"Do not try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, try to realize the truth... There is no spoon... Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends; it is only yourself." -- The Matrix
This blog will be moving. I have been informed by Blogger that they will be discontinuing FTP to externally hosted domains. All blogs will have to be hosted entirely on their servers. I have not decided if I will migrate this blog, as is, or try to merge it into the Celestial Reflections group blog. I have to evaluate my options. Either way, any bookmarks or feed settings used by readers of this blog will need to change. I will provide updates as needed.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Watching Creation
On Zak's recommendation I took a look at Andrew Sullivan's recent blog entries on the Vatican scandal. But I got distracted by this magnificent video depicting how sacred geometry expresses itself through nature. It's an elegant depiction of the Fibonacci sequence and the golden mean. Really lovely.
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Posted below is a fairly recent interview with William Henry. For the discussion of the Capitol dome and stargate metaphysics, skip ahead to video 7. The first six are more focused on the Norway spiral and a somewhat paranoid read on the climate conference. I've discussed Henry's analysis of the Capitol dome and Brumidi's fresco previously here and here. Now that I'm back in the DC area, I'm determined to fight my way up I95 to visit the Capitol and see this for myself. Maybe I'll take the train. Time is a precious commodity.
In this interview Henry also points out that stargate images are turning up in art and sculpture all over the place and suggests that we could be having a collective awakening. I totally agree. But it was when I looked at the image of the dome above, that it clicked for me just how powerful a trigger that image is.
In my original review of Battlestar Galactica, I described my fixation with an image in my head very reminiscent of Kara Thrace's fixation: the Eye of Jupiter.
See here for some background on the geometry and symbolism of eyes and why they speak to something seminal in our consciousness. This particular image of spheres within spheres is one that has entranced me for years. I thought seriously at one time about doing a giant canvas of that image. I never got around to it, and frankly, I'm not much of a painter. But the following image looks very similar to what I saw in my head for a period of years. Stare at it for a while. It's hypnotic.
Coincidentally, or not, I first became borderline obsessed with that image when I was last living in the DC area. At the time, the most obvious association to me was the iris and pupil of the physical eye, which speaks to seminal sacred geometry depicting creation itself. William Henry's work points out another correlation which is the stargate images he's found in numerous paintings depicting resurrection and, now, in the Capitol dome and in Constantino Brumidi's fresco "The Apotheosis of George Washington."
It occurs to me that these two things are interrelated. As Henry and others have suggested, the human body may be a dormant stargate opening, resurrection machine. What awakens and activates it is the kundalini energy which rises up the spine and opens the pineal gland, or third eye. I should also point out that Battlestar Galactica is replete with kundalini imagery:
The Pythia prophecies which Laura Roslin (rose: symbol of the Virgin Mary) accesses by taking kamala extract (lotus).
The spines in humanoid cylons glow red when they have sex.
Cylons have a single eye like a cyclops, in the middle of the forehead, evocative of the third eye. Colonel Tigh also ends up with one eye. ("The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." ~ Matthew 6:22)
The use of "All Along the Watchtower" as the key to awakening the cylons and Kara Thrace and leading them through the Eye of Jupiter (pineal gland). Tower images are often used as symbols of the spine as the conduit for kundalini. See here for some background.
Coincidentally, William Henry references another Jimi Hendrix song, "Purple Haze," in this interview; one actually written by him. ("All Along the Watchtower" was written by Bob Dylan.) He describes a far more esoteric inspiration than the generally accepted purple haze marijuana theme. I say listen to the songs, which are both in the player above and make up your own mind. I've also included a Battlestar Galactica tribute version. About a third of the way through that video, there's a nice image of Kara Thrace's obsessional painting of the Eye of Jupiter.
It also shows the emblem. At a certain point, it all seem kind of obvious.
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Just incredibly cool. I discovered quite viscerally, when I was training in the Flower of Life, that working with this seminal geometrical form is very, very powerful. This meditation video is really well done. Enjoy!
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When we study sacred geometry, we begin to see the world of form differently. We gradually begin to recognize how these seminal shapes and proportions repeat themselves over and over, in nature. We also look at symbols, religious and otherwise, with new eyes. I had one of those moments of realization this morning, when I glanced at a Happy Thanksgiving post, on a blog. An image of a cornucopia, overflowing with harvest bounty, topped the page. I haven't really thought much about cornucopias since I was in grade school, tracing my hand to make Thanksgiving turkeys, and looking at pictures of happy "Indians," with their pilgrim friends. It had never occurred to me how profound a form the cornucopia is.
