For 19 years, 1990 – 2009, I didn’t paint anything. I felt I would never paint again. The creative streak was frozen, hidden under a veil deep within.

In November 2009, during a deep and long crisis, I experienced two intense night inner openings. Suddenly there was an urge to express these experiences on paper, and so the series “Images of Synthesis” started.

On Friday the 27th of November 2009, I bought paper, colours, and paint-brushes. The next day I started the first painting, not knowing that it was a new beginning. I started painting on a photo which I had shot some days before. After painting, I scanned the picture, printed it, worked on it with pencils, scanned it again and then worked again on it on the screen, increasing the brightness of the colours: My new technique was born. I use it to this day, refining the procedure with every work done.

More and more, I realised that the images were not from me but through me. Often I was much surprised about what came out. Doing these paintings is an activity full of unforeseen, done besides many other activities.

Upto now, there are 151 images. They are available for free download on the website with the paintings (I had done about 80 prints on aluminium dibond and framed hi-res prints – resting in the basement – I stopped doing so; there was not much interest in them).

Since April 2010, I have been working on the “Spiritual Astrology Paintings”. I recently finished the 10th annual cycle, with 12 paintings each – 120 paintings – as part of the Images of Synthesis series. I did a photo-book with the last three annual cycles, until Pisces 2020 – so it will have to wait for some more months.

The “Images of Synthesis” are also published on the Good-Will website, with short extracts of the wisdom teachings of the World Teacher Trust, giving the inspiring idea. You find them also on Facebook and on Flickr.

Will the work continue? I do not know. It is not my planning but depends on the inner impulse. But upto know there is a “green light” to continue.

Here you can see the first five images of the series – and you find explanations on the ludgerphilips.org website (series “Subtle Worlds”).

For our daily meditation it is recommended to visualize the correspondences between parts of the body, of the planet and of the cosmos. We can see ourselves as sitting in the middle of the earth and having the North Pole in our head and the South Pole towards the lower end of our vertebral column. We can further visualise the constellations of the Great Bear (Big Dipper) in the head and the Pole Star as the pivotal point at the top. At the base centre, there is the dog guarding the infernal gates; it is Sirius, the Dog Star which is called Cerberus in Greek mythology or Sarama in the East.

From this point, related to Sagittarius, the kundalini ascends. The ascent can be visualised as an arrow shooting up through the central axis of the spine. Occult Meditation 48 says, “Matter, mind, Master. Matter is the South Pole. Master is the North Pole. Mind is the equator.” The movement from matter to spirit, to the stage of the Master, is the path of evolution.

The picture shows the arrow on the bow as the central axis from the base centre, the South Pole to the head centre, the North Pole, and further pointing to the Pole Star. The seven stars of the Great Bear are called the Seven Judges or Seers in the East. They are related to Sagittarius, whose constellation you can see in the upper right corner. The globe is formed with the help of a picture of the earth and a crystal ball. In the dark part below the equator, symbolising matter, you see the constellation of the Great Dog with Sirius positioned at the base centre.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Sagittarius paintings.

The last months, many roads and footpaths in our community were digged up. Also the pavement in front of our house was opened for a while: A fiber optic cable network is being installed successively in all quarters: ‘fiber to home’ – also to our home.

The marketing slogans highlight: “With fiber optics you surf faster and more stable; you can consume data over several devices at the same time – watch movies, play games or book holidays…”

Consuming data – until indigestion? Yes; I will also profit from it. And I observed what was going on – with the streets and with me.

The roads were opened, work was going on, the cables installed,the roads were closed again. And you could see some traces on the roads.

A little later, the roads and pavements were tarred and the wounds of the surface disappeared again. The cables were inside, ‘implanted’.

It made me think of the nadi system, the subtle energy network in our body which is not visible to the physical eye but which you can trace in meditation. Medical science considers them as inexistent but yoga science explains their details – if you try to dissect a magnet, you won’t find the magnetic field nor see any electron-magnetic waves but you can discover their functioning.

Of course, the fiber optic cables are more dense than the nadis, you will find them in the streets. But just like the subtle lines of force the cables are part of a great network of intelligence steering our consciousness.

The flood of stimulations is increasing. Information and the stories of the next generation multi-channel entertainment will do their best to keep us attracted – whereto?

It is difficult to withdraw the attention, to find the way through the hyper-active vibrations inside and outside. To discover the inner light and life.

But that is what is nourishing, not the maelstrom of busy-busy-busy. We need to learn swimming against the stream which is powerfully rushing from all sides. To turn inward, again and again, regularly and persistently .

A kind of wilful stimulation fasting helps keeping away from unnecessary pace-makers. You will be rewarded with experiencing your Self and the greater whole of life.

I recently had a phone call with a friend in the course of which she told me she would never again join a spiritual group. The experiences she had with a group and its teacher 2-3 decades ago had marked her for her whole life. And another one lately told me: “I no longer recognize myself in the group where I was (of an Indian teacher) and so I left it.” She added, “For my spiritual quest, I have always been fascinated and attracted by the Masters, and the WTT is a beautiful synthesis.”

