Before something appears, it is potentially present. Aquarius stands for the manifestation out of a potential state. Aquarius is the point of transformation where the invisible becomes the visible and the visible becomes the invisible. The symbol of Aquarius shows waves in space; the vibrations pour forth from the pot of Aquarius as the waters of life. The constellation Aquarius is called the Heavenly Man. During the month Aquarius he showers down a stream of spiritual light from his water jar. The Masters of Wisdom called this cosmic man the Manu, the prototype of man. He guides mankind through the cycles of time. In the present Age of Aquarius, spiritual evolution is accelerated to an unimaginable degree. Rishi Agastya, called Master Jupiter in the Theosophical circles, is the ruler of Aquarius.

For the figure of the celestial man I reworked a statue of Agastya from Java (Wikimedia: Photo Dharma) and merged the face with a picture of Master Morya. In his hands he holds the glyph of Aquarius with waves swinging like lightning. The zodiacal arch with the figure of Aquarius was created from a photo of the astrological clock of the ‘Zytglogge Tower’ in Bern. In the upper left corner, you can see the contours of the Aquarius constellation. The star in the hub of the wheel indicates the point of origin of the creational cycle; the play of colours of two Gothic window rosettes with twelve spokes stands for the variety and rhythm of cosmic unfoldment.

When I looked at the picture for several days, I realized that the figure with the Aquarius glyph looks like a magician. Aquarius is also the month of magic – to manifest something out of the apparent nothing. In Sanskrit, the month of Aquarius is called Magha, which means magic. The wheel of creation with its many colours is Maya in essence, an illusion that hides the truth of existence.

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 Aquarius paintings.

During the 2019 May Call celebration at Mount Shasta, California, Master Kumar launched a revised English version of the thrilling biography of Sripada Srivallabha. Sripada is an avatar of Lord Dattatreya who was born in Pithapuram, India, in 1320 AD. The book has been published by Kulapati Editions of WTT Germany. They had already published the German version end of 2016 which I had the grace of Sripada to translate and also published a website on Lord Dattatreya and Sripada. At that time, I had brought it to the temple at Sripada’s birthplace. Now, I wanted to hand over to them the new English version, together with the friends who had done the publishing work.
I first intended to go just with a small group, but finally 26 group members were sitting in the bus which started 31 December early morning from Visakhapatnam.

At Pithapuram, the bus had to stop at a distance of some hundred metres from the temple, for it is located in a quarter with only very small streets. Read more about it here.

The hall of the temple was filled with people sitting in rows before the inner shrine, where some priests were conducting a ritualistic worship of the “Padukas”, the symbolic sandals of the feet of Sripada. The ceremony was projected on TV-screens placed at the roof besides the shrine, while the rhythmic vibrations of the Vedic chanting resounded through the air. I had announced our coming via e-mail, and though I had got multi-language publishing rights for the West some years ago, I wondered how they would receive the new book, since it was a version done by fusing and editing three existing English versions. I thought, let’s wait and see things develop.

After a while, the ritual came to a close, coconut water was sprinkled over the group as a blessing and some sweet curd from the ritual was distributed with a spoon. Our group remained seated while the big group slowly dispersed.

Some priests came to us, asked questions, and we started singing some mantrams – which caused a smiling interest. I told to some people that I would like to hand over the new English edition, and this caused a stir. The head of the temple approached and full of joy and gratitude hold the book. I explained what we had done – the photos, the footnote explanations, the register of persons, the introduction etc. – and he immediately asked if they could publish the book by themselves and if they could get the PDFs. Yes – everything is for free download on the web, with multi-lingual explanations… It was a very solemn moment, standing there in front of the shrine in the energy around statues of Lord Dattatreya, Sripada and his following incarnation as Narasimha Saraswathi. Photos were taken, thanks exchanged and then the entire group of Westerners sat on the steps in front of the temple for some group pictures.

