I just came across a petition on Change.org addressed to Mr. Vladimir V. Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, with an appeal to prevent the destruction of the non-governmental Museum named after Nicholas Roerich and to provide assistance to the Museum.

I immediately signed this petition. I deeply admire the work of Nicholas Roerich and I have published a number of blog-posts about him, also about the new museum.

The Ministry of Culture of Russia headed by Mr. V. R. Medinsky is aiming at taking away from the ICR the Roerichs heritage, thus destroying the non-governmental Museum. You find more details on the the page of Change.org with the appeal. On the website of the museum, there is also a call for help and international protection.

The Roerich-Museum, Moscow

If you also like the beautiful art of Nicholas Roerich, you might also sign the petition and disseminate it among your friends and acquaintances, as a little contribution to the preservation of the museum, for the culture of Russia and the whole world.

Madonna Oriflamma, holding the Banner of Peace

A few days ago I read an article about the German national team at the World Cup in Brazil – not about their sport performance, which I followed only vaguely, but their fashion.

The article remarked that though the German team never had much sympathy in Switzerland the trendy soccer viewer should notice that the Germans are trend-setters:

Unlike all players of other teams who wear tattoos, long hair, beards or use other ways “to make a difference”, the German team is “breathtakingly inconspicuous”. Even in their physique they are no muscle-men. He wrote that he took “normcore” as a media hype but that this team displays a “hardcore normal existence” – demonstrating that even no special hairstyle is needed to win a match.

Not just normcore – the international football birds of the “Fifa Bird Cup” 2014 on a garage door at the Lake Lucerne

I had to think of what Master CVV teaches about “normal temperament” as a fundamental attitude required in spiritual life. Sri Kumar explains it:

“Do not live above the ground. Be practical and be normal. Have no anxiety in you that others should recognise that you are spiritual. Make no efforts to enable others to understand that you are spiritual. As far as possible, keep a veil. As far as your spiritual understanding is concerned transact with the other person as a normal human being. Always keep the spiritual understanding in the background. Do not use too many spiritual terms in your anxiety to make others know that you are also spiritual. If possible, hide it. Wait to understand the other person, speak to him in the same language and terms that he speaks. Don’t use terms which he does not use. … You carry your understanding in you and then according to the others’ understanding you transact with him on that plane. Keep the higher understanding in you. Don’t vomit your higher understanding. At all levels meet the understanding of the other man.”

So let’s retain normal temperament in all events of life.

Admiring the Bird Cup pictures….

I’m quite reserved as per political activism and campaigning for social change ideas, believing in the fact that the change I want to see outside has to grow within me first.

However, the last months I have changed a bit my position when I came across an inspiring movement called “Sum of us” (sumofus.org). )I know other such campaigning movements fighting against social and environmental atrocities and violence, and I’m also a bit active with the well-known Avaaz.)

When reading about SumOfUs, I had to think of what I read many years ago in the book Esoteric Psychology Vol. II, p. 742 from 1942 by Alice A. Bailey / The Tibetan Master:

“Their united good will (at present latent, unused and unorganised) can become a world force and through sheer weight of numbers, these people can make their presence effectively felt.  It will be a force which can mould public opinion through the expression of intelligent love (with the emphasis upon the word intelligent) but which will employ no separative devices, no armed force, no coercion and no political scheming and manipulation.  Is it not possible so to evoke the spirit of good will, present but oft inactive in the hearts of all men, that there will be such a vast number of men and women of good will in the world—consciously in touch with each other throughout the planet—that their voice will not be negligible, nor their expressed desires impotent?”

