On the way back from India we had a stop-over for eight hours at Delhi airport. While strolling through the shopping area with my friend, I saw a shop with devotional objects of a higher quality. A red figurine of Hanuman stood out between various white figures. It was well made but I didn’t want to buy anything. The situation was quickly forgotten in the bustle of the return journey.

Some days later I was surprised to find a little package in the mailbox sent by friends I had met in India. The envelope contained a present, a thank-you for some help. I opened the box and found a little red Hanuman statue. It touched me and I felt I had seen it before… I hesitated a moment and then put the figurine on my meditation altar.

It was only next morning that I realised, Oh, it’s the same statue I had seen at Delhi airport. My friends did not take the same return journey, so they must have found the little statue somewhere else… A subtle network of connectedness.

I pondered on the symbolism of Hanuman, a manifestation of the first Logos, of the Cosmic Fire. I have an inner relationship with him, especially since translating the Sripada Srivallabha biography where a chapter deals with Hanuman. I had no external symbol – so he seems to have come to me in this way.

Last Sunday after the morning lecture, Sri Kumar presented an Indian from Singapore, originally from Visakhapatnam, Anuraag Saxena. He came to hear about the WTT and Sri Kumar the day before only and was fascinated to see so many Westerners at the seminar. He is committed to inform Indians abroad about the rich spiritual and cultural heritage of India and make Indians aware of their treasures of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal Law. For him, Sri Kumar’s activities are along similar lines and he wanted to make a video talk with some of us Westerners to be published in YouTube. So the Master proposed some members for the talk.

We later assembled in the hall at the retreat centre: Anuraag explained to us that he is committed to bring back to India its pride and returning stolen art to India.

By profession he is a teacher in Singapore; he experiences with his children the difficulties of growing up in a society which is not always tolerant against differing religious attitudes. He himself had grown up in the 80s with heavy metal music from Europe and only later set out for a search for his spiritual roots.

His target public are mainly young Indians abroad of the age group 20-30 years. We were six Westerners of various age groups, from Germany, Spain and me from Switzerland. The talk should be like a conversation between friends in a bar – and it turned out to be a very lively discussion about how we came on our spiritual path, how our surroundings react upon it, challenges of bridging professional and social life in the West with spiritual aspiration.

Anuraag moderated the discussion and you could feel that he was experienced in doing so. He kept the discussion close to “burning points” like going to parties and trying to follow a spiritual discipline, family issues, value conflicts… He wanted to know why we were coming to India and what it gives to us. It became very clear that all of us were searching for deeper experiences and trying to put spirituality into everyday lives. In this, religious or spiritual concepts play a secondary role – “Truth is higher than religion.”

Anuraag had planned to hold a 40 minutes’ discussion but it ended after 60 minutes – we were so intensely talking with each other that time flew by. He told us that he will upload the talk within a week and that he won’t edit it. So as soon as I will get the link to the YouTube video, I will share it here.

P.S.: I now have written a new blogpost about the video – Anuraag has subdivided the total recording into 10 small snippets of 4-6 min each.

Anuraag Saxena

Scorpio is a time of letting go, of death and profound transformations. We yesterday were at a funeral in a small town in the Bernese Alps. Dori, a dear friend of the family of my wife, had passed over a week ago at the age of 84. I knew her from a distance and there wasn’t much contact during the last decades but both of us held Dori dear. My wife had visited her last summer and there, they also had spoken about passing-over. Dori said that she didn’t fear and was ready to go – although she wasn’t frail. She was a warm-hearted person who welcomed life with open arms and took a lively interest in other people.

It was a cold and windy day when at noon time the family members and friends assembled at funeral hall. It was fascinating to see and feel these mountain people. Many had come to say good-bye to Dori whose presence we could clearly feel like an umbrella under which we were uniting there.

An elderly family member approached us: she had recognised my wife although over 40 years had passed by since they had met for the last time. My wife explained to me “who is who” as far as she knew. Then the protestant pastor made us stand around the urn; he spoke some words about Dori and explained the sequence of the ceremony. You could feel that it was not his first funeral service but he did it with an inner participation.

