An impressive morphing video with pictures from the different stages of the life of  Queen Elizabeth II. You get an impression of how the role she played shaped her personality and her outlook – and she did it very gracefully throughout her life. Click on an image to see the video in full screen.

The Young Queen

This night at 01:09 CET the sun enters into Cancer and we celebrate Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere. It is good to attune to the energies of this time. The wisdom teachings say that it is important to be vigilant during the first 20 days of Cancer, otherwise you will get slowly more imprisoned in the outside during the months to come. If we have a good inner alignment we get a reinforcement of the energies to be functioning more inside, not to go into over-actions in the outside.

Here are some thoughts from a lecture of Sri Kumar at Summer Solstice 2010 in Königswinter, Germany:

The first 20 days of Cancer are said to be the great serpent, the dragon called Aslesha. It is the great dragon or great serpent. If you miss to align you fall directly into the mouth of the great serpent and get out only through the tail. At the end of Scorpio and the beginning of Sagittarius there is the eagle, the mula, you are released out of the deadlock of the year. This solstice not only gives a possibility of the purposes of the day, but also the purposes of life. When we have to follow into unknown ways, it is better to follow someone who knows the way. Finding it oneself can be a waste of life, energy. That is why there is the help of the teacher.”

The wisdom teachings say that the solar God of fire comes to the lunar mansion of the Goddess in Cancer. Cancer is the cardinal sign relating to the Mother, where there is the reception of the Father into the Mother’s house. Cancer is also known as the sun sign related to the birth of the souls into the bodies. This I tried to illustrate in the picture on Cancer: The Moon is the reflective principle receiving and transmitting energies from higher circles. The lunar energies help with the descent of the souls and building the layers of the embryo in the mother’s womb. The earth is the mother which nourished us – we must take care not to spoil the basis of our life. You find more pictures on the symbolism of the zodiacal signs in the series Images of Synthesis.

Cancer – The Mother and the Birth of the Soul into the Body

Last Friday, Good Friday and Aries Full moon day, the weather report announced an interim high with good weather in the mountains. So we went to see the Ballenberg open air museum, where I had been 3 years ago for the last time. In a beautiful valley they have collected and restored over 100 historical buildings from all over Switzerland. A stroll through the past, where you encounter different styles of architecture and different ways of living and working – farm houses, mills, a pharmacy, a hairdresser, charcoal burners… And plants and farm animals.

What fascinated us most was a last residence room where they presented how a person was laid out, with a decorated young lady dummy, candles burning, prayer songs in the background, and in another house a birth room with the midwife equipment of the 19th century – birth and death in the midst of everyday activities…

When we started in the morning there were still the raindrops of the night glittering on the grass in front of our house and the clouds hanging deep.

But in Ballenberg, 75 km away, the sky had cleared up.  Friday was the first day after their winter pause and many families were enjoying the excursion.

A ram greeting for Aries full moon!

Relaxing in the sunlight

A view from the balcony of an old pharmacy

Picture of an old drug book showing Mandragora (mandrake) in the form of a woman.

There were two herb gardens where first flowers were sprouting. Here: Adonis flowers

Fresh mountain water

Producing easter eggs

A fairy’s meadow

On both sides of the valley – high mountains covered with snow

Waterfalls coming down the cliffs

Walking through”Ticino”

Looking up

An old merry-go-round in the forest with children enjoying the ride

A little chapel from Ticino. Inside it was clean but old astral clouds seemed still to hang around.

St. Michael fighting at the altar, with the balance of justice, of karma, in his left hand

Some old Alpine houses – with a lot of “open air” and very little comfort inside

An old mill – inside two millstones were grinding the grain – which was for sale. And an old man explained us how they used to operate the mill.

The old mill wheel moving around with the noise of the mill stones

Not torture instruments of for Easter bunnies, but chocolate moulds. In the Chocolaterie you could cast your own bunnies.

Every year we publish from WTT-Global an Astrological Diary running from Aries to Pisces. I just published the information about ordering the diary 2012/13. It is helpful if you want to work with the subtle rhythms of time and use the constellations for meditation – a fascinating inner work.

It is quite an intense work to prepare the diary with all the daily ephemeris and indications. I did it once some years ago – it needs a lot of concentration… The Astro-Diary is published at cost price just in a small number for those who order it. You find more information here. Orders are possible till Dec. 14th.

For interested persons who cannot afford the print version we will also make it available in PDF form. The monthly important dates – not the daily ephemeris – can also be found here.