From my own experiences in various spiritual groups and contexts I know how delicate it can be to associate with a group and a teacher. In public here in the West, it is mostly disparaged as Guru cult. And when you come in closer contact with a group you unavoidably also meet shadow aspects – be it of the teacher or the group. You can call the shadow the personality. And what makes the thing even more tricky is that we mostly have blind spots towards our own shadows and like to project them on others.

Spiritual groups and teachers are no exception to this. I very well understand people who want to keep aloof from getting into such situations.

However, when you are fairly well grounded in yourself, you can take it as an excellent field of training – how to evolve if you don’t work on yourself and on developing friendly relations with others? For me, the obstacles were a challenge to get more committed.

In my life, I came to know a number of spiritual teachers directly and a few more by way of books. It was an odyssey and a great way of meeting people with many different attitudes – the devotional type, the sceptic type, the indecisive one, the impractical intellectual, the fervent apologist, and even the spurned love…

For a while, I myself was a mixture of several of these. I learnt much by observing and putting to practice what I learnt. And so I approached my present teacher, Sri Kumar, who more and more became the role model for me. A lot of transformation happened – I would call it an occult process because it mostly went on within, very slowly. Or was it more the outcome of my work with meditation and persevering activities, with others, with groups in various contexts? In a way, I ended up to come to myself, not to the teacher. The teacher, the teachings and the group were instrumental in this. On the other hand, it’s an interrelated thing.

A close friend said to me, “I don’t need a teacher for this. I want to rely on the inner guidance and autonomy – no dependence or pressure of rules.”

I understand and respect and I also feel the same – inner guidance of the soul and putting to practice what I have realised as right – not because of any dependence of pressure of rules.

At the same time, I receive great support by following my teacher and the teachings (and leaving other things behind). They are giving strength and orientation and help me not to get side-tracked and stuck. Joy is the compass in this.

I yesterday found a thrilling video about the history of Europe from about 400 BC to the present (published 1. 1. 2018) in less than 12 minutes.

For every year, it shows – partly just for a split-second – the borders and populations of each country in Europe, northern Africa and Middle East. (Vassal states and colonies are not included in the count of a country’s population.)

The rise and fall of great empires – of the Romans, the Huns and Mongols, of Napoleon or the two world wars of last century – they all appear like the pulsating heart of a part of humanity. Behind all this flickering of states lie the destinies and sufferings of millions of people.

Keep in mind that from the larger perspective of the immortality of the soul, we all have gone through many incarnational experiences in the past leading us to where we are working out our lives now.

Scorpio represents the fall of spirit into matter and the reversal of the process through the ascent of consciousness from out of the bondage of matter. The movement of energy is described as a serpent creeping on the ground or rising as a brilliant light inside the spinal column. Beyond the brow centre the energy bifurcates into two arcs like a winged serpent and further ascends like an eagle. The flying serpents are described as carrying a radiant jewel which is the jewel in the lotus of the head centre, Mani Padme.

In the centre of the image you see the central axis of Sushumna surrounded by the descending and ascending serpentine energies. In the upper part, they form two resplendent wings around the head of the serpent with the jewel of light. An eagle, symbol of an initiate, is soaring up from out of a jewel in the background symbolising the Ajna centre. And above, a group of three eagles is flying in the vastness of space. To the right, you see the constellation of Scorpio.

The wheel of the zodiac in the background, designed with a photo of a friend, indicates the movement of ascent and descent.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Scorpio paintings.

Did you notice? Unbounded space disappeared! It seems to be so inconspicuous that nobody seems to take note of it.

This morning, when I came along the construction site in our neighbourhood, I noticed it again. When the walls are put up, suddenly the sky starts disappearing and the unbounded space seems to condense into a tiny hall called a room.

I very well remember how, as a little boy, I several times run from the garden into my parents’ home and then came out again, and I wondered how it can be that space disappears in the house. And how it feels being inside, cut off from the freedom of vastness.

It is like getting into the mother’s womb. From out of the unlimited space of the subtle dimensions shrinking into the narrowness and confinement of body, with its heaviness. As a child, I had the feeling that I did not really want to come down. And it took me many years to get accustomed to live in such a narrow thing like the body.

Yes, the curtain slowly falls and you get used to it. As you get used to live in a room.

At the beginning, you can still see the larger space. Space…. another word for spirit. Slowly you forget that you are not an island, in a corner of space, but contain in you the great whole.

In the morning, when I walk over the field, looking up to the blue sky where just some clouds block the view, and where on the one side the ring of the horizon is limited by the residential area and on the other by the mountain range of the Alps in the distance, I feel like opening up my subtle bodies which envelop the encased spark of the Sun called I AM.

And when I come back into the street of the settlement, it narrows down again, a kind of crippling. Do the people living here notice it?