Later, when we stood on the burial ground, I let me eyes go round to absorb the ambiance – there was a solemn presence, where you could feel the visible and invisible meet. I took some photos without wanting to be remarked but the alert eyes of a granddaughter caught me. The urn was sunk into the ground, then roses were put on the grave. Although it was a deeply unique moment, the acts were of an archetypal nature.

We later assembled in the beautiful old church for the farewell ceremony. Besides some church songs which reminded me of times long gone by two of Dori’s sons spoke about her life in a warm and partly humorous way. Also the friendship link to the family of my wife was mentioned, it dated back to the 50s.
It was impressive to hear that only 3 weeks before the pass-over Dori had realised he wish to cross Paris by foot for the second time, the first time had been years back. So she made a 27 km walk from north to south, accompanied by family members. Later, at a train station in Paris, a grandson discovered a piano where he played her a song – and the same song he now played in the church – an incredible moment of completion of a life cycle. Three other grandchildren, teens and twens, came to the front and spoke about what her “grosi” (grandma) meant for them – they had wanted to speak and express their thanks, and they did it in a touching way. Some more words, songs and music concluded the ceremony.

We participants were invited into a nearby restaurant, where we had time to exchange with several family members and friends of Dori. Normally, I feel a bit lost at such gatherings. But here it was different. We were surprised to hear and feel how Dori had woven a great network between different people with her interest in their lives. It is something unique, and with this impression and a feeling of gratefulness we started the journey home.

This is the story of my first meeting with Sri Kumar twenty years ago.

Profound processes often take a long time to grow. It took about ten years from my first hearing about the Master until the first meeting. Since the beginning of the 90s, I was in a group called the Agni School, which was quite secluded. From 22 to 27 August 1997, however, the whole group went to a group life of the WTT with Sri Kumar at Grosse Ledder near Wermelskirchen, Germany. The seminar was about “Music of the Soul“, the beautiful book of Master EK about Spiritual Hierarchy and events that took place at the time of Lord Krishna, 5000 years ago. The book just had been published in German.

For me these were very thrilling days – to listen to the lectures of Sri Kumar and the magic of Krishna. I had read the book already several times and even done a private translation. But the way he presented it revealed many details unknown to me up to then. And there were hearty exchanges with WTT members I met for the first time but it seemed to me that I knew them already since long. I very well remember how, sitting on a terrace, the Master informed us that he just was informed that Andhra University had conferred on him the honorary doctorate as Doctor of Letters. Towards the end of the seminar, there was a blessing of the children, where my two sons participated in the small ritual of first introduction into writing. Of course, they could already write but it was an exciting moment to sit close to the Master.

In the afternoon of the last day the group was invited to the garden of Doris and Günter for the inauguration of a Krishna statue. It was a hot summer day and the garden was filled with group members. The statue was placed on a small platform in a little pond surrounded by an octagonal glass temple and a big crystal ball on the to. First there was a fire ritual followed by three hours of Vedic chanting. The vibrations created a magic ambiance full of peace and harmony.

I later came back to this place at several occasions and each time I was touched to see this beautiful little shrine. 18 years later, in March 2015, I was there for the last visit, two months before Doris and Günter moved to another place. I again took some photos, one with a squirrel looking at the statue in a meditative attitude. The magic of Krishna’s presence touches all beings.

The touch I had received at this first meeting did not leave me. However, it took three more years before I felt free to join the WTT. My commitment grew over the years. It was not just a “honeymoon time” but full of crises. Profound questions and challenges use to come up from time to time. However, the thrill of my soul remained, in essence not coming from anything outer but from the presence within.

Click on the pictures to see them enlarged

Last week my wife and I were in Mallorca for 6 days, an island in the Mediterranean. It was our first visit. When thinking back, some subtle symbolisms came to my mind.