Many initiatives carry this spirit of good will. I have reported about some in this blog. SumOfUs is clearly in this spirit -here are their last campaigns:

• A campaign against Nestlé patenting the fennel flower.
• A campaign against Nestlé going into poor countries like Pakistan and buying up whatever clean water is available.
• A campaign against corporate agribusiness wanting the Canadian parliament to give them long-term patent rights over seeds.
• A campaign against Google not paying taxes to governments around the world.
• A campaign against bee killing poisons.
• A campaign for Sumatran orangutans – giant food corporations drive them to the brink of extinction by massive palm oil plantations.
• A campaign for calling on European leaders to make sure the Robin Hood tax passes (to make bankers pay and benefit the poorest in the world).
• A campaign against Nike firing workers for forming a union.
• A campaign for the State of Vermont against Monsanto who is fighting hard to kill GMO labelling in Vermont.

See what they write on their website:

“Here’s what we stand for:

• Governments that answer to citizens – not corporations
• Fair treatment of workers and the right of every human being to make a living, safely and ethically, for themselves and their family;
• The right of ordinary consumers to products that are produced and marketed ethically, sustainably and transparently;
• The right of communities to manage and protect their own environment and natural resources;
• Business models that put people and the planet first instead of being driven by shortsighted greed.

Yeah, take that deep breath, close your eyes and imagine what kind of a world that could be – and then crash back to this one.

We’ve witnessed again and again what happens when powerful corporations get their way:

• Environmental and health catastrophes like Fukushima and the BP oil disaster;
• A global financial crisis that destroys entire economies;
• Rising food prices and starving children;
• Families from Kalamazoo to Timbuktu losing their houses and land;
• Poisons pouring into our air and water.

You name it, corporations are behind it. But rather than being held accountable – their CEOs are often walking away with bonuses. And these injustices are largely left to continue unabated.
But the world doesn’t have to be this way. And here’s the secret: We own the corporations that are causing all these problems. They rely on us to buy their products. They count on us to buy their stock. They need us to work for them. They need us to continue to elect governments that let them get away with murder.
We are SumOfUs.org, and we’re not going to take it anymore.

So these are forces of Good-Will which counter-balance destructive trends.

The children born in the last decades are much more electric and have a faster reaction time -through the influence of Uranus their bodies are becoming lighter and more refined.

Last Saturday I was invited to a “Generation Workshop” (GenerActions) at a regional trade fair in Grenchen. A friend working at Infocklick.ch, the Swiss child and youth promotion, had invited me for this encounter of different generations: Young persons who have ideas and projects meet experienced people of the elder generation and can tap on their knowledge and experience. A fascinating approach.

The stand of the workshop was in the huge hall of the Swiss Velodrome. Members of three projects and some  experienced adults were there. One project was a magazine called “und” (and), of young and old working together in a “generation tandem” magazine. Another project was about launching a youth parliament in a Swiss canton. And a third one was a web radio.

I joined the two 14 years old boys who are running since 2 years the web radio “WRS1” (Web Radio Switzerland 1) – youngsters for youngsters. With their team of 4 boys Dominic and Noah realise two broadcasts of two hours per week. I was fascinated by their technical knowledge and cleverness. Beside the broadcasting they are actively using different communication channels: website, YouTube, Facebook…

I went with them through their website and gave them hints how to optimize the site and the way they are communicating. They were very attentive, taking notes, asking. And while the other workshops were already over we were still sitting together and intensely discussing. There was a breeze of Aquarian wind in the air – I’m sure these young people will bring fresh innovations in the near future. Thank you Dominic and Noah for allowing me to use the photos of you.

The two members of the web radio team

In action

Pisces is the final sign of the zodiacal cycle. It sounds the quality of conclusion for a restart, dissolution for a fresh beginning. Pisces prepares the seeds for the coming cycle, and thus it is the subtle commencement, while the tangible commencement is in Aries.

This year, my wife and I experience the Piscean quality of dissolution in a very intense manner: In the final week of Aquarius we applied for a new apartment and got the positive confirmation at the beginning of Pisces. Already beginning of December we had received a termination notice for our old apartment and we started saying good-bye to the place where we had lived the last 3 years. Now, entering Pisces, the preparation for the move are going on – the dissolution starts manifesting:

I went through the book shelves and sorted out (I mentioned it in a previous blog-post): I took the books into my hands and felt inside if there was still some attachment to a book. If no – it came into a box. If yes, I asked myself whether it was an emotional bond and if I would miss it when I gave it away. Again more books came into the box.

