The Brotherhood of the Eagle
For 6 days I wasn’t online and so here comes an update from the
A ride through a scorched countryside brought us from Valencia to Madrid, where we arrived Saturday evening at the apartment of Ignacio in the centre of the city. He is of my age, working as an advocate and since many years deeply committed to his spiritual path. Several times we had shared rooms in India. He and Irene gave us a warm welcome and we spent the evening on his inner quadrangle terrace. Ignacio had a set of Osho Zen Tarot, and he playfully laid out some card for me and gave some explanations about my present situation. He said: “You must let go, let go of something you are holding to…”
Next morning they wanted to go with us to Toledo, about one hour drive away from Madrid. In the night, however, I got a strong diarrhoea and first it seemed it wouldn’t be possible to go. But I didn’t want to let the diarrhoea decide about the tour and so we went nevertheless. The “letting go” started 🙂
Ignacio told us that Toledo is an important energy centre and that in olden times it had been the seat of the Spanish kings. When the seat was moved to Madrid the spiritual energy there was said to have shifted to South America and the importance of Spain had declined.
Together with some friends they had been doing a meditation work to clean the atmosphere. Toledo had been a very traditionalist city with a lot of military – and we saw a big military academy at the outskirts. Over the centuries it had been a place of strongly fighted over, in recent past between the Franco regime and their adversaries.
For over 6 years they have been going every week and on full moon / new moon to Toledo to do meditations and prayers. At the beginning Ignacio didn’t want to do it, but he felt the inner urge. But with the time they experienced that the atmosphere became much lighter. They had formed a group called The Brotherhood of the Eagle and organised meditations and inter-religious meetings in Toledo. They had invited several times Sri Kumar to come and he had given talks about the spiritual importance of this place, and he had also installed 2 lingams in the river Tajo.
A city gate with the two-headed eagle and a statue of St. Michael on the top.
Toledo is a fortified city and everywhere you see the sign of the double-headed eagle, the profound symbol of the city representing the spirit – one head looking east, one north. The river Tajo is also flowing around the city forming a silhouette of an eagle.
The Tajo river and the old town of Toledo
We met Irene and an old couple who live there outside on a mountain with a fantastic view over the city. The man was a retired architect who knew a lot about the history of Toledo. There was an eagle-shaped rock to which we climbed up to have a short meditation. A king of the Moors had sojourned at this place to have the magnificent view over the city, while the catholic Spanish kings had their place on the next hill. Ignacio had told me about his energetic visions about Toledo and we sensed a powerful energy over the country. For me it was like a dome of light forming a huge arc in the air.
The eagle-shaped rock.
A short meditation at the rock of the eagle, where the group had started their meditational work some years ago. Later they did it at the river and now they do it in the cathedral.
Later we went to a restaurant of a friend of Ignacio, who is also linked to the Brotherhood. He is a Syrian muslim, but very open. The name of his restaurant is El Cristo de la Luz – The Christ of Light, a name of a nearby church where during the times of the Moors an image of Christ had been hidden and later re-discovered.
Everywhere in the city, which is very well preserved, you could feel the cultural influences of the different religions which had come with the different rulers and inhabitants.
The cathedral of Toledo where we had done another short meditation
The White Synagogue, now a museum
The whole day I had been going from toilet to toilet, and while walking to the cathedral and two old synagogues now transformed into museums I felt very weak. And when we drove back to Madrid I dropped asleep only to awaken again while we were entering into the city. Huge avenues with palaces on either side gave an impressive picture of the grandeur of this nation which at the moment is under the clutches of a severe economic crisis. On the outside you don’t perceive it, but in talks with the people it is everywhere very present. And when we arrived at the home of Ignacio I immediately fell into bed, starting a turbulent night and two days with diarrhoea and vomiting.
Tuesday evening we took a taxi to a pharmacy to get some homoeopathic medicine- another nearby “homoeopathic” pharmacy didn’t have homoeopathy… And then we went with the metro to the centre of the Brotherhood of the Eagle – which Ignacio had bought and was used by different groups for spiritual activities. It was on the same floor as the office of Ignacio. A silent place with bright colours and of course the eagle. Ignacio explained to us the meditational work they are doing. Another friend, Conchi, came quite a distance with her son to join us. Since I still felt quite weak they gave me an energetic treatment which did me very well.
Just around the corner there were two huge glass high-rises of a bank – fascinating to see for an “architectural eye”, but seen energetically they gave an ominous impression – the towers were leaning forward like ready to collapse. Our friend told us that this bank is badly hit by the crisis. I thought of the woman shouting for some charity in the Metro and the beggars in the streets. A strange contrast with the display of grandeur along the Castillana, the huge central avenue were we were standing.
September 8th, 2012 at 4:43 am
You are so candid, Ludger, which made this blog very real and interesting- UNTIL you got really sick and then I felt sorry. Hope you are feeling well again, my brother…
September 8th, 2012 at 8:17 am
Yes, Julie – I’m well again, and the sickness seemed to be part of the program, to keep me more inside than outside. Thank you for your nice comment 🙂