Today is Aries new moon – as per the wisdom teachings it is the beginning of the new annual cycle. Ten years ago, I started with Aries the series of Spiritual Astrology paintings as a part of the Images of Synthesis series – though at that time, I did not yet know it would be a series.
Here you find the 11 Aries images have manifested since 2010, giving various aspects of the symbolism of the sign. You find the detailed descriptions of the Aries paintings on the ludgerphilips.org website.

Over the last months, we met several times via Skype as the steering committee for the “CVV Sharing” – five members to plan and organize this year’s meeting at spring equinox weekend.

Yesterday, Sunday evening, we had an extraordinary meeting where we wanted to discuss the impact of the corona virus and the latest anti-virus regulations – how to continue with next weekend’s meeting in Northern Germany. Our two dear friends from Denmark, team members, just had informed that they would not be able to come – Denmark had just closed down the borders to Germany. I thought of “ro-pla”, rolling planning. I had evaluated the dangers and was resolved to go in spite of difficulties. In the afternoon already, I had checked official German and Swiss websites and saw that the border to Germany was not closed – not yet.

During our Skype meeting, we had an interesting exchange. I told what I had experienced in my surrounding – what the situation was doing with the people and the heating up of the topic via mails, social media, newspaper. I told what I heard from my son, an officer of Swiss Army and ambulance man who might have to go this week for service at the Italian border supporting hospitals in emergency. One team member expressed that he feels it is a hype, that the fear and virulence of discussion is stronger than the effects of the virus. He shared some interesting thoughts from his perspective of being a spiritual astrologer – about the Pluto-Saturn conjunction in Capricorn and its impact on societies.

The other member, also a spiritual astrologer and in addition a profound symbologist, mathematician and IT specialist, said that he tries to understand the effect of the corona virus not by “what the virus is” but by observing how it expresses – its signature and symbolic characteristics. For him, it has to do with fire, it shows qualities of Leo, the royal sign, and it even carries the Latin name for “crown”.

Now the rulers of nations close the borders of their “kingdoms” – something some have dreamt of before – and people get locked up in their places. It affects the way we rule our lives. Environmentalists did not succeed in what the nearly invisible virus brought about in a few weeks – drastically cutting down flights and other travels.

Observing the statistics published about the fast spreading virus, he sees that this dynamism will for sure not be stopped in a matter of a few weeks – the graphics show a development intensity that will take months to calm down again, even with new and effective medicines on the markets….

Suddenly during the conversation my telephone started ringing. My youngest son just came back from Germany and my wife was driving him to his home. They told me that at 8 am next morning Germany will shut down the borders to Switzerland and other countries.

I realised that I cannot travel, will stay locked up. In the Skype meeting we discussed the new situation. My friends decided that they will try to keep up the group life. I could no more join them.

In the night, while I was sending out the invitations that the online study groups will continue this week with a special for equinox celebration, they communicated,
“The CVV sharing is taking place. We think it’s important to meet in this situation for joint meditation and seek the vertical connection to the Master energy. The program will change because we have some cancellations… Our plea: Come to share! There is no better way to strengthen the immune system as social / spiritual contacts, group meditation, the testimony to Timeless Wisdom, Love… and humour! Let us remain aligned in love.”

I will join in spirit – and with our online groups.

P.S.: My friend mentioned above commented:

“Dear Ludger, the Latin word corona has so many meanings. One main is the surrounding, limiting circle, a Saturn symbolism. Once upon a time, the world power Rome crowned its slaves. Rome, the Lion capital of the Lion country Italy – a really heartful country, but also the first corona-infected in Europe!
Our world is divided in rich and poor. Most of humanity lives in poverty. The apparently privileged people in Europe and all over the world are becoming slaves to the financial and economic systems. More and more we are loosing our creativity, our big Lion potential – the other side of the meaning: corona, the heavenly the Sun power.
I hope we will return to that power and the main Lion gifts – giving and loving.”

On his seeming journey from south to north, the Sun cuts the equator at spring equinox. It is the beginning of Aries and the Sun is directly overhead at the equator. The equator is an imaginary circle around the earth. South of the equator is the tropic of Capricorn and north of the equator is the tropic of Cancer; at both of these points the Sun seemingly changes direction. In Spiritual Astrology, cutting the circle is seen as the beginning of a new cycle.

