AXLE TREE

I live near a living tree... a limber pine... that grows on a ridge in the foothills of the Rockies. It entered its sapling youth centuries before Columbus landed on the continent he had the hubris to claim for his branch of the species. Lying on my back under the great spreading branches, the wind stirring the summer boughs, the greens scintillating from yellow to blue & back... turquoise, emerald, avocado.... the sun dazzling & daubing in penetrating strokes I know absolutely the earth belongs to the trees. Under their quiet majesty I feel in my core the creation is perfect & cannot be perfected. From root to sprig. Eyes closed.   I am at peace.

THE RED BULLS OF THE SUN

Odysseus, the great first hero of the western tradition, was cautioned never to kill the bulls of the sun. His men, starving, could not resist. When Odysseus came back to camp he found his men eating of the forbidden flesh & all but Odysseus were doomed from that moment forward. As humans we are suspended between two worlds, the world of the spirit & the world of the flesh. On the plateau above Delphi I came upon two red bulls under an ancient tree. I was filled with a moment of fear. The bulls were huge, unfenced, with sharp horns. I saw them suddenly with my otherworldly eyes. In that moment, I knew myself as Odysseus. I heeded the warning. I saw the bulls of the sun were to be known but not to be possessed. I bowed my youthful head & accepted the gift of my vision. The bulls watched me in silence with their soft gaze. They let me pass. The sun above was blindingly bright.

SCARAB

 The ancient Egyptians saw the lowly dung beetle as a symbol of the resurrection... each day the sun god Ra was reborn & the sun was rolled towards the horizon. Albert Camus saw the myth of Sisyphus, perpetually rolling his boulder up the steep slope, as a metaphor for modern man. I saw the bugs in real time on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Greece. As as works of creation these insects are hilarious, miraculous... delightful. Pushing their globes of cow manure, filled with eggs, over the dusty ground.   Creativity equals Spirituality. The Creation is endlessly unfolding in perpetual beauty. It is marvelous. It is going to be alright. The world is perfect. I know because the scarab beetles showed me.

THE ORACLE

“There are more things in Heaven & Earth, Horatio,  than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. Thus saith the bard. Have you not stood in places you know hold mysterious, interstellar properties? I know you have. There are sacred spots that hold enormous spiritual energy. Maybe it is alignment of the geomagnetic fields. Maybe they are portals. Maybe they are worm holes. Maybe it is a trick of the forests yonder & the mountains beyond or maybe we place the magic grid of our thought patterns over the landscape & wish for the miraculous.Delphi is one such place. For hundreds of years leaders from around the world came to ask the riddles of the Sphinx. The Sybil from her cloisters would emerge & give the reading. “The Oracle has spoken”. stood above the ruins, above the gulf of Corinth, high up under Mount Parnassus where Apollo, God of the Sun lives. The nine muses circled the summit. Below me Scarabs, like sisters of Sisyphus, scurried, pushing globes of dung, laden with eggs. Two red bulls watched from beneath the Acacia.  The Sun was King. The Moon was queen. I stood at the centre of the vortex. All was still.

AWARENESS = DIVINITY

My recent insight: Divinity is in direct proportion to awareness. The more aware I become the more I approach that Divinity. Absolute awareness is synonymous with absolute Divinity. Hence for me the sun itself becomes one & the same with the luminosity of the source. True there may be a source of Light more brilliant than the sun but all we know comes from the brilliance of our star. Astronomy teaches us that our planet, our home, hived off the sun itself.  All our light, all our life, comes directly from that brilliance. It stands as always as the luminous centre of our awareness.  There may be other places to live in this great multiverse but there is no doubt that the planet Earth is the most beauteous most abundant spot in all Creation. We must open our eyes. We are living in the Garden of Eden. Water. Light. My quest... your quest is to enter into the luminous. Let that light pour in. Manifest the Light yourself. The more aware... the more radiant you become the closer we approach the source of Light of Divine Awareness that engenders us forever.

HOLY GRAIL

The King of Cups is my card in the Tarot Deck. The King of Cups has perfect mastery over the element in question: water; feelings, the soul, beliefs, matters of the heart. He offers you & I , in his outstretched hand, the Holy Grail. It speaks to me, at my core, of my old friend John who knows me better than anyone I know. John is a brilliant psychiatrist.... a “healer of the soul” (in direct translation from the Greek). It is a profound sadness when people become disordered & ailing in the function of their minds & more deeply of their souls. All illness, in the end, is spiritual illness. I deeply respect the physicians willing to address rationally & compassionately those of us who have become unhinged from our true selves. It takes great courage to proffer an open hand to show a way  out of the fire of their chaos. John with clear eyes & unblinking gaze & deep skill is a master of the art of healing the soul.

SHIP

The metaphor we will all agree upon is The Journey. The Journey through space. The Journey through time. The Journey through life. The Spiritual Journey. Who are your traveling companions? Where are you from? Where are you going? Which vessel have you chosen? Who is the captain? Is there a captain? When I was 26, I spent three months hitchhiking through Spain. I learned for the first time to be alone with myself. I learned to trust complete strangers. Somehow I always arrived at the place I needed to be. In one piece. I fall in love with my life all over again. There are so many places to go. So many wonders to see. So many people to meet. My fellow traveller, let us walk up the path aways together. Where are you from? Where are you going? Tell me your story.