These are spiritual/metaphysical/mystical experiences people have had to do with the Religion of the Sun.
They can include dreams, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, visions, and spiritual perceptions. For more information about what they are, here is an overview of common mystical experiences.
They can involve meeting and being guided by great teachers of the Religion of the Sun, visiting its ancient sites, or taking part in a ceremony. See here for experiences with the being remembered in Germanic/Nordic tradition as Odin.
This page is just starting out. If you would like to share an experience, post it in the comments below.
Contents
Near-Death Experiences
Feeling connected to the sun and the infinite source behind it
In this video, Mark Hodges explains how he had a near-death experience during an operation in hospital. In his NDE, the first thing Mark noticed was our Sun. He realized that he was connected to it and that the Sun is where our spirit / soul gets its energy from. He also realized that there was a source behind the Sun that he calls the infinite one and that we are all a part of this source and connected to it.
The section of this video that relates to Mark’s experience with the Sun is from approximately 4m 20s to 5m 02s.
Buddha and the Sun
In this video, Lee explains how he had a near-death experience after being hit by a car, in which he saw Buddha standing behind a huge sun. Before his NDE, Lee was not religious and had never believed in Buddha or God. Buddha explained to Lee that the sun was a small part of the eternal God’s light. Buddha also explained that his own biggest mistake had been denying the existence of an eternal God in his teachings. Buddha told Lee to return to life and to believe in the eternal God, saying that many more would be called to this experience.
Out-of-Body Experiences
The Eternal Spiritual Sun
A friend of mine recently had an experience; she couldn’t determine whether it was an out-of-body experience or just regular dreaming. She described that she was taken to a place between our planet and the moon by a purely spiritual being. She saw herself with no visible body of any kind, it was only her consciousness that was taken into outer space, so she was clearly out of her physical body.
The spiritual being asked her this question, “What do you see on Earth?”
She looked down on Earth and answered, “I can see my home country Japan, that island.”
Then the being asked, “Had you not been told that island was your home country, would you have recognized it as Japan?”
She said, “No, I would not have recognized it as Japan.”
Then the being asked, “Had you not been told about other nations on the planet, would you point them out to me as you are looking at them?”
She answered, “No, I wouldn’t. All I can point out are chunks of land and oceans.”
The being replied, “That is really all there is on Earth.”
She was then given a vision of all the kingdoms and empires that existed in human history. They all had their own borders and their territories have expanded and fallen apart.
She quickly realized something and asked, “If countries don’t last, what is the thing that is unchanging and ever-lasting?”
She then saw the sun, so she asked if the sun could be that thing.
The being said, “It is the light from the Spiritual Sun that is unchanging and ever-lasting.”
She does not remember what happened afterward, but that experience shook her. She drew out the shapes of some of the empires that she saw in her experience, and then looked up the maps of past empires on the Internet, and was surprised to find that some of them matched up with her drawing! She never studied world history in detail so she didn’t know the shapes of these empires, so that was very impressive. She’s never had an experience like this before – she wasn’t thinking about anything like that, it happened very randomly. Due to her own request I cannot reveal her name, but she thought she should share her experience with as many people as possible.
~ Anon
Japanese Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu
Neither me or her is a pro in astral travel but her experience seems to have occurred randomly and completely unexpectedly. This particular time period seems to be a very special time for her since she has received more than one divine revelation. A few days ago she told me that she met some Japanese kamis [gods] in her dream and they told her that many things written in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki [the oldest official histories of Japan] are not true. They also said her people (the Japanese) have misused the name of Amaterasu [goddess of the sun] during WWII for “unforgivable reasons.” Amaterasu sent her descendant to rule over Japan [the “son of the sun”] so that the Japanese people can abandon the old ways that were “backward, but which they did not realize and have over time returned themselves to.”She doesn’t really understand what the kamis mean by this since Shintoism was about living in harmony with nature. She didn’t see Amaterasu herself, a figure which she has been researching. They explained this is because the light that Amaterasu has can be blinding to those who haven’t realized who she really is and who they themselves are. My friend, upon hearing this got worried and was afraid that Amaterasu has abandoned Japan. But then the kamis said that Amaterasu has never abandoned Japan, in fact she never abandoned the world, it’s the darkness within people themselves that has blocked them from seeing her. She will be found if the Japanese today are willing to seek her.
She woke up full of confusion, she understood how her people misused the name of Amaterasu in WWII, but she doesn’t really understand what “the light” means and what the old way that Japanese people were asked to forsake is. She also doesn’t understand why should they “seek” Amaterasu since they’ve always known her. She can’t really tell if this dream meant anything and she has more questions than answers. She also wanted to ask if Shintoism has anything to do with the Religion of the Sun, but didn’t get a chance to ask. She has been conducting intensive research these days and feels the urge to collect as much information as possible just so she could publish what she was finding and share it with the world to get attention.
She thinks perhaps this is the reason she didn’t get to ask her questions and didn’t see Amaterasu, because her motive of doing the research has turned into pure self-satisfaction. She says she may need to pause her research and reflect on herself.
~ Anon
Viracocha’s House
A few years ago, I was praying every night before going to bed asking for guidance about where to live. One night Viracocha, the creator God of the Andes, came to me in the astral. He said, “Why don’t you come to my house?” He had a joyful and kind presence almost like he was laughing but he was also quite sincere in his invitation. I got a very strong feeling that Viracocha loved me and wanted nothing more than to help me to progress spiritually. He was so light-hearted and jovial and at the same time strong and comforting. I felt safe and accepted when I was with him and extremely honored to have been invited to his house.
Julian and I decided to go to South America in search of Viracocha’s house and during that time I came to believe that all of the sacred valley of Peru could be considered, “Viracocha’s House” as he is quite alive and revered there. The time we spent in the Sacred Valley of Peru and Machu Picchu really helped me to connect with the Ancient Religion of the Sun in a way that I hadn’t been able to living in the United States.
Although I had been celebrating the solstices and equinoxes for many years by that time, our trip to Peru completely changed my relationship with the Sun and the Ancient Religion of the Sun. When we got back to the United States, we had developed an incredible hunger to connect with the Sun that we gained the dedication needed to seek out amazing people and places in our own country. My favorite is Chaco Canyon where we got to see the Equinox alignment, discovered an unknown Summer Solstice Sunset alignment and got to dance with the Hopi people in ceremony. We also found druids celebrating the solstices and equinoxes in California and had amazing experiences celebrating with them. Now I feel like remnants of the Religion of the Sun are everywhere and people reviving it are all around me.
I am forever grateful to Viracocha for his invitation to a place where the footprint of the Ancient Religion of the Sun is still so prevalent. Going there gave me strength and understanding for my continued journey towards the Sun.
~ Aavya
Polygonal Walls and the Way of Viracocha
One aspect of the Incan archeological sites that fascinated me right away was the polygonal masonry. One night, as I walked up a narrow walking street in the historical district of Cusco, Peru, I ran my hand along a wall of particularly massive polygonal stones, rough in appearance but smooth to the touch… I felt that there was an unknown history that they had lived through, and prayed to them to tell me their secrets.
Around that time, I found myself out of my body in the astral plane. I was standing in front of a glowing white wall, indescribably beautiful, made in the polygonal style. Behind me I sensed the presence of Viracocha, the creator god of the Inca. He indicated that I should examine the wall. It was called “The Way of Viracocha”, and referred not to the physical path he followed, but to his spiritual legacy through time. It went a short distance to my right, where it was reduced to rubble, and then continued further on intact.
The impression I got from this experience is that there was a dark age in Incan history, a span of time where history was completely lost and discontinued. I’ve since come to believe it was probably a worldwide loss of history, most likely caused by the climatic catastrophes 12,800 years ago (younger dryas).
~ Julian
The Impact of Cataclysms on Ancient History
Quite recently, I had a lucid dream that came to me unexpectedly. For the last year, I have been researching diligently and intensively various aspects of the Ancient Religion of the Sun, with a constant sense of wonder what happened in our past, because I really want to know more about the big picture of what our history is all about.
At night, I woke up and walked around a little and decided to listen to the river that flows past my house. At night the sounds of nature are so very different and calm. So I decided to sit in my comfortable chair and listen to the various sounds that the water makes upon its journey towards the valley below.
Not long after, I found myself floating in space, looking down towards our planet. One part of it was very clear, just like some of the pictures that you can find online. What I saw was an enormous crater that seemed to be very old. Within it, I was also shown smaller craters in quite a special and symbolic way, telling me something about the big picture of our history. Later, this was even clearer, because I was unable to find this crater in an online search, due to its unusual shape. What I understood from this experience was that I was looking into the history of earth and the history of humanity, where the symbolic shape of the crater guided me on certain important time frames that I am researching at the moment.
What I also understood within the context of our own history, is that humanity has been subject to many great cataclysms, influencing our own spiritual development in different cultures and different time frames and that the scars of earth can tell us important information about time periods and contexts wherein we can place our search for our history.
~ Bogdan
Dionysus
Once as I was falling asleep I saw the face of a young man (maybe in his 30s) with blue eyes and light brown longish hair. The image came with a feeling of a strong presence and beyond everything else the impression of otherworldly purity. I intuitively knew this was Dionysus. It was a very inspiring experience and I could feel connection to him for a bit after that. Later I saw his face one more time in a way that, I believe, he was showing his compassion and care for me.
Reflecting on this, I thought that in the first experience, perhaps he wanted to emphasize to me his quality of purity as there is so much written about him that is the opposite. Some time after that, I came across a video of some people doing a ‘celebration of Dionysus’ which involved some wild dancing and shouting in the streets. I really wished they would seek for Dionysus in their hearts, so he can speak to them directly and avoid this confusion. If he gave me these experiences, he’s surely looking for anyone who is willing to listen. From my experiences, he is a pure, compassionate and strong being that wants to help us if we look for him.
~ Pavlin
Seeing Tiwanaku in Other Dimensions
In 2018, I planned a visit with some friends to Tiwanaku and Puma Punku in Bolivia. Before our visit, we went to the Tiwanaku museum of La Paz, where we noticed that different cultures with opposing values had resided there. On one ceramic vase, a sun god stood holding staffs in the god-man pose, and in another, from a later period, this god was shown tied up, and strange demon-like figures were depicted consuming people. We got the impression of cultures with opposing views.
When we arrived at the site, we wandered around, taking everything in, reading everything we could about the site… At night we tried to astral project to continue to learn about the site, and see what it had looked like in the distant past. In our astral exercises, all of us experienced super intense attacks from negative beings, which made it very difficult to get a clear experience, and confirmed the impression we got earlier from the museum: that Tiwanaku was a contested area with conflicting energies, where very spiritual and very dark forces had both resided at different times in history.
Despite the negative beings, I did manage to glimpse a few things about how Tiwanaku had been. One was the massive sculptures that are still buried at Tiwanaku, one of which had a funny looking face with wavy hair or rays. Further excavations are pretty unlikely, for political reasons, so they may never see the light of day. The other thing I glimpsed was a pyramid with a pond on top, and a statue behind it that reflected in the pond. On waking, I assumed this was probably on top of the Akapana pyramid, but I really have no idea, as there was nothing there that resembled it today. In hindsight, seeing it as it was (or may have been) was not as useful as I’d hoped. If I were to do it again, I would focus on what the site was used for rather than what it looked like.
Goseck Circle
This point about discovering how a site was used was also one I learned in one of my first experiences with a sacred site. I was researching Goseck Circle in Germany, and one night found myself there in a lucid dream with a spiritual being. She pointed out to me the entryways, size, and layout of the site, and challenged me to look into how it was used. It’s something I remember anytime I contemplate the layout of a sacred site, and has helped me get many useful insights about sacred sites.
~ Julian Solros
Seeing the Sun Regularly in Lucid Dreams and Out-of-Body Experiences
Since some time many of my lucid dreams or astral experiences, feature the Sun at some point, and seeing it, always increases my spiritual longing, gives me hope and I feel it helps me to maintain a heightened level of lucidity for longer periods. Sometimes the Sun is lower, and sometimes it is higher above the horizon, other times it can be covered by clouds, or it can be dim and distant. It also takes a sustained and big effort to try flying up towards the Sun and not to get distracted or to lose the sight of it. I never managed to get close to the Sun, but I will keep trying.
Humanity Turns Away From the Sun, Choosing Materialism Instead
I have sometimes thought about man turning himself away from the Sun/God, as the Sun continuously remains at the center of the Solar System and sustains it. From memory, the Sun is 99.8% of all the mass in the Solar System. The Sun can exist without the Earth (or all the planets), while life on Earth cannot exist without the Sun’s continuous nourishment.
This topic reminds me of an astral experience I had some years ago, in which humanity made a collective choice to turn away from the Sun and the spiritual and chose materialism instead. Only a few individuals stood at a distance from the rest of humanity which was oblivious to the consequences of their tragic choice. And the demons rejoiced in unity. It was not the spiritual/Light that abandoned humanity; the Light respected free will and collective choice, even if it was to bring dire consequences to all humans.
Focusing on the Sun To Attain Spiritual Freedom From Inner Darkness
In a recent experience, relating to the influence of the Spiritual Sun, after becoming lucid and waking up in a dream, I noticed that there was the Sun in the sky and immediately I focussed my attention to it. Outstretching my arms to take in as much sunlight as it was possible and hence being illuminated by it, I started slowly ascending. The light filled me up with hope and joy; however, crowds below tried to grab my legs to pull me down back to Earth. I had to give my best to try to focus on the Sun, as without sustained focus and without the sunlight; I would succumb to the crowd below and would not have a chance to overcome what needs to be overcome to attain spiritual freedom from inner darkness.
~ Slawek
Seeing the True Nature of Things
I had an astral experience when researching a particular culture and their connections to the Religion of the Sun. I found myself in a sort of city/town, but the vibe was not good, it felt like being underground or something. Then I spotted a group of people (of that particular culture) dressed in beautiful white clothes with red ornaments, reminding me of our native Slavic clothes (even though their ornaments seemed to be different). The clothes had a really nice “emanation” to them, so I came closer to those people to explore. As I came closer though, I heard them speaking badly about the Sun, cursing and swearing, etc. As I heard it, I could not hold myself back and became quite emotional, telling them what a shame it was that with such beautiful clothes they speak in such a shameful way, and how they would be nothing without the Sun, who gives them everything they have, sustains them, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear their reply as the strong emotion I felt within brought me back to my physical body shortly after that. 🙁 My conclusions from it was that sometimes whole cultures may be based on denying the spiritual importance of the Sun, or even being very negative/irritated about it, even though their tradition directly stems from the Religion of the Sun (as I think their clothes testified).~ Lucia
Dreams
Foreign Old Man
This is the story of Lingling, a Chinese girl.
One afternoon when Lingling was taking a nap, the sun was shining directly through her window onto her face. During the time when she was napping, she had a dream of where she met with someone whom she referred to as the Foreign Old Man. She saw that the Foreign Old Man was looking at her right through her window, at the place from her perspective where the sun was supposed to be, and the Foreign Old Man’s face was radiant just like the sun.
She told me she calls this person the Foreign Old Man, because he did not look Chinese, and had obvious features of a foreigner in the view of Chinese people. She said he looked old because he had long beard of very light color, which only an old person could have. She was confused and scared at first, and thought of talking to the Foreign Old Man in her broken English. But before she could speak, the Foreign Old Man greeted her by name, in perfect Mandarin without the slightest foreign accent. Lingling was shocked, and she asked, “Who are you? Can you please give me your name? How come you know my language so well as a foreigner?” The Foreign Old Man replied, “My name is not important, it is the message that I have come to tell you that is. You call me a foreigner, but the reality is that I am both foreign and non-foreign.” “And what does that mean?” Lingling asked. “The concepts of foreign and non-foreign are relative, you maybe non-foreign relative to this place, but you are foreign in relation to other places.” the Foreign Old Man answered.
Lingling then asked what was his message and he said what he just told her was part of his message. Lingling said, “How come you know my name?” The Foreign Old Man replied, “That is because I have always been with you.” “How come I’ve never seen you before?” “Seeing is not necessarily believing, not-seeing is not necessarily non-believing.” “Where are you from?” Lingling asked. “I am everywhere.” Said the Foreign Old Man. “What does that mean?” Lingling asked. “It means I am one and the same with all that there is, just like the energy of the sun becomes one with everything it touches. This is the way I am, and the way everyone is.” Lingling felt confused, she could not really understand what the Foreign Old Man meant by “one and the same with all that there is.” She wanted to ask, but felt embarrassed since the Foreign Old Man had a very powerful presence in front of her.
She then questioned the Foreign Old Man that if he was not foreign, then why did he have the appearance of a foreigner. The Foreign Old Man was silent. Lingling then asked if he was a Westerner because he had the appearance of one, again the Foreign Old Man remained silent. Lingling then realized it was just like he said, the concepts of foreign and non-foreign are relative. She looked carefully at the Foreign Old Man, and felt that he was just like the sun. The sun does not belong to any particular place or any group of people, it is the ultimate source of light and warmth shared by all of the world. Similarly, the radiance of the Foreign Old Man appeared to illuminate the entire world. For a moment, she was overwhelmed by the outpouring energy coming from the Foreign Old Man and had a sense of joy in her heart she never experienced before.
“Oh Wise One,” She said respectfully, “Please tell me how can I be just like you.” “Forsake all views that are dualistic in nature and realize the oneness of all phenomena.” the Foreign Old Man said. Interestingly the Foreign Old Man then went on to talk to her about the conflicts between different countries and acknowledged to her that love and understanding is the key to peaceful coexistence between all nations of the planet. Whether capitalist, socialist, or whatever, the sun shines upon all lands of the world without discrimination.
Lingling was awed by the Foreign Old Man, and again asked for his name. But the Foreign Old Man disappeared in a flash of light, leaving her staring out at her window alone. Lingling then woke up, she looked around her room, and outside the window, the sun was still shining through her window and onto her, only now at a slightly different angle. She then got up from her bed and checked her window, the glass on her window actually blocks most sounds from the outside, she wondered how she could have talked to the Foreign Old Man through the glass as if there was nothing between them at all. But since it was a dream, she didn’t give too much thoughts on that afterwards.
When she told me about this dream she said she was sure this has something to do with the Religion of The Sun, the teachings of the Foreign Old Man was so wise that she has never heard anything like it in her life before. And she could feel that he was an embodiment of the Spiritual Sun in a way.
The only sad thing here is that he didn’t tell her his name so she still doesn’t know who was this Foreign Old Man that came to her and passed on the teachings of the Religion of The Sun to her until now. When talking about this experience, she would say, “He was so amazing that even though he looked like a foreigner from the West he spoke Mandarin Chinese even better than some Chinese people that are more used to speaking regional dialects that when they do speak Mandarin, they have a really heavy accent.”
I found this interesting as well, and I also wonder who the Foreign Old Man was and how come I’ve never met someone like him. The only description of him Lingling gave me is that his face was radiant as the sun and he appeared to be an old foreigner from the West with long beard of light color. She never gave me a lot of details on the appearance of him. What can be certain is that this Foreign Old Man was clearly no ordinary being and he definitely had a connection to the Religion of The Sun in some way.
Another Dream With the Foreign Old Man
Lingling has been talking to a bunch of people about her experiences with the Foreign Old Man, but very few seem to take her words seriously and call her crazy. She was also asked why it was a “foreign” old man instead of a Chinese one since he looked like a Westerner. Lingling answered, “It also puzzles me why he looked like a Westerner…, he appeared to be a really wise person and what he said was really enlightening to me, but his appearance is something I cannot understand.” Others are firm in their belief that she made her experience up.
She became truly puzzled about the Foreign Old Man’s appearance. She told me that the Foreign Old Man came to her again in a dream and explained to her why he was Western in appearance. The Foreign Old Man used his psychic power to lift her up from her bed and transported her out of the room through the glass of her window, and took her to different times and places which she didn’t even know existed. He said something similar to what you mentioned in your video, and that was a pretty long explanation of why he looked Western in appearance. She was very surprised by the things that she was told, and refuses to reveal the details regarding it, as well as the Foreign Old Man’s name, which she has been acknowledged of this time in fear of being ridiculed again.
The Foreign Old Man showed her that there was indeed a group of people whom she described as “having the height of a building and as pale as snow”. She was also informed that these people lived in China at some point in the past. And this was a way to show that her concept of foreign and non-foreign is really relative in nature and that she really should not have called someone “foreign” solely based on the way that person looks.
I was actually thinking about what she meant by people “having the height of a building and as pale as snow”, and I tried to find some information about this, but didn’t find anything helpful until I came across this video. It’s very unlikely that she made this one up since she doesn’t have access to Youtube as most people here do and she knows almost nothing about cultures in other parts of the world, there is really no way she could gotten this information somewhere.
She was also being shown by the Foreign Old Man a city that fell into the bottom of the sea which looked like a round target. Lingling refers to this city as Target City since it was shaped just like a round target as she described. I think it is very possible that this city that she saw was Atlantis. I asked whether she knew about Atlantis, she said the only thing she knows about Atlantis is the hotel. She has never heard of a sunken city, let alone an advanced civilization in the distant past with the same name. But she was able to describe what she saw in a way that is very easy for people to visualize. She is not sure of where exactly Target City was located, but she is pretty sure that it really did exist. The Foreign Old Man also warned that if humanity as a whole do not change the way they behave, they will eventually suffer from the same misfortune as Target City.
The Foreign Old Man also told her this time that this was the last time that she will see him and hear him speaking to her. But he will always be with her, as he has always been with everyone else and everything.
Lingling actually remained speechless for a long time after she woke up from that dream, and she is still trying to make sense of what she experienced in that dream until this very moment. It’s interesting that this is a recent event which occurred around the same time that this video is being uploaded, and how Lingling was being given similar information as the content of this video.
Lingling has truly experienced the divinity of the Foreign Old Man this time and said his light and warmth are not so different from that of the sun. Even though refusing to reveal his name, Lingling did say that he was one of the Wise Ones, a term which she did not give an explanation. But in anyway this was a really inspiring and miraculous dream of hers.
~ Emily, sharing on behalf of Lingling
Sanxingdui and the Golden Sun Bird
First Experience: I had a dream where I saw people who built the site [Sanxingdui in China] performing a sacred ceremony there. I can’t remember how they looked but I was certain that these were the people who made all the amazing artifacts. Behind them was a gigantic Golden Sun Bird, with the golden rays of the sun radiating from its center. I was in total shock when I saw that in my dream and I think that’s something I would never forget.
Second Experience: One night after I went to bed I asked the universe in my head what should I do about [a stressful family situation]. And then I had a dream where I saw something I didn’t expect to see, that was a Golden Sun Bird symbol of Sanxingdui. It was similar to the one I saw in an earlier dream with the people who possibly built it, only this time I didn’t see the site of Sanxingdui or the people at all, rather it was in a completely different dimension that was nothing like our reality, with no recognizable people or object that we are familiar in this reality, except for beams of light that appeared to be carrying some sort of spiritual energy, and right in front of me was the Golden Sun Bird symbol of Sanxingdui. It was emitting bright golden rays that were akin to that of the sun, and from the symbol came a voice that told me to “balance my Yin and Yang” and “manage the five elements”.
I didn’t know understand what that meant so I wanted to ask, the voice coming from the Golden Sun Bird seemed to possess the ability of reading my mind and said that I need to figure out the meanings on my own. I thought ok, then I asked if more secrets about Sanxingdui could be revealed to me since I still haven’t got a chance to go there(that region is still closed to tourists). I was informed that now the secrets of Sanxingdui cannot he revealed to me. I woke up confused, perhaps I was meant to actually go there and discover the secrets on my own expedition. But I’m still trying to figure out what “balancing the Yin and Yang” and “manage the five elements” have to do with the current issue that I’m facing. But I believe it was a message of guidance from the Divine and it is up to me to decipher what it means to balance my Yin and Yang and to manage the five elements.
The five elements are a part of ancient Chinese philosophy that explains many phenomena in the universe, similar to the concept of air, water, fire and earth in ancient Greece. It is a a conceptual scheme that I’m still struggling to understand personally and all of a sudden I was told to manage the five elements. I believe this is what I should do to cope with my problems and I am meant to learn about it through experience. Since the notion of the five elements came up, I think it’s also likely that this concept is connected to the Religion of The Sun in some way. But it’s unclear in what way exactly, since the exact origin of this concept is unclear, like Yin and Yang, which has popped up in many different times and places throughout China’s history. But I am determined to look into it in my future research nevertheless. What puzzles me the most at this moment though, is how exactly can I make use of this divine guidance. I could’ve asked even more questions, but since I was told I need to figure it out on my own, maybe I should just do that.
I don’t know who was the one talking to me since all that I saw was a Golden Sun Bird symbol, but I feel that I don’t really need to know, all I needed was guidance, and perhaps it is better that I don’t know the identity of whoever spoke to me in that dream. I could tell, however, that the voice was masculine in nature, and it didn’t sound threatening or intimidating, but I could sense a kind of selfless love in it. It was not the kind of love experienced by a couple in romantic relationship, neither was it the kind of love that bonds a parent to a child, but it was a love that transcends all of these, a kind of love that radiates from its source towards all living beings, just as sunlight that shines onto everything on the surface of this planet, it was truly compassionate and selfless.
~ Emily
Connections Between Ancient Sites Worldwide
Today I had a very interesting clear dream about ancient sacred sites and their connection to each other and their connection to the planet.
It was in the afternoon as I was practicing to astral project. After I relaxed my body and focused my mind, I went into sleep fairly quickly and woke up after a nice nap without any projections or dreams that I could remember. I decided to try again and at the same time it had already started to rain. My roof allows to hear the rain quite clearly and for me it is a pleasant sound, so I decided to focus more intensely on the rain and all the various sounds it makes.
I found myself on a large plateau with a clear view in all directions. In a very peculiar way in the dream I was shown, and distinctly felt, how ancient sites are related to each other and also why their locations and size are very important.
In the dream I understood that in very ancient times, sacred sites were placed on the planet according to a specific grid that connects them according to higher knowledge. It became also instantly clear that there are no straight lines on earth, but curved closed forms, like circles and ellipses.
The alignments of sacred sites seem also to depend on the size of these closed forms and their specific location relative to the earth. The closed forms are part of a larger blueprint of a specific grid and there is a reason why the sites were placed on this grid, which from the dream I could not decipher completely.
I woke up with a feeling of joy and wonder. I also focused to stay only with the information from the dream and not allow my mind to go on intellectual tangents, because thoughts of ley lines and ‘the way of Viracocha’, already popped in my mind after I woke up, but they seemed to feel incomplete, fragmented in their spiritual message.
Some of the information as described above may be known knowledge to some people, but to receive it in a special way that I have never thought of, through a dream, makes the knowledge much more profound.
I was left with a sense of wonder to try to explore more and learn more of this interconnectedness of sacred sites of ancient antiquity.
~Bogdan
Spiritual Beings From Different Traditions Watching Over Humanity
In one dream a voice told me that the issue involving Russia and Ukraine is “much more complicated” than what people of the world think, and those who we consider to be our enemy may not really be the way we think they are.
The voice said that most people on this planet are living in delusion, and the real enemy is hidden in the dark, which can be really sinister and hard to spot. I think it is similar to what Lara said before that there are some invisible dark forces that are working behind the scenes in order to achieve their agenda. Also, I have been informed that many of the terrible things which are happening in this world are signs that we are approaching the end of this era, such as the pandemic that has devastated the global society in recent years, as well as the ever-increasing natural disasters that are happening around the world. The volcano eruption in Tonga a while ago was “Certainly not the first one of its kind, and there will be more.”
Also, I saw something profound in my dream, one time there was a being, which I believe to have been an Egyptian deity, who had the head of a bird, and on top of its head was the sun. That being, along with a few others around him that had similar looks to him, had a very strong presence.
Next to the Egyptian ones there were also beings from European mythologies which I cannot name since I haven’t done much research into them. There were also beings from many other traditions which I cannot name and they all stood in a line behind the bronze tree of Sanxingdui, with the symbol of the Golden Sun Bird on top of it. Among them, the Japanese goddess Amaterasu walked to me and said to me, with her soft and gentle voice, “You are seeing us here. We are all one and the same and we have been observing humanity for eons.”
She also addressed my Japanese friend, who has been wanting to see her but couldn’t do it because she isn’t ready to meet her, however there is something she wants to let her know so she needs someone to relay this message to my Japanese friend. That is to meditate on how Izanagi and Izanami gave birth to her. If my Japanese friend does that she might as well fulfill her wish of seeing her.
She also mentioned the age-old conflict between China and Japan, “As with all conflicts, this issue must be resolved, and the religion of truth is the key. ” I asked her, “What is your stand on this issue? Are you pro-Japan? Since you are Japanese? ” She did not answer. The sentence: “When you observe the Earth from space, you see no border between countries, just chunks of lands and oceans” popped up in my head. She also said that everything the Land of Rising Sun is famous for in the world today, such as technology and anime, are leading the country away from its spiritual origins and that people must return to spirituality in order to rediscover themselves.
After saying these words she walked back into the line they were standing in and all of them ascended and disappeared into what I perceived to be the halo of the sun above my head. All that was left in front of me was the bronze tree of Sanxingdui and the Golden Sun Bird on top of it. Something told me that there is a lot more to China’s ancient history than what my people realize, and if I touch the bronze tree I will find out more (this is interesting since in the real world those bronze trees, along with other artifacts are being displayed in a museum where you are not allowed to touch them). I slowly walked towards the bronze tree but just when I reached out my hand to touch it, my connection to the astral realm / dream world was lost and I woke up.
~ Emily
Waking Life
Spiritual Calling from Sanxingdui
How I started my research on this subject matter is also very interesting. I first learned about this site [Sanxingdui in China] when I saw a recommendation on my phone of an article that talks about this site. It seemed weird at first for it to be in my recommendation since I have never heard about Sanxingdui before, and there’s no way that I could’ve searched it on the web, so there’s no way that algorithm chose this article for me by pulling information from my search history.
Even the conspiracy theory that suggests my phone is listening to me could not explain this strange recommendation since I didn’t even know about the existence of Sanxingdui, although I have searched the Religion of The Sun, it was only after reading the article that I made the connection between that archaeological site and the Religion of The Sun. I thought, “Oh, this is weird. I don’t know what Sanxingdui is, but somehow I got this recommendation, let me check it out.”
After reading it I was really shocked about what has been found there, and after digesting the information that I took in for a bit, I realized that whoever built this site may have practiced the Religion of The Sun. I decided that I needed to look more into this somehow, but wasn’t planning on this trip. It was when my Japanese friend suggested why don’t we both go to our home countries and look for traces of the Religion of The Sun there? At first I was a little bit hesitant about it but soon something seemed to have gave me assurance that I should go. I don’t know what it was but I had a strong sense of “This is what I must do”. And I also seemed to know that other than Sanxingdui, there are many fragmented pieces of the solar religion in my culture as well. So I was compelled by a very unexplainable force that told me to do what I do.
I now believe it was a message from the divine that guided me on this mission. Now as I’m feeling a connection to it that is only getting deeper, I feel that this was all meant to happen. People asked me things like, “You decided to travel to the other side of the world to do research just because of a randomly recommended article on your phone? What made you make such a decision?” My answer has been that I believe it was the call of the spiritual which brought me to where I am now. It is hard to describe it and hard for others to believe. But it’s just as real as anything you can see, hear or touch. Those who are able to feel it feel it as clear as day.
~ Emily
Solstice and Equinox Celebrations
Connecting with Väinämöinen
A few weeks ago, on the autumn equinox, my husband and I did a ceremony from the book Ancient Solstice, adapted for my Finnish tradition. I followed the basic ceremony outline from the book together with the amazingly beautiful ceremony for Odin, modifying it for Väinämöinen’s mythology. Having read quite a bit about him, and many scholars having found amazing parallels between him and Odin, I had been wondering if he was a real divine being like Odin, or even the same as him. Though not knowing I wasn’t sure if I should try to connect with him.
So this felt like a chance to see. Not being in Finland, we chose a local Thracian ancient sacred site to do it in. There were many delays and problems however, so when the time was getting closer to start the ceremony, I had all these worries and bad feelings, though the place, ancient rocks, nature, clear sky and golden sun, were so beautiful and peaceful. But after the ceremony, it was all gone.
We all of us shared how we felt a strong, unexpected peace that seemed to come from outside of ourselves, that wiped the bad feelings and thoughts away. Our cousin was there too and she felt the same, though it was her first time and she had never even heard of Väinämöinen before.
I’ve done ceremonies before, but this peace was unique, and I feel that Väinämöinen gave it to us. It confirmed to me that he is real. I realized that I now feel a strong connection and love towards him (and I’m not someone who feels this easily) – for what he is, what he did for me, and for the Finnish people.
~ Laura
Spiritual Presence at the Winter Solstice
Thinking about experiences connected to the religion of the Sun, one of the first things that come to mind would be the ceremonies. At first I wasn’t quite sure how to approach them, but with time and experience it became clear how special the equinoxes and solstices are and how preparing and conducting a ceremony helped me to tap into these magical times, each ceremony bringing something new and helping me see different things.In a particular winter solstice ceremony that I was part of I had an intense feeling of spiritual presence, it was like the sacred circle was separated from the physical world and was elevated into a more spiritual realm, at the same time the words spoken resonated not only in the space around, but I felt like they were reverberating in the whole world.In another winter solstice ceremony I felt connection and a feeling of closeness to the Divine Father, in that particular ceremony this spiritual principle was symbolized by a pine tree that was to my right, and at a point in the ceremony I could feel His presence there. It made me want to stay in inner silence, so I can feel this beautiful spiritual presence for as long as possible.~ Pavlin
Another Experience of Spiritual Presence at the Winter Solstice
On winter solstice this year I went up to our ceremonial circle a bit earlier than everyone else to set up a few final things before our ceremony at sunrise. Our circle was at the top of a hill in a forested area – a spot I visit often in general. When I arrived there that morning I unexpectedly became enveloped in a feeling of complete serenity and peace. There was stillness all around me, and inside me there was this unusual and very powerful stillness also – a sense of “presence” this strong I’ve only experienced a handful of times in my life. I carried that feeling with me as others arrived to join me and into the ceremony where we greeted the winter sun.
~ Jenny
I had a beautiful dream experience last night. I was in a passage mound, in a side-arm of the cruciform shape that many of them have. I saw that there were three main parts: the south part was the intellect and the mind, the north part was heart and intuition, and at the end of the west arm there was a huge brass horse. The horse came with a task/mandate, which was to polish it so when the sun came in from the east it would shine. I took this to mean the psychological work, and death of the ego, then making the 4th part the introduction of the spirit from the east, essentially an outside force that we all hope will come into us as we sit in inner darkness.
I loved this experience because it showed yet another aspect of the incredibly rich solar cross symbol. I wear a solar cross, and when people ask me what it means, I take a deep breath because there’s a lot to say about it :) The dream about the passage mound also extends the god-man symbol, which Lara explained as representing right brain, left brain, and seat of consciousness (north, south, east). The god-man symbol is sometimes seen as three eyes (heart, mind, and spirit), and if you created a 4th point below, it would be the mouth, which would be a great symbol for the death of the ego, one which I’ve seen represented that way at a temple in Tulum (a face divided into 3 parts, top being forehead, center being eyes, bottom being mouth). Death is west of course.
The side-arms of the passage mound also represented how people come to the religion of the sun. In other words, “people of the mind” come to it and have to learn “heart”, and then inner work, and people of the heart have to learn “mind”, and then inner work; that is, the side arms represent the “inflow” of people to the religion of the sun and the journey they must make to understand it. This also roughly correlates to western vs non-western mindsets, and skepticism/superstition, which Lara has mentioned before. I wonder if this would have been incorporated symbolically into ceremonies in passage mounds, for instance by having men at the south and women at the north…
It addressed a question I’d been thinking about for a while, which is: “what is the correct way to represent ancient mysteries?” I think your books and videos strike this beautiful balance between mind/study/research and intuition/spiritual experience/wisdom, and they kind of make these cross-hairs between heart and mind (north and south) from where one can embark on the larger expedition of personal change and connection to spirit (west and east). This approach also acts like secret keys that bypass barriers that normally exist to reach the truth, such as the confusion of contradictory information, or alternatively the sometimes disjointed or confusing experiences we can have when there’s no framework to understand them.
And finally, this makes me think of a couple excerpts from Flight of the Feathered Serpent, one where the “mysterious man” discusses making a bridge from Peter to John, which in my understanding is from mind/exoteric to heart/esoteric (or from South to North). Then in another section, he discusses the 4 directions and not having South or West, but North and East, and it actually correlates very well with this experience, West being related to inner death and South to listening and earth (he makes a point of discussing Peter and how he died with his _head_ on the earth). He actually directly connects the directions with Peter and John in a way that makes a lot of sense with this interpretation. It’s a beautiful part of the book that had been pretty opaque to me before, so it’s lovely to see it opened this way :)
Wow Julian that sounds like a beautiful experience that you gleaned so much from. What do you think the horse means?! I have a bronze horse on my alter BTW (maybe I should polish it).
You bring up many important questions and reflections, none of which I have answers to but realise I’m trying to figure out in my life or feel are important, especially this balancing of the two sides of ourselves, which must be so linked to how to best represent the ancient mysteries – the people who I think of as being representative in the best way, they are able to bridge these polarities, or blend these opposites and therefore embody the truth. It really is a powerful thing when there is a clear intellect and also a depth of emotion or feeling. When I think of the main teachers in my life, this is always evident.
Haha, yes sounds like you should polish it!
