This week when I did a Google search for image elements I wanted to use for a new painting I also searched for pictures of embryos and the growth in the womb. And then I came across all kinds of pictures of inner organs and the like.

Though these weren’t new for me at all, I suddenly became very vividly conscious how under the surface of our skin there is a totally different world than what we normally have in our awareness: When I meet other people I don’t see them in terms of muscles, heart, lungs, intestines and the like. I perceive a personality and, if clear enough, the soul working through the body. I see a being expressing through the body. We speak, exchange, express love, sympathy or any other emotions. We communicate, build up concepts, and live in the worlds of our family, profession or society. And some millimetres below our skin there is this world of pulsating organs, like another planet. A wonder how we blank out these dimension and live in our own worlds, created by our perception. Of course it is illusionary and transient, but that is the dimension where we are mostly living in. And in the underground there are forces and laws at work which shape our destinies… And just like we are not aware of what is just below the skin, we are normally not aware what is just below our conscious awareness.

A picture I selected for the painting was a drawing of an the embryo in the uterus by the Scottish anatomist William Hunter (1718–1783).  I transformed it into blue and integrated it into the picture I did for Cancer. The embryo is head downwards, like our normal perception. Even if we are living with our heads up, we are mostly oriented “downwards” to matter. Let’s turn around and look upwards. It is just a little change in perspective.

William Hunter, drawing of an embryo, from Wikimedia

Today I got an e-mail from an Indian friend with a link to a scientific study on the effect of fire rituals: “Environmental Impacts of Homam – a Case Study (at Sridevi Veda Vidyalayamu, Srisailam)”, presented by Narayana Rao. M et al. at the “2012 International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology IPCBEE” (vol.30, 2012, © 2012 IACSIT Press, Singapore). Dr. M.NARAYANA RAO (Emeritus Professor,JNT University. Hyderabad A P, Camp Bangalore, India) gave me the kind permission to quote and link it here.

I was particularly interested, since my spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, regularly conducts fire rituals and also has published a book on it – Agni. The Symbolism and the Ritual of Fire. I had previously read about effects of the ritual called Agnihotra or Homa in India, and since 13 years I do a short version once in a week. And in January 2007 I had the good chance of visiting the very sacred place of Srisailam, where the study had been done. Here is an extract of the study:

Experimental studies show that the incidence of physical ailments, sickness and disease are reduced in the houses, where the Yajna (Agnihotra) is regularly performed because it creates a pure, nutritional and medicinal atmosphere. It renews the brain cells, revitalizes the skin, purifies blood and prevents growth of pathogenic organisms. Agnihotra is basically a healing process. ‘Heal the atmosphere and the healed atmosphere will heal you’- is the Modus Operandi. Purification of environment through the constituent electrons of the substances fumigated in the Yajna is an obvious effect of this process. The observation of some distinguished scientists is note worthy in this regard. Sugars present in Havishya have great power to purify the atmosphere. It kills the germs of T.B., measles, smallpox and cow-pox, remarks….

Based on the research of the authors, and the scientific evidences found during experimental field studies conducted at Sri Devi Veda Vidyalamu, Srisailam, during Chandi Homam, the following conclusions can be drawn
• Homa was found to be one of the most economical means of purifying environmental pollution.
• Global effects such as patching up of ozone hole, removal of harmful radiation and radioactivity are proved by scientists round the world.
• The experimental studies conducted at Sridevi Veda Vidyalayamu clearly showed that the emissions during homam are not only non toxic but are beneficial to the environment.
• The ash collected from the bottom showed manorial value and therefore agnihotra farms were developed in some countries.
• The ash has also exhibited medicinal values.
• Zinc Oxide present in the particulate emissions in our experiments has a curative effect on skin diseases. Zinc oxide offers excellent protection against Ultra Violet Radiations (A and B).
• While Lead (Pb) is found to be within permissible limits, Manganese (Mn) is found to be slightly in excess of permissible limits prescribed by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). This is good because of the health benefits of Mn.
• Manganese ensures healthy bone structure, bone metabolism, helping in building essential enzymes for building bones. It acts as a coenzyme to assist metabolic progression in the human body. Apart from these, there are other health benefits of manganese actively involved in forming connective tissues, absorption of calcium, proper functioning of thyroid, sex hormones, regulating blood sugar level, and metabolism of fats and carbohydrates. Manganese is very important for normal functioning of the brain and nerve areas of our body.

