500 Days till 12:XII:TWELVE: Crop Circle prophecies

500 Days until 12:XII:TWELVE

'Angel' crop circle Barbury Castle, July 2, 2011: dimensional wormhole or Mayan 13-moon calendar? Images courtesy CircleChasers & Nardeep Pujji

Humanity loves prophecies: our histories are full of them.

According to several ancient cultures, we are entering a new phase in human development, human consciousness, earth-consciousness, union with the Divine.

Astrology was to the ancestral mind a gift from the future, the heavenly bodies’ allowing the human race a glimpse of time’s far shore, a beacon through uncharted waters –literally steering the human vessel by the stars. And –however skeptical you may be– all ancient cultures had their oracle, allowed themselves to be guided by astrological readings based on ever-changing celestial movement and planetary alignments and collisions.

Many have become dissociated from the daily rhythms of the Earth, forget to look nightly at the stars and their feelings seem divorced from reality –whatever that is. The thought of one’s emotions actively being influenced by the electromagnetic and orbital changes of planets in the solar system — let alone the distant stars — is often ridiculed as being naïve, even ignorant.

Solstitial full moonrise, stone circle Northeast Scotland Midwinter 2004, photo Marian Youngblood

But our ancestors were not ignorant. Unlike us, they were daily in touch with the earth, aware of her ‘forcefield’ — for want of a better word– her seismic and electromagnetic fluctuations which altered weather patterns, brought bounty and drought, changed seasons. They were so aware of such regular rhythmical cycles that they devised stone circles to measure and signal points in that cosmic compass, hours/days in that solar and lunar calendar. From modern scientific data collected at some stone circles, it is thought likely that our ancestors knew where and when risings of the sun and moon affected rings of stone to produce increased ‘flow’ — a power not unlike electricity as we know it.

The calendar of the ancient Maya has become significant in recent times as a wayshower to help us navigate through the choppy waters of group consciousness. In Mayan calculation, their ancient Long Count calendar — a measure of Man’s rising to meet the gods — is beginning to wind down. We are approaching the End Times, the Moment of Cosmic All-change, the point on the ecliptic where the Sun (and the Earth in orbit around it) comes into conjunction with the center of our Galaxy at 11:11 on December solstice 2012.

There are 500 days from Lammas this year to the 10-day prelude to solstitial union with galactic center: on 12:12:12 we shall either have completed planetary ascension or we will know our work has been in vain. I prefer to think we shall complete the program — that we as a species are destined to rise to the challenge facing us.

New Age philosophy and astrology support a path to ascension required of its vision-keepers, lightworkers (through meditation and right living) as a process of uniting these two conflicting polarities, emphasizing the need to bring harmony to the male-female yin-yang, left and right brain hemispheres which must operate before the Earth may return to a balanced state of wholeness and oneness.

Life spiral: 2011 crop circle at Avebury Trusloe July 13th (left) & neolithic carved rock, Argyll c. 3000BC

Crop circles this month have featured both the yin-yang (Louth, July 20), several spirals (July 13 Avebury) and an elaborate serpent motif (Inkpen, July 29), the symbol of all life, as well as orbiting bodies reminiscent of the inner solar system. See Siderealview blog for more detail.

The serpent, symbolic of Life, seen in the snaking of equinox sunset light down the pyramid of Chichen Itza, is common to many archaic worlds: medical science’s caduceus, Hermes the messenger to the gods, and the Garden of Eden would not be the same without him.

According to the ancient Maya, he rises through the world Ages, culminating with the flowering of human consciousness — NOW. To the Maya in their Long Count calendar, the Cosmos consists of Nine Underworlds or levels of development that complete in 2012. So important to their cosmological measurements were the numbers Nine (levels), Twenty (days, katun) and Thirteen (moons) that these powerful digits were expressed in their most significant monument construction. Mayan pyramids all have nine tiers or platforms.

The twenty-year (katun)cycle is intrinsic in all their calculation.

The longest tun-based time cycle was called the hablatun, each totalling 460,800.000,000 days = 1.26 billion years. Thirteen hablatuns made up the first Underworld (the initial creation cycle, beginning 3114BC) giving a total duration of 13 x 1.26 MM days or 16.4 billion years. This time period of 16.4 billion years is very close to current scientific estimates for the formation of matter from light at the birth of creation, or the ‘Big Bang’.

Each of the nine levels represented a different Underworld — expressed horizontally in the pyramids’ construction. Just as the levels of the pyramids are seen to become progressively smaller as they tier towards the top, so too the amount of time in each Underworld becomes shorter in duration as they progress hierarchically through the calculation.

It is interesting in a lunar calendrical context that this weekend –July 31-August 1– marks the Leo New Moon: a powerful coming-together of celestial forces following on from the Mayan Day-out-of-time, Monday 25 July 2011. And on August 1st we, the human race, walk through the dimensional wormhole and enter the Fifth Day of the Ninth and final Underworld of the Mayan Longcount.

This coincides with Lammas, Celtic quarter day, fire festival of the ancient Britons which was celebrated at the height of Nature’s season of bounty, the middle of the fruiting year when Earth empties her cornucopia into the laps of an unsuspecting world. As the midpoint (in all calendars ancient and modern) between summer solstice, June 21st, and autumn equinox, Septmember 23rd, Lammas –Lughnasad, the festival of light god, Lugh, revered in indigenous harvesting communities in the Old World– marks the point in the celestial sphere where the Sun culminates, arriving at 15 Leo on August 7th, a week from now.

Ancient Brittonic communities marked Lammas as the most joyous of all fire festivals, often feasting and dancing, sharing and giving for three weeks before LAMMAS and three weeks after. During the Neolithic, stone circles were used for such fire festivals, the central floor marked by successive generations of fire-burning, heavily pounding feet which revellers flattened like a remarkably sophisticated dance arena.

Video of West Woodhay Down, Inkpen crop circle July 29th 2011,
thanks to Shumnyabai (Joan Wheaton): Divine Serpent with Neptunian forked tongue and rattler tail reflecting Maya god Kukulkan (Quetzalcoatl), the divine feathered serpent who gives life.

Miniature tufted crop circle appeared in pristine East Field, Alton Barnes on the morning of July 26, 2011, after a night of torrential rain, photo courtesy Bert Janssen

Now, in the 21stC, we are greeted with the mystical equivalent for our time — crop circles, created electromagnetically — and capable, through the miracle of late age images and electronic media, of stimulating our primeval alert system, piqueing our human pineal gland into producing natural mellowing melatonin and driving our dormant DNA into revving up to a higher gear. We are entering the brief Mayan Fifth Day — a portal of opportunity which completes on August 17th.

We should use it.

HUMANITY HEALING alert
Humanity Healing Community acts as one of the new world’s wayshowers in suggesting that the arrival of the Lammas/New Moon/Fifth Day is even more potent because as a point in consciousness — it encourages us to choose actively how we want our new world to be.

Roundway(2) pine cone crop circle, July 25, 2011. The human pineal gland is massively affected by sunlight, goes into catatonia if deprived of light

‘What do you Want?
The Universe is asking and waiting for your answer.
The cosmic force of Creation needs you to focus the lens, to get clear on your vision, your dreams, your intent. You can take a giant step forward with whatever you want this weekend when three energetic gateways converge.
There is both an opportunity and a responsibility in this.’
Humanity Healing: A call to focus

Thoughts, intent, actions, emotions are intensified — go quantum — at a time like this. The energetic portal is more than an opportunity given us by our overlighting Presence — Humanity’s Oversoul — it is an instruction. We can each make a difference, add a contribution to the fate of the human race.