Good question about the horse. The horse makes me think of many things, all of which make sense. First are the chalk horses of England, which are oriented West and associated with death (royal burials). Second is the rune Ewhaz, which means horse, and also partnership, referencing the partnership between the horse and the sun. Thirdly is taming the passions, as horseback riding is a human dominating an animal (symbolic of dominating the inner animal). Finally, I think there’s also something about the horse carrying the sun that is a metaphor for us, mere humans, being able to carry the spirit, reinforced by my impression that North, West, and South are the “personal” space, or realm of human action, and the East is where the unknown and new spirit comes from. In summary, overcoming the inner animal makes way for the light of the sun.
Because all those metaphors fit together so nicely, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a reason, like this relationship of the sun, man, and horse was probably well known in ancient times. In fact, doesn’t the “Sun” tarot card even feature a spiritual child on a horse? Then there’s Krishna, Apollo, Helios, Sol, Surya, Dazbog, and even sometimes Ra all pulled by horses on chariots. Jesus rode a donkey, and there’s some evidence he was associated with donkeys (interesting rabbit hole there).
I appreciate the question, because I hadn’t really thought about the horse that deeply, but there’s really a lot to it.
Your point about meaningful teachers is moving, it’s not something I had thought about in that way, but you’re absolutely right. There’s that saying “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”, but it’s also more than that… Academic teachers I’ve learned from, there’s no better way to say it, they put their heart into it. The one I remember the most was an elementary school teacher that told our class about an NDE she had, and how if you knew you were going to die, you would look at the world with fresh eyes. I feel like those are things the heart perceives. In our current age, such people stand out as something special, while those relying only on intellect people wander around blindly like zombies, testing things and hoping to luck out and discover something (me a lot of the time!).
Years ago, I did a concentration on the heart project, and felt called on to “live from the heart”, but I had no idea what it meant at the time, or how to do it. I feel like it’s starting to become more clear.
You may have already seen this, but the sun horse is a pretty prominent motif in the Norse tradition – horses were believed to pull the sun’s chariot across the sky during the day, eg. the Trundholm chariot.
It’s also in some petrogylphs, and other decorations, like these ones:
Horse motif on bronze razor
Sun horse petroglyph
Another sun horse petroglyph
Great examples of horse symbolism Julian. Weren’t the ancient people from the Caucasus great equestrians too? And then there’s the unicorn of course :-)
Lovely pictures @David, I hadn’t seen those. The third one looks a bit more like an oryx to me?
Julian about the cardinal directions, why would you imagine women at the north and men at the south? That’s an interesting passage in the Flight of the Feathered Serpent about ‘not having’ the West and South, I assume it means death (west) and that which is below (south) and east being birth and north that which is above, heaven. In the ancient Chinese view of the body the north is water and the kidneys and the origin, the south is fire and the heart and this is the central axis of creation. Then east is wood (ether I think it would correspond to) and the liver and west is the lungs and metal (or air?). This second axis are like the dual forces of expansion and contraction, life and death and all that happens in time. The earth is the fifth element around which everything spins and manifests. Isn’t it amazing that just by facing a direction we can connect to a principle of creation and offer the appropriate prayers there?
I recently had the chance to speak with a friend of mine while they experienced their father passing away. It was a long process of illness and both of them experienced contact with the other side and a sense of divine support. The dying man had a beautiful NDE days before passing and left with forgiveness and peace in his heart. My friend is an astrologer and we were fascinated by the chart of the moment he died. It was when Jupiter was in the west and the sun was at the zenith. It was a full moon too and the whole moment seemed blessed with light. I felt really lucky to have had a glimpse into such a graceful death.
To me the heart seems more feminine and the mind more masculine, so women at the north and men at the south, representing that duality. But in different circumstances, the south is associated with the underworld and the goddess, and the north with the circumpolar immortal gods, so I suppose it depends what’s being represented.
I used to think symbols were something you could put in a dictionary, where x means y, and one day you’d have a full understanding of every symbol. But it’s more of an intuitive language, where one symbol could have potentially infinite meanings. Even symbols of darkness could be symbols of light if people had more spiritual understanding. You could imagine an inverted pentagram could symbolize the quest for knowledge in the matter, for example, in an enlightened civilization.
The Chinese system is interesting… do you have some sense of how its symbolism fits with the path of the sun? In the Yi Ching, the concepts of yin and yang describe the solstices and equinoxes well, and the 5 elements are said to unfold from the yin and yang, but it seems to describe a more complex relationship… I think the organs may also have different connotations than we have in the west (eg the heart).
It sounds like a meaningful experience you’ve had Julian; the feeling of being in the passage mound in the astral, with all that symbolic setting must have been amazing… Wishing you a lot of strength and Divine help with polishing that horse!
Hi Julian,
your experience helps to clarify a couple of things for me. The significance of the ‘cardinal directions’ from a spiritual sense and also the deeper layers of the symbolism that can be revealed to us in dreams. Lara and Mark’s most recent book, piecing it together even more so and helping us to understand our spiritual past from a fresh perspective.
Can you remind me which section of the book (Flight of the Feathered Serpent) it refers to Peter and John? I can’t recall.
Something interesting occurred during a prayer a few days ago, which I thought I’d report.
I felt a strong wish to pray for a friend who’s currently in India. Myself I was outside in the city and it was night time, but I didn’t feel physically in danger so could deeply get into it. In the sky I could see one star in between the walls of buildings. Would that star also be visible there? I started by addressing my own Being. Then I visualised the place, went there in my imagination, which flowed so naturally and visualised and imagined good things and said prayers. It was genuine and strong, getting in that ‘glow’ of prayer. While there though I was asking a little from a certain spiritual being, my own Being, but wasn’t quite ‘locking on’. Then! to my surprise and out of nowhere an image appeared and with it a mental message ‘why not pray to Shiva…’.
In terms of the image I had already been visualing the mountains there at night time and the image was a bit like that with Shiva in known seated pose in front of it. Although the visual image wasn’t super clear and perhaps partly shaped by my own mental images, however that didn’t matter so much because) I could feel the being behind the message that was sent.
I was a bit surprised but it didn’t take me out of the flow and now in a natural way I continued while addressing my pleas to Shiva, or this individual spiritual being Shiva. It was a just plea, from a good place, and so could sense then that divine help could happily be granted (according to how they see it fit, not necessarily exactly what I asked or visualised).
I didn’t have any particular feeling or connection to Shiva. I’d read about him previously, mostly what is mentioned in Mark and Lara’s books. I’d thought he was an archetype of the/a part of the godhead, not entirely sure personally in the theological sense what force Shiva was referring to.
However, by coincidence so peculiar, the perfect situation happened to have arisen where it would be suitable for me to ask him. (As I later read it’s that area near the Himalayas where he is said to reside, as well as a few other elements of coincidence) I guess the strength of the prayer was picked up on.
The days after I listened to and sang a song version of the mantra ‘om namah shivaya’ – which felt good, to nurture that connection made.
I prefer astral encounters, however this higher telepathic message felt as something real not originating from myself, from this specific ‘individual’ spiritual being. I hadn’t even considered that ‘Shiva’ could have been an awakened individual being of the past instead of (and perhaps only later connected to) a universal divine force.
That sounds like a beautiful and unexpected experience Karim, thank you for sharing. Like you, I also had an impression of Shiva being something like a universal force – a symbol of the Father perhaps… But, that does not mean that a being with this name didn’t exist in a distant past (and still does). Very interesting, hope you keep this inspiration going and explore this further! And yeah, there is something very special about the area of the Himalayas, especially around Mt. Kailash, which is specifically connected to Shiva. It makes me wonder what was going on there in the ancient times, and what kind of energy/spiritual activity in higher dimensions may still be present there. An astral goal perhaps? 😉
Also, from your previous little video and pictures, it looks like a nice spiritually-oriented group you have over there, wishing you guys a lot of strength and meaningful experiences in connecting to the principles and beings of the Religion of the Sun. 🌞
Hi everyone, I would like to share with you a track I did a few days ago using The Megalithic Frequency Lara and Mark talk about in the new book. I realized that’s the frequency I naturally tune when chanting mantras which corresponds to A2 in our current standard tuning of A = 440 Hz. Feel free to download it if you wish.
I had a long time without doing an “ambient drone” type of track like this although this time the only sound source was my voice (multiple takes), no synthesizers whatsoever.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i4xRtldbfpnWIQENoBAx0FIYWMAPJKPY/view?usp=drive_link
Thank you Marco, that was very nice and professional-sounding! With the crickets-like sound on the beginning and the “megalithic echo” – very inspiring. 🌞 I am yet to try to project with it… As I was listening to it, I remembered the recording I made some time ago of my husband singing OM mantra at 2 different pitches, and I just went to see if by some chance, that recording won’t harmonise with yours, and funnily it does! I have been listening to them both together, and it sounded quite cool to me. 🙂 One of my husband’s notes in the recording is lower than yours, and the other one is the same as yours. I was wondering if you could tell me what Hz the lower note of my husband is? His voice is quite low, and so the lower note comes more natural to him than the higher one. I am sure its still within the “megalithic frequency“ range though…
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Wgp5kIpC3fqb0j_rJ0eCja5X4et1k3z/view?usp=drive_link
I’m glad you liked it, Lucia. I will definitely let you know about the frequency once I’m able to access the link! If you would like a longer version you can tell me and I will make it longer for you.
PD: I realized that the link was not opened because of some requests I received and thanks to Clark Aurelius who letted me know, my bad. The link is now open.
Oooops, I think I had the same problem as you, in that I didnt know that when I upload a file there, it has automatically restricted acceess. I changed it now. I guess the same about the Circle of protection that I wanted Emily to open, not sure if she was able to, but now it should be possible.
It seems like it! jaja I am sorry for the delayed response. Your husband’s chanting in the upper note is indeed in tune with the Megalithic frequency at 112 Hz, and his lower chanting is around 83 Hz.
Thanks a lot Marco! I was trying to figure out the Hz myself (through Audacity), but was not able to. 😯
Hi Marco, I decided to try and improvise something on my lyre with your megalithic frequency chant as a background, and found out that the F-sharp scale my lyre is tuned to now can produce quite an “oriental-sounding” style (if i play the right notes of course 🙂). So I made a 7-minutes recording, using your chant as a background, hope it is ok? You can find it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KZb09cMgIKhTJCgarDrJpRnMIM7mNuzv/view?usp=drive_link
Sounds effective Lucia! :) I could imagine this combination of your and Marco’s recordings being played on some BBC radio programs. BBC Radio 3 mainly plays classical music, but some late night shows like Night Tracks, Late Junction and Unclassified play this kind of music, which I often like to listen to as well.
It’s nice to have playing in the background, as it’s interesting but not distracting.
Thats fantastic Lucía! I love it, thanks for sharing.
Here is a version that includes a stick as a metronome so that you can jam along at the exact tempo if you would like to. It’s at 51.56 BPM, the tempo was extracted from the frequency itself, the chanting goes on for 4 bars and then it stops for 1 bar and so forth. If you wish you can send me the recording of your lyre and I can feed it into the reverb I’m using and mix it with the rest of the tracks.
Your previous track sounded to me like a lullaby with a cheerful vibe to it, this one sounds more serious and I love the way your playing changes the harmony of the chanting, it sounds very fitting for the upcoming autumn equinox.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1id9htooWkw2-29d83lptMSnFVRvjsCEH/view?usp=drive_link
PD: I checked the frequencies of your husband’s chanting with a parametric EQ, I’m not sure if Audacity includes one but there are good free ones out there if you would like to check it for yourself.
Hi Marco, glad you liked it and that you don’t mind me using your track! 🙂 I was just so excited when I found out that my latest lyre tuning (F# major) can produce this ancient-sounding effect if I improvise into your chant. I have since learned (thanks to Michael) that I have actually been improvising in A# Phrygian mode. I am not very good in all this theory, but this was quite an interesting discovery. Regarding the tempo, I have used an online metronome before, for some of my previous lyre recordings, but for this one I just wanted it to be organic and natural, kind of like human speech, nothing too exact (it is my impression that a lot of the Middle Eastern music has this “sleepy” feel to it, not very exact, but still keeping its own, intuitive structure, at least those of a more improvisational/meditational style). But I agree that maybe for some of those motifs to start a bit later or sooner could work better with your track. I have uploaded just my lyre recording (without your chant), please feel free to play with it the way you see fit.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B7fUTTuAgz_70Q8gZ2Pc1JSGHx_0iLug/view?usp=drive_link
Regarding my other little F# song, its funny because after listening to it for a while, I also concluded that it has this lullaby-like quality, and I actually plan to improve on it a bit (using metronome this time), with some more notes and harmonies. Will see if it sounds good or not.
Hi Lucia,
I’m not musically inclined (that is, I don’t know much about music notes) but your recording was wonderful to listen to. I could feel it resonating in my body, in uplifting ways.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Marco and Lucia for creating these pieces 👏🏼 and others too for bringing up this topic.
@Marco. Monolith frequency. When I was listening to it for the first time, it felt there was something to it. Some in-between creating feeling, sideways shaking back and forth because of the frequency. (Not technical terms ;-).)
I tried listening to it when going for an afternoon nap, but the physical sound sort of kept me here. Maybe a continuous sound track, or a version that fades out could work. I’m not musically educated but would like to experiment as well at some point.
I had a number of astral experiences with monoliths/standing stones and their relation to the frequency of consciousness, at a time when studying them more intensly. I’ll see if I can find them in my diaries some time.
@Lyre addition Lucia. Wow Beautiful song Lucia. So naturel, and listening to it again now it’s easy to visualise the lyre, in the form of a person, taking one through passages deeper into an underground cave.
Skills 👏🏼
And so lovely to hear Rajko’s deep voice.
So much potential and wonderful things to try. More plz 🙏🏼
You are very much welcome Karim. I will make and upload the fade-out version tomorrow and it will be on the same link so you can check it out and see if it works better for what you intend
I agree that the freeflow improvisation has a very special feel, I just wanted to offer another option. For the “Lucia’s Lyre” Track I decided to make the chanting a continuous drone that serves just as a bed for the Lyre.
Thank you very much for sharing your recording, Lucía. You provided me an opportunity to try a mixing technique that I had studied recently but hadn’t experimented with yet and I usually don’t work with ambient sounds either so it was very nice, I hope I made justice to your work.
Your husband’s voice indeed has much potential Lucia, that’s the first thing that came to mind when I heard your recording jaja As Julian mentioned, it would be nice to get along and play together someday but in the meantime, we could very well make some tunes remotely as many music nowadays is made by sharing recordings and putting them together, It would be very nice and exciting. For example, one way in which everyone who wants to can participate, musicians and non-musicians alike, is by recording ourselves chanting mantras, then we can put together some ambient tracks or meditative background tracks, etc, and we could even upload them on Bandcamp as a name-your-price album and all proceedings donated to sakro sawel. It could have the potential to raise some funds while at the same time providing another avenue for people to get in touch with Mark’s and Lara’s’ work.
Had a ‘music, mantra, meditation’ evening with friends a few days ago. We did mantra Om, sang along to the Gayatri mantra, looked up the chords to play and sing various other uplifting songs together.
I also had the idea to play Lucia and Marco’s Lyre song, not sure how suitable it would be, but it was much liked 🫶👏, very tranquillising and most naturally just wanted to lay down when listening.
Music evening.
Listening together.
Thanks Marco, that’s a good example of this particular way of structuring a mantra, as described in the book. I can imagine these sounds resonating throughout the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid!
Hi Marco, the recording you did sounds very nice. However, it seems to be closer to A# than A, being about 115-116Hz, which is why Lucia’s improvisation in A# Phrygian harmonizes. So not quite the megalithic frequency. Did you do it while listening to 110Hz or freestyle?
Hi Jon, it was indeed in A#, I started suspecting that with Lucia’s comment about her tunning and I thank you very much for taking the time to check and letting me/us know 🙏🏽 To answer your question, I’m no great singer by any means so I programmed the A note on a stock wavetable synth from the DAW that I use to have it as a reference but as I never use that VST I didn’t realize the oscillator was detuned jaja I changed the file on the same link that I commented originally so that it contains a true 110 Hz version of the mantra and I can stay true to my word.
I also transposed Lucia’s wonderful recording so that it was in tune with the 110 Hz chant and, although limited by the 180° stereo field, I designed a little “scene” for it. I wasn’t quite satisfied with the sound of the chanting and the lyre alone and although it all sounded very beautiful with birds soundscapes in the open I had to justify the reverb in the lyre so the scene is in a cave with the wind blowing by the entrance and a fireplace crackling with the soft chanting in the background. I still think there could be a baby babbling and laughing there somewhere so maybe I will experiment more with it later 😅
I think in this case I’m glad for the mistake because otherwise, Lucía would have not found her lyre in tune with the chant and the piece probably wouldn’t exist, it was one of those happy accidents that we so much strive for.
Link to “Lucia’s Lyre”:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wb348w5gUbCT-1SM3kxkEjk2CcCf6VD0/view?usp=sharing
Hi Marco, glad you were inspired to play with the ambient sounds! I love adding sounds to music, like birds or water sounds, etc… Your new recording is now in 110 Hz, but as the scale also changed, I missed the F-sharp thing. 🙂 So I decided to do something “megalithic sounding” (not necessarily 110 Hz, as that seems to limit the scale and notes one can use) in F-sharp, using my husbands Om recording. I finally figured out how to change the pitch and Hz in Audacity (learned those are actually related), so I changed my husband’s chant to 3 different notes, starting with F#2 (which is 92.5 Hz) as a root note, then added fifth interval in C#3 (138.6 Hz), an then fourth interval in F#3 (185 Hz). This last one was a bit of a stretch, and it didn’t just change the note, but also somehow it changed the “Ouum” to “Aeee”. So I kept that one just quieter, but also thought what an interesting coincidence, and so I could not resist to sing a short mantra Aeeee at the very end, I hope I got the style right, according to what Lara learned from a bird. 😉 And of course, the crickets… which are said to aid in the astral projection too.
Anyway, its just an experiment, I am planning to see if it actually helps in the projection if I start chanting with it for a while, and then just listen to it and try falling asleep. I have used different mantras for astral projection before, and I can say they create a nice vibration in the chest after some time, especially the low notes, and also make the astral body “vibrate” (at least that’s how it felt to me when I continued chanting them in the astral).
Ok, here is the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s3scSi0qFAcY2RS08SeqDQXlv_pE1vKg/view?usp=drive_link
Also wanted to say that your new recording with my lyre seems to have switched the emphasis from the chant to the lyre, while I recorded the original one to just complement the chant in a bit quieter way. I guess it depends on what a person is searching for – whether its a lyre song with some ambient background, or a chant with lyre background. 🙂
Thanks Lucia and Marco for sharing those wonderful sound files. I found them to be very mesmerising.
The Om_Rajko_F# file you shared reminded me of the Prelude to Wagner’s Opera – Das Rheingold.
Haha, that’s an interesting association Owain. 😀 I guess Rajko’s lowest note in this recording is quite “French horn-like”, plus its continuous sound is kind of reminiscent of that prelude you mentioned, which is absolutely wonderful btw, with its majestic motif gradually emerging, thank you very much for sharing, I haven’t heard it before. Here is a link to it for whoever is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjkjF9OfMe0
Hi Lucia,
very nice combination! I have enjoyed this compilation too.
I find the same is possible for me – I feel the vibration of the mantra in my body and it increases the more I do the mantra. I also have found the sounds of ‘birds’ and ‘crickets’ useful when aiming to project – as has been pointed out already :-)
Hi Marco, Lucia, Michael and Jon, (and anyone else who understands the language of music),
I’d like to understand the music notes and their frequencies a little better. I am aware that 440Hz is the current mainstream or usual frequency is used to record music, but there was a time when 432Hz was the mainstream frequency. Do you know what notes that corresponds to? Or, where can I find the notes and frequencies correlation so I can develop my understanding further.
Hi Dimi, others may disagree, but from what I researched previously the 432Hz thing is spurious. It’s supposed to be harmonious with the Schumann resonance of 8Hz (even though it’s actually around 7.83Hz, and isn’t a constant). There also wasn’t historical tuning that everyone was using (until 440Hz was standardized).
The 432/440 refers to the A note above middle C. So tune it to 432 or 440 and the rest of the notes in relation to that. Some people say that music adjusted to 432 is better, but I think in many cases would be confirmation bias.
In my opinion, it’s harmony that is the most important thing, beyond frequencies proven to have particular psychological effects (like 110Hz as demonstrated in the study cited in the OBE book – on a side note this 110Hz is a lower octave of 440Hz, not 432). Harmonies are unison, octave, fifth, fourth, third, etc.
If you want something truer to principles of harmony you’d use a tuning system like just intonation (which uses musical intervals of whole number ratios, and matches the inherent properties of natural harmonics which contain whole number ratio frequencies) rather than today’s equal temperament (which slightly adjusts the ratios between each note, to be equal, so that the modulation of keys can happen – we wouldn’t have modern music without this).
A more ancient, meditative sound session could involve instruments using just intonation in tune with 110Hz as one of the main notes (as an example).
But equal temperament (and other tempering systems) allows us to write music not possible with just intonation, which can produce very uplifting experiences, so I think both systems have their place.
I feel the same way about frequency, I’ve found little difference in minor tuning adjustments, although larger changes can significantly alter the feel (like tuning lower makes it more moody, and visa versa).
I also suspect, that as human scale influences architecture, human voice influences what makes great music/melody. It’s said for example that you should be able to sing anything an instrument plays, I notice that music that sound “impossible” is tiring to listen to, where even contemporary instruments can sound amazing when they match vocal expressivity (see Derek Truck’s blues guitar, or Clara Rockmore playing theramin).
There are also very cool harmonic intervals that you can find vocalizing vowel sounds (overtone singing), and I suspect these have an effect on the psyche, and may partially explain the origin of certain sacred sounds like aum, awen/amen, and their meaning.
Finally, frequency/pitch isn’t the only factor. For example drums and gongs have very complex acoustics, and have very interesting psychic effects. The quality of an instrument can also dramatically shape an experience of music. Modern instruments tend to be clean, and to some degree produce “sanitized” sounds, but even that depends so much on how they’re played, and even synthetic sounds can sound beautiful and harmonious.
Hi Dimi,
Thank you very much for your sincere appreciation of my musical attempts! 💖 All this is still quite new to me, as I have only been experimenting in this area for something over a year, not even very intensively. Buying a lyre was quite an inspiration though, as I always wanted to play something “harp-like”, and while a real harp takes long time to learn and is obviously a huge and expensive instrument, a lyre is simpler to play and quite portable too.
About the frequencies, I have wondered about those too before! Now learning that these frequencies more-less correspond to musical notes, I realised, that actually both – 440 Hz, as well as 432 Hz – correspond to the same note A4, its just that the 440 Hz one is very slightly higher (8 hz higher), but you can’t really catch it with your ear. To be exact, the frequency range for the A4 note is from 428 Hz – 452 Hz – so all these are A4! 😯 I noticed that when I am tuning my lyre with my little electronic tuner, it always has this Hz range for a note, with the middle section being the most exact, but it can always be tuned a bit lower or higher within this range, and its always the same note. Plus with string instruments this naturally fluctuates, as the strings relax and the tone gets lower after some time, so you need to re-tune. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that while different frequencies roughly correspond to different musical notes, each note corresponds to a range of frequencies before it changes into the next note. So for example:
404 – 427: G#4
428 – 452: A4
453 – 479: A#4
and so on… The lower frequencies correspond to the lower notes, and the higher ones to the higher notes.
Now I am not sure why 440 would be “bad” and 432 “good”, as they are both just frequencies corresponding to the same note, and if a slightly higher frequency was “bad”, then all higher notes would be worse than the lower ones, which is certainly not the case! From what I can say is just that the lower notes tend to have a milder, more meditative effect, while the higher notes can be more acute, standing out, with the extremely high ones even supposedly having the power to shatter the glass… But none is “bad” or “good” as I understand it, its just they all may be good for different purposes. Now the difference between 440 an 432 is so small, that I am not sure how much difference this really makes in our inner state or anything… but maybe I am missing something…
Also inspired by your post, I also checked on the so-called Solfeggio frequencies, which I think Mark also mentions in the new book. These are 6 specific frequencies (even though later on, 3 more have been added to them), which have special properties and have been used for example in Gregorian chants. These are (the later added ones are in brackets):
(174 Hz) ……… corresponding to F3
(285 Hz) ……… corresponding to C#4
396 Hz ……… corresponding to G4
417 Hz ……… corresponding to G#4
528 Hz ……… corresponding to C5
639 Hz ……… corresponding to D#5
741 Hz ……… corresponding to F#5
852 Hz ……… corresponding to G#5
(963 Hz) ……… corresponding to B5
Here is a more detailed article on them:
https://solfeggioguide.com/solfeggio-frequency-guide/
There are many different meditative music videos on Youtube that claim to use these frequencies, and I found that when they say a video is using this or that frequency, what they mean is that the music in the video is HARMONISING with the specific note/frequency. Some videos harmonise better than others. You can actually go to this page https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/ where you can set up any frequency and play it, and then play it together with any music video on Youtube that claims to use this frequency and you will see how close they’ve got. The one I found quite nice and well tuned to 852 Hz is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joXu1AMzzWg&list=LL&index=6&t=421s
So… this is as far as I got in my research so far… I actually put all these Solfeggio notes/frequencies in my Audacity file and tried to play them, but some of them sounded really disharmonious with the others, so it probably also depends on how they are used in a chant, for example they could be used just a little bit for a special atmosphere. In general, 417 – 852 all harmonise, but if you add the 396 one, that one makes quite a dissonant sound, so that would have to be saved for “special purposes”, or only in combination with certain ones. I am planning to look more into them, and maybe produce something little, its all quite inspiring!
P.S.: Here is a chart of music notes and their corresponding frequencies you asked for, but they don’t use the whole ranges for a note, like what I have explained before, they just use one frequency for a note, in this case the main reference note is A4 at 440 Hz. In fact, I realised that 440 Hz is in the exact center of the range for A4, so it makes sense that it would be used, even though maybe using 432 had other benefits and that’s why they used it in the past, who knows…
https://muted.io/note-frequencies/
Hi Dimi, Jon & Lucia,
Yes, I’d agree with those points about the differences between those two frequencies. Whether it’s 432 or 440 Hertz doesn’t seem to make a big difference, in my opinion. They’re just standardised reference points, in order to tune other instruments to, so an ensemble can play harmoniously together.
I think Jon and Lucia gave pretty good explanations of the different systems. So unless someone’s really keen to find out about the mathematical principles in Pythagorean tuning, or the physics side of musical notes, such as in the field of cymatics, they probably wouldn’t need to delve too deeply. This article elaborates on the fluctuations in tuning though, for anyone interested: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/tuning-standards-explained.html?srsltid=AfmBOopAIA6H-EERE8e2N_6s7MqgG0_OHiuOyixXOEH6RybqByKs8mys
The tuning differences are a bit like the spelling differences between British, American and Australian English. You could say the British spelling of “colour” is more correct, as it came first. But “color” is equally correct for Australians and Americans, as they’re just different conventions that have been adopted over the years.
I like to listen to harmonious music, but I’m not too concerned with specific pitches, as it’s the combination of notes together that’s more important, as Jon said, as well as their timbre. For example, you could make a horrible noise playing thrash metal tuned using just intonation, or a beautiful choral piece using equal temperament, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz35QhCDLwQ
I used to play in a Javanese gamelan ensemble years ago, which has a totally different tuning system to Western music. But as the instruments each follow the same tuning system, they still sound harmonious together.
There’s also another page on one of the websites Lucia shared, which has a keyboard in equal temperament (440 Hz as the reference pitch) or just intonation (432 Hz as the reference pitch). But unless someone has really perfect pitch, I doubt they’d notice any difference. To me, both sound equally in tune, as I expect they would for most people: https://muted.io/12-tet-vs-just/
Hi Lucia, Jon, Michael and Julian,
Thank you for your detailed explanations. You have each provided/given me so much to consider. There are a lot of elements/components to combine, and get my head around. I will keep looking further into these – frequencies, octaves, notes, and so on.
You’re welcome Dimi! :) I’m glad it was of some help. I’ve been a big music fan since I was a kid and have written songs since, but as I mentioned in another comment, I didn’t really start learning theory until university. It can be useful to know, but it’s not essential to know everything before singing or playing a few melodies.
In many ways, you only need to know a few basics to make music. For example, although I’ve written 100 or so melodies in my head, I only know which notes are in them once I sit down at a keyboard to work them out. I wouldn’t have a clue which frequencies these notes correspond to either, unless I looked them up.
A lot of popular music has been written in a similar way, without the writers having an in depth knowledge of music theory. For example, I was listening to a lovely reworking of a traditional folk song recently, but I bet whoever wrote the original didn’t know much about the theory behind it.
Some of the most influential music genres of the last century have also been made by people without much knowledge of music theory, like blues, rock and roll, punk, hip hop, house, etc. I also remember The Beatles’ producer George Martin commenting that a song of John Lennon’s was typical of his style, as he often wrote in a mixed time signatures without realising it!
In fact, one of my favourite albums years ago had melodies played in multiple keys and time signatures at the same time! I thought it was a shambles when I first heard it, but then ended up loving it, as it was so creative!
If you can sing a melody, or play a simple instrument like a xylophone, you may not yet need to consider harmony even. In folk traditions, it’s fairly common for singers to sing unaccompanied (a cappella), or with just a single drone note underneath the main melody. This lovely version of Amazing Grace also starts off unaccompanied: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5e6IN_YbwM
I think it’s as effective as this version by the same singer, which incorporates a choir later on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqqJRGLnWw0
But if you did want to add harmonies to a melody, you just need a few basics. Lots of music ends on the first note of the scale (like a kind of full stop), which gives an idea which scale or key it may fit into. Knowing the starting note of a scale may make it easier to then pick out each note of a melody on a keyboard, from the choice of notes within that scale (usually 7).
Basic harmonies often focus around chords based on first, fourth, fifth and sixth notes of a scale (but could be based on any note within a scale, depending on taste). Common chords are usually made of a “triad” of three notes (the first, third and fifth) which give a sense of completeness in the sound. So in C major, the I chord would be CEG, the V chord GBD and so on.
That’s pretty much all you’d need to know to sing or play a few tunes really. As I commented before, I think one of the most important things with music is the emotional aspect of it. So although AI can produce note perfect tunes, I doubt whether it would match the emotional aspect, which only a real person can bring and which often speaks to us the most.
For example, this song from the American civil rights era is simple in its melody and lyrics. But it conveys an inspiring message, which has given encouragement to many during dark times, including myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcCaA9LO1yk
I hope you’ll also be able to find some inspiration from your musical explorations!
Hi Lucia, I wanted to chime in on a few things you mentioned. For the “range” that each note can be, whatever you tune one note to, the others need to be tuned proportionally to that, otherwise you’ll end up with a dissonant mess. The note names (A, B, C, etc.) don’t mean anything – ultimately they’re just frequencies, and will either harmonize with each other or not.
Years ago when I had done some research on sound and music I wondered why the musical scale is the way it is, and why chords and certain note intervals sound good. Turns out it all derives from perfect ratios.
I had mentioned just intonation, which uses whole number ratio intervals (e.g. 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, etc.). These ratios are found in natural harmonics, produced by many instruments, including the human voice. Every time you sing, chant a mantra, or speak, these harmonics are present. They’re intrinsic, natural. And when these ratios are reproduced with notes, you hear harmony.
To take a random example: 100Hz as the root note, 150Hz is the perfect fifth, 133.33Hz the perfect fourth, 125Hz is the perfect third, 200Hz is the octave. These are all derived from perfect ratios (3/2 is the fifth, 4/3 is the fourth, 5/4 is the third, 2/1 is the octave).
Equal temperament (and other tempering systems), which adjust the ratios slightly, are derivations of this natural system of harmony, implemented to allow more flexibility in musical progression (and could argue add “color” or “texture”).
Learning that what sounds harmonious is because of perfect ratios made sense, and to me is beautiful in a way, corresponding to perfect ratios seen in architecture and art. It’s a universal thing.
On the “solfeggio frequencies,” they are not in the new book. I had previously come across them when looking into the 432Hz thing, and they seem to be in the same category. They were deduced through numerological calculations involving Bible verses. I don’t know if these are intentional psyops or just strange ideas that got blown up, but there is no historical basis. We simply don’t know what people tuned to in ancient times. But this makes archaeoacoustics even more fascinating.
Thanks Jon – “archaeoacoustics” – I like that! It looks like in this time and age, we have different “archaeo” disciplines, as people are more and more interested in how people did things in the past, especially a very distant past.… I wonder if anything like “archaeoculinary” eventually emerges. 😉
Regarding the frequency range for each musical note, I agree that if you decide to tune a note to let’s say slightly higher than the middle of the range, then all the other notes you will be using must also be tuned with the same shift. With my lyre for example, as the strings tend to go lower quite soon, I prefer to tune all the notes slightly higher within their frequency ranges rather than tuning them exactly in the middle, because very soon, they will end up in the middle anyway. So it also depends on the instrument one uses, and of course, the quality of it.
After you posted that first post about the just intonation vs equal temperament, I thought that was interesting, and went to educate myself on it a little bit. I really like the idea of the perfect harmonies too! And from this point of view, I guess our human voices are the most versatile and exact instruments. But it is also true that not having octaves that harmonise would be a great pain, especially in a symphonic setting where many instruments need to be tuned and complex melodies are played… But with mantras, chorals, or simpler instrumental pieces, I think just intonation makes sense. Here is a simple and super short video that explains the problem for anyone interested:
https://www.dc-bled.si/narocanje/samoplacniski-obisk/
And how funny about the solfeggio frequencies potentially being just another psyop type of thing! 😯 I don’t really recall where I read about those, but as I was reading Mark’s book at the same time, I guess the information must have blended for me from different resources, and I ended up “remembering” reading it in Mark’s book, in connection to the Gregorian chants. Sounds like the “Fruit of the loom logo” false memory thing…
In any case, I sometimes wonder who has been deliberately spreading all this fake info, not just in the music area but pretty much everywhere, like for example the fake “ancient” Japanese epic I stumbled upon in my research, thinking I have found some sort of unique resource… I sometimes imagine those evil beings being like “Hey boss, what do you think about this idea? (explains about introducing some fake idea to the public consciousness via various channels)” and the “boss” be like “Sure, go for it, if it takes off in a significant way, we may think about promoting you in our hierarchy”…
Anyway, joking aside, I think all these things just highlight the need of always striving for clarity and logic, and not just take things for granted if we heard them somewhere.
Ooops, I guess I pasted a wrong link, the correct link to the youtube video on just vs equal temperament is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqa2Hbb_eIs
Hi Jon, Lucia and Michael,
getting my head around the basics seems to be a bit of a challenge too. I know I enjoy a good tune (melody, harmony, etc) and particularly if it has a resonance or inner effect (not on an emotional/sentimental level) but on a deeper, spiritual level (it seems to make my body tingle, feel alive, feel vibrant). I can call it a ‘wow factor’. Mantras have that effect.
I noticed a similar – wow factor – in the acoustics section of the video from the Barabar caves (posted by Lara) when Sudama sang inside one of the caves. Her voice sounded so powerful, so beautiful. Can you imagine being in such a space and the impact it could have on the body/mind/spirit?
That video is a nice quick demonstration of just intonation and it’s limitation. It is inherently “better” and truer to principles of harmony, which is why I think it’s best for things like droning mantras, where there’s a root note that doesn’t change. When people sing harmonies in mantra practices they naturally hit “perfect” ratios anyway (typically octaves and perfect fifths (with the perfect fourth interval inherently within that combination), and occasionally perfect thirds). It’s not something we think about as it comes naturally. But the instruments in these scenarios would in my opinion ideally be tuned justly so that all sounds are most harmonious.
Of course, music following just intonation is great too. If you have a tuner that can be set to just intonation rather than equal temperament, you can experiment with it. Instruments like lyres are great for this purpose. I had done it with my 12-string guitar (just strumming the open strings) and it sounded magical, like a monochord.
Thanks Lucia. That’s a pretty clear short video. I don’t notice a huge difference at the beginning, but it’s more obvious at the end when he modulates keys, while still using just intonation.
Regarding picking up dud info and believing it, it’s a pretty common thing really. I think many of us have a tendency to pass on things we hear as factually correct, without checking them out first, which I’ve also done myself in the past.
There are many factors driving misinformation in the world. It could be as simple as wrongly interpreting or remembering, so information gets more and more garbled as it goes down the chain of repetition, like with the “broken telephone” game many of us played as kids.
There’s also the tendency to want to believe things, even when there is little or no evidence to support it. It’s funny how things like urban myths can persist for years, like the one about the alligators living in the New York sewers, which I remember from childhood.
When a belief offers some comfort, there can also be a greater tendency to want to hold onto it. An example is the St Francis prayer, which I mentioned before in relation to the harp piece I shared. It’s an inspiring prayer, whoever wrote it, but it’s said there’s no record of it originating from St Francis of Assisi, as is commonly believed.
Most of us are probably prone to confirmation bias, which Jon previously referred to, where we seek out information that supports our beliefs and remember this in preference to conflicting information. Social media has done a great job of capitalising on this, where search algorithms funnel us into particular narratives, depending on our interests.
Then there are the deliberate lies and deception, as you mentioned. We’re all aware of this historically and currently, with official narratives deviating from the truth dramatically, sometimes with dark motives driving the deception.
