Everyone Comes to the Labyrinth





They who seeketh and do desireth of the light, they who call themselves "lightworkers" - a term soon to, no doubt, be included in Webster's dictionary, are fond of  pointing out that the Labyrinth of Chartres is not only a mysterious sacred-geometry tool of inner development and mystical insight (go to this site for what I consider the gold standard of this type of patter), but that it parallels the circuitry of the human brain, making it scientifically sound on some level. The real neuroscience books about the brain and the labyrinth cost money to download or print, so I am afraid you will have to do with more of the same:

Louis Charpentier, the French expert on Chartres, in his book The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral; Thorsons Publishers Limited, Wellingborough; 1983. talks about the "telluric forces" and the theory that the builders of the major European cathedrals, including Chartres, consulted and incorporated these forces in choosing the cathedrals' location as well as planning their orientation. -from Boticelli's Labyrinth Chapter of  ashlandweb.com/labyrinth

Those theories say that such labyrinths (There are more styles then just the medieval one at the cathedral at Chartres and there are organizations to preserve the integrity of the historical study of these differences.), those that parallel our brain, can facilitate healing and balancing, centeredness, insight and other non-quantifiable goals which would eventually loop us back to ancient astronaut/scientist, priest-king theories about our origins, if I were so inclined, which I am not. 
I learned, from discussions of alchemy in the past, that the metallurgy employed to develop the tints used in authentic medieval stained glass, used alchemical formulas that, when activated by the sunlight, produced the actual ray frequency of the color, much like a blue laser will be on that specific light frequency of blue, or a red laser on red, and so forth, different than shining a light or beam through colored glass, which is not about frequency of light, but about visible spectrum.
So what you would get in a labyrinth in a medieval cathedral, with the true formulaic stained glass would be an experience of alchemy that would, my guess would be, put you into an altered state of consciousness, the reasons for which I can only assume would be to have a mystical experience of some sort.



Landru on a good hair day

During the 1990s, when I was out and about a lot on planet earth,  the Chartres Labyrinths were as numerous as grains of sand on the beach. It was almost impossible to avoid them. They were at Catholic retreat centers, new age healing centers, Methodist and Presbyterian church basements, outdoor vacation spots  and more. People had them in their own homes, in the basement family room now that the kids had left, or in their backyards, next to the sweat lodge. I know from experience, that they did alter my brain chemistry, as they take you through a series of switch-back type paths, that get you out of the linear mind and more into that expansive multi-focus way of being, that for me, has never been a stretch anyway, so I mostly found it tedious and boring. You are supposed to be contemplating, damn it, while you are going round the loop-De-loop. I did not feel any closer to God than I would if taking a walk up a mountain trail, swimming in natural lakes or the ocean, walking a dog or looking out the window at 3 a.m. to be surprised by the first snowfall of the year. So, though I performed the rites, I was not of the body (if you only click one link this post, click this one), as they say in Star Trek geek-talk.

Travels with my Aunt, if my Aunt was Satan

(apologies to Graham Greene)

In the Fall of 2010, Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger-think about it) visited London. There were many marches and demonstrations decrying his sexism, his anti-birth control stance, his cover-ups of pedophilia, his anti-gay policy, the church's genocidal attitude toward indigenous peoples, and many more transgressions that I don't remember. Prior to video "taping"(digital) the protest of 20,000 people through the streets of London, on Sept. 18,  I was encamped at a home in the Charring Cross district of London, where I had a peculiar experience that is as stamped upon my memory as much as any experience that Fall. Incidentally, I had no idea this protest was going to be the big deal it turned out to be, I was there to videotape things in London related to the Pope's visit and debates going on about secular vs. theological humanism, or so I thought. 
So, I was sitting in a garden at the back of a home in Charring Cross. Unbeknownst to me, a well-known energy-healer was also on the premises, giving energy, support and healing to the protesters, to prep them physically, emotionally and spiritually for the march. So a guy I'd seen at the house, but never been introduced to, nor did I know who he was, sat down next to me while I was working at a laptop on video footage ingestion preparedness (those of you who do video will know that it is similar to preparing for a NASA mission). After asking me a few normal-type computer questions about memory capacity, etc., the guy, I forget his name, David, maybe, began channeling. At first I didn't "get" it, and thought he was psychically picking up on weird woo-hoo things: what star system I was from (I forget); my true purpose (also forgotten); future  (for...) and like that. But then he started "coming through" in different voices, such as 3 brothers from the 1600s with the surname MacGregor, who all spoke with a highlands lilt.
There were three, one was Douglas and he was a successful doctor, the other ones were not successful and one of them was really disappointed (still) about that, but what his name was... I can't recall. OK, maybe it is not so much "stamped" on my memory as trailed lightly through it, but the general experience is still there.  Oh did I mention the demons? Yes, there were demons being channeled there in that garden in London on that crisp, lovely Fall day. Because you see, everyone was there for the Pope. I distinctly remember the demon saying that the Pope was there to see something rubbed in the stench of his own filth. Yep. And as if this unsolicited channeling wasn't plenty of weird enough for me, a few months ago I saw an old movie (mentioned in another blog I was perusing)  on You Tube called Curse of the Demon 1958 (U.S.), or Night of the Demon (1957) in Britain.  There is a Victorian spiritualist channeled in this flick called Mr. Meeks. During a seance, a spirit comes through Mr. Meeks called Mr. MacGregor who speaks with a heavy Scottish brogue, almost a parody of such.  I don't know if these MacGregors are  typical familiar spirits making the rounds through channelers, as the likes of "St. Germaine", or "Kathumi Lal Singh" seem to do; or if the guy in the garden in London saw the same movie. I guess that's why it's called The Great Mystery. If I could only figure out what "it" is.

