The largest known form in the universe has just been discovered. (7 May 2015)

A few weeks ago the Royal Astronomical Society published an astonishing paper. Exploring an area in space known as the Cold Spot astronomers have identified the largest known structure in the universe.

Roughly 3 billion light years away from us, astronomers call it a Supervoid. It is colossal. It is shaped like a sphere.

Its major feature is its emptiness. At its core is a magnetic field that drains energy from light, like a black hole. It is the size of 10,000 galaxies. (Our own galaxy The Milky Way contains up to an estimated 400 billion stars.) It is 1.8 billion light years in diameter. 

The scale of it is mind-boggling. Its emptiness is — I struggle for appropriate words — mysterious and engaging.

INTERPRETATION

In archetypal psychology and astrology, in the sciences of interpreting symbols and signs, it is always significant when a new feature of the natural world reveals itself. In our very human way we interpret these events as having personal meaning for us.  This is normal and natural.

Walking in the streets or landscape you might have noticed an animal and sensed there was a message there for you. Black cats. Crows. Owls. A cloud.

When I am out on my motorbike I notice birds that fly across my trajectory and take care to heed their advice. Perhaps it is just superstition. Or innate body wisdom.

In the same way, when a new form is discovered in the cosmos, symbologists interpret it as revealing insights about the human condition. In 1977 a small planet was found in the outer solar system between Saturn and Uranus. It was named Chiron after the centaur in Greek mythology, who is also known as the ‘wounded healer.’

How then are we to interpret the discovery of this Supervoid? The size of 10,000 galaxies. Empty.

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A few days after first reading about it, my psyche began to call it the Slumbering Colossus. I mused that it sleeps for aeons. When it awakes the empty space will be filled with newly birthed galaxies and stars.

This concept comes from teachings in the Hindu Vedas, Theosophy and Steiner. They propose that the universe contains great entities that have cycles of activity and of rest, of manifestation and of sleep. These entities are themselves enfolded within a single source so extraordinary that our minds are incapable of grasping its reality; this is the One About Whom Nothing Can Be Said.

This suggestion of great cosmic entities in a rhythm of activity and rest possesses a natural logic. All around us we can see cycles of birth, growth and death — the breathing of life.

All around us too we can sense that nature is filled with presence and identity. Mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, trees, flowers, blades of grass and much more, all have a presence.

Even bigger, the Sun has a presence and identity. The oldest known prayer The Gayatri addresses the soul and inner being of the Sun. Our planets were named as identities: Mars, Saturn, Venus… Constellations too: Aquarius, Leo, Sagittarius .. . 

But when we get beyond our solar system and observable constellations, it all perhaps becomes too big. Our own galaxy the Milky Way is rarely personalised, though sometimes called Great Mother. Beyond our galaxy the sheer grandeur and mystery of it all may be encapsulated in that single and for many provocative word God.

In this way of seeing things, galaxies possess a presence and identity. Like a mountain, or star, or forest. This is natural.

This Supervoid then can be met as a colossal presence. We minuscule specks of consciousness on this tiny green blue planet have discovered it.

I know that it is presumptuous and naive to describe it as a Sleeping Colossus.

Yet it is a presence. It is a feature of the natural world.

Attempting to name it is just a human instinct to grasp its meaning and understand more.

Do animals move around following ley lines?

This was the question recently put to me by a researcher from a wildlife charity.  I loved the question because it focused my attention on that wonderful interplay between animals and landscape.

Immediately I could imagine any animal – a squirrel, an elephant, a spider – moving through their environment. What was drawing them in a particular direction? What was guiding the path they chose?

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Some of you may not be familiar with the concept of ley lines. Others of you will be very familiar, so forgive my brief description.

Ley lines are thought to be flows of energy that move through the landscape. Some people are very sensitive to them.

Dowsers are very interested in tracking them.

Australian Aborigines called them Song Lines and say that people, especially shamans, are attracted to go ‘walkabout’ along them.