I agree it’s a good idea to think more critically, before just accepting what we hear, as we can also get just as easily taken off track when questioning accepted viewpoints. I did a little 10-minute experiment where I searched for 3 random words, based on objects I could see in the room, followed by “conspiracy”.
The words were “cup ear glove” “towel mirror duck” and “coconut elephant belt”. Sure enough, for each search, I found a conspiracy theory related to one of those search terms, involving presidential candidates, a celebrity, or Covid. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to waste time going down pointless rabbit holes, but I’m guessing any set of random words would throw up similar results.
It’s refreshing to come across people who have a solid background knowledge in their area of expertise, but are open minded enough to critically evaluate the information presented to them, as well as question their own beliefs.
I’ve found Dr John Campbell’s channel on YouTube to be a good example of this. For instance, he was initially supportive of the conventional guidelines on Covid prevention, after a lengthy career in health care. He later started to question the vested various interests behind accepted conventions, but always with reference to published research, which sets him apart from some of the other narratives available, which often have scant evidence to support them.
Of course, Mark and Lara’s work is one of the best examples of building upon existing knowledge, but not being confined by it and instead using it as a foundation to follow new research pathways, leading to important and beneficial discoveries.
Hi Dimi, if it helps for your studies, what Jon is referring to is known as the Harmonic series or Overtone series:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music)
I’m sure you will eventually wrap around these concepts. Another thing that I consider worth looking into and ties up with the Harmonic intervals that have been discussed are polyrhythms. To me, they are or can be the representation of these ratios but on the rhythmic component in music. They are typically used in percussive elements and here is a demonstration of how these rhythmic patterns when sped up result in a combination of these harmonic intervals
https://youtu.be/-tRAkWaeepg
Typically each note in the polyrhythm is played with a different element/instrument so that the polyrhythm becomes evident but in that case, I am sure Adam used the same sound to achieve the major chord he demonstrated, otherwise the pitches in the tones generated by each element would have been potentially in different registers and the major chord would not be so obvious.
Here is a video where the polyrhythms are represented as geometric shapes and at the end I think that is what it all boils down to. It’s fascinating how this fractal behavior in music works.
https://youtu.be/XA-gDB1HWuQ
I was searching for some nice polyrhythms I used to hear when I was researching all of this but to share them with you but I could not find them, it used to be a more niche thing on YouTube but now everything is so saturated with regurgitations of the same thing, it’s a shame that the true gems get lost in all of this.
The tunning debate is interesting, there have been many different reference values given to A throughout our history before standardization occurred. I like how Alice presents the subject of Baroque pitch in this video.
https://youtu.be/LNkpWFL8XWA
The 432 Hz thing seems to be a modern issue, you can check this video by Jordan where he explores the origin of the controversy in a rather thorough way. I find the Adam Neely video he recommends unnecessarily aggressive and I prefer Jordans style although not free of bias either, so that’s why I refer you to it if you are interested. I also think it’s safe to assume both of them are atheists hence they went so hard on the 432 thing.
https://youtu.be/Q3LVijzZAe4
When I read the F# chord thing in Mark’s and Lara’s new book I thought that the answer to the question of what frequency the ancients tuned what we call “A” lay in the pyramid’s resonance but unfortunately, I could not find any consensus on a set frequency. I found A 432, A 438, A 440, A 444.308757 (this one got very specific), etc. so I conclude that rather than resonating at a specific frequency it maybe resonates at a certain range of frequencies. It would certainly be a smart move from the Children of the Sun.
Hi Dimi,
Yes, I know what you mean about the inner resonance, which can sometimes be felt with mantras (either chanting aloud, or silently as thoughts). I’ve felt the same and as well as a deeper sense of peacefulness, I’ve also felt a strong energy at certain points on my body on some occasions (particularly in the areas of the “third eye” and heart).
Interestingly, I’ve felt the same sensations in the same locations when listening to ambient music sometimes. In fact, the first time I felt that energy in my heart area was when concentrating on an ambient piece as an astral practice.
Yes, the resonance of the singing in the Barabar caves sounded amazing, didn’t it! The singer’s voice is lovely, but the acoustics make it even richer. I agree that it would be a memorable spiritual experience to be present within the caves while mantras were chanted. It seems likely that the builders of the caves had this in mind.
Having said that, sometimes it can be surprising to find by chance similar echo chambers, such as a cave entrance, which some friends and I sang a mantra in years ago. It had a beautiful resonance, with the mixture of high and lower pitched voices.
I also used to sometimes sing in the stairwell of a multi-story car park years ago with a friend! :) There were several levels to the car park, so of course, there was a deep chamber to house the stairs, which also produced a lot of reverberation. I noticed how powerful my voice sounded within it – like traditional mountain yodellers must have also felt.
Hi Marco and Michael, (and Lucia and Jon)
thank you for these additional links. I have watched these to get my head around it all – yep, still trying/learning!
I found the video about polytones by Ableton interesting especially when he sped up the sound pattern and produced the stable note. I never thought of music notes in this way.
When I watched the video about polyrhythms, the shapes reminded me of sacred geometry shapes and rose window shapes or the designs in our architecture that have those shapes. It also reminded me of cymatics and how certain sounds produce a pattern. I guess there is a connection of shape to sound to vibration (with frequency, tone, harmonics in there too).
The video by Alice Baldwin certainly consolidated the concept that there is a wide variation within one note even – note A (I kept thinking of the note/frequency tables Lucia posted to help me understand the possible variations).
The video by Jordan was entertaining…he presented his skepticism on 432 vs 440 in a light hearted way. I appreciated his candidness too.
I found a video to help me understand music notes and how to think/conceptualise them – the presenter is Dr Jason Lisle https://rumble.com/v2xi5pa-the-science-of-music.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
I also found another interesting video by him that relates to numbers and the Mandelbrot formula that reveals amazing patterns relating to number sequences, which can be related to frequencies, fractals, etc. Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEyPWJVYp84
The more I look the more I find…
Thanks guys for your help in gaining more understanding around this – Lara and Mark’s book contains so much information and evidence in it…!
This is one experience I had back in 2011/12, but because it was such a strong and profound one, I thought to post here what I wrote back then.
“The setting was in a type of semicircular ancient arena, where I was inside one of the buildings along the inner edge. There were many others in there with me, who I felt represented humanity. It was a brothel-like place and in it we were completely bound, burdened, chained by and part of— lust.
There was no pleasure there, just the binding after effects and the complete and total imprisonment of consciousness. And in fact it was a prison that we were all in. Locked inside, utterly hopeless, I was holding onto the prison bars.
During that period in waking life I had been seriously practising and investigating a mantra, trying to know and feel its meaning. This was the Gayatri mantra of ancient Vedic origin, which I had just learned about Mark and Lara’s web articles on the solstices and equinoxes.
Being there, enslaved in that prison, hopeless, I was holding the bars and looking out. Without even daring to hope, or believing anything could change my fate. Just…. I started singing the Gayatri mantra.
“…..Ooom bhūur bhuvah svah….
tát savitúr vareniyam….”
I continued singing or could hear the song all around. It came from a pure place inside of me, as a true prayer, as I had no illusions to deeply knowing the situation I was in.
As I kept singing, eyes closed and tears slowly running down my face, I started to sense something… gentle rays of warm sunlight started to shine on me in that prison. They came from the sun which was in the distance above the horizon. This sun brought with it a mercy I didn’t believe existed. A saving grace that I could feel. And even though it was at a distance, I felt a strange sort of personal connection to it, as if at the same time it was ‘my own’ sun.
This mantra embodied the plea of consciousness asking the Sun for this salvation.”
That’s really lovely! A couple years ago, I decided to check out various translations of the mantra, and was confused and alienated a bit by what I found. For instance what is “the three-eyed diety supreme”? So I started looking word-by-word instead, and made my own translation, and found that it’s very profound.
Firstly, in Sanskrit, there are words for spiritual things that don’t exist in english, with connotations that we don’t have. A long time ago I remember mark saying that we’re limited in what we can describe by a lack of language surrounding shared spiritual experiences, Sanskrit doesn’t have that problem as much, which is probably why gurus of various kinds like to use sanskrit terms.
I decided to choose more poetic and metaphorical language, that at once made it clearer for me, and also allowed me to connect with it better. Here’s my translation:
Sea, earth, sky…
And you who traverse them day and night!
Warrior mother, remove my sin,
Illunimate us from within
It’s really a profound prayer, and your experience matches what I was found in its meaning. The first line reflects on the entirety of creation, including hell and earth (the jail), and heaven. The second line is an appeal to the sun, who traverses the 3 worlds and can take us out of it (salvation). The 3rd line is begging for divine help with the ego. Usually this line is something more “light and fluffy”, as the word Bhargo means something like “god’s light”, but it also has the connotation of being the light that removes ego and sin, and Devasaya means goddess. The 4th line asks for spiritual illumination, but not just for the asker, but for all of us who are in this together, which also connects with the many others with you.
I’m sure someone who knows the language could find even more profound depths in it; it contains a huge amount of spiritual knowledge in a small space, not unlike the lord’s prayer, but in some ways is even more special because of the more spiritual language used to express it.
What a profound and touching experience, thank you Karim for sharing. It seems to have captured the humanity’s situation very well unfortunately. 😔 As Mark has shared in the past, lust is the foundation of all our egos, something that feeds and sustains them. While reading the latest OBE book, I noticed Mark mentioning another book he is working on, which should be a book on self-knowledge, which made me very happy and hopeful that his immense knowledge in this area will be made available to this suffering humanity.
After reading your experience, I also felt inspired to quickly look and analyse the meaning of the Gayatri mantra, and based on the literal translations of its words, I came up with something like this:
Om – from this earthly realm to heaven, adorations to that radiant and self-luminous Divine Sun. May he illuminate our intellect! 🌞
I was also wondering why it would mention intellect, and came to the conclusion that it may have something to do with the higher intellect called Nous that Mark also mentions in the latest OBE book, in the passage describing the OBE that Hermes Trismegistus had, where he communed with the Nous, which Mark says represents the intelligence of the Spiritual Sun. In other words, according to Gayatri, it looks like if the Divine Sun illuminates us, we may reach the Nous of our own Sun…
Anyway, got a bit carried away with the Nous-thing, somehow it feels very inspiring to me, as our mind seems to be a great cause of all our problems, and therefore reaching a higher, sun-illuminated and objective mind sounds like it would be an amazing experience, or even a permanent state to reach for the serious adepts.
What a beautiful and uplifting experience, Karim! Thanks for sharing that.
Yes, that sounds like a memorable and moving experience Karim. It seems an accurate portrayal of the predicament of humanity, in being imprisoned by lust, but with the spiritual light as a means of gaining salvation. I also found the Gayatri mantra to be soothing when I sang or listened to it.
What you described reminded me of parts of The Apocryphon of John from The Nag Hammadi Library, regarding the light helping someone escape “the prison of the body”:
“I went into the realm of great darkness and continued until I entered the midst of the prison…
I entered the midst of darkness and the bowels of the underworld, turning to my task. The foundations of chaos shook as though to fall upon those who dwell in chaos and destroy them. Again I hurried back to the root of my light…
I brightened my face with light from the consummation of their realm and entered the midst of their prison, which is the prison of the body.
I said, Let whoever hears arise from deep sleep.
A person wept and shed tears. Bitter tears the person wiped away, and said, Who is calling my name? From where has my hope come as I dwell in the bondage of prison?
I said,
I am the forethought of pure light,
I am the thought of the virgin spirit, who raises you to a place of honour…
Guard yourself against the angels of misery,
the demons of chaos and all who entrap you,
and beware of deep sleep
and the trap in the bowels of the underworld.
I raised and sealed the person in luminous water with five seals, that death might not prevail over the person from that moment on.”
Those are also nice translations of the Gayatri mantra, Julian and Lucia. Thanks for sharing your interpretations of it.
That’s a wonderful excerpt from the Nag Hammadi Michael, especially in the context of Karim’s dream. I find it interesting that it also mentions a “thought” (of the virgin spirit), or the “forethought of pure light”, in connection with the Nous I talked about before. The last line mentioning the luminous water is beautiful too.
‘Guard yourself against the angels of misery’ … Regardless of the happenings in our lives that we are put in by the divine, which seem not to want to budge in being resolved even when we are doing our very best. And then terrible waves of low emotions can keep hitting, but I felt recently that I cannot allow myself to be overwhelmed by it. No matter the issue. I once failed like that before and don’t want to again. To remain calm.
Something Mark once wrote (paraphrased and without context), ‘to worry about victory or defeat is to fail’. Also for me I have to not let old beliefs trap me, if dream guidance overrides it.
A few weeks ago in the astral I also got a stern lesson on laziness, and how it’s really not done. The degree of sternness of the Being telling me felt to lack understanding and unfair (not taking into account my past situations) so much so that in the moment I wondered whether it was a genuine being.
But in that way the message stuck. Now I appreciate it as a help. Depressive emotions can be crippling. ‘Oh divine please, why not fix this right now’ but that might not be the idea or not yet. The circumstances might not be our fault, so I shouldn’t allow the worries, and to work in detachment.
Thanks Michael 🙏
I resonate a lot with what you said there. The other day, I was conversing with the sun, asking for help, because it seems I have more to do than I’m capable of, and I need to be stronger, more intelligent, and more capable to get them done, and improvements I’ve made are not enough. The answer quite surprised me. The message I received is: growth is slow, you can’t just expect to succeed because you want to, and in fact failure is part of the process. This whole time I’d felt bad that I was doing poorly, when really the only thing that mattered was my growth and learning, and success was never even an important outcome. It’s a hard concept to grasp, coming from western society where sports and school are mainly about winning, not learning and improving.
Hi Julian,
It’s very inspiring to read about your conversation with the Sun.
I can relate to the fact of being expected to do more than you capable of as I often feel that way. Reflecting more on this topic it comes to mind that perhaps these capabilities are more related to our soul than to us as humans. I found that the soul seems to be having a different kind of qualities than our human selves. .
And this about the failure being the part of the process also speaks to me as I’ve found that every time we ‘fail’ we are kept on the ground as in our ego might not be ready for some kind of big success as it can be fed in that way.
All the best with your work!
Thanks Julian, those are useful insights. So much of our culture is based upon success within a given field, which can create a lot of unnecessary stress and pressure. It’s a shame there isn’t an equal level of merit attributed to efforts made, rather than results obtained.
It’s good you felt an answer to your prayer and I’m curious regarding the way in which this came to you. Was it like an intuition popping into your mind? I’m interested, as you also reported getting results in some other areas I’ve been trying to make progress with, such as with dream incubation, understanding dreams and astral projection.
I’ve been trying a mantra for intuition, like you mentioned you’d done in the past. I wonder if I’m missing something important though, as I still find it a great challenge to reach any kind of guidance or answers to prayers, whether in dreams or daily life, which I can interpret and then apply.
I know reaching a foregone conclusion of not getting results is to be avoided, as it’s like setting myself up to fail. But at the same time, if something has been attempted several thousand times without results, it does tend to lead me to conclude that there is a greater statistical probability of the same pattern repeating, rather than making a sudden breakthrough.
What you mentioned about growth being slow and failure being a part of the learning process are also both true though. It reminds me of the famous quote from Thomas Edison that his efforts to create a working electric lightbulb hadn’t failed, he just found a thousand ways that didn’t work (or 10,000, depending on the source of the quote!)
I can see the value in detachment from outcomes and continuing to try, in order to learn from the overall process. However, I still find it frustrating for progress in some areas to literally remain painfully slow, such as with alleviating chronic illness. I know there is a chance of recovery, based on others’ accounts, but alongside this is also a chance of fatality, which is obviously a much less desirable option. So in this instance, it’s difficult to remain open to whatever the outcome may be and go with the flow.
I also wonder about the extent to which faith and prayer makes a difference to the outcome of these situations. I’ve known many people with strong religious faiths who have passed on, as well as someone with a strong faith who is facing a terminal illness, so maybe asking for divine help and mercy isn’t enough in some situations, no matter how sincere our prayers are.
I’d hope our efforts are more readily recognised by the divine though, in comparison to within everyday society. For example, I’d really like to get some kind of answers through dream incubation, but stumble at one of the first hurdles, which is to create a clean and orderly environment to do the night’s practice in. Although I find messy and dirty environments uncomfortable, I haven’t been able to improve upon this for the last decade or so. I wonder about the extent to which we may be cut some slack in certain circumstances, or whether the same rules apply regardless, as is often the case in everyday life.
Anyway, I’m not expecting you to have all the answers ready at your fingertips! :) But hearing about other people’s experiences makes me reflect on what steps enabled these results to be gained and how I may implement similar steps.
These are great questions Michael, I was just pondering some of these yesterday.
With talking to the sun, I would say answers come like thoughts, but very fast, and are sometimes hard to capture for that reason. Answers are also usually short, and sometimes also come with additional information, feelings or associations, so when I write things down I’m sometimes interpreting/elaborating a very simple message. The most important thing is to have good questions, and sometimes good questions feel like stupid questions. I take it for granted that in the larger scheme of things I’m basically stupid so I try to not filter what I ask, even if it seems selfish or like it lacks understanding. Some of my biggest regrets are not asking stupid questions when I had the chance. As you point out, being attached to an answer can make it harder to get one. As for how, I find it easier to “hear” at sunrise or sunset, and just talk to the sun like a friend, and “listen” to see if you hear a response. I think young children do this sort of thing very naturally, and would have a huge advantage. I’m also not 100% sure it’s not my own mind that’s serving the answer; in fact I suspect that it may serve as an intermediary, kind of like an “inbox”, which may be why it’s harder to get an answer when you’re attached to the outcome. I’ve found some trees are nice to talk to as well, and answers are a bit slower and easier. Sometimes an answer will be an observation, so you’ll see how the sun exemplifies an answer to your question. Be as open as you can be, in a state of listening.
With dream incubation, I find one similar prerequisite is having a good question you need an answer to, and really feeling that need. I think all the steps in the book are ways of showing sincerity and seriousness about what you’re asking, and I’d say that’s more important than having a tidy space. But, an untidy space could show a lack of seriousness. Consider how you’d prepare a space to receive the divine.
I suspect another thing would be taking dreams seriously in general, learning to understand them, and following them when you do. If you take them seriously, they’ll take you seriously, or something like that. Mark gives some great advice on interpreting dreams in the book.
Then, if you get an answer, understanding and implementing it may not be straightforward, and for me that usually means learning and trying things in daily life, where the dreams are like pointers. I believe this is what Edison did when working out his solutions :)
Lastly, and most generally, I would say the thing that has really made these things accessible to me is listening to my heart and following it as well as I can. That kind of encompasses all of these things, as well as approaching sacred sites, and it’s the sacred sites and ceremonies that helped me refocus this way. The heart is wise and can tell us what we need to do, and I think in the past this was much more common than following a “plan of the mind”. When I’m out of alignment with my heart, things become mundane and repetitive, and I feel like an invisible wall is keeping me from moving. It could be an ego, it could be a lesson I haven’t learned… I think a lot about what Lara said about not deceiving ourselves.
I hope some of that is helpful, but keep in mind this is just my experience, and I find each person is quite unique and has ways that work best for them. For instance, unlike Edison with his dream incubation, Tesla would visualize a mechanism entirely before making it. As a musician, maybe music would be an important way to connect for you, and maybe singing to the sun would work better? The heart is a great guide. I look forward to hearing how things go :)
Hi Michael, in chapter 10 of the new book, Mark writes that those with “a more intellectual persona” may find it harder to have OBEs, as “the brain’s limiting mechanism” is stronger and “consciousness is more solidly locked into the physical body and material world” (p. 320). This really struck me as I believe you have previously mentioned something along these very words, the feeling of being locked in the material world, or something similar. I of course don’t know about your personality type. I feel like this may be the case for me however (combined with chronic poor health that I think amplifies it by affecting my body and brain – despite conscious efforts, I believe my only astral projection experience happened during a time of intense stress and exhaustion – Mark writes in the same chapter that this can be a cause of spontaneous OBEs). I used to be extremely intellectual, like a disembodied mind, and it took me years to understand the basic concepts of intuition and mindfulness from an experiential rather than intellectual standpoint. The rigidity and automation of the mind, the staleness of it, are still limiting factors, and I wonder if the combination of childhood trauma with certain personality types can affect brain development by trapping one into a narrow survival mode, along with creating powerful core fears and beliefs that further subconsciously limit one’s ability/capacity to connect to the spiritual. In group settings a certain flow and energy seemed to be present that was stronger than these factors and allowed me to move beyond them at times, and experience a connection to the spiritual in the way of guidance in dreams and through intuition. The pride that comes with my intellectual persona seems like a significant blockage for me too. I try not to have expectations but connect to my heart and true self as deeply as possible to find authenticity where real faith and feeling are, and real humility, in prayer, and that is where I’ve felt a real connection was possible, as a starting point! Mark does write on the same page that it is possible for everyone to get around these limitations of the human brain “by doing spiritual practices and gaining self-knowledge.” I think it is also a matter of understanding exactly the unique combination of factors affecting us as individuals and following even the tiniest of nudges to start moving in the right direction (and even just learning what those nudges are and how to follow them).
Actually, something to add Michael, that came to me just now, partly from Julian’s lovely response – the skepticism that comes with my intellectual personality (and seems linked to deep core beliefs possibly rooted in very early trauma in interesting ways, and is also then linked to deep fears about the nature of my existence, where the fears are defense mechanisms to protect my skewed view of the world and myself learnt as a child, “to keep myself safe”, even when it’s very negative) is a big blockage. I believe you’ve mentioned about your own skepticism in the past. It’s like I need to feel convinced, I need “proof” that something was really real, but it’s almost always easy for me to discount things as possibly just coming from my mind. Like what Julian said, never being 100% sure this isn’t just my own mind is enough in many cases to disregard things, at least partially, so that I don’t truly take them to heart. Even when an experience can be quite strong. Some time ago I found myself in the middle of a somewhat unexpected horrifying discovery that was part of a series of events. I wouldn’t say it was worse than anything I’d gone through but for whatever reason, I felt the divine speak to me right then, telling me very clearly and simply, I believe just in two words what I needed to do (I was awake not in a dream), and a warm comforting love enveloped me that lasted for some time, I would put on music and would feel this gentle love and compassion for me through the music. This was extremely unusual because I don’t easily feel things like love and warmth even in myself (and never in music), let alone coming to me from the outside, and it wasn’t like I had been asking and making conscious efforts, rather it had been quite dark. To take it seriously is to really challenge some of my fears and beliefs. I’ve been questioning why this experience just at that time, why was I allowed to feel such unusual feelings. And of course my mind goes, well it was just one thing and what about all the other times when I felt nothing but was really asking, and in this case hadn’t even thought to ask before it was already answered. But that is pride, because looking back, I’ve had many nudges and small feelings as instant answers to questions but haven’t taken them that seriously because they weren’t convincing enough. I’m subconsciously looking for something to convince me so that I no longer feel the fear, but the fear will be the same and rather it’s on me to work on it with the answers given. It would be strangely satisfying to throw it all to the wind, the skepticism and doubts, meaning just letting it go even when it feels wild and “not safe”, and lean on what I’m doubting instead, the guidance received, just to see what happens, it could just be an experiment, of course only in cases where there isn’t any real physical danger but more like when it comes to inner things like core fears and beliefs for example.
Also, about the messy environment – if you are physically unable to clean it Michael, or if there are external factors causing you to have an unclean space out of your control, I believe that what matters is that we do the best we can with whatever we have within our individual circumstances, and the divine sees this. I can’t imagine that they would refuse to respond to your sincere efforts if you can’t help where you live and how.
Hi Laura,
Thanks very much for sharing those points, I appreciate that. I hadn’t read that chapter of the book yet, as I mainly skipped towards the later sections on practices, etc. But I’ll make sure I read it next. The quote is certainly an interesting one and relates to the feeling of being locked in the physical world, which sounds familiar as something I said.
The impact of poor health on accessing OBEs is also an interesting one, as I’ve recently been looking into the effect of brainstem inflammation on physical function. So I also wonder how much neurological issues can also limit our astral abilities by affecting this natural function of the body.
I agree I’m generally a more intellectual or logical person than intuitive. I enjoyed imaginative play in childhood and still love to create, but I don’t remember believing much in fairies, Santa Claus and so on. I found these things fun, but they seemed more a part of play, than things to actually believe in, as some kids do even until they’re approaching their teens.
Yes, I wonder about the impact of our early experiences on our later world view. Perhaps I wouldn’t have the same focus on seeking proof through personal experience if I hadn’t observed the impact of delusional ideas and behaviours during my childhood. The effect of being in a survival mode may also bring some changes in our brain function, which persist into adulthood.
A university friend commented on me thinking too much and another who was exactly twice my age was surprised I was reflecting on topics he’d only just started to consider. But although the intellect is a useful tool, it doesn’t necessarily lead to first hand experience, if theories aren’t tested out, so it’s only a starting point by itself.
For example, I had a chance to choose my own topic for a university assignment related to studies in consciousness. I looked into meditation, which I found interesting, but it then took me a few years before I actually attempted it myself! So the theory behind it was inadequate in comparison to the actual experience.
I can relate to feeling that peaceful energy in environments where there is a strong focus on a spiritual practice. Sometimes it’s felt like a wave of peace flowing, which can’t be missed. I’ve also felt it at times when by myself and clear and in the moment, particularly in nature.
I agree it’s good to follow our hearts. I mentioned a while back about some of the most significant life decisions I made being the right thing to do at the time. I not only benefitted from these decisions, but things also occurred afterwards that would’ve blocked those choices, which I couldn’t have predicted in advance. Although there was a degree of problem solving to work out the logistics, several of the initial ideas came as more of a spontaneous feeling, rather than through analysis.
I also agree with what you mentioned about how the mind can lead to staleness and rigidity. I used to sometimes get frozen trying to work something out, which didn’t really require a perfect outcome. I can remember an incident years ago of standing still in the middle of a car park for about 5 minutes, trying to decide where to go to eat during my work lunch break!
I think I should trust my intuition more, as I find there can sometimes be cynicism from others when I mention something I feel strongly drawn towards, which doesn’t seem like a sure fire success. As you said, it’s good to be aware of these nudges in the right direction and learn to follow them. Otherwise, if we live a life based on our own intellectual analysis, or on others’ interpretations of the world, we can miss unique opportunities that may otherwise arise.
Thanks Julian, it’s interesting to hear about how you approach these practices. I directed a prayer towards the sun this morning, which although obscured by clouds, was peaceful. I had a different approach than my usual prayers, as it’s not something I’ve done much in the past.
Sometimes when praying to my divine mother or father, I’ve felt like I’m going through a “shopping list” of requests. These are usually important things to ask for guidance or help with, but it can become habitual to go through them without really expecting any kind of answers.
I’ve been proven wrong in the past though, with an experience I mentioned, where a terrible emotion stopped overnight several years ago and hasn’t returned since. In fact, I sometimes pray to be proven wrong for not having enough faith.
I pray each evening with a strong focus on understanding some particular issues, which I feel are important to resolve. But I can also feel a certain cynicism creeping in, as I get used to not finding answers, so sometimes feel there’s not much point asking.
One thing I felt with the sun prayer this morning though was that perhaps I’ve already stumbled upon some of the answers, but haven’t fully put them into practice. Particularly in relation to health, as there are some things I feel strongly drawn towards, but which I haven’t fully tried out, so am not yet sure on their efficacy.
There have been many things that made theoretical sense in the past, which I put a lot of effort into trying out, but which often didn’t have the impact I’d hoped for. So I find it’s easy to then by swayed by others’ opinions and go off on a different track, as I think if I haven’t managed to work things out for myself yet, I must be missing something.
It seems finding our own guidance is important though, which hopefully dream incubation may allow. Regarding creating a welcoming space for the divine, I’d feel rather embarrassed inviting a friend to see my room, as I don’t like clutter. But it’s not a complete mess, compared to how some people live and I have various spiritual symbols placed around, in my line of vision. So I hope it may be a reasonable compromise, until I’m able to get some practical help with organising the space better.
Your point about taking dreams seriously in order to better understand them is an interesting one. I fortunately remember quite a lot of dreams most nights, but have to confess that I often treat them in a rather dismissive manner, once I’ve noted them down, as I think “Here we go again, another load of random occurrences to try and decipher!”
Probably a lot of my dreams are just subconscious images, as Mark mentions in the new book, like an extension of our everyday thoughts. But I try to pay more attention to my or others’ behaviour in dreams. Particularly my own, or if there are characters that frequently appear.
This is where I find the most encouragement in dreams, when I see behaviours changing. But I’m still not great at interpreting symbolic meanings. I haven’t been the type to often dream about celestial scenes even as a child and more commonly end up in mundane places like supermarkets or apartments, which don’t seem to convey much meaning. I do pay more attention to recurring dreams though and find it easier to get a clear understanding of what these may be referring to.
There’s always room for stupid questions though isn’t there? :) It made me laugh when you mentioned being basically stupid in the larger scheme of things! But it’s also true that if we look at the actions of humanity, compared with the precision of creation, we can do some pretty stupid things, despite our intellect!
That’s really interesting about Edison following intuitions from his dreams! I hadn’t heard of that! As I mentioned before, I hear music in my dreams sometimes and actually recorded one I heard last night when I briefly woke up. I keep an old recording device next to my bed for this purpose, so I can just grab it and press record, even with my eyes closed.
I remember reading John Lennon’s account of how the phrase “pools of sorrow, waves of joy” came to him while drifting off to sleep. He said he didn’t want to get up to write it down, but it kept bugging him until he did. As a result, he wrote one of his most beautiful songs, with the om mantra in the chorus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T7cyHwlfFQ
I like your idea of singing to the sun. I’ve written quite a lot of songs dedicated to the sun and feel that song writing enables me to sincerely covey in a poetic and melodic way the things that are dearest to my heart.
Maybe this kind of musical prayer is something I should make more time for. I find it engaging and inspiring to make music, but it can often get pushed aside to make way for other mundane tasks. As I don’t have much opportunity to access nature or sacred sites, at least this could be a way of finding inspiration within my current settings.
I agree that learning to follow our hearts more is a good idea, as Laura also mentioned. I remember some of the valuable insights you mentioned when approaching sacred sites with this openness. Many of us probably have certain unique characteristics, based on our own life experiences, which others don’t have and which could provide a lot of value to the world. So it’s a shame not to use them in order to fit in with the crowd.
It’s interesting to hear of the differences between Edison and Tesla’s creative approaches. Imagine if they both thought “I’d better get a more sensible job instead, rather than wasting time on these silly ideas”. The world would probably be a lot poorer for it.
We need to look after our material responsibilities of course and not everyone will make a living from painting watercolours, for example. But it’s nice to make room in our lives for the things that bring us joy, as they can break up the repetition of the mundane life and sometimes bring new inspiration and insights.
I hope you’ll also get more of these inspirations and insights through your practices!
As a follow up, I was thinking about the Nag Hammadi quote I shared about the prison of the body, as it often feels like a have a ball and chain fastened to each leg when attempting to walk. But in a wider sense, the spiritual within each person can be imprisoned in the physical body, until we make a solid effort to free it.
I mentioned before in a reply to Mike about traditional African American spirituals often being sung in keys close to F# major and thought of the old spiritual Free at Last, which Martin Luther King Jr. referenced in one of his most famous speeches. There are many versions of it, but this one was arranged by the African American composer Julia Perry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kUAlyJXefg
I also find this more recent ethereal version touching, which quotes the lyrics of Free at Last:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXSBryY6tqs
There does seem to be a much greater freedom in things of a spiritual nature than those of the material world, which ultimately pass.
“Another load of random occurrences to try to decipher” lol, very relatable.
What you said about feeling like you may already have some answers after praying, that sounds a lot like the kind of answers I get, as well.
After a recent conversation with the sun, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope. I had asked “How do you have hope when you don’t really think things will work out?” “That’s the point. That’s what hope is.”
I think I’ve considered myself too good for hope, too realistic, without considering the negative attitudes that are occupying its space. I do have more hope in general, but I can see that I’d be a much better and more effective person with more of it.
Laura your words about following one’s heart were so eloquently put, I was glad to hear them :)
Yes, that’s a good point Julian – that’s what hope is! It sounds obvious when you say it!
I also appreciated Laura’s words about following our hearts.
Yes, that’s right Laura, I have mentioned about being sceptical in the past. I still have this tendency, to be honest and can relate to what you mentioned about discounting things that could be true, when there’s a degree of uncertainty.
But like with the uplifting experience you mentioned, when that sort of thing happens, I’ve found it really stands out, as I know it’s not just wishful thinking about something I want to be true.
The guidance you received in the lucid dream and its continued effect in the days after sounds really lovely actually! :) The way you felt that enveloping love and comfort and connected in a higher way to music too. I find my emotions can be easily affected by music, depending on its type, so it’s so nice you were able to perceive that warmth when listening to it, if it’s something rare for you. I hope it will be possible for you to be more perceptive of those little nudges and answers to questions too.
Yes, I hope I’ll be able to also gets hints of these things with the dream incubation. I was also hoping that what you mentioned may be the case, about our efforts being recognised if they’re sincere, even if the setting may not be ideal. Unfortunately, I’ve become fairly used to reasonable adjustments not being made in the physical world over the years, but it makes sense that there would be more mercy shown by the divine, compared with people in everyday life.
What you said about connecting more deeply with your heart and true self is lovely and I hope you’ll be able to do this more and that I’ll be able to do the same in my own life too.
It’s wonderful to hear that others are getting much needed strength and guidance from connecting with the Sun/Son.
I’ve found that making the effort to be present for the morning sunrise especially within nature feels almost like attending a divine sermon. With arms outstretched in the form of a cross I feel the divine solar forces entering me and nourishing my essence for the day ahead. I find it to be a tangible force which can really give a lot of divine yearning and strength. The infinite wisdom and mercy of the solar gods is beyond words.
My favourite mornings are when I have company from the local birdlife. Almost like they’re worshipping the sun in their own special way.
Hi Karim,
I agree… we must persist (which gets VERY challenging at times). even if it means fighting/guarding against our own inner nature (vices, egos, etc) as well as those outside of us (in others, in the world, in the Astral).
I have had moments when I have caught myself with the smallest of thoughts, the most innocent of thoughts but behind it hides a degree of laziness ( eg not now, you can do that later, do this first, etc) It interferes with my activity or follow through, to be present and attentive in the moment or to do a mantra, or to apply myself to be lucid in the Astral.
As situations were pushing me I have been using the incantation of the sun as a way to open up that gate of prayer and feel a link from my heart to the sun.
A few days ago I left my dinner on the table halfway, I just had to go out. At the nearby beach I directed myself towards the sunset. I did the sun incant. and then the Gayatri – it felt so good. As I continued it went deeper into more and more layers of sincerity. Prayer really is the most powerful practice. In other busy and noisy scenarios, by going within, I could still find the same link.
So nice Julian and Lucia, about exploring the translations for oneself, I agree fully.
Something I wrote, about 10+ years ago “I’d go there a lot [a local moutain], preferring the nights because I could do my own thing. … I developed, or found my way, to my own sort of practice which I called ‘Mantra Prayer’. I would sing and cry out those words of the mantra, and visualise manifestations of its meaning, really feeling it all powerfully within me as pleas to the divine. After some time this would become alive… visualisations and the wish to do sacred poses with my body would naturally follow, calling on these divine forces more and more. It felt like being a conduit or that I was able to call upon and request that attention to be directed to the city below, and spread across the whole world beyond.”
In comparison to before I naturally feel, or am led, to increase (instead of specific spiritual beings, and in part my own being – though they’re all connected) to direct my prayers to the spiritual sun.
A subtle bond, feels like such a blessing, beyond all things.
As I was drifting between sleeping and waking last night, I saw a vision of a surge of seeds rising up in the shape of a phoenix. They were uncommon seeds, not ones people expected, but because of climate change they would be more viable in the current time than anything else that’s been growing in the region, even native plants and weeds.
The past several years have seen the rise of disheartening and ominous forces rise in the world, I feel so fortunate to see the beginning of something with so much promise! The way I see it, the seeds are people, and climate change indicates the current state of “world culture”, which is at a pretty low state, with existing structures that traditionally uplift people debunked, ridiculed, neutered, or otherwise made ineffective, giving them little power to satisfy a person bereft of spirit.
Thanks for sharing that dream and interpretation of it Julian. I actually had the opposite impression though, that maybe it could be a positive sign, with seeds rising in the form of a phoenix. So perhaps a sign that although the old has become scarce, the new is still able to emerge and flourish. A life force resurrecting.
It reminds me of a recent news item, where vandals cut down a historic tree near Hadrian’s Wall (which you may recognise as the original Roman border between England and Scotland). The Sycamore Gap tree had been there for hundreds of years and it was tragic that it was mindlessly destroyed. But new shoots from the old trunk have recently been observed, showing signs of hope of it flourishing for generations to come.
It’s interesting how different our interpretations can be, but it does again highlight the importance of developing intuition in interpreting our dreams, as you mentioned you worked towards previously with regular efforts, resulting in a good level of success.
I astral projected last night using the concentration on the heart beats technique, when being sure to be completely out of the body, I asked to be taken to the Temple of the Sun.
It feels like I should keep the teaching and my insight about it private, but it was interesting to see Mark giving it and also realizing so clearly and the first time in my life, that the planet Earth is actually a Temple of the Sun, things went so wrongly in many ways, but our dear planet is meant to be a one big SOLAR TEMPLE.