In Berne, we have a huge reference library with esoteric and alternative literature, and most of the books went there – I was glad that maybe some interested reader might make good use of the volumes – and our book-shelves became lighter.

The next step was to unburden our basement rooms. A car load went to the waste disposal. But there were things which people might want to use. So I chose a website where you can buy and sell things – or give them away for free. I didn’t want to start selling but give things quickly away. The first test was extremely fast: Hardly had I published my old guitar that the telephone rang- a lady in broken German asked if she could get it. I said yes and tried to describe how she can reach our house – she lived 50 km away. Since she didn’t understand well my explanations I told her to send me an e-mail. She asked if I can reserve the guitar for her; I said yes.

An e-mail arrived – “How can I get the guitar and where are you living?” I sent the detailed description, and shortly afterwards the answer came that she is coming Saturday evening.

Saturday evening, the phone rang – she was nearby but didn’t find the house – it’s a bit back from the street. I saw her car but she didn’t see me. So I went out with the guitar. An African lady and her daughter came out of the car. The eyes of the child shone about the guitar and the lady gave me an invitation to their market shop where they sell African and Indian products and do Afro haircuts, I would get 50% off – not just what I wanted.

Two days later, my wife got a phone call: A lady in broken German – switching then to English –  told her that she wanted to get the guitar which I had promised her. The guitar was away – but who was the lady? It turned out that the first one only phoned and didn’t send an e-mail and that the e-mails were from another lady…

The other things went away with great speed and without mix-ups – especially a jigsaw – there were more than 10 requests – mostly after I had switched off the online ad, a few minutes after I had posted it. The lucky person came from a town about 40 km away… I wondered if he calculated the gas costs…

Others, when they came and saw what we wanted to give or throw away were happy to take more things – and we were happy to give them away:  my old easel, book shelves, picture frames, household articles, children comic books and games… It was a good experience to see the things disappear, hopefully finding a new phase of their lives.

The only object I wanted to sell was a string trimmer, less then 3 years old. I didn’t put a high price – but no reaction came during the last days. Today I reduced the price – I wonder if someone reacts. I’m sure, if I gave it for free there would be a dozen phone calls. But I’m determined to sell it, at least this one! Or keep it, if no-one is interested. In 2.5 weeks we will move to the new apartment…

An empty bookcase – just one book left for our study circle, the rest is already in boxes.

Beginning of December, the windows of a fashion store on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse attracted the attention of the passers-by: Between the perfect display dummies, you could see figures with scoliosis or brittle bone disease modelling the latest fashions. One with shortened limbs; the other with a malformed spine.

The campaign has been devised for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organisation for the disabled. Entitled “Because who is perfect? Get closer.”, it war designed to provoke reflection on the acceptance of people with disabilities. Director Alain Gsponer has captured the campaign as a short film. An impressive sensitization for the inclusion of people with disabilities. And a great response – up to now the video generated over 9.3 million views.

Picture from the video (c) Pro Infirmis

A Canadian friend sent me the link to a touching video about “Touching Strangers“:

“Since 2007, photographer Richard Renaldi has worked on a series of photographs for which he asks complete strangers to physically interact while posing together for a portrait. Working on the street with a large format 8-by-10 view camera, Renaldi encounters his subjects in towns and cities all over the United States.

Renaldi’s objective was to introduce an unpredictable variable into a traditional photographic formula, and to create spontaneous and fleeting relationships between complete strangers. The portraits are extremely difficult to make, involving complex negotiations with the participants that push them past comfort levels, into a physical intimacy normally reserved for loved ones or friends. Touching Strangers creates intimate and ephemeral relationships that exist only for the moment of the photograph. The images are beautiful and strange, crossing out of the zones of safe physical intimacy with strangers and into deep emotional landscapes never photographed before.