Later, we visited the place of Go Seva – cow worship – which is part of the temple compound. It was very nice to stand there with the cows looking at us with their deep eyes…

Afterwards, the bus brought us to the Kukkuteswara temple where there is an old lingam worshipped as a self-manifested form of Dattatreya and some other deities around – a temple dedicated to Shiva and Parvathi, a temple of different forms of the Divine Mother. In one shrine room, there were statues of several incarnations of Dattatreya.
Later, we started on our journey back to Visakhapatnam, with a short lunch stop at a restaurant. We all very joyful and felt much blessed of having been at this very sacred and magnetic places.

The group lives are always a very intense time, offering many opportunities for growth of awareness and collaboration. I noticed that I have to be very attentive to perceive and pick up the blessing of a situation where a time window opens, sometimes just for a very short moment. I learnt to pay attention to this during the “morning walk meditations” over a field I have been doing the last year. Every day, every moment offers gifts which you can pick up or let them pass by unnoticed.

“December Call” means, the call of the Master consciousness. Master CVV has started these annual times of group initiation in 1910 with May Call and December Call, where you can receive, as a group, in group consciousness, an increased expansion of awareness. To apply it depends on your, on my inner wakefulness.

The Master yesterday mentioned to me in a talk that you can only can only receive and use them when you are living in a very rhythmic, ritualistic way (7th ray).

In Bengaluru I was accommodated on the fourth floor together with 9 other members in two rooms – it worked out to be very smooth. To keep up my early morning ritual of doing some yoga asanas and visualisation exercises, there was the chance of doing it outside, under the vast vault of heaven illumined by the morning lights of the surrounding streets. On the top of the house there were two satellite dishes turned towards the sky – they were for me like symbols of the inner focused listening to the call of the Master.

When one afternoon I was coming out of the house, there was a cow standing in the wild bushes next to the house with a bird on its back – a scene of unexpected beauty. I stopped to take out my camera and noticed the cow coming to me. For a moment I thought – any danger? She came directly to me, caressed me with her nose and looked at me with her deep eyes – a moment full of magic. We stood like this for a short while, then I said good-bye and proceeded.

One evening – it was already late because of some talks with members and the other had already returned – I set out for quickly walking back from the seminar site to the place of our stay when suddenly a motorbike stopped besides me and the driver asked, Shall I bring you home? A second I hesitated, for I did not recognise the person but then said yes and mounted on the back seat. He drove slalom around the holes in the road and in a short moment he dropped me at the house, me gratefully saying thank you. A number of similar situations have been popping up during the whole time of my stay – short, intensive encounters, ideas dropping manifesting into initiatives for future collaboration, Aquarian intensity like swimming in a rapid river stream.

The May Call seminar was full of hints and inspiration. In his second talk, the Master started:
“I know how difficult it is for the brothers and sisters who come from the West to wake up at 4 o’clock, and be here for the morning prayer. It is not easy. The body is put to much training through these morning exercises which is meant for utilising the body to the wish of the personality and to mobilise the body in according to the wish to the soul and align to the super soul. There would be complains of the body and of the personality. Change is for the good that you align your personality to the soul and the soul intents to bring in the divine to the body and the super-soul who is the Master. The Master gives the impulse otherwise we could not do this. It is decided by the Master in you that you are here and you come here again and again.”

The time ran by extremely fast, filled with powerful energies – a water ritual and a fire ritual, talks of members which the Master invited to share some thoughts – they partly were not from “our” group but they were from “the group”. On May Call, there were releases of new books, one on Hanuman, another on the Wisdom of Nakshatras, the 27 constellations of the zodiac much used in the East. Presentations by children and youngsters of dance and singing, introduction of children into first writing, distribution of gifts…

I had given the Master 5 photo-books with spiritual astrology paintings I had done over the last three years (there was just the completion of the 10th annual cycle of paintings related to the wisdom of the zodiac with 120 paintings). He wanted to present the book to the group and did so before the last meeting of a question and answer session, handing over one book for the library of the Bangalore group and one to a member who very creatively had started a number of WTT groups in different cities where he had been placed for a while on professional duty. It deeply touched me.
Then the last moment of the stay, the busses to the airport ready for departure, driving through the heavy city traffic, arrival at the airport, entering the plane and off we went. The landing in Vizag was also a magic moment – we were flying over the WTT retreat centre – a view down to the next group life. Inside the airport there were now beautiful works of art along the corridors and a “hanging garden” behind a golden Buddha statue greeting the visitors, a painting showing a meditator with the chakras – beautiful! The next phase of the journey started.