A page of the calendar:

A week ago we entered into Sagittarius – my birth sign… I’m trying to paint an annual cycle of the female aspects of the divine in relation to the signs of the zodiac. When I pondered upon the qualities of Sagittarius, Jupiter, fullness and expansion came into my mind. The animal related to Jupiter is the elephant, and the Indian goddess of wealth represented with elephants is Lakshmi. The two lotuses in her hand stand for the unfoldment into the subjective and objective light. So I thought it must be the divinity related to Sagittarius. I painted the following picture. In the upper part I visualised the descent of blessing energies from higher circles.

Expansion and Fulfilment

I sent the picture to Sri Kumar, and he answered that the divinity related to Sagittarius is Lord Narayana. I thought, oops, this is neither the female aspect nor is is possible to change the picture. I took the challenge and looked in the transcriptions of seminars Sri Kumar had given on topics of spiritual astrology and I found that there were other Gods related to Sagittarius as well: Lord Dattatreya, represented in Indian mythology with three heads of an eternal youth, the higher potency of Lord Maitreya, and Ganesha, my favourite, the one with the elephant head. The tree related to Sagittarius and Dattatreya is the Ficus Religiosa. Lord Narayana stands for the descent and ascent of the waters of life, the great cycle of creation.

So the following picture came about:

The Tree of Wisdom and the Waters of Life

You see Ganesha reading at the bottom of the tree, representing the Tree of Wisdom, through which you see flowing the waters of life, and the heads of the youthful Dattatreya are looking down. It says, that Ganesha is representing Dattatreya on the physical plane. The eyes above symbolise the cosmic Lord, Narayana. You can download a high-resolution version at the gallery “Images of Synthesis“.

A Canadian friend today forwarded me an e-mail with this beautiful appeal by Clarissa Pinkola Estes:

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn’t you say you were a believer? Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn’t you ask for grace? Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D (c)

Author of the best seller Women Who Run with the Wolves – Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Epiphany – liquid protein varnish and glue on silk and cardboard, 36×36 cm, 1985

From August 3rd to 26th Mercury is retrograde (see Astrowiki), indicating a time where there might be more obstacles in communication and interaction.

Every month the voluntary translators of the Lunar Messenger strive to be in time for the publication of the new issue around the 7th/8th ascending moon phase. This month I didn’t get in time the Spanish translation which a friend in Miami regularly does since Summer 2001 – for 10 untiring years. So I yesterday asked my Mexican friend who always proof-reads the articles to translate it this time. A few hours later I already had the translation and sent out the Spanish newsletter in the evening, while the other languages had been published a day before.

This morning I got the following e-mail from my friend from Miami, sending his translation and explaining why it came  late:

“I just sent it to you. I had a whole bunch of issues with Mercury retrograde:
• My computer at home (a super nice apple) started turning off without warning
• My computer at school (a top-of-the-line monster) started freezing everything and had to be reinstalled from scratch
• I was finishing the main text yesterday on my way to the airport, but found no sending signal at Miami International Airport until I left
• I am now in Madrid, for a week, and I brought a mini netbook from the school mainly to finish this on time and send it to you, but
• I did not have access to yahoo.com or yahoo.es since I arrived in the morning. It only came through ten minutes ago after I had already sent it to Rosy to forward it to you.
Anyhow, now you have it. Please, confirm reception.
Best of wishes!

I told him that he had really fought hard to get the work done, in spite of the obstacles. I’ll publish his translation as soon as my Mexican friend has proof-read it. In spite of her having translated the text already, which I very much appreciate.

I have respect for the sudden obstacles popping up  at times of Mercury retrograde. I had some computer breakdowns in the past during these times (hopefully not this time….).

An exploding star – firework on 1st of August 11, Swiss national holidy

This afternoon we made a little walk and had a pause in the café of the open air bath at the nearby river. An elderly lady came and sat down at our table, a friend of my wife’s late parents. She immediately spoke about the shock she experienced through the events in Oslo, the horrible terror killing of last Friday. She told us details of what she had read in the Sunday newspapers. We just knew what had been in the Saturday paper.

