This morning we were at the promotion function of the Officer’s School in the city of Berne, where our eldest son became a Lieutenant. It was military-ceremoniously, with brass music, flags, berets and military people and a politician giving addresses.

The left one with the blue beret is our son…

One military in his talk showed a mustard tube and humorously explained how you can bring the tube to squirt: with a hammer, by driving over it with a bicycle, or with strongly squeezing it. If you don’t want to have too much mustard on your sausage, you need a soft pressure. Without it nothing comes out. Then he addressed the newly backed lieutenants as “dear mustard tubes” and said that they had been pressed quite a lot so that something comes out which otherwise would remain inside. He reminded them that when they are pressing others they should always use the right dose, but not too much, in order not to hurt and spoil the others so that it doesn’t squirt…

Now they are tonight on the Officers’ Ball…

Last Sunday my wife and I went to the feet of the Bernese Alps to look for a place where, together with some close family members, we could disperse the ashes of her deceased mother. In Switzerland you can do so in nature. It was a rainy day and the clouds were hanging deep. We went to a valley at the feet of high mountains, next to a place where we had been with my mother-in-law and a clairvoyant friend two years ago. We walked a bit into the valley along a little river and came to a place where huge rocks were scattered over a slope, close to a forest.

We climbed on several rocks and felt a profound energy at the place. It was like space opening around us.

On the last of the rocks, a bit hidden in the forest, there was a magical ambiance, like a fairies’ world. We knew, this place would be most suited to give the ashes back to nature.

On the other side of the valley, the mountain tops of the “7 Stallions” looked down into the valley through the forests and the clouds. It reminded me of sceneries in paintings of a Vietnamese artist and refugee I had once taught German in an integration centre about 18 years ago. He gave me one of his pictures which is now hanging in my office.

The enchanted atmosphere accompanied us all the way back along the river. Now we are waiting for a good day when we can go again to the place with the family for the good-bye ritual with the ashes.

I yesterday got an e-mail with the nice story below about growing old and an old lady full of zest for life. It reminded me of four octogenarians I met in the course of the years and who impressed me a lot. One was a German theosophist from whom I inherited two big boxes of valuable books in the 80ies, shortly before he passed over. Another was an Argentinian marine officer and theosophist who started doing the Spanish translation of the Lunar Messenger, a third one a German lady from the WTT, a deeply spiritual person whom we visited last summer shortly before her passing, and the fourth a Canadian lady with a long spiritual background in the high 80ies with whom I have regular e-mail exchange (she just sent a note…). Here it goes:

“The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, ‘Hi handsome. My name is Rose.. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?’

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, ‘Of course you may!’ and she gave me a giant squeeze.

‘Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?’ I asked.

She jokingly replied, ‘I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…’

‘No seriously,’ I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

‘I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!’ she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this ‘time machine’ as she shared her wisdom and experience with me..

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she revelled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, ‘I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.’

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, ‘ We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humour every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets..’

She concluded her speech by courageously singing ‘The Rose.’

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those months ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. We make a Living by what we get. We make a Life by what we give.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

An old lady in a doll-house

Last Friday and Saturday we were in Einsiedeln for a meeting of the Executive Board of WTT-Global. It was a very constructive meeting, where we worked out a re-distribution of responsibilities. Great care was taken of the condition and sensitivities of each individual, which is very important for a good development of such a process.

For me it was an inspiring experience to see how this group now can function, after having gone through different clarification processes in the past. It was not a top-down process, but everyone involved expressed his or her views about who is doing best a certain task and where new assignments could bring relief. Then the persons involved declared which tasks they could take over. So we slowly approached a new structure of responsibilities and cooperation, which for the moment is being finalised. Everybody felt well with the procedures we decided upon and could agree with the results.

Here are some shots of Saturday morning sunrise seen from the balcony and the flat of a group member.