Fire ritual by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar at the WTT-Centre Rajahmundry, 24 January 2013

I got the link to a song of Khwaja Mere Khwaja, a Dervishs’ Dance from the beautiful Indian movie Jodhaa Akbar, a scene of mystical rapture. I saw this great film at a seminar with Sri Kumar in India 2009 and later also at home. The film is an Indian epic historical drama film released in 2008. It centers around the romance between the Muslim Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great and the Hindu Rajput Princess Jodhabai who becomes his wife. The video of the song shows the scene where a group of Dervishs is performing a song to the Emperor, who at the end joins their dance and is carried away into a state of ecstasy.

Pictures from the video Jodhaa Akbar (c)

Pisces is a sign of sensitivity and fluidity, of the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. In one sense it stands for the liberation of the soul from the bondage of personality. One fish represents the soul the other the personality.

When meditating on the picture of Pisces, the image of the stairway from the lower to the higher spheres came. I found a photo I took at the Château of Sanssouci in Potsdam some years ago and chose it as the point of departure, taking away the château except the centre, which became the entrance, the portal into the higher spheres.

They are symbolised by the sphere behind the glowing fish. I took a photo with the reflection of the sun in the sea, symbolising the soul reflecting in the personality. Behind the lower fish you see the skyline of New York, symbolising the life caught in matter.

On the stairway you see people descending from above and ascending to the light – the journey of the ascent of the soul – and the liberated souls descend again to help the people stuck in matter.

Devas on the right and left are guarding the path. One is giving his blessing; the other is holding a treasure, the fruit of wisdom. I used pictures from the monastery of Montserrat which I took this summer. I painted the central sphere on a photo of Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, and at the top you see some stars from a galaxy in the sign of Pisces.

The dome at the top reminds of the Greek letter Ω, Omega, and the stairway resembles the letter Α, the Alpha, symbolising the beginning and the end of creation.

In Spiritual Astrology (Master EK) it says:
“The sign Pisces is normally understood as the last sign of the zodiac. It is, in fact, the first and the last sign of the zodiac. This fact is denoted by the symbol of the two fishes travelling in opposite directions. If Capricorn is the “alpha and omega of the whole creation”, Pisces represents the “alpha in omega” and also “the omega within alpha” of creation. To the average man, this sign ends with the vernal equinox but to the man of the reversed wheel it begins with the vernal equinox. One who can link up these facts gets The Light.”

Three days ago I got a Skype-chat message from a German friend:

“Morning Ludger, yesterday I wanted to go to your Good Will webseite – but I don’t find it anymore at Google. Are you just rearranging something?”

“No, not at all, I see the page totally normal – oops, I see that Google doesn’t show it anymore. I don’t know what to do, I’ll try to check it… ” And some minutes later:  “I really have no idea what to do. You only find just the URL good-will.ch, but no other hints. Google seems to block the site! I checked a big spam-filter page, the site is clean.”

A feverish search started. I went to Google Webmaster tools, reconfirmed my site, checked. Being just an “interested layman” in webmaster affairs, more questions popped up than answers. I did tests, contacted friends, the provider, read online articles … … … It slowly dawned to me that the “Google Death Penalty” had hit the Good-Will website. Silently, not knowing when – I didn’t do any “ego-googling” for a long time, so I didn’t know when Google had taken the site off their search index.

Did the “Google Death Penalty” happen the 8th of February? (Graphic: Google Webmaster Tool, good-will.ch)

This means: No search of any topics relating to the Good-Will site is any longer shown in the search results (I still found some minor text hints on 4th and 12th sub-pages of Google’s search…). With all the topics where the site was best placed in the past, now there was  void. Other sites quoting texts of the site appeared, but never the original site… I became alarmed increasingly.

Searching the site of the Circle of Good-Will – other pages appear, at the first place our Facebook page, at least. (Graphic: Google site search)

The next day I contacted a good friend with web know-how. Together we increased the search for possible causes till late in the night. No clear results. We didn’t find anything wrong with the technical part of the Good-Will website, Google was scrawling the site, reported that no malware was found… I asked my youngest son, who had built the site when he was 16, what could be the cause. He wanted to think it over.

