Caves are prevalent images in the world of myths and legends. The cave is thought to be closely related to the symbolic Heart, and is often the site for initiation ceremonies where the Self and Ego unite. They can be secret passageways to an underworld, places in which to make contact with the powers and forces that have their source in the realm of Light.

It is said that Christ was born in an underground stable and, at his crucifixion, was interred within a cave. The Holy Land is filled with caves, including the praying places of David and Solomon and one at Mount Carmel in which Pythagoras resided before he returned westwards.
 
When he was still in his early twenties, Leonardo Da Vinci disappeared for two years between 1476 and 1478. In one of his very few written personal diaries, he tells of finding a vast and mysterious cave that he was drawn to enter and spend some time inside. It is speculated that he had an encounter with someone, or something, in there that enlightened him.
 
Porphyry (234-305AD) called the cave "a symbol of the universe". Indeed, it is often identified with the world-centre, the heart of all and the meeting-place of gods and men. Plato (428-348 BC) refers to the cave in his allegory as the world in its obscurity and illusion.
 
Such caves were arenas where the gods came, like the North American Mayum, who was the manifested messenger of the Great Spirit amongst the Cheyenne. He showed himself in a sacred cave hidden in the Black Hills to which representatives of all the tribes came for instruction.
 
Some of the sacred caves in India are chaityas, basically like a cathedral or assembly wherein divine ritual was held and the stupa or dagoba is housed. Others are viharas or monasteries possessing small cells and general halls for devotions. At Rajgir is the Pippala Cave in which the Buddha sat to meditate after his noonday meal.
 
In my magazine articles over the years I have written about the Way of the Iatromantis – a path of enlightenment from Ancient Greece whereby the initiate underwent a ritual called Incubation in a cave or tomb-like setting. It is time to re-visit this teaching and I will write more about it soon in an upcoming article.

As we come to the celebration of Easter 2022, I thought this post would be appropriate.

The following passages are extracted from the Rudolph Steiner Archive:

“Egyptian Myths and Mysteries (GA 106) Lecture 10 12 September 1908, Leipzig”

Here we come to a significant concept of esoteric Christianity, which can show us how this Christianity is permeated with the highest truths. We come to the remainder of what confronts us in the Baptism. Through the fact that the Christ-being took possession of the three bodies (physical, astral and etheric) in which the ego-being of Jesus formerly abode, a Being was bound up with the Earth that had earlier had its dwelling-place on the Sun. It had formerly been bound up with the Earth until the moment when the Sun departed from the Earth.

At that time the Christ also departed, and from then on he could exercise his power upon the Earth only from outside, in the moment of the Baptism, the high Christ-spirit again united himself in the full sense with the earth. Formerly he worked from outside, overshadowing the prophets and working in the mysteries. Now he was actually incarnated in a physical human body on the Earth. […]

A new force was implanted in the Earth. What earlier had worked from without, again became united with the Earth, and thereby the attractive power between Sun and Earth will grow so strong that Sun and Earth will again unite, and man will unite with the Sun-spirits. It was the Christ who gave the possibility that the Earth can again unite with the Sun and be in the bosom of the Godhead.

In closing I add a link to my Easter Message from four years ago.

As I write this in the third week of March, we experience the Ides of March (15th) then St Patrick’s Day/ my birthday (17th) followed by the equinox after midnight Sunday (so technically 21st March).

In line with my series of articles on the return of the Superhumans, there is a deluge of articles being posted on social media every day about the rising feeling among sensitive humans that we are about to experience something big on planet Earth. Naturally, this may be fuelled by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate catastrophes occurring around the world – including the massive floods near where I live in Australia.

The crop circle pictured above appeared in England right on the June solstice last year (2021). It appeared at the time of a solar eclipse – which is depicted by the large circle on the left representing the Sun. On the right is a smaller circle – the Earth – surrounded by another circle which is the orbit of the Moon (shown in top right corner). The item that has caused the most chatter online is the circle with a cross on it, shown at the lower right side of the crop circle.

Some people believe the crossed circle represents the coming of Planet X; others say it is a planet-sized UFO; religious believers think the cross is a sign of the return of the Saviour. I sense that it is connected with the Sun, and corresponds with photos taken by NASA (see below) that spotted a crossed circle near the Sun during the previous year.

You will have your own opinion. Meanwhile we continue to observe the signs and await the coming changes.

NASA's STEREO observation mission spotted this circle (above) with a cross flying beyond the Sun. The incident took place on 29 February 2020 - the images were later posted on the “Hidden Underbelly 2.0” channel, dedicated to mysterious events and sightings.