I’m often astonished about synchronicities in events. Since one week I could not publish any news on the entrance page of the intranet of my office. We tried to find out the cause, but neither the technicians nor the web-team could get it run again. One technician of the agency who had set up the system was in hospital, another was away with other duties. Speaking with the responsible person I told him that we have come to the conclusion that there must be some gremlins in the system who come out during the night doing mischief… We have to wait until next week if they find out another cause

At home I then encountered problems this week sending mails and operating the group coordination mailing list. Mails did not get out, were stuck on the server. I yesterday had long telephone calls with the provider, it first seemed that we go the problem, but I later realised that not yet. He is working on it…

Furthermore the mails of the hotmail subscribers of the blog were returned – Microsoft found another “interesting” way of spam protection, thus blocking legally subscribed mails. In the return-mails they give a link to their “live”-postmaster page, where you get into a labyrinth of questions and answers – however, it seemed that my case is not described there and the “link” to the troubleshooting contact in case none of the answers helps was dead (at least in the German version of the page I could see). Moreover, they offer for commercial mailers a “Sender Score Certified-Programme” for quite some bucks – and there is no category for anything like free spiritual newsletters and blogs – a dead end with the Microsofties. I did not find a solution with them nor did I find a contact address… At least I now changed the mode of sending mails from the blog, hoping that now these mails get through.

An American friend and astrologer wrote to me this morning: “You will have to call a conference with Mercury, Mars and St. Isidore, patron saint of the internet, computers, technology and of farmers…” And yesterday she told me: “As Mars now moves forward (from its retrograde), things will begin to even out. Mars (activity, intentions, etc.) is still slowly trying to catch up with its retrograde degree… also, Mercury just left Pisces… as it’s now in Aries, that will help.” May the planetary energies be favourable!

Another, less troublesome synchronicity was the topic of serpent power – also the one of our planet. The last weeks I had been encountering in several instances the “serpent” or kundalini power – in images of imagination, talks with friends, symbolism. Last week I even painted a picture (which I don’t want to publish yet) about a “serpent flower”. And 3 days ago I got a letter from a German artist who had just come across the Good-Will website writing (in German):

“As a gardner I culture the joy with the nature and in it to have a dialog with the earth. A dialog which sometimes gets me take fire with the earth fire (earth kundalini, I call it earth serpent). It is a meditation lasting since years, about the root ways of the plants, which according to my experience aways grow very purposefully into the heart of the earth. Having a dialog with this mystical space, the heart of the earth, is very dear to my heart.”

Aslepios, the great healer, with the “earth serpent power” in Epidaurus, 2005.

The last weeks had been so busy that no time was left for blogging. I had some troubles with the last mailing of the Lunar Messenger newsletter Pisces: About 10 days after sending I received a flood of return mails: Besides the normal “mailbox over quota” and “blocked due to inactivity” there was a big bunch of mail rejections: Yahoo, for the first time, had considered all the addresses sent from good-will.ch as spam. They blocked the server address of my provider. I do the mailings manually, with no automatism: When I receive an e-mail asking for subscription, I include it in my Thunderbird mailing list, in different language groups and sub-divided into groups of 20 addresses. When sending, I mail about 60 a time and then wait a bit, so as not to create “mail bombs”. With now over 1.200 addresses, sending the newsletter takes some time.

But now with this blockage of several hundred Yahoo subscribers, it was the worst mailing situation I encountered in the 10 years I’m now doing the monthly newsletters. Days before the return-flood I noticed that friends with Yahoo accounts did not reply to my mails, and I received requests why I don’t answer them. So I found out that something was wrong. And then the mail wave came…

I contacted Yahoo, filled out the request form to “bulk mail senders”,  discussed with them, got all the technical details from my provider – but the Yahoo people said that they cannot give a free way for sending via my provider: I don’t have a fix “IP address“: With my internet provider, the server uses the same address for different accounts – a normal way to offer a cheaper domain hosting. My provider said, the only way would be to get a fix IP address of my own, with renting a virtual server. At first I did not want to in view of the costs. I discussed the matter with the web-team of my office, and they said there would probably be no other way.

In the meantime I realised that all the mailings I sent via group mailing lists of the WTT, where I do the coordination,  were not sent to Yahoo recipients world-wide. I opened a Yahoo mail account and saw that I can’t send mails to myself. I informed via the Yahoo account the list members with Yahoo addresses that I have difficulties reaching them. I sent several single mails to 5, 6 addresses each: After a few mailings Yahoo also blocked these mails. I continued with my gmail test account, where there were no problems…

Now I’ve signed a contract about renting the virtual server and wait for my provider to open it – I’ll use it just for the mailings. I very much hope that this is a way to cope with the blockages and that everything is cleared until the Aries newsletter… I understand Yahoo and that they have increased their protection walls against spam. But their policy creates higher walls also for people like me doing a free newsletter service on a non-commercial and absolutely legal basis.

