of the unrest and not just suppress it or wash it away with fire hoses. England is not unique in its riots; outbreaks of violence have occurred in major cities around the world. The different comments, about our riots, in the international papers gives an interesting world view (see The First Post), when our own view may be clouded and biased. Basically, our reaction seems to be one of embarrassment. The U.K. – one of the top international political voices – has been caught with issues in its own back-yard.
Unrest, riots, demos and revolutions have different characters. Bubbles of unrest will always surface and disperse as a natural way of allowing the common voice to be heard. Demonstrations are, literally, the right of the civilian in a suburb to tell the central government how it feels. Revolutions happen when the government doesn’t listen, or doesn’t adjust conditions favourably, and when a tyrannical leader is left unchecked. But riots – wanton violence, pillaging, burning of property and man turning on man – is something more sinister.
In the present riots there seems to be a single motive of anger and revenge for the shooting of a man by the police. (This case is untried and the circumstances are as yet unproven). Was it the real catalyst for unleashing so much anger and hatred towards the Law? What doesn’t make sense, is that the victim of this violence is the community itself; it isn’t common man fighting a cause for freedom, justice or compassion. To break shops open, threaten and hurt the shop-keepers, blatantly steal goods with no conscience and destroy property with fire, is madness. A demon seems to have been released – a demon that has taken its sustenance from a whole bunch of negative grapes (gripes). The People are not happy.
I wonder what the true cause of this is. We have freedom of speech in this country, a good legal system, law-enforcement by an un-armed police force, plenty of food, water, work and social support – all the essentials for civil peace and democracy – so from what was this riot of anger and destruction born? Is it anarchy? A breakdown in family life? Drugs and alcohol abuse? Mass hysteria? Boredom? Violence under hypnosis?
“The devil finds work for idle hands” – is still true.
This riot has no moral banner and no obvious parallel with the struggle for human rights and political freedom seen in other countries. It reminds me of a very bad movie. Nevertheless, we cannot just blame those who have broken ranks, those with a brick in their hands; nor even the makers of mind-numbing, mind-controlling or mind-turning-to-violence media junk; nor the government, nor the global financial crisis. Maybe we should rise above the infected wound far enough to see the overall health of the entity itself. It’s not just London that’s in crisis – this is global.
“It’s all in the mind” – is also true. What is created starts with what is in the thoughts. What is on the mind of The People? Where do The People put their attention and mind energy? Where are The People’s values – or what do The People value?
Life on Earth is at a crisis point, with so many things wrong it is impossible to evaluate them or contemplate the subject, let alone the solution. Riots in London are no worse or better than the death and destruction everywhere – it’s all part of the same disease. And the cure?
The Other Side of the Street
Away from the fires of destruction, there is another life, alive and kicking: it is the complete antithesis of all of the above. It is peaceful and loving, gentle and beautiful. It is lived by gifted, intelligent, kind and caring people, who create extraordinary things and look after themselves. It is healthy and strong and can be found all over the world. This other life is a part of the same entity that is wounded and sick, and it is the part that will survive. For news of this we have to look behind the headlines.
Here are some pictures of the Riots in Manchester and London
Here are some pictures of the Aftermath
Here are some pictures of the volunteer Cleanup
(All courtesy of the BBC News)
It is always wonderful to see the surprising upside of horrors, and maybe fighting a common threat brings out the good in others and unites them. For every thug there are thousands of decent people. And even in some thugs, there is a glimmer of decency; but as in the story of the ‘Bad Samaritan‘ (BBC News), even those who would be expected to help each other, don’t, and worse – rob from those who have already been beaten. It shows how the leaders, the instigators of this bad behaviour are a rotten few, but many are drawn in and get caught up with it. In the few – the ‘bad apples’ – it seems all sense of decency has been overpowered by something else, something evil; but it spreads to the good apples and, one by one, they become rotten too.
In the east, one comes across Kali. She is known as ‘The Destroyer’, or the ‘Dark Mother‘, yet she is a part of the Divine Mother, the Creatress. Kali knows right from wrong but she will fight like an aggressive warrioress, swords poised, ready to kill, when her angry thoughts see red. She turns the world towards the Dark, while holding the Light behind her. She can be seen in the eyes of those set to destroy, incensed by a mad rage in the battle with evil.
Kali is the fearful and ferocious form of the Mother goddess. In the Devi Mahatmya (a text of the 5th – 6th century AD) she is said to have been born from the brow of the goddess Durgha during a battle with evil forces. During the battle Kali became overawed by the evil and destruction, lost self control and began destroying everything in sight and, to bring her to her senses, Lord Shiva threw himself under her feet. Shocked, Kali stuck out her tongue in horror and put an end to her rampage. Kali teaches that rage can easily lose control and take on a destructive force, but the moral strength of a person must differentiate between what is right and wrong. This is a common image of Kali:
Humans on Earth, are, apparently, falling from Grace: we started from a high and refined place and ended up here, in what the Hindus call the Kali Yuga.
The Kali Yuga is the last of four ages or phases of involution during which Man has gradually lost awareness of his inner and subtle and higher existence. From a state of perfection and truth, Man has descended to the pits, where evil and dishonesty rules the day. All manner of destruction, selfishness and ignorance characterise this age – the one we are now in – because we are preoccupied with the materiality of everything. We are living in the darkest and densest phase of our evolution. The ancient schools of knowledge all knew this would come and the time-line of these Ages and Epochs has been described for our benefit – so that we know what is happening and what will happen next.
In the Tulasi Ramayana, Kakbhushundi foretells: “In the Kali Yuga, the hot-bed of sin, men and women are all steeped in unrighteousness and act contrary to the Vedas (religious texts); every virtue is engulfed by the sins of Kali Yuga; all good books disappear; impostors promulgate a number of creeds, which they invent out of their own wit. The people all fall prey to delusion and all pious acts are swallowed by greed.”
It is also predicted that at the end of the Kali Yuga, Lord Shiva will destroy the world and all will undergo a great transformation. After this dissolution, Lord Brahma will recreate the world and man will become ‘Beings of Truth’ once again.
A statement in the World News today (12.07.2011) highlights the discovery by a research team at the University of Cambridge of an ancient lost world deep below the Atlantic Ocean, off the north coast of Scotland, UK.
Is this the evidence that we have all been waiting for – or are we clutching at straws again?
Please read comment 1 below – This new evidence has nothing to do with Atlantis except that it affirms the possibility that a large area of land can sink into, or rise from, the ocean bed, but for different reasons.
From the Daily Mail:
An ancient landscape long ago submerged beneath the North Atlantic Ocean has been discovered by scientists.
Researchers found the 56million-year-old lost terrain, which they have likened to the mythical lost city of Atlantis, by analysing data collected for oil companies using an advanced echo-sounding technique.
The 1.2mile-deep landscape is located in the North Atlantic west of the Orkney-Shetland Islands and has peaks that once belonged to mountains and eight major rivers.
Scientists were able to construct this 3D image of the landscape submerged beneath the North Atlantic Ocean by measuring the echoes made by underwater sound waves as they hit different land typesIt would once have risen up to 0.6miles above sea level and probably joined up with what is now Scotland, and may even have stretched as far as Norway, the scientists said.
Researcher Nicky White, from University of Cambridge, said: ‘It looks for all the world like a map of a bit of a country onshore.
‘It is like an ancient fossil landscape preserved 1.2miles beneath the seabed.’
The discovery came from data gathered by a seismic contracting company.
A hi-tech echo-sounding technique was deployed that involved releasing high-pressured air underwater – this produced sound waves that travelled through sediment on the ocean floor.
An echo would bounce back each time these waves happened upon a change in the terrain through which they were travelling.