An island has something to do with the illusion of separate existence, feeling cut off from the rest of the world but nevertheless related to it. We came by plane, and there were plenty of planes landing – like thoughts about a greater world coming from out of vast space into the garden of our small mind.

After landing we took an “earth vehicle”, a small car for the time of our stay. Don’t we land in such small cars when we take birth? And don’t we need to keep the inner link to the greater soul not to get lost? Our navigation device was this link to the greater world via satellite and it helped us to orient in the new environment.

We had a small apartment directly at the port where the big cruise liners stop for a day or two. There was a beautiful sight over the harbour, the city and the surrounding mountains. The cruise ships appeared and disappeared in front of the house – and with them the groups of travelling souls. A closer look showed that on the ships there were lots of tiny cells with a table and 2, 3 chairs on the balcony – isn’t that island consciousness, even on a moving boat?

Walking along the yacht harbour with all the many empty ships already in hibernation, I thought, how much money and material lies waiting there in the water for short times of  satisfying the dreams of their owners… Issa, our friend from Mallorca, later told us that the ships are often just used for 1-2 weeks a year. Some owners seemed to awaken from their dreams – there were several ships with “for sale” signs, “bargain price”.

The first day we first discovered a bit the surroundings in search of a supermarket. And yes, just some hundred metres away, there was a huge shopping centre with plenty of big and small shops of all kinds. Going down the escalators into the underground where the sun never shines we found the labyrinth of a big chain store to cater for all kinds of food wishes, a regional solar plexus centre.

Later, we set out for a tour to the very north of the island – Port de Pollença, Cap de Formentor. On the way, we decided to leave the main road and take a mountain pass via Lluc – a good decision. In many serpentines the small road climbed through rough rocky sceneries. The roads were full of sweating bicycle drivers pedalling uphill, alone or in small groups, enjoying the pain of reaching to their limits – some kind of a modern Hatha Yoga practice.

We were “car hikers”, and not the only ones, doubling these biking folks whenever there was a short straight route. We had a noon stop in Port Pollença and enjoyed observing the other tourists walking like us along the waterside promenade. And there were also tired bikers with their colourful hightech clothes resting in the grass and talking to their iPhones. An Indian restaurant convinced us most, and the food was delicious – two more times an Indian restaurant was the best place for us vegetarians.

In the afternoon we made a short excursion to the nice small port of Cala Sant Vicenç and then continued towards Cap de Formentor. The road offered fantastic sights down steep cliffs into the vastness of the sea. Perceiving the border between land, sea and space was like getting out of one’s dense material identity and opening up to the vast spheres of the greater space.

The more we approached “land’s end” of the peninsula, the more we felt the two sides of the sea approaching and thinning down the rocky ground until at the end there was just sea and sky. It was like reaching the Sahasrara, the head centre, where we can touch the realms of higher consciousness. And like the Ajna centre, the “point of light” in our head, the lighthouse elevated its top towards the sky with a gorgeous view over the bay.

Next day, we change the direction – from the Ajna centre to the Muladhara, the base centre at the “end of the spine”. We visited the Cuevas del Drach, the Dragon Caves near Porto Cristo on the west coast of the island. The limestone caves consist of a series of halls with a dream-world of stalactites and stalagmites and several small lakes. The biggest of them has a length of about 115 metres. The imaginations of nature have created forms out of stone like forests, vertebral columns or Shiva lingams. In the last big hall there was a huge amphitheatre where we listened – together with our batch of over 200 co-visitors – to some live classical music played on little illumined boats. Afterwards one of the boats brought us to the exit of the cave.

The third day our friend Issa took us to the old town of Palma, the capital. In a nice vegan restaurant we met Sylvia. Then we had a walk through some old lanes of the city. From the cathedral there was a beautiful view over the harbour. The position of the city, the big water fountain in front of the cathedral and a nearby artwork made me think of the throat centre, the link between the inner and the outer world, the centre of communication and interaction. Don’t these palm trees remind of vertebral columns with a head centre at the top? In a courtyard we felt the energy of a 2000 years old olive tree, withdrawn within itself, a silent witness of bygone ages.