In the British Isles the students of Earth Mysteries are fascinated by how many sacred sites, significant places, churches and places of worship seem to be located on very long straight lines. For example, the most famous of these long lines in England is the St. Michael Line which runs from Land’s End in the south west through to the Norfolk coast in the east.

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There is much discussion about the nature of leys. What exactly are they?  In the ‘Ley Lines and Ecology‘  booklet that I wrote quite a while ago, I suggested that there were several types of ley.

Earth’s energy matrix 
Just as human bodies have a matrix of energy, identified as meridians in Chinese medicine and acupuncture, so planet Earth also has an energy body.  Some of these energy lines are several miles high and wide and extend thousands of miles.  (That makes sense, doesn’t it, given the size of the Earth relative to a human being.) Some can be tiny too.

River imprints 
These are the echoes of where water used to flow.

Electromagnetic flows 
These are related to the electromagnetism inherent in any body, but amplified here by the minerals in the ground (eg: where quartz meets clay meets granite) and the way in which tectonic plates exert pressure on each other.

Animal path imprints 
These are the echoes from the repeated movement of animals along a particular path.

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So to come back to the original question: do animals follows ley lines?

My intuition is that like most things in nature, it must be an interplay between all the dynamics of the landscape and the circumstances.

Just as migrating birds use electromagnetic sensitivity to guide their flight paths, but are thrown off course by changing winds and thermals, so all animals interact with their environment.

No matter how strong a ley or path echo might be, if there is an obstacle or predator in the way, the animal will obviously change direction.

The squirrel flows along branches from tree to tree, but shifts direction where appropriate.  (Or evolves into a flying squirrel.)

We humans of course create tracks too. It is obvious in our traffic systems. (Imagine our planet without traffic. Would there still be the energy imprint of where the motorways ran?) You can see how we create tracks too in crowded high streets and busy station concourses as hundreds of people instinctively make flows and adjustments. Waterloo Station, London

When we walk in landscape we are also guided by well-worn paths.

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How beautiful it is then to walk free of determined tracks and to move intuitively through our environment. This free movement can be in forests and mountains and deserts. It can be in parks and gardens. It can be in our homes. It can be on dance floors.

How liberating and healthy it is to follow our instincts and play with the song lines and invisible leys to dance with life.

The Malvern Hills
 

What is the difference between spirituality and psychism, psychic phenomena, metaphysics, the occult, mediumism and so on.

I want people to understand the difference in order to save them the kind of confusion I experienced and which took me almost fifteen years to clear up. As a teenager and in my early twenties, I came across many people with interesting powers. They could move objects with their thought energy. They could clairvoyantly see things. They could talk with angels and spirits. They could make things happen. And I was ready to give them respect and to sit at their feet and learn.

Unfortunately most of them were not very nice and not very wise. I can still vividly remember one man, sitting in a sofa, who looked at me with a glance that said watch this. He then directed his energy so that someone walking through the doorway suddenly fell backwards as if pushed by an invisible force. The man then glanced back at me with mischievous eyes, inviting me to become his student. I did not

But I was perplexed. How was it that this prankster had these powers? I assumed that these kinds of powers went hand in hand with spiritual development.

VISUALISATION AND IMAGE WORK

I was also confused by the whole business of visualisation and imagery, which was presented as such an important part of spiritual development. I was not very good at image work. I could not imagine vivid colours or detailed images. Other people seemed to do it easily and I assumed they were more spiritual than me. My confusion increased when these people talked about their visions in a boastful way and did little interpretation of what the visions actually meant. These people were also usually closed to exploring different interpretations of their imagery. The simple question how do you know this isn’t just your imagination? was not welcomed. But it is such a crucial question.

As I progressed, I began to realise that the ability to manipulate energy or work with imagery did not mean that I or someone else was spiritual. I began to understand that clairvoyance, psychism and energy manipulation were skills and tools like plumbing, embroidery, mechanics or banking. Being expert at them or having a natural talent for them was meaningless when related to spirituality. Spirituality, for me and I dare say for most people, is about a deepening connection with the wonder and spirit of life; is about wisdom, compassion and expanding consciousness; is about harmoniously serving the community.