But when I go down the stairs into the house where I am living, and then the staircase up to our apartment – although it gets really narrow outside, it feels like having re-connected to the vault of heaven. And that the cosmic vastness is also here.

Morning sun shining on some dahlias from the nearby farmhouse, with the Sripada statue in the background, in my study.

Some changes in the team of collaborators during the last weeks made me ponder upon volunteer work in the context of the wisdom teachings.

It looks and feels like a way through a cloudy jungle to discover the path towards the subtle dimensions of life. Running around in various directions does not help. With the years, I found it necessary to focus on one path and to go into the depth instead.

Digging deep needs endurance and commitment. I slowly realised that I have to help build the road to the “goldmines” of wisdom for others as well. And the deeper you go, the more you see the need of cooperation.

As an outcome, I slowly grew into responsibility for various publications and websites related to wisdom, and I met reliable fellow seekers who cooperate in this endeavour.

It takes time to carve out. And many skills need to be developed to fine-tune and to anchor. Newcomers hardly see what lies behind and if they take a glimpse, they sometimes shrink back. Or they pick up some work for a while but find it hard to keep up with rhythm and continuity.

“Likes” and social media entertainment are easier than carrying some stones for a building. Solid steps need to be firm and well done. But who finds time, who takes time for entering a spiritual apprenticeship? Without quick benefits and recognition?

Good will is not enough to become a reliable team member. And often the qualifications required and the equipment in the rucksack of the seeker do not match immediately. But is sh/he willing to enter and learn, to let go of one’s first ideas? And to keep the inner fire burning unsvervingly so that it does not get extinct at a first blast of wind?

New qualifications and skills need to be developed, trust and endurance. Cooperation and at the same time working in a self-reliant way.

It is nice to do something inspiring, but mostly it is seen just as a hobby, when time and other demands allow. The path, however, calls for a commitment like in a challenging work. You have to see where a task needs to be picked up for the greater plan and how to integrate your stone, and at the same time cooperate with the others like a dear friend.

And what if the friends do not give nice feedbacks and cooperate as you expect them to do? Often you have to wait, more often for years, before a door opens. Before you can step in.

Otherwise, life offers many other priorities – job, family, friends; or chilling, sport, travelling… The list is long, and there are many reasons why not to pick up a lasting commitment.

But what about working for an age-old “enterprise”, working out the path to the light? Spiritual Hierarchy has enormous patience in developing the network of collaborators.

Last week a man from France contacted me via e-mail: Sylvain wanted to bring me a gift from friends living on Ko Pha-ngan island of Thailand. (I had written a blog-post about their activity of spreading the knowledge about rudrakshas.)

Last Saturday evening, Sylvain arrived – a tall young man with a special present in his hands, caringly enveloped with a fine string. I opened it and discovered inside two light-brown rudrakasha seeds (called “white rudrakshas”), embedded in a rudraksha shell and embedded in white cotton-like fibres.

It is a very special special gift and the messenger had travelled quite a distance – it was his way of giving thanks to our friends with whom he had lived for some months on the Thai island.

We were not prepared for an overnight stay in our apartment but somehow could arrange. And this was very good. Sylvain and I had an intense exchange. Sylvain told me about adventures on a bicycle tour from France to Kyrgystan, nearly to the Chinese border, about other journey to North and Central America, about his spiritual search and a project related to Ayurveda he is trying to realise in the French Alpes. He carried a fresh energy of bringing inspiration to people and of knowing how to realise his visions.

Sunday morning, he joined the meditation and fire ritual; afterwards we did a walk over a nearby field and enjoyed the magic of the sunrise. Before he left again back to France, we did a selfie with my wife on the balcony. A hearty encounter.

“May the times of the autumn and spring equinoxes not be neglected. They are of immeasurable importance to the disciple of yoga/discipleship.”

Following this hint of Sri Kumar, we met again at autumn equinox in the WTT Paracelsus Centre to celebrate this cardinal point of the year in meditative orientation.

We wanted to meet at the mountain ridge near the Etzel pass but it was not so easy to get there for many roads in the area were blocked because of an “Iron Bike” festival around Einsiedeln.

Also the road at the top of the pass was blocked but somehow we managed to get to the fire place where we had already met the years before. The clouds looked grey but there was a majestic ambiance and a grand panorama view.

While we were singing the mantrams of the fire ritual, the flames rose and spread their magnetic radiation.

Afterwards we met at the Paracelsus-Center. As usual, we started with a little ritual and a short meditation. Afterwards, I spoke a bit about the importance of the eqinox celebration and the energies of Libra.

In the afternoon we made a walk along the Sihl River to Egg and returned via the other side of the river.

We greeted a group of cows on a meadow – it was cute to see a cow couple in exchange of affections.

Later in the afternoon, we read a little text about the spiritual importance of Libra and closed the meeting with the evening meditation. It was again a profound experience to meet and meditate at such a beautiful place.