This symbol of the abundance, for which we give thanks each November, traces to ancient Greek mythology.
The cornucopia is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as horn of plenty, Horn of Amalthea, and harvest cone.
In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk. When her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together, this changed Amalthea into a unicorn with 17 whiskers. The god Zeus, in remorse, gave her back her horn. The horn then had supernatural powers which would give the person in possession of it whatever he or she wished for. This gave rise to the legend of the cornucopia. The original depictions were of the goat's horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, was depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman's fertility.
This magic horn, then, creates something out of nothing. It is a tool of manifestation. Like so many objects in mythical context, it is the geometrical form that is significant. Horns have a special place in myth and ritual, as objects of power, because their form is vortical. This vortex is derived from the golden mean spiral. According to sacred geometry, this is the very foundation of manifest creation.
Simply put, the Golden Mean Spiral is a doorway that weaves the ethereal and material dimensions together. In another context I would say that God left us one door of eternal mystery and exploration¾ the Golden Mean Spiral or the door of love.
The vortex unfurls from the void -- the vast potential of the unmanifest -- and animates creation itself.
In studying the Sacred Geometry of Creation, we first understand that creation takes place in what is known as "no time and space," and that it then enters into dimensionality through the intra-dimensional doorway known as the Golden Mean Spiral.
Why do we utilize Sacred Geometry? The purest answer is because it creates for us the frequencies of a controlled place of deep silence, the place of The Silent Watcher, that has no beginning or end. The Golden Mean is the doorway to this place known as "no time and space," where we can interact with Creation. It is the sacred doorway to the intuitive, the space to where we once again are God in action.
So, with our Thanksgiving horn of plenty, we are literally celebrating the divine mystery of creation itself. Through conscious interaction with these geometries and archetypes, we begin to reawaken to our true function as co-creators of the reality with inhabit.
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Drunvalo on the Mayan Calendar, Pole Shift, The Secret, and the Heart
This September interview with Drunvalo Melchizedek manages to cover a lot of ground in a fair degree of depth. He explains his fascination with and detailed study of sacred geometry, and where it has led him. It was sacred geometry which initially drew me to study and train in the Flower of Life with Drunvalo years ago. He explains these geometries, and how they underpin manifest creation, better than anyone, in my opinion.
Mostly this interview focuses on the present time and how it relates to the Mayan Calendar. Drunvalo has enjoyed a very special relationship with the Maya for many years. He has been saying for some time that none of the interpretations of the calendar, in wide circulation, have come from the Maya themselves, and are, therefore, incomplete and largely wrong. The Mayan council is only now beginning the process of bringing forth an interpretation consistent with their traditions, oral history, and hidden knowledge. He reports that they are distressed that we have been so focused on the doomsday scenarios, which they say are only one part of the prophecy. They say that it will involve some type of pole shift, which could be very disastrous, but they emphasize that the way to move through this is to stay in the heart, not the head, and it will actually be a very positive transformation of the planet.
Drunvalo goes into great depth about the importance of being in our hearts. By way of example he explains the deeper problem of The Secret. As I have said many times, the determination to be "positive" does not allow for wholeness, or oneness consciousness. Drunvalo explains it as being a problem of creating with the head (our thoughts) rather than our hearts. Whereas, our hearts are in wholeness, our brains are polarized. They are binary instruments, and he says can only create dualism. He points to the way the authors of The Secret manifested loads of money, but have also invited the dark reflection of that manifestation. Much of the money is tied up in litigation. (Litigation, and possibly criminal charges, are also likely for Secret contributor James Arthur Ray whose sweat lodge disaster has now resulted in a third death.) By focusing on our heart consciousness, Drunvalo explains that we can transcend duality and the seesaw effect of polarized creation, and this is where we will need to be to transition into the new reality, on the other side of this great shift.
Now that Mercury has gone direct, I'm hoping some of the comm issues will be leveling out. Nearly two months after moving, I finally have a decent, broadband connection again. So, I've been catching up my YouTubes. A lot of great stuff was posted during my unintentional, internet hiatus, including a brand new interview with William Henry, on the hidden symbolism in the US Capitol. I wrote a bit about this here. In this interview, Henry goes into a bit more detail on the symbolism of the dome, its connection to the sacred geometry of Metatron's cube, and the critical importance of the pineal gland. He also discusses Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol, and its parallels to his own journey of discovery with this sacred architecture.