I got approached in my other lucid experience by big polar owls, I was fine to defend myself fast and effective, yet craving to receive the protective incantation of the Sun. I still wait for my book to be delivered and now I don’t feel like this would be just another “interesting useful thing to learn”. I feel like I really need this incantation to keep dispelling darkness, and to do it in a more powerful deeply spiritual way.
Thank you for sharing, Vadim. This must have been a very special and inspiring experience. Not to mention getting to the astral dimension consciously. Awesome effort. There seems to be so much knowledge beyond our wildest dreams waiting to be discovered. I truly hope this grand Solar plan for the Earth will one day materialise. I am also eagerly awaiting the delivery of the new book. Following Lara’s new book announcement, the recent videos, and what people have been sharing recently, it seems the momentum has picked up significantly for many seekers globally.
It is great that the big owls did not stop you from exploring the astral dimension. It seems that some species from the animal kingdom provide either inspiration for the attacks or are somehow related to the opposition. I hope that one day all people will contain sufficient spiritual light within, and there will be no need for incantations.
What an interesting notion Vadim, about the earth as a temple of the sun, thank you!
Yes, and what a beautiful temple Earth is, so true.
Thank you for sharing Vadim, how amazing it would be if the Earth indeed became a true Temple of the Sun! I have to say I kind of already given up on the humanity of this Earth, as it seems that only a minority is sincerely interested in the teachings of the Light, most are swallowed by unbridled materialism of one kind of another, or their own dogma… But we will see I guess. It is also quite telling that you saw Mark in your dream, as he is the one whom we can thank for this beautiful ancient religion being revived now. Regarding the “Temple of the Sun”, it would be interesting to see how the life on Earth looked like in very very ancient times, when the Religion of the Sun thrived here… It would be nice to bring it back, even if just in its outward manifestations, so that the environment on the Earth became lighter and more conducive for the spiritual work for those who are seriously interested.
Interesting about the polar owls too, I had a quick look at what the animal looks like, and I have to say they are quite cute! But I guess not when they are attacking you 😧… wondering why would the dark side choose this kind of representation.
Thank you so much for sharing Marco and for your comments guys, yes it is so interesting and insightful to explore things a bit deeper while being out of the body.
I just did the incantations 3 times each and wow right away feeling much lighter and aware.
May the light of the Sun/Son dispell all darkness. OM SURYAYA NAMAHA.
Hi Vadim & Lucia,
Thanks for sharing that astral experience Vadim. It sounds like a very worthwhile observation. I do truly hope that the earth may indeed become like a solar temple again in the future.
@Lucia – Your comment on the polar owls appearing cute, but being sinister reminded immediately of the Stay Puft marshmallow man in the original Ghostbusters movie! :)
But you touched upon a serious point, which is the way in which we’re conditioned within society to associate beauty with goodness and ugliness with evil. It’s there right from childhood, with horrible looking hags, ogres, dragons, goblins, trolls, etc. in the folk traditions of many countries, which inspire the earliest books we learn to read and the children’s movies we watch.
In the media and society in general, a person’s beauty is often taken as an indicator of their internal goodness. It’s very rare to think of a leading actor, or successful businessperson or politician who would be considered unattractive by conventional standards.
This is a problem in society though, as the drive towards fitting mainstream ideals of beauty has such a negative impact on children’s development and subsequent self image. We’re all aware of the norms set on social media and how there are huge fashion and beauty industries to enable people to conform to these expectations, along with a huge market for cosmetic surgery.
I’ve known several young girls who believed themselves to be too fat, despite being underweight. But fortunately there are also some efforts to counter this, such as employing average-sized women as models and the Campaign for Real Beauty, founded by a UK cosmetics company.
The standards of physical beauty also has a big impact in the wider society, such as within employment and the criminal justice system. Julian recently commented on parallel universes and it would be interesting to observe the differences on how someone’s life path would develop, if they were born with good looks, versus an appearance considered unattractive.
It seems that negative entities in the astral plane are well aware of these preconceptions and will try to disguise themselves as benevolent, or sometimes as spiritual beings as a means of deception. I commented on this recently with the god-like figure who I saw in a dream, who attempted to misdirect me.
Mark makes a good point about looking into someone’s eyes during these astral encounters, as it can reveal the real internal state, rather than just the outward appearance. It is also encouraging that the types of spiritual practices he and Lara describe enable us to see more clearly what’s within ourselves, but also within others. This in turn enables us to negotiate the various people we meet in daily life in a more discerning way, rather than simply at face value, as well as in the astral plane.
I’m glad to hear that your efforts to clear the negative influences during the experiences you both described were fruitful. I hope you’ll be able to get other clear experiences, using the new prayer to the spiritual sun.
Hi Vadim, I’m very happy you are having success with your astral practice, it’s very inspiring. Thank you for sharing your insight on Earth being one BIG SOLAR TEMPLE, I got this vision/thought the other day after seeing one of Lara’s videos about the Giza site being like the huge hands of a clock on our planet pointing to different things in our galaxy across time, could it be that they are like the hands of the central cosmic clock in our huge temple? lol
Here I share the incantation of the Spiritual Sun so that you can have it while you wait for your book.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mdopwn3BZXTPr7QaF8cTkP9fmhhZXev0/view?usp=sharing
Thanks again Marco for sharing the incantation of the Sun.
I worked with it in daily life only so far, preparing to have it ready for the next astral encounter.
One thing that I kept experiencing was how sometimes during a day I have such a hard time to keep being aware for no obvious reason, usually I kept blaming myself for a “lack of effort” or for “a lack of the right effort”, or “not being able to give up pleasurable emanations of certain egos”, and I was not necessarily wrong, -but now working with this incantation has a “magical effect” on removing something… and then it becomes so easy and natural just to be aware, have my spiritual spark active. So I wonder how many negative things keep hovering around me, sometimes I can see/feel them, but not always, and the incantation has a definite power to clear them out.
The other thing is that right away after doing it with the continuity of purpose, I started to get weird experiences with unknown people, as them being stirred up by the dark against me. I felt protection and guidance and thanks God could act with calmness and intuition, but I could see how the hidden forces try to scare me into not doing the incantation, so now I do it even more :) and can be even more clear, channeling the resistance of the dark into the right direction.
You’re welcome, Vadim! It’s the very least I can do and I’m very glad it has been useful for you.
I havent even memorized the incantation myself 😅 I think its very beautiful but the incantations I already know work fine for me but I do plan on memorizing it and rehearsing it once I get to that part of the book now that I’m reading it in order.
I have been having the same dificulty in becoming aware and pushing the egos with awareness and I have been exploring what I wrote about trying to find a way of being in a constant state of asking to enable awareness and I think thats what this wonderfull incantation is enabling you guys that have tried it to achieve; connecting to the spirit, connecting to etternity in the here and now.
This past few days ive been really strugling to get to a good state of awareness in which I can feel that sort of spiritual flow of energy in me because it had really been absent or maybe just smuthered by the weight of my subconcious and I had been questioning what I am doing wrong wich I know can be many things but my efforts just didnt seem to work to get out of it ; like a lack of effort o a lack of the right effort and all those things that you said. This thought about wanting to be in a constant state of asking has really been lurking in my thoughts as the way out of it and as ive been trying to explore and get to it finally yesterday night before going to bed I was feeling a little bit more connected to the spiritual, a little bit lighter. In my morning concentration today as my mind was getting calmer I heard a voice wich sounded like Mark’s voice that said “Its called PARSIMONIA” in spanich and I kind of made a mental note in my mind to not forget the word so that I could see if it was something or if it was just a made up thing of my subconcious so once I finished my morning practices I looked for the word and it turns out it is a word, a very beautiful word that I had never heard or read before.
Here is the definition I liked the most for the word (translated from spanish to english): Calm or ceremonious tranquility with which something is done
And this is what chat GPT has to say about the etimology of Parsimonia:
“The word “parsimonia” has deeper roots that trace back to Proto-Indo-European. The word comes from the Latin “parsimonia,” derived from “parcere” (to save, to be moderate). “Parcere” is related to the Proto-Indo-European root *perḱ-, which means “to protect” or “to guard.”
Thus, the complete etymology of “parsimonia” can be traced from:
1.- Proto-Indo-European: *perḱ- (to protect, to guard)
2.- Latin: “parcere” (to save, to be moderate)
3.- Late Latin: “parsimonia” (moderation, frugality)
4.- Spanish: “parsimonia” (moderation in spending, slowness and calm in acting)
This etymological connection illustrates how the concept of moderation and frugality has been important throughout the development of many Indo-European languages.”
It seems like a lot of work for just a word but I do love language and ethimology and to me this is the description of a state I want to be in and having a word to decribe it is very special and foundational in my work.
“If in your heart does not burn an uneasiness that permeates you until the consummation
of your body, you will not be able to invoke God nor the Holy Spirit. And you don’t know
how to ask, which is why your time has not yet come.
“Watch and Pray” was the heritage that Christ left to the bold. To watch is to do
everything awake; to pray is to feel an ardent yearning of BEING”
The guidance that you have received, Marco, from the spiritual being seems so fitting when attempting to do this work.
That word really does encompass the journey back to the source.. For example the etymology of the word Parsimonia, as you have mentioned, really resonates with my life situation right now. Apart from calling upon the calmness and ceremonial tranquility with which something is done, to watch and guard.. what stood more to me is the connection of the word to ‘save and being moderate’ and frugality.
I came to a point where almost nothing material is ‘feeding’ me, food has become something that seems to be on my way to do spiritual practices as most of it is causing one or another problem. So I’m slowly moving towards something in that area that I’m still not sure where is it going,somewhere beyond frugality and modesty…
But, on the other hand, frugality and modesty seems to be permeating my whole existence right now, as I’m becoming aware that there’s so little we actually need to survive. What feeds me is the connection to the spiritual source in me and around me, to learn, to watch and to pray constantly, just as you have described so nicely with those quotes
Yes Marco, the Solar Incantation has been quite beneficial to me on many levels.
I try to really make it “my practice”, by connecting to the meaning of the words, the rhythm of the incantation, and the power behind it, besides a mere repetition to make it automatic and natural/effortless. Just like with so many other things in life, quantity of reps + quality of reps =brings it to a Higher Octave, with time.
Glad to hear that you keep receiving the guidance, I also had experiences of hearing certain mantras/words/sounds etc from the Higher Realms. Usually Mark recommends to keep these things private as it often belongs to a personal secret line of guidance from the Divine, but what you say is very interesting and makes sense. The more we keep sharing, the more is shared with us – and the more we learn, what to share and how.
When AWARENESS OF THE NOW is very strong, the INTUITION can be so strong, that you immediately realize to which aspect of your life that “astrally” transmitted word has been related to and why they taught you in this way. Or they would teach you in another dream, astral experience later, giving you another fragment of a deeper teaching, seeing the sincerity and the strength of your efforts to improve in that aspect of your life and to advance spiritually in general.
And thank you for those quotes from The Flight of the Feathered Serpent (in Spanish original they would sound even more meaningful), what a gem of a true spirituality, so insightful and meaningful, and so lesser known in the world.
The analysis you make, Tina, is exactly along the lines of thought I had when researching the word, I also find very interesting the Proto-Indo-European root perḱ (to protect, to guard) because it reminds me of the Hermetic Seal. I agree with you, we need so little to live. I hope you can find a way for food to not be problematic for you, it is food that nourishes our physical bodies and it’s our physical bodies what allows us to do this work. Hippocrates said “All diseases begin in the gut” and I suspect he knew something about it that may not be so obvious to modern science. Looking into balancing one’s gut flora can be very beneficial as modern science is coming to realize.
I appreciate your insight, Vadim. What you mention about secrecy is something that I think a lot about, in fact, I don’t feel comfortable sharing most things of the little experience that I have. I think I’ve experienced a sort of stop in flow when I feel I’ve spoken a little too much, on one side I think it is because I can get caught up in egoic ideas about how to interpret certain things and what to do with them and that in itself can diminish my awareness while on the other side, I assume it can be a sort of “disciplinary measure”. That being said, this word felt like a rose that blossomed in my rose bush and that it would be nice to share about it, It would take me a long writing to explore and express what this word represents to me, and that’s certainly not my aim.
Oh my, that book… Its poetry. I read The Flight of the Feathered Serpent for the first time in January of this year and I haven’t stopped since, It is my favorite book. You are right about the language, I feel very fortunate to be able to read it in my mother tongue, I don’t know if it is because English is a second language for me but Spanish evokes imagery in a way that English doesn’t seem to.
For example, in the saying “Watch and Pray” the word that is used in Spanish for watch is “Velad” (the ending in a “-d” was used in old and classic Spanish, nowadays that ending would be in “-r” so the modern word would be “Velar”) and this word, to me, has a very profound connotation in the phrase when it comes to delving into the spiritual meaning and practice of it.
The word “watch” in itself is conducive to an understanding of being alert, in a state of wakefulness, to keep watch of something, etc. but in Spanish, the word “Velad”, since I read Jesus in the New Testament, has evoked a scene in my head of a watchman in a cemetery with a candle lantern in the dark.
https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/Watchman-Charlie-Rouse.width-600.jpg
The verb “velar” (to spend the night awake on guard) comes from the Latin vigilare (to watch), derived from “vigil” (night guardian). It is related to the verb “vigere” (to be lively, to be vigorous, or to thrive) and is associated with the Proto-Indo-European root “*weg-” (to be strong, be lively).
From the verb “velar” derives the adjective “velador” which is the Spanish word for watchman, Additionally the word “vela” means candle in Spanish and I think we have come full circle on why my mind decided to throw the image of a watchman when reading this line, I don’t know about the cemetery part, though, but it’s certainly fitting.
I think that Spanish leads my thought process in a map of meaning that works differently than in English but as I said, I don’t know if this has more to do with the fact that Spanish is my mother tongue.
Matthew 24:43.
“But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.”
Thank you Vadim and Tina for your insight, some of your recent comments have resonated greatly with me and have been inspiring which is always appreciated.
Hi Marco,
Nice insights on your research in linguistics! The Indo-European language family has always been a subject of interest to me,but I’m not familiar with any Indo-European language except for English personally, I do come in contact with Sanskrit sometimes as that’s what the mantras I do as part of my spiritual practice are in, I studied some simple words in Sanskrit and were able to make some connections between them and words in English, I also looked at the words for numbers and how to say “no” in several different Indo-European languages,but that is as far as my knowledge goes. It’s great that you were able to compare and contrast the differences between Spanish and English and how they are related to the ancestral language of PIE, and I do find them intriguing;)
PS: I believe the word mantra came from a root word manas,which is distantly related to the English word mind. And they came from the same origin and have very similar meanings. As you probably have guessed it mana in Sanskrit means mind. I think I know a little bit about root words too, but that’s pretty much it.
Even though personally I don’t speak an Indo-European language as my first language, nor am I native to such a culture as far as I’m aware of, knowing about their connection definitely offers a doorway to a world where a mega-culture used to spread to many different parts of the world,and their common roots in terms of language and spiritual beliefs are very interesting. It has always been eye-opening to learn about the linguistic connections between Indo-European languages, as well as how they’re connected culturally between one another and how are they related to the spread of religion of the sun. I really appreciate the research that have been put in regarding this subject, and I feel that I have learned from these things. If you look carefully at the ancient world you may realize that it is more connected than what you may have initially thought, and I think that is one of the biggest takeaways from discovering and learning about this ancient religion for me, aside of the profound spiritual wisdom it teaches. I think I might have lived in a branch of Indo-European culture in one of my previous lives,and this could be the reason why I’m so drawn to it. Of course, I also take pride in my own native culture. Now with the bigger picture becoming clearer, I think it’s not hard to see how widespread the practice of the religion of the sun was in ancient times. A missing link in our past that bridges the gap between East and West in an unprecedented way.
There is a similar word in English which is parsimony, that came from the same Latin root,meaning unwillingness or extreme care or reluctance in spending money or resources,and that’s quite interesting. Thank you so much for your findings in linguistics Marco, I do find them very intriguing and insightful. Thank you again, or muchas gracias ;) (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong,I think this is how you say it in Spanish from what I found on Google Translate)
I had a beautiful dream the other night.
I was by the ocean with Mark, Lara, and a group of people following the religion of the sun. We were in a small, rickety fishing shack, with holes in the roof. The roof was dark black against the sky, and represented the fractured and dark state of the world. The sun was on a computer screen, and as I walked along the old wooden planks, looking up through the holes, I would also catch glimpses of the sun through the holes. The sun looked larger and more magnificent through the narrower holes, which made me excited and made me want to keep looking through them to catch a glimpse of it as it moved through the sky. Coming out to the dock and gazing at the sun, I noticed there was something tangible about it, it looked white, waxy and solid, like a stack of rubbery circles. How amazing! I reached out and grabbed them: small, smooth white disks, like soft crackers, stacked on top of each other. I exclaimed “Is this Mana? Is this the Host?”, fully aware of how similar this was to the host, or body of christ, being stored in a monstrance in Catholicism (a round white wafer stored in a chamber symbolic of the sun). I looked around and saw that some others around me had discovered the same thing, but others looked confused and didn’t understand what was happening. I was able to grab them because I was open-minded.
Lately, when I find myself with a free moment, especially at sunrise or sunset, I’ll converse with the sun. It could be partly my imagination, and I know I’m constrained by my preconceptions, but I get instant answers to any worthy questions, and silence when I ask stupid ones, a familiar to people who have had the pleasure of meeting awakened beings in out-of-body experiences. I think of Rupert Sheldrake’s talk in which he proposes that the sun is a conscious being, and insinuates that it should be interacted with through consciousness… I think the dream I had was in part about this way of connecting with the sun, of being open and reaching out for spiritual sustenance to the sun, spiritual sustenance being so difficult to acquire at this moment in the world.
That was such a beautiful experience Julian. Thank you for sharing it and I hope your connection with the Sun grows deeply in love.
Thanks Juno, you too :)
I wonder if the fishing shack relates to being “fishers of men,” and it’s rickety state to the lack of resources we have for the task?
I have felt something similar – the communication and spiritual sustenance coming from the Spiritual Sun, the Source.
I thought about “fishers of men” as well, it fits with the Christian overtones in a very authentic and beautiful way.
Your observation about resources wasn’t something I had thought of, but it feels right as well. There’s no place I’d rather be than that rickety dock! But hopefully that can change?
To add to it, a few days after I posted the dream, I was talking with the sun about it, and I was given a flash of insight into it. Coming out of the shack to the dock was what I’m emerging to now (religion of the sun opening up? It wasn’t explicit, but like something is changing), the “host” was related to what I’ve collected along the way (like experiences), and many haven’t reached for such riches, perhaps content watching the computer screen.
Sustenance is such an interesting word… Lately I find that I’m starving spiritually, and I just feel hungrier and hungrier as the world gets darker, and every bit of light that peaks through really is like a meal. I hope that sustenance becomes more abundant, and no less precious.
Hi Julian,
Seeing what you said about “sustenance” and “spiritual hunger”, I thought I would mention some dreams I’ve had relatively recently, also connected to the “spiritual food”.
Like you, I have also been feeling quite “malnourished” spiritually lately, and for about 2 months around Christmas I have been watching different testimonies of people on Youtube, in which they describe their personal encounters with Jesus. I don’t know how I started watching them, but listening to some of them filled me with awe at the mercy, power, beauty and love of the Being known as Jesus Christ. Somehow, I could not get enough of those, and must have watched dozens of them at least…
Then a few weeks ago, I had an interesting dream. In that dream, I found myself somewhere in a back room of some kind of building, and in this back room, there were some sandwiches being prepared. There was also a main room, which was getting ready for some kind of event. There were some people running here and there, preparing things, and others just talking, and I had a feeling that my husband was somewhere there too, even though I could not see him. I was sitting behind computer in that back room, but seeing all those sandwiches on the plates there, I could not resist to take one and try it. It was very tasty, the bread was fluffy, the butter very fresh and on it was some kind of ham (not a pig ham, it felt more like a turkey ham), very juicy and fresh too. As I was eating it, a woman came inside, looked at me, and said something like, “ohhh, you are eating the sandwiches?” And I told her “I thought they were here for eating”. And she said “Yeah, that’s ok, but why don’t you come to the main room?” I told her I still needed to work on something on computer, and she then left. At that point, I started to feel like maybe it would be a good idea to leave now, as I had no intention to go to the main room (It felt like the event and discussions in the main room would be boring for me, and I had better things to do…). So I started to search for my husband, so that we both go away. I could not find him though, so I decided to take one more of those tasty sandwiches (together with one piece of fresh, juicy green pepper that was lying on the table in the back room :-)), and disappeared from there….
When I woke up, I could not immediately understand what the dream meant, but it was very clear, and I knew it had a message. It only dawned on me a bit later, that this was most likely a representation of what I have been doing lately. By watching all those testimonies of people (which were published on different Christian Youtube channels), I was “eating” a bit of their food, as I was hungry for some kind of spiritual food. In my dream, I was sitting behind computer in a back room (watching the testimonies?), but I didn’t want to come to the front room (to become a part of the Christian church). I knew I had better things to do, so I didn’t want to stay, but I still wanted to eat a bit, and those sandwiches were really tasty… Another interesting thing was, that those were just sandwiches, they were not a proper, full meal (with a soup, second course, etc, like a proper lunch). They were just a simple food, even though very tasty. My understanding of it is, that even though they were very tasty (as those experiences were describing the direct encounters with Jesus after all), they were still just a very basic food, and not a full spiritual instruction that would enable one to awaken spiritually.
Then I remembered another dream I had some time ago, where I was in a room with one Divine Being (whom I could not see, just “felt” their presence), and I was eating a nice soup there. It was a home-made soup with some vegetables and pasta in it, very tasty and nutritious. In the same time, I saw the “second course” was being prepared too, and the Being told me to come back later again, as there will be a lot of food.
Now, even though I am not 100% sure what this dream meant, I figured out it may have referred to the Religion of the Sun, where even though some books and videos are already available (the soup), the “main course” (the whole, full teaching) is still being “cooked”, and will be ready for us later…
Just wanted to share these dreams now, as I thought there must be more of us “starving” right now, eagerly awaiting some full meal from Mark and Lara’s “kitchen”. ;-)
What a meaningful dream, Julian. I have never been a church goer, so I didn’t know about the host being stored in a monstrance, but after some internet search, I found the images of that, what a great symbolism happened to be preserved there! A food from the sun indeed, and how great you managed to grab some. ;-) I also found it interesting that at first, you saw the sun on a computer screen, making me wonder if that perhaps represented this website… What Lara said about the “fishing shack” makes a lot of sense too.
I want to say few things about the food, Marco as you have mentioned Hippocrates and how he said that ‘all disease begine in the gut’. While I agree with his I also have found out that it’s very important to understand that different foods have different frequency or vibration as some call it. When Hippocrates lived the food was very different back then and so it had a different impact on their bodies.
I’ve been investigating this subject to some extent and came to an understanding that the food today has a detrimental effect on our bodies ( mind you it may be different for each one of us depending on what our frequency is). I had an experience where I was shown that the way animals are killed today causes some chemicals to be realised as they experience a lot of fear in the process and so we eat that and it doesn’t seem it’s any good for us, or let’s say for some of us. Also, other non meat foods seems to also have different frequency and so I’m at this point where I’m trying to switch to eating just food that has higher or appropriate frequency for my body and it looks like the raw food is at the top list. .
On the other hand, what I’ve found is that our relationship to food is very much correlated to our spiritual growth as we often use food to escape our own realities, finding comfort so that we don’t have to deal with the feelings that we’re experiencing. Many years ago I did an experiment, when I wanted to eat something I said to myself I won’t do that and see what’s beneath this feeling of wanting to eat that. I laid down and breathed deeply and at some point these very strong emotions came up. I thought, that’s what I’m running from’ … So over the years as I was healing from a very debilitating condition using food, ie being on a very restricted diet I realised that I had to let go of the pleasures of eating certain foods and that helped me to delve deeper into this relationship between letting go of the pleasures of the material world to grow spiritually. .
Recently I’ve been visiting some ancient sites of the Religion of the Sun across the UK. There are so, so many sites, and of the ones I’ve visited, I’d estimate approximately 85 – 90% or maybe more have alignments to the solstice or equinox sunrises or sunsets.
Often the sites have alignments across multiple axes, and include multiple alignments to different solar events, both in terms of the overall site itself, and then also within specific smaller elements of the site/s, or to other sites or natural landscape elements. Often sites can look quite simple on approach, but can actually be surprisingly complex in the way they are designed and constructed – the builders were definitely master architects! It’s quite amazing and I keep getting my mind blown over and over again when visiting them.
Seeing the patterns and intelligence (almost a “language” of building) in the way that the alignments are incorporated into sites and being able to explore the symbolism in them, as well as trying to get a sense of what the sites feel like energetically, and seeing and feeling the effect they have on my awareness and concentration etc. has left me with no doubt that they were built by people with quite amazing astronomical, mathematical, architectural and engineering skills, who were very connected to nature, had a deep understanding of spirituality and for whom the solstices and equinoxes were very important.
One of the things that I have found most confusing about visiting sites is trying to understand their timeline, when exactly they were built (the info boards often seem pretty dubious) and how the sites were used over time by subsequent cultures and generations of people. Eg. some sites – I think because they were sacred places – have been built on or over multiple times, or have had burials of powerful people or other non-original aspects added later.
There is one group of sites I visited called Kilmartin Glen in Scotland that a lot of people rave about, because it has a lot of sites in a very small area and is considered a sacred landscape. Except that it didn’t really feel like one to me. There are a few places I’ve been to where there is a complex of sites and they really do feel like sacred landscapes, and some of the sites feel really significant in a spiritual sense. But I was quite disappointed by Kilmartin Glen.
Most of the sites at Kilmartin Glen don’t have any clear solar alignments, and the quality of building is less sophisticated than at other sites, being just piles of stones basically. I’ve read that some people say it’s more of a lunar observatory in that area, but I suspect that originally there used to be solar alignments in some of the sites (I found evidence for one at least) but that the original sites were taken over and changed by a later culture. This later culture seems to have built over the original sites (eg. there was a double ring of stone circles that is now just a cairn / pile of smaller stones and another site which has had a floor of smaller stones added), and perhaps also built new sites that were inspired by the original builders, but that don’t have the same ambiance or common aspects built into them, and don’t have the same sophistication of building.
I was trying to understand this and also the diffusion and widespread nature of sites in the UK in general, and also trying to understand why no sites are exactly the same. So far of the sites I’ve visited, although there are many common elements it hasn’t felt like there has been one single architect co-ordinating them all, which I feel like would have led to more consistency in the sites. Instead it seems like each site – and sometimes each area with concentrations of sites – has its own personality or personal touch added. For example, recumbent stone circles are only really found in and around Aberdeen in Scotland, Orkney has lots of cairns of similar types, parts of England have more long barrows rather than round cairns, etc., but even when there are similar sites in a concentrated area they vary within the individual designs.
In the process of travelling between sites and trying to figure out some of these questions I woke up one morning and the last dream that I had said I was “in the slow wave of Odin”. I don’t remember anything else apart from that. I also hadn’t been thinking of Odin in relation to the sites, so I thought that wording was interesting.
I feel a connection to Odin, and I have always been drawn to the Norse and have Norse heritage, so maybe the concept was being communicated in a way that I would feel an affinity with, but still I thought it was interesting, as I would have expected a connection with Odin for Scandinavian sites, but not with ones in Scotland for instance.
Reflecting on what that could mean, it seems like the multitude of sites would have required either:
1. A significant group of people (say survivors from Atlantis or another migration of Wisdom Bringers) who went from place to place building the sites or guiding their establishment – but that seems almost an impossibility given the quantity of sites unless they were built over a very long period of time.
2. Some sort of diffused learning. Some sites have an “open air university” aspect / feel to them. This is speculation, but maybe some of the sites were used for teaching people about the principles and language used to build the sites, possibly guided by Odin (as Odin if he had gone there on his travels, or maybe symbolic of the leader of the particular group of Wisdom Bringers) and then the people they taught went out around the UK establishing sites and spreading the Religion of the Sun, and that’s why they’re all a bit different.
3. An oral tradition of site building that could be passed down if sites were built across generations
On a ferry prior to this experience I was watching the wake, and from the ferry it created waves going a very long way into the distance. Perhaps it was something like that, and that’s why it was communicated in that way.
Or perhaps another interpretation is that what I was seeing in Kilmartin Glen, if it was a degradation of the building practices like it seems, was like the end of the wave, where the knowledge of Odin had been passed down and spread out slowly for generations until a point where the principles and understanding of how to build sites had been lost.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to properly figure out that aspect of ancient sites, but either way, being able to visit ancient sites of the Religion of the Sun in person has made me feel much more connected to it and has been a really life-changing experience. It is really different being able to visit and explore them on the ground compared to just looking at pictures and reading about them and I would recommend it to anyone that has the interest and is able too. It has reaffirmed for me just how widespread the Religion of the Sun was and how many people must have been involved in it in one way or another in the past. It is such a mystery that as a humanity we have such a collective hole in our memory in regards to this aspect of our past.
I feel really grateful to the builders of the sites and the legacy that they have left us, and for the way that the sites still draw people to them – I wish I could have met the builders in person!
Hi all, I just came across a very fascinating spiritual experience with what sounds like the Spiritual Sun to me. It was posted as a reply to one of R. Sheldrake’s videos, and the person posting it said it happened to them 25 years ago. I found it amazing how he said there that he felt this Sun/awareness/God was everywhere, and no matter how far or quickly he moved in any direction, it was never even a bit further from him, and it was within him as well. I also found it fascinating how in his experience, this person was passing the barriers between different parts of the universe, which he could clearly feel like some sort of ‘energetic walls’ dividing these different areas of the space. It made me wonder if he was passing the barriers between different solar systems or maybe between galaxies? Its even hard to say whether his experience happened in the astral plane or in some of the higher planes of existence. Anyway, here is the link to the R. Sheldrake’s video, the experience was posted by somebody called “Laser Hobbyist”, and appears as the first one for me, if the comments are arranged by the “Top comments” system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWbIVlnmNM
It sounds like he’s describing descending through the process of creation, from the oneness of being with pieces of consciousness splitting off all the way down to just the spark of the essence.
The shame he felt at being seen was also very interesting, it reminds me of the garden of Eden, and maybe hints at a different way to understand it, and what it meant to leave the garden.
It’s personally interesting to me that he described the sun as blue-ish, because a couple times I’ve spontaneously visualized my heart as a blue-ish star, but that could be a coincidence, as it’s a big universe!
Hello Fellow Sparks of Consciousness,
I thought of sharing a recent experience, relating to the influence of the Spiritual Sun. After becoming lucid and waking up in a dream, I noticed that there was the Sun in the sky and immediately I focussed my attention to it. Outstretching my arms to take in as much sunlight as it was possible and hence being illuminated by it, I started slowly ascending. The light filled me up with hope and joy; however, crowds below tried to grab my legs to pull me down back to Earth. I had to give my best to try to focus on the Sun, as without sustained focus and without the sunlight; I would succumb to the crowd below and would not have a chance to overcome what needs to be overcome to attain spiritual freedom from inner darkness.
How beautiful Slawek, thank you for sharing. Wishing you a strong, sustained effort to stay connected to the spiritual sun! 🌞
Hi Fellow Sparks of Light,
I do not know whether others have noticed that too, but since some time many of my lucid dreams or astral experiences, feature the Sun at some point, and seeing it, always increases my spiritual longing, gives me hope and I feel it helps me to maintain a heightened level of lucidity for longer periods. Sometimes the Sun is lower, and sometimes it is higher above the horizon, other times it can be covered by clouds, or it can be dim and distant. It also takes a sustained and big effort to try flying up towards the Sun and not to get distracted or to lose the sight of it. I never managed to get close to the Sun, but I will keep trying.
Hi Slawek,
Thanks for sharing these astral experiences. They sound very interesting and inspiring, particularly with the obvious symbolism of the sun too. I sometimes dream I’m swimming through the air, although these tend not to be lucid and I can’t say I’ve had similar experiences to those you described unfortunately.
I used to have lucid dreams around once a month at one point, but they are only very occasional these days and nothing of any great interest when they do occur. In fact, most of my lucid dreams are not particularly inspiring to recount, other than one where I was flying around the pyramids of Egypt. Most lucid dreams just involved me waking in up in the room and doing some things to check I was dreaming, but I never usually managed to actually get outside of the room or property, before losing consciousness again.
Having said that, I was still encouraged and motivated by having those lucid dreams at the time, as it was interesting to see that I could control my dreams and to see there was an identical replica of the physical world, which I could interact with in the dream world.
Astral projection has always remained elusive to me though, despite my best efforts over a decade and a half. I’m not quite sure quite why this would be the case, as it’s something that most of my peers who have shared the same interest have experienced at least once, if not multiple times. I’ve had experiences of being very clear during the day, as well as while falling asleep, which I hoped would translate into some kind of objective experience. The closest I ever got though was feeling some of the “pre split” sensations, which some people describe, and one incident of feeling as if my body were falling back onto the bed from a height.
Ironically though, three close family members have recounted several experiences of what sounded very much like astral projection experiences, without trying, or even being aware the phenomenon existed in the first place! I often find the accounts of others fascinating, particularly when the person has been able to objectively verify they are in another dimension, or is able to receive information that they couldn’t possibly know about within the physical world.
I dearly wish I had this kind of experience too, as it’s one thing to believe the accounts of others are genuine and to be inspired by them, but another to actually have they same type of experiences first hand and to know without any doubt that my own consciousness definitely exists independently of my physical body. I think that kind of direct experience probably helps a lot when going through difficult times, as it’s a confirmation that this life isn’t all there is and that we exist beyond our physical bodies.
Perhaps there’s an influence of what each of us have practised in past lives, as well as this one. For example, I knew someone who reported seeing auras from an early age, without ever doing anything to develop this particular ability, although this seems something very rare.
Would you say you were naturally prone to having astral experiences from a young age, or is it something that took a considerable effort to develop a skill in, similar to the sustained effort you described in attempting to fly up towards the sun when lucid? Good to hear you keep trying and I hope you eventually manage to reach it!
Hi Michael,
The experience with the pyramids of Egypt you mentioned sounds very inspiring and also having experienced the pre-split sensations and waking up in dreams. I also feel that we continue our learning from life to life and the past has a huge bearing on how we perceive life today as well as the events in our lives.
As for your question; I had some interest in astral experiences in my teens but there was only one book I could find about it at the time, and also after a while, I realised that my drive to experience the astral was of a trivial nature, one could even say that I thought of it as entertainment, so I eventually decided let it aside for the future. It was only many years later that I spontaneously started waking up about the same time at night, immediately feeling very intense pre-split sensations. It was happening night after night, but I was terrified and it took me a while to be ready to even to try to move while having those sensations. However, when I gained more confidence the frequency of those opportunities quickly diminished. But these experiences prompted me to honestly re-evaluate my life choices and so the quest for lasting inner change began.
I would say that the vast majority of my experiences are from waking up in dreams, while astral experiences from a conscious split could be counted on one hand. Having said that, becoming aware in a dream allowed me to prove to myself beyond any doubt, that the consciousness can exist outside of the physical body. When I think about it, all of these experiences are a tremendous gift and even though the journey to spiritual freedom may just be beginning for me, I would not trade any of these experiences for any worldly treasures.
Hi Slawek,
Thanks very much for your reply. Yes, the experience I mentioned with the pyramids was pretty inspiring at the time. I’ve forgotten the details of it now, but wrote it down the following morning, so I’ll try and track it down again in my dream diary to jog my memory.
That’s interesting to hear you developed an interest in astral projection in your teens. I don’t recall when I first came across the concept, but it was probably from a particular 1960’s album I can think of, which I used to listen to in my early twenties. I didn’t do anything to pursue the interest until about 10 years later though.
I’ve had an interest in understanding dreams since my mid teens though, as well as an interest in psychology, which I’ve studied formally and informally since that time. I’ve kept a regular dream diary for about 15 years, but to be honest, I still struggle to identify clear guidance in dreams. Most of my dreams involve very everyday occurrences and although I can associate particular people with particular emotional states, I find it hard to pinpoint any great message from my dreams, as to me they seem more of a continuation of the normal workings of the mind, albeit during the state of sleep rather than wakefulness.
I can think of some dreams that could potentially be highly significant, but I tend to err on the side of caution in accepting them as being any kind of spiritual teaching. It’s something quite personal to me, but I tend to run away from believing in things without strong evidence, due to the things I’ve seen throughout my life, some of which are not easily forgotten.
I’ve known a number of people professionally or personally who have lost touch with reality in quite dramatic ways, sometimes with religious or spiritual undertones to their delusions, which have played out in quite devastating ways in their own lives and the lives of those close to them. For example, one particular person I supported within a psychiatric ward had a dream in which they swallowed God and subsequently believed themselves to be God, but was clearly very ill.
I think I may be guilty of “false negatives”, where I discount dreams that could have some significance, unless I can be sure of their accuracy. It seems a pity if I miss things that could be useful, but I still feel more comfortable than in making the mistake of “false positives”, where I end of deceiving myself and possibly others, based on something that’s just a projection of my subconscious.
This is the same reason why I struggle to place lucid dreaming in the same category as astral projection, as my logical mind goes straight away to the rationale that any dream is still just a continuation of the brain’s activity during the night, rather than it being part of a separate dimension. Although I know in theory that lucid dreams occur within the astral plane itself, I still find it difficult to accept that it’s possible for me to access that other dimension, without being able to objectively verify it for myself at least once.
Although you mentioned you can count your astral experiences from a conscious split on one hand, I think that even just one of those objective experiences would still be a “game changer” in terms of changing your perspective of life and your place within it. I’m glad that the experiences helped you significantly in your spiritual search.