The image visualises the Sun cutting the equator from an inner perspective. Inwardly, the equator corresponds to the navel centre. The picture shows Mother Earth sitting inside the globe and the Sun at her navel cuts the plane of the equator. Above and below are the two tropics. At her heart there is the shape of India and the Himalayas as her breast jewel. The North Pole is at the top of her head.

For the Mother Earth I used a statue of Quan Yin. The globe lies in a huge lotus, signifying the principle of unfoldment. The detail of the globe is created with the help of a picture from WorldWind.earth using NASA images. The reddish colour is from the overlay of a photo of a sunrise over India at a Christmas morning. The red Capricornian sunrays are seen as the blood of the Sun, the saviour.

In the upper left corner, you see Mars, the ruler of Aries, and in the right corner there is the constellation Aries.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Aries paintings.

36 years years ago, Master EK passed over to the subtle spheres – the day of his transition was 17th of March, 1984, on Pisces Full Moon day. See more here. See here the videos on Master EK from the series on “Music of the Soul” (from video 2 on).

At the celebration of Master EK’s birthday 2019, Master Kumar said:

“Master EK left the physical in 1984. Though it was earlier than expected, we should not worry because wherever he is, he will continue to fulfil the plan and bless everyone who sincerely follows his teachings. We should not think that he is no more because all beings always exist and such ones can give their presence from anywhere just by recollection. He continues to inspire us to walk the path. We should keep recollecting him from time and time and be sincere in following his teachings. May he bless all of us.

Here is a short story from the discourse of Sri Kumar (Master KPK) at the celebration of Master EK’s birthday 2019 and a picture of the Master:

“I used to drive Master EK in my car to many places. Once we going in that car and Master EK asked “What is this?” pointing to the car dashboard. I said it contains all the documents relating to the vehicle. He opened that dashboard and took out a picture of Lord Maitreya from it and told me to keep it with myself. I was shocked as to how he did it. I kept it in my room and used to feel very happy every time I saw it. Once Master EK was looking for a picture of Lord Maitreya and could not find any. He asked me and I said he could take the picture which he gave me. He asked, “Are you willing to give that away?” I said I will give if he requires it as it was given by him. Master EK felt very happy and said “I am happy that you give importance to Lord Maitreya without getting attached to his picture.” He took that picture and sent to someone in Vijayawada who needed it. That person was losing his eyesight and no medicines were working. He was given the picture of Maitreya and asked to look into the eyes of Lord Maitreya every day. That person did not lose eyesight as long as he remained in the body. There are many incidents that like which we can keep discussing.

Master EK is a great saint who lived among us and we should be very grateful to have come in contact with him. We should be very sincere in following the instructions and teachings of Master EK.”

Today starts the month of Pisces. Here you find ten images for the month of Pisces which have manifested in ten years of Spiritual Astrology Paintings, giving various aspects of the symbolism of the sign. They form part of the Images of Synthesis series. You find the detailed descriptions of the Pisces paintings on the ludgerphilips.org website.

This is the 1500th blog-post. I started blogging on 31 March 2006. I called the blog “Flowers on the Wayside”, along the roads of Good Will.

This post is about incense. Recently in an online-meeting with friends someone said, “But please don’t bring these black heavy ones…” They preferred light, Japanese incense. I also like but I silently thought of “these black heavy ones” which had become my trusted companions since many years. And I thought to write some words about them.

Of course, there’s no arguing about taste, and we can also add, no arguing about smell. Smell has a profound influence and you can remember it over many years. I know of a sandalwood fragrance which was used at a meditation seminar in summer 1975. I got one package, and it was so delicious… I never found that species again.

Many others followed. In a way, it became a dear meditation habit to light an incense. And when once one of my sisters told me that it was a dangerous habit, that the smoke is harmful to the lungs, that in India, living with open windows, it might be OK but here it is not – I thought, then may it be my little addiction… I especially like some of the kinds manufactured in the Sri Aurobindo ashram – they are striving for perfection.

I came to know the “black heavy ones” when I first came to the WTT group lives end of the 90s. They were not my favourites in the beginning. But I heard that they are made according to a recipe given by Master EK. I had felt a long, long calling by Master EK, over nearly 2 decades, before I approached and joined the path. And the incense became something linking me to this. And they became dear to me.

