Hallowe'en: one of the most important days of the year

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Hallowe'en (the "evening" or "even" or "e'en" prior to All Hallow's Day) is one of the most important holidays of the year.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn explores the significance of this important night in Hallowe'en: A Festival of Lost Meanings, which at only 33 pages (in the "archive online" e-book format) does not take very long to read and might be a worthwhile text to peruse and contemplate each year at this time.

In that short treatise, Kuhn writes:

But long established customs do not take their rise out of nothing, nor out of wayward random impulses. So we must ask: why the wild revel? Why the free fling in buffonery, in rough horseplay, in wanton, if limited, destructiveness, in the ludicrous and the grotesque? Why the freedom to indulge in sexual suggestiveness? Why the temporary let-down in moral restraint? Why the wearing of masks? What can be the hidden import of the general community turning out and acting like an untamed animal for one night in the year? Why the candle shining through the grinning features of a pumpkin, or the apple in a tub of water? 5

Kuhn argues that this night carries tremendous spiritual significance for our benefit and blessing in this incarnate life, but that we lose much of that benefit when we do not have any understanding of the ancient language of symbology through which the ancient wisdom intends to convey its message. He laments:

We continue to go through the outward forms of these rituals, almost totally oblivious of their meaning. So far from feeding the natural hunger of our collective psyche on the rich food of sublime import in these formalities which our spiritual health demands, we are near to starving them on the dead outer husks of former semantic constructions of sublime truth. The form survives, the meaning is lost. 6

Below are links to some previous posts from Hallowe'ens past:

• "Get ready for Halloween! (and for All Hallow's Day, with the teachings of Alvin Boyd Kuhn)"

• "All Soul's Day"

• "The Pleiades, the Upton chamber, ancient traditions and Halloween" 

• "Happy Halloween and All-Hallow's Day! 2017"

• "A Festival of Lost Meanings"

• "Descent unto Kurukshetra: this incarnate life"

• "A meditation on 'Some Words with a Mummy,' by Edgar Allan Poe"

On page 57 (in the original pagination) of his Hallowe'en: A Festival of Lost Meanings, Alvin Boyd Kuhn suggests that the symbology of the candle inside the pumpkin pictures our current condition in this incarnate life, with the candle representative of the divine spark of our spiritual nature descended into and flickering within the "vegetable gourd" of our physical nature.  

He also argues that the wearing of masks and costumes on this night signifies the same thing -- and that the very reason this allegorization of incarnation is observed on the night of October 31 is that this night falls 40 days after the autumnal equinox (indicative of the annual descent into the "lower half" of the year, when hours of darkness outlast hours of daylight, and hence representative of the descent of the spiritual soul into the physical realm). The human child is within the mother's womb for forty weeks before birth: thus Kuhn argues that the 40 days prior to the celebration of the festival of incarnation (Hallowe'en) represents this period of "gestation" after the soul initially descends into the realm of matter (after which it is born into the world as a human baby in a physical body).

While Kuhn's essay tends to focus on the contrast between the physical nature and the spiritual nature, the topics he explores in this Hallowe'en essay can very easily be seen to be illuminating the ways in which the ancient myths and ancient traditions dramatize the critical topic of the recovery of the authentic self. Everything he says about the "lower self" (or even the "foolish aspect" of our nature) can clearly be seen to apply to the "egoic mind" which we create over time, beginning in early childhood -- and which separates us from our authentic self, our essential self.

And yet, like the candle burning deep inside the pumpkin, our authentic self is always present, though buried deep within the hard protective covering of the persona of the ego which we construct for ourselves.

How do we recover our connection to our authentic self? The ancient myths and inherited traditions stand ready to show us -- if we can just begin to listen to them in the language that they are speaking!

Previous posts involving ghosts

Below for your Halloween preparatory reading and enjoyment are presented a selection of previous posts involving the subject of ghosts:

• "Scary ghost story (West Point)"

• "Don't miss the intriguing interview with Sheldon Norberg on New Dimensions Radio"

• "A ghostly trio of haunted posts for Haloween"

• "Chris Carter's Science and the Afterlife Experience"

• "Is the Cavalier Hotel really haunted?"

• "The Cheltenham Ghost"

As an added bonus, above is an interview I did with the inimitable Greg Carlwood of The Higherside Chats from October 31st, 2016 in which he asked me to discuss some first-hand accounts of possible ghostly encounters at West Point (link to the above YouTube version here).

Enjoy!