Update: I just stumbled on this radio interview with William Henry discussing his theories on the Capitol, in more depth. He offers some good background on how Constantino Brumidi came to paint the "Apotheosis of George Washington" in the dome, and what arcane symbolism underlies it. He also speculates on the what principles from the Gnostics and Western Alchemy may have shaped the vision of the founding fathers.
William Henry recently made an observation on his blog, that made me chuckle. He thinks Barack Obama looks a lot like the Akhenaten (Akhenaton, Amemhotep IV). I could see that.
When John McCain pointed to Obama and said “That One” during the debate – sending a karate chop at his opponent who had voted for an energy bill - I had to put my guitar down.
I picked up my cat Boo and said, “Tell me he didn’t just call Barackhenaton ‘That One’ (or ‘Th-At-one’ or ‘Th-Atone’), because ‘The Aton’ or ‘The Atone’ is the name of the God worshipped by Ackhenaton.”
McCain supporters deny he meant anything in particular by the stinging remark. Obama supporters claim a racist tone in the dehumanizing term. Apparently, to McCain, Obama is not a person, he’s a thing.
I think McCain was psychically picking up on the whole Barackhenaton vibe. “That One”, “Th-At-One” or “Th-Atone”.
I had a very similar thought when I heard McCain's "that one," slur. Particularly, when it started to gain traction as a meme. Not for the first time, I was compelled to reflect upon some of the deeper symbolism of Obama and his campaign. All celebrities and politicians take on symbolic significance that is larger than their personal identities. They represent many things to many people, and there are archetypal patterns that emerge as they become increasingly prominent. Obama symbolizes unity (one-ness), even more than he does "change." His language is inclusive, eschewing partisan rancor.
RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: Senator, you criticize the Bush administration frequently. But, you almost never criticize the Republican Party itself. Other Democrats --
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Much to your chagrin.
MADDOW: Well, yes, actually. I mean, other Democrats, you will hear them talk about the GOP as the party that's been wrong on all the big stuff. Creating Social Security, civil rights, the War in Iraq. But, you don't really do that. Do you think there is a stark difference between the parties?
OBAMA: Well, I do think there's a difference between the parties, but here's my belief. That I'm talking to voters. And I think they're a lot of Republican voters out there, self-identified, who actually think that what the Bush administration has done, has been damaging to the country.
And, what I'm interested in, is how do we build a working majority for change? And if I start off with the premise that it's only self-identified Democrats who I'm speaking to, then I'm not going to get to where we need to go. If I can describe it as not a blanket indictment of the Republican Party, but instead describe it as the Republican Party having been kidnapped by a incompetent, highly ideological subset of the Republican Party, then that means I can still reach out to a whole bunch of Republican moderates who I think are hungry for change, as well.
He represents a union of races, bringing together not only black and white racial identities, which have been so divisive in our nation's history, but many other cultural elements. Because he has Muslim family members and an unfortunate middle name, he is misidentified as Muslim, unintentionally or otherwise. Although he, himself, is not Muslim, he brings that heritage into the mix, which has forced a dialog on the issue of Muslims in American culture and politics. While it has been used as a wedge issue, there is a great opportunity, here, for national and international healing.
I was struck, early in Obama's campaign, at the use of the letter O as a symbol in his advertising and logo. It very directly invokes invokes the sphere.
This is why I find the Akhenaten comparison so germane. It's certainly not because he was a unifier. He was known throughout history as the "heretic king" for his battle with the priests of other gods, particularly the cult of Amun. For his radical revision of Egyptian religion, much of his legacy was defaced shortly after his mysterious death. But, his greater purpose, and arguably effect, was to introduce the concept of unity consciousness. By instituting a law of one, and enforcing a worship of only one god, he brought forth that mystical construct symbolically. Like Obama, he employed the image of the sphere. His god the Aten, the noon-day sun, had no face; no anthropomorphic identity. He made worship of the solar disc, the law of the land.