This may sound rather dramatic. Actually, it is. This is a time, unprecedented in human history. On the esoteric level, we are told we asked to come and to be here –incarnate– at this time. On the psychic level, we are sensing a coming-together of many traditions, a meeting of minds from many populations and backgrounds. Many spiritual leaders of the world’s diverse faiths are encouraging us –willing us to take the plunge.

Planetary transformation. It’s what Carl Sagan would have called our stepping up to take on the mantle of a Level I civilization. He and Kardashev would have been proud.

Prophecies of indigenous people everywhere point to the times we are going through now as a period of intense purification, a transition from our current cycle to whatever comes next.

Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation; Chief of the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs, Iroquois Confederacy

“So then, what is the message I bring to you today? Is it our common future? It seems to me that we are living in a time of prophecy, a time of definitions and decisions. We are the generation with the responsibilities and the option to choose the the path of life for the future of our children, or the life and path which defies the Laws of Regeneration. Even though you and I are in different boats –you in your boat and we in our canoe — we share the same River of Life: what befalls me, befalls you. And downstream, downstream in this River of Life, our children will pay for our selfishness, for our greed, and for our lack of vision.

“500 years ago, you came to our pristine lands of great forests, rolling plains, crystal clear lakes and streams and rivers. And we have suffered in your quest for God, for Glory, for Gold. But, we have survived. Can we survive another 500 years of ‘sustainable development?’ I don’t think so. Not in the definitions they put ‘sustainable’ in today. I don’t think so. So, reality and the natural law will prevail: The Law of the Seed and Regeneration.

“We can still alter our course. It is NOT too late. We still have options. We need the courage to change our values to the regeneration of our families, the life that surrounds us. Given this opportunity, we can raise ourselves. We must join hands with the rest of Creation and speak of Common Sense, Responsibility, Brotherhood, and PEACE. We must understand that The Law *is* the Seed and only as True Partners can we survive.”
Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, and a Chief of the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs

All the Prophets said this moment would come. The Hopi say we are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the Bird Tribes, circling and massing, congregating for our shared flight through cyberspace, to reach consciousness, nay, communion with that all-pervasive force of the Universe, call it what you will. We have five hundred days to go. So, are we ready?

Coincidental with the 500-day look ahead, Father Time is presenting us with a seven-day energy window in present time for us to focus our intent. From Ramadan/new moon through Mayan 5 I’x (Gregorian August 3rd,2011 –this week) until August 5th–still to come– we would do well to use this cosmic energetic helper: 5 I’X was to the Maya symbolic of the Force of the Universe and the day of commemoration of the World.

As a springboard from which we step off and project ourselves into the new, Culture has not prepared us for what comes next. No avid scanning of ancient texts, no guru, no world leader, no reincarnation of the Spirit of Delphi or channeled message from Arcturus can prepare us any better than we can ourselves for what may greet us on the other side of this Portal in contemporary Time.

The Human Race has reached the Finish Line. We have to step forward and claim our prize, some call it our birthright, gird our loins and step into the blue yonder.

The energy window is OPEN. Let’s fly together.

What a trip.

©2011 Marian Youngblood

The Future is Crystal –reworking a WIP

Celestial motif at Honey Street, crop circle formation of June 26, 2011, photo Gordon Burns

When the Crop Circle season really gets going, as it did last week in mid-June this year, their mesmerizing patterns seem to reach out and grab hold of human imagination. And, if you’re a croppie they don’t let go until you’re thoroughly immersed in the ethos of their messages and their beautiful craftsmanship in the corn.

I am hooked every year: I go through the unbeliever stage in early April, when it’s a question of ‘will they–won’t they appear?’ and then when midsummer comes [this year, 2011, the main season was unimaginably late and huge doubt attended any crop appearance], I’m a convert all over again.

In winter the mind wanders to what seasonal miracles appeared and what might have been.

I wrote a whole crop circle-cum-crystal novel for a writing contest in the month of January 2010 and have yet to polish and rework, re-edit and improve it for final submission. So, it is still a work-in-progress, my current WIP. But, because we’re in mid-crop circle season right now, I am daring to share just a taste of its flavor: hope you enjoy. This is one of the middle chapters for
THE FUTURE IS CRYSTAL.

THE FUTURE IS CRYSTAL by Marian Youngblood Chapter TWENTY–ONE
Just as Mark said it would, the trail led towards the main section: the astrolabe, he called it. On the ground you couldn’t tell, but Megan had overheard Colin and Mark discussing over Mark’s laptop, the intricate way the crop circle had been laid out, complete with its new tail formation that had happened in a flash of light last night. The whole thing was beyond amazing. This time the light orbs, the crop circle creators or whatever you wanted to call them, had done something truly out of this world. And, even more miraculous, Mark had managed to capture them on film with his special Kirlian camera.
Even more miraculous, Megan had managed to get some real cool footage on her own camera. It was just a regular state-of-the-art video, but when Colin persuaded Mark to upload the results, she was thrilled to see she had actually got light orbs on screen. How cool was that.

Astrolabe crop circle from solstice, June 21st, 2009, 'phase one' at Alton Barnes

Now they followed Colin along the curved line through the ‘orbit’ he’d chanced upon first off: looked like Jupiter at the central axis, he said, but each orbit had smaller shadows leading to the largest planetary body. If they followed the Jupiter orbit all the way round they’d reach the astrolabe. From the main stem, they could see it all laid out, straight down the field into the distance — at least four football pitches — down the central axis of the tail.
 He led them carefully along the single file path, moving from the smallest circle to one slightly larger, then larger then larger as they progressed along the orbital arm.
Megan followed close behind with the others trailing a little. She paced slowly past neatly-folded wheat stalks lying exactly parallel one with the other as if a medieval monk had come and gently laid each bundle of stems in neat rows like a rush mat leading to a temple. Colin heard Megan’s breathing –- gentle and rhythmical -– measure for measure placing her footsteps where he put his. Neither of them wanted to disturb the pattern, lying so lovingly in a prearranged layout, willing them on through a series of ever larger ‘moons’ to where the orbits connected to the central solar system axis. From there, Colin was determined, from what he’d seen on Mark’s screen, that the pattern opened out and they would find a space to set down all their equipment and really get a feel for the place.

Alton Barnes Astrolabe crop circle 2009 'second phase', June 22nd

There was definitely a sensation in the air and it wasn’t only his sensing like a dowser: he could feel it: a tangible electrical charge.

‘These stems are bent at the node ever so gently, but the stem isn’t bruised or broken in any way. It’s amazing.’ Megan was right behind him.

‘I know; I was noticing that. It’s so carefully contrived.’
Colin couldn’t help himself. He was quick to launch into the scientific explanation, given any excuse. He continued to pace slowly forward, but spoke quietly over his shoulder to her.
‘You know, It’s been scientifically documented that soil samples taken from inside crop circles show changes in crystalline structure and mineral composition. Expert analysis concludes that heat of 1500ºC would be needed to create such a change.’ Megan gasped, but kept her feet on the path in front of her.

‘So the orbs we saw last night were capable of that kind of heat?’

‘Seems so.’

‘Unbelievable.’ They both continued pacing, aware that the other two were gradually catching up with them.
Mark gave a hoot, like a bird. He too must have noticed the bent nodes on the unbruised plants.