In Spring 2014, Aperture Foundation will publish Touching Strangers as a photobook, including new photographs from Renaldi’s shoots this summer in Albuquerque, Chicago, New York City, and Southern California.” An interview with Richard Renaldi. Here is another video about his project. You find more about Renaldi’s work on his website or on his blog.

Pics from the video “Touching Strangers”, (c) Richard Renaldi

Three days ago I was surprised to receive an e-mail with a headline “News from India”. It was sent via the e-mail address of the site of my paintings but it came from a former business partner of my past job at Swiss Red Cross which I have left just a year ago. I wondered how he found my e-mail address for I didn’t have it at the time of leaving the job.

Memories came up when I read the e-mail: 9 years ago I started to build up a media asset management solution for Swiss Red Cross and chose Picturepark, for it offered the best facilities. Furthermore Bruno Jehle, the founder and CEO – the person who now wrote me the e-mail – gave us a very good free support for developing the concept and structure. Soon we discovered that both of us had a love for India with a long-time background. Since his youth, he had been committed to social development activities in India initiated by himself.

I hadn’t heard from him for years when this e-mail arrived, where he sent to some friends a link to a newspaper article in the Deccan Chronicle reporting about the digitization of centuries-old negatives of ancient buildings, tombs and caves in Hyderabad, Bidar and Adilabad, which were in possession of the Department of Archeology and Museums for more than 100 years. Some members of his Indian team, of the bj institute, with its seat in Switzerland (whose founder and CEO he is) and a branch in Secunderabad / Hyderabad had realised this project after a 5 years formation.

I congratulated him for facilitating this valuable project, and he answered that for over 30 years they are now active in Andhra Pradesh, India. At first by committing to fight leprosy and tuberculosis and building up tree nurseries (he had told me before that with the help of mango farms they created a living for a larger number of families; here an aerial view by Google). He mentioned that this place is near Naidupeta, where Sri Mynampati Narasimham was born. (I wondered how he knew about Sri Mynampati Narasimham, Master MN, but then thought, he might have further searched via my links and come to the page about Master MN on the Good-Will site.) They now have reduced their commitment in this area since it is now running by family enterprises. In his e-mail he mentioned that since his 18th year, he had repeatedly met people from the Theosophical movement and that his inspiration for these tree nurseries had to do with the garden of the Theosophical Society (in Adyar).

He further mentioned a second project near Annavaram, West Godavari, the RISDT (Rural India Self Development Trust).
I googled the place and found out that I had just been in Annavaram during my last visit to India last January, when we travelled with Dr. Kumar and the group from Rajahmundry back to Visakhapatnam, and visited a temple there.

The RISDT is a fascinating good-will activity: It is a non-profit public health and development organization serving the most marginalized communities of East Godavari district. It promotes sustainable solutions for public health and human development needs of the marginalized communities and ” envisions a society in which the most marginalized communities have access to their entitlements and opportunities to realize their full potential.” One of the activities grown out of RISDT is Kalpavruksha (Sanskrit for wish-fulfilling tree), an association supporting social, health and agricultural projects in India by organising donations.

All this has grown out of the commitment of Bruno Jehle, who from out of a journey through South India 30 years ago has developed, together with Indian friends, these substantial medical and social care activities.

This e-mail encounter made me ponder upon the strange links of destiny and perceiving a need and focusing on it persistently to create a solution. It is similar with the work of the seed of a tree and of the sprout in the heart of man.

A huge banyan tree forest in the garden of the Theosophical Society, Adyar

Aerial view of the tree nursery project, photo (c) Google.

While thinking, we are continuously creating images in our mind. Modern neurologists even think that thinking is the ability to display images internally and to order those images (this is what António Damásio thinks – a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, in: Descartes Error. Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, 1994, p 89 – what might be his images with this thought?). These images are linked to emotions, which can be deeply stored in our subconscious mind and triggered through situations we encounter.