Clever Trevor, the name we gave to the man who was so expert at moving energy and invisibly shoving people around, was not interested in spirituality.

HIGHER AND LOWER SIDDHIS

Years later, reading some of the Hindu scriptures and in particular a wonderful, short scripture called The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I finally came across clear teachings that described these metaphysical skills and abilities, and said explicitly that they had nothing to do with spiritual attainment. In the Hindu scriptures these occult skills are called siddhis. There are higher siddhis and lower siddhis. The lower ones are to do with clairvoyance, psychism and the manipulation of energy. The higher ones are to do with expansions of consciousness, discernment and the ability, for example, to blend with new dimensions.

There is also an explanation of why people have these lower siddhis. They are a test. The souls lesson is to dismantle the illusion that siddhis give status and use them purely for service.

My partner of 20 years, Sabrina, is also clear about this. She comes from an ancestry of healers and psychics, and is clairvoyant. She suggests that clairvoyance is sometimes for remedial students. Getting the visual perception may be exciting or entertaining, but you then have to interpret it. The higher siddhi, she suggests, is direct knowing.

Here is a simple example. Psychically, Adolph Hitler could appear in your meditation disguised as a beautiful child. The entrancing image is, in fact, a trap. So you have to sense through the image to its vibration. You cannot assess the essence of something from its form and appearance. Direct knowing is quicker and more accurate. As God says at the very beginning of Conversations with God, spiritual communications happen through feelings. Go into a forest or beautiful place of worship and be still. You will feel beautiful things. You feel it; you know it. For most people, in my opinion, it is a distraction to want the lower siddhi of having visions. I would far rather feel and know directly.

BREATHING FIRE

Returning home from holiday once, there was a message on my answering machine from a scientist friend saying, William, Sabrina, you might want to come over. We have a Ceylonese miracle man staying with us who can breathe light and fire.

We did not even unpack, but zipped over to witness this man who could make light and fire manifest in his breath. More than that, if he breathed it into your forehead or chest, it felt warm and energising. I was mightily impressed and began to put some time into promoting him. I then discovered that he was unable to keep his hands off women, had an uncontrollable gambling habit and the emotions of a five year old. I disengaged.

The phenomenon of the fire in his breath was useful. It opened people up to the possibility of other realms and dimensions. But his spiritual development did not match his miracle-making.

Of course I am still intrigued by and enjoy psychic powers and phenomena. I really like them. But I don’t confuse them with spiritual development.

Some thoughts about the fall of Atlantis and the echoes that we may still feel from it today. (The image is of the Grianan of Aileach in NW Ireland.)

These thoughts were triggered a few weeks ago when I was in a London hotel room on a Saturday night, resting in the middle of teaching a weekend workshop. I find it easy to relax with television and I found two programmes that I wanted to watch. One was the X-Factor, which I watch week by week with my family. The other was a very moving documentary about a group of autistic children rehearsing to put on a musical. For ninety minutes I shifted between the two programmes and watched them both simultaneously. (For those of you who do not like television, what can I say?)

I did not, however, do this multi-viewing mindlessly, but was aware of strange similarities between the two programmes — in particular fragile egos doing their best before a public audience. I was also aware of the technology and thankful for it, which made me think of Atlantis.

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There is a theory that the same souls who developed Atlantean crystal technology also, many thousands of years later, developed the similar technology, which today supports radios, television, telephones and computers. Atlantean technology and today’s information technology are also similar in having created a global web of communications. (Whimsical comment: why do so many computer geeks look like bearded mythological creatures and play strange fantasy games?)

Of course, some people don’t believe in Atlantis. The last time I mentioned Atlantis in an article one friend, who is into many spiritual approaches, said, ‘You’ve gone too far. Mad!’