‘There’s a big one up ahead,’ Colin called out, knowing Megan was so close behind him she probably couldn’t see, but to give the others a brief guide. Even though these new generation wheat crops were agriculturally developed to grow roughly no higher than knee height, it was still pretty difficult to get any kind of vista; Colin could see a widening area, with a lot of tufted decorative clumps surrounding it like cherries on a Christmas cake. It had to be the joining of phases one and two and the start of phase three.
He decided to continue his little lecture, since Megan was probably new to the whole thing and might be interested. He’d always been quick to spot a new convert.

‘Did you know crop circles also show evidence of ultrasound? you know, the kind of frequencies that are known to hover at ancient sites like Avebury, stone circles and such like?’

‘No, I didn’t.’ She sounded interested. So he went on.

‘And like all ancient sacred sites, crop circles appear at the intersecting points of the Earth’s magnetic pathways of energy; the nodes. Therefore the size and shape of a crop circle is typically determined by the area and position of these node points at the time of their appearance.’

‘Sorry, you lost me there. I don’t quite get that. Say again.’

‘Well, this electric and magnetic energy, it’s quite common here round Avebury. The whole of Wiltshire, in fact; the Salisbury plain…’

‘Yes, I know about Stonehenge.’ She was still following devotedly, both his argument and his footsteps. He liked that.

‘Thing is, it usually happens in chalk; not so common elsewhere. There are areas where they have similar electromagnetism, parts of Oxfordshire have deep underground waterways, aquifers — and Northumbria. Northeast Scotland is pretty heavily imbued with it. But there the aquifers are in granite. It’s something they think may even have protected the ancient sites -– here especially -– from being broken up; something about it that can interact with human brainwave patterns, and because the human body is itself electromagnetic, crop circles are known to affect people’s biorhythms. Consequently, it’s not unusual for people to experience heightened states of awareness and spontaneous healings in crop circles –- a situation also common to sacred sites and holy places. That effect alone could have protected them from desecration.’

‘That’s interesting.’


Milk Hill, Alton Barnes crop circle phase three (end June, 2009), the 'tail' of the astrolabe, photo Lucy Pringle

‘So, you’ve noticed?’

‘Yes. For instance, back there, in that first little circle, I didn’t want to leave.’

‘I have to say you’re not alone in this. It’s been talked about a lot in recent years. The crowd that gathers at crop circles is usually very placid, peaceful. No rowdy demonstrations like a street crowd after a football match.’ He thought that was a pretty good analogy.

‘I wouldn’t expect that anyway. Must attract a different group, these formations.’

‘Yes.’
‘
So what were you saying about ultrasound? I thought lights were making the circles. Are you saying both sound and light?’

‘There’s no evidence to suggest…’ he stopped and looked back at her. ‘…until what your camera picked up last night. Now we’ll have to start all over.’ He laughed.

‘Well, what about the scientific evidence? You said…’

‘Yes. scientifically speaking, the plants are subjected to a short and intense burst of heat which softens the stems to bend 90º at the plant node just above the ground. They seem to re-harden into their new position without damage. They keep on growing. Research and lab tests suggest that ultrasound is capable of producing that kind of effect.’

‘But short bursts of intense LIGHT could do it, too, right?’

‘Well, with what you just provided the scientific establishment –- I mean, your great video footage -– might send them all back to the drawing board.’ He looked over his shoulder and gave her a congratulatory smile.

‘Wow. I like that. But it doesn’t explain how some of the crop lies in one direction and right next to it there it is lying at right angles; sometimes you get four different directions going in one space.’

‘True. I don’t know how they DO it. I just know that the process has been isolated to make it possible.’

‘Ah. So you don’t really know either. We’re all still guessing when it comes to the magical quality and the designs they come up with, right?’

‘Right.’ Colin thought he’d need a whole lot more time back at the drawing board to convince this new audience. He changed the subject. ‘Clearing coming up.’

‘OK.’ Megan glanced back. The other two had caught up and were right behind her. ‘Could you see anything as you came along? I’ve been a little in the shadow of the expert, here. Dogging his footsteps.’ She burst out laughing and Jane joined in.

‘Yes. He CAN get to be a little pedantic.’ Colin did not react. He’d apparently heard it all before. He stepped into the new space, stopped and laid his bags down gently on the matted ground.
The others joined him and paused to survey their new surroundings.

The vista was breathtaking. It did have a magical feel and it spread out in a swirling pattern that looked phenomenal. Like all the smaller circles, growing in size as they progressed round the curve, as well as the padded path by which they entered, the whole quadrant they stood in was matted at a level less than an inch above the ground and folded criss–cross over and back like a woven blanket. Only where the pattern reached the circle’s central point, did the direction and flow of the lay change, going the opposite way.
They were standing in an ellipse, rather than a pure circle; more the shape of a facial oval. There were four quadrants each with a separate directional lay. This gave the pattern a three – dimensional effect, foreshortening the optical distance, so the far edge of the ellipse seemed closer that it actually was. From their perspective, the complete formation must have stretched as much as thirty feet across and forty feet from side to side. They’d come in on a lateral arm of what appeared to be a graphical rendition of the sun, round which the planets with their little moons –- the spaces they’d walked through were Jupiter’s moons –- clung on one arm.
‘See how those two sides are like an ellipse stretched into points of a compass. Two points: left and straight across, forming a geometric outline. That leads to the sextant instrument, I’m sure of it. It’s acting like a compass needle for the astrolabe itself.’ The other three were silent, in awe of the formation. They let Colin speak. A third arm, to their right didn’t actually project, but led the eye all the way down the field, stretching to where they had parked the car. It had to be fully 800 feet long. 
Mark immediately dug out the laptop from his bag and dropped everything else on the ground.

‘I want to see how it compares: now that we have a kind of aerial shot, thanks to Megan and her camera last night, we can see exactly how it connects from here. The ground falls away from us to where the car is parked. Can you see?’ He pointed to nobody in particular. He was joined immediately by the two girls.
Colin started setting up his dowsing rods next to where he’d dropped his baggage on the forgiving wheat. He turned to Jane, who was starting to gesture if she should help.

‘No, you go ahead. It’s a great video. You should really see what it’s like, so you get an idea of our position here -– makes sense. Super idea, Mark.’ He left them in full chatter, and got back to hooking up his equipment.
Mark was already revving up. He had a rapt audience. He started pointing and gesticulating, fully absorbed.


Immaculate central 'lay' of the June 18th 2011 formation at Cow Drove Hill, Kings Somborne, Hampshire

‘See. We’re in the oval here, sort of the ‘face’ of the Sun and from here the full extent of all three phases are visible: not as brilliantly as Megan’s shots, but…’ He keyed up the passage in the footage where the final tail was completely formed, connecting the other two phases, but before it started standing on its tail like a 3D mirage. ‘Now, watch this.’ He went back a couple of minutes to where the orbs were actually forming the tail with its elusive coded symbols.
‘See how they do it? You’ve got the pattern with its teardrop-shaped center – that’s us here… then there’s the configuration of four connected circles on one side and five more circles of increasing diameters on arcs tethered back to the teardrop center. This is the one we came in on. That’s the bit these light guys’ buddies made last week. Phase one the astrolabe; phase two the planets in orbital arcs. The orbits, the little moons we walked through -– they’re just that bit more complex than the first. They happened overnight, too. Then five days later Megan and I get to see a third addition. And see…’ He traced with his finger on the screen the path the orbs had made. ‘See how they just etch and move, etch another line and move. It appears in seconds.’