How the North Atlantic would have looked around 56million years ago. Points a, b and c are where scientists think plume centres were located. The dotted line represents the continental break-upThis echo was then picked up by a microphone being dangled deep underwater from a ship travelling on the ocean’s surface.
Scientists were then able to construct a 3D image of the terrain below, at which point they realised they had evidence of a submerged landscape.
Evidence of land-dwelling life was gathered by core samples taken from the rock beneath the ocean – these revealed pollen and coal.
Elsewhere, the Cambridge scientists found tiny fossils, proving the landscape was once a marine environment.
They believe that the landscape rose up and subsided within 2.5million years due to the Icelandic Plume – an upwelling of material through Earth’s mantle beneath the North Atlantic Ocean.
This functions by carrying hot magma from deep within Earth to just below the surface, where it ripples outwards.
Dr White said the landscape was probably swept beneath the Atlantic during this magma surge.
Indeed, he claims to have found two more recent underwater landscapes since, both caused by the same phenomenon.
The research is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The Next Level
(Lelabear’s Channel – You Tube)
The world has not ended! Our planet and it’s creator sun has been in existence for roughly four and a half billion years – and according to scientific consensus we have about five and a half billion years left (Sun Medicine). Enough time to do something good.
There are many great commentators (Michael Tsarion; David Wilcock; David Icke ) who have investigated our far distant past history to bring to light where we started and what seems to have gone wrong, but with all the talk about 2012 and speculations of doom and gloom, maybe we should be concentrating on our future with a little more optimism.
Undoubtedly, we have used our inventive minds to gain knowledge and develop new concepts and technologies, expanded our skills and evolved physically – and wrought much destruction in the process – but it would be a pity to throw the baby out with the bath-water by negating all we have now. Surely there is good in what we have, too.
Is 2012 – the cusp of a new era (Pisces to Aquarius) as we pass over the Galactic equator – heralding the impending disaster some predict, or a wonderful opportunity to re-invent ourselves? A wild guess of general consensus would be a future without war, without hunger, disease and poverty, greed and inequality, in favour of a future with more harmony between the patriarchal and matriarchal approaches towards societal living and a loving respect for the beautiful Nature of this planet, and ourselves.
In the video below, we see an eclectic view on how we may achieve this:
It starts with a quick look (with some cute animations) at the problems – climate change, species depletion, unsustainable life-styles, resource and fuel depletion, war, poverty, crime, conspiracies, and then goes on to look at the process in action:
Time, machine, matrix; tribal cultures – myth or history; statistics and the acceleration off the graph; psychic evolution and synchronicity; new consciousness; revealing ‘apocalypse’ (that which is covered); self-realisation; attitudes – passive, panic, prophecy, projection or positive; and creative vision.
The body of the video is listening to some great minds and scholars who offer their hope and vision:
Economy – profit or share; political eco-revolution; innovation and regeneration; social change; spiritual advancement and enjoying the Path; how to handle chaos and seeing a new ‘birth’; eco-technologies and making plans; knowledge shared instead of withheld; random thoughts; rapidly increasing changes; remote viewing, psychic projection and collective vision; spirit and science coming together; the miracle of forgiveness; the Tree-of-Life; parallel (not distant) universes and dimensions.
“God is not a ‘Being’ – God is BEING” – a useful thought! God is being exposed – from the ‘invisible, grumpy old man, who is ready to smite aweful judgments on the unwary‘, image – to a new embodiment of divine creative perfection in each and every one of us.
The GOOD news is, that we have a lot in our favour – conspiracies and artificial, authorative control systems ARE being exposed and dismantled. HUGE numbers of people from all walks of life across the globe have ALREADY opened their hearts and minds to a new conscious way of living. The female principle IS returning to re-balance the living energy, or life-force, and the GRANDMOTHERS are voicing their wisdom. The ELDERS are speaking out about our lost knowledge. The CHILDREN are doing things differently. ECOLOGY and ENVIRONMENT movements are gaining momentum. REVOLUTIONS against the old regimes are already succeeding. ACTIVISTS are gathering in every field of life. And people are quietly – and noisily – changing their minds. EMPATHY and KINDNESS are growing in strength.
(Full length feature, 1hr:o6m)
It seems that once a new idea hits the mental fan of humanity, the thought-waves produced emit an energy-wave that has to go somewhere – as all energy is in motion.
In Terence McKenna’s video, here, he poses his extraordinary theory of how the I-Ching is a mirror-image of the peaks and troughs of a time-line of our known history over the last 4000 years.
Terence, who died in 2000, had an extra-visionary perception of how the mind and the cosmic universe work in tandem. His radical suggestions of how the unprecedented leap in human consciousness and knowledge may be attributed to the introduction of psychotropic plants in Man’s diet, tens of thousands of years ago. Rather than the effect of this being a psychadelic skew on reality, his personal experiences seem to prove that these plants allowed an expansion of the human perception. Terence’s own mind was far from being ‘askew’. He was, in my opinion, one of the genii of our time.
With this in mind, one wonders what both the modern diet of energy-dead food and chemical drugs will do to our mental capacities. How do we keep an open mind, ever expanding with new wisdom and understanding of the world we live in, while dealing with mal-nutrition and pollution?
One answer may be that now that the human mind has already opened into consciousness, and brought imagination and inquisitiveness through the dark ages, we can proceed with an intention and will to reach further horizons of knowledge. This ability to think beyond mundane thought, without fear, is commonly called the greater consciousness. Space travel, Time-travel and Cosmic communications may not be done with nuts and bolts technology after all – it may be an inner, personal – and very real – experience.
Robert Monroe experienced just this.
Mayan Elder Carlos Barrios
Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij (is a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide) of the Eagle Clan. Carlos initiated an investigation into the different Mayan calendars circulating. Carlos along with his brother Gerardo studied with many teachers and interviewed nearly 600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge.
CHERRY TREE
In winter, you may look at Cherry Tree
And think perhaps it’s dead,
On freezing morning, there’s no sign,
No leaf, no life therein.
Imagine the surprise to find,
When frosty fog has gone,
That winter sun gives light anew,
To melting drops of dew.
Those shafts of light, for all the world,
Make diamonds of the view.
It isn’t only when it snows,
That Cherry Tree and I,
Play snowball fights and snowmen make.
No, snow arrives again in Spring,
When sunlight’s warmth explodes the buds,
And Cherry Tree becomes a sight-
A pom-pom tree of pink delight,
In which the bees drink up the wine
And hum in unison as they dine.
Then when the blossoms give their last,
The western wind provides the force
That blows each petal from its flower,
But in a pink snow shower.
Summer long, the flowers now gone,
Usurped by leaves of green,
My Cherry Tree becomes the host
Of every bird of song.
Out sings the tree as though it were
The voice of such a throng!
Until their cover turns from green
To every golden colour.
November’s gales wrought havoc strong,
Yet Cherry Tree hangs on;
It’s trunk and branches mighty made,
Withstand that force, until it’s gone.
To stand once more in winter’s shade.
Gold leafy coins, of fortunes told,
Lie round about its roots instead,
But Cherry Tree, though once you thought,
Is very far from dead.
These are beautiful images of an amazing bird.
And this is the story behind its greatest enemy – plastic waste, floating dangerously in our oceans. How will we ever clean it up?
In 2008 I had the good fortune to visit Hawaii, and coincidentally came across the story of an English film-maker who had gone to Hawaii and found the albatross chicks dying of mal-nutrition because their stomachs were filled with plastic debris, accidentally fed to them by their parents who had scooped up the plastic with the fish they were catching. 
This photographer, Rebecca Hosking, came back to England and persuaded her home
village to ban plastic carrier bags – something that was quickly adopted by other towns. Now, supermarkets across Britain are actively discouraging the use of plastic bags in favour of the ‘bag-for-life’ made from hessian. Rebecca’s fim ‘Message in the Waves’ was shown on BBC Natural History Channel.