The underlying point of mythical references to "the one" -- whether it be Jesus Christ, Neo, Obama, a life partner, or any other "savior" we seek -- is that the term does not really refer to a person. It is numerical code, which pervades our mythology and is hardwired into our consciousness. It represents what is, in fact, the "Christ consciousness," and that is one-ness. Our quest is to remember that there is no "other." There is only all that is. This deep mystical underpinning is played out in our democratic process and referenced in our national motto: "E pluribus unum." (Out of many, one.)
"We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change we seek."
Long before the world was created there was an island, floating in the sky, upon which the Sky People lived. They lived quietly and happily. No one ever died or was born or experienced sadness. However one day one of the Sky Women realized she was going to give birth to twins. She told her husband, who flew into a rage. In the center of the island there was a tree which gave light to the entire island since the sun hadn't been created yet. He tore up this tree, creating a huge hole in the middle of the island. Curiously, the woman peered into the hole. Far below she could see the waters that covered the earth. At that moment her husband pushed her. She fell through the hole, tumbling towards the waters below.
Water animals already existed on the earth, so far below the floating island two birds saw the Sky Woman fall. Just before she reached the waters they caught her on their backs and brought her to the other animals. Determined to help the woman they dove into the water to get mud from the bottom of the seas. One after another the animals tried and failed. Finally, Little Toad tried and when he reappeared his mouth was full of mud. The animals took it and spread it on the back of Big Turtle. The mud began to grow and grow and grow until it became the size of North America.
Then the woman stepped onto the land. She sprinkled dust into the air and created stars. Then she created the moon and sun...
As I mentioned in this recent entry, the attrition of turtle populations is raising alarm bells, not only of environmentalists, but indigenous peoples for whom they hold deep spiritual significance. Turtles are one of the oldest species on the planet and their mythology speaks to their ancient associations with earth itself. In many cultures, turtle is the very firmament upon which their civilizations stand. Turtle is the solid ground where waters recede.
There's an apocryphal story about an old woman at an astronomy lecture. Upon hearing about the earth orbiting the sun and the sun swirling through the galaxy, the woman pronounces this lesson nonsense and explains that the world sits on the back of a giant turtle. When the scientist asks her, "But, what is the turtle standing on?" she replies, "It's turtles all the way down." If it ain't true, as the saying goes, it oughta be.
Great myths like the turtle who carries the world are rich symbologies, not literal descriptions of any cosmology. When we examine them, we tend to find that they are encoded forms of actual events and principles. The ubiquity of the turtle emerging from the water and supporting civilization could very well be explained by a prehistoric flood. Much like turtle mythology, flood myths are globally ubiquitous, arousing scientific interest in that possibility.
More intriguing, turtle mythos speaks to the geometry behind creation itself.
Turtles have been and are held sacred in many traditions. In the Far East the turtle shell is seen as a symbol of heaven while the squarer underside is symbolic of mother earth.
Ponder this for a moment. Again, the idea of the merging of heaven and earth; above and below. More to the point, we have a conceptualization of spirit (heaven) becoming manifest form (earth). And the turtle represents this through the geometry of its body; the circle and the square.
That message comes through quite directly in the Eastern conception of the tortoise supporting 4 elephants, supporting the earth; the alternating forms of circle, square, circle, square.
This is a creation myth rich in geometric function. As sacred geometer and mandala artist Charles Gilchrist explains, the squaring of the circle and the mythical four directions are seminal to the way we conceptualize earth.
C.G. "One of the most obvious examples is seen in the natural human creation of maps and their consistent orientation to the four directions. Virtually all maps, no matter where or when they were made, make reference to the four directions, North, South, East, and West. This world wide and timeless phenomena proves our human concept of the four directions is coming from within, as we keep reinventing it again and again and again. The four corners is a root psychological archetype naturally developing through the deeper sacred geometric archetypes of The Vesica Pieces and The Dynamic Square."
L.P. "So Charles, you are saying the ancient concept of the four directions evolved directly from the cross and the square which is to be found in the Vesica Piscis, and somehow bubbles up from the deepest aspects of our consciousness.?"
C.G. "Yes, exactly. The repeating revelation of the four directions comes from the deepest archetypes of our consciousness which are effecting our view of the material world. Sacred Geometry is at the heart of literally everything and is continually shaping our understanding whether we realize it or not."
. . .