26 December. Leaving home early morning before the time of winter dawn, having freed the car windowns from ice first. The railway to Zurich, then entering the plane – a space and time capsule to project me through abstract space to India for – my 20th journey to the WTT group living in the month of Capricorn – an auspicious moment.

Sitting in the plane, close to the dark blue expanse of sky, is the only time in the year where I watch some movies. An excellent new one caught my attention – “Tolkien”, about the early formative years of this great genius of fantasy novels. During my student times in the early 70s, his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy made me dive intot he books for three days and nights.

A short stop in Delhi – immigration, floods of travellers, colourful attires, pulsating crossroads of many parts of the world. At 6 am, again in early morning darkness, the plane took off, flying into the majestic colour symphony of sunrise. I was astonished – the flight captain of the flight from Switzerland and now to Bangalore was a lady pilot – for the first time in all the years of travelling.

A taxi driver picked me up at the airport and brought me safely through the heavy traffic to Sadguru Tapovana, the centre of WTT Bangalore where the celebration of the 110th December Call takes place. Friends greeted joyfully giving a warm welcome.

The preparations in the hall were still going on. In front of the stage, some ladies created beautiful decorations with colourful sands. The altar was framed by two dark blue ribbons with shining yellow Sanskrit letters, on one side: “Soham Asmi (That I am) and on the other “Parabrahman Asmi” (The highest existence, Parabrahman, I am).

The group life was opened by chanting the Purusha Sutkam, the hymn to the Cosmic Person. Master Kumar conducted a short ceremony to Lord Ganesha and then opened the December Call celebration. (to be followed)

At winter solstice, the sun begins its northward journey. It marks a significant change of energies, and therefore it is celebrated as an annual ritual. Winter solstice is a symbol of spirit rising again from dense matter. Inwardly, you can experience this in form of inner light shining through, and therefore this is the actual time of esoteric Christmas.

Like the last years, we celebrated on 22 December the winter solstice with a small group at the Paracelsus-Center of the WTT in Einsiedeln. The weather was cold, rainy and on the mountain ridge of the Etzel Pass it was very stormy. In the afternoon, we wanted to make a walk but after some minutes we had to return – indeed a time of turning inward.

Here are some impressions of the group life.

In ten years of Spiritual Astrology Paintings, ten images for the month of Capricorn have manifested 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 Capricorn paintings on the ludgerphilips.org website.

The Sun upon entering Capricorn is called the Son of the Virgin. Its reddish rays are considered by the seers as the blood of the Sun, the blood of the Saviour. These life-giving rays of the northern Sun are the food of the spiritual life, which the Sun God distributes again during this annual ritual and thus helps us to orient the consciousness upwards. More about the importance of winter solstice.

Please find five photos of Capricorn / winter solstices from five different years. And here you can send them as a Christmas postcard.

In the solar year, Capricorn symbolizes the time of the sunrise and of the awakening. The winter solstice at the beginning of Capricorn stands for the birth of the sun god and it is the actual Christmas. When entering Capricorn, the sun comes into the fifth house, counted from Virgo, the house of the progeny; therefore, it is described as the Son of the Virgin. Capricorn is also called the mount of initiation. The brilliant five-pointed star is a symbol of the light of the super-soul, which lifts us out of matter. The red sky in the morning stands for the flame of the higher mind.

The mystic animal of Capricorn with the head of a goat and the body of a fish or a crocodile is, in Eastern symbolism, the vehicle of Varuna – the Lord of the hidden etheric potencies of space.

