Today was Ascension Day and Taurus new moon, standing for dissolution and new beginning. It was a good day for dispersing the ashes from the cremation of my mother-in-law. We went with our family to the place we had found last Sunday. It was again a cloudy day, the right ambiance for this occasion. It was a very solemn and enchanted ambiance, when the camphor fire and sandalwood incense were burning and the ashes were dispersed on a rock, while we intonated some mantrams. Here are some impressions from the place, the ceremony and the surrounding.

The 8th May is celebrated as the day of the White Lotus, in memory of the great initiate Helena P. Blavatsky. In the new book “Golden Stairs” by K. Parvathi Kumar she is described as being “as tender as a freshly unfolded white lotus”, but at the same time “as fiery as she is tender”: “Her being is essentially and naturally tender and extremely motherly. But at work she is an embodiment of fiery Will…. She was the chosen darling of the Hierarchy to inaugurate an era of enlightenment. She is regarded as the white lotus that unfolds afresh the beauty and fragrance of new age wisdom.”

You find beautiful thoughts on the symbolism of the lotus in Sri Kumars booklet “The White Lotus“. And the booklet “H.P.B. – Trailblazer for the Aquarian Age” gives a short outline of her outstanding life.

“The Great Ones”. Painting after a photo: H. P. Blavatsky surrounded by 3 Masters, 26-03-2010

A friend sent me the link to a beautiful music video of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love“, about love in youth and in old age. A lyrical song, which also has another, deeper dimension: Wikipedia says about the song:

“Although structured as a love song, the song was in fact inspired by the Holocaust. In an interview, Cohen said of the song:
‘Dance Me to the End Of Love’ … it’s curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that’s why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,” meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it’s not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.”

I loved his songs already 37 years ago (Suzanne, Bird on the Wire, Songs of Love and Hate…). And he is also a deeply spiritual personality. Wikipedia: “His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. Famously reclusive, having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well-regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments, for the richness of his lyrics, and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.”

Have a look at his YouTube channel.

From the video

An Argentinian friend did a series of comics dedicated to illustrate spiritual principles from the wisdom teachings. The hero of the comics is Swami Urukrama, and his adventures lead him through various strange situations. He is teaching “by way of negative examples”, how it should not be… I had the good luck of proof-reading the adventures of the Swami.  They will be published on the website of WTT-Americana, you find here the first of the series. Or directly to the slideshow.

By the way, they also publish the Lunar Messenger on the website of WTT Americana.

Swami Urukrama

Last Friday and Saturday we were in Einsiedeln for a meeting of the Executive Board of WTT-Global. It was a very constructive meeting, where we worked out a re-distribution of responsibilities. Great care was taken of the condition and sensitivities of each individual, which is very important for a good development of such a process.

For me it was an inspiring experience to see how this group now can function, after having gone through different clarification processes in the past. It was not a top-down process, but everyone involved expressed his or her views about who is doing best a certain task and where new assignments could bring relief. Then the persons involved declared which tasks they could take over. So we slowly approached a new structure of responsibilities and cooperation, which for the moment is being finalised. Everybody felt well with the procedures we decided upon and could agree with the results.

Here are some shots of Saturday morning sunrise seen from the balcony and the flat of a group member.

Mandalas are very old geometric structures illustrating rhythmic principles of universal order. A friend sent me the link to a website with an extremely beautiful mandala animation and exquisite music. You can create changing mandalas by moving the mouse or playing with the keyboard. The first music playing is a sublime intonation of the age-old Gayatri mantram. The site is called “Light-Weaver.com” and inspired by the teachings of the Tibetan Master / Alice A. Bailey. It has the motto: “To the Glory of the One”. The site also offers a calendar of the Full Moon and New Moon dates and times, similar to the calendar of the month of the World Teacher Trust.

On the site you also find very beautiful free mandalas

A free mandala from the website light-weaver.com (c)

I’m often astonished about synchronicities in events. Since one week I could not publish any news on the entrance page of the intranet of my office. We tried to find out the cause, but neither the technicians nor the web-team could get it run again. One technician of the agency who had set up the system was in hospital, another was away with other duties. Speaking with the responsible person I told him that we have come to the conclusion that there must be some gremlins in the system who come out during the night doing mischief… We have to wait until next week if they find out another cause

At home I then encountered problems this week sending mails and operating the group coordination mailing list. Mails did not get out, were stuck on the server. I yesterday had long telephone calls with the provider, it first seemed that we go the problem, but I later realised that not yet. He is working on it…

Furthermore the mails of the hotmail subscribers of the blog were returned – Microsoft found another “interesting” way of spam protection, thus blocking legally subscribed mails. In the return-mails they give a link to their “live”-postmaster page, where you get into a labyrinth of questions and answers – however, it seemed that my case is not described there and the “link” to the troubleshooting contact in case none of the answers helps was dead (at least in the German version of the page I could see). Moreover, they offer for commercial mailers a “Sender Score Certified-Programme” for quite some bucks – and there is no category for anything like free spiritual newsletters and blogs – a dead end with the Microsofties. I did not find a solution with them nor did I find a contact address… At least I now changed the mode of sending mails from the blog, hoping that now these mails get through.

An American friend and astrologer wrote to me this morning: “You will have to call a conference with Mercury, Mars and St. Isidore, patron saint of the internet, computers, technology and of farmers…” And yesterday she told me: “As Mars now moves forward (from its retrograde), things will begin to even out. Mars (activity, intentions, etc.) is still slowly trying to catch up with its retrograde degree… also, Mercury just left Pisces… as it’s now in Aries, that will help.” May the planetary energies be favourable!

