In the evening of August 1st there was a firework on the meadow just in front of our house. I took a series of photos which captured some fiery flowers. The beautiful forms created an uplifting inspiration and reminded me of the sparks of the fiery worlds which the Agni Yoga Series describe. So you read in the book on Infinity, Vol 2/184:

“The cosmic energies are strained into blending by the driving Fire. Each life pulsation carries in itself sparks of Fire. Each striving life pulsation is marked by the Cosmic Magnet. So also, thought is strained into pulsation by Fire. So many errant thoughts fill the space! Space vibrates with thoughts.”

Enjoy the dance of the Devas of Fire.

A friend from the States sent me links to a number of sites related with spirituality – feminine, ecological, indigenous, some about film projects. I had a glance through them, some of the topics might be of interest for you.

In March 08 there had been a summit in Jaipur, India, entitled: “Making Way for the Feminine – For the Benefit of the World Community. A Global Reflection with Leaders from Religion, Government, and Civil Society”. Their goal was to explore six themes as avenues for vital, life-giving transformation to create a balance honoring the feminine energy: Visionary Leadership (leadership that can help shift thought and behavior), Oneness (the force that unifies all creation), Ahimsa & Satyagraha (Sanskrit words for “nonviolence” and “holding to Truth”), Self-Evolution, or Education of the Complete Person (to develop in young people more than material and intellectual skills), Creating an Economy of Care (Redefining Progress and Development), and Listening to the Earth (Honoring Earth’s Life Systems to understand the life force that sustains our planet and its inhabitants).

The site “Wiser Earth” wants to serve the people who are transforming the world. The site is a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more. Content is created and edited by the users. There is a database about more than 100,000 organizations.

“Time of the Sixth Sun” is a film in the making, about the shift in global awareness and transformation of consciousness, which many expect for the year 2012. They write: “From the Americas to Africa, from Tibet to Australasia, these times are seen as pivotal in the evolution of mankind. Ancient prophecies speak of massive earth changes and of a huge shift in Planetary Consciousness. According to the Mayan Long Count Calendar, the last date recorded is the winter solstice – 21st December 2012. They call this the time of the Sixth Sun – each sun marking the evolutionary steps of human consciousness. They also refer to this time as the “end days” or the end of time – as we know it. There is a trailer from the film and a call for generous donations needed to fund fund the complete filming / editing.

Another film project is also about 2012: “The Shift of the Ages – The Call of Our Ancestors“, a “look through the indigenous lens to focus on what is transpiring in the world today. It is a shamanic rite of passage and grassroots effort to raise awareness for Mother Earth in her time of need.” You find some short trailers under the link above.

A third film with the same focus is already finished: “The White Road. Visions of the Indigenous People of the Americas“. They write: “For the first time people from other cultures were invited to the reunion of elders, indigenous priests and shamans from North and South America. The film is a documentation of this gathering that took place in Merida on the Mexican pensinsula of Yucatán in spring of 2003. In this film we immerse into the Mayan world with their fascinating temple grounds, their unique calendar system und their mysterious crystal skulls. Together with the indigenous people we follow the White Road, the spiritual path of the Mayas, in ceremonies and rituals such as the unification of the condor and the eagle in Mayapan, and the ceremony of the equinox in Chichen Itza.
The documentary shows the messages and wisdom of the ancient precolumbian cultures. In contrast to Western philosophy of life that draws ego limits, these cultures have the gift of confiding in themselves and in the entire creation. They greet each other with „In lak’ech, a lak’en“ meaning „I am in you, and you are in me.“

Iguazu, Brazil, May 08

My spiritual teacher, Dr. K. P. Kumar, sent me a CC of an e-mail exchange with a group member. The question was:

“Next August 8, 2008, some groups are saying that some gates will open (8-8-8).  Is there some truth to that ?”

He answered: “It is true that the human calendar is valid for the humans in the thought plane. We may therefore dedicate the day to invoke the colour of Blue. And meditate upon the Bliss of Existence.”

I liked the answer: Neither did he enter into the bustle of esoteric speculation nor did he deny the underlying urge for spiritual upliftment, but directed the attention to spiritual aspiration. This is always of importance.

Flower blossoming in the botanic garden of near Palafrugell, Spain – a symbol for spiritual upliftment

During our holidays in Spain we also stayed for two days with friends in their house near Barcelona. Sighseeing was not our prime interest, but exchange. And this was a very good occasion: A number of other friends from the WTT-Spain group joined us, so we had some interesting talks.