It’s interesting to reflect on the events that lead us towards a more spiritual life. For me, it came more out of the experience of going through suffering and looking for a way out of it. That led me to conventional psychology, then practices stemming from religions, before wanting to find out more about the source of divinity and to unite with it myself.
I also find it interesting to think back to my childhood and early adulthood and see how this search was subtlety underneath the surface, even though I wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time. For example, I had a little book on unexplained mysteries when I was 10, which I was fascinated with at the time. Also when I look back to some of the songs I started writing after finishing my psychology degree, it’s clear that I was searching for answers to the deeper questions in life, even though my life at the time was still very much directed towards having fun and enjoyment.
Thanks again for sharing your own experiences. I wish you every success in your own spiritual search and I hope you’ll gain many more experiences to be inspired and encouraged by!
I understand what you mean Michael and I think that you are more than able to have an objective astral experiences.
I think it helps to go back to the question of why, or what is holding me back from such experiences and feel through the question as the astral relates to our emotional / feeling body.
Sometimes we lack faith and other times we tell our selves a belief that become the blockage. Beliefs, as I see and have experienced them, are like limitations, like boundary walls that we have that are normally around safety and survival. These walls are natural in the animal kingdom to secure its survival, but as people with the mind we can transpose the survival mechanisms into our human existence, and normally beliefs arise due to deeply held fears, and that’s why they form part of survival, as they form a barrier of ‘protection’.
We all have beliefs which we are trying to transcend, like those that we garnered through conditioning, negative experiences, and even serious health conditions can preempt a belief. The underlying fear becomes the cause of beliefs and therefore limitations. Faith on the other hand is experience based, and the more faith we exercise, the more faith we gain. On the opposite spectrum, the less faith we have, the more fears we develop, and therefore we encase ourselves within beliefs. Take patience as an example, the less patient we are the more we lose patience :).
For me, Trust is the stepping stone to Faith. As Jesus said according to the Gospel of Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say to you, Anything you pray for and ask, believe that you will receive it, and it will be done for you.” In Matthew 17: 20 Jesus says “If there is faith in you even as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move away from here, and it will move away; and nothing would prevail over you.” To me beliefs are like mountains, they seem fixed to the earth and hard to climb up from but they can be. So in trusting we have faith in being able to go through many difficult, insurmountable and other worldly things. When I was first starting out trying to have an OBE I was having difficulty with getting my own personal experience. I remember doing as one Spiritual Teacher once said they did, and that day I said and did as they did and that night I had an out of body experience. It was fear that was holding me back, as I was full of inspiration to experience it, but I trusted the words of the Spiritual Teacher and I acted upon them with faith that I would also have an experience, and I did, despite the fear that had been holding me back. That was a wonderful lesson for me on many levels.
Perhaps try to uncover the inner cause and that way you can come out with many treasures of understanding, knowledge and experience! Best wishes Michael and know its a natural part of consciousness, and that is who you truly are!
Hi Juno,
Thanks very much for your reply. I really appreciate you taking the time to write those reflections. That’s great to hear you had an OBE immediately after following the advice of the spiritual teacher you mentioned!
Fear of the unknown seems to be a “go to” explanation when it comes to a lack of success with astral projection, or many new experiences that go outside of our comfort zone. I’ve often wondered the same myself, although I’m also generally very open to new experiences and experimentation and have also wondered if there are other factors at play, as I’ve been persistent in trying over many years.
For example, I had insomnia regularly for over 10 years and used to lie in bed pleading the divine to be allowed to sleep, as hour after hour passed. But this came to no avail until I started taking some adaptogenic herbs, which stopped the adrenal spikes occurring during the night, which were causing the insomnia in the first place.
The issue of faith versus belief is an interesting one, as from my perspective, I tend to be more able to have faith in something that I have some experience of, even if it’s only small. Whereas, I find it much harder to believe in things without experience, especially if the available evidence continually disproves a hypothesis after repeated attempts.
I sometimes admire religious believers who are able to hold firm to beliefs, seemingly regardless of any evidence to the contrary. But on the other side is the tendency for dogmatism and a lack of common sense, which can be so problematic in societies throughout the world and potentially cause great harm.
I can think of instances where I’ve also caused harm based on rigid beliefs, which I’ve applied on a “one size fits all” basis to all circumstances. For example, I used to follow the Buddhist principle of not telling a lie, but without any discernment or subtlety. So in some incidences, I told people unnecessary details that were not beneficial to them and could have caused them or others distress. The philosopher Immanuel Kant also believed in absolute moral principles and went as far as to say that if an axe murderer asked where his victim was, it was wrong to not tell him the truth, even if it meant the loss of a life. I feel it requires a much greater level of consciousness to determine what the most appropriate response to circumstances is, even if they appear similar at face value.
The quote from Jesus is a nice one, which I once shared with a friend who was facing an awful set of circumstances, which unfortunately didn’t end favourably at all. It made me reflect on the laws of cause and effect and how brutal these laws can seem in our lives, as despite our efforts it’s sometimes very hard to pay a weight of karma and sometimes we don’t manage to clear it quickly enough.
It’s hard to say what each of us did or didn’t do during past lives, but it makes sense that those who are on their last life in this cycle of existence would have a much heavier weight of karma to pay, compared with those who still have lives outstanding, as the cumulative debt over many lifetimes would be much greater.
When events and circumstances in life remain static over many years, a much greater degree of faith is needed. I admire people like Nelson Mandela who managed to keep their integrity following injustice, particularly after 27 years of imprisonment. I also like Thomas Edison’s quote regarding his development of the electric lightbulb: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
I think these are both good examples of the level of faith, patience and persistence that is sometimes required when going through very difficult circumstances. It’s interesting that you mentioned illness, as I’ve found my own chronic health issues have provided a rigorous testing ground for each of these characteristics.
For example, some of my conditions have lasted for over 25 years and others are officially incurable according to conventional medicine. So it takes an increased level of patience, persistence and faith to keep researching and trying out new things, having already tried out hundreds of things with limited success. The lack of support and recognition within the medical professional and in the wider society also demands a certain level of understanding to be developed.
To be honest, it can often be difficult to maintain these qualities when all evidence seems to point to the fact that things are still not going to change for a long time. For example, it’s very easy to be brought down emotionally when I literally feel like I’ve run a marathon after a simple task like making breakfast, which I wish were an exaggeration rather than a regular experience.
But as there have been instances of improvements in some symptoms, it gives me faith to keep persisting. In my heart, I also have hope that things will change eventually, even though I can’t yet determine how many more years it will take.
I’m also able to hold onto the evidence of the psychological change I’ve experienced so far, which gives me encouragement that it’s possible to deal with far more difficult circumstances in the future. I mentioned a particular experience some time before, which showed very clearly that divine help is there, even though it may seem distant for so long. I had been struggling with a debilitating inner state for some time, which was making my life a misery. I lacked faith but kept asking for help and during a particularly strong practice, this state literally disappeared overnight and hasn’t returned since.
That was quite an exceptional experience for me, which I felt I really needed at the time and my ability to cope with circumstances improved a lot after that. So when many in the world were becoming anxious during the global lock downs, those restrictions were really no big deal to me, as I’d already been through far worse for far longer. That particular experience of divine help was 5 years ago, but I still hold onto it during difficult times, as it showed me that change is still possible, even though it may seem impossible.
So many insights and understanding there Michael, and I’m so happy to hear you’re keeping going and growing. I don’t think the medical industry really understands the science of the body, but I hope that you may discover a lot through your experiences.
I remember that when I first experienced panic attacks which came out of the blue, I was debilitated for three days with claustrophobia as well as severe heart palpitations, which felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest and I felt I was dying each time. The intensity did go down after a few months with the help of spiritual teachings, which even the therapist I had begun to see told me that they were helping me and that I didn’t need to continue with the therapy anymore.
I remember trying to read up about what panic attacks were and how to deal with them, only to find people were dealing with them via medication and were told they will have to live with it for life, which was very daunting for me. I remember that at that time I felt that this illness must have come to me so that I could help others who were suffering like me, and it helped me a great deal in overcoming it too. Its now my approach to healing, to learn to discover more about it so that I can help others. And you must have discovered a lot so far with your healing journey too. Even astral practices were scary to me, as I was very sensitive to any sensations and would stop them because of the fear heightened in me through the panic attacks. I now understand panic attacks from both a physical and an internal perspective.
There is an inspiring mythology that I hope you don’t mind I share with you. There is an asteroid in the sky that is called Chiron, and the mythology of Chiron is very valuable and inspires me a lot. It was said that Chiron was a a learned centaur and a teacher and friend of Hercules, the solar hero. Chiron had suffered a wound from a poisoned arrow that hit him in the thigh or foot when Hercules was trying to fight of the beast like mortal centaurs. As Chiron was immortal, he suffered with the wound for a very long time, seeking out and learning many remedies along the way in trying to heal the wound, and as such he has come to be known in our times as the Wounded Healer. Chiron chose to give up his immortality, sacrificing it for Prometheus, who had been cast into Hades for stealing the fire from the gods and giving it to humanity. Prometheus had been chained to a rock and every day the vultures or crows would come and peck at his liver and his liver would then regrow and regenerate each evening. So Chiron sacrificed his life for Prometheus, who was able to come out of Hades, while Chiron descended into Hades. Zeus, God of the Heavens, was very moved by Chiron’s suffering and self sacrifice he made for Prometheus and he took Chiron out of Hades and raised him up to the Heavens to reside with the Gods. Both Prometheus and Chiron suffered wounds, and yet Chiron’s sacrifice to help another, led to both him and Prometheus being lifted up out of Hades and up into the Heavens.
I wanted to share this story, because it has been a story of hope and purpose for me and helped me through many healing journeys in my own life, as Chiron I feel continues to teach the art of healing and self sacrifice long after the mythology into the present. I hope it inspires you too, and to feel that, like Chiron, nothing is gone unseen and help always arrives as does the inspiration to keep going through the journey of self discovery and healing.
Thanks for your encouragement Juno and for those details on Chiron The Wounded Healer. I hadn’t heard of him before, but I find it very true that by going through suffering and sacrifices, we are better able to help others in a more appropriate way, as it is based on direct experience and the knowledge it brings, rather than just on ideas or beliefs.
I also agree that going through chronic illness over many years has given me a far greater level of knowledge about health in general, as when mainstream medicine is unable to offer help or support, it becomes urgent to become educated on the workings of the body and how to regain and maintain a good level of health. So on the plus side, many of the interventions I’ve already put in place should significantly reduce my risk of some of the most pernicious and common causes of mortality in later life, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.
So in that sense, although my quality of life has been significantly reduced over the last decade or so, at least my later years should be less of an ordeal, as suffering the impact of chronic illness is a great motivator to do whatever is needed to regain future health. It’s also logical that if I put in place everything that is needed to repair faulty mechanisms within the body, it should gradually lead to a positive outcome, even though progress often seems painfully slow.
I also can safely say that I now know more about myself, compared with when I was relatively healthy physically. Both in the sense of understanding more about the workings of my own body and in gaining a greater understanding of my psychological response to very difficult situations, which I think have exposed pretty much every inner state I can think of. It has also allowed me to see more clearly how other people actually are inside, as the responses of others on the periphery of some of those situations have in turn exposed the negative characteristics they hold within themselves.
I can relate to what you mentioned about the spiritual work being an invaluable tool in overcoming pernicious inner states. I found the same was true after experiencing some dreadful panic attacks five years ago, which came on the back of an intensive period of restrictions over several years and culminated in being more or less imprisoned alone within an isolated location. But it was also the eruption of multiple triggers of PTSD years earlier, which had laid dormant over many years, while subtly exerting a subconscious influence psychologically and impacting on my physical body.
It was a horrible experience, similar in many ways to the one you mentioned, but I was so relived when it subsided after the profound spiritual practice I mentioned before. That in turn gave me a greater strength and understanding to deal with the further restrictions that continued over subsequent years.
Having so many restrictions placed upon my freedoms has also forced me to narrow down my goals to prioritise the things that are of most value and importance in my life. But it can also be heart breaking to develop greater compassion through my own experiences of suffering and dearly wish to help others, but to be frequently inhibited in devoting sufficient time and energy to the causes I love and care about the most.
Suffering is a great motivator to do whatever it takes to bring about new circumstances, even though it may take great efforts over many years. But on the plus side, I’m usually willing to dedicate a lot of effort to goals that are closest to my heart. So I hope my persistence and perseverance will eventually lead to change that would allow me to better help others, similar to the legend you mentioned of Chiron the Wounded Healer.
I’m also very much looking forward to the new books you mentioned, as I find Mark and Lara’s work provides much needed inspiration to be reminded of the deeper spiritual nature operating within the universe, beyond the confines of the mundane everyday life. I’ve definitely found the search for real spirituality to be a great source of comfort and inspiration and a precious gift during very difficult times. I also wish you much understanding, inspiration and spiritual joy.
Hi Slawek, thank you for sharing about your astral/dream encounters with the Sun. I have also noticed the importance of these types of dreams, which have different meanings depending on the state/visibility of the Sun. Also some years ago, I was wondering about the effect of going to look at sunrises in physical world, as my husband would go to watch sunrise almost every day at that time, which made me wonder what was the point of it… and then I had a dream where I was told that watching sun gives spiritual strength (I don’t remember whether it related specifically only to sunrises or also for sunsets), so it is interesting that you also noticed that seeing the sun in the astral increases your spiritual longing.
Hi Lucia,
Thank you for sharing your dream about watching sunrises and gaining spiritual strength from doing so. This sounds like something definitely worth doing consistently and a practice that I could easily improve on. I also have been trying every night, before sleep, to internally express my gratitude to the Spiritual Sun for numerous learning opportunities and for the gifts of life.
I am a Christian priest (UK, Church of England) raised from infancy within the framework of Christian theology. But I remain open to revelation, a thirst that doesn’t wane. My Solar penny-drop moment happened three years ago when preparing a sermon for Trinity Sunday. I realised that the Sun lends itself to a model of the Trinity: The body of the Sun as the Father; the light (photons) coming from the Sun and bathing Earth is the Son (Jesus, Emmanuel, God incarnate); and the power, solar gravity, orbit, in which we are held is the Spirit. At the same time I came across Rupert Sheldrake’s You Tube talk ‘Is the Sun Conscious?’, which further underlined the topic of divine presence / being there. And I was led to ask myself a very profound, nicely disturbing, question: ‘Is the Sun a metaphor for God… or is God a metaphor for the Sun?’
I understand better now that Christian theology is not untrue per se, but it is like a reimagining – essentially through the narrative life-story and perceived significance of Jesus – of something more primal, foundational, universal – cosmic theology, and specifically solar theology. This way of thinking takes the nebulous spiritual concept of divinity that has no form or substance – a concept that must be generated and sustained by the imagination, albeit promoted by Biblical narratives and maybe Christian art – and understands the spiritual and the physical as one, emanating from the Sun on which we depend, our reason for being and our very existence in the first place, and sustenance moment by moment.
The more I reflect the more it makes sense. It invigorates powerfully, with a sense of my whole spiritual understanding taking a giant leap from something two-dimensional (mostly bound to text on paper, scriptures, doctrine, creeds, saying the ‘correct’ words) to something three-dimensional – the infinite depth of nature and cosmos, the awesome majesty and incomprehensible power of the Sun. I have become infinitely more aware of the Sun as a visceral force of ‘love’ in a broad sense. Call it worship if you will. Sun-gazing e.g. through closed eyelids (through which a whole, vibrant spectrum of colours can emerge), and open-eyed through proper eclipse glasses – seeing the fantastic orange orb, conscious that it is over a million times larger in volume than the Earth – can generate a sense of prayerful elation and two-way communication via the inner voice, the soul sense of ‘knowing’.
Why, oh why, oh why is humanity so dumb and unacknowledging to what is self-evidently blindingly obvious?! It is almost hilarious how stupid we (collectively, humanity) can be and have been.
I want to put these ideas into writing, but where to begin? One answer, a starting point at least, is pictorial, which then promotes a concise prose-poem style reflection. I tried this earlier in the year and have now posted a narrated version on You Tube https://youtu.be/ewjG_Awbcsg with the title The Big Picture – Solar Theology.
Thank you so much for your comment Robin. It’s wonderful to hear from a Christian priest like yourself, who is able to understand, reconcile, and integrate Christian theology and Christ’s message with the Divine Sun, which is so apparent in your narrated video.
I had never heard of Rupert Sheldrake, but thanks to your recommendation I’ve just started listening to his presentations on a conscious sun, like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXJPK2IHdgM and I’m absolutely amazed at this development taking place within science.
It feels like we stand at a point where ancient religion, the message of Christ, and science begin to converge…
Thank you Lara.
Yes, Light of the World and so many foundational Christian references and allusions that feed into Solar Deus awareness. It’s remarkable how it all seems to tie together. Having grown up with a conceptual God, it makes me now want to say with so much relief, ‘At last I know the secret… God is physical, after all’. And yet the physical Sun still has this immense spirituality, and yes perhaps literal consciousness – as hinted at now by some radical scientific thinking.
I know some people like to reflect on the transition from the Ages of Pisces to Aquarius. That resonates with me, from separate religions to common spirituality. Thinking of these Ages as referencing fish and water, in a simplistic way I like to think of it as a transition from an emphasis on ‘Which shoal [religion, culture] you’re in’, to ‘We’re all in the same sea’ – common spirituality and humanity. A new and different way of thinking. And by definition the Sun can only be common to us all, its centrality and lifegiving force indisputable: Illustrating daily a ‘language’ that is greater than words and conceptual creeds, cutting across nationality and cultures, worldwide and incontrovertible. Inclusive not exclusive.
I find it very natural in my solar contemplations to come to the point of simply concluding, ‘It is our everything’. And then you enter into that uplifting realm of awe, which can be a constant if we wish it to be, a sense of the sacred at any moment. A sense of the miracle of existence, and who and what it is that is sustaining us. Every moment outdoors now is like a revelation – if I choose to tune in and be conscious. The gratitude rises from within and I want to face ‘Holy Deus’ and shout out with exultation, hands outstretched, face receiving his rays and lifegiving power. The spiritual felt physically.
Thank you for what you’re doing at Sakro Sawel.
This is the particular Rupert Sheldrake talk that helped bring me to the path – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E56cSMzFcW8
I’m part way through watching that very talk by Rupert.
What you said about “a language that is greater than words…” – I feel that “language” has been written into the design of the cosmos in order to speak its truths to us. That the sun is the source of light and sustains all life then has a very profound meaning, and like you say, is there for all to understand and connect with.
It’s lovely to hear about how you tune into and connect with Holy Deus. I do the same every morning, and so have countless others in ancient religions for time untold.
Quite so. On that universal language idea one of my favourite bits of scripture is Psalm 19 (king James trad. version), ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night and night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world…’ . Nature – Cosmos is the best ‘scripture’ there can be, totally accessible and completely cross-cultural.
It’s nice to know there are likeminded people around for whom this great thing that immerses us resonates.
What a great quote – it’s easy to read without really picking up on what it’s saying. Amazing it’s in the Old Testament.
If you haven’t heard of it, you might be interested in the Essene Gospel of Peace. Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, who was a Hungarian philologist/linguist, philosopher, and psychologist, claimed to have come across it while studying at the Vatican in 1923, and subsequently published a translation, though no one has produced the original and the Vatican denies it exists. Many scholars believe Jesus spent time with the Essenes, and this text contains purported teachings he gave to them. Here are some excerpts attributed to Jesus that tie in with what we’re talking about:
“In everything that is life is the law written. You find it in the grass,
in the tree, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in
the fishes of the sea… God so made life and all living things that they might
by the everlasting word teach the laws of the true God to man. God
wrote not the laws in the pages of books, but in your heart and in
your spirit… They are present in the air, in the water, in the earth, in
the plants, in the sunbeams, in the depths and in the heights. They
all speak to you that you may understand the tongue and the will
of the living God.”
“I [Jesus] tell you truly, the Book of Nature is a Holy Scroll, and if you
would have the Sons of Men save themselves and find everlasting life,
teach them how once again to read from the living pages of the Earthly
Mother. For in everything that is life is the law written. It is written in
the grass, in the trees, in rivers, mountains, birds of the sky and fishes
of the sea; and most of all within the Son of Man.”
Hey! I did a list of sun goddesses around the world is it if I sand the list to you
Great, sure Sarah. You can send it to me through the contact form on this website here https://sakrosawel.com/contact/
Hi Robin,
Thanks so much for your comments. I had also never heard of Rupert Sheldrake until now and I’m really enjoying listening to his talks.
I find it very heartwarming that through your genuine yearning to connect with the divine, you’ve gained what sounds like a very deep and personal connection to the Sun.
Welcome.
What a profound experience with how the sun manifests within the trinity Robin, that’s a really interesting thing to reflect on. It’s been inspiring to read your comments on how you’ve come to understand solar worship from within the Christian church and found your own intimate practice to connect to it.
I love the point by Sheldrake that children see the sun as conscious because they often draw it with a smiley face on! How true! The wisdom of children should be given so much more weight!
Lovely video compilations too. It must be inspired to have the 777-word imprint within it!
Hi Ella, that stood out to me in that talk too, about how children often draw the sun with a smiley face. :-) So cute and obvious, and yet nobody seems to be paying attention. Or how in fairy tales, everything is alive, animals “talk” to each-other, even the plants and trees can listen to us, etc. I always thought it must be an expression of some deeper truth about how the consciousness within everything is alive and interacting with other consciousnesses, even though the brain capacity of different species varies, or even is completely absent.
I also really liked the part of the video from about 33:03 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E56cSMzFcW8), where R. Sheldrake talks about how not only the Sun is conscious, but other stars as well, and the whole galaxies, and the galactic clusters, and so on, to the highest level of a sort of “cosmic mind”. And it made me wonder, that if each of us has his own star, from which our Being originated, then if somebody’s consciousness merges with this star through the spiritual work, if then one can continue further and “become” a galaxy, a galactic cluster, etc… going as far as possible on his journey of merging with the highest consciousness.
Hi everyone,
I still haven’t got a chance to read all of the comments you wrote thoroughly,but from first glance they do appear to really insightful:) I had a vision of the people of Shu,who built Sanxingdui are now doing their spiritual practices in an alternate dimension while I was meditating. They were conducting rituals with the Golden Sun Bird in front of them just like how they did so a long time ago at Sanxingdui,but at an alternate dimension that appeared to be purer than the one that we are in. It appeared to me that these people have now become beings of light that dwell in this alternate dimension,continuing the way of life they were used to while living in this world even after death. I wanted to talk to them,but couldn’t do it. They clearly did not speak the form of Chinese language that I do,as I heard them talking in an ancient language which I did not recognize. In fact,I couldn’t even tell if what they were speaking was a variation of Chinese language(If you don’t know,there are many variations of Chinese language out there. The one I speak is Mandarin,which also turns out to be the official language and the one taught to kids nowadays in schools throughout China. And Cantonese,which is mainly spoken in Southern parts of China,as well as Hong Kong,is another form of Chinese language. And there are also other countless regional dialects throughout China that people from the same area converse in. Usually,if someone talks in a regional dialect,though I may not understand it,I can usually recognize it as one of the variations of Chinese language ) So I speculate that the people of Shu may not even spoke Chinese! I am still trying to find out the truth regarding their origins since I have read different sources that point to different directions. This is not very surprising in a way though since the site itself and the people that built it have always been sort of a mystery to researchers. I wonder if by any chance they could have a connection to the Indo-Europeans since they turned up in unexpected places around the globe as Lara talked about in her latest video. I also noticed that Lara said in her latest video that people of the past were more spiritual than us and lived longer lives. That also reminds me of something that I learned before. I talked to some Buddhists while I was visiting a Buddhist temple in my area,and in their texts it is said that human lifespan undergoes periodic increases and decreases. The longest time which humans can live is 84000 years,and the shortest time is 10 years. When human lifespan reaches 84000 years, that is the time of the most virtuous and most spiritual. And the oppose is true when human lifespan decreases to only 10 years. They believe we are now living in the period of decreasing human lifespan. When everyone can only live for 10 years, morality is almost non-existent in the society and even those who are close to each other will be always fighting with one another. All treasures on the surface of earth will not be seen and even pieces of iron are considered precious,perhaps just like how people cherish gold today. It’s basically the worst dystopian world one can imagine. They don’t have specific names given to these periods but this description is really similar to what many branches of the Religion of The Sun teaches. Since Buddhism is not really an offshoot of the Religion of The Sun, I’m not sure where they got this idea but this is very interesting.
This is the story of Lingling,a Chinese girl who is among the few open-minded individuals that I came across in this atheist country that became amazed upon hearing about the Religion of The Sun. She told me the circumstances of this encounter was very interesting. So there was one afternoon when Lingling was taking a nap in the afternoon,while the sun was shining directly through her window onto her face. During the time when she was napping,she had a dream of where she met with someone whom she referred to as the Foreign Old Man. She saw that the Foreign Old Man was looking at her right through her window,at the place from her perspective where the sun was supposed to be,and the Foreign Old Man’s face was radiant just like the sun. She told me she calls this person the Foreign Old Man,because he did not look Chinese,and had obvious features of a foreigner in the view of Chinese people. She said he looked old because he had long beard of very light color,which only an old person could have. She was confused and scared at first,and thought of talking to the Foreign Old Man in her broken English. But before she could speak,the Foreign Old Man greeted her by name,in perfect Mandarin without the slightest foreign accent. Lingling was shocked,and she asked,”Who are you? Can you please give me your name? How come you know my language so well as a foreigner? ” The Foreign Old Man replied,”My name is not important,it is the message that I have come to tell you that is. You call me a foreigner,but the reality is that I am both foreign and non-foreign.” “And what does that mean?”Lingling asked. “The concepts of foreign and non-foreign are relative,you maybe non-foreign relative to this place,but you are foreign in relation to other places.” the Foreign Old Man answered. Lingling then asked what was his message,and he said what he just told her was part of his message. Lingling said,”How come you know my name?” The Foreign Old Man replied,”That is because I have always been with you. ” “How come I’ve never seen you before?” “Seeing is not necessarily believing,not-seeing is not necessarily non-believing.” “Where are you from? “Lingling asked. “I am everywhere.”Said the Foreign Old Man. “What does that mean? “Lingling asked. “It means I am one and the same with all that there is,just like the energy of the sun becomes one with everything it touches. This is the way I am,and the way everyone is.” Lingling felt confused,she could not really understand what the Foreign Old Man meant by “one and the same with all that there is. ” She wanted to ask,but felt embarassed since the Foreign Old Man had a very powerful presence in front of her. She then questioned the Foreign Old Man that if he was not foreign,then why did he have the appearence of a foreigner. The Foreign Old Man was silent. Lingling then asked if he was a Westerner because he had the appearence of one,again the Foreign Old Man remained silent. Lingling then realized it was just like he said,the concepts of foreign and non-foreign are relative. She looked carefully at the Foreign Old Man,and felt that he was just like the sun. The sun does not belong to any particular place or any group of people,it is the ultimate source of light and warmth shared by all of the world. Similarly,the radiance of the Foreign Old Man appeared to illuminate the entire world. For a moment,she was overwhelmed by the outpouring energy coming from the Foreign Old Man,and had a sense of joy in her heart she never experienced before. “Oh Wise One,”She said respectfully,”Please tell me how can I be just like you. ” “Forsake all views that are dualistic in nature and realize the oneness of all phenomena.”the Foreign Old Man said. Interetingly the Foreign Old Man then went on to talk to her about the conflicts between different countries and acknowledged her that love and understanding is the key to peaceful coexistence between all nations of the planet. Whether capitalist,socialist,or whatever,the sun shines upon all lands of the world without discrimination. Lingling was awed by the Foreign Old Man,and again asked for his name. But the Foreign Old Man disappeared in a flash of light,leaving her staring out at her window alone. Lingling then woke up,she looked around her room,and outside the window,the sun was still shining through her window and onto her,only now at a slightly different angle. She then got up from her bed and checked her window,the glass on her window actually blocks most sounds from the outside,she wondered how she could have talked to the Foreign Old Man through the glass as if there was nothing between them at all. But since it was a dream,she didn’t give too much thoughts on that afterwards. When she told me about this dream she said she was sure this has something to do with the Religion of The Sun,the teachings of the Foreign Old Man was so wise that she has never heard anything like it in her life before. And she could feel that he was an embodiement of the Spiritual Sun in a way. The only sad thing here is that he didn’t tell her his name so she still doesn’t know who was this Foreign Old Man that came to her and passed on the teachings of the Religion of The Sun to her until now. When talking about this experience,she would say,”He was so amazing that even though he looked like a foreigner from the West he spoke Mandarin Chinese even better than some Chinese people that are more used to speaking regional dialects that when they do speak Mandarin,they have a really heavy accent. ” I found this interesting as well,and I also wonder who the Foreign Old Man was and how come I’ve never met someone like him. The only description of him Lingling gave me is that his face was radiant as the sun and he appeared to be an old foreigner from the from the West with long beard of light color. She never gave me a lot of details on the appearence of him. But can be certain is that this Foreign Old Man was clearly no ordinary being and he definitely had a connection to the Religion of The Sun in some way.
Thank you Emily (and Lingling) for sharing this profound experience. Foreign Old Man seems almost like a wisdom bringer, but he must have somehow been with Lingling her whole life as he said.
How amazing, like a fairy-tale! Thank Lingling for sharing her important experience with us. Maybe one day she will learn more about the “ForeignOld Man’s identity… Also a thought just came to me – maybe she could try to make a painting? A sun shining with this mysterious face inside. :-) So exciting to hear about your little community over there too, wishing you guys a lot of strength!
Hello Emily, thanks so much for sharing your friend’s experience. It must have been such an amazing experience to have, to meet clearly someone that is very important to her personally and share his wisdom with her. Beautiful teaching, particularly for the difficult times we are seeing now. I find it touching that she says that his face was like the Sun. I think Lucia’s suggestion of trying to draw him would be a worthwhile exercise. Thanks again! :)
Wow. That is such an amazing experience. Thank you sharing your friend’s experience here. Truly profound and inspiring!
What a precious visit… beautiful! It seems so kind of that being to make himself known to her. I imagine it would be wonderful to be in the presence of a being who just has such a different sense to him, of real spiritual flavour, to whom there is so much more. I imagine that it helped open up a doorway – although I don’t know her background – for Lingling to pursue that personal experience of spirituality more too. My thanks to Lingling for allowing it to be shared by you Emily.
When reading it two things popped in my head which I thought to share, more so from the point of my own curiosity as to who this being could be. Though I don’t want to ignore the part of the message that in the more important sense such divine beings are beyond much of our human ‘boxing in’.
The window part reminded me of something I read about Odin once: “Wodan from his heavenly dwelling looks down on the earth through a window, which exactly agrees with ON. [Old Norse] descriptions. Oðinn has a throne named Hliðskialf, sitting on which he can survey the whole world, and hear all that goes on among men, … ” ~ Jacob Grimm.
The emphasis on the beard, and the ‘old man’ made me think of Laozi, whose historical details I’m sure you’re familiar with through Chinese sources, but I thought to reproduce an excerpt here which I found good and maybe it’s nice for others to read about to.
Laozi
“There have been many discussions about when and where Laozi lived, and even whether he was a historical figure at all. Although what has been transmitted through the ages about Laozi is of a purely legendary nature, these legends are not without historical interest. … . Laozi is said to have been seen in this world at a time corresponding to the sixth century B.C., and the traditional dates given for his life are 604-531 B.C. Laozi is reputed to have hailed from the southern state of Chu (for China was not yet unified into a single empire at this time), … . A later legend of his birth tells us that Laozi’s mother was a virgin who conceived him spontaneously, through the radiance of the Pole Star in the center of the sky. She carried her child in her womb for eighty-one years (a cosmic period of nine times nine) before he was born through her left armpit while she was leaning against a plum tree. At birth, the baby was of course already old, hence the name of “Old Child.” which is another way of interpreting his name, in addition to “Master Lao” or “Old Master.” After giving birth, Laozi’s mother died. In fact this was a phenomenon of transsubstantiation, because mother and child were one and the same person. Alone in the world, the Old Child chose the plum tree, which had lent support to his mother, as his ancestor, and took its name (Li) as his family name.
… After having lived in this world for a long time, the Old Master decided to leave and retire in the far-off mountains of the western regions. When he crossed, with his ox and his servant boy, the mountain pass that marked the end of the world of men, he was halted by the guardian, who asked him for his teachings. Laozi then dictated to him the small book, consisting of some five thousand Chinese characters, that we call the Classic of the Way [Tao] and its Power (Daode jing).” ~ Kristofer Shipper.
(I initially didn’t know about that one later legend btw, which seems like a beautiful version of story of the birth of the spiritual son) Other legends also state he emerged as a grown man with a full grey bird. So that beard (symbolic for already carrying wisdom?, and symbolic of the radiance of the sun?) seems quite the characteristic of Lao Tzu. The advice to ‘forsake all views that are dualistic in nature and realize the oneness of all phenomena’ also sounds close his teachings in the Daode Jing.
A bamboo brush pot I once saw had a depiction of Laozi (Ming era, but based on earlier textual description I assume) and from a distance I thought: broad hat, long-bearded, staff, long robe – seems like a close description of Wodan to me. Image
I really don’t know who that being Lingling met was, but how amazing that encounters with such beings are happening now, also with your Japanese friend previously, and with Lingling as part of your research team. That’s really something special Emily. Wishing you all much divine help.
Thank you Emma and to Lingling for sharing this experience, it was really wonderful to read it and I hope you both keep inspiring each other along this journey of discovery.
Sometimes just finding one or a few people interested is the reality of the situation, which could be due to the location, the foundations that the town or people have built themselves upon, or even their inclination and beliefs. So I think finding those few who are interested are a blessing in themselves as they help to unfold the discovery as Lingling has. It seems to me the being Lingling encountered was a wisdom bringer as Lara mentioned, and to me it felt as though he may have been Odin.
If you are interested I wanted to mention that there is a Stele in Xi’an in the province of Shaanxi in northwestern China which was apparently carved in the 8th century and describes a Religion of Light that came to China in the 7th century. Here is a video about it by Martin Palmer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhdLKBKNf0I. The writing is in Chinese and Assyrian (which is also known as Syriac and Aramaic) and uses Taoist and Confucius language and iconography. It is said that it brings the teachings of Christianity, however it doesn’t mention anything about the crucifixion or resurrection of Jesus on it, instead it kind of lays out the story of Christ’s life and the tenets of this religion which are quite in tune with the the Religion of the Sun. This video about the Stele lists some of those tenets, https://youtu.be/Dzb9KVCtOXo?t=107 – the music is not good for this video and there is no spoken narration so you can mute the sound and just watch the video.
I believe this Stele could be much older, because on the top it shows two lions holding up the Sun which are similar to Sumerian in design. There is also what looks like an old bronze solar cross found in this area (though hard to say if the image relates to this Stele) in the first video, and the solar cross is contained within a swastika design which is formed by the shape of four bird heads https://youtu.be/qhdLKBKNf0I?t=607
I also wanted to add something about Shu that may relates to Sumerians. If you look at the second artifact on this Wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shu-Sin, you see the Sumerian writing and it is written top to bottom and in a similar style of writing to Japanese and Chinese strokes. On the page, the Sumerian king word is Shu also pronounced Szu, and this means Sun. In Assyrian the word for sun is pronounced as shimshu and this is where I believe we get the word shimmer from, the sun may have been known as the shimmering sun. The etymology of the word shimmer comes from Old English, ‘scimerian’ (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shimmer) which is also very similar to the word Sumerian. To go one step further, the word for silver in Assyrian is pronounced as ‘sceema’, and the light of the moon is thought to be related to the color of silver, because like the moon it reflects the light upon it.
I hope this helps in some way :)
Hi Juno,
How interesting you are deling into the Sumerian scripts in relation to the “Shu”! I also find the word “shu” intriguing for some reason, and suspect its meaning may have been something universal in the old times. For example there is a well-known Egyptian deity called Shu (https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/shu/) who has been variously associated with the atmosphere, Light, the “space between Earth and Sky”, or being a personification of wind or dry air. The page mentions the etymology of the word as follows: “His name is thought to be derived from the word for dryness “shu”, the root of words such as “dry”, “parched”, “withered”, “sunlight”, and “empty”. However, it is also proposed that his name means “He who Rises Up”.
Interestingly, while studying the ancient Tibet a little bit, I came across an ancient Bon lineage that existed there, called “The Bon old lineage of Shu Phu”. This brief mention of this lineage came from one of the ancient books that the author (Palkhar Gyal D. Banshul) collected and studied, but I was not able to find out more about it except of the brief mention of it on one of the slides of his presentation that can be seen at 13:22 of this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT9pmgK6Sjw). In any case, the word “shu” stood out to me, and together with what you have mentioned its making me wonder if maybe there could be a Proto-Indo-European variant of it? Why so many kings (like the Sumerian one you mentioned), or the lineages like the Tibetan one or the Shu people of China used this particular word?
Also relating to the “Shimmering light” you mentioned and its relationship to the silver, I found out that there is a very strong tradition among some tribes in South China (like the Miao tribe for example) to wear a lot of silver jewelry, as it represents the shimmering or white light. For the same reason, they have also developed the technique of tin embroidery, which has been passed down for generations since the ancient times, often containing the symbols of the religion of the Sun like swastikas or other abstract shapes derived from it. Here is a nice short documentary about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4voO2BImX0A
Hi Lucia,
there is so much information to keep up with and so much being revealed it is fantastic. It gives more credibility and validity to the work Mark and Lara are doing currently.
