This morning when going with my bicycle to work there was a beautiful golden sunrise. So I stopped in the park next to my office and took a few shots.

Sun rising over Berne, with the Alps in the background

Autumn ambiance over the Swiss Federal Office buildings

Illumination of the statue of the World Postal Union – a globe with women from all continents dancing around

The golden globe and the globe of the planet Earth

Leaving my bicycle back, I went on the little hill in the park for a better panoramic view

A statue greeting the morning sun – a yoga posture?

Enchanted ambiance

Church and, at the left, part of the offices of the Red Cross. My office is just behind

A Buddha statue (at the right) on a balcony, with a spear-like top bearing a Dodecahedron – symbol of spirit penetrating through matter – scene just opposite of my office.

Time is not flowing like an even river, there are rapids as well as stagnating times. The qualities are constantly changing, but there are rhythmical movements of smaller and larger cycles, be it the daily succession of dawn, noon, sunset and midnight, be it the monthly cycle of full moon, new moon and the two half-moons, be it the annual rhythm of the ascending and descending arc of the sun with the solstices and equinoxes. If you are not attentive to these rhythms, you will not feel their pulse in your life and make use of the ebb and flow of vital energies. But if you live with these rhythms, you become more and more sensitive for the currents of time and their subtle changes of motion – during the day and in the succession of events. Everything has a beginning, an unfoldment and a reflux into dissolution. (See: Basics of spiritual life, on Rhythmical Living, and the Lunar Messenger on “Rhythmical Living“.)

Yesterday there was the new moon of the month of Libra. In the annual movement the fresh vital impulse starts with Aries around spring equinox, especially the first spring full moon, where Easter is celebrated. In spirituality Aries is regarded as the noon time, where the new manifestation of spirit is at its maximum. On the reverse side we reach the low point at autumn equinox, the midnight of the year, and Libra new moon is considered to be the darkest time of the year – not winter solstice, that’s the time of the new dawn, the rising of the light celebrated as the birth of the saviour.

At Libra new moon they celebrate in the East Dipavali or Divali, the festival of light to disperse the darkness. It’s good to remember the inner light, so that it can grow and shine through. So may the light spread around and give some rays to you, too.

An Indian friend sent me the following story about our being a pencil in God’s hand, for writing our story – an encouragement.

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box.
“There are 5 things you need to know,” he told the pencil, “Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.”
“One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone’s hand.”
“Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.”
“Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.”
“Four: The most important part of you will always be what’s inside.”
“And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.”
The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.

Now replacing the place of the pencil with you.  Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be.

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God’s hand. And allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.
Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems in life, but you’ll need it to become a stronger person.
Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.
Four: The most important part of you will always be what’s on the inside.
And Five: On every surface you walk through, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to do your duties.

Allow this parable on the pencil to encourage you to know that you are a special person and only you can fulfill the purpose to which you were born to accomplish.
Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot make a change.

Wood “Pencils”, from a powerpoint, author unknown

A friend from Buenos Aires today sent me the link to an article of NY Times from Sept 16 on “The Holy Grail of the Unconscious”, about the “Red Book” of the psychiatrist C.G. Jung, unpublished up to now and which is going to appear soon. The book looks like a medieval volume, with paintings and decorations. There is a screen which gives some impressions. The writer describes the content: “Between the book’s heavy covers, a very modern story unfolds. It goes as follows: Man skids into midlife and loses his soul. Man goes looking for soul. After a lot of instructive hardship and adventure — taking place entirely in his head — he finds it again.” An interesting article about a life along the borders of genius and madness.

The dream stories reminded me of another person who lived nearly 900 years earlier, Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179), a great German visionary, healer and naturopath, composer, herbalist and abbess. Her impressive mystical pictures resemble Eastern paintings. There is a film about her life (in German) coming out this week, “Vision“, and you can see some trailers. Her images have impressed me very much already years ago.

Both sources are deeply spiritual journeys which influenced many people on their path.

“Cosmos”, by Hildegard von Bingen

A few days ago I got an e-mail from an acquaintance from another country, with whom I had stopped correspondence some years ago. He asked me if I already heard that 2012 there would be the end of the world.