‘Awesome.’ Both girls spoke together.
‘Kinda like Maya symbols or something from the early Mid–East –- scripts: you know, cuneiform.’

‘Wow. You’re right, Megan. Hear that, Colin? Megan says like Sumerian cuneiform or Egyptian hieratic. It is, you know.’

‘Problem is deciphering.’ Colin didn’t raise his head. He was preoccupied with his rods.

‘Has to be over eight hundred feet in length from the tip of that compass point back there to the other end of the tail, don’t you think, Colin?’

‘Yeah, one thousand feet, easily.’ He was still fixing rods together.
Megan had perceived something else. She was also pointing first to the laptop screen and then out into space over the field.

‘Each of the tail lines of code or whatever they are come up and attach to the ends of each orbit arc. Do you see that, Jane? sort of like a balance like the way you hold your crystal when you’re dowsing.’
Jane peered over her shoulder with a knowing look and then out at the field.

‘You’re right. The damn thing is telling us dowsing code. Did you get that, Colin?’ she called.

But this time Colin was up and away, totally engrossed in his own world, following his rods where they led him, outward from the middle of the ellipse toward a point where the solar system took off into the imaginary world of dreams: the tale of tails, the stuff of fantasy.

‘I think you’re right there, Megan. Better get my crystals into action.’ And Jane dug her quartz out of her pocket and held it up in front of her face.
The pale transparent beauty hung completely motionless for a moment, dangling in sympathy with the still air and glinting in the sunshine at the end of its slender thread. Then, as they watched, imperceptibly at first and then with more momentum, it began a clockwise spin.

Mark went back to studying the laptop images, but Megan couldn’t. She was completely mesmerized by the gleaming orb.
@2010-2011 Marian Youngblood ‘The Future is Crystal’

Three 2011 crop circles cluster round Honey Street: Barge Inn at upper left with orb #1CC left; centre #2 Knave of Swords, July 4th; upper right #3 cuneiform script, also July 4th, photo Olivier Morel

Interestingly, in 2011, when the season started to get busy — from summer solstice on — a series of ‘orb/orbit’ crop circle images have appeared — at Kings Somborne, Hampshire and near the Barge Inn at Honey Street, Wiltshire. The Barge Inn is famous for its ‘croppie’ clientele and, without fail, the fields in its vicinity get adorned every year at this time. Last year it was the 08/08 Honey Street fractal; this year there have already been three formations: two on July 4th and the spinning space object (photo, top, June 26th, 2011).

There has been much speculation and discussion about incoming intruders from space. Least of these was the June 27th Antarctic special, a non-starter, asteroid 2011-MD, so-called asteroid-doc, which passed earth at 1700UT with 7000 miles to spare. Others include varying reports on the threat posed by comet 2010-X1 Elenin, expected to cross Earth orbit in September. All seem to feature in the rash of orbiting bodies pictured in the 2011 crop circles.

This year’s season, having started late, may still surprise us. If you like, you can take this excerpt of my novel, The Future is Crystal, as a little taster of croppie things to come.
©2011Marian Youngblood

July 4th Honey Street Crop formation #3 points North (rt): 'Milk Hill' script, cuneiform or alien code?

postscriptum: when I posted the above ‘flash fiction’ excerpt from one of my chapters, I wasn’t expecting corroboration… but the Honey Street #3 crop circle which appeared a.m. July 4th is indeed a version of cuneiform [like 1991 Milk Hill coded script] mentioned in my text. Woo-hoo! MY

2011 Year of the Leap: all the ONES: 01:01:11

Ice follies 2010-2011

We just passed solstice: solar ‘standstill’, the point when the Sun appears to come to rest at the center of the galactic plane. It seems to stand on celestial equator, pausing in time, moving neither north nor south.

Two more winter solstices to go and we shall again coincide with Galactic Center on December 21, 2012, when the Great Cycle calendar of the Maya comes to full rest; pause; restart.

This year’s solstitial preparation for the New is a good time for pausing. For all of us:

To contemplate how much we shall change in the coming year — because the Human Race is changing fast and we have changed radically in the past year –

To give thanks for the road that brought us here to this point in space and time and for this moment — before plunging into the maelstrom once more –

To bless all those immediately around us NOW — as well as our loved ones far afield — “absent friends” — and family gone to fresher fields –

A time to remember and a time to look forward –

[Refrain of Auld Lang Syne here optional]

New Beginnings
ღ♥ღ *♥- ҈ -*※ HAPPY DAKINI DAY ღ♥ღ *♥- ҈ -*※
Yesterday (December 30) was also, by good fortune, a pan-Buddhist Dakini Day: the eleventh moon of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar of Metal Tiger Year.

Time to wish the Buddhist prayer to all –

Having reached the ultimate wisdom of the spontaneously accomplished four visions, may we be enlightened in the primordially-pure Youthful Vase Body.

OM MANI PADME HUM

May we dedicate all positive words to the enlightenment of all sentient beings in Six Realms of Cyclic Existence

To attain pure awareness which is displayed in the Skull of the Absolute Expanse, may we invoke the variegated desirable qualities of rainbow rays and may the Orbs of the Six Lights shine.

Return of the Dinosaurs -- or was that Minneapolis?

On December 21st, the Sun entered the third earth sign of the zodiac — Capricorn — at 3:40PM PST 10 days ago: ‘beginning’ winter in the Northern Hemisphere, according to old tradition. Recent earth changes and climatic trends, however, have made winter begin a lot earlier annually for most of us.

Astral Weather Vane, a division of the excellent Humanity Healing voluntary organization, gives this prognostication for solstice 2010 and oncoming year of 2011:

The festivities begin with a Full Moon (activating 30 degrees of Sagittarius and Gemini at 12:15AM PST 21 December).
Adding more significance and potential turbulence to this start of a season is Mercury in Sagittarius square to Jupiter in Pisces (5:00PM PST).

Astral Weather Vane says:
If this sounds familiar, the reason is Mercury and Jupiter already made this square pattern in the heavens on November 25 and they will do so again on January 11, 2011 [close to the time of another lunar eclipse Ed.] This is all due to Mercury’s current retrograde cycle from December 12th to 29th.

Mercury 90-degrees to Jupiter can equate with tensions in communications and disruptions to travel schedules.*

For the solstitial and New Year period, Humanity Healing recommends sending out healing thoughts and prayers to people in need, humanity and the kingdoms of nature. “Uplifting and enlightening our entire home planet is a keynote of every solar-lunar, monthly high-cycle. Individual and group meditations are advised.”

World weather Hogmanay 2010/2011, courtesy weather.org

*I empathize with this announcement, as I was personally involved when Northern Europe was in the grip of an ice storm December 9th (when I attempted to escape the wintry blasts only to be thwarted and held captive in an Amersterdam airport hotel overnight — in order to APPRECIATE the full weight of snow I was escaping). The freeze lasted until well after the solstitial eclipse.

In the coldest December for a century (since records began in 1890) Great Britain made a series of unprecedented individual payments of GBP25 per week to residents for the whole month of December. The ‘cold-weather payment’ was paid by the British Government to needy elderly frozen residents — over five million of them — for four weeks of December 2010 ‘when the temperature averaged 32ºF or below for six successive days and nights’.

Britain remained in the Big Freeze until only a brief brush with the Atlantic Gulf Stream’s northwesterly drift (December 28-29) through Cornwall, Wales and western Scotland allowed the coastline to hold the shores (and airports) open over Hogmanay.