As we near the end of the month I will take a moment to reflect on the great Giordano Bruno, who was born in this month – February 1548, and died in this month – February 1600.

Even though there is compelling evidence that certain teachers in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece understood that the Sun was at the centre of our solar system – and that Earth and the other planets revolved around it – Giordano Bruno was one of the brave pioneers of the renaissance who taught about Heliocentricity… and by ‘brave’ I mean he was killed for his teachings and remained defiant right up to the end.

The Theosophists later took a keen interest in his work, and when I wrote a magazine article a few years ago about their grand old mansion in Sydney called The Manor, I found that they established their radio station early last century with call sign 2GB, after his initials. The station is still going and very popular today. Dr Annie Besant, one of the founders of Theosophy, claimed to be a reincarnation of Bruno.

Bruno's infinite universe was filled with a substance—a "pure air", aether, or spiritus—that offered no resistance to the heavenly bodies which, in Bruno's view, rather than being fixed, moved under their own impetus (momentum).

Bruno's cosmology distinguishes between "suns" which produce their own light and heat, and have other bodies moving around them, and "earths" which move around suns and receive light and heat from them. Bruno suggested that some, if not all, of the objects classically known as fixed stars are in fact suns. He has been recognized by some as the first person to grasp that "stars are other suns with their own planets.”

In early 1600, Pope Clement VIII declared Bruno a heretic, and the Inquisition issued a sentence of death. According to the records, GB is said to have made a threatening gesture towards his judges and to have replied: Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam ("Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it").

The World is presently undergoing a shift in power, from West to East. China and Russia have joined forces while the Western powers – even as they continue to conduct business with them – denounce them. The UK and USA are determined to see war, but it does not have to be that way. The important thing is for us in the West to maintain our own principles and seek to co-exist harmoniously on the planet.

When Western Civilization was consciously created in the sixth century BC, the Immortal Superhumans who established it knew there would be an end to the cycle right about now. Apollo, Hermes and Aesculapius continue to guide us.

There is no need to panic. Keep attuning to the Source and express your own Light, Life and Love.

My own purpose to assist in preserving the Light here in Australia, which will, in time, be a special spiritual sanctuary for the World. Old Ways should be preserved and handed over to the new hybrid humanity now incarnating on this planet.

Many people are intuitively feeling the shift. Today, Steven Strong wrote on his ‘Our Alien Ancestry’ blog that artifacts in his possession will “assist and guide in the upcoming global transformation. What began when the ‘magic box’ was activated by Original Elders at Uluru on December 21, 2020, and complimented by over 15,000,000 souls in deep meditation, was the beginning of the end. Two paths now exist, and each soul must choose wisely as the time to make the correct decision is running out.”

His words are in line with the thought of the Cosmic Consciousness movement here in Australia. To everything there is a season…

Last year’s discovery of a 3,400-year-old city near Luxor in Egypt has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds since Tutankhamun's tomb nearly a century ago.
 
This was the largest of ancient Egyptian cities and named "tehn Aten," or the dazzling Aten. It has also been dubbed the "lost golden city" that was searched for (but never found) back in 1935 by a French excavation team. Only about a third of it has been excavated so far.
 
The team uncovered mud bricks stamped with Pharaoh Amenhotep III's name. That helped them estimate the city was built 3,400 years ago. The city dates to the reign of Amenhotep III, one of Egypt's most powerful – and wealthiest - pharaohs, who ruled from 1391 to 1353 BC. He was the father of Akhenaten and grandfather of Tutankhamun and, most significantly, it was he who introduced his son to the Sun Disc they called the Aten.
 
According to one of the researchers, the city was Amenhotep III's “love letter to the god Aten.” When ancient Egyptian kings built, they would dedicate their construction to a deity and associate themselves with it - in this case, the solar deity.
 
Aten was depicted as the Sun Disc. Archaeologists typically associated the Aten with Amenhotep III's son, Akhenaten (whose birth name was actually Amenhotep IV), who worshipped Aten instead of the chief Egyptian god of the sun and air, Amun. This discovery shows that Amenhotep III believed in Aten too, which explains why the Pharoah named the city "tehn Aten," meaning the dazzling Aten.
 
What the team unearthed was the site of a large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life. The dig revealed a large number of valuable archaeological finds, such as rings and other jewellery, coloured pottery, scarab beetle amulets (pictured above) and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III.
 
Several areas or neighbourhoods have now been uncovered, including a bakery, an administrative district and a residential area. The team also found wine caskets in the city and containers of dried meat from the butchers. The archaeological work continues and there is much more yet to be found, including more to the back story of the Aten.