Reflection selfie in a shop window with planets

Mysterious sphinx

Olive tree dreaming of 2000 years

Arab garden

The fountain – like the upsurge of the kundalini energy

Artwork – up the spinal column towards the light in the head centre

The 4th day it was raining. My wife wanted to see one of the vulgar places of mass tourism, parties and binge drinking – so to say the “other side” of Mallorca. Our friend recommended two places and we went to Magaluf. (Wikipedia: “British tour operators have warned the Spanish Tourist Board that the image of Magaluf is affecting their efforts to market Mallorca. The night-life has been notorious for many years, and the latest image is not much to be desired with news reports of balcony deaths.) Now, the city was nearly empty with many hotels closed. The Hotel Sol Katmandu has a distasteful adventure park consisting of a ghost climbing park, a church-like house with a demon on the roof, a Nepalese bottom-up temple as a haunted house (what to say of the earthquake victims in real Kathmandu? – the upside-down house reminds of the inversion of truth happening on the lower planes of manifestation) with a mock-cemetery at the entrance and a yeti climbing up the window front of the hotel knocking against the walls… Isn’t the Magaluf ambience a mirror of the collective consciousness at the sacral centre state? We soon left the place and enjoyed lunch in nearby Santa Ponsa.

In the afternoon of the 5th day we went with Issa to Valldemossa, a place of outstanding beauty in the Western mountains which has attracted artists and many other prominent guests. And of course streams of tourists. There were not many at the moment. Surrounded by mountains, it was something like the heart centre of the island. We strolled through the lanes and admired the old houses. Outside one of the churches, in front of a statue of the patron saint of Mallorca, Catalina Thomas, we sat down for evening meditation – a charming place with a sublime atmosphere. Nearly all houses had little ceramic plates at the entrance depicting St. Catalina with a sentence asking the saint to pray for them – why don’t they pray themselves?

Statue of St. Catalina – our place of meditation

Friday the time of our stay in Mallorca was already over. At noon time we arrived at the airport. Two hours later we were back in the air. Soon the island disappeared in the clouds leaving just little holes to look down – there was again the road we had taken three days ago, and there the coast town we had visited… Two hours later the plane flew a circle over Berne and descended gracefully to the little airport from where we had departed a few days before.

Over the Alps

January 17, 2016, I was on a little pilgrimage with some friends in the surroundings of Bhubaneswar, India. Looking through the e-mails in the morning, I saw a mail of a lady from the French part of Switzerland. Rita writes that she had been together with Master EK (Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) in the early 70s, lost sight of him in 79 – and just found him back via the website of the World Teacher Trust. It was the beginning of an intense correspondence.

She told me the fascinating story of her meeting Master EK, then loosing sight of him and finding him back after 44 years. She also gave me the French version of the statutes of the World Teacher Trust of 1972 she received at that time – 30 years later, I had been involved in reformulating the statutes of the WTT-Global.

I asked her if she could write an article about her story, and she sent me the following text in French;  here is my translation to English:

Rita and Master EK, 1972, photo from the video Music of the Soul

“Don’t search for your way anymore”

This injunction at the bottom of the home page of Google suddenly got for me all its significance on January 12, 2016.

“Namaskarams Master Ekkirala Krishnamacharya! This is an incredible set of circumstances that took me back to you and allowed me to get in touch with your eternal SOUL, which IS now in another dimension.”

In December 2015, health problems lead me to consult the Doctor S, a psychiatrist that a friend recommended to me. At the first therapy session, the contact is immediately established and I realize that the doctor is open to the spiritual dimension what is very rare. When I told her I want to take a Mindfulness Meditation Course in the region, in addition to the therapy with her, she replies that she will give a course in January. Of course, I register at this course. All’s well that starts well …

During a private meeting, on 12 January 2016, we approach the subject of these faculties, let’s say “intuitive”, that make me perceive things, events, even remotely, that others do not perceive. She tells me about the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahamsa Yogananda; I reply that I met an Indian Sage in 1972, but I do not remember his name.