The RSPB asks for used stamps to raise money for equipment for the long-line fishing vessels, which scares the albatross away so that they will not dive for the fish being hauled into the boat, thereby escaping death themselves.
It is interesting to me that Coleridge’s poem ‘The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ which tells of the sailor who carried an albatross around his neck as a punishment for killing the albatross, is so poignantly relevant today. We carry the dreadful burden of responsibility for destroying these magnificent birds, and all the other marine life, by allowing our oceans to become a death trap from our plastic and toxic waste.
Maybe plastic waste needs to be reduced at source – by the reduction of manufactured products like plastic bags – but until this can be achieved, retailers can change to paper or biodegradable bags and consumers can just stop using plastic wherever possible. Our grandparents didn’t have plastic bags – they had hand-made shopping bags which were attractive, practical and durable and brown paper bags; and they would take re-fillable containers for milk or cider, oil or vinegar, or paraffin.
Personal perspectives are paramount in how we respond to what we witness in the world -
In Japan, the people who have experienced and survived the dev astation from the recent earthquake and tsunami will each have their own personal story to tell on what it is like to be in that place, at that time. The stories that filter through from the press to people all around the world are just a minimal and generalised description of that experience. For many, especially outside observers, the great wave of the tsunami will have the most impact because it was very visible. For others the shocks and tremors of the earthquake will be a lasting horror. And for others the nightmare of six atomic reactors going critical will prevail.
One story lingers in my memory. It told of how a seventy-year-old woman was found alive (but suffering from hypothermia) in her house, which had been swept away from its foundations on the great wave, across several kilometers, but had remained relatively intact. It reminded me of Dorothy’s nightmare in the tornado in the Wizard of Oz. One image also lingers in my memory – of a child casually walking down a cleared road through a landscape of complete devastation. And one personal memory of mine was brought to the surface listening to the scientists talking about the radiation problem. My first employment after leaving school (many years ago!) was at the UKAEA – an Atomic Energy Establishment in Dorset, where my father worked most of his life. It was not the establishment or atomic energy, but remembering the sudden loss of my father in 1988. The suddenness of his death ‘hit me for six’, as they say, and my grief was long and deep. Through my own perspective I could imagine the grief of the Japanese people who had so suddenly lost their loved ones. I also wondered at the bizarre selective process of this great wave, which had taken so many thousands of lives and miraculously spared the odd one, here and there.
And at the same time, in this historical moment, there is another great wave sweeping across the Middle East.
This wave started in Tunisia. Like the tsunami, it went out in all directions – to Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and Syria, Bahrain, Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon, Oman, Gaza and Libya, Iran and Saudi Arabia. And in Israel people were holding their breath.
The long-entrenched ‘defenses’ in Iran and Saudi Arabia were too strong for the revolutionary wave to penetrate deeply, and Gaza, Morocco and Syria may have only felt the after-waves, but the effects of the wave were almost instant, and very effective, in Tunisia and Egypt. It came in the form of millions of ordinary people protesting, to sweep away the old corrupt regimes. The great wave has come up against more resistance in Libya and Bahrain, and is causing much chaos and loss of life. This great wave moving through the Middle East is one that has been held back for decades and could be contained no longer – a wave born of frustration and anger at the suppression and poverty caused by corrupt and restrictive regimes… and fed by the hope and determination of the people to change a strangled society and life-draining situation into new growth, more freedom and a better future.
Resistance and resilience seem to be two very different ways of dealing with a sudden inundation. I heard many times, in the commentaries, that the Japanese people were more prepared for such an event than other nationals may have been because they had an expectancy that such a thing could happen, previous experience, and structural safety measures in place. Are they psychologically more resilient? A massive amount of energy is spent in resisting such a force, as Libya’s president – who is both in denial of what is crashing on his shore and reluctant to take any steps to help his people, will find out. And his people are sacrificing their lives in an attempt to hold their ground. But resilience lessens the impact of such a force. Those leaders who were quick to make at least some of the changes the protesters were asking for, found that things stabilised again and they retained their positions.
A few years ago I had a dream about a great wave.
In this dream a massive, dark blue-green wave was rearing up to many meters in height, dragging and sucking the shingle and sand underneath itself. There was a strong, wooden break-water running along the length of the beach and I decided to step behind it. There, people were lazing in the sun and picnicking peacefully. Two days after having this dream (
which I had not spoken about) I was given a book called ‘The Great Wave’.
The essence of this book demonstrates a wave-like motion which can be seen as increase and decline in ordinary Earth events like economies, harvests and pro-creation. It also demonstrates that bigger things – like the rise and fall of monarchies and empires, periods of good health and epidemics, war and peace, and seismic calm or activity – were also implicated in this wave, or cycle. And the trigger to all this out-pouring of energy, or the disappearance of it, simply coincided with the 11-year cycle of sun-spot and solar flare activity on the sun.
The juxtaposition between all things appears to be a co-operation – a ‘dance of the spheres’ – and the cyclic great wave can have either destructive or regenerative effects. But according to whether we exercise a resistance or a resilience to its forces, our experience of it differs greatly.
There is another ‘great wave’ that is in everything. It is called ‘living energy’ or ‘life force’. It is a vibration that operates on uncountable wave-lengths and incorporates sound, light and matter, both seen and unseen. We can’t see an individual atom, but we can see a mountain. We can’t hear cosmic sound but we can hear a thunder storm. We can see the ocean waves move but we can’t see this great wave of living energy in its finer forms, which exist outside this ‘dimension’. Physical Earth is manifest in a range of vibrations that is minute, compared to the range of possible vibrations in existence. Our dimension is but one small range within another greater range. We are but one dimension within innumerable other dimensions. The great wave of life here, on Earth, is what we see and hear and feel. There are others.
light
sound
The heart of the three religions that were birthed in the Middle East beats under a golden dome in Jerusalem
-The Dome of the Rock.
Beneath the metal mask of politics and military conflict lies the face of a people whose grass-roots culture and ancestry is rich in colour and warmth; it belies the differences across borders and conceals a uniting belief – that the land belongs to the people; the common life-force pulsing through their veins is rarely seen or understood by a western population who, in general, are too afraid to visit this land and learn the heart-beat of these people for themselves.
Dabke (Arabic: دبكة; also transliterated dabka, and dabkeh) is the most popular Arab folk dance in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It is also danced in parts of Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. A line dance, it is widely performed at weddings and joyous occasions. In this dance, many different national folk dance styles can be seen – Spanish, Russian, Irish, to name a few. Commonly these days, people in the west have an image of Arabs as veiled repressed women and men who don’t appreciate them; men who are hard and serious. Yet in this dance we see women and men dressed in traditional costume, and smiling, and as in many folk dances, it is a dance of love.
Lyrics:
جنة الله على الارض عندنا
The Jannah (Heaven) of Allah (God) on earth is in our land
x2
مية وشجر والارض حنا
Water, trees and the land is Henna
x2
عيسى وموسى وباقي الانبياء عندنا
Jesus, Moses and the rest of the prophets are in our land
واللي عرج على السماء
And the one who ascended to sky
x3
صخرتوا يا با عندنا
His rock is in our land
وعلى دلعونة وعلى دلعونة
الهوى الشمالى غير اللون
Ala dal’ouna Ala da’louna
the northern wind changed the colors
يا طير الطاير سلم عليهم
طالت الغربة واشتاقنا ليهم
Oh flying bird, pass my salute to them
The desolation took long time, and we missed them
x2
راحوا من ايدينا ورحنا من ايديهم
They went away from our hands (away from us),
and we went away from their hands (away from them)
يا با خايف على طول الجفى ينسونا
Oh, I’m afraid that they may forget us because of disaffection
يا اللي سافرتوا على بلاد بعيدة
قلبي معاكم مش طالع بايدي
Hey! you who travelled to distant countries
My heart is with you, I can’t help it
x2
باطلب من الله العلي المعبود
I ask Allah (God) the High, the worshiped…
نتهنى بشوفتكم في فلسطين
that we get please to see you
In Palestine
وين؟ عا رام الله
Where are you going? To Ramallah
يا با وين؟ عا رام الله
Where are you going? To Ramallah
ولفي يا مسافر… وين؟
My darling (love) who’s travelling where are you…
عا رام الله
to Ramallah
ما تخاف من الله؟
طولت الغيبة
You don’t fear Allah?