Marketing (and not only marketing) makes use of this phenomenon by evoking images intended to move the observer into a specific direction. And what happens with these ad-images in us? …

A master of evoking images is Carl Warner, an English photographer who became famous with his “Foodscapes” – impressive landscapes created by food arrangement (I blogged about it in 2008). You find many videos about his foodscapes on the web. Of course, these images attracted the advertising industry and they used them in campaigns for various food based products and brands.

Some days ago I got an e-mail from an Indian friend with photos of the new series of Carl – fascinating “Bodyscapes” created by arranging (living) human bodies to landscapes. When you look at them, feel the images these bodyscapes create in you – is it warm human togetherness or more a feeling of inside a sardine can? Nevertheless – impressive impressions.

Thank you Carl for the publication permission. He is also on Facebook.

Shin-Knee Valley

Valley of the reclining woman

Three days ago I got a Skype-chat message from a German friend:

“Morning Ludger, yesterday I wanted to go to your Good Will webseite – but I don’t find it anymore at Google. Are you just rearranging something?”

“No, not at all, I see the page totally normal – oops, I see that Google doesn’t show it anymore. I don’t know what to do, I’ll try to check it… ” And some minutes later:  “I really have no idea what to do. You only find just the URL good-will.ch, but no other hints. Google seems to block the site! I checked a big spam-filter page, the site is clean.”

A feverish search started. I went to Google Webmaster tools, reconfirmed my site, checked. Being just an “interested layman” in webmaster affairs, more questions popped up than answers. I did tests, contacted friends, the provider, read online articles … … … It slowly dawned to me that the “Google Death Penalty” had hit the Good-Will website. Silently, not knowing when – I didn’t do any “ego-googling” for a long time, so I didn’t know when Google had taken the site off their search index.

Did the “Google Death Penalty” happen the 8th of February? (Graphic: Google Webmaster Tool, good-will.ch)

This means: No search of any topics relating to the Good-Will site is any longer shown in the search results (I still found some minor text hints on 4th and 12th sub-pages of Google’s search…). With all the topics where the site was best placed in the past, now there was  void. Other sites quoting texts of the site appeared, but never the original site… I became alarmed increasingly.

Searching the site of the Circle of Good-Will – other pages appear, at the first place our Facebook page, at least. (Graphic: Google site search)

The next day I contacted a good friend with web know-how. Together we increased the search for possible causes till late in the night. No clear results. We didn’t find anything wrong with the technical part of the Good-Will website, Google was scrawling the site, reported that no malware was found… I asked my youngest son, who had built the site when he was 16, what could be the cause. He wanted to think it over.

Yesterday evening he came and told me that on the home page he had placed some text describing the site in the same colour than the background, so that search engines who don’t pay attention to the header texts are informed (since the home is just a distribution page for the language versions without further text). This, however, is forbidden by Google. Did they find it and therefore blocked the site? My son immediately removed the text.

In the night I wrote a reconsideration request to Google explaining them what could have been the reason and that I’m not aware of any other possible violation of their rules. There was a reply this morning that the

This morning I saw a reply in the webmaster-tools that they will check the request but that it might take a few weeks.

During that time the Good-Will website is probably in the “digital limbo”. And if they don’t tell what has been the reason for their “digital death sentence”, the pralaya could continue… Google writes: “If it’s been several weeks since you submitted your reconsideration request, and you haven’t seen any changes in your site’s performance, this probably means that your site is still in violation of the Webmaster Guidelines, or it simply is not ranking as well as you’d like.”

No, not ranking at all I definitely don’t like – meaning that all the people searching for the spiritual wisdom teachings on the site won’t find it for the time being.

Saturday 16 February 13, 12 am: A friend from Abu Dhabi just informed me that the site is on the index again yes, it is Thank you, Google.
Tuesday,  19 February 13: Google wrote in the account of webmaster-tools that they didn’t find anything objectionable when looking at the webspam and that there can be fluctuations in the ranking… All the hints they gave didn’t show what was the reason for stopping the ranking (it wasn’t only bad performance…) Now it’s back to normal.