Virgo stands for the germ of the soul that is in gestation in matter. Wrapped in the robe of matter, the light of the soul can only shine forth if the sheaths of the body are pure and transparent. We should work on ourselves to acquire a pure and transparent mind. Purity of speech is the first step to transmit the energies of the soul. Virgo is seen as a state of probation or a state of awakening.

The symbolism of Virgo is visualised in the twelve Virgo paintings done between 2010 and 2021. For detailed detailed descriptions please see the ludgerphilips.org website.

Last Tuesday, a registered parcel from India arrived which I was waiting for: 5 copies of the new book of Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar on “The Seven Waves of Life. The Path of Human Evolution“, sent by Aquarius Bookhouse Visakhapatnam. I eagerly unpacked the parcel and finally held the printed book in hand – a very significant moment which I had waited for since long.

In January 2005, there was a very special group living in Visakhapatnam. The topic of the teachings was “The Seven Races” – an introduction into “Anthropogenesis”, the second volume of H.P. Blavatsky’s (1831 – 1891) masterpiece “The Secret Doctrine“. She presented certain ideas that no others had presented before. Her description of chains, globes, rounds and root races and also the states of planet earth in relation to every race is profound and complex. Master Kumar gave a synthetic introduction into the topic of the seven races. He started his teachings with the words:

“We shall start learning together our own story as we arrived here, how we developed our bodies to be what we are now, how we have lost our identities in the process, and the way to regain such identities. We get into the root of our own being. You will need to read these teachings again and again to assimilate what has been said because it would relate to us, to our most ancient past as we all have been the players through all these waves of humanity. Do not think they are all foreign to us. This is all our story only.”

It was a fantastic seminar – for those who had some knowledge of Blavatsky’s teachings. Others had difficulties with the terms and concepts. I wrote plenty of notes and was profoundly impressed. Thoughts came often back to these fundamental teachings and the encounters with group members there. Now in book form, the teachings are a good read and well digestible, if you are interested to know more about the times of Lemuria, Atlantis and the development of our own past.

Years passed by. When in 2017 Vijay, and Indian friend started to transcribe the seminar, we studied it in the online study group. He finished it in 2018 – a year where I had to pass about two months in hospital and rehabilitation. I used the time for proof-reading and structuring the text for a publication. Already before, I discussed with friends that Blavatsky’s terminology of races, root races or sub-races might be disputed in today’s understanding: In much of today’s world, the word race is much disputed and used with regard to skin colour and ethnic origins. It evokes ideas of racism which was not there in Secret Doctrine. The original definition of the words “root race” has to do with the beginning of a whole wave of evolution. So we searched for another term and asked the Master if race could be replaced by “waves” – human waves, or just humanity. He agreed – and he even had used the term “wave” in an earlier publication.

Proof-reading by several group members and working on the publication, giving of footnotes to sources used, adding images etc. took time. The book was finally published now in 2021 (PDF).

A digital version is very fine, but it is like talking to friends only digitally. For studying spiritual books, I always use paper versions. I wanted to have the book physically, on paper. It took time – for some months, there were difficulties to send parcels to Europe via post due to the pandemia. But now it worked. The books I received will go to people involved in the translation and publication work, just one will stay with me. If you would like to order one, you can do so via Aquarius Bookhouse Visakhapatnam. In the States, you might find it also via Amazon – a friend got some copies shipped from India to distribute them there.

But be aware, it is not a “mass production” with the related global distribution – there is a lot of selfless work behind to make the book available to sincere seekers, especially also the dispatch. Maybe order some books at a time, for some friends, or also some other books which you might be interested in.

I was touched about the way the parcel was sewn into linen and packed inside for the long journey. A precious gift. But don’t mistake having it electronically on your computer or even in paper form on the bookshelf without having integrated the content. It needs patient inner work.

Creation comes forth from light, which, in the Vedas, is called Aditi or the Mother of the World. We are part of this original light and are, by our very nature, immortal beings of light. However, having forgotten our true identity and having assumed a false identity, we have become mortal. Whenever violation of the natural law threatens to lead humanity to self-destruction, immortal divine beings descend to earth to once again give the law and help humanity recognise its original identity. The immortals pave a way through which mortals can once again find access to the subtle realms. When the etheric body is built from out of golden light, we can experience immortality once again.