The friend where we stayed is a doctor and a homoeopath. He is the responsible person for the Spanish version of the Paracelsus magazine of the WTT and very open to innovative research in alternative medicine. In his practice he showed us a very modern apparatus for diagnostics and treatments from Russia called Oberon, based on a spectrum analysis of rotating magnetic fields of living organisms. He gave me a diagnostic and a treatment for my chronic ear disease. It was fascinating to observe the process on a flatscreen. The treatment showed certain immediate results, however, they were not long lasting (the treatment would have to go on for a while).

Afterwards we visited the new centre of WTT-Spain in Sabadell which the group had inaugurated about a year ago. It is located in the middle of the city, in the first floor of an old house. The group had renovated the rooms themselves, and they do regular meditation, study and exchange meetings there. It has a serene ambiance, where it is certainly inspiring to do group work.

We also had a tour through Barcelona seeing some touristic spots. The city was bathed in a warm, soft light and there was a certain ease in the air. Here are some impressions, where you feel the city’s striving into space, vertically and horizontally, maybe also inwardly.

View of Barcelona from the Montjuic – a sea of houses.

The Palau Nacional, now a national gallery.

Containers waiting in the harbour

The vastness of the place in front of the Olympic Stadium is intensified through the rows of pillars.

Reaching for the sun – Calatrava’s Olympic telecommunication tower

Or reaching for the divine – Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, full of catholic fantasies.

After the evening pizza we went to a beautiful spot overlooking the cliffs of the Costa Brava where an old lighthouse is shedding its beacon over the country. I had been at the spot a day before at noon time, so you see some impressions from day and from night. The lighthouse is a beautiful symbol for the light of the soul, or the divine light, which is guiding our path when we submit ourselves to its direction.

The lighthouse is a most beautiful place, and Cancer full moon enchanted the entire atmosphere.

Steep cliffs go down some 50 meters to the sea

The cliffs and a boat in the blue Mediterranean

The beacon is like the jewel in the lotus of the soul, a multi-faceted diamond of light

The beacon in the dusk

View from the lighthouse to the city of La Calella – it seems that the light is more guiding the cars than the ships

The beacon and the full moon

Cancer full moon reflecting on the waters of the Mediterranean

The beacon

Not far from our camping in Tamariú, near Palafrugell, Spain, there is a botanic garden on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean, and in its middle there is an ancient castle. The entrance and the inner court reminded me very much of the way into the inner temple you experience on the spiritual path. The pictures show the passage from the outer to the inner, to the fountain of life and light.

The holidays are past now and a first turbulent week nearly through. A theme of the first days in Spain with the family seemed to be “volcanic”. The first days I dived into a fascinating fantasy novel of the children, “Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony“, by Eoin Colfer, with sequences about a subterranean island, from where sometimes demons escaped through a volcano tunnel up to the earth.

Then we visited friends in the Olot, a city in northern Spain, surrounded by extinct volcanoes. We first went on a volcano located within the city and later into a volcano which was cut open, since it was used for a while as a stone pit. You can see the different strata of volcanic ashes – a scene kindling the imagination – the whole area full of extinct explosive matter, where in some far future the earth might erupt again.

My friend gave me a “bomba volcanica”, a volcanic bomb – a piece of stone like a pastry with folded corners once pressed out of the inner of the earth, a witness of some telluric catastrophy.

In the evening of this visit we had a talk about some other kind of volcanic activities: Two of our friends have gone through deep psychic crises and are now stabilizing their situation with psychotropic drugs. There is still an inner fire under the surface, from where “demons” might make their way through the pipe up into the outer life. You can somehow feel the echoes of the subterranean fires of karmic effects of the past.

Other “volcanic activities” we can observe where painful experiences of the past slumbering can violently come up with an emotional fierceness not explicable from the present situation. We are living in a volcanic world sometimes sitting on hot-spots without knowing.

An old chimney in the city of Olot, Spain.

This weekend we had been in Einsiedeln for a short, but very intense seminar with our spiritual teacher, Dr. K. P. Kumar. It was a very small group of 14 persons. We had been invited, but we even didn’t know that he would give lectures. So it was a surprise for us. And it were very deep talks about “The Scripture of Synthesis”. Saturday morning, he had written down 12 statements about existence, the basic truth of all that is. In the three lectures he first commented the sayings, then gave a number of stories and explanations in terms of spiritual astrology to illustrate them and make them more comprehendible. Since we were such a small group, he could go into subtleties of the teachings which normally aren’t possible in a bigger group.