And Leslie, here's the answer to your first question: a squared circle is created by duplicating its diameter four times, enclosing that circle (Fig. 10). In that sense, a square which perfectly encloses a circle is equivalent to that circle. That circle and square are like the left and right hands of the same energy. In that sense, The Square equals The Circle. That is what your Hindu author was writing about. Compare the squared circle enclosing a dynamic square and you have the graphic roots of classical Mandala (Fig. 11)"
Gilchrist points out that the astrological symbol for Earth is a circle around an equilateral cross. This form will also be familiar to anyone who has ever cast a ritual circle and called in the four directions. It will likewise be familiar as the Native American medicine wheel:
People I've known with turtle totems have been very connected to earth energy. Their medicine is extremely complex, embracing the mystery of our origins. In his book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews describes turtle as the "keeper of doors," explaining that it's association with shore areas connect it to the portals of the faerie realm.
When turtle shows up in your life, it can be a reminder to connect to mother earth and to bring your spirituality into physical manifestation.
If you have a Turtle totem, you must be mindful of returning to the Earth what she has given you. Honor the creative source within you. Use water and earth energies to create a harmonious flow in your life. Ask the Earth for assistance and her riches will pour forth.
If a Turtle totem shows up in your life, slow down the pace of your life. Bigger, stronger, faster are not always the best ways to reach your goals.
Turtle is fine teacher of the art of grounding. When you learn to ground yourself to Earth's power and strength, you place focus on your thoughts and actions and use the Earth's limitless energies rather than your own to accomplish your will.
“In the Mayan Myth of Creation, the paddler gods transported the Maize gods in a huge canoe that corresponded to the Milky Way until they arrived at the place of creation that we know as the belt of the constellation Orion. The Maya saw Orion's belt as a huge cosmic turtle. The god Chak cracked open the back of the cosmic turtle with a lightning stone. Watered and nurtured by the Hero Twins, the Maize Gods grew from the crack in the back of the turtle, which is now represented by the Ballcourt all across the Yucatan.
This structure is a representation and hommage to the great cosmic turtle.” http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/261970
In addition, the Maya used three stars in the constellation Orion: The great blue giant, Rigel, Kappa Orionis, the star Saiph and the belt star, Alnitak. These three stars form an equilateral triangle called, “The Three Stones of the Hearth”. They represent the Maya hearth, made of three stones placed in a triangular pattern. http://www.astras-stargate.com/orion.htm
In my last post, Drunvalo Melchizedek's presentation explores the appearance of the "flower of life" in ancient ruins and artifacts all over the world. His discussion of its use in the Essene community and ancient Greece brought to mind something I noticed amidst the buzz about the possible discovery of The Jesus Family Tomb. Much remains unsettled regarding the tomb, and the ossuaries, with their intriguing inscriptions. But, in watching the Discovery Channel documentaries, what struck me was the vividly inscribed symbology. The flower of life appears repeatedly on these ancient Jewish "bone boxes," no matter whose remains are actually in them.
This ossuary is purported to be that of Mary Magdelene, or Mariamne, and a representation of the flower of life is clearly evident. The inscribed name is also Greek, which could point the migration of the symbology, but perhaps not.
There were other ossuaries visible in the documentaries, some that had nothing to with the any Jesus tomb theory. Many of them displayed flower of life imagery. Here, for instance, is an ossuary belonging to the Israeli Antiquities collection.
This incredibly ornate ossuary is believed by many experts to contain the bones of the Biblical figure Caiaphas. (Iosef Bar-Caiapha)
As I was rummaging around the web for images, this morning, I noticed another curious parallel. One of the images from the archaeological excavation of the Talpiot Tomb, which is believed by some experts to be the long, lost tomb of Jesus and his family, brought to mind another image.
Drunvalo Melchizedek has been in my thoughts, of late. As I said, in this diary, I have been pondering his theories on potential pole shift and other dramatic changes that may be occurring in our very near future. I have posted a YouTube player of one of Drunvalo's lectures, which gives an overview of his Flower of Life curriculum.
I studied the Flower of Life and trained, with Drunvalo, to teach the program, about 10 years ago. It was the culmination of a sort of quest that began the evening I first heard about this unusual man and his ideas. I learned about the Flower of Life by happenstance. I was doing readings for a kind of new age social club. I occasionally subbed for their regular reader. It was a last minute call, but I was free that Friday evening, and I enjoyed doing readings at their events. When I got there, things were in a little disarray. The featured speaker had abruptly canceled, leaving the organizer in a bind. He asked one of the group members to speak, off the cuff, about this "flower of life thing" he was always talking about. The man agreed. He spoke without notes or any preparation about the practice he had found so meaningful, and about this man with the funny name, who had so touched his life. I was spellbound.