In Norse mythology, Ydun is the goddess of immortality. She guards the golden apples that confer eternal youth and thus immortality.

The figure of Ydun in the centre of the painting was created using a photo of a statue of Ydun by the Danish sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798 – 1868). Ydun descends from the golden light to grant access to immortality with her apples. The sphere of the upper part of the picture shows the subtle world, the lower part of the picture indicates the dense physical world – both created with images from the virtual globe “NASA World Wind“. The light structures at the bottom were designed with autumn-coloured leaves foliage of the ivy called Virginia creeper.

The symbolism of Virgo is visualised in the twelve Virgo paintings done between 2010 and 2021. For detailed detailed descriptions please see the ludgerphilips.org website.

I never met Master EK physically. However, his call reached me already in the early 80s of the last century and it increased over the years. A retrospect.

I first heard of Master EK around 1981/82 through Rudolf M., a mysterious individual, who deeply influenced my spiritual path directly or indirectly over several decades – a story about which I haven’t blogged yet, being very strange. I only mentioned him once anonymously in a blogpost on “Birthday of H.B.P. – An Way into the Secret Doctrine.” It is another story, though deeply linked with my further contacts over 20 years to Master EK.

In the beginning of the 80s, Rudolf gave me several hectographed texts of a still unpublished book, the “Vishnu Purana” by a certain Dr. E. Krishnamacharya (Master EK). Rudolf didn’t mention where he had the papers from. I later came to know that they were from the IPS in Geneva, with which I later was loosely related for a number of years. In the foreword of a later publication of the book, it says: “It all started in 1981, when we asked Dr. Krishnamacharya to give a seminar on the Yoga of Patanjali at the IPS headquarters in Geneva… The articles on the Vishnu Purana were published for the first time in ‘My Light’, the magazine of the World Teacher Trust in India. Dr. Krishnamacharya authorised the IPS to reproduce these articles and helped edit them for the Western mentality. This work was discontinued some years after he passed away, so that only 53 chapters are now available through the IPS, either on paper or through the internet….”

Although I was with an Indian teacher for 8 years and even became a meditation teacher and more, I could not understand the texts and put them into a box in the basement. But somehow the seed of interest was sown.

Rudolf found my then spiritual teacher a fake and told me, probably in 1981, that a real Indian teacher would come and give classes on Spiritual Astrology in Munich, this Dr. Krishnamacharya. I should go there. I said no – I didn’t want to change gurus nor leave my then teacher.
But one year later, summer 82, I left the teacher and his movement and, a little later, also cut the contact with Rudolf for 5 years.

The meetings and the breach with Rudolf happened in my old home town in Germany. In 86, I moved to Switzerland and in 87, I wanted to present this mysterious man to my then girlfriend, my later wife. During the visit, he gave me a booklet with “a very powerful initiation mantram”, the “Mystic Mantrams” booklet (PDF) of Master EK. I was impressed. During about 2 years, I regularly meditated these mantrams every evening.

In autumn 1988, Johannes Weder, a mid-octogenarian theosophist, visited us in our then home in Switzerland. He had heard that we were in contact with Daskalos, the “Magus of Strovolos”, Dr. Stylianos Atteshlis (1912 – 1995) in Cyprus and wanted to know more about him. My mother-in-law had sent a friend to Cyprus to search for Daskalos, and then we went 4 times to Cyprus visiting him (another untold story).

We had a profound exchange with Johannes and he invited us to come to his home in Rodgau near Frankfurt, Germany. He had a huge library with many theosophical books, and, before he might pass over, he offered that I could chose the books I was interested in. We visited him in summer 1989 – and when we left, we had two big banana boxes with treasures of rare old theosophical books and also all the books of Master EK published until then, and further all the manuscripts of Albert Sassi, whom Master EK had met several times in the Nilagiris.

First, these books slept in the banana boxes. I went through them but it was much too much for me to read.