Yesterday evening he came and told me that on the home page he had placed some text describing the site in the same colour than the background, so that search engines who don’t pay attention to the header texts are informed (since the home is just a distribution page for the language versions without further text). This, however, is forbidden by Google. Did they find it and therefore blocked the site? My son immediately removed the text.

In the night I wrote a reconsideration request to Google explaining them what could have been the reason and that I’m not aware of any other possible violation of their rules. There was a reply this morning that the

This morning I saw a reply in the webmaster-tools that they will check the request but that it might take a few weeks.

During that time the Good-Will website is probably in the “digital limbo”. And if they don’t tell what has been the reason for their “digital death sentence”, the pralaya could continue… Google writes: “If it’s been several weeks since you submitted your reconsideration request, and you haven’t seen any changes in your site’s performance, this probably means that your site is still in violation of the Webmaster Guidelines, or it simply is not ranking as well as you’d like.”

No, not ranking at all I definitely don’t like – meaning that all the people searching for the spiritual wisdom teachings on the site won’t find it for the time being.

Saturday 16 February 13, 12 am: A friend from Abu Dhabi just informed me that the site is on the index again yes, it is Thank you, Google.
Tuesday,  19 February 13: Google wrote in the account of webmaster-tools that they didn’t find anything objectionable when looking at the webspam and that there can be fluctuations in the ranking… All the hints they gave didn’t show what was the reason for stopping the ranking (it wasn’t only bad performance…) Now it’s back to normal.

There is a beautiful video by Rassouli, the Iranian-American visionary artist living in California. It is a visual presentation of his series on The Eternal Feminine (exposition). He has also done a series on Goddesses and says, “Beyond the outer beauty, I paint feminine inner beauty to open the spiritual vision of the viewers to experience the inspiration that moved me to create the paintings.”

Rassouli is deeply influenced by sufism. Read his inspiring statements about his inspirational meditation work through painting, for example: “Creation is the product of synchronizing our energy with the universe. Once we experience the whole and recognize it, we become aware that we are nothing but the Divine Creative Force.”

He calls his art “Fusionart” and has taught many artist this spiritual approach. Here are links to websites about his huge world-wide influence.

Some time ago Rassouli gave me the permission to use his paintings for the e-card of the Good-Will website, there you find a small selection.

Freidoun Rassouli, from the video “The Eternal Feminine”

Yesterday a friend informed me that Irvin Schonbrun from Vancouver, Canada, passed over peacefully to the subtle spheres beginning of December 2012.

I came into contact with Irvin in 2005 and soon he started helping proof-reading, first with the Lunar Messenger, later also with the Paracelsus Magazine and books. He often did the proof-readings during the free time of his night job. He was very committed to this work and he felt deeply drawn to it. And all who came into contact with him appreciated his ever reliable cooperation.

He once told me this contact helped him overcome a profound frustration on his spiritual path and gave him back joie de vivre. He had a big heart and a deadpan humour. We often exchanged jokes.

I already suspected that something had happened with him when he didn’t react on my mails in December. And while I was in India I got a message that his mailbox was blocked. I was thinking for a way to contact him, I knew none of his other friends and colleagues. The German friend who informed me did a web-search and contacted one of the places where he had been working. And so she got the information about his passing-over…

I will keep him in a good memory. May his soul ascend to the blissful planes of Eternal Light.

Extract from a photo on Irvin’s website, by Nancy McLean / Thi Vu

The last day of our journey started with a fire ritual in the early morning – after another bath in the Godavari river.

Around 9 we set out to the last part of our trip. After about 2 hs we left the highway at a little village and went up a hill to the Satya Narayana temple of Annavaram. It is a unique temple in so far as there Lord Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi are worshipped together with Lord Shiva – an expression of synthesis.

Entering the temple portal

A beautiful pipal tree- the flowers smell deliciously

At a little Krishna statue with cows we were blessed with “cow water” – sprinkling cow urin

Offering fire

A statue of Lord Ganesha

Walking through the temple area

After the visit of the temple we went down to the village and were received in a house, where first there was a ritual in honour of Sri Kumar and later we were presented a delicious lunch.

The delicious lunch prepared on “environmentally friendly” banana leaves

A keen observer

Later we continued the journey to arrive at Visakhapatnam around nightfall.