I answered him that I had heard about these rumours and that I already had outlived several ends of the world in the 70ies, 80ies and 90ies.

He then replied with a long e-mail telling about a book of David Icke, which would make change the world, about extraterrestrials in reptile bodies, about illuminati conspiration, ufos, and the background of weakening humanity through the separation of sexes. He asked my opinion about it – I doubted it was my opinion or if it was convincing me. So I answered him that long times ago I had read about such theories and that I don’t care about them any more, wishing him a good way through the clouds.

He then answered with a longer e-mail about the infiltration of governments and that my indifference shows obviously that the extraterrestrials already have implanted a microchip into me, controlling my mind, or that I’m one of them. There followed some more explanations about the work of the ETs and their dangerous efforts towards 2012 and that the masses have to be awakened, and for this, men and women have to be re-united again, because we have been separated against our wills through the work of the ETs.

I replied that as per the separation of sexes in the human race I more follow what the Masters of Wisdom are teaching. He answered that I seem to support the existing reality, that humanity is divided and controlled by the will of an extra-terrestrial race and that the teachings of the Masters are also part of their intrigues, as per the policy of “divide and conquer”. He wants to fight against this and that the horrible separation between man and woman has to be overcome. Then followed lines about his great love of a TV-star, being his soulmate.

I won’t answer anymore. I somehow feel helpless towards such mental constructs and confusions. You can express your sympathies with an errant brother, but how to help finding out of a maze of speculations? Maybe there is some truth in some of these thoughts, and maybe I’m blinded by conventions – but so what? I have stopped trying to stumble through lofty chimerical theories and prefer walking my steps through my next neighbourhood of thoughts, letting me guide by the light of my soul.

Buddha meditating in the night – in the garden of friends

The last day in Munich, the next to last day of our journey, was a dive back into the “outer world”, in different regards: After 12 stages of the journey and 20 visits at houses of friends from our spiritual movement, we stayed for the 21st visit with friends of the family of my wife. They were warm-hearted doctors, but living in a quite different world. So we didn’t speak about our background or our journey, but about different general topics. We slept and meditated in the basement, surrounded by used books, toy railways and other artefacts of memories, in a stagnant energy. It reminded me of the souls stuck in matter, suffocating and somehow crying for the light of the spirit. At the second day I also had a lively talk with the daughter of our friends, who is working at a video art installation place in an underpass in the center of Munich.

Toy train in a show case

During the day we enjoyed strolling through the center of Munich, where we were astonished about the many Muslim women walking around through the hot summer streets in black robes, with covered heads, wearing gold chains and rings. Later our friends told us that each year in August there is an “invasion” of people from the Arab world coming for shopping and holidays to Munich, enjoying the leisurely and safe atmosphere of the city.

We, too, enjoyed it, looking into some shops, having lunch and tea time there and doing a bit of sightseeing.

A fountain at the Marienplatz in the center of Munich: Fighting with serpents and dragons – or integrating the dark with the lightful side of life.

Aquarian plays: children enjoying a fountain in the center of Munich

On our way back to Switzerland we reflected on our tour: It has been the most intense summer holidays we ever had, filled with so many impressions and exchanges, observations and insights. We meditated together with many different groups, where all were following the same spiritual line as we do, but where the individual expressions were quiet varied. We had exchanged about the lightful and the darker sides of life, about crises and transformations, about aspiration and commitment to the path. We experienced many individual worlds from close in a very short time. We were richly showered with presents of warmth and openness and felt very grateful for this.

The next stage of our journey,  which at first was not planned, but then arranged itself surprisingly, brought us to a new friend near the Chiemsee, east of Munich. Another friend from northern Bavaria had undertaken a long journey to join us.

The whole time it was heavily raining, so that we stayed inside and had again some deep encounters. It was like piercing veil after veil of outer layers of superficial decorations of words and of stories before arriving at the core, after having had our evening and morning meditation together.