The movie "Night of the Demon (1957), a British release, was removed from You Tube because of the "many notifications of copyright infringement" -even though the movie is almost 60 years old. I find this odd, and apologize that I can no longer present it on my blog. Above is a link where it can be purchased, however, and it shows a brief clip of the re-released [in the U.S.] 1958 "Curse of the Demon".



There  is a character in the movie by the way,  Julian Karswell who is supposed to bear a resemblance to Aleister Crowley- coincidence you say? Uh-huh.

After the Fall

Months after the Pope's visit, the Richard Dawkins people contacted me to use my footage, found online, in their documentary about him, which I consented to. Evidently, out of the 20,000 people attending the rally/march, and what looked to me like at least 5000 of them shooting video, there was a dearth of video footage to be had for this event. I knew that he'd been a keynote speaker at the after-march rally which took place, I believe, somewhere near 10 Downing after the march started at Hyde Park, went through Piccadilly, under the Column of Nelson in Trafalgar Square (that I remember) and then over to Westminster where it ended on Downing.  There in the plaza at the end of the march, I saw Dawkins holding a kind of rally/press-conference where people were clustered around him, cheering him on. I didn't know until recently that he is the poster-child for atheistic/secular humanism. He's like Ayn Rand with a cooler accent and a classier spiel. He doesn't use the non sequitur "enlightened self-interest.



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The Beat Goes On 

Postscript: Letter sent to a Church that was concerned about the "juxtaposition" - nice word for hypocrisy- of authorities clearing out the homeless to make nice for the Pope's visit to address issues such as homelessness. 

Police Move Homeless Off Philadelphia Streets Before Pope's Visit

It's an "unusual" move amid the pontiff's repeated calls to welcome the poor.

Religion News Service

By Alex Jacobi

Posted: 09/26/2015 07:19 AM EDT

This is really not that unusual, in fact it is business as usual – the homeless and other marginalized persons are always removed when standing dignitaries arrive and/or a location gets international attention for an event. The 2010 Olympics was notorious for displacing homeless residents of Vancouver, B.C.:

guardianarticle2010winterolympics

Many of the homeless in Vancouver were Canadian Indians, yet the B.C. Olympics kicked-off with a spectacular entertainment extravaganza with a First Nation theme, featuring traditional First Nation dances, lore, costumes and so forth (performed by First Nation performance artists).

I was in London several months later when Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) visited in 2010. Twenty thousand Europeans marched through London to protest his visit and his policies on issues such as birth control, homosexuality, etc. They were also very vocal about Ratzinger’s collusion with the cover-up of the many outed (during his tenure) pedophiles in the Catholic Church.

There wasn’t that much mainstream media mention or footage of the protest in Europe. So, I can only assume that people saw a brief glimpse of that massive denunciation here.  It is my unsubstantiated opinion the Ratzinger resigned not for health reasons but that he was forced out because of the way he handled the pedophilia scandals. Then Francis, “the people’s Pope,” was put in place to do lots of feels good P.R., which we are now witnessing here in the States.

