For the “Astro Forum”, organised by WTT-Hamburg of last weekend, I did a video published on YouTube , “Dance of the Zodiac“. It is an arrangement of images from my paintings on symbolisms of spiritual astrology, on which I’m working since 4 years. You might have seen them on my website (with explanations) or also on the Good-Will site, (there with links for downloads in print version).

As background music I chose a flute song of Terry Oldfield, “Loving Touch”. With some nice words he gave his ok – thank you Terry. You might have heard of him; he does “Music from the Heart” and fascinating music inspired by nature and Eastern wisdom (see on YouTube).

A great video about the vastness of the universe from micro to macro. I have blogged about other such visualisations (here and here and here and also here) but I’m always fascinated by these presentations of the macro and microcosm. This video is really well orchestrated. Enjoy.

Pic from the video (c)

The book “Spiritual Astrology” is a storehouse of profound concepts of wisdom, which let images come to my mind’s eye. Thus when reading the chapter on Virgo impressions came to me of purity and virginity, of the world saviours as the Sons of the Virgin, of the rainbow of creation, the veil of the Mother of the World. I wanted to give a new perspective to the often misunderstood concept of the Virgin and to replace the child with a group of great messengers of God and World Saviours.

I used a painting of Fra Angelico for the central figure of the Virgin. I added a helix galaxy structure and a rainbow in the background above her head, forming the Eye of God. The head and the halo of the Virgin at the centre symbolise that the World Mother is the first emanation from the background of creation. She is sitting on a red and golden veil, the sheath covering the pure existence and giving rise to the multitude of expressions in space. Full of loving attention the Mother is looking at the group of messengers of the pure Light, which are inserted into the form of the infant Jesus, who is holding in his left hand the ball of the globe. Wrapped into her blue robe you see smiling people who feel blessed and protected through her presence. Her Light is radiating into all directions.

You might like to see my other paintings.

12 April 2013, A 5, pencils and photo work

Yesterday a friend and I went to Flüeli-Ranft for a concert of Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji from Mysore. For 3 days he stayed for a seminar in Flüeli, organised by the Dattayoga Centre Switzerland. I had seen the Swami last January in his Dattapeetam Ashram in Bangalore on the way to the Nilagiris and blogged about his feeding birds in Shuka Vana. And I had been in Flüeli-Ranft the last time in May 2012 for the May Call Day seminar of Sri Kumar.

We went to Flüeli in the early afternoon to have some time for a walk and evening meditation. It was a beautiful summer day and the way over the mountains was gorgeous. We found a beautiful spot overviewing the valley for our evening meditation.

View down to the valley from Flüeli Ranft

While walking around images of last year popped up – the time was now so different, and there was a profound peace in the air.

The Melchtal Frutt valley behind Flüeli

Two dwarf goats were observing us and we chatted a bit with them.

View of the village hall with the church and the hotel Pax Montana where we had stayed last year.

There were already many cars around – but we had good luck to find a last free parking space on our arrival. We had our evening pick-nick at the centre of the village and we could spot out the people belonging to this group – ladies in flowing dresses, saries or panjabis, men with a colourful cloth around the shoulder or otherwise easily  identifiable. It somehow felt familiar, though we didn’t know anybody of the people inside the hall. It was fascinating to observe. On the sides of the hall there were posters with photos of the social activities of the Swami in India – schools, hospitals and other benevolent activities. The concert was also a benefit activity, the receipts will go for financing social aid activities. At the entrance there were tables with many of the CDs and some books of the Swami – and you could also buy cuddly parrots, the proceedings were meant for Swami’s  new parrots park in Mysore – I had seen the birds park from the outside, visitors weren’t allowed.

Inside, the hall was beautifully decorated – a tree with paper flowers was hiding the climbing wall on the backside. And on the stage there was a golden disc with golden cloth draperies.  And before there was the synthesizer the Swami Ganapati.

It was announced that this concert, Nada Sagara – Ocean of Sound, was the first solo-concert the Swamiji gave in public. He has been touring the world over during the years, and in the entrance hall there was a poster announcing his next concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London in September. The speaker explained that the music has a healing effect and eliminates blockages in the nervous system as well as in the subtle energy system of the Nadis.

When he entered the hall the air was filled with rapt attention. As a welcome he received a garland of flowers, which he showed to the public and threw to the floor – after the concert another garland was presented to him. He shortly wore it, jokingly looked through it and put it away…

He started his concert with some explanations about his music and then started playing. Cosmic sounds were weaving a musical carpet in the air and it seemed that all were absorbed in the musical vibrations floating through space. And I, too, was carried away by it. A very special kind of music, changing in melodies and rhythms, played in a highly intuitive way.