In summer 1990, Rudolf M. settled in Switzerland and initiated the Agni School (dissolved since over 15 years), which I joined for 10 years, from January 1991 on. It must have been beginning of 1992 that Rudolf asked me to translate for the group a longer text which he had written himself, as he said. When I started translating, I felt, I had seen the text before …. in one of the two boxes in the basement. I searched and found it – “Music of the Soul“, by Master EK.
I was much confused and confronted Rudolf, whom we started regarding as a Master, with my finding. He said, “You don’t understand anything.”

I felt shy and intimidated. I now continued translating with this book and when ready, I gave it to the Agni group. Over the next 8 years, until I left, I continued translating other texts of Master EK for the group, about 16 books and booklets, nearly all not published. But the work helped me to go deep, and I thus dived deep into his teachings. The German translations became a great treasure shared on request.
I came to know more about the World Teacher Trust, but members of the Agni School were told not to contact members of other groups, except when we, as a group, contacted the groups. Otherwise, it was considered spiritual treachery.

So I was very much with Master EK but without any contacts to members of the World Teacher Trust. This changed in August 1997, when the Agni School group met with Master Kumar and other members of the World Teacher Trust at a seminar in Germany. From then on, slowly an opening started – it lead to my leaving the Agni School in April 2000, my joining the World Teacher Trust and starting the Circle of Good Will.

I met many people who had met Master EK and told me about their experiences. My inner contact with Master EK kept growing deeper. I started studying all his books, bringing them from India and distributing them for free to seekers. It went again much deeper when online study groups started from 2015 on where we read his books in English and in German.

Yesterday, a German group member told me “A few years ago, with the approval of the Master (KPK), I started a project called ‘My Way to the Trust’. I interviewed people and recorded it at the same time… Since many people didn’t want, I stopped it.” This gave me the impulse to tell this story, on the occasion of Master EK’s 95th birthday (Western counting: 1926 – 1984) on 11 August 2021.

Celebrating the birthdays of the Great Ones always gives a good opportunity to reflect about their life, their work and their teachings. This strengthens our resolve to follow the Path and we can experience the Presence which expressed through them.

Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) was born on 11 August 1926 during the evening hours at about 5:30 pm. Around 11 hours after Master EK’s birth but 95 years earlier, Madam Blavatsky was born on 12 August 1831. So we commemorate their birthdays together.

Below you find a short extract from Master KPK’s (K. Parvathi Kumar) talk at the “Master EK’s Birthday Celebration 2020” and some words from Master Kumar’s talk at the “Madam HPB’s Birthday Celebrations 2020” as well as two photos of these great Messengers of Light.

“In one of his poems, Master EK expresses to the Divine ‘I surrender my life at your feet. Please forgive me for any mistakes that I have committed out of ignorance. I believe that everything happens as per your will’.

Madam HPB also lived in the same manner with complete surrender to the Divine. She put everything in the Divine account. She was instructed by her Master to scold HS Olcott, the founder president of Theosophical Society, for no reason. She was given no reason except that she was told to scold him. She used to do so just by having faith in her Master’s word. Master EK also used to scold some people a lot sometimes and we used to find no proper reason. We realise later that the scolding neutralized karma of that person and he progressed in life in a much better way. Master EK saw such acts as the Divine working through him to put his children in the right direction. Therefore, he never worried of the consequences as he was acting completely under the Divine instructions.

Master EK never changed himself for the sake of others. He always lived in the same manner irrespective of who he met. He was there to show us the way and not to please us or do things as we like. He never played for the disciples or audience. He never did anything special to show to the world that he is a Master.

Master EK was always available to the needy, at any hour of the day. He never thought of rest. He used to tell that the Divine never sleeps and that the Divine would question him if he does not respond to someone in need. He never planned to sleep and he hardly used to sleep for few hours a day. In a poem, Master EK requests the Divine, ‘Please allow me to serve you at all times. Please grant me a state where I forget myself and only remember you.’ That is how Master EK forgot himself in service to others.”