Hogmanay
This last night of the Old Year — in case the strange tradition of the emergence of male Scot inadequately clad in freezing temperatures is an unfamiliar one — is traditional but freezing time for Scots to emerge from hovels/caves/pubs/boozers to booze some more in the freezing streets while singing a jolly Hogmanay blast of song. Once again re-entering the cave/pub/drinking establishment for the rest of the wee hours until January 1st is well and truly ‘welcomed in’.

While a temporary temperature reprieve has set in for a few days — Edinburgh streets are still paved with snow — the storm moved (again uncharacteristically) west. The northerly airflow hit the northern Atlantic waters and Northeastern Seaboard of the USA was next to receive the Nordic blast – storms and temperatures plummetting in high jet stream shivers across the Atlantic and freezing in the northerly states of Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where only a dusting is usual.

Of course Minneapolis/St Paul is having its usual subzero delight of Northern Winter. We’ll temporarily ignore Minneapolis/St Paul. The Pacific NW continues balmy.

Asterisk Saga explanation

Capt. Robert Falcon Scott's ship the 'Terra Nova" waiting for his return from the South Pole January 12, 1911. He never returned.

*I, for one, am more than grateful to be where I am at this very moment. Not only have I braved, Capt Scott-like, Antarctic-clone snowdrifts on my Grampian hillslope in early December; sledge-and-suitcase strapped to manoeuver a farmtrack totally infilled with nine-foot swathes of swirling white: to reach a (patient, angelic) waiting taxi at the farm one mile below in the black whitescape at 4a.m. –
– only to be turned back at the airport — by officious and insensitive airline officials who seemed unaware that Aberdeen was the only airport operational in Scotland at the time — and I was three minutes late for the gate –

– to be re-routed (at great expense) to Minneapolis/St Paul — which was the very last place on the planet I wished to go to — only to be carefully mismanaged by the same officious staff, I take it, to arrive too late in Amsterdam to make a Mineapolis/St Paul connection. Thank you, Snow Angels.

To be cossetted and carefully and gently and kindly assisted by KLM staff (endless compliments here) and rerouted to my correct destination, San Francisco, one day late, but hotel, sustenance and accommodation/internet efficiently and freely given, while making very little drama out of a crisis.

And not — at that time — being aware that Schiphol Amsterdam was the ONLY OTHER airport open in Europe.

Two days and several continents later, I arrive to relative balmy winter of rainy northern California and am grateful to leave Europe and its frozen Angst behind.

Thank you Jupiter square Mercury.

Runup to solstice.

Silence.

Run up to New Year and the January 4th partial lunar eclipse which will serve as a signal that some of the Angst may be over… but don’t hold your breath.

wild snow wolves... or just wild snow...

At solstice the Earth goes through one of its two sacred time shifts in its annual orbit when the Sun appears to stand still on the Celestial Equator.

Time for hibernation: or meditation: or both. To prepare for what’s to come:

The leap into 2011: all the ONES: 01:01:11.

This year of 2011 may be the year we as a species make that quantum leap. Are you ready? I think we’re in for a wild ride.

Our Saturn Return and The New Earth

Earth squeezed in a T-square between planetary giants in retrograde motion

The full moon in Aquarius just brightened last weekend, before plunging us and the planet back into the thick of our current conflict, heavily buttressed by a planetary T-square, the next most-challenging astrological lineup to hit us after June’s Grand Cross. It’s not that the Grand Cross has gone away: it’s just hovering, waiting to return on August 6th/7th. Saturn is dominating the astral path right now, being just about the only major planet in direct motion. And while that might not be seen as a positive aspect, its qualities as harsh taskmaster, cleanser, ruler of passion are being given a position of balance at the doorway (0º) to Libra. Right behind it, also moving direct, come Mars at 27º and Venus at 17º in Virgo. Meticulous attention to detail in love and control over unruly emotions are the best paths to tread. This is not an easy time for society (Saturn 0º Libra), the ‘real world’ of banking establishments, government departments experiencing major change. They are being directly opposed by all things expansive, generous, abundant — Jupiter at 3º Aries — and Uranus, planet of societal change at 0º Aries, encouraging us to stay alert, to think anew. Their drag is being felt most severely as both these giant planets are in retrograde motion. We are abandoning the old draconian systems, throwing out defunct legislation and top-heavy bureaucracy that no longer works. Changing channels.

Late July until August 9th: revolutionary changes in lifestyle, personal relationships, community, globally

Clustering close by, particularly since last weekend’s full moon in Aquarius, now moving through emotional and soothing Pisces, we are being guided by watery Neptune, 27º Aquarius, also retrograde, and in direct opposition to Mercury at 27º in Leo with the Sun, but suggesting a spiritual solution, steering a clear course for us through this unprecedented storm. Across the bows of these two opposing bulkheads of the zodiac stands Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, at 3º of Capricorn, in control within its fixed, immovable T-square.

Not an easy time for mankind. But help is at hand.

It’s been said when all hell breaks loose, only the most peaceful, most love-centered and most ‘allowing’ natures will move through into the next dimension. For that is where we are: standing at a new portal into humaniity’s future.

Thirty years ago a whole generation was born into a world where Saturn stood at the doorway of Libra. That 1979-1980-1981 group of children are now, as the current golden generation of thirty-somethings, experiencing their first Saturn Return. For the Baby-Boomers, the late-’40s/early-’50s generation born after their parents’ return from war, this moment in 2010 is their second Saturn Return, the second time the giant ringed planet has made its 30-year circuit. It is no wonder the ethos of their teenage years — the glorious Sixties — is coming round again and we’re hearing the kind of special spiritual advice which was common speech in that magical era.

Two voices in particular are being heard above the clamor.

One is that of Dr Carl Johan Calleman, long-time student of the Calendar of the Maya and supporter of mankind’s entering the Ninth (and last) Wave of the calendrical system with focused intent. He suggested the weekend of July 17th-18th as an initiation to this new wave, calling it the Conscious Convergence, to tie in with the Harmonic Convergence of August 1987 which started the consciousness ball rolling again.

“Maybe it (Conscious Convergence) will be humanity’s last chance of setting such an intention, which almost with necessity must exist at an early point if we are to elevate ourselves above the economic chaos that we may expect in the years ahead.”

We the human species are, according to Dr Calleman in his interpretaion of the calendar, due to emerge from the sixth Night of the Mayan Underworld on November 2nd later this year (“Yellow Galactic Seed“) and will enter the Ninth and Last ‘Universal’ Underworld in February 2011. Conscious Convergence thus gives us a headstart for ‘Unity Consciousness’.

Those unfamiliar with Dr Calleman’s work will find multiple links on his page, but for beginners it might be helpful to start here.

There is another voice — a young female voice — who has been making herself increasingly more audible since spring this year. A young thirty-something herself, Kiesha Crowther is the daughter of a white father and a native American mother and is a tribal shaman and youngest-ever wisdomkeeper. Since spring 2010 she has been getting people’s attention by speaking about her people’s ‘New Way’ to wake up and pay attention to ‘who we really are’. Her suggestion to us, the world Tribe of Many Colors, is that the world changes today, in 2010, and she gives eight ways we might try to change our thinking about the physical. These are her pointers to helping us as a planetary family ascend.

Flower of Life: from our heart

Kiesha Crowther says: ‘the Light Beings are returning and they’re bringing their families!’ These are her suggested Steps to Enlightenment a new way of seeing;
Self-Memory – how to remember who you are;
Sustainable Lifestyle; and
Achieving higher consciousness

1. There is a Higher Knowing than ourselves.
There is a Grand Design: we are part of something greater than ourselves that has conscious intent. We can tune into that and become one with the Universe.