You took long time away (from your home)
وين؟ عا رام الله
where are you going? To Ramallah
راجع عبلادي
I’ll be back to my land
راجع ع بلادي ون طالت الغيبة
Even if I took long time away, I will eventually be back to my land
راجع عبلادي
I’ll be back to my land
انا وولاد ي واولاد اولادي
Me and my children
And the children of my children
راجع عبلادي
Are coming back to our home
——————————-
1. HOMER’S ODYSSEY, A FAR-REACHING JOURNEY, SO NAMED AFTER ODYSSEUS, THE GREEK SEA-FARING WARRIOR-KING.
2. JASON, OF ARGONAUT FAME, SET OUT TO WIN THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND CLAIM HIS RIGHT TO THE THRONE.
3. JASON ELLIOT, BRITISH AUTHOR AND EXPLORER OF IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN – GOING WHERE FEW ENGLISHMEN HAD BEEN BEFORE.
4. MYSELF, FOLLOWING A SINUOUS PATH INTO THE UNKNOWN, BECAUSE I CAN.
Levi’s ODYSSEY…
This video is a 60 second Levi jeans advert, one I was excited by the first time I saw it because it demonstrated how I felt, wanting to acknowledge an inner drive to break free of physical restraints and escape the ‘box’ I would otherwise find myself in.
Ok, Sony is being a bit possessy about it so – you gotta laugh, try this one, with a different lilt…
HOMER’S ODYSSEY is a chronicle of the nautical journey of Odysseus, King of Ithica (a western isle of Greece) circa 700 BC. The Trojan wars were waging in the west of Asia Minor, now Turkey, then part of the Greek Empire, and Odysseus set sail with his fleet to make his mark. But Odysseus was more than a hapless or gung-ho sailor. His 20 year journey was fraught with challenges from not just the natural elements but all manner of metaphysical temptresses and giant one-eyed gods.
Homer recounts the adventures of Odysseus in the traditional poetic form of an ‘epic’ and the armchair traveler can benefit from the learning curve of our pre-common-era hero through his many escapades. Yet Homer interweaves popular legends and myths from the culture of his time, causing a confusion of places, times and characters of history and fiction.
While her husband is away, Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, fends off one suitor after another as her advisers try to convince her of her inevitable widowhood but Odysseus returns for the happy ending, only after escaping death and all manner of fates – except ageing.
“Tell me, Muse, of that man, so ready at need,
who wandered far and wide, after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy,
and many were the men whose towns he saw and whose mind he learnt,
yea, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the deep,
striving to win his own life and the return of his company.”
Odysseus set out on his journey with a plan and a purpose – to aid his allies in the wars – but his round trip turned into an epic voyage and a fight for survival from the onslaught of unexpected traps set by the gods. If he had known what he would have to contend with, would he have stayed home? Or did the King of Ithaca feel there was no choice in what Destiny had laid out for him? Did he have a sense of adventure or was he just fulfilling his duty? Was he even conscious of what he was doing – that he may have grown from his experience – or was he just relieved to have survived?
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JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
It is useful to remember that just about any man who was anybody in the days of Greek Ancient History was at sea in a ship. Greece, after all, is more sea than land, taken as a whole. So why did Jason set out in his ‘Argo’ with his Argonauts?
Jason was supposed to inherit the Kingdom of Iolkos from his father, but his wicked uncle had grabbed it from under his nose. Now Jason was just a lad, a bit wet behind the ears and not very worldly-wise and, unknown to him, a wise oracle had warned the wicked uncle of a man wearing only one sandal. When Jason turned up wearing only one sandal the uncle was wary. Uncle Pelius cooked up a devious plan to get Jason out of the way and told him he had to go and fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis (on the Black Sea). This magical sheepskin rightly belonged in the Temple of Zeus, apparently.
So Jason set sail, taking with him a magical branch from a sacred tree which possessed the powers of prophecy, and all the best lads he could find as crew. Yes, you guessed it, the journey was fraught with problems, mishaps, enemies, monsters and adverse weather. On the way he met Medea, a humble lass and erstwhile princess, who used her witchery to beguile the dragon-guardian and the Golden Fleece was won.
Jason was impressed with Medea, and she with him, so they set sail together for home. Several children later they rounded the last hurdle and make it back to port at Iolkos. Uncle Pelius had murdered Jason’s father and was rather surprised to see Jason had returned successful, but still he refused to hand over the crown. So Medea had him killed.
It should have been all happy-ever-after, but Jason fancied another princess (for political reasons). Medea got jealous and killed the princess, then her own children, and Jason died when the cross-beam on his own ship struck his head.
In the Mythic Tarot this story is used as an example for the suit of Wands (the fire element) and the challenge of the creative vision that motivates us onto paths unknown for an imaginary goal.
Why would we want to leave our home comforts to risk life and limb in search of an illusion? Because on the way we learn stuff through experience and hopefully get enlightened and wise. Zeus, the father-god, is behind the plot; his influence awakens the creative imagination which manifests something better. “If you never try, you will never know” we are told, because we all have a hidden potential not yet realised. Our gift of creativity is God-given and to bring our vision into reality we have to keep the image alive, keep focused, keep determined through thick and thin. The satisfaction that is our prize comes but with exhaustion and at the end of our lives, our energy spent, at least we can say we gave it our best.
The prize is not necessarily gaining material wealth or power but the inner success of finding wisdom, true love, happiness and peace. Jason’s Odyssey serves to teach us that all our endeavours are worthless if we hold greed and resentment, seek revenge and power over others – and forget to duck when the Fates strike a blow.
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Jason Elliot - Author
JASON ELLIOT is a thirty-something English writer. At the age of 19 he set out for Afghanistan to follow a childhood memory of his father talking about the Oxus River. How or why this stuck inside Jason to emerge as a driving force to visit one of the most inaccessible countries between the Middle East and Asia, at a time when it was at war with Russia, an invading aggressor, is anybody’s guess, but he went, and alone. He arrived in Kabul and made friends with some other European journalists as well as some local lads who were members of the mujaheddin (resistance army).
After this first visit he returned 10 years later and headed out into the high mountain passes in winter, bearing extremes of cold, hunger, fear and loneliness, with some fascinating characters that would have fitted more easily into a fiction thriller. The end of the outward journey was at Balkh, an historic but war-ravaged village, where his journey took a mystical twist. After returning to Kabul in a Red Cross plane he then tried to get to the hidden enclaves of the Hazara tribe, but was forced to turn back without getting to see the Hazaras, and some of the oldest Buddhas in the world, at Bamiyan.
Undaunted, he took a hair-raising ride with various others on the back of a truck along a precipitous mountain track, arriving eventually at Herat, in the western plain between Iran and the Afghan mountainous interior. Amidst sporadic shelling from the Russian front and the counter-attacks of the mujaheddin, he employed his relaxed friendliness to acquaint himself with locals and went in search of the once splendid monuments of the city. Dismayed to find them all destroyed, he engaged a kindly taxi-driver and visited one on the outskirts – the shrine of Pir-i Herat (Khwaja Abdullah Ansari) at Gazargah – and decided to camp-out over night.