“On occasions like this, we should recollect some of her teachings and writings so that we get inspired to read and understand more. It helps us come out of the ignorance and superstitions that we might have. Remember that we cannot walk the path shown by Master of Wisdom if our mind is filled with superstitions. Madam HPB writes, ‘Keep away your superstitions and put yourself to experiment’. If we start reading books of Madam HPB after recollecting her, she herself will show us the way to understand the book. We need to establish an alignment with her to be able to understand her books. This applies to the books of every Master of Wisdom. I started reading her books with Isis Unveiled and it took almost 3 years to complete that book. After that I read Secret Doctrine which also took many years to complete.

As aspirants, we should make it a point to read at least one page of wisdom coming from Madam HPB and Master EK. It expands our consciousness and our awareness increases. The same books can be read again and again because such books reveal themselves as our awareness grows.”

[Correction:] A friend just sent me the link to a video of Factly, an India fact checking site explaining that the video is not from the Olympic Games 2021 but from a visit of the Indian Prime Minister Modi in Mongolia in 2015. It is not from Olympic Games in Japan, so I changed the title of this blogpost . The video as such is authentic, the explanation not. It is nevertheless inspiring. So I keep sharing it.

A friend today shared a video from the opening celebration of the [wrong: Olympic Games 2021 in Tokyo]: A large group is performing Yoga Asanas in artistic arrangement, while “OM Maitrey Namaha” is being sung.

Very nice that this is being performed at such a major event, which is currently the focus of attention worldwide. May this be an example for other occasions and other countries.

Very often I get questions from spiritual seekers wanting to know something. I like the interactions, especially when I can help people this way. However, there is a danger. Some people tend to behave like little children wanting to be spoon-fed instead of learning how to find answers. There is a proverb saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Sometimes, the questions relate to details of the wisdom teachings, sometimes to doubts, sometimes it is curiosity resulting out of a very active mind (for these, there is no end of asking until the interest goes somewhere else). Often, the questioners are group members who do not find the e-mails they have received from the internal mailing list of WTT which I am operating.

This morning, I received the question from a friend: “How long is the Aquarian age to last? Where is the info about this and Master CVV goals for Aquarian age? 240 years ? 100 is already done ? Starting count from 1912.”

Quite a lot of questions in a short WhatsApp post (and good answering takes much more time than quickly asking). So instead of searching the answer on my PC, which I normally do, I better show here how to find.

Some people think that I know everything they ask for, and some started calling me “Ludgerpedia”. That is a wrong impression. I just have learnt how to search and I do this myself on many occasions. I have started this blog also to find things myself which I have written about. It has a very good search engine which you find at the top left, and I often use it myself. There are currently 1,582 posts.

For my own research I have collected over decades big quantities of book PDFs (mostly converted for better search into Word files; I bought for this the “Abbyy Finereader”.), seminar transcriptions (many of them I did myself because otherwise I quickly forget what has been taught there – and why should I always only forget after taking much effort to go to the seminars?) and other material. With these I have composed newsletters, esp. “Lunar Messengers” since 22 years – you find all topics on the good-will website or on the WTT website. There, easily searchable in full text. The search engine on that site is also powerful, you find it at the top left of nearly all pages. Together with friends, I have worked on this website for many years, to allow seekers to find a great treasure of wisdom teachings, especially with the books of Master EK and Master KPK, most of them available for free download in the download areas.

Coming to the questions of my friend: When you search on the WTT website “Aquarian Age“, you find many results. But at the very top of the page, you find “The Aquarian Age” (in various languages). If you click on this, you come to a page “The Aquarian Age“. You find the same text as PDF on the Good-Will website, download section.

In the beginning of this text, you find the explanation for all the questions my friend has asked for. For some details of the questions you need to read the text until the end.

Leo is the sign of self-consciousness. Sun in the heart lotus, is its symbol. The transit Sun moving through Leo is noble, straightforward and protective. But the self-conscious nature of Leo has its two-fold nature. A Leonine person can be excessively self-conscious leading to pride or can be deeply contemplative to be conscious of Self. Conscious of Self is different from self-consciousness. The former leads to soul awareness, the latter leads to self-pride. Pride is the threshold in Leo. This lion needs to be conquered.

The symbolism of Leo is visualised in the twelve Leo paintings done between 2010 and 2021. For detailed detailed descriptions please see the ludgerphilips.org website.