January 12, 2016 in the evening, that the name comes to my mind: Dr. E. Krishnamacharya. Driven by curiosity, I look for his name on the internet and there is an avalanche … an avalanche that does not bury me, but on which I glide with joy still today. This January 12, I discover the immense work he left behind: The WTT, the WORLD TEACHER TRUST, on a site with his books, his teachings, books and teachings of his successor, Dr. Parvathi Kumar, himself a Master of Wisdom too. The same evening I also found “by chance” on YouTube his videos “Music of the Soul“. I look first, also by chance … video 4. After two minutes, I SEE ME in the company of Master EK, during a course he gave in June 1972, at the private school where I was teaching at the time. I cannot believe my eyes! I also discover the circumstances of the death of Master E. K. at the age of 58, which I did not know.

The following days, I easily re-found and re-read the correspondence with Dr. E. Krishnamacharya between June 1972, when we first met (in this dimension) in Switzerland, and our second and final meeting in Lyon in June 1974. The last letter I addressed to him but which I did not sent, dates of 1979. I also reread my meditation notes: my orange notebook was near me, in my office (despite 2 moves) all these years but I forgot … Indeed, the circumstances of my life had temporarily removed me from my spiritual path.

On 17 January 2016, I decide to write to the WTT because I want to thank Master K.P.K. for beautiful videos accompanied by his narration that bring back the Master E.K: these films contain countless pictures and videos collected during more than 44 years, arranged from beginning to end and commented with love and care. This incredible work allows going through the path of the earthly life of Master E. K. and the construction of his work. What a gift!

The next day, not expecting to get an answer from the WTT, I find an email from Ludger Philips who is on pilgrimage in India and just followed a seminar with Master K.P.K. Thus begins a correspondence with Ludger, who helps me, by his advice and encouragement, and also by sending books published by the WTT that interest me.

Since 12 January 2016, my life changed: I took up the meditation that I had abandoned in the early 80s due to difficulties in the private sphere. I must add that August 31, 1987, I met the love and happiness in the person of a wonderful man who became my husband. He practices meditation for 40 years: it is the source of his balance, calm and wisdom.

Since I found the Master E. K., I feel a deep joy that is always present in me. He wrote me one day ‘More often you will find me meditating in you.” This is the source of my joy and I feel immense gratitude for such a gift. Day after day, I am guided in my research and reading about what others would call chance. This is not chance, but the Master E. K. who traces the way to follow, I am certain. I also know that, for now, my work on this earth is to achieve happiness in the company and with the help of my husband. When thoughts come to my regret because of lost time (between 1980 and 2016), I am comforted internally by the idea that to me in this life, knowledge is not the most important. What matters is the JOY through the practice of happiness. The knowledge to acquire will take me some more lives … “YOU HAVE PLENTY OF TIME. BE HAPPY ”

“Dear sister,
It is indeed a great return!
Returning home is ever joyful.
The Master is all encompassing and loving.
May rejoice relating to. ”

Master Parvathi Kumar’s response to my letter of thanks.

Rita, Master EK and Sri PSS Varna, who accompanied the Master, 1972, photo from the video Music of the Soul

Rita and her husband, Christmas 2015

Last Sunday my wife and I were invited by Lilli, a Swiss-Japanese friend of my wife, for a lunch with some friends of her’s in her home in Horgen at the Lake of Zurich. Lilli, a lady in her 60s, and my wife are working together in Spirit Release. They cooperate in difficult cases and had also been together at a course on Spirit Release with David Furlong in London. I came to know Lilli during a visit at our home. For many years she had been working with Spirit Release in Japan.

On the highway to Zurich I didn’t feel well. While talking to my wife it came again to my mind that it had started 2-3 days ago, after my visit of the headquarters of anthroposophy in Dornach. There was an inner tension and subtle irritation which didn’t go away in spite of my trying to clear it in meditation. Thoughts returned to my involvement with Anthroposophy in the 80s. I wondered why this visit had released these streams of memories, thoughts and emotions.