Toccata and Fugue in D-minor and the Inner Connection to the Infinite

Above for your edification and enjoyment is a video of an amazing and masterful performance of Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D-minor, played by Gert van Hoef of the Netherlands upon the organ in the church of St Stephen in Hasselt (Stephanuskerk Hasselt), built between 1380 and 1466.

The towering piece of music, reverberating through the acoustic space of the gothic church, builds a glorious stairway connecting the finite to the infinite, like the ladder in Jacob's vision described in Genesis 28.

The incredible performance by the young Gert van Hoef (born in 1994) displays a level of virtuosity that is a joy to behold and which exemplifies the connection between the artist's "challenge to achieve a pitch of mastery within a difficult medium" and the "continuous exercise in the development of human consciousness" described by John Anthony West in his writing, cited in this previous post entitled "The Pursuit of Mastery and the Road to Consciousness."

As I argue in that blog post, one of the reasons that there is a connection between the long road to achievement of such level of mastery and the critical quest for recovery of the connection to the Authentic Self is that performing at such a level necessarily involves the transcendence of the endless doubting and analyzing and hesitating which characterizes the egoic mind, writing that

the kind of mastery demonstrated in the keyboard videos above, for example, facilitates (and even at some level requires) the transcendence of the chattering, doubting, endlessly analyzing, endlessly assessing and comparing persona of the "egoic mind." At first, of course, the egoic mind will be very much involved (and even very necessary) in the initial hours of practice and skill-building -- but at some point, after hundreds of hours have been devoted towards the chosen form of expression, the level of skill that begins to develop will enable the state of "flow" or "no mind" or "playing above yourself" which transcends the egoic self and facilitates the emergence of the (often repressed and therefore elusive) authentic self.

You can almost see the external reflection of the internal connection to the infinite in the facial  expression and entire overall demeanor of the virtuoso artist during the performance, in which at times he appears to enter into a kind of reverie.

The look on Gert van Hoef's face after he plays the final chord of the piece and removes his hands from the keyboard appears to me to express a kind of awe at what has just taken place.

Enkidu's Quest: what does it mean to us today?

Above is a new video I made yesterday entitled "Enkidu's Quest: what does it mean to us today?" featuring a short selection from my most-recent book, The Ancient World-Wide System: Star Myths of the World, Volume One (Second Edition).

The passage in the video can be found on pages 484 - 485 of the book, in the chapter entitled "The Gilgamesh Cycle and Atrahasis" (Chapter Fifteen), and involves an exploration of some of the profound messages within the ancient Mesopotamian myth of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

The texts containing this ancient myth are found on clay tablets, rediscovered during the early 1800s among the ruined ancient cities of the cultures of the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians (including the Babylonians), and constitute some of the oldest extant texts known at this time. The myth of Gilgamesh and Enkidu and their adventures can thus be known for certain to have been preserved in writing as far back as 2000 BC and perhaps even earlier, although the most well-known versions were written down upon clay tablets about 1000 years after that. 

The figures and events described in the Gilgamesh cycle can absolutely be shown to be based on the constellations and heavenly cycles, indeed upon the very same system of celestial metaphor which underlies and forms the foundation for virtually all the other myths, scriptures, and sacred stories preserved by cultures around the globe from time immemorial as their "original instructions" (to borrow a most apt phrase used by Peter Kingsley without implying that Peter Kingsley accepts or endorses anything that I write or argue, although he is certainly acutely aware of the terrible problems which have arisen due to the abandonment or loss of connection to those "original instructions," which historically has often been deliberately inflicted due to the influences of colonialism and imperialism and the ideology of literalist christianity).

The fact that some of the earliest texts we can examine today can be shown to be using this world-wide system of celestial metaphor indicates that this system is extremely ancient, and indeed it appears to have been fully-formed well before the ancient tablets of Mesopotamia were inscribed, and before the inscriptions in the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt were carved (which themselves go back to around 2400 BC). 

Certainly we can also demonstrate that the very same ancient system of celestial metaphor which informs the myths of ancient Mesopotamia, preserved on the ancient clay tablets, also forms the foundation for the characters and episodes described in the scriptures of the Bible. Indeed, when the cuneiform writing system with which the texts are inscribed was deciphered, and the fragments of the tablets were painstakingly reassembled beginning in the nineteenth century (a process which continues to this day), the similarities of passages in the ancient Sumerian and Akkadian texts to episodes found in the Bible -- and to the very wording of the descriptions in the texts -- hit the men and women of the late 1800s like a thunderbolt.