Friday we had our final lecture in the retreat centre, ending a very profound seminar about topics of Cosmogenesis. In the evening a little ceremony closed the group living: Words of thanks were spoken and clothes distributed to all the members who have helped to realise this beautiful group living. Afterwards we all sat together enjoying a festive dinner.

Julio from Argentina speaking about his experiences at the group living

Wednesday early morning after group meditation in the hotel we went again to the temple. I enjoyed very much the ambiance of the dawn and the chants vibrating over the temple complex. Inside the temple there were the statues of Rama Sita and Lakshmana which the devotee lady had discovered in a termite hill due to her search after a vision. The place was charged with the energy of mantric work over a long time – and we felt much uplifted.

Dawn inside the temple

Walking  with Sri Kumar over the dam to the Godavari river

The “engineers” inspecting an old boat motor on the beach

Flowers seen from the tree top of the hotel balcony

After breakfast a 1 hour bus ride brought us to a place related to the Ramayana, the life of Rama, the avatar of the Treta yuga. We were shown a place where legend told that during their exile Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were living for a while and where Sita was living each month during her period. Then we went to another place where according to the legends Sita was kidnapped by the demon Ravana. There was a little temple and some statues around.

The place where Sita stayed at a little river

Statues of the dwelling place of Sita and Lakshmana

After lunch we boarded again the bus for a nearly 7 hs ride back to Rajahmundry. We stopped for a while on the road, because some lorry drivers said that the road over the jungle pass was blocked due to stone falls. Some motorbike-drivers also were questioned about the situation. We wanted to hurry up to get through the jungle before nightfall. Sri Kumar’s car arrived and he told us to go ahead. So we entered the bus and came over the pass, slow, but without difficulties. The broken lorry we saw a day ago was still blocking one of the bends…

We were very happy when we arrived around 7 pm at the WTT centre and were received with a delicious dinner – and then fell into our beds…

Monday at noon time we left Visakhapatnam for a 3 days’ excursion to Rajahmundry and Bhadrachalam, where we wanted to visit a vibrant Rama-temple at the Godavari river. As a preparation Sri Kumar showed us a movie about the origin of this temple – how an elderly lady had a vision of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana and was guided to search in the jungle for them and found a statue of them. In deep devotion she worshipped them and later a young man, the hero of the movie, Sri Ramadasu, was lead to build there a temple. The film shows the tremendous hardships, obstacles and even torturing he underwent in his mystic search of the vision of Sri Rama.

A young German friend asked me for the title of the movie Sri Ramadasu and then sent me the link to it:

The bus ride took about 4 hs and we arrived at the WTT centre Rajahmundry in the evening. It is located in a temple disctrict near the Godavari River. Tuesday morning before 5am we went to the river to have a morning bath – a beautiful experience. Later, after morning meditation and prayer we again took the bus for the next stage of our trip, Bhadrachalam.

The WTT centre of Rajahmundry. They welcomed us with great cordiality.

At the centre with Reyes from Spain 🙂

Dawn at the Godavari River. Washermen beating clothes on the stones

A statue of Rishi Gautama meditating at the river – and a crow feeling inspired there 🙂

A stray puppy at the river

Sunrise on the roof of the centre

It was quite a long ride to Bhadrachalam – 6 hs on bumpy roads – but the countryside was thrilling. For about 3 hs we drove through jungle areas. Roaring in the first gear the bus moved very slowly up the narrow hairpin-bends over a pass. In one of the bends there was a broken lorry – very slowly we crossed that point and all applauded our bus-driver when we had passed by.

A little river in the jungle, we hardly met any humans.

Finally we arrived at our hotel in Bhadrachalam. You could hardly see any English writing in the town – only Telugu. I would be lost there… In front of the hotel there were the statues of Rama and Lakshmana with the devotee of Rama who discovered the statues in the wilderness in a termites hill, due to a vision she had (see the video above).

Around sunset we went to the temple which was located on a little hill. We were told not to take our cameras with us – but I could not resist (though in the very inner of the temple I didn’t take photos, respecting the religious feelings).

Evening prayer on the terrace in front of the temple

Meditating inside the temple – a thrilling experience

Sri Kumar and Kumari after the meditation


The entrance of the temple, with the moon in its 11th ascending phase