I heard from others saying, “I do not like them” – but I started liking. Maybe it was similar like with coffee, tea or smoking; it often does not taste well in the beginning but you can get accustomed. There are different flavours, and each time I am in India I get a good amount of them – for myself and also as a gift to friends. There is also one kind called “Sandal” – it does not smell much like sandal; however, I also like.

Incense supports alignment of the mind in meditation, to get the divine presence. In a group life in Argentina 2015 Sri Kumar said : “As far as incense is used it is to help you to get the presence. Once you are so well established in your prayers that you can relate to the presence even without incense, the incense shall not bother you.” Master CVV recommended incense, saying incense is important because the Master energy works through air, it is the permeating principle of the air. Therefore, having a good odour in the ambience is important.

Among all perfumes, sandalwood is considered to be the most sacred, because it supports the will in an excellent way, and it opens doors into super mundane much more effectively than any other perfume, than any other incense. There should be no artificial perfumes, only natural ones. Also before going to sleep you should light an incense and then go asleep, having conducted a prayer. Lighting a candle and an incense would dispel negative elements from the room. Sandalwood is also helpful for an easy departure and entry into the subtle planes at the moment of death.

Whenever we read a scripture about subtle topics, we should have incense and a candle. It is helpful to pray for the cooperation of the author of the scripture, as his presence is with the scripture. It is like a big light that can show us the intricacies of the text.

Time moves cyclically. Every day is a time cycle, also every week and every year. As long as we remain in our old thought patterns and always do the same thing, we move in circles. As we evolve, we progress from circle to spiral – progressing spirally and ascending the path of evolution. When we learn to be useful to ourselves and to the environment, each turn of the spiral takes us to a higher plane of consciousness, until, freed from the limitations of matter, we finally move into higher circles. In the zodiac, the transition from Pisces to Aries offers the possibility of ascension; symbolically, it is called the resurrection from death.

The lower part of the picture shows the pair of fish swimming in different directions. The background of the painting is formed by the images of a spiral galaxy and a blue spiral, from the centre of which several spirals rise. Above there is the head of Phanes, a god of Greek mythology, whose name means “the appearing, the shining one”. He is regarded as the first-born of creation and as a light bearer. The figures of the zodiac surrounding him are based on a Phanes bas-relief (Wikimedia: Sailko).

Above on the right you can see the glyph of the fishes and above it the constellation of the zodiac sign.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Pisces paintings.

Pisces 2020 concludes the 10th annual cycle of the Spiritual Astrology Paintings. There have been 10 times 12 paintings related to the zodiac plus some extra-paintings – a part of the “Images of Synthesis” series.

To celebrate the occasion, I have done a photo book with the pictures of the last three cycles. I cannot make it generally available in print. But you can download the PDF here (text in English only). And the picture series continues.

It’s a complex matter – best told in story-form. It is not so easy to understand, and when you read it on the web, it is very probable that you quickly scan the text but not read, and when you read, you might just take it in with your cognitive brain, maybe quickly putting a “like” on “social” media but not letting it in. No time! the mind runs like crazy…
Recent brain research showed that digital reading is good for cognitive reception but reading on paper is better for transformative knowledge, transforming one’s life. Enough foreword…

The pictures of mobiles in this article are no criticism but done with a smiling eye. I’m also photographing a lot – with a camera. In case of personality complaints, please let me know and I will exchange the photo….

An introduction

This is not a private story about an aspect aof my life, but I use this perspective as an intro for the main story, which comes later:

I stopped seeing TV around 9/11, in 2001, sometimes seeing a movie in a plane, very little YouTube. I prefer reading newspaper articles, going into what I read. I intensely follow what is going on in the world. Already as a child, I had very strong inner images which later led me to painting; when reading a book, I quickly “fell into it”. And when looking a crime story, the suspense frequently made me run out of the room.

In my former profession as head of web office of Swiss Red Cross, I was responsible for all digital communication instruments as per their content side – internet, intranet, central photo archives – until I was “set free” seven years ago, free for my way. There already, people used to run around with mobile. I felt, it would be too overwhelming for my perception, blurring my discrimination. As an excuse, I used to tell that my hearing was not good – it was only half true. I didn’t want to get into “digital morphine”, putting people’s inner side with hyperaction to sleep. Now they talk in the media about the need for digital detox, offering courses for managers about digital fasting.