“The Holy Man meets the Heads of State” idea, while creating charming visual images such as Pope Francis patting schoolchildren’s heads, is as much a media concoction as The Prince and the Showgirl is a Hollywood fantasy. The Pope is a political figure. While in London in 2010, I witnessed the London police using facial recognition technology to pick protesters out of the crowds, ticket them and remove them, even at the preliminary protests a few days before the main event, where there may have been only 100-300 people in attendance. It was understood that a third ticket for one individual at a Pope-related event meant that they would be arrested, detained and held for an indeterminate amount of time, or possibly institutionalized if deemed fitting.  The people they targeted did not have, to my knowledge, a history of violence or terrorism, but they were well-known activists in areas of advocacy for indigenous people and victims of child and sexual abuse.

A Bit of Testimony*

I became a born-again Christian at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013, in large part because of my many supernatural experiences, which I was just too dense to "get" for almost my entire life up until recently, in 2015. I stupidly thought that spiritual warfare occurred between two beings; I thought that "I" was fighting the out-of-body attacker. I no longer believe in practicing astral travel, depth psychology, reincarnation, astrology, numerology, tarot, kabbalah, channeling or anything of that nature, except as devices of satan and the dark side. Yes, I believe in a literal satan/lucifer/devil and I don't care if the world thinks that I am crazy, stupid, etc. My beliefs are based on my own experiences and the experience of salvation as offered and given to me by Jesus Christ. Astral travel is powered by demons, who want you cut loose in their spiritual worlds (the lower heavens) so they can destroy you physically, mentally and spiritually. I, (and anyone around me) have only been protected from demonic malice and shenanigans by the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that takes up residence and indwells in those who call upon the Lord; that is where the glory goes, and it is that which has saved me from destruction, death and from being lost forever spiritually, countless times, and countless other times that I don't even know about. May God bless anyone reading this and may you find the Truth of God, soon, before your time is up.

It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

A city is the frozen shape of human courage — the courage of those men who thought for the first time of every bolt, rivet and power generator that went to make it. The courage to say, not ‘It seems to me,’ but ‘It is’ — and to stake one’s life on one’s judgment.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

Love is the expression of one’s values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

Romantic art is the fuel and the spark plug of a man’s soul; its task is to set a soul on fire and never let it go out.

From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man — the function of his reasoning mind.

Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself. If a drought strikes them, animals perish — man builds irrigation canals; if a flood strikes them, animals perish — man builds dams; if a carnivorous pack attacks them animals perish — man writes the Constitution of the United States. But one does not obtain food, safety or freedom — by instinct.

Just as man can’t exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one’s rights into reality — to think, to work and to keep the results — which means: the right of property.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.

Accept the fact that the achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness — not pain or mindless self-indulgence — is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. But to win it requires total dedication and a total break with the world of your past, with the doctrine that man is a sacrificial animal who exists for the pleasure of others. Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence, which is man, for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the morality of life and yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth.

I swear by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

“Rights” are a moral concept — the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individual’s actions to the principles guiding his relationship with others — the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social context — the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics. Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade — with reason, not force, as their final arbiter — it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability — and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is men’s deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against governmental actions that the Bill of Rights was written.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

So you think that money is the root of all evil? ... Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

To say “I love you” one must know first how to say the “I.”

But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made — before it can be looted or mooched — made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.

It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

A city is the frozen shape of human courage — the courage of those men who thought for the first time of every bolt, rivet and power generator that went to make it. The courage to say, not ‘It seems to me,’ but ‘It is’ — and to stake one’s life on one’s judgment.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

Love is the expression of one’s values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

Romantic art is the fuel and the spark plug of a man’s soul; its task is to set a soul on fire and never let it go out.

From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man — the function of his reasoning mind.

Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself. If a drought strikes them, animals perish — man builds irrigation canals; if a flood strikes them, animals perish — man builds dams; if a carnivorous pack attacks them animals perish — man writes the Constitution of the United States. But one does not obtain food, safety or freedom — by instinct.

Just as man can’t exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one’s rights into reality — to think, to work and to keep the results — which means: the right of property.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.

Accept the fact that the achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness — not pain or mindless self-indulgence — is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. But to win it requires total dedication and a total break with the world of your past, with the doctrine that man is a sacrificial animal who exists for the pleasure of others. Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence, which is man, for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the morality of life and yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth.

I swear by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

“Rights” are a moral concept — the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individual’s actions to the principles guiding his relationship with others — the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social context — the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics. Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.

Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade — with reason, not force, as their final arbiter — it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability — and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is men’s deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against governmental actions that the Bill of Rights was written.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

So you think that money is the root of all evil? ... Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

To say “I love you” one must know first how to say the “I.”

But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made — before it can be looted or mooched — made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.

—Ayn Rand  from aynrandquotes.com



MEZCO Toy Company -  Alice in Wonderland Walking Dead-
Collect the Whole Set