Spam filters can cause turbulences in the smooth flow of electronic communication.

Wednesday 20 January the group left the Retreat Centre around 3 am to the train station. Around 5.30 pm we arrived at Chennai, where the Indian brotherhood arranged transportation from the Central station to Egmore station, from where the night train was to depart at half past 10 pm. We were served a dinner at the station and then continued our ride to Kumbakonam, where we arrived next morning at about 8 am.

Busses then transported the group from the different hotels to gather near the Yoga School Friends’ Society building, which Master CVV had started in the beginning of the last century. Since our group arrived early, we went into Master CVVs house and had a short meditation in the room of Master CVV. A vibrant energy could be felt.

In front of the house of Master CVV

Inside the room where Master CVV meditated and received the Aquarian energy.

We then assembled en face in an assembly hall, where Master Kumar gave a short introduction:
“A heartening welcome to all of you to Master CVV Yoga Centre, from where the yoga has spread all over the globe. It was conceived that the fusion of East and West meets in the Master Centre, which is the heart centre in us. And it was chosen by the Higher Ones as the centre of the energies of synthesis. You may not be conscious of what is happening here. In the prayer hall the Master did prayer for 11 years and 11 months and he received the energy in the house on the other side of the road. Those who are his friends never know what he does, some have done the prayer, some not. You are all friends, that is how it started, and the speed has taken on by the effect of the Master all over.
… During the prayer we are at the centre where the yoga emerged. Do not have an expectant mind, do not think about emotional attitudes, it blocks the mind. Close your eyes, the Master works. “It is a direct line, mine is a direct line.” When the mind is clean and vibrant, it will happen. There are many people who do not pray morning and evening, for them also the grace is granted, this is for sure, don’t block it. We are the only obstruction, the personality obstructs the soul. Do not stand in the way. ”

When we arrived there was still a scaffold in front of the Yoga hall, fixing the decoration.

We then went into the Yoga School and had 72 minutes prayer. We were a group of 195 members, many Indian members had come from different parts of the country to join this celebration of 100 years of Master CVV Yoga.

Friday 22 Jan. 10: In the morning after prayer and breakfast the group assembled in the lecture hall, where the Master introduced to us the most senior member of Master CVV Yoga, Sri Shanmugam. He had taken initiation into the yoga of Master CVV on 28th May 1944. He has been with the yoga the whole time and has been the guardian of the Yoga School. Master Kumar honoured him and the work he does. Then he introduced to us the great-grandson of Master CVV.

The city is called Kumbakonam (meaning the “Aquarian Angle”) because one great cycle of 26’000 years ago, at the beginning of the previous Aquarian age, the energies of Aquarius had chosen this place for a descent, and Master CVV also decided to descend in Kumbakonam for the present cycle. There is a temple called Kumbha Ishvara, the primary Master of Aquarius. The descent happened there and then went into the tank (a little lake), where it was anchored. It is most sacred in this region and Master Kumar proposed that we take a chance of bathing in that tank either in the morning or evening hours. “The outer structure of the temple changed, but the place is protected. Therefore it is suggested to visit the temple in the morning with singing OM Namah Sivaya.”

The group went to the Adi Kumbeshvari Temple in which a Shiva lingam is worshipped. At the entrance of the temple there was a temple elephant blessing those who seek its blessings. In the temple priests were performing a little Pooja, while the group was singing OM Namah Sivaya.

Later the group assembled in the hall of the Yoga School Friends’ Society for the noon prayer and also in the evening.
At night I took a bath in the tank, with a beautiful moonlight shining over the scenery.

Saturday, 23 January we visited the temple of Thanjavur (English: Tanjore), about 40 km from Kumbakonam. The temple is about 1000 years old and it has a large Shiva lingam inside. In front of the main temple there is a huge statue of Nandi, the vehicle of Lord Shiva.