He played uninterruptedly for about 1 hour, and the last 5 minutes his play was accompanied by rhythmic clapping of the audience. There was a magic spell in the audience. Some of the ladies got up, full of enthusiasm. Swami Ganapati received a gift which seemed to be a bird in a bowl, and a set of tuning forks. Then he disappeared through the stage-door.

When we came out the moon in its 12th ascending phase just looked over the mountain, and it appeared as if it was burning – maybe also filled with some cosmic ecstasy.

You can find a lot of Swami’s music on YouTube, here is a video of “Healing Music” from a music concert at Hyderabad.

Friends had invited us to Munich and so we went there last weekend. It turned out to be a very intense time.

It was a rainy day when we stopped for a short nap at a highway parking in Bavaria. My wife wanted to sleep a bit longer, and so I strolled a bit along the parking area, which was longer than other places. I suddenly realised that 4 years ago, on the way back from our last trip to Munich we had stopped on the other side of the highway. On both sides of the road there was a work of art, a small chapel and a grey shelter in the form of a half-chapel. A path in the form of a big “8” connected both. I suddenly was captured by the atmosphere: I was touched by a sublime presence and though it was directly next to the highway, it felt like a sacral space opening. There was a beautiful view over the fields and forests, a very soft and pleasant ambiance. I sat down in the shelter for a short meditation and later went there again with my wife. Strange, how “from out of the blue” (or better “grey”, because it was raining) there can be an opening into subtle spaces.

In Munich we stayed in the apartment of Benjamin, a friend and his family. He is a consultant and a programmer. Since years he is intensely working with spiritual astrology and has created a very good program for spiritual astrology and the 7 rays, which he had given me as a gift last year.

This was the beginning of a friendship, though we had come into contact via the web about 10 years ago. The last 10 months we had been working together on the relaunch of the WTT-website. For me is has been a very inspiring cooperation, and now the team of collaborators has increased to 7 persons – the first site I still had done myself, but it had grown over the years. It will take some more months till the launch, there is no haste…

From his home we went for several other visits. I first went to a friend who gave me a small Moringa-tree, originating from the Himalayas, which is a very healthy plant. In her room I saw some “waste mandalas” she had created with garbage she had fished out of a river in Munich:

She had a set of 6 videos, “Music of the Soul” published last May Call in Bangalore, India, about Master CVV and Master EK. It’s a very good presentation of their biographies. So I borrowed the DVDs to copy them (I should have got them in June, but a “mix-up” made them go to someone else – but this way they arrived at me); I enquired in Bangalore and came to know that soon these videos will also be published on YouTube – I’ll let you know… I copied and saw the videos at home, they are really very inspiring and well done.

Master EK and Master KPK, a screen-print from the video (c)

In the evening and next morning we met in the house of an artist-couple and had some intense talks. Later I was invited to a 86 years old friend, a well-known spiritual astrologer and former opera-singer. She had invited Master EK to come to Munich in the early 80ies. We had heard from each other years ago but it was only in the last weeks that we had some e-mail exchange. She gave me a fascinating reading of my chart, and afterwards we sat together for a dinner with some friends. In the evening Benjamin took me for a walk through the city of Munich.

The Bavarian lion on the portal of a university building

A false colour “violet ray” pic of the park

Dancing in the park

Munich sunset

The next day I stayed together with Benjamin and his family while my wife was visiting friends. He explained to me some astrological intricacies and we had a beautiful walk through the nearby Westpark before finishing the day in a Vietnamese restaurant and going home again the next morning.

Balancing in the Westpark, Munich

This year there are 2 full moons in Leo, the second one is on 21 August. So I did a second painting for this sign.

The Eastern wisdom teachings describe the most sublime plane of our planet as a field of radiant light. It exists in us as the plane of pure existence, the diamond consciousness in the head centre. It is also called Sweta Dipa, the White Island, full of divine brilliance and splendour. Another name for it is Shamballa, a hidden place on the etheric plane of the Gobi Desert. Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World and the highest being on earth, lives there, and within his forehead there is the beautiful gem of Chintamani, the philosopher’s stone of heavenly origin. He and his team of sublime beings incessantly assist the evolution of the beings on earth.