I would hard pressed to explain exactly why it made such an impression. It was more emotional, more intuitive, than logical. The thing that called me most from the entire speech was this thing he called "sacred geometry." This made no sense at all. I hate math, was a terrible math student, and am, frankly, math impaired. Yet, inexplicably, when I heard this new term, it was like waking from a dream. The phrase was poetry. It meant something to me, but I had no idea why.
I was also effected by the suggestion of pole shift. I remembered Edgar Cayce's prediction of such an event, which Drunvalo's material put into a new context. And, because of my own innate connection to cetaceans, I quite enjoyed the idea that whales and dolphins were highly evolved beings, of higher consciousness than humans. That is certainly how I experience them.
Unfortunately, the speaker, who had so well conveyed Drunvalo's ideas, had no idea how or where I could take this training myself. He had a phone number for a trainer, in Brooklyn, he said, but he didn't even know if it was still in service. It wasn't.
It was well over a year later that I heard the name Drunvalo Melchizedek, again. A regular customer of the new age bookstore where I worked had just discovered the material and promised to loan me the video of a lecture and put me in touch with a Flower of Life instructor. She was good on her word. I began arrangements to sponsor the instructor in my home to teach the six day workshop. Then, in a series of bizarre synchronicities, I found myself registered to take the 3 day version of the workshop, in order to quickly go off to Mexico, and train to be an instructor, myself. It fell together as if by magic.
There is much of what Drunvalo teaches, on which I am agnostic. I can't speak to the veracity of all of his theories. I do, however, believe that he believes them. His sincerity is genuine and endearing. He is as humble and real in person as he appears in any of his lectures. I think he is strongest when he explains sacred geometry and the "flower of life" itself.
If you find yourself getting kind of "sleepy" when you listen to this material, you're not alone. In both "Flower of Life" workshops, I found myself experiencing something like narcolepsy. Several cups of coffee later, I figured out that I was simply being thrown into a low alpha brainwave, as my conscious mind became rapidly overwhelmed by something indescribably powerful. Something about this material speaks directly to my subconscious mind, connects me with past life experience, and to my own sense of "knowing." Other people have described, to me, strange sensations in their heads. Some people, of course, are capable of remaining perfectly lucid.
So, I offer up this video lecture. It's a little long, spanning 18 separate videos of roughly 10 minutes each. But, it's a nice introduction to the man and his ideas. Enjoy.
Michael Hayes explores the replicated numerical patterns in nature, religion, music, and the universal order. None of this should be new to students of sacred geometry, but it is in interesting treatment and conversation.
I've added this book to the bookstore here. Of related interest, one very strange movie treatment of sacred geometry and big number theory, Pi.
Lying fallow on the third floor, above shops and a travel agency, is a Masonic Temple built in 1923, but lost in a sheriff's sale in 1953; a sort of archaeological find in the business district of Manasquan NJ.
Standing in the Manasquan temple Friday, Goldstein said the room was designed to be a representation of the temple of King Solomon.
The two columns, one topped with a globe and another with an orb depicting stars, would traditionally be placed on either side of a door that was only used by candidates for Masonry. The candidates would have to walk through the door and between the columns three times during their initiation process, he said.
The Masons use symbols traditionally used by builders, including the square and compass, to teach moral lessons such as to "square your actions," Goldstein said.
The Manasquan temple was used by both the Royal Arch chapter and Wall Lodge 73 of the Masons until the group hit financial hard times during the Great Depression.
The temple's carved mahogany furnishings, Goldstein said, bear the same inscriptions as the temple walls and can now be found in his Spring Lake Heights lodge. Over the years, the lodge has taken in the remnants of Wall Lodge 73 and others from Spring Lake, Ocean Grove and Belmar and now has 300 members.
Rutkowski said the third floor's large room would have been used for regular membership meetings and the conferring of degrees to members.
"It's still well-preserved. It's a beautiful area," he said of the temple.