Sunday morning during meditation I felt as if I had caught a spirit attachment (of some deceased soul). I tried to release it, without success. I felt a bit better after the fire ritual.

During the trip to Zurich I told Cyrille, my wife, about my feelings as per the visit in Dornach and that I didn’t feel well this morning. She replied that the visit must have triggered some unfinished business of mine in relation to my encounters with anthroposophy in the 80s and started asking questions. I then mentioned to her that I suppose having an attachment and she immediately felt it. She said that these are departed souls of anthroposophs and that she feels strong mental concepts preventing them from ascending from the lower spheres. Images flashed through my mind. She proposed to do a spirit release and so we stopped shortly before arriving at Lilli’s home. She addressed the spirits, explained them their situation and proposed to turn to the light. But they refused, having fear to go away. It was like a fight going on around my head and I felt fatigued. My wife then suggested to ask Lilli for help.

We rang at her apartment and Lilli came to the door; from the background there were party noises – about a dozen persons – Japanese ladies with their Swiss or German husbands and five children. Cyrille said to Lilli: “We have brought you a present – some spirit attachments stuck with Ludger.” Lilli replied, “Oh, what a nice present. Let’s immediately have a look at it.” We laughed.

We went to her office room. Lilli asked Sumi, a young Japanese lady to come with us: “She is also clairvoyant and helps me in my work.”

She took my hands and Sumi touched my left arm. Cyrille assisted energetically. They clearly felt the spirits and Lilli said, “They are quite a lot, and yes, they are intensely stuck in their mental concepts about the subtle world.”

Lilli addressed the earthbounds and explained that she helps them to go to the light. I felt an irritated spider web surrounding me. It was being lifted up from me and flew out through my hands to her’s. The spirits disappeared into the Light. Within 1-2 minutes I felt free and released – and happy.

Lilli and Sumi explained that the spirits had hooked at the back of my spine below the neck, a favourite entrance point. When leaving my aura, many other departed souls with a similar mindset linked to them had taken the chance of joining their friends on their way to the Light.

We then joined the ongoing party. I first had a talk with Sumi who told me how she was in India, finding healing with an Ayurvedic cure, meeting Amma and coming to know there her future husband. Then another Japanese lady addressed me about my paintings. I never was in any Japanese environment before, eating home-made Green tea ice-cream plus sweet Azuki beans and the like… In the apartment there were beautiful Japanese artworks and furniture besides a variety of Buddhas, rock crystals and other stones. I viewed a painting of Mount Fujiyama – in my student time I had various photos and artworks of it in my room.

I especially enjoyed the 5 German/Swiss-Japanese children between maybe 4 and 10. Lilli explained that all of them were in a way clairvoyant and partly their mothers, too. It was very interesting how the children grow up between Japanese and Swiss culture, and all were quite fluent in English as well…

Lilli did some playful trainings with them. She had a deck of cards about precious stones and crystals and their devas. She showed one card to the children, shuffled the cards and put them with the back on the table. Then she asked the children to find the card which she had asked them to connect to. Two of the children were quite good. One boy ended up by always discovering the right card. Afterwards Lilli let the children sense the qualities of different kinds of crystals. We adults also tried to find a card from the set on the table. With no result – it was the second-last card we turned…

After a short walk along the lake we went back home. There were definitely no more earthbounds around.

Laughing Buddha in our bedroom, a present of a friend

Saturday at noon time during the group living at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona it was very hot. Nevertheless I wanted to go for a little walk. I saw nobody who would like to accompany me but I had the feeling that I would meet someone. From between the university buildings I saw a path leading down from a forest to the valley and I decided to go into this direction. The forest was very dry and the smell of pine resin was in the air. After 200 meters I saw somebody sitting under a tree. It was Reyes – whom I have several times met in India and also once visited in Spain. I asked him what he was doing there and he said, healing trees.