During the last decade, mobiles made a triumphal march over the globe, entering into remotest corners. I could not escape, didn’t want to be a dinosaur refusing it. I’m extremely active with PC and, when travelling, with laptop. No quick photo publication – selected views, images cut-out and processed. Since some years, we have a family mobile, we just use it “immobile” at home, as a “modem” to enter into WhatsApp. My wife using it as a means for her trance therapy work, working remotely with people who don’t have a computer or don’t physically come. And me for interacting with family members and WTT. Since years, however, I’m studying the digital marketing tricks of big data business and follow the latest developments via a daily newsletter. So I came to see the big players as monsters, some of them massively manipulating, with a mask of innocence, elections and political decision. Making big money with little to no ethics. “Do no harm” of early Google is no longer at use.

No need for fear when reading the following passages, it will come to a good end of the story!

In Europe, governments and data privacy protection offices are trying to fight the supranational Hydras, often without success. The big players are very powerful. Especially the Mark Zuckerberg Empire stands foremost in the manipulation game, from the very beginning, – denying it in public, putting on a smiling face. And everybody uses WhatsApp – in WTT it is used especially in India for bringing plenty of pictures and information “for free” to the members, who need to join to “follow”. You cannot escape when you want to follow.

Nobody thinks of what is being done with the data – things which are directly opposite to the principles the WTT stands for:
Big scale image recognition, profiling people, targeting ads, delivering content individually tailored for the personality profile of the receiver to most effectively manipulate on a mass scale. Yesterday, the media reported: “Facebook policy chief Nick Clegg reaffirms the social network’s decision to continue allowing advertising with political content. Twitter and Google, however, have banned politically motivated ads on their platforms.” Not to speak of what China, the biggest player, does. Incredible “total immersion”, keeping over a billion people under central control – for the “well-being of the state”.

One of the latest developments is voice recognition based marketing, analysing all what is communicated via speech – for better targeting ads etc., combining mobile data with the behaviour portraits of the surfers.

About two years ago, while uploading photos to Google Photo, I saw a function for identifying friends. I wrote the name of a friend – and I got hundreds of photos with her in most intimous situations, at group lives, while travelling – often, I did not recognise her face at first sight, but Google did. And these were not pictures she had uploaded. Data protection, privacy? A joke. Digital profiling in a mass scale. Yesterday, the media reported that 3 billion photos were sucked off the web by a private Silicon Valley company with a big investor. We try to comply on WTT related websites with European data protection standards but these trends go directly against.

At the recent seminars in India – like at the last international group lives – the entire ongoing group communication was done via mobile and WhatsApp – when, where, what is happening – it is so practical, and all have a mobile. Except me, I think. I didn’t want to be washed away by an overkill of information, not only via this channel but by other people trying to contact me this way. They can do it via e-mail. The triage of relevant and irrelevant information needs time and energy and deviates the focus I’m trying to uphold. At the seminar, I told two friends to keep me updated. It worked fine. I even once spoke with my wife via mobile WhatsApp of a friend – my laptop didn’t get connection or only a very low one, for a week. (Later, I got a mobile internet connection from the group of WTT India for the communication activities, a great help.)

Already at December Call celebration in Bangalore, Master Kumar said:

“The teachings of every hierarchy member shall have to be related to. You have no more time for mobile, for silly messages. They are all silly messages from people with experience. There are very silly messages through WhatsApp. You are wasting your time and wasting others time. It is meant to send a simple communication, not to use it because it is free. If they charged 100 rupees for every message, everything would stop. Calls also have become free with WhatsApp. So you call to America and speak for 30-40-50 minutes. Sheer waste of time and energy. Instead why can you not relate to this which is the higher dimension relating to Hierarchy. Hierarchy is the highest dimension relating to humanity and we think we are following some kind of discipleship.”

Recently, a scientist wrote in a Swiss magazine: “When you want to do something effective against global warming, stop taking selfies” – all the infrastructure behind consumes tremendous amounts of energy. Especially the endless Netflix etc. stream entertainment – an easy way to anesthetize your brain.