Later she asked about our family, about what my wife is now doing. Cyrille told her that 1.5 years ago she had stopped teaching piano and that now she is doing a formation as a coach in radical forgiveness. Like others of my wife’s friends the lady felt a bit irritated: For them making music is somehow a dream, for my wife it is something of the past, a thing she had learnt and practised for years but which no longer interests her. The lady wanted to know more about this kind of coaching and it turned out that she is a psychologist and first seemed to be a bit sceptical about the coaching. I mentioned how the work with radical forgiveness had done good to me…

She then started speaking of a journey last year to a place of her childhood and an event that took place in 1945 at the Danube, where Hungarian Nazis had collected all the Jews of the town, led them to the river and killed them there. She wasn’t there, but members of her family had been among the victims. Her father’s side was Jewish, her mother’s side Christian and she grew up as a Christian, but has always been in contact with Jews. She had been again at that place and read the memorial plate with all the names of the persons killed, and there was written the sentence:

“If you are a human, you have to learn to forgive, but not to forget.”

She continued speaking of her father who later went to Israel, whereas she came to Switzerland. She became a psychologist and in spite of her high age she is still working, for victims of mobbing.

There was a magic spell in the air, a feeling of souls touching each other, beyond words. My wife stood a while at the river and looked at the flow, reminding her of the times passing by. On our way home we reflected about the scene, and my wife said: “I didn’t know anything about her before, we only had exchanges on a small-talk level. I felt that she still carries  a heavy load of past experiences and was very grateful to open up and speak a bit about it and to feel that we listened with an open-heart. Just listened, and this opened her feelings. I felt love coming from her side. And there was a flow.”

A Norwegian flag on half-mast in the neighbourhood

I today got the following letter from the Spanish mailing list of WTT, with a call for prayer from Japan, from March 12th, which in view of the urgency of the situation I publish here.

“Erika Sotoyama escribió:

Dear Friends!
There were big earthquakes and a lot of big Tsunami in Japan from yesterday and still continue as you watched the TV. Many people died and many places are destroyed so hard.
We are still alive here but we do not what happen in tomorrow, not only tomorrow, today also.
Please do deep meditation and send Ki to Japan, especially concentrate on the nuclear plant in Fukushima. It is the most important problem now!
The situation is very very dangerous now. The water to heat down the Reactor core did not work yesterday because of the lack of electricity, and the temperature became higher. If it explodes, we will die soon. Today some air with a Nuclear material was out from there…
And it is not a problem only in Japan but also all the world, at least half of the earth is polluted so serious.
In these days are very important for the destiny of the earth!
Deep meditation with tenshin, strong Kiai from Tanden, do not worry about everything, with the Ki of Universe will help you and us.
And please tell it or send this mail to the other nice people, seitai friend, your friend, please!
I believe your cooperation.
We do not fear about everything but we think we may do some more if we live in the earth a little more.
Best wishes with friendship and Love.
Kunio, Mutsuko and Erika from Japan”

While preparing the blogpost a friend from Germany just me the link to “A Letter from Sendai” published in the American Ode magazine.

A map of the nuclear power plants of Japan, from Wikipedia

PS (one day later): I got a link from a friend in New Caledonia about the effects of the fire ritual (Agni Hotra) in neutralising the effects of nuclear radiation, from the Spiritual Research Foundation. Whatever is the truth in it, the fire ritual is a powerful cleaner for the atmosphere.

This night we are passing from December 31st, 2010 to January 1st, 2011, and start, in our counting, a new year. At the threshold stands Janus, the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings and time in Roman mythology.

Bust of Janus from the Vatican (Wikipedia)

There are many different new years, and it is good to remember the relativity of our social convention as per the 1st of January, a date which is neither a threshold on the planet nor in cosmos. It took quite a long time before 1 January became the standard start of the civil year.

Here are some thoughts of Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) about “The Beginning of the New Year” and how it is celebrated in traditional India as well as some thoughts about purification:

“Where does the year begin or end? Cyclically seasons emanate from it to blossom and come to fruition. In this gyration of the year all living things – trees, as also creatures that are aquatic, earthly and airborne – have their own individual beginnings. It is natural for each to consider its own emergence as the beginning of the year. It is a similar line of thinking that made man come up with the idea of “Samvatsaradi” (adi=beginning, Samvatsara = year). Men brought up in different regions have taken a different approach to this concept of the New Year. People residing on the equator have a different New Year different from those of people residing at the North and South poles. This has given rise to the differences in the customs and habits of people belonging to different continents and countries.
Various traditions connected with the New Year have come into vogue over the years. By the earth’s going round the sun once, the solar year is formed. Depending on the movements of the Sun and the Moon, the full moon and the new moon, the lunar year is formed. In this way, a total of nine types of measurements of years as also the astrological knowledge required to arrive at them were available from lakhs of years to a few countries like India. What are widely in use in a majority of the nations are solar and lunar months. What is now regarded as the beginning of the year, January 1st, is based on the astrology of Huns. What is observed as the beginning of the year in India, ancient Egypt, Greece Mesopotamia and all the Arab countries is based on lunar calculations. This is “Chaitrasuddha pratipat.” Usually this falls around 14th or 15th of April.