2. History is not an evolution of technology and production. It is the evolution of thought and we are moving through the process of thinking around the heart.

3. A new understanding of the physical world:
All things are alive and have energy. This enegy is keeping us alive.

4. Energy: Exchange energy with plants; share/take energy from the Earth. Instead of taking energy from others, get your energy from the Earth. We don’t have to take others’ energy. It is a gift from the planet: breathe in new energy from a tree, the river, the blade of grass, the rose. The Earth has energy for us. Stop giving it away. Go outside and fire yourself up. Fill up with Mother Earth energy.

5. Stop fighting to be heard or be in charge.
We do not need to feed off each other’s opinions of ourselves. If we fill ourselves up with Earth Energy, breathing it in and giving our energy back out to Mother Earth, we don’t need anybody else’s energy — nor do we need to let someone take our energy away.
We need to stop hurting each other, depleting the energy of another. Go outside and fill up with all the energy you need.

6. What do you stand for? Who do you want to be?
Why are you here? Ask yourself that and listen for the answers. You are the creator. Make a decision and watch it unfold.

7. Ways of Knowing:
Dreams are not just dreams. They come from the Higher Self. Thoughts pop out, we have daydreams; something comes into our heads. These are promptings from Spirit. Listen to them. Pay attention to your dreams.

Ask the right questions and listen. Listen to one another, listen to where the answers come from. From coincidences, through dreams, pay attention to what’s happening in your head. When you stop thinking so hard, and pay attention to what’s happening around you, you begin to receive some real information.

8. Do not become addicted to other human beings. This will stop your growth.
If you failed at something you love, why did you fail? Did you give your energy away? Did you let somebody else tell you you’d failed? We don’t have to be addicted to someone else’s opinion of us. We have our own inner path.

Things are not happening by chance. We chose to come here: to be here now. We belong to something enormous. We are part of a greater plan.

Stop thinking so hard and connect heart and mind. Start using mind to think about change from the heart. Our thinking is beginnning to realize there is more. We are realizing we are creators. Use our brains to connect with our inner knowing.

Energy
Seeing energy, sensing beauty. Filling ourselves up with energy from the planet, not from each other. Learn to take energy from plants, the mountains, trees, experience joy in the earth instead of stealing it from another.

‘We have been using energy the wrong way. That is a huge failure on our part. Now is the time to change. All the energy we need exists already on the planet. Go outside and breathe it in from an acorn, an apple, a plant, from the animals, streams, mountains. We are being asked to stop taking from others and to stop giving our energy away.’

‘All your life’s energy exists outside. If you feel weak. If someone says negative things about you, don’t let that make you feel bad. How silly! Sit outside and fill up with energy. Why does it feel so good? Because you’re plugging yourself in. Mother Earth is Everything.’

Little Grandmother Kiesha Crowther firmly believes that there is no hierarchy in this New Way of living in the New Earth. We each have the power to gather our own strength from the Earth Mother and grow at our own pace. There are no leaders, no followers. We are all equal, she says.

There is right now a physical group of around 32,000 people living this way, actually working on growing this consciousness larger. She warns: ‘If you can’t commit to it, don’t commit to it, but if you can, please stick with it.’

‘Stop telling yourself you can’t, because you can.’

Change the Channel
In order to change the balance from fear to love, she gives the advice of the ‘Grandfathers’, the Elders who say: ‘Change the Channel.’

‘If you are sitting next to someone who speaks ill of someone else or is not speaking from the heart, don’t be afraid to change the channel: shedding off what we are used to agreeing to on a daily basis and stopping it. If you hear negativity, stop listening to it. You cannot give your energy to something that is not good and expect it to change. If you give your energy to it, it will thrive. If you don’t want to have negativity in your life, change the channel.’

‘When you read something negative in the newspaper, your energy level plummets. If every one of us agrees to this contract, we will not listen to negativity.

We are the Ones we have been waiting for
‘The Grandfathers were not making it up when they said you are the very ones you have been waiting for. There is no savior who will come and change this planet. So I ask you as my brothers and sisters, people of my heart, people of the Tribe of Many Colors, will you join the cause? Will you stop listening to negativity? Will you change the channel? Then we change the world.’

‘We will charge ourselves and be responsible for ourselves and we will change the world.’

How do we change it?
‘We each have responsibility — all the answers are right here, We just forgot how to look at them. Truth is always easy. It’s the manade rules that are so hard to follow.

Through love
‘Through love this whole world is changing. Through love the light beings are returning and through love they’re going to show us the way. And through love all of those things we didn’t know before are going to become manifest to us. And through love all of our dreams are going to come true. And through love this planet earth is going to be magnificent and we’re going to be reborn. She will be reborn through love. And through love everything is possible.’

Kiesha Crowther would like us to share her message. We chose to come here NOW. We are all Creators. We are part of something enormous and it’s happening now. It is time for us to share the wisdom of the Grandfathers and Grandmothers with all people of the Tribe of Many Colors on the planet, Mother Earth.

So while Dr Calleman and Kiesha Crowther both envisage a movement of people changing for good, the Calleman ‘convergence’ focuses on the movement, while Kiesha’s advice is directed at the individual.

Both believe we can change the world.

Kiesha Crowther has a website at http://www.littlegrandmother.net and Live at Santa Fe, an Evening with the Youngest Wisdomkeeper and both she and Carl Johan Calleman have recorded and live video talks available on YouTube.

Cosmic Crossroads: All Change

Jupiter and Uranus line up in Aries in preparation for June's Grand Cross

On the runup to solstice, June 21st, and the Grand Cross which follows, energies are revving up, allowing us access to a vortex of cosmic influences, both real and surreal which will make us remember the Summer of 2010 for a long time to come.

June promises an intense and powerful experience: something maybe none of us has ever felt in our lives before. During this time, already presaged by the Sagittarian full moon on May 27th, certainly between June 8th and the 26th lunar eclipse Grand Cross stations, old formats are falling away, bringing in new ways of being, beyond the realm of anything we have ever dreamed.

Uranus in Aries is the signature of a wild, rebellious nature. Its T-square with Pluto and Saturn indicates dramatic clashes between the interests of established economic power and the democratic impulse (Uranus, the spontaneous voice of the people ) that those interests seek (via Saturn) to suppress.

To get through this transformative time we’ll have to try to embrace the new energies wholeheartedly and surrender to the new version of ourselves that has been incubating since 1987. This new identity – the self of the heart – knows instinctively how to navigate energy shifts by anchoring one’s heart and highest visions into the present moment.

As Richard Alpert – Baba Ram Dass – has been saying since 1969:

Be Here Now.

I described on another blog recently the Harmonic Convergence of 1987 as a watershed summer. In August that year the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus stood in exact conjunction in early degrees of Virgo/cusp Leo while, according to astrologers and New Age pundits, they formed a Grand Trine with the other large planets: Jupiter in the last (anaretic) degree of Aries/cusp Taurus, Saturn and Uranus in Sagittarius/cusp Capricorn. This Grand Trine – full of enormous benevolence for humanity – was seen as both a Fire and an Earth Trine – a door in the heavens opening to bless humankind.

We have been building and strengthening our cosmic consciousness since that time.

This summer we are entering the last spiral arm of the penultimate bend on the cosmic rollercoaster ride which will catapult us towards the end-date of the ancient calendar of the Maya on winter solstice, December 21st, 2012.