This was one of more than a few episodes in Jason’s odyssey where he tapped quite naturally, and with unforced curiosity, into some of the most mysterious, divinely-charged and beautiful historic inspirations of that God-forsaken country.
Jason has an eye and a mind for beauty, design, esoteric symbolism and the spiritual significance of the wonderfully decorative temple and palace wall-art. In glorious dazzling tiles the 3D effect of this colourful design technique does not escape Jason’s inquiring mind and his journey finds meaning in the Divine Inspiration of the Afghan architecture.
Jason’s book – ‘The Unexpected Light’ – was his first book and won great acclaim for his unique style, imaginative descriptions and insights from behind a dark curtain of misinformation about the Afghans and their fight for freedom.
In this case, Jason Elliot’s Odyssey encompasses all the best of an adventure; it was undertaken with singular freedom of choice and motivated by a need to explore one part of the world that beckoned his imagination, heart and soul. True to form, the nature of ‘odyssey’ is still there – the countless encounters with unexpected danger, the moments of triumph and the secret surprises of personal experience that somehow feeds a hungry soul.
An Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot
(sorry – the ‘click-to-look-inside’ only works on Amazon!)
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MY ODYSSEY started in 1998 with a vision urging me to ‘go East’. In 1998 the news coverage of the Middle East became frantic with pictures of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Palestine. I had no previous interest or knowledge of these countries, but my vision led me on a very personal journey towards the East; it started in Cornwall, England, only one step away from my own home.
I hopped, proverbially, from St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall to Mont St Michel in Normandy, France; from Mont Sant Angelo in Italy to Cyprus; then side-stepping to Turkey; then Greece, arriving in Egypt this year. I wasn’t just following my nose but a strong intuition that was unforced by logical thinking. At each of these places I had a so-called ‘mystical experience’ which came unexpectedly.
At first I thought of it as fun, a holiday in a place that was breathtakingly beautiful and rich in history that had been completely missing from my school learning of history (scant as that was in any case). I arranged each visit on impulse, in an ‘in-the-moment’ feeling that it was the right time to go, with very little concrete plan except one of keeping costs to a minimum. Before each trip I had a dream – one of those colourful, clear, precise dreams that one cannot ignore or forget, and this helped to reinforce my original vision. But I had no idea of the final destination to which this stepping-stone path was leading me. I looked questioningly at the world map and could see, as I progressed, that I was indeed going East, but in a meandering, snaking flow that had an organic direction I could not premeditate; I gathered the clues as I went.
Cornwall – Home of some of the oldest and most curious sacred stones in the British Isles, least of which is the castle-cum-monastery on St Michael’s Mount, where the vision of St Michael had been experienced some 1000 years ago. As I stepped onto a ‘node’ (a crossing-point of four major energy lines) I did not find the elation I had expected, but a terrible feeling that something was ‘wrong’.
France – Mont St Michel is a kind of sister mount on the other side of the English Channel, where a similar vision of St Michael had been experienced and led to the building of a small chapel which is now hidden beneath the Benedictine Monastery. It was in this tiny underground chapel that tears poured from my eyes during a grand opening of my heart.
Italy – Mont Sant Angelo is a third site of a St Michael (Apollo) vision – this time in a cave deep inside the mountain where a spring used to run across the floor. Again, I was moved to the core of my being in this most ancient of sacred places.
Cyprus – As someone who is familiar with the Greek Mythic Tarot, I could see the images all around me here. Apollo has a temple here – now in ruin – and he is the Greek version of St Michael the Dragon-slayer, which reminded me of Jason (of the Argonauts) and Media overcoming the dragon-guardian to win the Golden Fleece. But Cyprus is believed to be the birth-place of Aphrodite (Venus), Goddess of Love. It was in the capital, Nicosia, that I heard the ‘call-to-prayer’ from a mosque for the first time, across the ‘Green Line’. I ventured forth into the Turkish half of the city and found a 12-pointed star mosaic in the middle of a roundabout. The effect of finding this star moved some invisible force in me – I had to go to Turkey.
Turkey – A cheap package holiday took me to Bodrum, where I found a skeleton in the cupboard! I found the something that was ‘wrong’ and had discovered the source of my past-life karma – I had a debt to pay. While there, I went to Ephesus and Mary’s House (the retreat of Mary, the Mother of Jesus) and Miriam’s Well. I was only a few kilometers away from Troy, where Odysseus had landed, and remembered that it was the first classic book I had read – at the age of 11. It took two years to complete this complex past-life karma. (See ‘Books’)
Greece – Midilli Island is now known as Lesbos, and here I laid my ghost to rest at a beautiful little village called Sigri. An inpouring of self-realisation flooded into my consciousness while standing in a vast soul-less Turkish Fortress, surrounded by bright azure blue sky and sea. The clues would stop now, surely? I returned home to write 3 books, (See ‘Books’). Off I went again.
Egypt – I wanted to go to Persia (See ‘Books’) but my snaking path veered off to the right and took me to Cairo. The relentless TV news coverage on the Middle East had now turned it’s attention on Iran – Persia – so I didn’t feel up to that much adventure – not yet. I had more to discover in Egypt. I found my way past one mosque, then another, then drifted up the Nile, paid my respects to countless departed souls, knocked on the doors of citadels and souks until I finally arrived at the ancient monuments on Giza Plateau. Seeing the Sphinx for the first time was a shock. Some unidentifiable invisible force hit me like a ten-ton-truck and I was dumb-struck. More outpourings of intense emotion brought an understanding that these places were releasing long-hidden memories of thousands of years before. I found solace in the Valley Temple, followed by a picnic lunch at the corner stone of the Great Pyramid, and a ride on a friendly camel.We went on to visit Saqqara, where the ‘Step-Pyramid’ and its surrounding ruins offered something entirely different to me. In the soft light of the sun, slowly setting in the desert behind, I found a gentle balm in this place, which soothed my emotions – and a curious ‘friend’ (see photo below).
Next – I don’t know how I will do it but I will go to Persia – but, more than that, a heart-string is pulling me to Afghanistan, and even the Indus Valley and India. ‘Madness!’ they tell me, the few who know. For now, I have made that part of my journey in virtual reality with the help of Jason Elliot’s wonderful guide. One day soon my feet will find a way of treading the next stepping stone on my own curious Odyssey. It is an adventure, a journey into the unknown, a mission to find an unknown treasure – no, not fame or fortune, just a few more pieces of myself.
Me my 'friend' and I
UPDATE:
January, 2011.
I returned to Cairo, feeling that my first visit had uncovered something, but that it was unfinished. I took a train to Alexandria and enjoyed the fresh sea-air from the Mediterranean; Alexander the Great had felt the same and commissioned the transformation of a simple fishing town into the great city of his dreams. He returned from his travels armed with a multitude of manuscripts and ancient tablets and built the famous Library of Alexandria. The Romans destroyed it but most probably took ancient sacred texts back to the Vatican Library, where they have lain hidden ever since. The library is now rebuilt in splendid contemporary design.
I then went to Fayoum, an oasis born of a tributary of the Nile, on the edge of the Sahara. (One needs a guide and driver to take you there to get passed the guards and explore, and there is no bus service.) Wadi Rayan and the Valley of the (fossilised) Whales is, thankfully, a World Heritage Site, and there are next to no tourism facilities. But it was magical. I had discovered the real spirit of the land of Egypt.