There is a scientific principle behind considering April as the first month of the year. Every year in the sun’s course from the south to the north crossing the equator, is referred to as vernal equinox. It is considered a sacred day. It is from this day that fresh tender leaves appear on the trees and a new quickening of life all round occurs. That day also marks the beginning of what in a solar calendar is called the month of “Mesha”. This corresponds to March 21st in the present age. Our ancient people in India accepted as the beginning of the year the day following the first new moon that occurs after this date. They called it springtime may be because fresh impetus for life is activated during this time all over the cosmos. This impulse lies dormant like the oil in the human body or the ghee in milk. It is said in the Rigveda that if the year were to represent the yajna of life, then, this impulse is like the offering of ghee made during yajnas. Treating that as the beginning of the year ancient scientists identified six seasons based on the laws of nature operative during each of those seasons.

March 21st tallies with our solar calendar. Not only that, the human year seems to abide by the ancient astrological calculations of other nations also. As proof of the fact that the solar calendar was followed by many other nations in determining the beginning of the year, we may examine the names of few more months. September corresponds to “Saptama” which means “Seventh”. September will be seventh month only if March were to be the first month. Similarly, October corresponds to “Astama” or eighth month, November to “Navama” or ninth month and December to “Dasama” or tenth month, only when March is taken to be the beginning month of the year. These are months whose names have not been polluted by the encroachment of politics. All the others are changed so drastically as not to leave even a trace of the earlier names or forms.

It is an age old tradition in India washing one’s hair on New Year’s day wearing new clothes and eating chutney made of tender neem flowers. In the olden days, ten days prior to the New Years’ Day used to be declared as holidays to all the departments pertaining to all professions. People were expected to tone up their bodily systems in accordance with the time honoured rules laid down to safeguard one’s health. They were encouraged to get all defects and shortcomings rectified so that perfect health may be re-established. This is not to say that they were forced to swallow medicines. Medicines may alleviate diseases but they can never improve health. Scientists have always been emphatically declaring that protection and promotion of good health depends on the informed care one takes of one’s food and recreational habits. In keeping with the in built nature of each of the seasons, spring time always causes a thorough overhauling of the entire body. This takes place in a gentle way in the case of a healthy man. In diseased people this forces the diseases to flare up. This discovery made our ancient scientists to evolve a technique that can ensure the smooth working out of this springtime “scrutiny”. Ancient sciences like Ayurveda have been saying time and again that everyone should start using such health techniques at least ten days before the New Year’s Day. Those techniques are; one should take an oil bath everyday preferably using gingelly oil, new sprung neem flower should be eaten every day. Pieces of raw mangoes (not pickle) should also be eaten. Tamarind fruits just plucked from the trees should be eaten. Sugar cane juice should be drunk. It is as a symbolic representation of all these rules that the tradition of eating “Ugadi pacchadi” has come into existence. Only as a token of past tradition, little quantities of tamarind water and neem flowers are added now in ugadi chutney. Sometimes raw mango pieces are also used. Some people use jaggery in the place of sugar cane juice. At present, even these little quantities of prescribed health foods are eaten not on all the ten days but only on the New Year’s Day morning, and that too, as a chore to be attended to perfunctorily. The scientific principle behind this technique is now lost in the womb of time, leaving behind only a ‘token’.

This does not mean that the token should be discarded. It only means that the proven scientific truth should be properly followed so as to gain maximum benefit. The ultimate objective of the techniques mentioned above is to enhance the quality of bodily fluids, blood, minerals, flesh etc. These techniques are called elixirs, that is aids that give a tonic boost to the physical body. But this perspective of “rasayanams” is changed now. “Rasayanam” is now understood as a tasty to eat Ayurvedic medicine. Well, coming back to the Telugu New Year and the health techniques enjoined to be practised on that day, we have to admit that they are passing on a tradition that has the backing of science. On that count, let us put these techniques to good use by our implementing of them in our lives.”

Walking into the New Year. Photo of a friend