You can read more about the reassembly of the clay tablets and the discovery of these parallels to the scriptures of the Bible in The Ancient World-Wide System, as well as in this previous blog post about  the young man who first encountered the Deluge account in the clay tablets, after they had lain forgotten beneath the ruins for more than 2000 years.

And yet, as ancient as are the texts describing the mythical figures of Gilgamesh and Enkidu and their many adventures, they continue after all these centuries to speak out to those who care to listen their profound message, a message which we very much need even today in this very present moment, a message which I'm convinced was intended for our benefit and blessing.

That message involves (among other things) the recovery of our own self. 

Modern teachers and doctors on the very cutting edge of their profession inform us that our alienation from our own essential self is the single most-untreated cause of human suffering (see for example the work and teaching of Dr. Gabor Mate, as well as that of Dr. Peter Levine and others in their field).

And the world's ancient myths, our "original instructions," can be shown to be telling us the very same thing, and to be showing us the way towards the recovery of the self and the repair of our alienation from who we are.

I hope you will enjoy the above passage from The Ancient World-Wide System regarding Enkidu's quest and what it means for us today. Please feel free to share it with those who might find this information to be helpful in any way.

Celestial foundations of Revelation 9

I've just published a new video entitled "Celestial foundations of Revelation 9."

In it, I discuss the pivotal importance of an assertion found in Appendix 36 of Hamlet's Mill, referring to the work of previous scholars including philologist and astro-mythologist Franz Boll (1867 - 1924), who believed that the figures and events depicted in the Revelation of John (the final book in the conventional arrangement of the canonical New Testament, so-called) are based on the stars and constellations in the region of the Milky Way.

Although the authors of Hamlet's Mill (Professors Hertha von Dechend [1915 - 2001] and Giorgio de Santillana [1902 - 1974]) do not actually walk the reader through the specific celestial correspondences in the texts of the Revelation, their mention of the events described in Revelation chapter 9 (in which the "fifth angel" is given the key to the bottomless pit, from which arises "smoke as the smoke of a great furnace," and from the smoke "locusts upon the earth," who are given "power, as the scorpions of the earth have power") and their suggestion that this passage -- along with the rest of the events in the book of the Revelation, as argued by Franz Boll -- is celestial in nature was absolutely pivotal in my own journey of realization that the characters and episodes of the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (so-called) can be shown to be based on celestial metaphor virtually from start to finish.

I feel it is particularly important to realize that the texts of the Revelation of John (also anciently called the Apocalypse of John -- the word "Apocalypse" being derived from Greek and meaning "unveiling" and the word "Revelation" being derived from Latin and also signifying "unveiling" or "revealing") are not literal in nature but rather metaphorical, esoteric, and celestial.

The world's ancient wisdom, given to virtually every culture around our planet upon every inhabited continent and island, is not about literal and external personages and events, but rather about each and every man and woman in this life, and about our own internal and ineluctable connection to the infinite realm: the realm of spirit, the realm of pure potential, the realm of the gods.

I hope this latest video will be helpful and worthwhile to others. Please feel free to share with friends and family members who might find this discussion to be of value. And, as always, you can "subscribe" to my YouTube channel to receive notification whenever I publish a new video.

There's something big out there!

Above is a video from CalTech showing evidence pointing to some massive but thus-far undetected object far beyond the most-distant known players in our solar system.

The video, published in 2016, features astronomers and scientists from Cal Tech who noted that "the six most-distant known objects in the solar system with orbits exclusively beyond Neptune all mysteriously align in a single direction." The scientists go on to declare that "this orbital alignment can only be maintained by some outside force." See also this image showing those trans-Neptunian orbits, along with the caption explaining that their strange alignment must be due to some thus-far unknown outside force.

In other words: there's something big out there.

Only some outside force with significant mass can cause all the orbits of these distant extra-Neptunian objects to be pulled in one direction relative to the sun.

For well more than a decade, Walter Cruttenden -- author of Lost Star of Myth and Time (first published in 2005) -- has been presenting evidence arguing for the conclusion that our own sun is in a binary relationship with another star, likely a very distant but very massive star.

In the years since he has been making this argument, more and more evidence continues to surface which appears to support the hypothesis that Walter has been arguing -- including the orbits discussed in the video above, which caused the scientists at Cal Tech to conclude that there must be some outside force causing these orbits to align in a single direction.

The scientists at Cal Tech posited the existence of a possible "Ninth Planet" far outside the orbits of any of the known planets. However, in the ensuing years no such planet has been found thus far. 