Butterfly of Transformation, Mayan symbol of humankind's evolution

Dr Carl Johan Calleman, in his deep researches into the Maya numeral system, believes we are going to reach spiritual self-realization, communion with Spirit, by November 2nd this year – on a date fixed by the ancient Maya called ‘Yellow Galactic Seed’.

This new human Self, teaching itself to meditate rather than make war; soaking up solar electromagnetic energy raining in on us right now from the Sun’s most recent coronal mass ejection (CME), opening itself to new ways of thinking, being and interacting with others, is preparing itself to receive humanity’s latest wave of consciousness-upgrades: the June energies will allow the New Human to face his/her first test as s/he learns to ride the phenomenal energetic tides of Summer 2010.

Dr Calleman believes we were given another stepping stone on this journey last weekend. He calls the most recent Sagittarius full moon nights of May 27/28 (Maya 1 Imix and 2 Ik) the ‘second Harmonic Convergence’.

‘This is when, for the first time, standing on the balance that the Galactic Underworld has brought, we will begin to sense the supramental consciousness that the Universal Underworld will bring. For all those seeking to become part of the new species of human beings endowed with an unlimited consciousness, this is a time to absorb the new energies of universality. These dates are placed in relation to the Universal Underworld in the same way as the original Harmonic Convergence, August 16-17, 1987 might be seen to have been a preparation for the Galactic Underworld. May 27/28 2010 (1 Imix and 2 Ik) are the dates for Phoenix to rise from the ashes and for an enlightened world to arise from chaos. A sort of resurrection to the New Jerusalem where life is lived totally in the present moment, with no limits and no separation.’

The Phoenix of Humankind will rise from the ashes of the old regimes and shine

According to Maya Long Count, we are presently completing the last cycle of the Galactic Underworld which began on January 5th 1999 and which ends when we move into the final Universal Underworld on February 10th, next year. As of this weekend, May 2010,we’ve only 926 days to go until we as a race reach the last day of the last Underworld – the climax of their 13 Baktun Great Cycle in December 2012.

Astrological Summer of 2010
Mid May’s cosmic energies sneakily slipped transformer-like upgrades into our human wiring, bringing long-buried feelings to the surface and challenging deeply-held beliefs that probably no longer serve us. We show no more trust in the State knowing best, nor believe that we’re better off letting others think for us. Saturn (old regimes) was given a shake-up by opposing benevolent Jupiter and free-thinking Uranus. Areas involving our purpose and our use of unique talents and resources were given a new look. As a mass, human outrage descended on old corrupt oil interests, questioned government manipulative legislation, and demanded responsible and sensitive clean-up of precious and irreplaceable environments in the Gulf of Mexico. In Westminster, two new young things chose to bring two opposing parliamentary parties together and chopped half the budget of the former draconian system.

Uranus threw in subconscious energies – possibilities, entities, worlds beyond the conscious realm entered into our daily lives. Think Crop Circles!

These energies are now being amplified by the full moon in Sagittarius and Uranus entering Aries. Shortly after this, Jupiter enters the 0° Aries position. Pluto in Capricorn and Saturn in Virgo will form a T-square with the Moon, Jupiter and Uranus. This configuration will set into motion even more change both on the world’s stage and at the personal level.

Astrological giants line up to take earth through her changes

Conjunctions of Jupiter and Uranus occur roughly every 14 years. The 8th June 2010 conjunction at 0º Aries is the first of three in this series. The other two are on 19th September 2010 at 29º Pisces, and again on 4th January 2011 at 27º Pisces. Big changes.

We’ve been feeling lightheaded and slightly ungrounded lately: this stepping into the unknown is a little daunting. We better get accustomed to it. It’s going to be a way of life in the next few months. June 21 solstice will genuinely rock our socks and open up a doorway of initiation into new realms. Between now and then, we have a little time to practice stripping away old veneers, pretences: time to fine-tune our inner listening; put on our cloak of authenticity.

Uranus, planet of change, imagination, herald of the New Age

There’s more to come – but let’s take it one step at a time. Following the June 26 Capricorn Lunar Eclipse the cardinal Grand Cross looms with Sun-Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus and Saturn standing opposed. A solar eclipse in July occurs with the new moon in Cancer followed by August 6th-7th’s renewed cardinal Grand Cross activation between Jupiter-Uranus, Pluto, the Moon, Saturn-Mars and Venus. Finally on August 21st Saturn stands squared to Pluto. So old regimes are in for meltdown, while the imagination rules, dreamtime flourishes.

New paradigm here we come!

It is through our intuition, listening to our heart, and by walking through the doorway of our imagination that we will navigate these new energies best of all. We all know how this is. We practice it with our family and loved ones. Time now to practise it with the world at large.

Old road maps are no longer any help. But our resourcefulness, our presence of mind will serve us. We’ll be able to call on our Uranian ability to ‘think out of the box’ to stay ‘awake’ and watch for daily guidance. The new energies bring out the New Human in us, encouraging us to allow a higher power – higher intelligence, love – to show us the way.

Many have likened the ‘mastermind’ behind the formation of crop circles to a higher intelligence. In my opinion we are being presented with a glimpse into a different dimension. We’re ready for it as a species. We’ve tried everything else.

We now stand on the threshold of a magical doorway which – used carefully and with loving intent – may lead us into a world we have only even seen in dreams.

We have become set in our ways. And, without doubt, as a race we have achieved massively, even in the last decade. it is time to step into our own future: to make that quantum leap. To walk through the door into our cosmic future.

This summer provides the fireworks and momentum to facilitate that leap in consciousness.

This is one of the most exciting times to be alive. The energies unfolding this week offer a glimpse into what crystallizes on the horizon of this summer of change. This is the portal into everything that comes after. Alll we need to do is put that first tentative foot on the step and walk right through.

The Land That Time Forgot

Dreams of the Magus takes you on your own personal quest

One of the exquisite delights of blogging is meeting and having open communication with like minds which the internet and personal ‘pages’ afford. Pete Madstone, author of the revealing personal guidebook to opening doors within – ‘Dreams of the Magus’ – says he was guided to write his Great Work after a lifetime walk through most of the world’s religions. His fascination with global spiritual and magical tradition allowed him to emerge as his own spiritual guide and his focus on non-attachment has kept him on the path – which he tries to walk with simplicity. He and his French wife Cathy are currently building their own home in the countryside of southern France.

Pete and I not only share the addiction of writing and love of the printed word, but we both submitted our books in the James Twyman competition (ongoing) to find the ‘next top spiritual author’. It appeared to us separately and together that the contest had to walk a fine line between maintaining energy levels required to bring a thousand authors into the fold – via a series of ’rounds’ – and the competitive nature of eliminating 99 percent of them. We have both completed round one (voting round), but as of today await confirmation whether or not our books have made it over the first hurdle: enough votes!

I want to thank those kind readers – both Pete’s and mine – who voted for us. Watch this space.

Meantime I invited Madstone to contribute here as a guest author in my occasional series – the Youngblood Guest Blog – and I think you will be as delighted as I am by what you read.

The Land That Time Forgot
‘These caverns are paradise to those who secretly dwell in them’ G. Peter Madstone

Today, I find myself living in the southwest of France in a place I could have never dreamed of. It abounds with life — birds, animals, insects and woodlands. There are more trees than people, and many of the inhabitants of these savage lands live just outside the arena of the physical world that we are so familiar with. In spite of the typical challenges that come with life itself, wherever any of us might live, I would have to say this place is simply “exotic.”