I got to watch the short video you suggested about the Miao people of South China and the embroidery patterns they displayed reminded me of the folk embroidery patterns of the Eastern European regions. Some of the designs were so intricate too. There seemed to be commonalities to their patterns between these 2 locations yet they present to be culturally different in our current timeline. For me, it highlighted exactly what Lara has been stating – that there was a time in our history when we were more alike in our practices and way of life despite the linguistic differences that unfolded and that perhaps the Religion of the Sun was the common thread too.
This is so beautiful! I resonate so much with the message conveyed in that experience. Ethnicity and culture can be so complicated, but love and the sun are universal and surpass our differences.
Thanks so much for sharing Lingling’s amazing experience Emily. Such a nice story, very inspiring. Would love to know who the wise old foreigner was !
A few years ago, I was praying every night before going to bed asking for guidance about where to live. One night Wiracocha, the creator God of the Andes, came to me in the astral. He said, “Why don’t you come to my house?” He had a joyful and kind presence almost like he was laughing but he was also quite sincere in his invitation. I got a very strong feeling that Wiracocha loved me and wanted nothing more than to help me to progress spiritually. He was so light-hearted and jovial and at the same time strong and comforting. I felt safe and accepted when I was with him and extremely honored to have been invited to his house.
Julian and I decided to go to South America in search of Wiracocha’s house and during that time I came to believe that all of the sacred valley of Peru could be considered, “Wiracocha’s House” as he is quite alive and revered there. The time we spent in the Sacred Valley of Peru and Machu Picchu really helped me to connect with the Ancient Religion of the Sun in a way that I hadn’t been able to living in the United States. Although I had been celebrating the solstices and equinoxes for many years by that time, our trip to Peru completely changed my relationship with the Sun and the Ancient Religion of the Sun. When we got back to the United States, we had developed an incredible hunger to connect with the Sun that we gained the dedication needed to seek out amazing people and places in our own country. My favorite is Chaco Canyon where we got to see the Equinox alignment, discovered an unknown Summer Solstice Sunset alignment and got to dance with the Hopi people in ceremony. We also found druids celebrating the solstices and equinoxes in California and had amazing experiences celebrating with them. Now I feel like remnants of the Religion of the Sun are everywhere and people reviving it are all around me.
I am forever grateful to Wiracocha for his invitation to a place where the footprint of the Ancient Religion of the Sun is still so prevalent. Going there gave me strength and understanding for my continued journey towards the Sun.
Dear Aavya,
thanks very much for sharing your unique experience with us. It goes to show that when you are open to the new and have faith that you will be guided, you will be. How wonderful that you and your husband were able to go and spend time in that part of the world and in doing, gain a greater understanding and love for the Religion of the Sun and its practices for you on a personal level. May you continue to receive all the guidance that you require to continue on your journey toward the Light. Kind regards.
Hi everyone, I think it’s been a little more than a week since I last visited this website. I’m taking a break from my research because of Lunar New Year. It is the biggest holiday in my culture and it is during this time that friends and families get together and celebrate. I thought this was going to be a great opportunity for me to build a stronger connection to my native culture since I don’t really have much exposure to it when I’m in the states. But it turned out not as enjoyable as I thought would be because I got together with some family members whom I hadn’t seen for years and I got into some conflicts with them and that really stressed me out. I do have minor anxiety disorder so when something like this comes up I would get super overwhelmed. And the fact that this is between me and my family just adds to the stress. I think I know how to deal with it,but I could hardly control my mood. So one night after I went to bed I asked the universe in my head what should I do about all this. And then I had a dream where I saw something I didn’t expect to see,that was a Golden Sun Bird symbol of Sanxingdui. It was similar to the one I saw in an earlier dream with the people who possibly built it,only.this time I didn’t see the site of Sanxingdui or the people at all,rather it was in a completely different dimension that was nothing like our reality,with no recognizable people or object that we are familiar in this reality,except for beams of light that appeared to be carrying some sort of spiritual energy,and right in front of me was the Golden Sun Bird symbol of Sanxingdui. It was emitting bright golden rays that were akin to that of the sun,and from the symbol came a voice that told me to “balance my Yin and Yang” and “manage the five elements”. I didn’t know understand what that meant so I wanted to ask,the voice coming from the Golden Sun Bird seemed to possess the ability of reading my mind and said that I need to figure out the meanings on my own. I thought ok,then I asked if more secrets about Sanxingdui could be revealed to me since I still haven’t got a chance to go there(that region is still closed to tourists). I was informed that now the secrets of Sanxingdui cannot he revealed to me. I woke up confused,perhaps I was meant to actually go there and discover the secrets on my own expedition. But I’m still trying to figure out what “balancing the Yin and Yang” and “manage the five elements” have to do with the current issue that I’m facing. But I believe it was a message of guidance from the Divine and it is up to me to decipher what it means to balance my Yin and Yang and to manage the five elements. The five elements are a part of ancient Chinese philosophy that explains many phenomena in the universe,similar to the concept of air,water,fire and earth in ancient Greece. It is a a conceptual scheme that I’m still struggling to understand personally and all of a sudden I was told to manage the five elements. I believe this is what I should do to cope with my problems,and I am meant to learn about it through experience. Since the notion of the five elements came up,I think it’s also likely that this concept is connected to the Religion of The Sun in some way. But it’s unclear in what way exactly,since the exact origin of this concept is unclear,like Yin and Yang,which has popped up in many different times and places throughout China’s history. But I am detetmined to look into it in my future research nevertheless. What puzzles me the most at this moment though,is how exactly can I make use of this divine guidance. I could’ve asked even more questions,but since I was told I need to figure it out on my own,maybe I should just do that. I don’t know who was the one talking to me since all that I saw was a Golden Sun Bird symbol,but I feel that I don’t really need to know,all I needed was guidance,and perhaps it is better that I don’t know the identity of whoever spoke to me in that dream. I could tell,however,that the voice was masculine in nature,and it didn’t sound threatening or intimidating,but I could sense a kind of selfless love in it,it was not the kind of love experienced by a couple in romantic relationship,neither was it the kind of love that bonds a parent to a child,but it was a love that transcends all of these,a kind of love that radiates from its source towards all living beings,just as sunlight that shines onto everything on the surface of this planet,it was truly compassionate,and selfless.
Hi Emily,
On that task you received I only want to say: good luck.
Because working to figure things out ourselves and finding the way like that is extra demanding. Although reading further explanations can be useful, to be honest even then someone would still need to figure out how to make it work all the same and full efforts need to be applied to make it real.
A thought that appears just as so wonderful to me though is that if you manage figure out, understand and live some of these universal principles of the religion of the sun as specifically expressed natively in your culture, then you’d become able to explain its practical meaning from yourself to Chinese people today. So again, good luck!
Something I did think to mention, not related to anything in the meaning of the message, but rather regarding the form of the Golden Sun Bird.
It seems to be a central part in the Sanxingdui culture, as you experienced. I found it is also present in other ancient cultures of China, in similar forms and portraying, I believe, the same deeper meaning(s). I thought to raise one of these just now in particular. This because of the way you described the appearance of what you saw.
Maybe you’ve already come across it. It’s a motif that appears on this Hemudu ivory artefact. Image link.
A short description reads: “One ivory piece has a realistic carving of two birds facing the sun, which also has a mythical resonance.”
Although the area of its general meaning seems clear, there’s more to interpreting the exact aspects in the various expressions of it.
The way the circle and accompanying symbols are depicted likely show that they refer not only to the sun, but to the spiritual sun. There’s multiple circles and often a central dot, allusions to the symbol’s ‘source’ meaning? (another example.) The flames, rays and wings could represent the energy emanating from it. Some authors also believe the emitted energy shown here has a parallel to later depictions where cloud forms, rays and wings represent the divine power and breath of life known as qi. The eyes in these motifs are more than just ordinary eyes and carry a deeper significance. At times the eye position itself makes place for that sun/source symbol. As in this example.
The same symbol of this magical eye is also encountered ‘within’ certain animals as seen on this engraving of a wild boar, it also appears like that on a tiger. What was the eye symbol viewed to mean placed there? And could understanding that then again contribute to assessing it in the sun bird forms. (Could all this also help shed light on Sanxingdui culture’s fascination with eyes?)
To keep it short the motif it is multilayered. I haven’t looked at this symbol sufficiently yet. But what I have seen is that there are sun-bird motifs in China that do affirmatively denote the esoteric meaning of attained ascension / immortality / uniting with the heavens – on the individual level. At other times, and I think the example above might lean towards that, the imagery seems to also refer to the cosmic level of it in the universe. The notion of that dual level is mentioned in the works of Mark and Lara.
It is quite the wonderful thing that this being appeared to you in this ancient form.
What a beautiful experience, and amazing this is the second time the golden sun bird has been used to communicate something to you. Maybe the meaning will become clearer to you as you continue to learn and grow.
What an amazing experience! I was smiling ear-to-ear as I was reading it, very beautiful! It’s amazing how the message was very distinctly Chinese (culturally), and yet as you said, seems very related to the much wider and more universal religion of the sun.
Is the Duling museum in Xi’an open? It’s built at one of the many Chinese pyramids (over 40 in a 50km radius!) Looking at some images of their artifacts, I see things that are clearly solar symbols, such as circular tiles with figurative shapes that remind me of things I’ve seen in Peru and Bolivia, and a stone figure that looks quite a bit like a Moai. You can see some of these things by looking through the reviews here: https://www.trip.com/travel-guide/xi-an/duling-ruins-park-10557679
Karim, maybe some of the figures are related to constellations? About 6,000 BC, the winter solstice sun rose in the middle of Pisces, which looks a bit like the two birds. It’s also hard to overlook the similarities between the birds and the primordial mound of the Egyptians…
That’s a really cool experience Emily, sounds like you were really helped spiritually and pointed in a direction. I studied acupuncture for a while and it was probably the five element theory that drew me to it because it felt so powerful and profound. If you look for images of five elements you usually find them expressed through an upwards pointing pentagram that has both a generative and controlling cycle within it, a perfect balance. The heart/fire is usually at the apex but is interlinked with all the other elements.
It’s fascinating to me that Venus draws the same five-pointed star shape around the earth and that we have five planets, which along with the sun and the moon (yang/yin) create seven heavenly bodies in our solar system.
We were taught that numbers have a quality as well as a quantity, and that five expresses the four forces of creation in motion, so basically life on earth.
From trying to merge the five element theory with what I’ve picked up from the Atwoods, it seems to me the elements are different expressions of yin and yang, which are the primary masculine and feminine forces. When you add the five to the two we get seven, the number that creation organises itself through.
At one point in college we practiced perceiving these elements at play around us and within us. I started to see which element was dominant in people from how they spoke, stood, moved, and then in the weather, the seasons changing, the day developing.
Overall the wisdom I carried with me from those studies was how ancient medical systems really saw man as a microcosm that mirrors basic principles and patterns found in all creation, and that cultivating harmony with these rhythms was seen as the way to health and balance. Simple example, waking up around when the sun rises and going to sleep after it sets. Long enough of being out of balance with this and you’ll start to feel your vitality ebbing away!
There’s another interesting concept in Chinese Medicine that seems really esoteric to me. It’s that of the ‘ministerial fire’ which is kind of like the fire on earth and different to the pure fire of the heart. It speaks to me of the hidden, spiritual fire which is within but also beyond the fire we see on earth. There was also water and fire in the two kidneys, which gives the yin/yang generative power of sexual energy.
It seems like the medical system China left is one major testimony to how developed their esoteric knowledge and practice was at points in history! You have an immense cultural heritage from which to explore the Religion of the Sun through. :-)
Thinking about experiences connected to the religion of the Sun, one of the first things that come to mind would be the ceremonies. At first I wasn’t quite sure how to approach them, but with time and experience it became clear how special the equinoxes and solstices are and how preparing and conducting a ceremony helped me to tap into these magical times, each ceremony bringing something new and helping me see different things. On a particular winter solstice ceremony that I was part of I had an intense feeling of spiritual presence, it was like the sacred circle was separated from the physical world and was elevated into a more spiritual realm, at the same time the words spoken resonated not only in the space around, but I felt like they were reverberating in the whole world. On another winter solstice ceremony I felt connection and a feeling of closeness to the Divine Father, in that particular ceremony this spiritual principle was symbolised by a pine tree that was to my right, and at a point in the ceremony I could feel His presence there. It made me want to stay in inner silence, so I can feel this beautiful spiritual presence for as long as possible.
At a point I became interested to learn about Dionysus, whom I found a mention of in the Ancient Path of the Sun book. I was calling him in my mind and tried to be in a receptive state in case I feel anything. Once as I was falling asleep I saw the face of a young man (maybe in his 30s) with blue eyes and light brown longish hair. The image came with a feeling of a strong presence and beyond everything else the impression of otherworldly purity. I intuitively knew this was Dionysus. It was a very inspiring experience and I could feel connection to him for a bit after that. Later I saw his face one more time in a way that, I believe, he was showing his compassion and care for me. Reflecting on this, I thought that in the first experience, perhaps he wanted to emphasize to me his quality of purity as there is so much written about him that is the opposite. Some time after that, I came across a video of some people doing a ‘celebration of Dionysus’ which involved some wild dancing and shouting in the streets. I really wished they would seek for Dionysus in their hearts, so he can speak to them directly and avoid this confusion. If he gave me these experiences, he’s surely looking for anyone who is willing to listen. From my experiences, he is a pure, compassionate and strong being that wants to help us if we look for him.
Some time after that I started reading the Orphic hymns in a more focused way. I’d been wondering about them as while their origin seem ancient, they have been written down in the late Hellenistic/early Roman time, hence things may have become distorted by that time. I didn’t resonate and couldn’t feel much reading some of the hymns, but with others I felt spiritual presence and I was surprised how ‘new’ this aspect of spirituality feels. Reading some of the hymns in the morning outside gave me a whole new experience of nature and the spiritual force operating behind it. It was a surprising discovery.
Here are another couple experiences I had:
Seeing Tiwanaku in Other Dimensions
In 2018, I planned a visit with some friends to Tiwanaku and Puma Punku in Bolivia. Before our visit, we went to the Tiwanaku museum of La Paz, where we noticed that different cultures with opposing values had resided there. On one ceramic vase, a sun god stood holding staffs in the god-man pose, and in another, from a later period, this god was shown tied up, and strange demon-like figures were depicted consuming people. We got the impression of cultures with opposing views.
When we arrived at the site, we wandered around, taking everything in, reading everything we could about the site… At night we tried to astral project to continue to learn about the site, and see what it had looked like in the distant past. In our astral exercises, All of us experienced super intense attacks from negative beings, which made it very difficult to get a clear experience, and confirmed the impression we got earlier from the museum: that Tiwanaku was a contested area with conflicting energies, where very spiritual and very dark forces had both resided at different times in history.
Despite the negative beings, I did manage to glimpse a few things about how Tiwanaku had been. One was the massive sculptures that are still buried at Tiwanaku, one of which had a funny looking face with wavy hair or or rays. Further excavations are pretty unlikely, for political reasons, so they may never see the light of day. The other thing I glimpsed was a pyramid with a pond on top, and a statue behind it that reflected in the pond. On waking, I assumed this was probably on top of the Akapana pyramid, but I really have no idea, as there was nothing there that resembled it today. In hindsight, seeing it as it was (or may have been) was not as useful as I’d hoped. If I were to do it again, I would focus on what the site was used for rather than what it looked like.
Find Out How it’s Used
This point about discovering how a site was used was also one I learned in one of my first experiences with a sacred site. I was researching Goseck Circle in Germany, and one night found myself there in a lucid dream with a spiritual being. She pointed out to me the entryways, size, and layout of the site, and challenged me to look into how it was used. It’s something I remember anytime I contemplate the layout of a sacred site, and has helped me get many useful insights about sacred sites.
Hi Lara,
Maybe I can also share an experience as it was so powerful for me and seems to clearly relate to what you describe as the Ancient Religion of the Sun. It happened about a week after the summer solstice this year, on June 28. I will post here my impressions of that experience that I recorded the next morning, so it keeps its freshness.
“After gaining my astral lucidity, I found myself back in my body and I crawled out of its head and threw it down as old useless clothes.
I walked towards the window and knew that the physical window would easily stop me, but in the astral, I slowly walked through the wall and flied out.
Everything was so clear and beautiful, astral colors were much more vivid than the physical. There was some feel of coldness in the air.
Maybe I was alive maybe I was dead, is there really much difference?
Obviously we need to respect and value every moment of our life here now, but is it not the fear of death that holds us strongly locked within our physical bodies?
I flied wishing to reach the roof of the building in front of me, holding my arms like wings in the shape of the cross, it was so enjoyable… but after some time, some force brought me down to the ground. And then I put a lot of efforts to get out and flied up and away and away…
I flied out of the planet Earth and with a lot of effort kept going through the Universe until finally reaching the place that looked like the BEGINNING OF SPACE.
There were BEINGS there that looked like the ANCIENT GODS.
My first analogy would be with Hindu Gods Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, but they could be also ancient Slavic/Russian Gods, they could be also ancient Nordic or ancient Greek Gods, etc. I believe strongly now that those were, and ARE, same DIVINE BEINGS, described similarly in different countries and times, venerated under different names…
I really felt that they are close to the ABSOLUTE REALITY of ONE GOD, yet still separate, to be perceived by us as individual human-like gods.
Human form is deeply symbolic.
We are made in their image, the image of ELOHIM, yet obviously, at our stage of development, we are so different and weak, yet somehow, sharing same DIVINE POWERS on some very deep level of the HIGHEST DIMENSIONS.
One of them was holding his arm in a perpetual motion, moving it up and down and there were some energy-force emanations around him. I believe he was ACTUALLY CREATING THE SPACE. There was another ANCIENT GOD who walked nearby HIM.
And then I found myself in a small room in front of a DIVINE LADY. I don’t know who she was, but tears come out of my eyes as I remember HER. She was TERRIBLY DIVINE. She was AWAKENED. No words in any language can describe the POWER OF HER DIVINITY. She was dressed in white, but it was the luminous white, that I have never seen before. I kept my arms in a prayer position feeling a great admiration to HER DIVINITY. I wanted to fall on the ground and venerate HER touching the ground, but something stopped me.
She looked like the MOTHER figure and said very naturally, yet slightly slower than we earthly people usually speak, as wishing to deeply imprint HER words into me so I would never forget them. Every HER WORD had a weight and a meaning that it felt material and resonated deeply through my whole being.
She said: “I will keep you here until your lesson is over”. And I knew that she will, because HER WORDS HAVE THE POWER. I believe that she can’t say anything that is untrue, and whatever she says, becomes true, as it is the TRUTH that SHAPES the REALITY…
And then she said something else that I cannot mention as it belongs to the personal part of my experience. And then something else was happening, that I also cannot mention…
And I woke up in the middle of that experience, back to the physical, then walking around and feeling like I have never felt before… how everything that we see around us as the world, is ABSOLUTELY UNREAL.
I realized in depth, that what we perceive as the world, is such an illusion, yet we are here for a very important reason.
This illusion is created for us to learn. Just thinking that this is an illusion, is also an illusion…
There are DIVINE BEINGS who work all the time to provide us with everything that we need.
You are a fool if you take what you perceive as the physical as everything. Do you really think that our modern scientists know everything? :) But you are a far greater fool, if you KNOW that it is not real, yet still allowing yourself to sleep in the place specifically designed for the AWAKENING of the SPIRIT.
Choosing one dream over the other is still dreaming. Choosing to awaken, means leaving all dreams aside.
You can only know what is real and what is not, through the power of your direct, conscious experience. If you want to wake up, you need the help of those who are awake,
What else should be said about it?
May the one who KNOWS, SPEAK.”
Hey Vadim,
Wow! What a profound experience you had! Thank you so much for sharing this and for describing it so vividly. I share your conclusions of this post as well. It is wonderful to realize what an incredible beautiful opportunity for awaking we have at this moment. I am so thankful for that. If we look around us at this moment, opportunities to change within and opportunities to shed this illusion that you talk about, are up for grabs everywhere! :)
What you describe in your experience sounds really something to work and fight for and the single most important goal to work upon at this very moment and for every single moment in the future until this physical body perishes.
Thank you again and much strength in all your activities.
Hey Bogdan,
Thank you so much for your comment, I read it but really had nothing more to add at that time, but now, I have more experience and can share few more things…
The first one was a dream, like from the future, where I saw this website and the new book about the religion of the sun has just appeared, and as I looked closely on it, it was on top of me in space, as meaning that this is really not just a new book to read, but the guidance on how to ascend.
And secondly, you have the profile picture of the sun on the top of the mountain… last night when I was conscious in the astral, at some point, I saw the sun surrounded by clouds, being in a very dark world, that our Earth became at that night, controlled by sinister beings. I flied towards the sun, taking a rose from somebody and that rose became like a torch for me, with the smoke coming out of it. The sun disappeared because of the darkness, so I kept flying towards the place where it previously was. And then the sun appeared again… while the world was certainly so dark, I started to hear a truly beautiful music playing, with the words in the language that I could not understand.
It really inspired me to keep flying towards the sun, with that torch-rose in my hands, with that music in my ears, following the most important goal to work upon in our lives in this time, and maybe, always.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT.
Hi Vadim, they seem like they were very uplifting and eye opening experiences!
I think that perspective of the Gods of many cultures being of one source but appearing to us in relation to our individual cultures is very interesting to try to explore and understand. Often we see differences as points of separations but we can also see them as diversities in which each exists as another expression of the whole, from a perspective (which is a place in the world) from which it reflects the whole. One of the many things I love about this Religion of the Sun which Mark and Lara have so incredibly uncovered is its expression across many cultures around the world, its like It is expressing something about itself through the diverse cultures.
I’ve also come to realise that life makes sense and that there is a natural understanding and logic in it. An example of this is the corrections mentioned in the Assyrian translation of the Gospels, which were originally in the Aramaic language . George M. Lamsa points out that the correct translation of one of Jesus”s sayings is ”Ít is easier for a ‘rope’ to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”. When I read it I got this feeling of ”ahh’ – like a relief, a feeling of being healed from a conflict that ‘nonsensical’ things can bring into our psyche. It doesn’t make sense for a camel to be expressed as going through the eye of a needle and so it has an effect of not resonating though we capture the essence of its meaning, the clarity through the translation makes it fragmented and hard to assimilate / take in. It seems to me that when these teachings or anything in life make sense, the truth in it rings like a fine tuned bell, and the sound is harmonic and resonates with our own sound/frequency of our consciousness. We often hear such sayings like, it doesn’t ring with me or doesn’t ring true, or to chime in with, perhaps these sayings might have their origins in a time when words had more meaning and were expressed and received with a greater perception. To me, your experience with the Divine Lady expresses that harmonics through the resonation you describe and in the way She spoke.
Thank you for sharing your inspiring experiences Vadim – it feels like they hold many layers of learning and discovery within them, like that rose torch you held :) – wishing you peace through your journey.
I think that Alectrona Greek goddess of the sun 🌞 there are many sun goddesses around the world
Hi Lucia,Thank you so much for sharing such a beautiful expperience! I am the one who shared the stories of spirutual experiences with the Religion of thr Sun my friend had,she feels like it is important to share with as much people as possible these important messages from the Divine,but at the same timr she doesn’t want to be recognised,so I never revealed her name. My friend and myself have been doing researches on traces of the Religion of The Sun in East Asia,since our native cultures are East Asian(I am Chinese and my friend is Japanese). We want to make our own contributions in finding the missing pieces of the puzzle,since that is no easy task to complete and it probably requires people from different backgrounds to join this search. A lot of information about the Religion of The Sun has been lost in history,and people must be willing to put in the necessary effort to revive it. As I may have said earlier in the comment section of this website,my friend has been planning on traveling to Japan to collect more information about some of Japan’s most ancient beliefs and explore their potential connection to the Ancient Religion of The Sun. It’s been weeks since she has started that trip now. As for me I have decided to start my own journey to China that may help me with my research on the Religion of The Sun in my own culture. We understand this is no easy task,with COVID 19 still spreading across the world and we may not have enough masks to wear and may not be able to protect ourselves to the best of our ability. Internet censorship in China and trying to get around with the authorities may also be something I have to deal with. But I believe all of this would be worth it in terms of seeking the truth. I’ve just learned about an ancient culture that existed in China known as Sanxingdui that practiced sun worship but have mysteriously disappeared,I’m planning on looking more into that.
That’s great to hear Emily, you girls are super active! :-) Just be careful I would say, as things are a bit shaky now in the world, especially in China…
Hi Lucia,I do understand that there is a lot going on in the world,but I believe it is important for truth seekers to search for traces of a lost ancient religion at all costs,as ancient sages risked their lives to spread the truth to the people of this world. Jesus probably knew that teaching what he preached would put his own life in danger,but he did what he thought he should regardless. I had a dream the other day from which I realized that even though going through periods of extreme diffuculty is not necessary on one’s spiritual journey,it can help a lot in terms of one’s spiritual evolution. I believe I should search for traces of the Ancient Religion of The Sun here at all costs. After arriving in this country I found out that it is actually pretty safe here unless you belong to certain ethnic or religious minorities that are being targeted by the government,like Uighur Muslims,which I am certainly not. There are certain religious groups here who are allowed to practice their religions freely,like Buddhists and Taoists(even though there are very few Taoists right now)I’m not sure what makes a religion legal here and what doesn’t,so I can’t be sure that practioners like myself won’t ever be targeted if this religion that contains ancient wisdom does gain an influence here because no one really cares what you are doing if you only have a small group of people. From talking to the people here I found out that most of them don’t know anything about the Religion of The Sun,and they might be interested in learning about it. Under the communist regime most people in China are non-religious,but I do see the potential of reviving this long lost ancient religion here. It’s not going to be easy,even my Japanese friend is facing many diffculties in her home country trying to get the message out. She told her friends and her family members there about her dreams,but they didn’t take her words seriously and still believe that the Japanese didn’t misuse the name of their sun goddess during WWII. There definitely exists some elements of brainwashing in the country’s media and school curriculum that they have been exposed to unknowingly from a young age,as with almost everywhere else in te world. She has made little to no progress so far neither in finding traces of the Religion of The Sun in Japan,or introducing this ancient religion to the people there. Me,on the other hand,have made some progress. I taught a few college students how to perform a ceremony,they did that once on their campus on autumnal equinox and gained a considerable amount of attention. While I’m not an expert on how to do ceremonies myself,I think this is a good start and it has been better than what I have expected. There is also clear evidence that sun worship existed on this land a long time ago.
Hi Emily, I’m glad to hear you’re well and pressing on with such important research, and it’s a great step and achievement that an autumn equinox ceremony was held in China, maybe for the first time again in hundreds or even thousands of years.
I came across an interesting lead just a few days ago. The oldest known practice of skull elongation as far as I am aware (apart from Neanderthal skulls in Iraq) has been found in northeastern China, dating to around 10,000 BC. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7213295/Ancient-humans-east-Asia-modifying-SKULL-12-000-years-ago.html This practice was adopted to mimic the naturally elongated skulls of the first people to teach the religion of the sun. I explain this in detail in the new edition of the Ancient Religion of the Sun book. This means that there may have even been a pre-flood civilization in China that was practicing the religion of the sun.
Hi Lara, I think there may still exist fragments of the Religion of The Sun in China. I have recently learned that in some parts of the country there exist ceremonies performed by locals who follow their regional folk religion which celebrate solstices and equinoxes. Chinese folk religions are not an organized religion per se,and their origins are not clear. But they are consisted of sets of beliefs and practices that are passed down from one generation to the next,perhaps for hundreds and thousands of years,and some of them just happen to celebrate solstices and equinoxes,and revere the sun. There have been oddly-shaped skulls unearthed by accident around the country,but the only explanation you hear is that they were doing things to these people while they were babies to shape their skulls,kinda like how the binding of feet for females would always start when they were little girls in Ancient China. But I doubt if this could be all that there is to those skulls. Those skulls are kept in museums all around the country and I haven’t had a chance to visit them yet because I’m working a part-time job at a hotel to support myself financially. The next public holiday won’t start until Lunar New Year. Maybe then I will have some time to visit the museums and find important information. My schedule was a lot more flexible in the states and I had more personal freedom but I must remain here until I feel like I have collected enough information. I have decided to really dedicate myself to this research and the possible revival of the religion of truth no matter what it may take,even if that means I have to face many obstacles in life and even potential persecution(I have no idea what is the llikelihood of that happening). I know that’s what the ancient sages did,and I’ve chosen to follow their footsteps as part of my own spiritual journey,even though I am nothing compared to them in terms of my level of spiritual advancement.
That is an excellent find Emily. Research on the ground like this bridges the divide, because there may be no information about the local folk religions of China online, and perhaps even if there was, it might be very obscure and hard to find, and only in Chinese, so not accessible by english speaking researchers, or maybe there is no information collected about them at all. So this may be the first time someone is collecting information about them and bringing it out into a wider world, and also making sense of it in terms of what happened globally in the past. I hope you get to visit those museums when you have some time. I feel the same way; the ancient wisdom bringers are the greatest inspiration to me in my life, and if I had lived back when they did, I would have wanted nothing more than to help them in their mission. So now instead I do what I can to revive that mission again today.
Trans-pacific connections China.
I thought to share a list of possible connections that I came across between China and the central and south America, this because it helped to change some of my own views a bit.
In a recent Sinoplatonic paper (#305) Zhang He looks at many very specific similarities in calendar systems such as:
“- Gan-Zhi and Tzolkin: The structure of the two calendars is the same. … They even have similar problems …
– The Yi eighteen-month Calendar and Haab: … almost exactly the same. … The unusual and arbitrary division appearing in two distant locations and cultures is even more peculiar.
– Cosmology: In both Chinese and Maya cosmology, the concept of the universe in the union of time and space, with time represented in walking steps or footprints and day names, and space partitioned in four directions and corners plus above and below.
– Cosmogram: The illustrations of the cosmos are squared and four-parted, with indications of cardinal directions, seasons, colors, animals, days, and deities.
– Ritual Calendars: In both Chinese and Maya ritual calendars, the monthly rituals and offerings are associated with directions, deities, colors, planets, and constellations, etc.”
He also mentions Joseph Needham (a prominent scholar on this subject) wrote: “The jade amulet painted red and placed in the mouth of the corpse would be precisely such a collocative trait [as evidence for contact].” “Here, an enthusiasm for jade alone will not qualify, but painting the jade corpse-amulet red will.”
The esteemed Alexander Von Humbolt also showed that ‘the majority of the names of the twenty days employed by the Aztecs are those of a zodiac used since the most remote antiquity among the peoples of East Asia.’
Another study, by Estrada and Meggers ’61, looked at finds on the Ecuadorian coast. Where they encountered pottery models of houses on stilts and with saddle-shaped roofs, pottery neck rests, golf-tee ear plugs, symmetrically graduated panpipes, rectangular pottery net-weights, the ‘coolie yoke’ to carry burdens, figurines seated with folded legs, certain raft building techniques and more. See paper here, which has images too.
They wrote: “In presenting evidence for a transpacific origin for these archeological traits, we take our orientation from the New World context in which they occur. … knowledge of coastal Ecuadorian pre-history shows the traits in question to be without identifiable local antecedents … Most of them are unknown elsewhere in the New World. By contrast, all are found in Asia, … , and all have a minimum antiquity equal to that of the early Rahia culture.”
Another similar specific link, in this case an Indus Valley one, to pottery of the Tlatilco in Peru, which is written about on this website Frontiers of Anthropology. (P.S. This blog is archived and no longer live, but it’s a treasure trove of interesting subjects! In case you’re curious.)
It also mentions the board game Patolli/Pachisi. Originating in ancient India, also found in China (transferred in the 3rd century AD?), but is a game found globally now – even I played a version of it with my family when I was young :-). But encountered widely in Mesoamerica upon arrival by the Spanish.
This page shows some And the long-count glyphs reminded me of the Chinese Hexagrams.
Lacquerware. Regarded as Chinese in origin, it was also present in pre-columbian America, possibly through Japan? (article that compares details). It also mentions: “Maque in Michoacán probably dates from between the 8th and 12th centuries, when a wave of cultural innovations appeared in Michoacán, along with metallurgy and a new ceramic style.”
Quipu / Khipu.
This one surprised me. The well known South American knotted strings system to record data and possibly even narrative information – quipu – was also used in ancient China.
“Before the accession of the Emperor Fo-hi (3300 B.C.) it is said that the Chinese were not acquainted with writing and used quipos.”
“… exact dates cannot be established for such usage—but the Chinese usage was much earlier than recorded Peruvian, and certainly Hawaiian, usage.” From here.
There are also deeper connections between in some of their central beliefs. And of course the questions surroundings use of jade and such things as pyramids, with the emperor Qin Shi Huang’s pyramid tomb and one at Teotihuacan both housing liquid mercury.
Beyond the difficulty of trying to find elements of historical truth to the elusive Fu-sang tree and its possible location in the Americas, the following botanical paper comes to the rescue and gives undeniable scientific evidence for a great deal of contact.
“Abstract: … nearly one hundred species of plants, a majority of them cultivars, were present in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres prior to Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas. The evidence comes from archaeology, historical and linguistic sources, ancient art, and conventional botanical studies. Additionally, 21 species of micro-predators and six other species of fauna were shared by the Old and New Worlds. … This distribution could not have been due merely to natural transfer mechanisms, nor can it be explained by early human migrations to the New World via the Bering Strait route. Well over half the plant transfers consisted of flora of American origin that spread to Eurasia or Oceania, some at surprisingly early dates.” Sinoplatonic paper #133.
Interesting it also notes the extensive spread ‘back’ to Eurasia, there exists a 12th century Indian Vishnu carving holding an ear of corn for example.
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This is not a full list by any means, just what I happened to come across on the way while looking at other things. The links also become a lot more complex as you look deeper as it involves a wider interaction of cultures.
But the point of posting this here is that for me, just like with transoceanic contact, at first I was surprised there could’ve been a voyage before Columbus, then I learned there could’ve been multiple, now I see there were many and of different kinds.
So also with transpacific contact, I was surprised to find out of a potential a single case. Then more signs appeared, but now my perspective has changed drastically as there were plenty of occasions of contact, including those of religious significance.
I was finding my own new possible links of Chinese culture present at the Olmec site of La Venta (which btw is on the east side of the American coast), yet this is also where the giant faces of Africans are present (like Lara hinted at in a recent video) and both African and Caucasian ancient skeletons were found at several Olmec sites. Almost makes you visualise it like a cultural harbour where far-flung groups got together, so cool! (and deiced to start a new spiritual civilisation?)
You hear about it, but again there was much more prehistoric contact globally than I had thought.
Great finds Karim. I was the same – so shocked at first to find out that there could have been any voyage before Columbus. Now, it appears the oceans were busy then! I think that eventually, this understanding will push it’s way into the mainstream, as there is just too much evidence to continue to suppress and ignore.
Hi Karim and Lara,
Here is another thing that ties in to the story of the ancient Chinese being in the Americas long before Columbus. Its the dozens of intriguing petroglyphs/script found in various locations around the US including New Mexico, California, Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona and Nevada that correspond to ancient Chinese forms of writing that went out of use thousands of years ago. Some of the pictograms, like those discovered on the rocks of Albuquerque in New Mexico appear to be an ancient script that was used by the Chinese after the end Shang Dynasty.
Their discoverer – John Ruskamp, a retired chemist and amateur epigraph researcher from Illinois claims they indicate that ancient people from Asia were present in the Americas around 1,300BC – nearly 2,800 years before Columbus. He also believes that the contact between the Chinese and Native Americans may have been going on for far longer.
He said: “For centuries, researchers have been debating if, in pre-Columbian times, meaningful exchanges between the indigenous peoples of Asia and the Americas might have taken place.
Here is “rock solid” epigraphic proof that Asiatic explorers not only reached the Americas, but that they interacted positively with Native North American people, on multiple occasions, long before any European exploration of the continent.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3152556/Did-China-discover-AMERICA-Ancient-Chinese-script-carved-rocks-prove-Asians-lived-New-World-3-300-years-ago.html
A detailed analysis of these ancient Chinese writings can be found in this paper: http://www.asiaticechoes.org/PDF/ChineseRockWriting.pdf
Other experts have since joined in, supporting J. Ruskamp’s discoveries, like Dr David Keightley, an expert on Neolithic Chinese civilization at the University of California in Berkley who has been helping to decipher the scripts found carved into the rocks, or Yaoliang Song, a professor at the East China Normal University in Shanghai who strongly endorses Ruskamp’s research and urges other scholars to take notice. He says:
“Ruskamp presents … clearly identifiable ancient Chinese messages which were written long ago in the rock art record, and which until now have remained undisturbed and unrecognised…
…Miscategorized and overlooked by modern anthropologists and archaeologists (largely due to the fact that knowledge of ancient styles of Chinese writing are not generally well-known, and the items discussed … reside in difficult and remote locations) these unmistakable Chinese writings conclusively establish as a historical event the early trans-Pacific presence of the Chinese people on the North American continent.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/expert-in-chinese-petroglyphs-supports-theory-ancient-chinese-made-it-to-america_2104460.html
Oh wow. Just so many ancient mysteries waiting to be discovered. I really wonder how the world was interconnected back then since we’ve been taught that different parts of the world were isolated from one another in the past since it was hard to travel,but now all of this is getting me to rethink…
That sounds very encouraging Emily! Also interesting that Chinese people seem to be more open to it than the Japanese ones (even though of course, its not possible to make any generalisations at this stage).