This lack of discovery of the object whose gravity is acting upon the solar system objects which we can observe has thus caused astronomers to push their estimation of the postulated location of that hypothetical object further and further from our own sun -- and as they do so, they must then postulate that the object must be more and more massive (since it is farther and farther away, and yet still able to cause these effects on objects which we can observe in our solar system).

As Walter Cruttenden explained at this year's Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge,  which took place this past weekend October 4th through 6th, within just the past few weeks, researchers Jakub Scholtz of Durham University and James Unwin of University of Illinois at Chicago published a paper suggesting that the "anomalous orbits of trans-Neptunian objects" might be due to the presence of a primordial black hole (PBH), which would have the necessary mass but which would be difficult to detect (and thus explain why the proposed "Planet Nine" has not yet been detected).

In any case, it certainly appears that evidence continues to arise which supports the theories that Walter Cruttenden has been arguing for more than a decade prior to the Cal Tech proposal of 2016. In other words . . . there is something big out there!

How appropriate, then, that the Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge, which Walter Cruttenden launched nearly twenty years ago, also explores the overwhelming evidence which points to the existence of some lost civilization of tremendous antiquity, predating the oldest conventionally-known civilizations by many thousands of years.

Just as the astronomical evidence continues to mount which points to the existence of some very massive star (or even primordial black hole) far beyond the orbit of even the most-distant known objects in our solar system, whose influence can be detected due to its effect on the orbits of planets and objects which we can observe, even so we can also see compelling evidence from around the globe which points to the existence of some extremely advanced culture or civilization which is currently so ancient that the possibility of its existence is not acknowledged (or even admitted as a possibility) by conventional academia, because its "orbit" is so much farther back in time than even the most-distant conventionally-recognized civilizations (such as ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, and the ancient Indus-Saraswati civilization, for example).

The analogy comparing the influence of a distant object whose gravitational impact upon closer objects reveals its existence, even before it is actually discovered, to some more ancient predecessor whose influence can be detected in later cultures or texts is a very powerful metaphor, and it has in fact been made before, as long ago as 1908.

In 1908, Olive Bray wrote in the introduction to his translation of the Poetic Edda (also known as the Elder Edda) that the existence of this older body of texts, containing some of our most important surviving sources of Norse mythology, was postulated before the manuscripts of the Poetic Edda itself came to light. The existence of some older body of Norse mythology could be perceived, Bray explained, by the observations of texts that we did have (including the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, also known as Snorri's Edda).

Bray specifically compared the existence of this older body of mythic text, whose influence could be seen on later texts even before the older source was finally revealed, to the discovery of the planet Neptune, in his 1908 introduction. He wrote:

The finding of the first and most complete MS ["manuscript," referring to the text of the Poetic or Elder Edda] was somewhat dramatic, and resembled the long-awaited discovery of the planet Neptune. Magnus Olafsson had suggested the former existence of a more "ancient Edda," and we soon find this hypothetical work regarded in the light of a hidden treasure of wisdom and ancient lore, of which all existing fragments were but "the bare shadow and the footprint" [page small-roman-numeral ii].

You can read the entire introduction for yourself, along with Olive Bray's translation of the Elder Edda (and the Norse text as well) in its entirety online here.

As I go on to say in my own discussion of the Norse myths (and their celestial foundation within the very same world-wide system of metaphor which underlies virtually all of the other myths, scriptures and sacred stories preserved among cultures on every inhabited continent and island of our planet), in Star Myths of the World and how to interpret them, Volume Four: Norse Mythology, published just over one year ago,

This charming metaphor is all the more appropriate in that it can also be used to describe the postulated existence of some presently-unknown but extremely influential culture or civilization of extreme antiquity, whose system of spiritual metaphor or mythology has somehow influenced the ancient myths, scriptures, and sacred stories of virtually every culture on our planet, including those which (like the outermost planets known prior to the discovery of Neptune) are the "farthest out" civilizations known to current historians and academics, such as the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, ancient China, and the ancient Indus-Saraswati civilization. 

We can see the influence of this even more extremely ancient culture, one now forgotten or at least unacknowledged, in the myths of cultures as widely dispersed in space and time as those of ancient Greece and ancient Mesopotamia and those which survived right up to the present century among the cultures of the Americas, of the islands of the vast Pacific, and of the Aboriginal people of Australia, as if the gravity of some enormous but distant body is subtly bending their "orbits" towards itself [page 31].