The Master gave some explanations about the temple and said:

“Moving around the temple should always be done in the right direction. Moving to the right is turning to the spirit. Three times going around the temple is the physical, vital and mental planes. It is not recommended moving to the left, anti-clockwise. Moving to the left stands for materialisation, the right side is spiritualisation. … Every temple has its own number, symbol etc. Here it is the 5, the 5-pointed star, OM Namah Sivaya. All temples are built by Masonic measures. … There are so many bulls on the walks of the temple all around, hundreds, they carry a watchful eye. There are more than 1000 bulls there. Normally to see the details of the temple takes one day. You also have Shiva lingams all around.”

We visited the temple and experienced the presence of the Siva Lingam. Later we went back to Kumbhakonam.

On Sunday we had two more prayers in the Master CVV Yoga School Friends’ Society, and afterwards  the group members set on their ways home or to other places in India. We joined the group to Bangalore, where our train arrived in the early morning hours of January 25th.

We received a very warm welcome and stayed in the beautiful site of Sadguru Tapovan, a colony of houses of WTT group members.  There were cordial exchanges and in the evening a question-answer session.

In front of the lecture hall the group was about to finalize the erection of a beautiful stupa (pillar) of grey marble, 100 inches high with a big rock crystal on the top to be inaugurated the next day, in commemoration of 100 years of Master CVV Yoga.

Tuesday 26 January around 11.30 am the group assembled in front of the hall for the inauguration of the stupa. At first Master Kumar and his wife Kumari Garu intonated different mantrams, followed by some talks and honoring of the members who had contributed to the realisation of the stupa within less than 4 weeks. Master Kumar then said:

“As much as we open ourselves, so much The Master descends into us. We feel that not we exist, but the Master exists. The lower self is absorbed into the higher, then we don’t have a mind. … All becomes possible when the mind cooperates. The mind is exceedingly oriented to the matter, it cannot receive the influx from the Master. … The crystal (on the top of the obelisk) can bring down energy tremendously. Wisdom science can enter into you, and the sciences can enter when you let the energy flow into you, it is like a fish taking to water. It is a daily dedication of the mind. … More and more you are absorbed into him and he expresses through you. … It is a multiplication of abilities, and things happen with greater ease. … Master CVV received the energy and transmitted it. It gets into you, penetrates and transforms everything into light, and therefore it is a happy story and you enjoy it. ”

Afterwards the Master and Krishna Kumari unveiled the stupa and decorated it with flowers. Then the different groups came to the front for a group photo. Afterwards a delicious lunch was offered to all members present. It was a beautiful end of our time in India. More information can be made available on request.

Since 10 days we are at the international group living of the World Teacher Trust (WTT) going on in Visakhapatnam, India. We had a very intense week, with the 3 days of the Guru Pooja festival followed by for days of a seminar with discourses of Sri Parvathi Kumar.

Last Sunday a marriage ritual for a young Spanish couple was done at the house of Sri Kumar, where about 20 media people came to report for different national TV and radio stations and some mayor Indian newspapers, where the event was published yesterday. Such a big publicity was strange, since the work of the WTT is normally done more in silence and with a minimum of publicity.

Sunday evening we had been invited to a very impressive Indian ballet presentation, “Tripadi Ganga”, on the story of the descent of Ganga, the cosmic energies of space coming doown to earth in the form of the sacred river Ganges.

Yesterday we were at the Planetary Healing Centre near Visakhapatnam, whereMaster Kumar gave a detailed explanation of the spiritual meaning of this story. Here are some short extracts from his discourse:

“The river Ganga is the Aquarian energies. When Jupiter is in Aquarius according to lunar calendar, the Kumbha Mela happens once in 12 years. Jupiter in Pisces according to solar calendar corresponds to Jupiter in Aquarius according to lunar calendar… From this month on there is a gathering of millions and millions in Hardwar, that is located at the very heart centre of Ganga. Even the Hierarchy comes and takes a dip. Many disciples experience Lord Maitreya and his team of adepts at Kumbha Mela, it is a great grand festival, and it is in this year…

The entire planet needed someone to receive the energy for the first descent. And no one is able to receive the powerful energy of Ganga. It is the energy of pure consciousness, which carries the energy of will, love and activity. The solar king prayed and the mother Ganga appeared and said, I am pleased with you, I will come down, but please find someone who can receive me. If I directly descend on earth, the earth will break, it will be destruction. So you have to find someone who is able to receive a thunderbolt on the head…

The solar king asked, who can do it, and the mother Ganga said, only Shiva can receive it, others cannot. He has the fire of will, he has the stability, he can receive me, and for that you have to pray for the Lord Shiva….