He explained to me that through the impact of human destruction of nature – often by putting buildings into nature without taking care of the subtle dimensions of nature – many trees withdraw their energy and they are no more radiating it into the surrounding. He told me about the work of Damanhur and the “Global Tree Network” – “Celebrating the Relationship between Humans and Trees” –a collaboration between Damanhur and Wisdom University. They call the work Reyes is doing “Orienting trees”. On their website they write:

“Trees are the living antennae of our planet and, consistent with Damanhur’s and indigenous understanding, they have a special energy interaction with cosmic forces on the Solstices. At the Summer Solstice they send to the cosmos information on the state and complexity of life on our planet, and at the Winter Solstice they receive a signal in return. For many hundreds of years their message has been a cry of despair. The Global Tree Network is fully committed to transforming this cry into a concert of happy forests.

The Global Tree Network (GTN) has arisen out of a collaboration between Damanhur, Federation of Communities, and Wisdom University. The purpose of the Network is to launch a global campaign of awareness and celebration of the relationship between humans and trees. At the core of this initiative is a specific technique devised in Damanhur, and people from all over the world are invited to participate, adding their unique artistic, cultural, and spiritual approaches.”

Reyes then showed me what he was doing: He was using a special pendulum with a battery at the centre and he was circling it three times around the stem of a tree. He noted with his subtle perception the energy change of the tree. After having done so with a number of trees, he notes it down in his mobile and sends an information to the Tree Network. They regularly do rituals to strengthen the energy field of all related trees.

I became curious and so Reyes made me feel the energy field of a tree before and after his treatment. And yes, it seemed to me that there was a significant change which I would describe as a more ordered and radiating field. I observed him doing this small ritual with some more trees before we went back to the hotel. Next day before we departed, I asked him to go with me again to the place of the trees and there I took the following photos. An interesting project.

People from the West often feel irritated when they come into contact with the many deities – and masters – worshipped in India. They ask, silently or aloud, what’s the purpose of all this? There are religions which condemn these worships as polytheistic or erroneous beliefs. They argue that there is only one God and monotheism is the only true belief… Yes, of course, there is only One but… comes to my mind. But what?

Some weeks ago I noticed the irritation about the plethora of divine beings with a friend. I know it only too well, this feeling of getting lost:

For many years, this has been an undercurrent in my life. I oscillated between Western and Eastern views of the world. I was striving to bridge the gap. At times it seemed to engulf me. I feel a fascination for Eastern wisdom but at the same time alienated by the many contradictions of eastern practical life, which is often at quite a distance from the heights of their sublime concepts. I noticed, however, that with the years I increasingly perceive the underlying unifying background and came to love the multiplicity.

Over 40 years ago, I came to the house of a member of my then-meditation group and saw there many statues – of Shiva, Ganesha, Krishna… This man had a big collection of partly costly Indian idols of gods. I had no relation to them, I felt disconcerted and at the same time I felt a strange fascination.

A few years later, I started studying Comparative Religion as one of my secondary subjects at University to get a deeper unerstanding. Later, I came into contact with theosophy and anthroposophy. There I learnt that in ancient-most times man lived with natural clairvoyance and could directly perceive the great divine beings of the subtle realms which he revered as Gods, knowing very well that they were facets of the One unknowable source of existence, which he called God. There were guardians (priests-initiates) who showed the way to this sublime vision. In temples and mystery schools the keys to direct experience were safeguarded. With the course of the ages, however, the epochs became darker and the knowledge got lost. Belief replaced experience and jealous religions fought for their God-systems as the only right ones. With the advent of modern critical thought and materialistic sciences the religious beliefs got ridiculed as superstition and accepted merely as a kind of social service.

Now, in the Aquarian age, when more and more people turn again inward and discover the subtle realms, a more differenciated view of the subtle worlds re-emerges. The “Gods are returning”. By becoming aware of the sublime beings of light, the Devas, they start working with us. They bring a splendour into our life which cannot unfold otherwise. Many times, I witnessed this radiance of subtle light shining into the surroundings. To perceive this light, which is nourished from behind, you have to open your subtle eyes; otherwise the curtain remains closed.