Another, less troublesome synchronicity was the topic of serpent power – also the one of our planet. The last weeks I had been encountering in several instances the “serpent” or kundalini power – in images of imagination, talks with friends, symbolism. Last week I even painted a picture (which I don’t want to publish yet) about a “serpent flower”. And 3 days ago I got a letter from a German artist who had just come across the Good-Will website writing (in German):

“As a gardner I culture the joy with the nature and in it to have a dialog with the earth. A dialog which sometimes gets me take fire with the earth fire (earth kundalini, I call it earth serpent). It is a meditation lasting since years, about the root ways of the plants, which according to my experience aways grow very purposefully into the heart of the earth. Having a dialog with this mystical space, the heart of the earth, is very dear to my heart.”

Aslepios, the great healer, with the “earth serpent power” in Epidaurus, 2005.

Yesterday evening when going home from the office I made a stop at the hairdresser’s shop to fix an appointment for a haircut. The young lady at the reception said if I had time and no preferences to who cuts my heair I could immediately get it done. I said, fine, and she started cutting.

At the end she asked me if everything was fine, and I remarked that the hair in front of my left ear was still a bit longer than on the right side. She hold her fingers on both sides, looked and said: “No, it’s o.k., with some the ears are not at the same height.” I looked a bit incredulously, smiled, paid and went home.

Looking into the mirror I saw that on the left side the hair was about 1.5 cm longer than on the right side. I thought, “Oh, now also my eyes start shifting, my whole head is getting into a transmutation.” I took the razor blade, cut away the hair on the left side and thus did a “surgery” to bring back the proportions of my poor head.

The story reminded me of my parents who used to tell me that when I was a little boy and had to clear up the toys spread on the floor, “Oh, I can’t do it, my arms are too short.”

Also in spirituality you come often across what we call “spiritual excuses”: You can’t do this or that because, and then comes an explanation in which you try to believe yourself: “It is my Aries moon which makes me so aggressive”. “The sun in Gemini gives me difficulties concentrating…”

My wife and I like playing with it, looking if the other is witty enough to look through the disguise of the excuse…

Man is very creative in inventing all kinds of excuses… (Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci)

I today got the following story in Spanish, which I translated with the help automatic translation and “polishing”:

There was once in ancient China an extraordinary painter whose fame crossed all borders. On the eve of the Year of the Rooster, a rich merchant thought that he would like to have in his rooms a painting that represents a rooster, painted by this famous artist.

So he moved to the village where the painter lived and offered him a very generous sum for the task. The old painter consented immediately, but put as the only condition that the man should return one year later to look for his painting. The merchant became a little disappointed. He had dreamt to have the picture as soon as possible and to enjoy it during the year governed by this animal. But as the painter’s fame was so big, he decided to accept and he returned to his house without complaining.

The months passed by slowly and the merchant awaited the coming of the desired moment to look for his painting. When finally the day arrived, he got up early in the morning and immediately went to the painter’s village. He knocked at the door and the artist received him. At first he didn’t remember who the visitor was.

“I came to look for the painting of the rooster” the merchant told him.

“Ah, of course!” the old painter answered.

And then he spread a canvas on the table, and before the merchant’s eyes with a fine paintbrush he drew a rooster with a single line. It was the simple image of a rooster and, somehow magic, it also contained the essence of all the roosters that exist or that ever existed. The merchant was open-mouthed about the result, but he could not avoid to ask him:

“Master, please, answer me a single question. Your talent is unquestionable, but was it necessary to make me wait for a whole year?”

Then the artist invited him to come to the back-room, where there was his shop. And there the anxious merchant could see the walls and the floor covered, there were enormous piles up to the roof with hundreds and hundreds of sketches, drawings and paintings of roosters – the intense work of an entire year of search.

Perfection is only seemingly light like a feather.

Some days ago my wife told me she just learned what downloads are. I looked a bit strange, and she said: “Oh no, not computer downloads – karma downloads.”

Two acquaintances had been in our apartment. One of them was an organizer of esoteric seminars – channeling sessions, cosmo-visions, spiritual discovery journeys, esoteric healing and the like. She said that karma downloads are the dernier cri: An “esoteric specialist” offers to take away (download) the karma of persons  for money and that there are people who even take on dept to get rid of their karma.

My wife and I had to laugh heartily about such a blind ignorance. It reminded us of the selling of indulgences of the Catholic Church some centuries ago. Karma downloads? – Money downloads…

My wife told me that she came to know from the seminar organizer that there are trends with ups and downs in what we call “the esoteric courses supermarket”: At the moment Tai Chi is out, channeling beings like “Kryon” in. The two women were having a channeling session in our living room while my wife was cooking for them and I was in the office…

It seemed to me like an annual where butterflies are attracted, and as soon as the flower is sucked dry, the butterflies go to another flower.

My wife said to me that in the last weeks she had a crash course in spiritual diplomacy: We had a number of encounters with people of different esoteric backgrounds. Even if their belief system is for you a bit weird, you nevertheless can meet from heart to heart as humans – you just have to leave away touching the points of difference. This isn’t dishonesty, but focusing on what is common and uniting and leaving away what is separating. This way you can leave your discrimination intact and nevertheless have a friendly contact.

My wife said: “However, I don’t wish to become bosom friends with such people…”

Fountain in Paris, photo of a friend