The picture shows the figure of the goat-fish in the ethers of space, created with the help of a drawing by Zacharias Bornmann (1596). I designed the lower part of the picture with photos of the Swiss Mount Jungfrau and of a sunrise over India as well as with a pentagram – symbol of the enlightened mind. In the top left you can see the glyph of Capricorn and in the top right the outline of the constellation of the 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 Capricorn paintings.

In January-February 1983 I did a series of six paintings about the “Birth of Christ”. They were done with liquid glazing paint and fast glue on paper in A4 format. The pictures arrived at the end of a long and profound crisis where the first signs of deep changes in my life started to show up. In a way, it was also a birth of the inner Christ in me.

You can see the pictures also on my website.

Birth of Christ 1 – The Logos
This is the first picture of a series on the birth of Jesus Christ. This series was painted immediately after the series on Way of the Cross.
The cosmic cross – the transformed and light-filled version of the physical cross of crucifixion – has the sun god in its centre. It is the cosmic person (Purusha) fixed in matter and through this sacrifice enables the creation. So you see the spiral of manifestation in the background, on a basis of the deep blue / indigo of the background, the ocean of the space waters. The sun globe has the white disc in its centre, standing for the central sun manifesting from the background. The square formed in the centre stands for the matter aspect, and the parallels forming the cross are the vertical and horizontal dimensions forming the cardinal cross in heaven. So the Logos, the Word of God, is spoken out from beyond – and the Word was with God, as it says in the beginning of the Epistle of St. John. It is the Word taking on the “flesh” of matter – the cosmic prelude for the physical incarnation of the Christ consciousness – expressed in this series of paintings.

Birth of Christ 2 – Announcement
You see here the Angel Gabriel with a white lily announcing the future birth of Jesus to Mary. The whole is surrounded by ether, the cosmic space waters, from where the soul of Christ approaches the form of his future incarnation.

Birth of Christ 3 – Pregnancy – The Mother Standing on the Dragon of Matter
Here you see his mother in an archetypal representation as the World Mother. Often she is represented as standing on the crescent of Moon, or on a serpent or a dragon. This symbolises that the incarnation of the soul is into a pure, virgin vessel, and the serpent/dragon represents the cosmic creative force (kundalini) bound to matter. It is being liberated through the divine light. The pregnant mother (Lat. “mater” / matter) carries the light in her womb, surrounded by the space waters of ether.

Birth of Christ 4 – The Birth
Here you see the cosmic cross of the first picture of this series, where the cross manifests in the cosmos, now linked to earth. The sun in the centre, the Consciousness, comes down from the cosmic centre through the vertical movement into the physical sphere and enters into the form of the new born child. In the background you see the spiral of the first image now with blue and violet, the ether of the physical plane. The spiral condenses to the forms, and it surrounds the forms of Joseph and Maria who are blessing and protecting the child. The child is surrounded by a golden aura, and towards the bottom the colours change to the vital red, the colour of the blood of the earth into which the child now is “implanted”.

Birth of Christ 5 – Announcement to the Shepherds
In a glowing aura of light, a group of three angels appears to the shepherds in the nearby fields announcing the birth of Christ upon earth, blessing them with their presence. The shepherds, sitting on the ground and dazzled by the light, incredulously look at the apparition. A great contrast between the spheres of night and light.

Birth of Christ 6 – Worship of the Three Kings
This is the sixth and last picture of a series on the birth of Jesus Christ. In the centre you see the infant Jesus held by Mary and surrounded by an aura of light, which is adorned by a crown of light. One of the three kings prostrates before the child, while another puts down his gift and the third one stands in the background in veneration. The three kings / magi carry crowns of red fire and are surrounded by a sphere of electric blue light. Mary is surrounded by the warm golden-yellow and red, colours of the heart, while the infant is of pure light.

With the cycle of Spiritual Astrology Paintings, there are now ten images for the month of Sagittarius. They give various aspects of the symbolism of the sign. You find the detailed descriptions on the ludgerphilips.org website.