Our friend told us about her inner and outer path and how the outer link with our spiritual movement of the WTT had been established about 8 months ago. She spoke about her spiritual work of healing and of helping certain people to gain insights into previous lives. In general I’m very skeptical about such claims and don’t go into any so-called esoteric but mostly illusionary adventures. However, I took advantage of the situation to ask her about the background of an event in my life which had caused some irritation.

By means of a certain help and inner linking to the Master she started telling me events of a previous life, which deeply touched me in a way that it very well explained some attitudes and encounters of my present life. Some ties were resolved and I felt a deep relief, like an old burden falling off. Together with my wife we also had a look into our common past, which again provided some clues to a deeper understanding.

In the afternoon we continued our journey to Munich.

Hourglass in the studio of our artist friend in Munich we visited a day laster

The next stage of our journey brought us last Saturday from Berlin to Kassel, where our friends, a couple we know since years, are working as nathuropaths. He is also a skilled craftsman and has realised a number of beautiful sculptures, some pictures of them you find below.

Again we had intense exchanges about our spiritual paths. It is a fascinating experience of our journey  that we dive into different atmospheres and environments, where each time we leave back our own world and get imbued with the other realms. We follow the rhythm of meditations and rituals with our friends, dive into their ways of life, and then come back into the “uterus” of our car when traveling to the next place, where another very familiar but nevertheless different world opens up. It is a great experience of an extreme richness of impressions, opening many new vistas and giving us clues to understand better our own world and the interconnectedness with others.

Sculptures of our friend, extract

Sculpture of the 12-petaled lotus of the soul

In the practice of our friends, a model of the inside of a head: The outside of the inside

At the “Hercules” statue, a land-art park of the 18th/19th century overlooking Kassel

Traveling around from group to group of our spiritual movement of the WTT for now two weeks turns out for me to be much more an insight-seeing than a sightseeing tour. Traveling and living in the houses of friends / group members for some days each time opens up new and deeper views into their way of living and the way they are walking the spiritual path.

Besides the many intense talks we have each time I enter into an inner dialog with the thoughts and impressions I encounter. I feel that this is working on me, making me reflect on my images and judgments, the way I perceive others. When living at home I much more stay in my own perspective. Now the perspective changes very much, not only from day to day, but through the whole environment of thoughts, feelings, ways of understanding, besides the changing rooms and cities.It opens up my viewpoints, it is like the inner core widening and spreading into the surrounding.

This process makes me to adjust, to reverse subtle prejudices, to open up to the different viewpoints and attitudes, especially when perceiving the living energies of groups and their qualities. At the same time I try to keep up with my rhythm of meditation, the e-mailing and other work coming via the web, blogging, and my daily writing of a poem in thee early morning hours, which I started about 6 weeks ago.

This subtle work with language, where perceptions and impressions find an expression in a condensing word-flow is somehow sharpening my perceptions and the awareness of what is going on in and around. Of course the exchanges with my wife help a lot in structuring the experiences. So the journey is an intense process and at the same time a most interesting study.

Two days ago we saw the new Harry Potter film. I like the sensitivity with which the characters were portrayed and the intense images of the story – being a HP-fan since the beginning, following the adventures in reading, hearing and seeing. A really good story touching many subtle dimensions.

Today we are leaving Berlin for Kassel.

Crystal rosette in the house of a friend in Berlin

Yesterday we passed a beautiful day at the Baltic Sea near Schloss Schwansee (Chateau Swansea), a former holiday residence for party cadre of the German Demacratic Republic. now transformed into a hotel. A beautiful little park with sculptures of African artists added to the charm of the scenery.

At the beach the air was filled with the fresh breeze of the sea, very relaxing. We had a beautiful swim and enjoyed sitting some time in the sun.

In the evening a friend of our friend came for a visit, and we had a lively conversation on subtle energies, healing work and integrating spirituality into daily living. Here are some impressions of nature and art in nature.

A beautiful limetree alley near Chateau Schwansee, leading to the Baltic Sea
Walking towards the sea

Beach at the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg

Ladybird on the beach

A fountain in front of the Chateau Schwansee

Sculpture “Family” by an African artist in the park of the Chateau

Morning light over a barn

Morning greetings from a horse

Crystal in the window