So, let’s begin with Webster’s definition of the word exotic –

exotic -
1: introduced from another country: not native to the place where found >exotic plants<
2: archaic : foreign, alien
3: strikingly, excitingly, or mysteriously different or unusual
4: of or relating to striptease

Let’s take this step by step –

definition 1. With this, it seems that I am the exotic one here, since I was “introduced” here from America — a member of a not-yet-extinct variety of humanity’s transitional sub-species, the evolutionary inclusionist.

definition 2. Foreign, yes — alien, likely. So this would be me, again. I am foreign and alien to this place (or at least its people), since I come from another with different ways — but from my perspective, this place is what is foreign and alien, so all things can, indeed, be seen in more than one way.

definition 3. Okay — now we’re talking, and not about the “famous” French cuisine (though the food certainly fits with this one, as well). Let me repeat this definition — strikingly, excitingly, or mysteriously different or unusual. If I apply this definition to this place, I would have to say that I couldn’t say it any better — it describes perfectly the environment that surrounds me. Because I cannot say things as simply as Mr. Webster, I will devote much more time and effort to describe this place that is far from south Santa Monica, the place where I cut my teeth on a surfboard. But first…

definition 4. This one is pretty much irrelevant, since the kind of place you might find exotic dancers would be in the nearest city – which for me would be a French city called Bordeaux and, like all French cities, this one is terribly intimidating. On the same note, I will mention that it is not unusual for the French female to tan her chest freely on our summer beaches, just as the males do – and so these beaches could certainly be considered “exotic” in this context, but I don’t live on the beach.

I would now discuss just what is strikingly, excitingly, or mysteriously different or unusual about this place, for this is what I really have to share with you.

It is not that what I will be discussing was never available to me in the variety of other places I have lived; it is just that never have these certain exotic flavors been so apparent to me — so evident, tangible or real. Maybe it is me who has changed, but I would have to surmise that it is my environment that has changed me — this exotic environment.

The Path to Never-Never Land

I live on a half-acre of land, 500 meters (3 “city” blocks) from a medieval village in, as I said, the southwest of France. The road to my house is unpaved and few cars pass by on their way to some scattered homes beyond my own. Splitting off this small road by the gate to my land is an entrance to an old path which is used by the occasional equestrian, hiker or nearby resident of the village on an evening stroll. A couple of winters ago, I was walking this path more than anyone, for I had made a discovery that was reliant upon one condition for this peculiarity, or phenomenon, to be witnessed most easily — I had to be present at a certain place accessed by this path at the time of the “crack between the worlds,” the quarter-hour just before and just after sunset.

So it was out my gate just about every evening, and down this path around 500 meters in the opposite direction from the village into a little tree-lined pasture. On the path were two old oak trees that became a vortex, or portal of sorts for me, for every time I walked past these two trees, everything became silent — there was a definite shift. Far away traffic, birds, insects, and the general buzz of life all stopped here. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was passing into a different time, and a different place — into a land that time forgot.

There, at the far end of this grassy field where three hedgerows join is a small copse closing in an otherwise invisible corner of the field. Directly at the entrance of this little secluded corner is an old water well — a well covered and overgrown by years of non-use and neglect. This is certainly a forgotten place.

The first few times I’d gone to this place, I would feel eyes upon me — many, many eyes from behind and in the trees and branches of overgrowth surrounding me — always blinking off and on, twinkling like bright little stars in a woods bereft of foliage. There was something here, and I certainly felt right at home. It didn’t take me long to begin doing sunset rituals of communion wand-less, and without any of the typical tools, talismans or regalia of the trade. There was certainly a bustle in these hedgerows, and well before the time of the May Queen.

My simple but raw ceremonies became a standard for me, weather permitting.

Upon arriving, I would stop to take in the energy and air of this ancient place, and center myself in the open space defined by the leafless trees. Then I began
walking my circles, and defining my pentagrams, hexagrams and sphere of influence/reality. Salutations would be done, followed by invocations of the cardinal’s overseers. Then, simply stillness and release. It wasn’t a few days before I began sitting at the mouth of the old well after performing my ritual. I wanted just to be with the land and its wild life, curious about the abundance of those shy and reluctant, but always blinking eyes. From the first time I sat at the opening of this well, I could sense the presence of our local Undines working in the watery realms directly below me — however, these were not the ones with the eyes in the woods.

These others, I found quickly, were of the earth realm: beings who never ventured into the light of day unless absolutely necessary (invoked), or simply overwhelmed with curiosity or craftiness — these were the Gnomes, working the same caverns below me that the Undines travelled. These caverns and tunnels are abundant in this region of France, with many of them open to the surface, and all of them are crystalline in some way.

All these caverns are paradise to those who secretly dwell in them.

It's not a hat I wear. It's just my head.

So it was at some point just after the winter solstice that I met this local group of Gnomes — builders they are, if you don’t already know this — and here I was getting ready to build a house. Every evening I was there, they would begin to crowd around me, these little Gnomes. Small they may be, but certainly strong and stout they are, for they are rock workers. Masons they are, Stonemasons, the prototypical Freemasons, and the earth they work is their temple.

So, I decided to ask for one of these earth-dwellers to help me with the building of my house, which had been at a standstill for 2 years. I specifically stated my requirements (I thought) that were as follows —

The house needed to be done in 1 year,

and I needed funds, materials, support from friends as yet unmade, with the actual physical work,

plus support from one of the Gnomes who was considered highly skilled at this work they did so well.

Of course, it slipped my mind that these beings were best at rock-work, and other than the rock foundation, the house was to be of wood frame/strawbale construction — but Gnomes are builders, and the best in the world, so why would this matter?

One of the Gnomes did come for me, knowing it wouldn’t be a full-time job. He would only come around when I was actually working, and besides the other events he was to oversee, he still had his own personal time, and life. He was an A-BAR — this is the title of a Master Rocker, and his name was “Ephrana -yam.” He prefered to be called A-bar, or simply Eff.

A year passed as agreed, and the rock foundation was done.

So what of the house? Well, it was far from finished, but at least I did have a floor to build the house upon. Apparently, one year was not enough time for me to build a house, even when partnered with a specialist in rock-work. I still had wood frames to bring up, roofing to do, and everything else up to and past the kitchen sink.

Of course, A-bar did exactly as he understood — it was I who was somehow vague or a little unfocused/misdirected in my desires. So for my little Gnome friend, a year is what it took to complete his part of the job — a year for the foundation.

Of course, the funding too did arrive for the project within that time, from an unexpected place, and I could not have continued without that, anyway. So Eff did do his job, as requested, and did it to a Tee.

So what of this exotic nature of the place that I call home (for now)?

There is something about it that is so pure, untouched — unqualified even. In the history of man, very little has been done to corrupt, or even direct the energy here, and so it can be a little difficult to work with. It is very still and unmoving and it is used to being still — it is an uncertain energy. It is tentative, having had little experience with outside direction or foreign influence.

But we can both learn — both me and this energy. Some have said the energy is flat here, but to me, its potential is remarkable, for it has been unused for millennia, maybe since the beginning of time.

I still have to wonder, though – is this a place that time forgot, or just a place that man forgot?

©2010 G. Peter Madstone
Pete Madstone is author of the spiritual handbook to uncovering one’s own consciousness and inner magic, ‘Dreams of the Magus: where Angels Fear to Tread’. In addition to regular ritual reconnection with his earth paradise, he is publisher at Madstone Mystery Labs.