Below is a short video I recorded using my mobile phone discussing this metaphor (an attempt to add a video to "Instagram TV" -- because I was asked so many times at this year's CPAK whether I was using Instagram that I decided to give it a try). While recording it, I mistakenly referred to the Younger Edda as the "Poetic Edda," which is obviously an error, but if you look past that mistaken reference the metaphor should be fairly clear.

Olive Bray in 1908 used the gravitational influence of Neptune as a metaphor to describe the perceived influence of some even more ancient body of myth -- the Elder or Poetic Edda -- prior to the actual identification and confirmation of that older body of texts.

The metaphor is just as applicable today, to the influence of some extremely ancient, and thus far still unacknowledged, culture whose influence can be seen on even the "most-distant" civilizations known to conventional history. Its influence can be detected in archaeological evidence, but its influence can also be detected in the ancient myths, and the fact that the myths of cultures around the globe, on every inhabited continent and island of our planet, can be shown to be built upon the same world-wide celestial system (a system which was already fully mature by the time the very oldest texts of Egypt and Mesopotamia were written).

In other words, the evidence points compellingly to the conclusion that "there's something big out there," in the far reaches of remote antiquity, farther back than the guardians of conventional history has thus far allowed themselves to look.

The evidence for something big "out there" beyond the most distant known solar system objects continues to mount, and will eventually bring about a change in the paradigm that has prevailed up to now regarding the structure and mechanics of our solar system.

The evidence for something big "out there" in the remote antiquity far predating any conventionally-known ancient cultures is equally irresistible, and will eventually bring about a change in the paradigm that has prevailed up to now regarding the ancient history of humanity and our planet.

The ramifications of this paradigm shift will be enormous.

An unforgettable weekend at CPAK 2019

photo by Anyextee, October 6th, 2019.

Still energized and ecstatic after an incredible weekend with everyone who attended the 11th Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge, which took place this year from October 4th through 6th in Newport Beach, California.

It was an unforgettable event with a very special and positive spirit, made possible by Walter Cruttenden and his family and the entire team at the Binary Research Institute and related organizations. Their hard work behind the scenes ensured that the event went so smoothly that everyone attending (some from other continents, even as far away as Aotearoa) could focus on the subjects being explored, and enjoy conversations that might not have been possible anywhere else.

In the past, I have written about the Norse myth involving the wisdom being Kvasir, who arises from the contributions (in the form of spit) of many other gods and goddesses and who is in some way wiser than each one of them individually. There is a profound teaching embodied in this ancient myth. As I said in a blog post from April of 2016 regarding the origin of Kvasir:

Somehow, when the Aesir and the Vanir reconcile their differences, and spit one by one in to the sacred vessel to signify their treaty, a being arises out of the spit-bucket that is so wise that none can put to it a question to which Kvasir does not know the answer, a being who travels the world imparting wisdom to all. 

This would suggest, on the most esoteric level, that when we come down into this incarnate life which embodies an endless struggle or "interplay" between material and spiritual realms, out of this struggle (if we can somehow integrate the two) will arise new wisdom which can be obtained in no other way: and which is so wise that there is no question whose answer cannot be found if we can access this being born of the struggle and subsequent pact. 

On a more practical level, it suggests that in the struggle and interplay between different people, new knowledge and wisdom can sometimes take shape that none of the individual participants could have seen on their own -- new insights which, like Kvasir, rise up out of the swirling "pot of spit" created by the interaction of all the different parties, but a being which is in some ways even greater than the sum of the individual "spitters."

I certainly felt as though the confluence of all the fantastic and engaged men and women who converged this year upon the 11th Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge in Newport Beach brought about this very spirit of new knowledge which in some way was greater than the sum of all the parts. 

And this mythological comparison is most apt (if I may say so myself) because the very struggle in the Norse mythology between the Aesir and the Vanir themselves has to do with the awe-inducing motion of precession, which of course forms the subject and unifying theme of this conference. For more on the precessional aspects of the Aesir - Vanir war, and of the future cataclysm of Ragnarok, please check out my 2018 book Star Myths of the World, Volume Four: Norse Mythology.

I felt particularly privileged to have had the opportunity to present a talk at this special conference this year, because I was speaking alongside some fantastic researchers, scholars, experts, and outright savants. I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in these important subjects consider purchasing the video files of some or all of the presentations (when they become available: at present, only video from the previous CPAK events up through 2016 are available on the following link), through the appropriate section of the CPAK website here.