Hi Lucia, I think you may be right. Chinese people are very open to spiritual matters, as long as they are given enough information that they can understand. Growing up being exposed to the culture I think Chinese culture is a very spiritual culture at its core, it has been for thousands of years. There may have been a slight decline in spirituality in the last few decades or so due to Communism, there have been crackdowns on certain religious groups that are considered by the CCP as threats to their power, but not all religions are being banned as the Western mainstream media likes to portray. There are various religious groups that are allowed to practice their religions freely, like the followers of folk religions. These people often live in remote areas that are far away from cities and there is an interesting phenomenon that exists in this society. That is, people who live in the cities would often consider these folks living in remote areas as barbaric, as they are often illiterate or having received very little education. But these are some really spiritual people who just seem to know how to live in accordance to the laws of the universe and are much less materialistic than the so-called “civilized ” people in urban areas. The people I have met so far all live in a major city and I can tell that they are quite materialistic. However this phenomenon is not unique to China since the development of the material world can lead to the lack of spiritual advancement, as I have seen with people in developed countries like the United States and other Western countries. However, being such an ancient spiritual culture I really believe there is still potential to replant the seed of spirituality here in this land, and there have been researches going on regarding ancient civilizations. I’ve been reading articles about Sanxingdui, an ancient cultural site located in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, China, most of which are not available in the English language. I find Sanxingdui to be very interesting and I’m thinking about how can I share this information, amongst the few sources that are available in English, here is a video that talks about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teCKq6AJtP8
Such a nicely presented video – I’ve started watching it. Did you notice the stepped pyramid with staircases in typical lost civilization of the sun style? It’s an altar, but I wonder if excavations would uncover actual stepped pyramids there. So interesting it was based around sun worship. I also noticed the slight ear elongation like Akhenaten’s family in Egypt had (including Tutankhamen). Looks like some clear connections to the lost civilization of the sun to me already.
Also, I forgot to mention – if you’re able, and you visit any of these ancient sites, folk customs, or museums, I’d recommend taking photos. These are also really hard to come by.
I finished watching the video. I must say that I was surprised at how open minded the presenter and academics were to the possibility that Sanxingdui had contact with other ancient civilizations. They seemed more open minded than most Western scholars. I was also taken aback at how beautifully and respectfully the site and its artifacts were preserved and presented. Again, a far cry from the resources and care most countries have given their own.
The style of the masks seems quite Central American looking. One I had come across – this Toltec vessel https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toltec-style_Vessel_1.jpg has similar features (sunken slanted eyes, hooked nose, and cylindrical head). The wisdom bringer Itzamna was specifically always depicted with sunken eyes and a hooked nose. This statue of Itzamna even seems to have something coming out of the pupils like the Sanxindui mask https://64.media.tumblr.com/2bd14a1c7ee6df3aeb510985e17394b9/tumblr_ntrjb5Xnzp1qjf5vno1_500.jpg The Toltec also used the butterfly as a main symbol, and I noticed some of the artifacts of Sanxingdui seem to depict butterflies.
Of course, these connections are all very tenuous at the moment, but I thought to throw them into the ring to get started as to what these masks could possibly represent. Though research into ancient Chinese religion to find the answer is really needed.
More information on Sanxingdui: https://www.livescience.com/49247-chinese-civilization-disappearance-explained.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Sun_Bird
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-04/14/content_12325325.htm
https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mysterious-ancient-artefacts-sanxingdui-have-rewritten-chinese-history-001495
https://www.bowers.org/index.php/visit/audio-tours/B/2-bowers-audio/1-china-s-lost-civilization-the-mystery-of-sanxingdui-english/16-sun-disc-with-bird-list-72
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/10/10/ancient-ruins-rewriting-china-history
Hi Emily,
That sounds about right with the native spirituality surviving in the remote areas, while the cities being left to decay in materialism. :-( Its actually been similar in the Slavic countries where I am from, where a huge persecution of the so-called “pagans” was going on by the Catholic Church at first, and then by Socialism (similarly to China I guess), and it only survived in the remote areas, and kept being practiced by people like shepherds living high up in the mountains.
Also thank you for sharing this inspiring, and as Lara said, really nicely done documentary! I have never heard about this culture before, its really intriguing, especially the faces on those masks, with elongated or pierced earlobes, peaceful expressions and bulging eyes. The use of gold is also interesting. Overall, it feels to me like a blend of Egyptian and Mesoamerican style for some reason, but most likely its not! :-) A really nice museum too, very atmospheric! And what a great idea to have those copies of artefacts under the glass floor outside, in the positions as they were found, haven’t seen that idea anywhere else yet. Regarding that stepped pyramid-like altar, I have also come across the information that many of the Chinese pyramids actually resemble the Central American ones, so that’s also interesting. Thanks again, and looking forward to your further discoveries.
Hi Lucia&Lara, yes there is definitely a lot to waiting to be discovered about Sanxingdui. Very little is known about the former residents of Sanxingdui, since there is no known human remain found at the site, and they did not leave behind any written record about who they were or their lifestyle or belief. It is said that the residents of Sanxingdui likely migrated away from where the site was found for unknown reasons, or that Sanxingdui was not actually a place where people lived, but was instead a place of worship used by the sun worshippers. It is also said that there is a conspiracy theory going around that area that the CCP hid away the bodies/bones and written records found at Sanxingdui so there is no way for researchers to find out who these people were…the first few artifacts of Sanxingdui to be discovered was found by a village boy along with some human remains and inscriptions on oracle bones. Before experts could come to inspect the human remains and decipher the inscriptions on oracle bones, two under-covered CCP officials came to visit the boy’s family and insisted them to hand in the human remains and oracle bones in exchange of a huge amount of money that would allow them to move out of the village and into the city to buy a house. The boy’s family did not resist the temptation of material comfort so they agreed. There is strict censorship when it comes to the flow of information in this Communist country so those who dare to become whistleblowers will more likely than not face legal consequences. There were a couple of villagers outside the boy’s family who knew about this incident, but were told to remain silent or they may be arrested and jailed, or even worse. From that on the only explanation for why we know so little about the people who at least built Sanxingdui people hear is that there was never any human remain or written record left by those mysterious people at the site. I don’t know if this conspiracy theory could have any truth to it because there is very little information about this conspiracy theory that can be found on the Internet, not even on uncensored websites that are blocked by the Great Firewall. However I am open to all things that are possible. If by any chance this theory is true then it is a shame that items which could contain the keys to unlock the mysteries of Sanxingdui have been taken and hidden away by the CCP. Nevertheless, excavations and researches of this site has been going on for some years now, and new discoveries are being made little by little. I think if the site was indeed a place of worship for the Religion of The Sun then the site is likely aligned to the sun on solstices and/or equinoxes or other celestial bodies. I tried to find some information on this one but there has been literally no study on the alignment of Sanxingdui to celestial bodies. I think to solve this mystery I the best thing I can probably do is to go and examine the site myself, but I’m not sure if the site is open to the general public or is it only open to professional researchers, as I have heard that many archeological sites in this country are. I will have to wait and see if there is any way I can enter the site myself. Even with no known human remains, the non-Asian-looking faces that the masks appear to be made after does make me think that whoever these people were, they probably were not indigenous to this region. There is this idea that just came in to my mind that these people might had been Indo-Europeans who followed the Religion of The Sun that migrated to this place via some unknown route. I used to think that the idea of Indo-Europeans going all over the world spreading the Religion of The Sun had something to do with White-supremacy theory, but now looking at this and all the other evidences which Lara and Mark have found this appears to be true to me. While there were many non-Indo-European cultures that practiced the Religion of The Sun, the Indo-Europeans were a major power in spreading this religion across the world. I believe I am tapping into something deep here that has never before being explored and connected to the wider world outside of China, Sanxingdui may very well be just another piece of the puzzle needed to unravel this ancient mystery.
That “conspiracy theory” makes a lot of sense. I had wondered why there were so many artifacts found at the site, yet no mention of human remains.
Hi Lara,I think you may very well be right. I had a dream where I saw people who built the site were performing a sacred ceremony there. I can’t remember how they looked but I was certain that these were the people who made all the amazing artifacts. Behind them was a gigantic Golden Sun Bird,with the golden rays of the sun radiating from its center. I was in total shock when I saw that in my dream and I think that’s something I would never forget. It is kinda weird for mang artifacts to be found at the site yet no human remains. Something has definitely been hidden away from the public. I was able to get in touch with a person who works at the museum that displays all the artifacts found at Sanxingdui,and I was told that for a non-professional researcher to actually get into the site,you would have to go through a somewhat complicated process and accept certain terms and conditions which include that you would not share any of your findings at the site with anyone without permission from the authorities,which is something I don’t think I feel comfortable to comply with. So I decided not to accept the terms and conditions required to enter the site in person. I wanted to go in to the site myself so I could see if it is aligned to the sun or other celestial bodies on specific times of the year like solstices and equinoxes. Now that has been proven to be an impossible thing to do for me. I am doing the next best thing by reading all the available sources I could find about Sanxingdui and taking notes on them. Going to the museum may also help a bit,I hope I will be able to go there sometime soon.
What a beautiful dream. What do you feel it was telling you?
You may find that when you visit the site, people there may be more willing to tell you what they know. But then again, maybe they will keep tight lipped. It will probably depend on the people and how comfortable they feel talking to you. It’s good you are reading up as much as you can in any case. I’ve found it’s always best to go to any ancient site very well informed so that you know what you are looking at and also what to look for.
I think the dream was an absolutely powerful experiece for me . I felt there was energy coming from the center of te Golden Sun Bird just like the rays of the sun did. It was a very strong energy tat gave me a sense of peace,and I somehow knew it likely came from the Eternal Sun. I think I am confident enough to say that these people who built Sanxingdui,whoever they might had been were the followers of the Religion of The Sun. Unfortunately the site is closed right now due to a high number of coronavirus cases around the region. And traveling to that area is also temporarily banned. It’s mostly villages around the site and people there do not use technology much,so iths hard to talk to them without meeting them face to face. This is somewhat ironic since many people living in cities are now paying for everything on their phones…cash and credit cards are things of the past for them. It’s so different when you go from a highly industrialized area to a village where people are still living a life that involves farming for the most part. However they are some of the most spiritual people I know of in the world. They follow the ancient traditions that have been passed down for countless generations and some village chiefs are great storytellers,if you meet one he will be really happy to tell you about their traditions and beliefs. I am planning on going there sometime in the near future as part of my research on Sanxingdui. And I look forward to meeting those spirital people. Due to the government’s control on the flow of information I probably can’t ask about the conspiracy theory or I may get in trouble,but with their legends and beliefs I should be able to ask. I hope I will be able to go there soon.
Amazing dream. I hope you’ll be able to get there soon too. I agree – asking about the “conspiracy” would be unwise, but asking further about the site should not be a problem one would think. I am really looking forward to hearing what the village storytellers tell you; maybe there are some traditions there that have been preserved from Sanxingdui, and even before.
Apparently the statues of Sanxingdui likely represent the first king of Shu called Cancong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxingdui
Hi Emily and Lara,
As I have started looking a bit into the Chinese ancient traditions, structures and religions, I started coming across different articles on what’s going on in China now, which looks concerning to me, so I decided to post it here, especially as Emily has decided to investigate locally and talk to the people. It looks like roughly since the beginning of 2018, Chinese authorities started an intensive “crack down” on pretty much all religions in China, demolishing the temples or “repurposing” them, replacing the religious images and statues in the churches with the images of religious leaders (reminds me of what they did in Iran some decades ago, replacing the Zoroaster’s images with the images of the Ayatollah). They are even demolishing the shrines of the folk religions now.
What’s most concerning for Emily though, I just found this recent article dealing with the targeting foreign religious groups and worshippers:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-mulls-new-rules-on-foreigners-to-prohibit-religious-extremism/ar-BB1bkRc9
More articles on targeting different religions within China:
Folk religions:
https://bitterwinter.org/160-folk-religion-temples-demolished-shut-down-in-sichuan/
Buddhist and taoist temples
https://bitterwinter.org/china-destroying-cultural-heritage/
Churches
https://global.tuidang.org/2020/11/07/closed-churches-in-china-ordered-to-be-sold-rented-or-destroyed/
Hey Emily,
I’ve been finding that certain sacred places—mountains, caves, riverbeds and boulders—have the shape of significant animals and figures, for example in Peru there are many “Huacas” (a word they use for sacred mountains and boulders), which are shaped like pumas and condors. After you mentioned your dream with the sun bird and its connection with Mt. Kailash, I suspected perhaps there was something similar. Looking through pictures and Google Earth, I confirmed my suspicions—when viewed from the temple on the north side, the mountains take on the appearance of a bird with extended wings, Mt. Kailash forming its head, which is illuminated by the rising sun in a beautiful way. My wife thinks it looks like an eagle, I think it looks more like a “Hamsa”, or goose. On Wikipedia, it says “hamsa represents the individual soul or spirit (typified by the pure sunlight-white like color of a goose or swan)”. There is also a view from the south where it looks somewhat like the bird you found on the disk, but if it is a true likeness, I suspect it’s badly eroded.
Mt. Kailash is an important religious site for the Hindu and other religions, for many reasons. It’s thought to be the abode of Vishnu. In the Ramayana, Hanuman, a magical monkey, lifts up mount Kailash and carries it to Lanka, before returning it to its place. I wonder about the overlap between the monkeys of hinduism (Hanuman and Sugriva), and their connection to the Monkey King of Chinese mythology.
As fate would have it, I was listening to an audiobook that recounted the stories of the monkey king. One story that stood out to me was when he journeyed to study Taoism under LaoZi inside the “mountain of the three stars”, which in Chinese is SanXingDui. Could the Monkey King be connected with Hanuman, and thus Mt. Kailash? How is the Monkey King connected to SanXingDui, and is there more information about it? How is LaoZi connected with SanXingDui, and is there more to the story?
After pondering these questions, I had a dream… I was in a dim Chinese pub or restaurant, and before me sat two men. The one on the left was a red-headed Celt—his mannerisms were energetic and rowdy, like what you’d find in an Irish pub. I got the impression that he was at the table to contrast with the person on the right, who also had red hair, but the similarities ended there… He had pale skin with a slightly greenish-blue tinge, slanted asian eyes on a face that looked round and Mongolian, long, pierced ears, rust-read hair, tied up in a bun, and a wispy beard (of the same color), covering a slight smile. He wore a long robe or cloak. I’ve seen depictions of LaoZi which look similar, excepting the red hair and skin color. He could have had an elongated head, as well, but I couldn’t tell because of the hairstyle. I got the impression that he was in deep meditation, even though he had his eyes open, and all his movements were deliberate and calm. Who was the man? LaoZi? I’m not sure, it could be, but I think it may be the answer as to why there may have been be a cover-up of human remains found at SanXingDui. If they found bodies with red hair, and possibly elongated skulls, at a place that’s associated with LaoZi, the implications could be staggering… It would imply that LaoZi may very well have been a foreigner, and no doubt genetic testing would reveal connections that are difficult to explain. In a country where nationalism is very important, it would raise uncomfortable questions about a central figure in Chinese culture.
Hi Erik, I’m sure there used to be a group of Indo-Europeans that inhabited the region known today as Xinjiang called the Tocharians,however I’m not sure if they were sun worshippers or not. Many sources say that they were most likely Buddhists. I’m not sure if you are still able to investigate the archeological sites left by the Tocharians today,since it’s not so easy to go to Xinjiang now due to the issue with Uighur Muslims…There exist scattered evidence that maybe not all Tocharians were Buddhists,but a small portion of the Tocharian population practiced a religion similar to Zoroastrianism,which is an Indo-European solar religion. Maybe they were the ones who built the archeological sites?
A little Sanxingdui lead I came across. It presents a somewhat different interpretation on some of the Sanxingdui symbols and clues to possible remnants of its civilisation. It’s based on legends from the Akha people ethnic group and recognised by two documentary film makers. Article link
Relevant extracts: ‘Yang, 51, and Wang, 43, have also found in the Akha people a live version of the pre-historical Sanxingdui civilization that has remained a mystery for historians ever since it was discovered in 1986.
According to Yang, legends told in Akha epics could well explain the cultural meaning behind the strange-looking bronze images of humans and birds, and the part-human, part-animal masks with oversized eyes and eyebrows, unearthed from the ruins of Sanxingdui in southwestern Sichuan Province.
“The Akha villagers believe a deity in ancient times had given his own eyeballs to a huge blind bird that had the magic power of annihilating every evil it saw,” said Yang. “The villagers therefore worship the bird, or rather its eyes, as their ancestor.”
Until today, he said every Akha family has at least one wooden bird nailed on the roof. “Some families have as many as nine.”
Yang and his wife said that the heritage items unearthed from two sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site seemed to bear the same cultural connotation. “For example, not a single human image had eyeballs. Only the birds did.”
But when Yang and his wife visited the Sanxingdui Museum earlier this year, they found evidence of what a shaman had told them back in the Akha village of Yunnan.
“The shaman told us that people would worship the sacred tree every spring and autumn, and the number of its fallen leaves would represent the number of babies to be born that year.”
Among the sacrificial items unearthed from Sanxingdui’s pits were several bronze sacred trees.
Some jadeware pieces were inscribed with a boat between two mountains, a token which researchers say was meant to carry the soul of the dead back to their ancestral home.
“Until today, the Akha coffins are in the shape of a boat even though their village is locked in the mountains and I doubt that anyone has ever seen a real boat,” said Yang.
They [film makers] … transcribed nearly every surviving epic in the village. These epics, handed down orally from generation to generation, are a vivid record of the group’s migration, said Yang.
The Akha, whose population is around 500,000 on both sides of the border between Yunnan and Myanmar, is one of more than 20 branches of the Hani nationals in Yunnan. “But their ancestors used to live in nomad tribes in today’s Qinghai and Gansu provinces and Tibet.”
A noted scholar on Sanxingdui studies has found Yang’s Akha interpretation of the Sanxingdui “exciting”.
“The seashells unearthed from the site were found only in the deep water of the Indian Ocean, but were later found at several other heritage sites in Yunnan and Sichuan,” said Prof. Duan Yu with Sichuan Normal University. “All these sites are along an ancient trade route to Myanmar and southeast Asia, with the Sanxingdui at the starting point.”
“If Yang’s hypothesis proves true, we can probably assume the Sanxingdui civilization used to dominate southwestern China and even South and Southeast Asia,” said Duan.
It would mean the forefathers of today’s Akha people had trekked far to spread the civilization to where it is today, said Prof. Yang Hui, an anthropologist with Yunnan University.’
In relation to Yin and Yang. I read that the use of the well known black and white diagram itself within Taoism, the specific depiction of it particularly, first appears within Taoism in the 10th century AD, or possibly in the 9th. So quite late. The Taiji.
However preceding the pictorial diagram its principle was already a central part of Taoism. Before Yin and Yang were represented by Tiger and Dragon.
Taoism made beautiful use of this symbolism and I was really pleasantly surprised to see the clarity with which it was applied specifically within its tradition of Neidan/inner alchemy, where this same principle plays an important part.
But before I’d read about that recently, which is pretty well known it seems, I had come across the juxtaposing of dragon and tiger in a much earlier archaeological context (4th millennium BC) and was independently already suspecting a similar meaning for that instance, and on top of it further religion of the sun/cosmological meanings depicted in that find, which I’m still in the process of determining accurately.
Although there were different neolithic cultures spread across China there were also remarkable connections and continuities in spiritual beliefs between some of them, and they trace way back. Spectacularly, similarly laid out with stones embedded in the ground, figures of dragons are found with one being from 8000 years ago!
The concept of heaven and earth, which shares much of the meaning of Yin and Yang I believe, is also found very early on within China and profoundly expressed.
There’s so much to find. I had always regarding China as a place with much history and having mysteries, like its dragon. Yet also feeling it quite a distant culture to me. I thought it would be cool to perhaps find a few instances of the principles of the religion of the sun in ancient China. But with what I’m seeing now I dare say — it’s all there.
Looking forward to hearing more about your research – I know what you mean when you say, it was all there. There seems to have been a lot of spiritual knowledge in China. I also stumbled across information about cultures stretching all the way back to the neolithic in China that expressed the concept of heaven (circle) and earth (square) and were said to be the beginnings of feng shui, and that remarkably, this symbolism is also found in the earthworks of Europe (which also spread to the Americas, as noted in the ancient religion of the sun book).
Hi Emily,
I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading your posts and sharing in your enthusiasm for uncovering some of the hidden mysteries at the core of your culture. It’s wonderful to know you’re out there, on the other side of the planet, exploring both on the ground and through mystical experiences something that unites us all with a spiritual thread – it’s inspiring and makes me feel part of a special global effort. Good luck and much guidance on your mission!
The ancient Chinese religions really attracted me when I was first searching spiritually, through coming in contact with acupuncture as a healing art. It seemed like something that had been passed down from a much more enlightened time when people had a multi-dimensional appreciation of our body and its healing. It loved how man was seen as a microcosm of larger forces, right up until being a merging of heaven and earth. It’s heartwarming to hear that there’s still remnants of ancient Chinese spirituality practiced in remote villages.
I’m spending some time in my homeland of Wales over the winter, planning a solstice ceremony here. There was a time when I thought there was nothing interesting to find from this small land and insignificant cultural heritage! How wrong I was, and how much I keep uncovering which ignites a new appreciation for my ancestors. Sadly I see most people live without this appreciation now, and it feels to me that in its absence we are almost like ghosts, existing alongside but not participating in a huge reality of all that’s come before. Working backwards from seeing the bigger picture of a global civilization of the sun, (thanks Lara!) I’ve started trying to find out how it unravelled here and stumbled on a whole ‘hidden history of Britain’; a story of ancient migrations from Syria and Troy, two heroic Kings called Arthur and early Christianity germinating on these shores – I’m just presenting this as ideas that I’ve come across, but they are ideas based on research from dedicated individuals who can decode historic meaning in the ancient names of fields and ruins, and weave these clues together with ancient records and inscriptions on standing stones. It’s apparent that the mythic history of our nation (Welsh and British as a whole) was taken from us within the last few hundred years and replaced with a version that was political in its motives and served to cement the right to rule of our present monarchy – and all this is very recent compared to the era of those who built our most famous megaliths! Along with the destruction of the Welsh language, it’s meant we’ve been effectively divorced from our history and now grow up thinking of ourselves as a nation that’s not been capable of much without the civilizing influence of various invasions. Our mythic stories, the Mabinogi, have been reduced to the status of silly children’s tales for entertainment, but I’m starting to hear in them creation myths, astrological descriptions and profound teachings. I’m hoping at some point to be able to see clearly what’s been left to posterity in these stories, to hear any of the solar teachings hidden therein, and reawaken in myself and my kinsmen an appreciation of our hidden heritage!
I’m really looking forward to the new book and videos, Lara. I hope it may herald a new auspicious chapter in the revival of the religion of the sun, where each one of us finds and plays our part.
Wishing everyone a spiritually strengthening solstice!
Hi guys,
Thank you for all the comments and insightful information you’ve provided! I believe they will sure be very helpful to me in terms of my research. As for crackdowns on spiritual practitioners though,I have seen no such thing happening around the place where I am based,and the local people who live near the archeological site of Sanxingdui I’ve been planning on talking to are still free to stick to their spiritual heritage. There are many things said on the Western media about China that are either exaggerated or distorted,there do exist crackdowns on certain religious groups,particularly Uyghur Muslims,but as far as I can tell,not all religious groups are being targeted and many are still beingvallowed to practice their religions,these religious groups hardly ever have gotten the attention of Western media for some reason,but they don’t feel that they’re in danger or anything. The government hasn’t been threatening them and they don’t really care what they’re doing with their spiritual pratices. The bottom line here seems to be that whatever you do,you must not question the authority of the communist regime,and those that do will get in trouble for doing that. While I do not agree with this policy and I believe the authrotiy of socialism cannot be justified,in order to further my research in the Religion of The Sun in East Asia,this is the place where I can get the most information. I still haven’t got a chance to visit the site in person because that region is still closed for tourism due to the number of covid cases found around there,but I’ve bought some books about Sanxingdui to read and I have learned a lot more about that place and what the people who at least built it might have did there during the time that I’ve been away from this website. Now I’m trying to translate some of those findings into English and share them on my Twitter page as I have planned,but I just discovered yesterday that my account got suspended for some reason and I’m still trying contact Twitter because of that:( These social media outlets appear to be controlled by the same group of people that control the press,and they don’t like this kind of information circling on the Internet,these years they just got harsher on that,I’ve heard pther people reporting the same problem when they try to spread information about the so–called forbidden knowledge,even though they’re not telling you directly that they’re intentionally limiting this type of content. Hopefully they will reactivate my account for me so I will be able to continue sharing important info. I also have several pictures of the sun that I’ve taken myself that I want to share at the moments where I personally felt the spiritual energy of the sun as the giver of life. They are taken by an average smartphone since that’s the only equipment I have in handy,and they may look like nothing more than just a random picture of the sun taken with a phone. But during these moments I felt the energy of the sun and I wish to communicate that feeling to others through the pictures I’ve taken. Those were moments in my life that I will never forget because I felt connected to the Spiritual Sun and literally feel what it’s like to be a child of the Sun as Lara describes in many of her videos. When I first watched them I didn’t really understand what that meant,but now I think I do. It’s interesting that I didn’t start to have these experiences until I started the exclusive research on Sanxingdui in China,and those experiences seem to reassure me that I’m here for the right reason. Even though I don’t know if I would consider that a spiritual/supernatural experience since it’s just.something I feel in my psyche when I look at the sun from my window in a cold winter day. As for my Japanese friend,just a little update about her,she has returned to the states from Japan because she has had another dream where the kamis told her that now is not a good time to do the research,that she should wait for a better time to go to Japan and find information,for the sake of Amaterasu. They did not specify the reason as to why she should do so,but she listened to them anyway. She has been yearning to meet Amaterasu but still hasn’t managed to do so. It could be because she just want to meet her because she’s curious to meet her and not actually seeking spiritual knowledge or anything. She has said on social media that she’s been making a lot of mistakes on her spiritual path and now she’s in a stage of repentence and reflection on herself.
It’s so nice to hear from you again – I was starting to wonder how you were going. And glad to hear about your friend also. I hope your Twitter account gets reinstated – let me know what happens with it. I wonder why it was shut down.
It’s hard to explain the spiritual sun to people today, since we are conditioned to be so shut off from it. It’s something that really needs experiencing as you’ve found. Soon I will be doing videos about practices to help with that.
I’m really happy to hear how your friend is learning; it seems like a special time for her. I wonder why it is not the right time for her to be in Japan. Maybe the reason will become apparent in the future.
Hi Emily,
I visited China few times with the purpose to look into its spiritual heritage and keep studying its ancient wisdom till now… and can relate so much to what you describe…
There is certainly such a great control of the Chinese government, yet still giving some room to grow within those constraints.
Practicing Falun Gong is clearly dangerous, but practicing Chi Gong or Neigong or Yang Shen Gong or Da Gong, is just fine. Some mysterious ancient structures are closed, you can’t even come close – but others are open for visit and study. If you teach Kung Fu, you better teach it to the police too, help them maintain peace and apply responsible force against violence.
Many people who work for the government in China are kind hearted and sincerely want to help. Despite of being so much denigrated, or even demonized in the West, socialism has its advantages… there are things that I like more about China, in comparison to the North America or Europe. And “the West” now, is also not what it used to be…
We just try to grow wherever we are meant to be, trying to work wisely within the limitations of our circumstances. As we grow spiritually we can understand more how to “accept peacefully what can’t be changed, have the courage to change what needs to be changed, and find the wisdom, to know the difference.”
Hi Lara,I’ve been trying to contact Twitter to have my account unsuspended,but.for some reason they still haven’t got back to me yet. Maybe the whole Twitter team is busy with the Trump account ban thing. I’m not going to comment on how I think about it because I believe today’s world of politics is filled with hypocrisy,politicians would lie to the voters to gain their support so they can get them into office,but it’s really all for their own sinister purpose…this is part of the reason why I am doing what I’m doing,that is to do what I can to hopefully bring some light into this dark Iron Age/Kali Yuga. I’ve been busy finding information about Sanxingdui and its potential connection to the Religion of The Sun,as well as other traces of the Religion of The Sun in the country and in my culture. There have been some people who have shown interest in the Religion of The Sun,and I’ve been sharing with them what I know about it,while I’m still learning myself. I’ve talked to them about the Wisdom Bringers,and it’s interesting that they were specifically amazed by the fact that Jesus was actually a teacher of the Religion of The Sun and are curious as to what the Gnostic texts tell about him,even though Christianity does not play an important role in the culture of the people here like it does in Western societies. And it also makes us wonder if there could be any Wisdom Bringer recorded in our own Chinese mythology…as you may know Chinese civilization is quite an old civilization,and there are many stories that have been passed down from the Ancients…these stories may contain secret messages that are waiting to be decoded. There are several figures in Chinese mythology I’ve found to have special associations with the sun,and they could had been Wisdom Bringers that came to this land in the distant past. There is no mention of past world ages in the stories I’ve already read,but the concept of Yin and Yang explains the rise and fall of civilizations very well as with many other cycles in nature…so that’s something I’ve found to be very interesting. I saw a video lecture on a Chinese website that explains Yin and Yang in a very detailed way and I thought about downloading it,adding English subtitles to the video and upload it on to Youtube so people in other countries can see it(I have considered starting my own Youtube channel as another means to share my findings,but I’m too shy to sit in front of a camera and talk,even though I took lessons on how to edit videos),but that video lecture is copyrighted so it won’t let me download it. The idea of Yin and Yang is definitely a lot deeper than I thought,and the Yin-Yang symbol has a very spiritual meaning which is akin to what you talked about in your video titled “World Ages and the End of Civilization”. I am very curious as to where the idea of Yin and Yang came from,could it possibly be a remanent of the Ancient Religion of The Sun that is still prominent in modern Chinese culture? When I say “prominent” I do mean that even today Chinese people still talk about Yin and Yang. It has popped up in different texts at different time periods in history,and many of the authors that wrote it claimed in their work that their idea of Yin and Yang was original.So it’s hard to know origin of the concept of Yin and Yang. If the mysteries of Sanxingdui can be unraveled then it may provide an answer to the question. Thtoughout my research I have learned things which I did not know before,but still I must admit that I have more questions than answers at this point. Also I am looking forward to your new videos coming up! A video about the practices would really help since I’m sure it will enhance the spiritual experience one can have with the Spiritual Sun. During the past few days I’ve had a few more moments where I felt the presence of the Spiritual Sun as I was walking around my neighborhood(I managed to rent an apartment,so that’s where I’m based at.the moment) as the sun shines down on me from above. It’s a reminder to me that while there are differences between people in different parts of the world,that we may have different skin colors,we may speak different languages,we may hold different beliefs and our cultures may differ,but at the end of the day we all live under the same sky,we share the same source of light and heat,and we all can find the light that is within us.
Hi Emily, I made the same decision. There are so many problems in the world right now, but I feel like doing this is the most truthful and powerful way to address them. If the religion of the sun can be established again, maybe it can really do something. It’s heartening to hear that there are ppl interested in China, and I’m glad you’re there to tell them. The oldest depiction of the yin yang symbol so far has been found in the cucuteni-trypillia culture of eastern europe. There are a lot of very interesting connections between europe and china all the way back in neolithic times, which I haven’t had the chance to fully explore or explain yet. There was such a profound depth of knowledge preserved in china – it is a real treasure trove, and it was far more connected to the rest of the ancient world than most could imagine. Your comment was nicely put at the end btw :-)
PS: As for the video lecture about Yin and Yang I’ve mentioned,I’m still trying to download it so I can add English subtitles and get it on to Youtube. Although I’m hesitant about starting my own Youtube channel I think uploading that one video,actually,a series of video lectures would help many people understand Yin and Yang a lot better. I’m looking into possible options to download the video lecture such as buying it,I’ll have to see how much money I need to pay in order to buy the lectures if that’s indeed an option,or I may record my screen and upload that. But then there’s the issue with copyright. The majority of Chinese population do not have access to foreign websites like Youtube because of Internet censorship(the only reason I can access it is due to a special software),so the owners of that site may not find out that there are some of their videos on Youtube…but still I don’t think it’s a good idea to steal their contents. I may have to actually contact them to get permission to use their videos. But I’ll see if that works or not. This is like a jewel I’ve found that I want to share with the rest of the world regarding ancient Chinese spirituality,so I will do my best to try make that happen.
Emily, looks like my Twitter got “temporarily suspended” too, and would only be reinstalled if I provide them with my phone number. As I don’t think its a good idea, I think its time to leave this biassed platform. :-O I saw many people moving on to Gab, not sure if that would be a good platform for spiritual posts, but it definitely seems to be much more free and open.
Interesting you mention the connections between Europe and China Lara. I found out about this site awhile back in Xinjiang: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/06/xinjiang-sun-altar-ancient-china-archaeology-spd/
Researchers think it was an altar built by sun worshippers. It reminds me a lot of some of the mounds in Europe.
Around 200 stone circles have also been found in the same region: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-03/27/content_19929733.htm
Hi Lara,
I was quite surprised by how many people who are interested in the Religion of The Sun…I was not expecting many people to show interest in it since the intention for me to come here was purely to do research and finding missing pieces of the puzzle,but it just happened that when I talked to people about why I’m here and they became intrigued and wanted to know more. It actually stressed me out quite a bit since I’m not good at explaining stuff to people,especially things that I don’t even understand myself. But then I thought about other people’s work in reestablishing the Religion of The Sun,and thought that it would be a wondeful thing for more people in the world to know about the Religion of The Sun,even if just one more person who can understand the truth behind it might make a huge difference. So I decided it was the right thing to tell them what I knew. After they learned about the basics some did decide to assist me on my research,a week ago a girl who would prefer to be known as Lingling gave me a call telling me that she thinks the Chinese Lunar New Year may has something to do with it. She has yet told me the details but if her theory is proven to be right then it will be pretty shocking to all of China because this is the biggest holiday here and it forms an important part of Chinese cultural identity. So I would be interested to hear what does she have to say. I’ve contacted the owner of the website that the video was published on,unfortunately they declined my request to borrow their content. But basically what it said about Yin and Yang is that there needs to be a balance between them,and while Yin and Yang can be viewed as polar opposites to each other,they are also complementary to one another. In another word,one cannot exist without the other. It it only due to the existence of darkness you would know what light is,it’s only due to the existence of silence you know what is noise;it is only due to night that makes you become aware of the day,etc. Also the force of Yin is at its most powerful during midnight,and the force of Yang is strongest in the noon. And this reminds me of the symbolic struggle between Horus and another Egyptian deity which I cannot recall the name of. If you follow either the black part or te white part on the Yin and Yang symbol from one side of the circle another,you will find that the area of the white part or the black part gradually increasing until it reaches the other side of the circle,where it has the largest area,and then you will see right next to this big piece of black or white a tiny chunk of its opposite,as you continue to follow that chunk of opposite color,you will see its area increasing until you are back at the side of the symbol where you started. This demonstrates a sort of cycle of change in nature,when Yang rises,Yin starts to fall,and vice versa. This is one of the concepts that the symbol is trying to show. You can think of it as a represenation of the alternation between day and night,spring and fall,etc. I see similar concepts being presented in your videos especially the one that talks about cycles of civilizations or something. I apologize for this but I really cannot remember the exact title for that video. The idea of the Spiritual Sun dies on Winter Solstice when the Day is at its shortest and comes back on Spring Equinox and reaches sort of a climax on summer solstice can also be represented by the Yin and Yang symbol. The thing about this symbol is that Chinese people have known what does this symbol represent since texts written at numerous time periods all describe them in similar manners,but no one knows where these concepts like the alternation between Yin amd Yang came from. When I watched that episode that talked about the alternation of Yin and Yang I was shocked at how similar that concept sounded like to this idea that exists in the Religion of The Sun about light and darkness. I thought,”this is serious wisdom,I need to translate this video into English and tell the world about it” But since I didn’t succeed getting permission to use that video explaining what I heared according to my underatanding of it is the next best thing I can do. That video was actually part of a series of video lectures that give an introduction to traditional Chinese herbal medicine,which revolves a lot around the concept of Yin and Yang,but that’s another story. What I’m trying to say is that there’s a lot more to Yin and Yang than what many people may know,nkt even all Chinese have heard of the alternation of Yin and Yang. I didn’t hear about it either until I watched that video. I know all of this may be hard to grasp when talking about it but looking up a Yin and Yang symbol it might make more sense:)
Great to have Lingling involved. I wish her the very best with her research.
And there’s a strong sense of nationalism in China,when I gave a small presentation inside of a friend’s in front of his family,relatives and friends when they were having a big party and suggested that this concept may not have originated in China,they all freaked out and said,”No way it’s not possible,this is undoubtedly the wisdom of the ancestors of us Chinese people! ” I hadn’t even got a chance to introduce them to the other ancient civilizations like the Indo-Europeans which may have brought the Religion of The Sun to East Asia,and I never did because this whole group of people just tuned out except for my friend himself. There isn’t much written record as to where these wisdoms came from,so as of now it remains a mystery. But the similarities found between places that are thousands of miles apart in different cultures do suggest that something big was happening on a global scale back in ancient times,as to what that something is I’m still trying to find out. I’ve gone as far as to teaching myself classical Chinese language since that’s what many of the oldest written collections of Chinese myths are written in,and it is very different from the modern form of Chinese language that I know of. The mythlogies may provide some clue. But so far I’ve made no progress since it’s like an English speaker today trying to read a text written in an archaic form of the English language that was used even way before Shakespeare was born,the only people who could understand them would probably be scholars who study them,a lay person has no chance of underatanding it. But the so-called scholars in academia are usually not open-minded to such outlandish ideas,so I can only rely on myself. I don’t know how this is gonna go,it’s very possible that I will eventually quit because learning classical Chinese seems to be an impossible task for me.