However, when asked about the meaning of the hieroglyphics on the walls, Rutkowski said, "I really don't know if I can tell you that. Some of that stuff I can't even read. It's the cryptic part of the Masons."
But, he added, "It's all scriptural, it's all out of the Bible."
So is there any hope of restoring this lovely bit of history? Sadly, it doesn't look promising.
There was even some talk a while back of turning the building's third-floor hallway into a Masonic history museum in an attempt to raise funds to restore the temple, all to no avail, she said.
The Masons "would love to restore it, but we don't have the funds," Rutkowski said. "Someday, we might, but at this point it would just be a dream."
You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round... Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle. The nation's hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.
-- Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man
Which is the long way 'round my saying that I love this art. I won't be posting the images here, because I think they're proprietary, but Edward Winkleman has reproduced a number of images by Julie Evans. If the spheres within sheres print I included in my last post looks like something that was snatched out of my head, this is like a kind of jazz riff on what goes on inside my head. From the press release:
Evans works slowly and painstakingly, rendering delicate garlands and intricate mandalas, and filling large expanses of color with tiny, countless, vertical strokes. She creates ambiguous spaces within spaces that are at once both micro and macro in realm, keeping the viewer up close to these intimate works, but with the sense of their broader reach into place and time.
She has worked in India and Nepal, including travel and research supported by a Fulbright Scholarship studying with a master of Indian miniature painting. Critic Mario Naves wrote of Evans' work that she "creates vistas infinitely more expansive than the physical parameters of the paintings support. Clearly the conventions of Indian miniature paintings have become second nature to her."
These pieces definitely evoke mandalas and what I find really interesting is the use of sacred geometry. I'd have to break out my tiny, little, screen-sized calipers -- in other words, something I do not have -- to determine if the proportions are exact, but there looks to be a lot of use of phi ratios and golden mean spirals. There are also beautiful lotus images throughout.
I've been thinking a lot about lotus's lately and recently added a handful of the nicer images I could find to the art gallery. The lotus image is one that has been so overused in spiritual circles that it's been largely reduced to a cliche. The symbolism is so profound that I think this is unfortunate.
When we moved into our new house last year, one of the items left behind by the previous owners was a bowl of black, decorative rocks, with a cheap, fabric lotus plunked on top. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I really don't think they were Buddhists, so the imagery is probably completely accidental. This, in part, is what makes it so profound. Amazing the way we all just pluck these things out of the Akashic record, without the vaguest notion that we have done so. The image, of course, evokes the Buddha's "Lotus Sutra." Loosely translated: From the darkest mud comes the most beautiful lotus. So I have kept it. Tacky, Michael's, fabric lotus and all.
But my fascination with the lotus is more rooted in Egyptian mythology and owes to something I plucked out of the Akashic record many years ago in meditation. I scribbled the images down because I did not understand them at all. It was a disjointed collection of death/rebirth images. In the middle of the page was this strange looking flower with a face emerging from the center. It was only years later that I stumbled on the Egyptian lotus mythology that explained the image. Here's the short version from A Dictionary of Ancient Egypt:
The lotus signified Re' 's power and birth and was celebrated in the Loutus Offering, a hymn sung in the temple on festival days, especially at the cultic center in Edfu. The hymn referred to the god Re' as the "Great Lotus," which emerged from the primeval pool at the moment of creation.
Perhaps someday I'll write the long version, which is complex and beautiful with tendrils moving through numerous myths. But for now I just endorse you to look at Julie Evans's art.
Also of interest on Edward Winkleman's blog, a discussion of the abortive attempt to exhibit the chocolate Jesus. I just don't understand the outrage. Is it the Easter season conflation of Jesus with a giant chocolate bunny? Or is it the presence of the penis? Because I'm pretty sure Jesus had a penis. I know the Biblical accounts don't go into too much detail on that, but even so. With all his rantings on sacrilege and bigotry, I wonder what Bill Donohue's views are on, say, the tomahawk chop. So far I think he's been mum.
This photo, dubbed the "Eye of God," has been circling the web, and recently found its way into my inbox.
The photo is from the NASA website and depicts the Helix Nebula. According to Snopes the nebula is not that colorful in real life. The photo is actually a composit of 9 different photographs of the nebula. Here's another photo of the same nebula, also from the NASA website.
So the real explanation may not be as "feel-good" as the urban legend floating around the web. Sorry, no matter what you've read, sending the photo to seven people on your email list won't bring you luck. But if you're willing to contemplate the wonder of a planetary star in entropy, it's truly magnificent.