Sunday morning he spoke about the life of the great initiate Vedavyasa, who lived at the times of Sri Krishna, about 5000 years ago. His final scripture, the Srimad Bhagavata, is a writing that synthesizes all knowledge and practices of discipleship otherwise known as the science of yoga. He gave a number of hints how the wisdom unveils to the one who has prepared himself and then takes in the knowledge with the right inner attitude. I was once more thrilled to  witness how he could bring these sublime teachings in a way suited to our level of understanding and illustrating them with numerous stories.

It was a hearty, leisurely ambiance, and also after the lectures, at the meals. I feel it very inspiring to listen to his expositions, uplifiting all who were present. I took notes, thought the talk went quite fast. It is my method of staying alert and focused. I hope I’ll find soon some time for corrections, in order to share the notes with friends.

Sunday morning dawn at Einsiedeln

At a seminar celebration Sri Kumar told the story of the man, who made him come to Argentina and prepared the groups, which are active today: Don Pedro Nahum. I found it very inspiring, so here are some lines are arranged from his talk.

Pedro Nahum worked day and night for 30 years to manifest the teachings of the Theosophical Society and those of Alice Bailey in Argentina. He was a very fiery man, to whom money never was a conditioning factor nor did he live for earning money. He was moving between three cities, Buenos Aires, Posadas in the north and Mendoza at the feet of the Andes, which are distant to each other by 1200 to 1500 km. He was moving from place to place by trucks speaking to the truck drivers who were his students and reaching places and teaching books. His teachings were always during the midnight hours until the early morning, because during the day the people had to work for the living. He respected it and travelled by day.

He was reading books and explaining the spiritual teachings to his followers. He never allowed anyone to record the teachings nor even allowed to make notes. He said, listen and register. That is the oldest method. In ancient times the teacher taught and the students listened, and it is to the student to register and to remember.

He had as many as 1000 followers; relentlessly he was teaching them. They were living in the forests of Argentina and learning. They stayed there day and night for a few weeks, learned and then went back – a very hard work, but he was a man of iron will. He created enough fire in all those who followed him.
He was saying to his students that another teacher would come and teach meditation, give the technique of yoga and also the rhythm and the technique of discipleship. When he came to know of Sri Kumar he suggested his followers to listen to him. In 1992 Dr. Kumar came for the first time for about 3 weeks. Pedro Nahum was planning to leave his physical body, not because of old age but because of the intensity of the work he did.

He attended Sri Kumar’s teachings in Buenos Aires and Posadas, and there he symbolically handed over to him a silver cup of mate, the traditional tea they drink there. He said: “I have done what is to be done, you please continue. I wish to leave. Teach them meditation, I did no teach them meditation. Give them the discipline of discipleship which I did not give. I have ignited fire in them, and they all carry the fire of aspiration. They are all very wild people. I know that you can handle fire. I am glad that you have come, I symbolically hand over the work to you and I will leave by the time you come next time. I know that you will come many times to Argentina.”

Sri Kumar listened carefully, accepted the silver cup, and next year when he was starting for Argentina, the day he left India, the same day Pedro Nahum left his body. As Sri Kumar landed in Switzerland, he had the news that Pedro Nahum had departed. Don Pedro had good extrasensory perceptions. He now lives in the heart of all his followers and continues to inspire.

The WTT-Group from Misiones edited some of his sayings in Spanish and in English, which you find here. Since for him the waterfall is very important and he explained everything about the falls to his followers, the group arranged his photo above the falls.

At the meeting in Iguazú for the May Call celebrations from May 26th to June 1st, there were about 300 persons from different countries from East and West: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Honduras, India, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, United States, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland as well as from Venezuela attending the seminar. Most faces were new, but many I knew from previous group livings.

Besides the seminar lectures on “Coexistence” by our teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. There were very interesting encounters with many different members – but this isn’t much for the blog. In case you are interested, I have typed the seminar notes…

One exchange was quite particular: I was sitting next to a lady from Honduras. When I asked her, what she was doing in her home country, she answered in a short, precise way, in perfect English: “What do you mean? I don’t speak English very well, but first I am a mother with two children, then I am a lawyer, and a politician. I am member of a Latin American international assembly, similar to the EU. I am in the commission working with the European Union, o.k.?”

I replied: “Oh, so you have a lot of responsibilities. How do you integrate all this with spiritual life?” She hesitated a moment, and I was wasn’t sure if she understood me well, but then she answered in a clear, decisive way: “First in my life there is God, since always, then come other things. I am a politician because I think it is right that I am at the place where I am. If I weren’t there, there would be someone else who might not do it as well as I do. o.k.?” Then she turned over to the other side, leaving me back a bit baffled.

Passion Flower in the Argentinean national park of the Iguazú Falls