I had various lines of argument that I could have employed with him:

In all myths and legends, there is a grain of reality

There all these strange buildings being found on the sea bed

The impossibility of humanity evolving to this stage in just a few thousand years

The repeated memories of Atlantis that arise in therapy and spontaneous regression

The psychic and clairvoyant perceptions of it

I did not mention any of those. I only said: If Atlantis was real for one of the founders of western civilisation, Plato, then it’s real enough for me.

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Over the years I have been in several landscapes where I have been overwhelmed with psychic impressions of a previous civilisation. A couple of years ago I wrote about the vast landscape temple of the Venice lagoon and how that space may have been used in Atlantean times for huge theatrical ceremonies and rituals. The astral gods, goddesses and mythic beings that took part in those rites still seem to inhabit Venice, which partly explains the extraordinary atmosphere and magic that people experience when they visit the city.

In the British Isles you can, in my experience, find similar echoes in certain places. The Griannan of Aileach in Donegal stands out for me. This circular monument on the top of a hill stands at the centre of a landscape temple, like the best seat in a theatre, next to an expanse of water — and across the water, if you have the senses, you may discern the presence of great beings who carry a haunting and beautiful atmosphere. All along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington, I have also felt the vibration of these sirens. For two years I lived high up in the Atlas Mountains of southern Morocco alongside the Sahara Berbers who are said to be direct descendants of the last Atlanteans.

Whenever I encounter these echoes of Atlantis, I am touched and haunted by their strange beauty. For me, it is like the sound of the whales calling across hundreds of miles of water. I feel joy and a strange grief.

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According to myth and legend, Atlantis was a wonderful era spread across many continents. Its arts and its religion are reputed to have been spectacularly beautiful, and many of its people knew how to work artistically with spirits and angels. This psychic work was so developed that a whole world of beautiful and extraordinary beings became engaged co-creatively with humanity.

At the same time, humanity’s baser instincts were not well managed in Atlantis. Ego and power trips became rampant. Many cults became interested only in glamour, power and illusion. The vibrations of this negative and deluded culture became so great and terrible that Earth herself could no longer tolerate them. In reaction, there were terrible earth changes and the landmasses that supported Atlantis sank into the sea, mythically remembered in memories of the great Flood.

Looking around today, it often seems to me that I can discern waves from that terrible fall, which still affect us. All those souls who were in Atlantis at the time will have memories, mainly unconscious, of that awful disaster. Especially if they enjoyed the fruits of its beautiful psychic culture, they will have a haunting sense of grief for a paradise lost. There was never an opportunity to grieve the loss of that beauty.

There are other souls who were in Atlantis, who never fully experienced its beauty, but only the negativity and the trauma of its fall. The memories of that trauma express themselves today, it often seems to me, in a subtle form of hysteria that may be triggered by any idea that the world is about to end. Innocently unaware of their emotions’ true source in the tragic fall of Atlantis, their unconscious memory and trauma are projected on to a future event. Their concern and anxiety about what will happen, has in fact already happened.

This old energy field and memory of a global disaster are reinforced too, in my opinion, by the vibrational horror of the two World Wars, the ensuing Cold War with its threat of nuclear holocaust and the many minor wars and awful genocides that have also taken place. It makes sense that people will connect with that whole disastrous and frightening atmosphere and assume it will happen again — like someone who has been bitten by a dog and then feels the same fear around all dogs. It will happen again, is the communication from their unconscious minds.

Only when we have recovered our true history and understand the way that people resonate with energy fields, will many things become more clear.

For the record, I want to assert that my general intuition is that all is well and that we will pass through the next decades without any kind of disaster that resembles either the fall of Atlantis or the World Wars. It will, I imagine, be an uncomfortable passage as we work through the profoundly negative effects of celebrity culture and mindless global capitalism  — but, in my opinion, in my heart and my gut, I feel that all will be well. I will carry on enjoying television and trust that my head is not buried in the sand but mindfully optimistic.