Reluctantly, I returned to Giza. I walked away from the madness of tourism around the Great Pyramids and contemplated the scene: I eventually understood the painful impact of my first visit. The Giza plateau, with its Pyramids, tombs and temples was one of the most sacred places in the world, but its sacredness has been lost under the exploitation of archaeological, scientific and touristic probing.
I returned to Saqqara and went on to Dashur, where the sacredness can still be felt.
The demonstrations of the people to oust Hosni Mubarak started the night before I left. It was a complete surprise as there had been no sign or clue that it was imminent. Back at home I came to realise that my concerns about the widespread poverty, uncollected refuse and the mile upon mile of empty, incomplete building sites were symptoms of a depressed country. Then we watched as the Egyptian people broke free.
Cairo, 11/02/2011 'Freedom!'
Star Gate Atlantis
Atlantis city
The House of Windsor
An energy alignment through Windsor Castle running E-W
S. England
Plan of Windsor Castle – note ancient circular earth mound around the Round Tower (The Keep)
Windsor Castle towers
Pewsey White Horse Crop Circle - Star Gate?
Mandala 'Elders'
Stonehenge Star-Gate?
Stonehenge overview
Giza Plateau
Giza overview
Mandala 'flower'
Abu Ghurab Egypt
Cruciform N. A. bead mandala
Na Pali Kaua'i Hawaii
Pentagon overview
Pentagon design football
Inner Star Gate
Earth Grid overview
carbon molecule
Angkor Wat
Caeleon (S. Wales) Roman amphitheatre - ?
‘Vile’? A little ‘left-brain’ projection here?
Heart Mandala
Sacred Geometry – Star Alignment
Chartres Cathedral
The Vatican
Pope John Paul's Memorial
St Peter's Vatican
INTERESTING OVERVIEW OF THE VATICAN -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/plemeljr/9100136/in/photostream/
Persian Carpet (mandala); W or M on coffin?
http://www.crystalinks.com/pope405.html
St Peter's with black monoliths from '2001 A Space Odyssey'
Islam
Machu Piccu
Gobekli Tepe Turkey
Above
And Below
'Beam me up, Scottie!'
- rushing around from here to there, to meet schedules, catch planes, get home in the ‘rush’ hour
-throwing a meal together for the family before folding the laundry, putting the baby to bed, writing the Christmas cards and slapping on the night-cream
-catching up on FaceBook, reading all the messages, adding a few, checking the text messages and the latest chart release
-looking for that puzzle piece that fell from the toy-box, re-modelling the Barbie-doll, nagging Mum to switch on the DVD player, hounding big sister to try on her lipstick
-frowning over the latest find in the latest book, on the latest thread to discovering the latest revelation, to solve the latest problem in the world, the newest discovery
-counting the pennies to buy the next fix, or a bottle of booze if there is not enough, or turning up the ipod to blast the ear-drums with sounds that will stop the longing, the nagging need for the next fix
-scheming and plotting the agenda of the party, the next meeting, the next session, the latest manifesto, a new law, feeling important
-scratching your head, staring down at the pavement for a dropped coin, shuffling around the same circuit, hands deep in the old raincoat, heart lower than the last depression, feeling worthless
- running the treadmill, pumping the iron, lifting the weights, the bar to a new level, sweating buckets, pushing and pulling, running, running, sweating, sweating
- scanning the web for the shopping sites, clicking the mouse on ‘pay here’, next one – a holiday – perfect ‘all-inclusive’, flight, hotel, hire car, excursions, a week here, a week there, and then ‘where next?’
I invite you to stop for a moment and watch this video – in full screen is best. Many thanks to the film-makers
I am me and I am alone;
I am the centre of the Universe
and the Universe is all around me;
I am not the Universe
and the Universe is not me;
The Universe is all out there, beyond me,
and I am here, right here.
No-one is like me;
No other person is anything like me;
All other people have nothing to do with me,
even my children and my parents are not me;
I am.
I am an individual ‘I’ -
singular
separate
alone.
What is it that keeps me free from all else, all others?
Me!
Inside me are all the images I have ever seen.
Inside me are all the sounds I have ever heard.
Inside me are the smells, the colours, the light, the dark, the motion.
Inside me they are separate,
not connected to the source from whence they came,
not now.
Disconnected from their source, they are all inside me;
they are mine;
they belong to no-one except me.
I am the owner, the keeper, the holder of all that I have seen and heard
and these things create a Universe within me.
All inside me is an Inner, stolen from the Outer,
yet the Outer does not know it is missing these things;
there are no holes left where they once were.
Inside me they create anew:
a new Universe which belongs only to me.
I can go inside and see and hear anything I wish to see and hear.
These things inside me are my own creation
and I can recreate them,
a recreation for my amusement alone,
no other.
There is no other inside me except echoes, reflections, once belonging to outside,
now secretly hidden inside.
There is no sign, no clue for any other to know that which is inside me;
I give nothing away;
I take all I want;
I stand silent and still with a whole Universe inside me
and no-one knows.
And yet…
I am You and He and She and It.
I have a magic ingredient that is in all that is -
all that is, is me – and you.
It is a wondrous dichotomy:
a fractal of unequal proportion branching out in unison and opposition.
Diversity and Uniqueness are we, in eternal expression.
What I feel, you feel;
What I see, you see;
What I hear, you hear.
When I drop a pebble – you are the ripple;
When you breathe – I am the wind.
We are the Infinite and the Absolute,
The enormity of all that is.
Together, we are parts of the Whole, the Atom and the Universe;
The One.
So here I sit like a bird in the wilderness…contemplating my navel, emptying my mind, being in the ‘Now’ and searching for the Truth.
I think, therefore I am. Yes, I know I am: I have all the physical senses to be aware of myself – the body parts. I can feel the sand beneath my feet on my Deserted Island and I can feel the freshness of the breeze coming in from the ocean, with a slight salty smell; I can even taste it on my lips. It is not good to drink and gives me a raging thirst; I know it is ‘salty’ (a word I happen to remember) because it is different from the fresh water in the spring behind the trees. I can feel the warmth of the sun, which disappeared as it went down below the horizon last night,when my body reacted to the chill night air by making the hairs on my body stand upright,on little bumps. If I had more hair, I thought, it may have kept me warmer, trapping the warmth against my skin. Now, the sun is not just warm but hot and I move instinctively into the shade to sit down under a tree because it seems my skin is leaking water – not good, I think.
From here I can view my world. It is colourful – predominantly blues, greens and browns,with bright colours in the flowers and fish. I wonder why these colours are there: does the world want me to notice the bright colours for a reason? I am also very aware of movement and to sense it more keenly I momentarily turn all the colours in my perception down to just view the motion in a grey world. Hmm – the ocean is waving at me and the clouds are passing by; the trees also seem to wave and a winged being flies past. That was exciting and caught my attention – because it was very fast – faster than all the other movements. Does the world want me to notice the bird in particular?
Then my attention turns to sounds. Most of them are gentle and mix together in a kind of rhythmic music which is gentle and soothing. The breeze rustles the leaves and the waves lap the sand as though they are counting, like the subtle beat of my heart in my ears. Then a sudden squawk makes me jump, followed by a roar that makes my heart beat very fast and all my senses are on alert: I feel my ears flick back slightly; I am breathing faster now and my eyes are open wide as I look around me. Should I stand and fight whatever is making this loud noise, or should I flee and hide? That was an interesting response and a sudden change from my peace.
Then I notice my body is giving me internal sensations: one is discomfort in my bladder (which I will see to), another is a dryness in my mouth (so I will go to the spring) and then a rumbling in my stomach – time for supper!
And so I have found that my environment and my self have a dialogue going on – a kind of symbiotic response, where all that is in me is responding to all that is outside of me. Now I feel as though I have gone back in time to a beginning, where Google, books, newspapers, TV and debate have no relevance at all. I find I can ‘sense’ the information I need.