Maybe they would be interested to know that there were not just cultural influences that spread to China, but that Chinese people and influences traveled beyond it, and that China was not isolated like people think. I wonder what they would think if they knew that some of the pharaohs of the earliest dynasties of Egypt were Chinese? Or that Chinese people traveled to Mexico and were involved in founding the civilization of the Maya?
I revisited the FAQ page of the Sakro Sawel website and read Lara’s comment on light and darkness,how she said the practitioners of the Religion of The Sun didn’t view darkness as something negative,but understood its role in creation. What she was describing was basically the idea of Yin and Yang. I think there’s quite a bit to it. The rise and fall of civilizations can be described in a similar manner. Some think the idea of Yin and Yang came from Taoism,but that’s actually disputable,it’s been something that has been ingrained into Chinese culture and spirituality since time immemorial. But I think it’s very likely that the idea of Yin and Yang came from Religion of The Sun or at least it has something to do with it.
Simply put,the alternation.of Yin and Yang can be described like this: Yin in extreme gives to Yang,and vice versa.
Hey Emily, just wanted to say that Yin/Yang symbol actually IS one of the symbols of the Religion of the Sun. In his book The Ancient Path of the Sun Mark says:
“The ancient symbol of yin and yang, most famously used in China, can be seen in the annual cycle of the sun. The most ancient depiction of yin-yang symbol was found in southeastern Europe, dating to between 5500 – 2750 BC. This symbol expresses the principle of duality and polarity, which forms the bounds of all manifest creation.It also represents the cycle of light and darkness that everything, including our consciousness, progresses through.”
This symbol is also used on the front pages of the chapters on solstices and equinoxes in the same book, to illustrate the movement of the Sun throughout the year.
Also many years ago, while I was doing a concentration on my heart in hope to get some intuitive answers to some personal questions, I ended up with a clear vision of the rotating Yin/Yang symbol in front of my eyes. It surprised me a lot, as that was the last thing I expected, and made me realise that this symbol may also be connected to our heart in some symbolic/mystical way.
Hi Lucia,the Yin and Yang symbol definietly can be used to illustrate the movement of the sun. I’m glad that the Atwoods took note of that when they were writing The Ancient Path of The Sun. I would love to read it but I’ve always had a problem when it comes to ordering books on Amazon,so I still haven’t got my hand on any of their books. It’s not a problem with their books specifically but with a lot of stuffs that I order,I guess these tech giants just don’t like me for some weird reasons lol. Amazon would often tell me that a bug has occured and my transaction fails. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on,but that’s just what happens. But I did figure out that the symbol and the principle of Yin and Yang do have a very deep connection to the Religion of The Sun,and I am certain that it is a reminiscent of it in my culture. Other parts of it were lost over time due the spiritual decline in the Chinese population overtime. There were a several persecutions in history but Taoism sort of died out naturally even before any of that happened,and it never regained its popularity since. But the concept of Yin and Yang remained and it still forms the central parts of many Chinese folk religions,and there are those who are trying to study the wisdom that is in it like whoever talked about it in the video lecture I’ve mentioned. So it is a silver lining to the story. It’s interesting that you saw a rotating Yin/Yang symbol,it may have very well been a message from the universe. This also reminded me that I also had a vision of what I perceived to be a Yin/Yang symbol while I was falling asleep weeks before I stumpled across that video lecture on Yin and Yang. I don’t usually remember the stuff I see when I’m drifting off,even though I can for sure that I do see things when I’m in the state of being half-asleep. I do believe that this symbol is connected in some way to one’s soul,and it’s a symbol with spiritual meanings. In that video lecture it is explained that there also quite a bit of geometry to the symbol too😳 However I didn’t understand that part very well since mathematics was never my thing. One thing is for sure though that this symbol was not just a result of someone’s random scratch or drawing,there’s a lot more to it than most people realize. The fact that similar symbols have been found all over the world the further proves that it has special meanings attributed to it,maybe not just even just in this dimension,trans-dimensional in some way. The same could also be true for the Tomoe symbols found in Japan,which are commonly seen in Shinto shrines that bear resemblemce to the Chinese Yin/Yang symbol. The Japanese Shinto religion could have connections to the Religion of The Sun in some mysterious ways as well,my Japanese friend was aiming to find that connection but her research turned out to be more of a self-satisfaction thing than something that’s done with the intention to advance on one’s spiritual quest. So she is still in the phase of self-reflection now so the connection in Japan is still waiting to be unlocked. I did do some research on the tomoe symbols though and they look a lot like many of the other pegan symbols found around the world. The problem with these symbols is that it’s can be difficult to dicipher the meanings behind them since peganism has been completely wiped out in parts of the world like Europe and the Middle East by the conquest of Christians and Muslims. So there are very few,if any,that is alive today to tell their meanings. This is one of the reason why I was never a fan of the monotheistic religions because they are relatively narrow-minded in their worldview and they require their followers to believe in their religions blindly without questioning. Among them,Chrisitianity is probably one that can be considered,in some way,a branch of a Religion of The Sun though. Even though Christians oppose the word “pegan”,but what they may not realize is that their religion is filled with elements of peganism,especially in Catholicism,and there are videos on Youtube that talk about that. This is something that Christians probably would never wanna admit. Protestants have criticized the Catholic Church for including too much pegan elements in worship,and they have removed many elements they considered to be “not Christian” from their versions of Christianity. But what they do not realize is that Jesus himself was a Wisdom Bringer and the religion that he taught,was pegan in nature,and it was done as an attempt to reestablish the Religion of The Sun on this planet. But it’s sad that the Catholic Church manipulated his teachings and used them as a method of control,they made Christianity no longer a pure spiritual practice. Even though the Protestants try to discover true Christianity by rejecting papal authority and removing “pegan” elements from it,they cannot be close to the truth either. They still used pretty much the same Bible used by the Catholics and they have taken out the remaining parts of early Christianity in Carholicism that they considered “pegan”,perhaps true Christianity can only be rediscovered when the Gnostic texts like the Gospel of Mary and other gospels that are considered by today’s church “fake” can be included in the Christian holy book,which I highly doubt if that will happen anytime soon.
What a profound teaching you have received Emily, looks like the beings out there really care about you! I am also sure that they would not give you this teaching if it was not within your power to figure it out when the time is right. Also I have noticed that many things you keep asking about here in your posts are covered in Mark’s book The Ancient Path of the Sun. And knowing how difficult it is for you to get this book, I would be more than happy to send you one, maybe it wouldn’t be such a problem to receive a package from Slovenia?
Hi Lucia& Everyone else,
I haven’t been able to reply to you guys since I’ve been busy doing my research and sharing my findings,and that is an on-going process which I spend the most of my time doing. I have recently discovered a very tragic ending to the people who built Sanxingdui and I have just shared some information about that on this website. I found that it was likely the people of the kingdom of Shu who built the sacred site of Sanxingdui and I’m still learning more about the kingdom of Shu. So as I am continuing my research I’ve got little to no time to answer to comments,but I have read them and they have really inspired me to continue on in my spiritual journey. I really thank Lucia for her attempt to help me by sending me Mark and Lara’s book,but I do not feel very comfortable giving out my contact information and address to people that I don’t know personally. So I would have to think about that. Much thanks for your offer to help though Lucia! May the divine light continue to shine upon us all~
Hi Emily,
A little while ago, I had come across an article that mentioned (from memory) how China and Egypt were very closely related in ancient times, and mentioning a map that described what could only be the Nile in some ancient Chinese texts. I tried looking for that article again after reading your comment, but had no luck :( Instead came across this one, which again mentions the description of the Nile but also the work of this Chinese professor whose research show that many ancient Bronze age artifacts found in China have a link with Egypt https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/02/did-chinese-civilization-come-from-ancient-egypt-archeological-debate-at-heart-of-china-national-identity/ so it was quite fascinating. Here is the link to the professor’s research published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep23304. The study also mentions Sanxingdui civilization. I just find it amazing really how these connections pop out of seemingly nowhere. China seems to have so much ancient history to uncover and decipher from what you described. Many thanks for your hard work and dedication!
I’ve been looking into a very recent new discovery found in Sanxingdui where somewhere around 500 items were unearthed in Sanxingdui,among them many artifacts that are made out of gold. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210320005008/en/CGTN-China-Unveils-New-Discoveries-From-Sanxingdui-Over-500-Items-Unearthed
It is a news that is flooding the Chinese Internet right now and there are articles circulating different forums regarding what this could mean for Chinese civilization. One written by an amateur researcher even suggest that perhaps people were wrong about the origin of Chinese civilization all along and that Sanxingdui culture is the true origin of Chinese civilization. (The most widely accepted theory is that China was not one nation to start with but was originally comprised of many different small tribes and kingdoms that was later united to become what we know as China today). Among these kingdoms was the kingdom of Shu,where the people who built the site are believed to had came from. Very little is known about Shu compared to many other groups that were present in the area known as China today. So for a long time very little attention was given to the kingdom of Shu as scholars generally did not believe that Shu culture played a major role in forming the foundation of Chinese civilization. But just the magnitude and the diversity of the most recent discovery at Sanxingdui have caused researchers to rethink. According to many written accounts from ancient times the people of Shu were very different from the other tribes. They had their own unique customs and held a belief that was different from the rest of the kingdoms. From the artifacts that were unearthed it is very clear that the people who built Sanxingdui site were sun worshippers. And from here it’s reasonable to believe that the people of Shu were followers of the Religion of The Sun.
The kingdom of Shu disappeared mysteriously at some point in history,and since very little is known about it,what became of it has been the subject of speculation for some time. However according to one Chinese source,it is likely that the last ruler of Shu was killed by the force of Qin Shi Huang,or the first emperor of Qin Dynasty that unified China for the first time in history. With the death of the last ruler of Shu,the kingdom itself,along with its culture also vanished from the surface of the planet. It was possibly because the ruler of Shu,along with his people refused to subjugate themselves under the rule of Qin Shi Huang. With Qin Shi Huang’s coming into power,he was concerned that some people might rebel against him so he ordered the burning of countless books in the country that contained knowledge which was to be considered priceless treasure at the time,just so that no one would use these knowledge against him. Who knows what may have been lost with the destruction of so many written records at that time,among the books that had been burned,it’s very possible that some of them contained detailed information regarding the people of Shu and their beliefs. But because they were deemed by Qin Shi Huang as rebels and trouble makers,it would make sense for him to order all information about them to be destroyed and have them forgotten by future generations (i.e. Chinese people today). In China today Qin Shi Huang is often credited by the work that he had done to unify China and the name of the dynasty he established may have been the root word that gave rise to the name of the country in English as well as many other Western languages. China in Chinese language is refered to literally as “the middle kingdom”,which has very little linguistic connection to its name in English. Qin Shi Huang’s order of burning book is also justified by some historians as the right move to put down rebels,as this is similar to what the current government did when the communist regime was first established. However,this act is also being criticized by many Chinese,including myself,as the burning of books destroyed important knowledge that may be helpful to people today,that could have become an integral part of Chinese culture,but was lost in history forever. It is unclear what happened the people of Shu,there is very little evidence to suggest that they were wiped out brutally by the Qin dynasty,it’s more likely that they slowly assimilated into the larger population,bringing at least some remaining fragments of their culture into the society,what was to become the Chinese civilization.
Among the artifacts that have been unearthed in Sanxingdui,a bronze tree has been getting my attention lately. Here is a short video I found about it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yZPM-xJkFWM
No one is exactly sure what is the meaning behind each artifact that was unearthed since there has been no known inscription found anywhere at the site other than the ones that are said to have been taken away by CCP officials. A widely accepted theory suggests that the bronze tree represents the tree of Fusang,which is a mythical tree being described in The Classic of Mountains and Seas,or Shan Hai Jing as it is known in Chinese. It is an ancient Chinese collection of myths and legends that some followers of mystery schools in China believe to be containing the secrets to decipher China’s real past. In it the tree of Fusang is said to be two mulberry trees with their branches intertwined that grow at the place of sunrise in the East,which,should be no surprise,called Fusang since that’s what the mulberry trees with intertwining branches are named after. Even though it is said that the tree of Fusang are actually two trees,they are more often than not referred to as one tree. Chinese legend says that there used to be ten suns that rest on the canopy of the tree of Fusang,where they would take turns to light up the world. But one day they decided that they were to rise all at the same time. This caused a severe drought in the mortal world and a man with superhuman power named Houyi was sent to shot nine of them down with arrows,leaving only one sun to do its proper job. The suns on the tree of Fusang are sometimes depicted as birds,or crows to be exact. And the bronze tree has the right number of birds resting on them to be considered the tree of Fusang,although it is hard to tell what species of tree the bronze tree of Sanxingdui represents. The tree of Fusang is also said to be the stairway that connects heaven and earth,as recorded in The Classic of Mountains and Seas. The description of the tree of Fusang can remind one of Yggdrasil from Norse mythology,but instead of being in center of the world,it is located in the East at the place where sun rises. However,just like Yggdrasil in Norse mythology the tree of Fusang is considered.to be a stairway that connects different worlds,as said above. And is it possible that the idea of the tree of Fusang came from the beliefs of the people of Shu since this is an image represented by at least one of their bronze artifacts? And given that The Tree is one of the symbols of the Religion of The Sun,as it can be seen Nordic tradition and other Indo-European descendants of the Religion of The Sun,to me this is just yet another piece of evidence that the people of Shu used to practice it,and since Qin Shi Huang was not happy with the kingdom of Shu he tried to erase the evidence of their existence to the best of his ability. When the bronze tree was first discovered,it was severely damaged and it took researchers a lot of effort to repair it as explained in the video that I found. It is unlikely that the damage was made by the people of Shu,since it was them who built the site and used the artifacts as ceremonial objects. It is possible that the tree was an important symbol in their religion and Qin Shi Huang,who sought to destroy all evidence of Shu culture may had specifically given an order to ruin the bronze tree of Sanxingdui so when someone finds it in the future they would have no idea what it is. The demise of the kingdom of Shu and its culture may be one of the earliest persecutions of practitioners of the Religion of The Sun in known history,since this occured even before Europe abandoned peganism and turned to Christianity. Refusal to submit to the rule of the Qin dynasty may not had been the only reason that the last ruler of Shu was killed and the kingdom was gone,Qin Shi Huang likely knew how much truth about life and the universe the religion of Shu contained,and decided that it’s better for people to not know what they had known,and never to rediscover their secrets as a better way for him to stay in power. It’s ironic though that throughout his lifetime he’s been looking for elixirs of immortality as an attempt to avoid the eventual inevitable ending of his life,and to do that he consulted many mystics. Yet another example in human history of rulers trying to control people by denying them access to spiritual knowledge,yet wanting to use spiritual knowledge for their own benefit.
It’s very interesting that as I delve deeper into the mysteries of Sanxingdui,the more I feel a very bizarre sense of connection to it. Even though I am impressed by the other more well-known ancient sites around the world,at this point I can be certain that Sanxingdui is the site where I feel the most spiritual connection. It feels as if I was there in a past life or something…I am not exactly sure,but since I’ve been shown the Golden Sun Bird twice in my dream,maybe it does mean something to me…How I started my research on this subject matter is also very interesting. I first learned about this site when I saw a recommendation on my phone of an article that talks about this site. It seemed weird at first for it to be in my recommendation since I never even heard about Sanxingdui before,and there’s no way that I could’ve searched it on the web,so there’s no way that algorithm chose this article for me by pulling information from my search history. Even the conspiracy theory that suggests my phone is listening to me could not explain this strange recommendation since I didn’t even know about the existence of Sanxingdui,although I have searched the Religion of The Sun,it was only after reading the article that I made the connection between that archaeological site and the Religion of The Sun. I thought,”Oh,this is weird. I don’t know what Sanxingdui is,but somehow I got this recommendation,let me check it out. ” After reading it I was really shocked about what has been found there,and after digesting the information that I took in for a bit,I realized that whoever built this site may have practiced the Religion of The Sun,and decided that I needed to look more into this somehow,but wasn’t planning on this trip. It was when my Japanese friend suggested why don’t we both go to our home countries and look for traces of the Religion of The Sun there? At first I was a little bit hesitant about it but soon something seemed to have gave me assurance that I should go. I don’t know what it was but I had a strong sense of “This is what I must do”. And I also seemed to know that other than Sanxingdui,there are many fragmented pieces of the solar religion in my culture as well. So I was compelled by a very unexplainable force that told me to do what I do. I now believe it was a message from the divine that guided me on to this mission. Now as I’m feeling a connection to it that is only getting deeper,I feel that this was all meant to happen. People asked me things like,”You decided to travel to the other side of the world to do research just because a randomly recommended article on your phone? What made you make such a decision? ” My answer has been that I believe it was the call of the spiritual which brought me to where I am now. It is hard to describe it,and hard for others to believe. But it’s just as real as anything you can see,hear or touch. Those who are able to feel it feel it as clear as day.
PS: Also I’ve made a quick come back to Twitter with @emilychpeng11 ,there I wrote several posts about my latest findings on Sanxingdui with pictures attached,and some information about a potential wisdom bringer in ancient China a long ago named Cancong,who was also the first ruler of Shu. Information about how he is connected to Sanxingdui can also be found there. I also mentioned the evidence of the destruction of Shu culture by the Qin dynasty in my posts. These are some of my latest findings on Sanxingdui,and I think now is just the right time to share it with the world. While I was researching on Sanxingdui civilization I was not expecting to find such a disturbing ending to it,but given what was going on during that period of time in China and evidence from the shallow written records about the kingdom of Shu,as well as the signs of damage that existed on the artifacts when they were first unearthed,I am pretty sure this is what happened to the Sanxingdui civilization. Most may think the crackdown of the Religion of The Sun in the world began with the spread of major world religions like Christianity and Islam,include those cases that were addressed in Lara’s videos,but my research indicates that this movement probably has occured much earlier on in history before the alleged births of Jesus and Mohammed. And I cannot believe that I found out this is what happened to one of the earliest practitioners of the Religion of The Sun in my culture,and the sacred site that I feel connection to being devastated by the forces of Qin dynasty. This is something I did not know a while ago. While Taoism,which is also a branch of the Religion of The Sun,survived until this very day despite being practiced by only very few people,the demise of the kingdom of Shu and its culture is a tragedy in Chinese history. Had not Qin Shi Huang decided to kill the last ruler of Shu and the Sanxingdui culture was fully preserved,who knows what the Chinese civilization could be like today,maybe it would have been less likely to fall victim to materialism like many other parts of the world and authoritarianism. Well,I mean I don’t really know about that but I believe the Shu culture would make a huge difference in Chinese civilization if it had survived. Perhaps this is the reason why I had been called to do the work that I’m doing right now.
That’s beautiful, thank you for sharing Emily about your guidance to look into Sanxingdui, and your connection to this place. I also believe that the Divine guides us to do things, and its up to us to take it up or not. I have felt similar “pull” to look into the North Caucasus region, and after some time of researching its mythology and culture, my brother revealed to me that he had his Ancestry DNA test done, and it revealed a possible ancestry in Ossetia. It was quite a surprise to me, and felt quite magical. Did I maybe live there in the past? Not sure, but the guidance felt very genuine. I also feel a lot of connection to the Central Asia, and even to China to say the truth. And the people who have inhabited these areas in the ancient times are called Scythians. Now in her latest updated book, Lara wrote the following thing that caught my attention:
“In one of the Old Norse sagas, Odin is described as a king from Asia who had many possessions in what has been identified as Caucassus Mountains – the same place where the Ossetians now live. He was said to have fled Roman conquest by migrating to Northern Europe with “all the gods and many others”. There, he established kingdoms and temples, and taught the arts and runes.”
She then goes on to say that it is possible that the name “Odin” was already functioning as a title by that time, and that it was held by a king of Caucasus who migrated to Northern Europe, where he was seen as a god by the natives there. This made me me think that maybe Odin is connected to my tradition in some way too, even though this Odin described in this quote may not be THE Odin. :-)
Anyway, that’s just my share about the mysterious “consequences” that can happen as we start looking into the Religion of the Sun from a more personal angle.
Also wanted to say that I saw your pictures on Twitter, and thought they were really beautiful and symbolic too. The one with your hand stretching towards the sun, with all those shabby blocks of flats in the background felt quite powerful, as a call of a spiritual essence trapped in matter to its higher source – the spiritual Sun. :-) Can not comment there, as they suspended my account, but thought to let you know. Wishing you all the strength and continued Divine guidance!
Hi Lucia,I do believe that many things in the world are connected in ways that we may not quite understand or that most of us probably would not consider. I wrote in my latest Twitter post that Sanxingdui is on the same lattitude as the pyramids of Egypt,the Mayan civilization,and ancient Babylon. This fact has been noticed by many Chinese researchers,and they appear to recognize the significance of this fact,in that it must have NOT been coincidental,but very few of them have considered a possibility that all of these ancient sites were built to be aligned to each other and the heavens on purpose,as Lara has described in her books,by a lost global civilization that held profound knowledge about our existence and the universe. When I wrote a post about this on a Chinese forum dedicated to discussing ancient mysteries,it shocked many people. I didn’t get into too much detail about the Religion of The Sun though,since I discovered that when I try to talk to people about it,the majority of my audience would find it hard to believe. They would say to me,”This is crazy,there is no way for it to be true.” And they just wouldnt listen to anything I say on this subject matter anymore. I have talked about the Religion of The Sun to people I know in person,like to my family and friends,and to the students at a small college near my apartment where I work part-time as an English tutor. Even though I say there are people like Lingling who has shown interest in it and even voluntarily assist me with my research,the majority of people that I have spoken to just would not believe this. There is even a student who meets with me on a regular basis for tutoring who has said to me that his family come from a place near Sanxingdui and is believed to be the descendants of the people of Shu,and he can say for certain that there is no way his ancestors could have practiced a religion that venerated the sun,and he would not be open to all the evidence I found which suggest that was probably the case. And I have received ridicules from many other people for making the claim that the Religion of The Sun really did exist. So I thought it may be more convincing by talking about evidence-based facts that point to the existence of the Religion of The Sun,rather than bringing it up right away when talking to people,and that’s what I did on that forum,and that seems to work,as there are more people who responded to my post by saying that I have made a ground-breaking discovery and that they are willing to hear more about what do I have to say on this topic. I think maybe now is a good time to introduce them to the Religion of The Sun,and I need to write another post on that,which can be time-consuming and I’m still figuring out how exactly should I bring that up and talk about it in a way that is acceptable and understandable to them. I have to admit it can be challenging to get people to understand the Religion of The Sun. It brings a lot of frustration from time to time.
Odin is definitely a very interesting figure,there is a lot more to him than what the mainstream sources says about him. It is very possible that he was a spiritual teacher who traveled around the world to spread the Religion of The Sun,and is known to some cultures as Wotan/Votan. Personally though I don’t think I can feel any connection to him,perhaps he is not the being that is responsible for guiding me on my spiritual journey,I don’t know. I do feel a connection to the being that has spoken to me in my dream twice,although I have no idea who he was(I say it’s a “he” because the voice sounded masculine to me,but the being only appeared to me in the form of the Golden Sun Bird) I guess I really want to know who he is,but since he did not tell me nor appear in a form that would make himself identifiable,the more I think about it the more I feel that it’s probably something not for me to know.
As for the pictures I posted on Twitter I was sharing what I call “spiritual moments” in my life. I cannot remember how many times I have experienced them since I started my quest in China,but every time I see the sun I seem to be reminded of the Spiritual Light that is within all of us. And recently as spring rolls around many trees around me have started to bloom and sprout new leaves,that also seems to be a reminder of something. Among the flowers that I see the pink ones seem to draw my attention the most. I have also started to feel that pink is a color that speaks to me,for reasons I’m cannot fully explain,pink flowers capture my attention a lot more often than flowers of other colors,and also something tells me that maybe I should consider using this color on my personal altar…also bought myself a pink phone case and changed my wallpaper and keyboard into the color pink as well. I am not sure why I did all this,but this could have a spiritual meaning to me and perhaps pink could even be the color of my aura…I also saw pink light in my dream,which is very interesting.
PS: I have continued to document the “spiritual moments” that I experience,I have taken pictures of the pink flowers and trees growing new leaves,I am having trouble posting them on Twitter though since there is something wrong with my vpn,which is a software that I use to access blocked foreign websites like Twitter,now that software is malfunctioning I have no choice but to be off from Twitter for a while…
I arranged a private meeting with that student who claims his family is believed to be the descendants of the people of Shu and asked if he was serious about his claim or was he just joking. He answered that he is serious about it. I thought it would be a wonderful thing if he could open his mind to the Religion of The Sun,and that he and his family could adhere to their spiritual heritage. I decided this time I would start with evidence-based facts,and thought that this might convince him . However,he was still reluctant to hear about it,and he told me he thought this meeting would involve something that has to do with English language,but turned out to be about this nonsense that I have already talked about once. He already had the tutoring session that he was supposed to have today,but I felt compelled to talk to him about this spiritual matter because he has this very special connection to the people who practiced the Religion of The Sun a very long time ago,but now it’s clear that this spiritual tradition has been long-lost in his family. He is a die-hard atheist who knows little to nothing about spirituality,even though he admits that there are people who live near the place where his family originated that do cerebrate solstices. I tried to explain to him that this could be the evidence,but he responded by saying that this is merely a coincidence,and his ancestors,the people of Shu,could not have practiced a form of sun worship,let alone holding spiritual knowledge. I then asked him what does he know about his ancestors,he answered that they were a bunch of savages that lived in a primitive tribe and didn’t have a religion,and he doesn’t need evidence prove it,as for the discovery at Sanxingdui,he said it’s simply “bronze age people.doing random art”. I could tell that he never did any research about his ancestors,and this is just a belief that has been psssing down in his family for countless generations as he explained. He said to me he is convinced that the Religion of The Sun never existed and all the evidence that I could provide would not be conclusive. I tried to talk to him more but he just wouldn’t listen,and eventually this private meeting had to end,with him leaving the room unconvinced,while I didn’t even get a chance to talk about the fruits of my research. This student is only one of the people who have ridiculed me for thinking such a religion and a lost global civilization once existed on the surface of the planet. Getting them to understand the Religion of The Sun can be even harder. I’m not sure what I should or should not do next,my primary goal is to find missing pieces of the puzzle in my own culture,but I would also feel glad if I could contribute to the revival of the Religion of The Sun in some way. To do this would require getting more people to know about this religion and what it teaches,but I have been receiving more criticism than approvals. Reviving the Religion of The Sun is indeed no easy task it seems. Even someone whos ancient ancestors may have practiced such a religion could turn a blind eye on it.
Hi Emily, you probably didn’t mean it as such, but that situation with the student was quite hilarious to read. ‘Not this stuff again…’
I’ve had occasions in the past where I was thinking and was so sure certain friends of mine would also be totally interested in what I was doing, but when excitingly sharing it they didn’t get it, or actually it seemed like they could understand but in some sort of deep way chose to reject it.
Yet recently the opposite happened too, someone who I thought could never be open to these subjects had made an incredible and unbelievable change and I couldn’t believe the level of insights they were showing and how on profound subjects we were talking on the same page… It was really moving.
Anyway I think the approach you used on that website sounds great. Maybe just give people the facts and the mysteries you’ve found first (that Sanxingdui is on that same latitude was news to me btw, amazing!) Afterwards from your enthusiams perhaps naturally the questions will arise in those who are interested. You could then give more facts of a possible bigger picture for example.
Because in a way the picture Lara has shown is also one that took a journey to come to. I can see how it might be quite a lot, or even too much, to expect people to get it straight away like that. So maybe it’s more about helping them get on that journey. I personally consider it an amazing thing that you are there to help inform people about all this.
Today I had a very interesting clear dream about ancient sacred sites and their connection to each other and their connection to the planet.
It was in the afternoon as I was practicing to astral project. After I relaxed my body and focused my mind, I went into sleep fairly quickly and woke up after a nice nap without any projections or dreams that I could remember. I decided to try again and at the same time it had already started to rain. My roof allows to hear the rain quite clearly and for me it is a pleasant sound, so I decided to focus more intensely on the rain and all it various sounds it makes.
I found myself on a large plateau with a clear view in all directions. In a very peculiar way in the dream I was shown, and distinctly felt, how ancient sites are related to each other and also why their locations and size are very important.
In the dream I understood that in very ancient times, sacred sites were placed on the planet according to a specific grid that connects them according to higher knowledge. It became also instantly clear that there are no straight lines on earth, but curved closed forms, like circles and ellipses.
The alignments of sacred sites seem also to depend on the size of these closed forms and their specific location relative to the earth. The closed forms are part of a larger blueprint of a specific grid and there is a reason why the sites were placed on this grid, which from the dream I could not decipher completely.
I woke up with a feeling of joy and wonder. I also focused to stay only with the information from the dream and not allow my mind to go on intellectual tangents, because thoughts of ley lines and ‘the way of Viracocha’, already popped in my mind after I woke up, but they seemed to feel incomplete, fragmented in their spiritual message.
Some of the information as described above may be known knowledge to some people, but to receive it in a special way that I have never thought of, through a dream, makes the knowledge much more profound.
I was left with a sense of wonder to try to explore more and learn more of this interconnectedness of sacred sites of ancient antiquity.
Thanks for sharing that experience, I’ll definitely be keeping it in mind… I suspect there are alignments with constellations, based on some recent things I’ve been looking at, do you think it could be related?
I also very recently had a related dream about Egypt, and how different cities represented different things, like perhaps there were cities that corresponded to the major solar events of the year. I’m curious to see if that’s true…
Following Gold Veins
At one point in my research, my friends and I had a giant bulletin board covered with sticky notes, each one representing a massive research project we were considering undertaking. It was overwhelming how little we knew, how much we had to learn, and on top of it all we had just discovered a library with a wealth of obscure books we couldn’t find anywhere else.
One night I had a dream that I was wading in a river looking for gold in the side of the river bank, representing my search for the truth about the past. I saw a vein of gold, and that if I continued to follow and mine that vein, I would get more gold. There was also a vein of soot, which indicated fires upstream.
I took the dream as timely advice for my research: if you find a source with good information, keep digging until you get it all. If you find something suspicious, better to move on as there may have been problems with that source that make it untrustworthy.
A Gap in History
One aspect of the Incan archeological sites that fascinated me right away was the polygonal masonry. One night, as I walked up a narrow walking street in the historical district of Cusco, Peru, I ran my hand along a wall of particularly massive polygonal stones, rough in appearance but smooth to the touch… I felt that there was an unknown history that they had lived through, and prayed to them to tell me their secrets.
Around that time, I found myself out of my body in the astral plane. I was standing in front of a glowing white wall, indescribably beautiful, made in the polygonal style. Behind me I sensed the presence of Wirakocha, the creator god of the Inca. He indicated that I should examine the wall. It was called “The Way of Wirakocha”, and referred not to the physical path he followed, but to his spiritual legacy through time. It went a short distance to my right, where it was reduced to rubble, and then continued further on intact.
The impression I got from this experience is that there was a dark age in Incan history, a span of time where history was completely lost and discontinued. I’ve since come to believe it was probably a worldwide loss of history, most likely caused by the climatic catastrophes 12,800 years ago (younger dryas).
Hi Julian, as I have been re-reading the experiences here, this experience of yours, about the “gap in human history”, caught my attention in relation to an information I stumbled upon a few months ago regarding a huge ancient cave in Bulgaria with many intriguing prehistoric carvings in it.
Interestingly, one of those carving has been interpreted as a “tape of human history” by a researcher who has been studying the carvings for over a decade. According to his interpretation, this carving depicts the different ages of humanity successively following one after another in a more-less regular manner, until being abruptly interrupted by a catastrophe of global proportions that completely cut the “tape”: https://magnaaura.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/prishestvie.jpg (the carvings are read from right to left). After that, things were resumed again, but on a lower scale. This researcher also says that the eras started with the age of Gods, and from there started successive decline of humanity. He is explaining about this carving from about 52:00 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgjep48QMvM
And even though this researcher is adding a lot of his own ideas into the interpretations, there seems to be quite an obvious message in this particular carving about the history being abruptly interrupted and then resumed again, just like you were shown in your experience.
I’m so glad you’re collecting these experiences!
In 2018-2019 I traveled through South and Central America, and had a couple meaningful experiences in OBE’s and dreams related to the religion of the sun. What my experiences had in common was that they related to the history, myths, and archeological sites I was visiting and researching at the time. Sometimes, the questions and desire to know became more than a passing curiosity, and whenever I could get this to happen, experiences would come easily and help propel what I was investigating. I’ll post some that stood out.
Quite recently, I had a lucid dream that came to me unexpectedly. For the last year, I have been researching diligently and intensively various aspects of the Ancient Religion of the Sun, with a constant sense of wonder what happened in our past, because I really want to know more about the big picture of what our history is all about.
At night, I woke up and walked around a little and decided to listen to the river that flows past my house. At night the sounds of nature are so much different and calm. So I decided to sit in my comfortable chair and listen to the various sounds that the water makes upon its journey towards the valley below.
Not long after, I found myself floating in space, looking down towards our planet. One part of it was very clear, just like some of the pictures that you can find online. What I saw was an enormous crater that seemed to be very old. Within it, I was also shown smaller craters in quite a special and symbolic way, telling me something about the big picture of our history. Later, this was even clearer, because I was unable to find this crater in an online search, due to its unusual shape. What I understood from this experience was that I was looking into the history of earth and the history of humanity, where the symbolic shape of the crater guided me on certain important time frames that I am researching at the moment.
What I also understood within the context of our own history, is that humanity has been subject to many great cataclysms, influencing our own spiritual development in different cultures and different time frames and that the scars of earth can tell us important information about time periods and contexts wherein we can place our search for our history.
I am truly grateful to be able to research the Ancient Religion of the Sun through the guidance of Mark and Lara’s publications and trough my own personal mystical experiences. I am also very grateful to be able to learn more about my inner self, because all of this seems to give direction to my life and to the things that matter most to me.
I had an interesting clear dream a month or so ago where I came upon an area with stone buildings/pyramids (I wasn’t 100% clear so some details are a bit mixed). They seemed Maya (or at least American) in origin. I went into one to investigate and to my surprise saw artifacts of other supposedly unrelated cultures like ancient Egypt – including a small statue of what I think was Mary and a kind of nativity scene.
In the dream I was surprised, as although the cultures were supposed to be unconnected, the artifacts didn’t feel out of place at all. It was like each thing was simply an expression in another style of the same concept.
While I have of course read Mark and Lara’s books, and further looked into connections between cultures that preserved aspects of the original Religion of the Sun, this was the sort of clear dream that isn’t just from the subconscious. I understand it was showing me that there were things in these different cultures that symbolize the same thing, and that these cultures are more connected than we are generally led to believe.
On the night of August 14, 2020, I had a strange dream about the mythical gods Hades and Persephone, something I have never experienced before in a dream.
I have been very drawn to these myths, they also link to the area of my ancestry, and I have been researching these for a few years.
Hades, in ancient Greek and Roman mythology is the god of the Underworld and Persephone is his wife/consort. According to the myth, every year during the colder months, Persephone resides in the realm of the dead with her husband before returning to her mother, Demeter, goddess of agriculture, to join her in the realm of the living during the spring and summer/warmer months.
Although this dream was brief, it left me with an impression that Hades and Persephone held very high and important roles as judges in the Underworld, similar to Osiris, the Egyptian god/judge of the Underworld. They were silent during the entire dream and the dream was set up in a way that I was observing an event as a spectator, similar to watching a performance on a stage. Although in this dream I did not know why I was there in their presence, I wasn’t afraid of them nor did I feel threatened by them in any way.
It has spurred me to find out more. I think having these astral experiences are beneficial to anyone doing this type of research as they give guidance on whether you are going in the right direction or not.
These are all wonderful experiences, thank you Lara for gathering them here. After reading that Amaterasu experience, I realised how in fact during WWII all these spiritual legacies were misused, like in Germany they misused the word “Aryan” and the ancient symbol of swastika to push their agenda, and similarly in Japan with Amaterasu and the possible Divine heritage they did the same. It looks to me almost like some sort of orchestrated global “operation” by the forces of darkness at that time, trying to twist the meanings of these important spiritual legacies in people’s minds. To an extent, they succeeded, but I think the truth will be revealed sooner or later!
I also wanted to post a link to one near-death experience I watched some time ago, where a woman (Beverly Brodsky) had a NDE after a motorcycle accident, and was taken to “tour” the universe with a Being of Light, perceiving all the stars, planets and galaxies as living Beings, a kind of “celestial family” that she was a part of, and also experiencing the beginning of creation inside of what she calls a “central sun” or “a centre of all spiritual universe”. The most relevant part can be seen from 11:00 to 15:30 of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zEzAEtQ3A
Hi Lucia
I agree, these experiences are so inspiring to read, I am looking forward to reading more of them.
I recalling watching a video on a series of interviews of people who had near-death experiences. One experience that stood out for me was from a woman who described how she was connected to the entirety of the universe and noted how “familiar” it was to her – I believe it was the same woman featured in your video. I had watched it some time ago and it left such a lasting impression on me that I still think about quite often.