Indian Gods in shop windows at Berne, Switzerland, 24 December 2008:

At the CVV Sharing meeting beginning of Aries I did an experiment with the group guiding it on a meditative journey through life.

Archetypally, our life-span unfolds in a certain rhythmical pattern following cycles of 7 years. In his book on “Uranus“, Dr. Kumar explains: “There is a 7-year cycle with the humans with a grand cycle of 84 years. A life lived for 84 years is considered to be a full life, a fulfilled life.” This is “due to the fact that Uranus functions with the periodicity of 7, for the simple reason that every 7 years he transits a zodiacal sign and completes the zodiacal circle in 84 years.”

Thus, the first 7-year cycle of our life is the Aries period of entering into a new life and starting our self-expression. And the last cycle, from 77 to 84 years, is the Pisces period of completion and preparation for the transition. If you continue after 84, it is regarded as carrying on your journey into a higher turn of the spiral.

Following an impulse received in a meditation some months ago, I outlined a structure for the meditative journey through life, which you can download here in English or in German (PDF). The movement is going back from the Pisces period through the different septennial cycles to the Aries period and then a little bit beyond, to the time of descent into the uterus and of planning the incarnation. Then, we turn around at the point of birth and visualise the unfolding of our life up to the present moment and further beyond, what might still wait for blossoming. Afterwards, we go to the present moment, which is an Aries-point of new beginning, and which was the first day of Aries, when the group experiment was done. From there, we would visualise the seed of the new cycle and the path through the next 12 months. Then we would come back to the present moment and open our eyes.

I invited the group members to relax and close their eyes. For the periods before and after their conscious experience they might intuitively visualise the quality of these cycles, for which I read out a short keynote.

As an expression of the rhythmical heart-beat of life and the undercurrent sound of creation, OM, I kept on intoning a singing bowl, creating a specific “ding” sound when changing to the next cycle. For each cycle I took about 1.5 minutes. The whole exercise took 30 minutes, followed by an exchange in small groups of 3 persons about what period in their lives occupied them most.

It was a very intense experience. While conducting the group, I suddenly started noticing that there was a change in the quality of the atmosphere with every septennial cycle / zodiacal sign, especially when it came to the pre-natal phases.

Several members afterwards came to me expressing that they had been deeply moved by this journey through their lives and especially the moment of touching the pre-natal phases. 2 persons told me that images of a moment of preparing the incarnation came, with a feeling of the plan of their life.

Since it was a a meditative group process, I left it to the members to integrate the experiences of the process into their lives.

Sign                      Phase    Quality
Pisces Time        84 – 77   Completion and preparation
Aquarius Time     77 – 70   Cheerful vastnesses, virgin territory
Capricorn Time    70 – 63   The peak of unfoldment, consolidation and distribution
Sagittarius Time  63 – 56    Sublime goals, implemention
Scorpio Time       56 – 49   Profound transformations
Libra Time           49 – 42  Connections, working together
Virgo Time          42 – 35   Reviewing, reorienting
Leo Time           35 – 28    Establishing one’s kingdom, ruling
Cancer Time       28 – 21   Building the house, preserving
Gemini Time        21 – 14   Equipping, trying out
Taurus Time       14 – 7     Feeling the power, moving forward
Aries Time          7 – 0      Entering into life, expressing

Review at the Threshold Point of Birth:
Pisces Time                     In the waters of the uterus
Aquarius Time                  In the etheric vicinity
Capricorn Time                 Preparation for the descent
Sagittarius Time               Idea and plan for the incarnation

Turning around and prospects at the Aries point of birth
The unfoldment of the flower of life

The Aries point in the Here and Now
Feeling the seed of the new cycle
Envisioning the path through the coming 12 months

• The text in English or in German (PDF)

Intoning the singing bowl