So the solar king worshipped Lord Shiva. He is very special, he could please the Mother Ganga and also get the clue from her how to get the energy down. And he could also win the favour of Lord Shiva…

The story of Ganga is the story of involution and evolution. Till date, if you follow the course of Ganga you get very inspired. There are so many ashrams and such a strong flow of water at all times, regardless all seasons. It carries the best flow of waters in India. Those who have done bath in Ganga even from our group they feel they cannot come out of the river, it is such an experience. When time permits, you may have a dip into Ganga, it is very useful.”

Master Kumar in the garden of the Planetary Healing Centre

After the discourse at noon we had a beautiful group meditation in the Planetary Healing Centre and then continued to Ramadri, a temple compound developed by the WTT. A that place the sound of Ram, representing the energies of Cosmic Fire is being continuously intonated and millions of written  versions of the mantram have been installed in the earth so as to anchor the energies.

There were pupils of different Mithila schools run for free by the Circle of Good Will, India, for poor children at different places in Andhra Pradesh who had come to this site. In these schools children are educated, who normally don’t have access to regular classes due financial needs. Besides the normal education they are instructed in the ancient Indian values and principles of living.

Tthe teachers of the schools were presented to us and the heads of the schools were honoured by Master Kumar.

Then the children recited verses or songs. It was very impressive and touching to see the devotion with which the children presented their songs.

Today was the close of the seminar part, and tonight the whole group will go by train to Kumbhakonam in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The meaning of the word is “Aquarian angle”, and in that town 100 years ago Master CVV received the energies of synthesis. It says that the name of the town indicates that when the last Aquarian age starte, one platonic year or 26000 years ago, it was in this place that the energies manifested.

Last Wednesday we went to visit a friend in another part of Switzerland. She had invited us to the full moon meditation meeting of a well-known astrologer, at the lake of Zurich. On our way we had to cross the lake with a ferry-boat, through the night. The glittering lights on the surface reminded me of the far-away stars hidden behind clouds.

The meeting was in a meditation centre at the board of the lake.The astrologer, as the cashier for the entrance fee, welcomed the people. I saw her for the first time, she cordially welcomed me, for we are exchanging our newsletters since several years.

By and by almost 80 people assembled in the hall, around the circle of candles in the centre.

The astrologer gave a vivid introduction into the qualities of the current time and then conducted the Capricorn full moon meditation, enriched with elements from the Arcane-school full moon meditation. At the end she went around with a big singing bowl, bringing a constant, vibrating sound to all people present. The atmosphere was filled with this OM-like vibration.

After meditation an “apero” was served, a little buffet with snacks and sparkling wine, as a New Year’s Eve celebration. My wife and me felt the atmosphere strongly turning. We talked with some friends who also had come and then went outside, joking that it seems we had been in the wrong film. Later in the night we exchanged a bit about the experience. Social convenience and outer shine can easily cover the magic of the inner light. Is it star-like glitter or glittering of the inner star?

Angels in the garden of our friend, where we passed the night.

This morning there was an extremely beautiful sunrise, so I took a few photos from inside and outside of our flat.

Sunrise-view from the little garden in front of our apartment through the hedge now void of leaves

A little pentagram-sun with bells, on the terrace

The old castle of Muri in the background

Sunrise reflection in the living room windows…

and on the terrace

Two last roses in the autumn sky

Rose-hips in front of the fassade

The balcony of our neighbours above our flat, who enjoy our roses climbing up the fassade to their flat

Sunrise behind a leave…

and through the living room window

Inside the living room with an ironing board left from yesterday night’s work of my wife

Elephants on the piano, gifts from our teacher, Sri K. Parvathi Kumar