I was struck by this image for another reason. It is an example of replicated geometries. It is not accidental that certain cardinal shapes recur throughout our reflective reality. "Sacred geometry," which pertains to the architecture of matter, ascribes significance to certain forms. This is why we see them in so many sacred symbols. The shapes themselves demonstrate the geometric requirements of manifest form.
The eye shape is sacred to many cultures. The variously attributed "Eye of Ra" or "Eye of Horus" in ancient Egypt is one example.
Legends and images of eyes permeate both mythology and superstition and with all manner of magical attributions. The evil eye is common to the folklore which has been disseminated outward from Mediterranean cultures. I've known many Greek and Italian Americans who wore a single disembodied eye in jewelry and on key chains; protection from the evil eye.
Every US dollar bears the "Eye of Providence." In the orignal sketches for the Great Seal, it was a single disembodied eye floating over a truncated pyramid, surrounded by a "glory." In its final form it was encapsulated in a triangle, reminiscent of the Egyptian benben; an icon of manifestation.
The "eye," then, captures our imagination in a way that few forms do. The geometry of the eye, with its alternations of spherical and vesica pisces shapes, tells the story of manifest creation. In sacred geometry the sphere represents the unity from which all manifestation springs. The vesica pisces, or almond shape, occurs when spheres overlap sheres. It is the shape of cell division, when one becomes two. That duality and oppostion makes possible the wave form out of which all things generate. Robert Lawlor explains in his book Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and practice.
The idea of the unknowable Unity at the beginning has been the basis of many philosphies and mythological systems. While Shakhara, with the Buddhism of a certain period, posited the void as a fundamental assumption, the main stream of Hinduism has always rested on the notion of the One, the Divine, who divided himself within himself to form his own self-created opposite, the manifested universe. Within the divine self-regard, three qualities of himself became distininguished: Sat (immobile being), Chit (consciousness-force) and Ananda (bliss). The original unity, represented by a circle, is then restated in the concept of the Real-Idea, the thought of God, which the Hindus called the bindu or seed, what we call the geometrical point. The point, according to the Shiva Sutra Vimarshini Commentaries, forms the limit between the manifest and non-manifest, between the spatial and the non-spatial. The bindu corresponds to the 'seed-sound idea' of the Tantras. The Divine transforms himself into sound vibration (nada), and proliferates the universe, which is not different from himself, by giving form or verbal expression to this self-idea. Ramakrishna summarized the scripture by saying, 'the Universe is nothing but the Divine uttering his own name to himself.'
Thus the universe springs forth from the Word. This transcendent Word is only a vibration (a materialization) of the Divine thought which gives rise to the fractioning of unity which is creation. The Word (saabda in Sanskrit, the logos of the Christians and Gnostics), whose nature is pure vibration, represents the essential nature of all that exists. Concentric vibrational waves span outward from innumerable centres and their overlappings (interference patterns) form nodules of trapped energy which become the whirling, fiery bodies of the heavens. The Real-Idea, the Purusha, the inaudible and invisible point of the sound-idea remains fixed and immutable. Its names, however, can be investigated through geometry and number. This emitted sound, the naming of God's idea, is what the Pythagoreans would call the Music of the Spheres.
Seeing the Eye of God, then, is not a once in a lifetime opportunity, seen through a telescope. We see the Eye of God everytime we look into the eyes of another, or into our own eyes in a mirror. For "God is an infinite sphere whose circumference is everywhere and whose center is nowhere."
LaVaughn is a psychic intuitive with clairvoyant, clairaudient, and empathic ability. She is certified in Aromatherapy by the Morris Institute of Natural Therapeutics, Crystal Therapy by the Academy of Earth's Medicine, and Sandlin Technique Bodywork by Virginia Sandlin, Cherokee Mystic and founder of the Sandlin Institute of Matrimatix.
All new blog entries are now crossposted at Celestial Reflections, a group blog. All comments on newer entries are welcomed there. If you are a spiritually themed blogger, and wish to crosspost entries there, just let me know.
The eye shape is sacred to many cultures. The variously attributed "Eye of Ra" or "Eye of Horus" in ancient Egypt is one example.
Every US dollar bears the "Eye of Providence." In the orignal sketches for the 
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