I tried to depict the White Island in an ocean of bluish light, rising above the earthly sphere. In the lower part of the picture you perceive the outlines of India seen from space at night, with the lighted centres. Above the island you see the head of the Lord of the World, with the resplendent jewel of Chintamani on his forehead. For this I chose a photo of a Buddha statue from Tibet taken by a friend, and I transformed it a bit. For the jewel I used several layers of a photo of a blue diamond. Sanat Kumara is surrounded by seven flames in rainbow colours, symbolising his team of collaborators. I created them based on photos of prismatic reflections on the walls of my room. The whole scene seems to be floating on a field of dark night blue, representing the background of existence.

In the booklet “Wisdom Buds” by Dr. Sri K. Parvathi Kumar you find a lecture on “The White Island” explaining the symbolism in more detail. And you find more paintings on my website. Or send the picture as a postcard.

“The White Island”, 6 July 2013

Tomorrow the sun enters into Leo, and it is also Leo full moon, with the moon in Aquarius.

In symbolism Leo is connected with the transformation process in the inner cave of the heart. With the help of respiration you enter into the “cave of the lion”, the Heart Centre, where you can encounter the higher self, when the lower self is well adjusted. The cave also symbolises the inner ashram, of which an outer ashram is the externalisation. The image illustrates this entering into the ashram.

The painting shows a circle of 12 stars, symbolising the 12 signs of the zodiac. A woman is climbing a stair, entering through the circle of the “gate of stars”. The point in the centre is represented by a door leading to the Sanctum Sanctorum, and so the entry is a path from the circumference to the centre. At the threshold before the centre there is a white figure representing the Master in the Heart, the Divine Self. Above the centre you see the figure of an angel, the guardian of the ashram and the link to the cosmic spheres. The ashram is represented as a crystal cave. The crystals on the sides symbolise the purified, transparent matter, which can receive the Light. At the bottom on the left, outside the starry circle, there is a group of people waiting for their turn to enter.

The painting is from the series Images of Synthesis; you find more paintings of the series on my website ludgerphilips.org.

17 March 2013, pencils and photo work

Beginning of July, 2013, a new tiny moon of Neptune has been discovered. It is a fast little space traveller of 18 km in diameter surrounding Neptune in less than one day, and he has the non-poetic name of S/2004 N 1 but he brings Neptune’s retinue of known moons to fourteen. He took a good time for his discovery – there is just a precise great trine between Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter in the watery signs of Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer.

By the way, spiritual astrology hints at the link between Neptune and the music of the soul: In a seminar on Cancer Sri Kumar explained:

“The whole creation is the music of the soul, and the soul naturally responds to high quality of music. Our solar system itself responds to the music of Neptune. Neptunian music will put you out of your mind instantly. People are taken beyond their mental and buddhic planes directly into the soul plane to receive the related bliss.” So tune in to the subtle tunes of the sublime spheres.

(c) Wikipedia

Neptune (c) NASA

A friend sent me the link to a nice video of Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji feeding the birds of his birds’ park Shuka Vana in his ashram in Mysore. I had a short visit to his beautiful ashram last January.The music is from his creation “Birds’ Zodiac”, and is about the sign of Leo (Simha). Enjoy.

The last weeks had been full of inspiring activities, and I enjoyed my time of reorientation, being free from professional obligations. It was a time of high tide and I didn’t find time for blogging. Over three weekends I was at meetings with my spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, at seminars in Sant Feliu, Spain, and in Bonn, and last Sunday at a meeting of the Swiss group members in Hergiswil at the home of a friend.

Taking pictures of the Mediterranean sea in Sant Feliu

Reflection of the group during the group photo at the seminar in Bonn

Chatting with the grand-children, Hergiswil

In Hergiswil  we had a morning question and answers session for 3 hours, and my fingers nearly got hot while typing fast my notes 🙂 I’d like to share with you some of the notes from the introduction of Sri Kumar on individual consciousness and group consciousness. Of course there might be mistakes from my part, and in spite of the translation pauses I couldn’t get all the sentences. I  shortened the text a bit and did minor editorial adaptations of the spoken words:

“This is a gathering to be together, we as individual consciousness to be as group consciousness, to commune with the mind. The mind is a facility to know; it also has a higher faculty, to synthesise, to commune, to experience expanded consciousness.

When we live our individual life, unconsciously we build around us and we are the centre of our activity. Each one as he or she lives it becomes an activity around him or her and he / she becomes the centre. When two persons live together they find a common centre between them. Only then it is possible for two persons to live together. We can’t live in our own centre and live together. That is how we find from the centre within ourselves to a common centre. When three meet we all try to meet in those areas where we agree and be common. When there is something in agreement and in common, communication can happen.
Communication is communication of light, because every communication is through thought, and thought is fire. So there would be an exchange of fire and a communion of fire. There would be an expansion of the field of activity when two persons meet, because each works for the other, and when there are more than two there is still further expansion of consciousness.