25 December is symbolically revered by Christians around the world as the day that Jesus Christ was born, bringing light and hope into the world. My favourite historical era was Ancient Rome and back then they celebrated the same date as a festival called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, meaning the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. Going back centuries before that, it was shared around Persia, Egypt and Greece as the birthdate of Adonis, Mithras and Osiris, among others. The solar deity of Ancient Rome actually had two titles: Sol Indiges, the ‘invoked or native Sun’ and Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun.
 
Sol Invictus represents the birth of a Spiritual Sun which lights the souls of people. In addition to being the Sun behind the physical Sun we see in the sky, it also represents the inner Sun which is born within us as we take our first breath upon incarnation into this world. I have called it in my articles the Solar Heart – it is the unseen Heart within us that draws the Vital Life Force – the Light, Life and Love of the Cosmic into our Soul.
 
The parallels between “Christian and pagan” traditional celebrations on 25 December are neither a coincidence nor a contradiction, but reflect the merging of beliefs and customs over time. Christmas preserves the traditions our forebears started so long ago: gift-giving and feasts from the Romans; wreaths and evergreen trees from the pagans; visits from Santa Claus in the Western countries later. From the Celts to the Christians and the Vikings to the Victorians, they have all added traditions to the rich tapestry of the holiday we call Christmas.
 
This does not detract at all from the Christian perspective – it is a fitting time to celebrate the birth of Christ… most importantly, it is a celebration of birth and life!

At the time of writing – on the last day of November 2021 – a number of articles are appearing in the mainstream press carrying statements from scientists that up to half the water on Earth originates in the Sun. The source is a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, by a team of researchers from the UK, Australia and America.
 
Basically they are saying water is, or was, brought here on Solar Winds. One analysis prefers to think that it is a kind of alchemy, whereby hydrogen atoms from the Sun hit other particles of cosmic dust and convert them to H2O.
 
The Sun contains every known element, including oxygen and hydrogen. In most parts it is too hot to form molecules, but in the cooler places, for example those that exist in the middle of sunspots, molecules of H2O do indeed form. There may not be oceans there, because of the temporary nature of sunspots, but nevertheless, water does exist on the Sun.
 
One article that appears in The Conversation ends by saying: “So, while sipping your next glass of water, ponder the curious thought that Earth derived up to half its water from the Sun.” Not so much food for thought, as liquid for thought!

According to an article published by Ancient Origins this week, archaeologists have uncovered stone blocks that are helping them piece together the history of the once magnificent and extraordinary temple, dedicated to the Sun god Ra in the El-Matariya area of Cairo’s upmarket suburb of Heliopolis. Heliopolis, which literally means the “City of the Sun,” was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, being occupied since the Predynastic Period (circa 6000 – 3000 BC).

The inscriptions on some of the blocks mention the regnal years 13 and 14 (366/365 BC) as well as the dimensions and the materials used. From this it can be concluded that they belong to the reign of King Nactanebo I (379-363 BC), also known as Nakhtnebef, the founder of the 30th Dynasty, the last dynasty of native rulers of Egypt.

Some fragments of a statue of King Ramesses II, a part of a baboon statue, a statue base and pieces of a quartzite obelisk of King Osorkon I were also found as were some worship facilities such as an offering table of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC). These indicate that royal support and investment in the Temple of the Sun and creator god at Heliopolis continued uninterrupted. The excavation work provided additional evidence for the 30th Dynasty and the Ptolemaic Period (the rule of the Macedonian Greek 33rd Dynasty from 305 BC to30 BC) at the site.

To read the full article, follow this link to Ancient Origins.

Two months ago, I quoted a short excerpt from the Great Hymn to Aten - one of the most influential writings of Ancient Egypt - which bears witness to Pharoah Akhenaten’s profound connection with the essence of the Sun. Here is a little more of it:

“You created the sky far away in order to ascend to it,
to witness everything You created.
You are alone, shining in your form of the living Aten.
Risen, radiant, distant and near.
You made millions of forms from yourself alone:
cities, towns, fields, and the river's course.
All eyes see You above them
as the Aten of the daytime on high.
When You are gone, (...) your eye is gone (...)
which You have made {for their sake}
But even then You are in my heart
and there is no other who knows You,
only your son, Nefer-kheperu-Re, Sole-one-of-Re,
whom You have taught your ways and your might.
The ones on Earth come into being by your hand,
in the way You made them.
When You rise, they live.
When You set, they die.
You yourself are lifetime itself,
one lives through You.
All eyes rest on beauty until You set.
All labor ceases when You rest in the West.
When You rise, You make all arms firm for the King,
every leg is on the move since You founded the Earth,
You rouse them for your son, who emerged from your body.”