This satisfies me for a while until I notice a new sensation, or is it a thought? I start to wonder. I watch the stars and the movement of the moon and sun, the diverse creatures and the changing weather; the food that makes me feel satisfied and the food that makes me vomit. I have everything that I need but I wonder about others like me – where are they? I feel a need to find at least another one.
After some time I do indeed find another one like me, but He is different. We are basically the same, but there are body details that just don’t quite match. And He is stronger than I, and can break the wood for the fire more easily. He is also quite good at catching the fish but He hasn’t got the hang of making our shared space look pretty and comfortable; I do a better job. In fact I can do lots of things that He can’t and v.v. We keep each other warm,though, and we like each other very much.
Now that there are three of us, with the little one, we find making noises to each other makes communication a lot easier and we invent signs. I can make a huge noise like the parrot if he is a long way off and I need him to return. He makes a noise like the bear if a bear comes near and makes it goes away again. The little one giggles, which is very catching and we all end up rolling in the sand laughing. Sometimes we run around making our own sounds and rhythms to dance to. We feel new sensations: joy when we are together and fear when one of us is away.
One day we meet another three like us and at first we are surprised and pleased but the men argue about who should do what and so we decide not to share our space but live at opposite ends of the island. Later, the other woman brings me a cloth she has made and I wonder how she had created it: it has shapes and colours on it. She says she will show me, if I show her how to make the fish last longer without it going bad. We then swap other bits of useful information.
One night we have a party because the sun and the big moon are in the same place they were in the night we first welcomed our little one into the world. We bring things to share and make a lot of rhythm and dance all night. We decide to make some marks in our favourite tree to show our world that we are celebrating,and then everyone who comes our way will see it and understand our history.
Now we have words, music, information, knowledge, a way to record times and dates, symbols as a language and writing and we think ‘what else could we possibly need?’ But have I found enlightenment?
Having sat on my deserted island and reverted to a state of mind that resembled the humble beginnings for Man, when First Man and First Woman could identify with the simple yet miraculous world around them, I pondered on how I could proceed from there towards ‘enlightenment’.
I returned to my State of No-thing, being in The Now, and re-directed my thoughts.
How and why did Adam and Eve leave their Garden of Eden – a virtual Paradise from whence they were ‘driven’ in, as we are told, disgrace for having eaten of the the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge? My mind, now hopefully clear of conditioning, imagined leaving my deserted island. Why would I want to do that, when everything seemed perfect? ‘It is the Need to Know’, came the answer, just like Adam and Eve.
It seems that Man, not content to live in a world that provided for all his needs, was driven by an inquiring, curious thought to explore and learn – not just how to drive his physical vehicle, but to get to grips with both his engine and the road map.
So I let my virtual imagination choose where to go next. Sitting in my Stillness, I became aware of a spacial map around me; like the rays emitting from the Sun, my potential directions for exploration radiated out from me. To simplify the choice I imagined six possible routes – forwards, backwards, left, right, up or down. To save the effort of doing this physically, I continued in a virtual reality. I chose to go forwards.
To do this I had to leave my island and cross the ocean. I skimmed across the clear blue, gently undulating water as the bird flies, and quickly approached land. Undaunted, I continued, glancing down at changing scenes of terrain – plains of grassland, inland lakes and rivers, forests in broad green swathes and rising peaks of mountains. Again I came to ocean and continued. Eventually, I arrived back at my island, only enlightened to the fact that my world was spherical and consisted of land masses and oceans.
I then took the direction to the right, in the same fashion. This time I encountered a great land mass of white, after the familiar green and blue, and after more of the same, another white area. This time my circular route had divided my world into two poles, like a top and bottom to the sphere. I now had a clear image of my spherical world, from a bird’s eye view.
After returning to base, I then flew straight up above me into the sky and just kept going. I flew up past the highest mountain and then out through a band of what looked like blue air; going higher still I went until I could look down and see the whole of my world below me, with the Moon orbiting it. I could now see another perspective of my reality – one from outside my world. From up there I became aware of silence and vast space between my world and other spheres, the most prominent one being the Sun, a bright star. But on I went until the small cluster of spheres orbiting our Sun was in the distance. I felt very small and alone and all I surveyed seemed mysterious and endless. And yet there was an inaudible ‘sound’. My virtual super-ears tuned into a range of vibrations. This Outer World was very much alive on another level of existence. I could have gone on and on, but I was pulled back to Earth by a sense of belonging there and returned to base on my island. Out there, our Earth seemed very small and insignificant, yet back here, ‘out there’ seemed too huge to be fathomable. There was a differentiation, a demarcation, which seemed to define where I belonged, for now. It may be possible to explore some other spheres out there, but I would leave that for another time.
The direction yet to explore was below. The land beneath me seemed solid and more difficult to penetrate, so I searched for an opening. I found a cave. In my virtual reality I adopted night-vision, for the light of the Sun did not penetrate far into the cave. I descended into the Earth by way of a tunnel, from which other smaller tunnels led. I followed one, noticing a sense of silence again, but again with a super-sense of a range of vibrations. This underworld was solid and hard, rough in some places and smooth in others; water dripped and trickled. My direction was limited by the length of my vision and I felt insect-like, crawling slowly through little crevasses. Now and then the space opened into a great cavern with clear rock pools and sculpted mineral deposits.
Crystals large and small glistened and glowed in subtle colours, forming clusters of small faceted points or huge erectile monoliths. I dug deeper, slithering and sliding downwards through more cracks and crannies. It was getting hotter and less dense. The rock formations took on a steamy fluidity and I started to feel I was getting out of my depth. I did not belong here either and left the pulsing heart of Earth to return to my starting point.
So now my knowledge had broadened into being able to define where I felt most at home – on the surface of the Earth, somewhere amongst the green land masses, near the blue oceans, not too near the cold poles, not too high above the land and not too far below the surface away from the sunlight.
This was a spacial definition, not a temporal one. Time gave life another dimension which needed to be investigated.
When I started writing Part 2, I had a vague idea of where I was going with it - taking a whimsical saunter to find a scanty view of where my perception, my reality and my understanding of life may be – what is true and what is relevant and whether that has brought some enlightenment to me. It seemed a reasonable idea to attempt to erase for a minute or two all the accumulated thought-junk in my mind and hopefully find a clear and uncluttered place to start again and find an overview of ‘Life’.
It is not that easy!
The very fact that my thoughts were in English with terminology and some descriptive phrases to relay what my inner eye would see, set me at a decisive and very limiting starting point, and not a beginning that everyone would be able to relate to. For instance, if I had already been a solitary English person living close to Nature on a deserted island, I would have found it an unlikely place to ‘get-away-from-it-all’.
And if I had never traveled by plane, seen a map, or had an out-of-body experience, I would not have known how to describe my circumnavigation of the planet Earth.
So to completely clear the mind of data, and then find the means to describe something I had never envisaged was, of course, an impossibility. Which, strangely, brought me to some enlightenment.
What I hold in my memory bank gives me specific parameters to assess my world. In other words, I can only know I have been somewhere and arrived ‘here’ by remembering the journey; and I can only understand the usefulness of that journey if I can appreciate that I have learned something from that experience, and remembered it all.
Aha! This really was enlightening. In that one realisation I was transported through time in a nano-second, from the beginning of All-that-is to the present moment. Glancing around me, from my humble look-out post, I could see no-one else exactly like me. I could see millions of others similar to me, but all looking and living and thinking differently. And not just the humans (of each gender, of every nationality, of any age, in any place), but absolutely everything – animal, plant, element, mineral, both on and off the planet.