At the January WTT seminar in Visakhapatnam, things got more intense for me, utmost intensity. Most sublime teachings, multi-directional inputs from people, intense talks with key persons, developing ideas for future developments, for projects. At a question-answer session, I gave a strong word of warning to the group as per the use of WhatsApp etc. There was a good reply by Sri Kumar, here are my notes:

“In humanity there is always an abuse; abuse is common because there is ignorance. Men of knowledge are few, people are stuck by one side or the other. A roller-coaster situation, abuse is about to happen… Humanity is the only species which has discrimination. See what is relevant to us; whatever is relevant to us is not relevant to others. We might be in a huge jungle, we can’t change the whole jungle except by prayer. Immediately it will have an impact on us. It will take time from humanity.

There is some negative coming out of humanity, very few use discrimination. We see what is relevant and what is irrelevant. It is very well possible. That is why we need to grow with discriminative will. We get more guided by conscience, discriminative will.

Whatever Ludger said is in every dimension of humanity, not only in internet – gold invented, misused, slowly balanced. In the 2nd half of last century, the use of fertilizers, they did great harm to the agriculture. Sometimes we learn through ignorance, through foolishness, we make experiments, experiments settle as wisdom. We keep learning by this example, … health is gone from humans and animals, we realise, slowly there is a direction in the production into another direction. Now they have realised that smoking has a very negative impact on health, still some are smoking, smoking; non-smokers were more affected by smoking.
We need to change the planet to an understanding what is a right understanding. “I don’t use it” – not using is not a solution, right use is important.

The world offers many things, be discriminate, develop the conscience, don’t send messages of WhatsApp, when there is no relevance for you, don’t look at it. That is how we use discrimination, use meditation as means to calm down, to develop inner consciousness, the antaratma (inner self), that will help to eliminate certain activities in relation to us and to the group.

We don’t have to criticise, that is Aquarian. We get into the subtler side, it is Aquarian. Make an appropriate use of the right side and don’t get into the (wrong one). The more and more you are negative, judgemental about others – we don’t touch what is black – the more and more we discuss about it, we strengthen it. Don’t get into the path of ignorance, look for light everywhere and don’t get into darkness.

The black ones try to use the others to propagate them. The negativity in us is a deception. … We as students of goodwill see the light side of it, don’t criticise the dark side of it. … You slowly disassociate from people but do not entertain the negative side, if you entertain it it is in you. Be neutral to the negative and be attractive to the positive side. That is how we need to take to the positive side. Make a good use of the good side of the developments coming to us, it is contributing to human progress. In science there is open thinking, but the sciences are under the thumb of the barbarians on the planet who control the whole of humanity. We don’t have to deny the sciences; take the positive side of all the science. Let it be so with all of us.”

A member from Spain introduced me to Microsoft Teams, explaining to me how he uses it for his course organisation and interaction, the structure set up by a friend. Chat and collaboration instruments, file sharing, and video calling. And it runs on PC/laptop/mobile without being bound to mobile. I found it thrilling, thought, “what’s the catch for Microsoft to give the basic version for free?” I know that Microsoft is a much more integer player when it comes to dealing with data. I had several discussions with IT specialists of WTT. It seems to be a way out of the challenge of using digital instruments for group work, interchange and collaboration. Of course, there are also other tools. Plenty of ideas rushed in. It will take time to evaluate and test. I started testing the app but: “Take to turtle speed, not the speed of a rabbit.”

Last year, I had a strong warning as per my health with a brain bleeding. I realised, I have to slow down, take away pressure. This is most needed, especially in the present time and with the present challenges. I’m daily walking for a while in nature, ponder and observe. Keeping longer times of silence to centre inside. The inner guidance will lead through the times of rough weather.

In all of this, I had to think of the story from Puranas of Aghasura, the enormous serpent-demon which wanted to devour Krishna and his friends. The cowherd boys innocently entered its mouth, mistaking it for a mountain cavern. After seeing this, Krishna then came to their rescue, killing Aghasura. In a way, the mobiles look like the many heads of a serpent devouring the attention. But help comes, when you turn inward and stay strongly aligned to the soul.

Here you find ten images for the month of Aquarius which have manifested in ten years of Spiritual Astrology Paintings, giving various aspects of the symbolism of the sign. They form part of the Images of Synthesis series. You find the detailed descriptions of the Aquarius paintings on the ludgerphilips.org website.