This Sunday is different for all of us. We have travelled from our house in the morning to be here. It is not a routine activity as we do on a Sunday morning. Why? When we think of meeting, each one of us offers some of his activity to be together with the others. What we normally do, from that we have conceded in favour to meet here, to meet the human consciousness. Instead of living for oneself it is living together in consciousness. All have come out of our routine self-centred activity. We have come out of it to be in an activity where the centre is not any-more within oneself; it is in all of us together. We create a centre between the 15 of us through a common activity for a while. When we do that there is a group centre that forms. From being self-centred to group-centred there is a release of energy; from that which is self-circumscribed to the unwinding to the centre, from the self-circumscription. This unwinding of consciousness is already a release.

For days we live within ourselves. To go in such a living where we live for others, this kind of living in a group once in a week or in a month causes a movement which is contrary to the movement we conduct during the week. A work that we do for ourselves is self-winding, self-centring. Once in a while we unwind this movement of consciousness. This contrary movement of consciousness enables us to unfold our consciousness.

A plant – when it gives birth to a flower it is a different activity for the plant. It grows and grows for itself, but suddenly, after a point, there it gives birth to the blossom of a flower. Such an unfoldment is a relation to the surrounding. The natural fragrance hidden in the plant is given out to the surrounding.

Meeting in groups enables individual consciousness to grow and unfold, and eventually through such an unfoldment it causes fragrance to the surroundings. The fragrance is through the acts of cooperation that we express in such a group activity.

Each one of us has cooperated to be like this before. Those who are at home here have prepared something and those who have come have prepared early to come here. In that process the centre is shifting from them to a common centre. There may be many social groups that may also do a common activity on Sunday – cultural, social, political groups or clubs. But the difference is, when we try to group for wisdom, to live in wisdom, it makes a total difference. For the social, cultural and political groups, the thought plane is mental and intellectual. In a group that deliberates upon wisdom it is not only mental and intellectual, but also buddhic, meaning supra-mental, where there is a possibility for communion in consciousness.

When there is such a communion in consciousness every person sees a different release from oneself. And that enables them to re-join again at another group activity. A group activity should necessarily be an effort to rise beyond mind into that plane where we can experience a little unknown, something which is unknown that far. From known to unknown. That unknown is unlimited. From the limited thought activity to something that is unlimited, the consciousness opens to different possibilities.

Therefore there is a prayer or a meditation and also a talk and dialogue, not only a monologue by which we try to know something relating to us as humans. To know that part of us which is not yet totally know. It is not to dwell in the known part. To dwell in the known part is to dwell in one’s own. We try to live in the unknown, so that the unknown opens the known consciousness into the unknown. This effort is important. What we know is one thing; the very effort to open to the unknown helps us to help to know something more about us than what we know already…

In the world there are so many unknown things. There are so many unknown things in one’s own being. Be inquisitive to know. We know many things about ourselves. I only mentioned three, there are so many others. There are 7 planetary principles, and the 12 solar qualities in us, the 5 elements in us, there are cosmic intelligences in us, like cosmic fire, cosmic air, everything that is in the cosmos is in man. That is why it is said that man is a micro-unit. Each one of us can find this within oneself and concurrently within others.

Those who have known themselves gave certain guidelines. It is them whom we call the Masters of Wisdom or the Teachers of Wisdom. They experimented within themselves and found most of the things in common. What one found the others confirmed it. After thousands of experiments with themselves and having collaborated with their findings they gave out what it is in man, what is man constituted of. They found guidelines to know the inside story related to us. Engaging in such a field of unknown knowledge relating to man, our awareness, our consciousness is exposed to some new dimensions of wisdom.

That enables, and it relates to each one of us without exception. The agenda is common to all. Therefore there would be a communion of consciousness to know together. To know together is an age-old concept. It is a most ancient concept to know together. Because in every adventure togetherness is essential. An adventure by a team is helpful; every member is helpful for each other. Knowing oneself is the biggest of the adventures. To be together, to do it is given as a central agreement. In that context group formation and group study and group meditation has come to be. Group-sharing, sharing of food also forms part of the activity. That is what is contemplated even today in this group life. It so happened that I am here and I thought that we meet and relate and try to know. That is why we are here. So we now have some good dialogue…”

Sri Kumar at the group meeting