This answered a common question for us thinkers – why doesn’t everyone know what I know, and think like I think? Why do some people seem less – and some people seem more – experienced, knowledgeable, wise and understanding? Has the journey for them been longer or shorter? Has the journey taken a different route? Have the lessons been more, or less, appreciated? Has the memory held its information well, or lapsed?
Scanning the World of Politics first, I saw the uphill struggle of governments trying to gather their populace into a common set of laws and social behaviour to keep the peace and create conditions for everyone’s own good. The leaders could gently outline their manifestos, put their legal feet down, turn deaf ears on those who disagreed and point determinedly through their term of office in the hope that they will have managed and guided the people well during their leadership. Some of their subjects will quietly comply, some won’t care and go their own way while trying generally to stay out of trouble, and some will shout and scream in disagreement and personal outrage. You can please some of the people some of the time…
The World of Religion is very similar, but here the arguments are more emotive and psychologically manipulating. If, as the priest (or similar) says, we listen to their words of wisdom, we will all be looked after by a non-physical somebody-or-other, but we must all do as we are told and make certain acts of devotion to prove our faith. The arguments are strong and interesting, because not only will we be looked after here, on Earth, but up there in Heaven too. And as that place is full of uncertainty, it may be good to have some insurance. But which to choose, out of all the available options (religions)?
The World of Commerce is similar. If you need to buy something, well you can go for style, quality, value or economy; you can purchase from the other side of the world, or down at the local corner shop. Wait – it’s not quite that simple. If you buy one, you may get one free. If you buy that one, you may get special discounts. If you buy this one, you may get it quicker. Even when you have found what you need, there may be things that you would like, want, desire, lust after…just got-to-have. The World Market is your oyster. Go for it, but don’t count your pennies. When you have all you need and much that you desire, don’t think that is the end of it. If there is still cash in your pocket (or credit on your account) someone, somewhere will be after it – you can bet your bottom dollar. The World of Trade, of exchange, will rely on values too diverse to ever unite in a simple truth; it is between only the two parties of one transaction where the agreement can be made. The World of Finance is a labyrinth you will never emerge from.
The World of Love. Here, we have a choice of loves. Young love, carnal love, parental love; the love of friends and unconditional love; the love of Self and Divine Love. All expressions of the heart which nourish the soul; each as individual, unique and so unlimited to be completely unfathomable.
So how can we all think the same, want the same, feel the same, behave the same? That, when it is realised to be the impossibility it is, answers an age old problem – that of how to agree, be of one mind, unified. To be enlightened to this fact may be the answer to enlightenment itself. To stop, before we have any expectation of another being exactly like ourself, and accept that there is no other, only a similar or compatible, or two halves of a whole, or an interesting opposite; then suddenly there seems to be a rather satisfactory way forward. Perhaps the Truth is a conglomerate of an unimaginable number of different truths. Perhaps all information is a potential or a possible truth. Perhaps this kaleidoscope universe is changing so fast facts disassemble before our very eyes as new ones are formed.
I have traveled thus far; I have experienced this and that; I realise some things I have learned from those experiences; I remember some, not all; and armed with this much enlightenment I shall proceed to find some more. But before I go, I will ask myself this question:
If the Truth is that the world started out as a manifestation of some Divine Plan, and it had the potential to recreate itself sublimely, as we see in Nature, how did the Human Race get so lost, so corrupt, so violent, so full of pain, so fearful and unhappy? At what point in Time did a bad idea start to take hold?
For an insight into this sad situation, I invite you to visit the post ‘Where did it all go wrong?’
Wendy Salter
(original writing)
How to get Enlightened
To be enlightened is to gain information, with an understanding of its importance or relevance and to be able to apply it in the process of personal and general evolution – or is it?
Gone are the days when encyclopaedias can be updated quickly enough to accommodate all the information that is coming to the fore and it is possible that a written archive of our knowledge, for instant reference, is a thing of the past – but we now have the electronic archive aka ‘The Internet’. It may be no more secure as a record than the lost libraries of Alexandria as, even if the information is stored, there may come a time when we, the individuals who would like to access it, will not be able to do so.
I often wonder what the percentage of truth on the internet might be – an optimistic 50%? I am concerned more here with information, rather than entertainment or marketing – if we concentrate on truthful information only, it is an interesting subject.
That leads me to wonder about information in general. A common quote about historical records is that it was mostly written by the victors and therefore would have a certain biased spin on it.
Reflecting on what I learned at school, I feel that most of it is now irrelevant as it was such a sketchy half-taught, half-learned fragment of what is available to learn, I have come to the conclusion that education isn’t about truthful information, more the learning of an ability to learn, and a way of keeping kids out of factories or off the streets.
As cynical as that may sound, I feel there is some truth in it, as one imagines the volume of 5-18 year-olds in your country alone. (What did we use to do with kids – well it was all about labour intensivity – as soon as kids could stand they were put to some good use, but they were not being taught information as much as useful survival skills.)
So what is information and why do we need it? Where does it come from and what do we do with it – apart from pass it around?
Those questions bring to mind the fact that we are thinking beings – sentient, interested, exploring, creative and intrigued beings; we love to find out stuff.
Which brings me back to truth – what, out of all the information that we think we know as truthful, relevant and established, is the actual truth?
I have Googled to my heart’s content when I want to know something but, on reflection, what I have found falls into a few categories.
1. Scientific data – knowledge from objective study, which we can call factual information, closest to the truth as we know it for the time being, but essentially only interesting to those working directly in research and development.
2. News – moment by moment reports about politics, finance, crime, sport, celebrities, fashion, scandal and weather – all of which is relevant for a day, as it is all transient and generally unimportant information.
3. History – various and dubious records of past events, which is interesting enough if we are going to learn from our mistakes but, well, it’s all in the past. From what I have discovered about history, there seems to be a lot of repetition, i.e. writers writing about the writing of other writers – ?
4. Speculations on the future – now this seems to be a very popular past-time – in just about everything listed above.
Speculation becomes much more interesting than studying what is known because no-one knows the future so everyone has a fair chance to come up with a winning theory – like betting – someone may be right. If we could really predict the future accurately, many people would be able to capitalise on it and make a fortune, but it would spoil the fun of speculation.
When speculation gets serious we are into another category of information that is mind-blowing. Prophecy and prediction.
What truth is there in a prophetic vision of a pious and solitary soul who wanders out of the desert and proclaims that he has had a conversation with God? For him, or her, it may well be life-changing, revelationary, interesting, thought-provoking and useful, but is it truthful?
It becomes ‘truthful’ when it is adopted by a few interested listeners who then spread the word and convince more interested listeners until it is all believed – as a truth.
It is at this point that I have my own revelation – I have a desire to know what is the truth, and to seek it out I go to a virtual deserted island, devoid of any other outside influence, and observe. I observe the simplicity of my virtual physical environment – a gently undulating empty ocean lapping against a pure untrodden sandy beach, with a cloudless sky of the brightest blue and the warmth of a friendly sun; the benignly swaying palms of the tall ancient trees and the magical calls of colourful birds from an interior to my desert island, where exotic fruits, nuts and berries await my attention should hunger arise and fresh water from sparkling springs to quench my thirst.
So here I sit, a virtual Girl Friday, and realise I have a dilemma: I am more than an empty mind in a simple body – I have memories, and all those memories are information that I have gathered from a complex connection with all I have left behind.
So I attempt to empty my mind, go into a meditative state where all thoughts become still, where I can be nothing, in a void. Even in this void I still have a sense, an awareness of self. It is here that the persistent and eternal questions arise – who am I, where did I come from, why am I here, and where will I go?
The truth is I don’t know, I can only try to build some answers based on information I have gathered, and speculate on what I can imagine.
(continued in Part 2)
Wendy Salter
(original writing)
Quote of the Day