One of the most touching moments of the entire weekend took place during the presentation by the pioneering researcher Robert Schoch, whose courage and insight in partnership with the late, great John Anthony West was absolutely instrumental in revealing the archaeological and geological and cultural evidence pointing towards the existence of an extremely advanced but now forgotten culture which must have predated all the conventionally-acknowledged civilizations (including that of ancient Egypt) by thousands of years.

This was the first CPAK since John West left this physical incarnation, and Professor Schoch was obviously very profoundly moved by that fact. When he asked for those present to give applause for his departed friend, Robert Schoch told us, "He's listening."

There was more than one ovation during Professor Schoch's presentation for John Anthony West.

At this year's event, it was my pleasure to meet Anyextee (pronounced "N - E - X - T" as if saying each letter individually) and his wife Karina, who worked closely with John West and who are continuing to lead tours exploring the profound esoteric mysteries of ancient Egypt, as well as tours to the great centers of the Maya civilization, and who are in fact working with the same Egyptian guide who participated in John West's Magical Egypt tours, as Anyextee explained in an interview earlier this year with Joe Rupe on Lighting the Void (to listen to that interview, you can go to the iTunes page for Lighting the Void and continue scrolling down until you get to March 12, 2019, or you can right-click (or control-click) on this link and either open the audio player to listen or download the file to a device. 

Anyextee was gracious enough to snap some photos during my presentation (which followed right after his own), one of which is shown above. This year, I spoke on the subject of "Stars, Myths, and Recovering your Self."

It was also an honor to meet the team behind the Lost Origins podcast, Andrew Tuczon and Christopher "C. K." Kingsley, who attended this year's CPAK as sponsors and who recorded live interviews with each and every speaker, which will be published as individual podcasts in the upcoming Third Season of the popular show. 

It is a completely different experience to record an interview in-person as opposed to over the web, and one I have only had the opportunity to do a couple of times previously. There is so much more personal interaction and communication via eyes and expressions and body language during an in-person conversation, and I really appreciated the in-depth questions and insights that Andrew and C. K. brought to the table. I think you will enjoy it whenever it is eventually aired -- as I'm sure you will enjoy their interviews with the other fantastic speakers over the weekend, from Robert Schoch to Carmen Boulter to Alan Green to Robert Edward Grant to Christopher Dunn to Steven Lin and all the others.

I cannot say enough positive things about all of the presentations given by the various authors and researchers at this year's event. I would highly recommend everyone interested in these important subjects visit the website of each speaker in order to learn more.

I also cannot say enough about the conversations I had with everyone I met this year. The level of engagement, sincerity, and goodwill towards others was remarkable and a big part of what makes CPAK so special.

In this seemingly-connected era, in many ways it is easy to feel more disconnected than ever from our fellow men and women who are occupying this space and time along with us. I am convinced that it is vitally important for us to connect in person with friends as much as we can, and on a regular basis. Conferences like CPAK are a wonderful way to do this, if at all possible, but also simply spending time together with friends (in small groups or one-on-one) in a more familiar setting.

Thank you to everyone who attended this year's Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge, thereby making this memorable weekend possible, and to all those who worked so hard to make it a success.

image: Anyextee (left) and David Mathisen (right) after we both finished our presentations at CPAK XI, October 06, 2019. Photo by Karina Itzcoatl.

Perseus, Medusa, and You

Here's a brand-new video I just published entitled "Perseus, Medusa, and You."

It examines some of the evidence which shows that not only are the world's ancient myths built on a foundation of celestial metaphor, in which virtually all of the characters and episodes correspond to specific constellations and their heavenly cycles, but also that the original antecedent of the metaphors have their source and origin in the invisible realm, the infinite realm -- the realm of the gods.

The stories are not simply "based on the constellations" -- the celestial metaphor originates in the unseen realm, which is then mapped onto the constellations, which themselves (because they occupy the infinite realm of the heavens above) are perfect for helping us to "see" the realities of that Invisible Realm.

In this new video, I explore some of the aspects of the myth of Perseus, Medusa, and the Gorgons to demonstrate that the details of the story originate in the celestial realm -- but that beyond their correspondence to the constellations in the night sky, the figures in this well-known myth convey powerful truths regarding our own situation in this incarnate life, and regarding our own relationship to the realm of the infinite, which is in fact always present, always available, and indeed absolutely necessary to us as we navigate the pitfalls of life in the seemingly-material plane.

Please feel free to share with those who would find this information to be interesting and helpful!