Leo is related to our heart centre. The heart is the home of the soul. By turning inward, we enter the cave of the heart, lion’s den. The heart centre when opened transforms us into the man-lion.

In the Eastern Puranas, the opening of the heart centre is symbolically veiled in the story of Narasimha, the Lord with the head of a lion and the form of a man. The story tells of a father and his son. The son knows that the Lord is within as well as without, even within a pillar. The father doubts this, and he breaks open the pillar. Out of the pillar Narasimha manifests to help his disciple Prahlada and to kill the tyrannical father. Killing the father by ripping open the chest represents the transformation of man through the opening of the heart centre and overcoming the limitation of the lower self.

The image was designed with a photo of a lion’s head and a photo of a statue in the temple of Simhachalam, India. It depicts Narasimha opening the chest of Hiranyakashipu. The stone structures on the right and left indicate the opened column. It is a symbol of the column of consciousness, our vertebral column, from which the centres emerge like flowers.

The symbolism of Leo is visualised in the twelve Leo paintings done between 2010 and 2021. For detailed detailed descriptions please see the ludgerphilips.org website.

Last week I did the first trip over several days, after 19 months “pause”. Good friends from Heiligenberg (“Holy Mountain”) in the German Lake Constance area had invited me for a visit. Since the pandemia regulations have now become less strict, I could cross the frontier again without any controls…

The couple lives in a house at the foot of the Heiligenberg mountain with a gorgeous view towards the lake and the Heiligenberg Castle above. On arrival, I noticed that my camera had taken holidays from me and stayed at home – so I borrowed the mobile of Sabine to take at least some shots.

Even without meeting physically, we have a lot of contact with group activity exchanges. But physical meetings cannot be replaced by zooming… It was a very hearty stay.

Thursday afternoon Manfred and Sabine took me on a trip to a beautiful ridge along the lake overlooking vineyards near Meersburg. And Friday morning we went to the Beuron Archabbey, a monastery now of the Benedictine order and in earlier centuries of the Augustinians. It was founded in the 11th century AD and is located in the upper Danube valley.

When we entered the church, a mass was going on. The air was full of frankincense smoke and organ music was filling the space. We preferred to do a little walk along the Danube and to come back later. The monastery has beautiful artwork of the Beuron Art School. The church ambiance brought up reminiscences of long-gone childhood times – I first went to a kindergarten in a monastery near my parents’ home and later served there as an altar boy over years. Parents and relatives wanted to make me a priest. I escaped to other directions but impregnations remained… In the souvenir shop, my friends bought for me a candle with a beautiful blue angel…

Later we drove to the nearby Campus Galli, a kind of museum and construction site (see their German website), where craftsmen and volunteers are using 9th century resources to create a monastery based on the St. Gallen monastery plan. It is the only surviving major architectural drawing from the middle-ages and copies of it were displayed at the site. The workers not only help with the construction, but also act as costumed interpreters. It was very impressive to see blacksmiths, weavers, carpenters, crockers, or coopers doing their work and to talk to them. How many steps were needed to come to the present way of living…. On the marketplace, we had our lunch with “dinnele”, a medieval kind of warm flat bread from a stone oven with cheese.

Sabine is a language teacher and Manfred is a former engineer and manager of a huge German electronic enterprise. He later deeply went into the knowledge about herbs and the healing powers of plants. He built up a large network of people interested in cultivating existing herbal knowledge, applying it and making it available in an understandable way. And he developed a beautiful garden with many kinds of roses and other plants – I very much enjoyed relaxing there under an apple tree, smelling the roses in the air….

Saturday morning Sabine took me to the market in Überlingen. A regional horticultural show is going on over the summer. Plenty of people were strolling along the lake and through the lanes. Near the ship landing point a group of artists was playing the “Pandemia Fairy Tale”… Life seemed to be nearly “back to normal”, with a Mediterranean ambiance.

In the afternoon two friends came for a visit – meditation and intense exchanges, which weren’t possible since a long time.

Sunday morning Sabine and I had an intense working session on the navigation structure for a future website of the German speaking WTT community – a team project. The time was running by, the sunny days as well. Soon I was back to the highway. Rich memories remain.