Dreams – Showing the real me?

dreams

By Stephen Russell-Lacy. Brain-scientists have discovered that during dreams, the brain is electrically active like when we are awake. However, it is active in a chemically different way. Certain chemicals present during waking are reduced by half during non-dream sleep and are absent altogether during dream sleep. And so, science explains dreaming as just a … Continue reading Dreams – Showing the real me?

Sacred things – Do they matter?

sacred

Ordinary life is filled with cares and concerns. We each get taken up with earning a living, the needs of our family, the problems of where we live or whatever. Don’t you sometimes yearn to re-discover a sense of balance and composure? Many people do this by re-connecting with a magical place where they have … Continue reading Sacred things – Do they matter?

Communication of higher awareness.

communication

Has a new kind of uplifting perception or intuition ever come to you? Perhaps a sense of wholeness or timelessness, or an encounter with a side to reality that goes beyond the world as we usually know it. A short moment when you sensed that something new has been revealed – something usually hidden? Communication … Continue reading Communication of higher awareness.

Angels and other beings – What do stories reveal?

angels

Review of “The Sacred History: How angels, mystics and higher intelligence made our world” by Jonathan Black. Quercus Editions 2013. This book is about angels, demons, gods, magic, giants, fairies, miracles and other such things. These appear in many folk stories, fables and myths, some found in sacred writing, others passed on by word-of-mouth. Jonathan … Continue reading Angels and other beings – What do stories reveal?

What was the mystical knowledge of Ancient Egypt?

meaning of mystical knowledge

The Egyptian artist was never a literalist, but used symbols to represent inner concepts. He was free to combine human and animal parts, yet show the resulting image in a ‘seamless harmony’. A simple example of this is shown in Egyptian grammar. To write the single personal pronoun ‘I’ the writer would draw a human … Continue reading What was the mystical knowledge of Ancient Egypt?

What can we learn from ancient Egypt?

Swedenborg on hieroglyphics

In the 18th century, when modern Egyptology was just beginning to be introduced to the Western world, and before even the hieroglyphics were deciphered, Emanuel Swedenborg, the Swedish scientist and a Christian mystic wrote,: “The Egyptians were in possession of religious representatives and symbolic signs. Their hieroglyphics served to denote spiritual realities: and people knew … Continue reading What can we learn from ancient Egypt?

Do spiritual symbols mean anything today?

One example of a spiritual symbol is the image of a tree of life. This is a universal symbol – appearing in ancient wisdom. We find it across cultures, religions and mythology. It turns up as the Yggdrasil (the world tree) of Norse religion, as part of the Jewish Kabbalah and as an Armenian religious symbol, to mention just a few examples.

What does the Tree of life mean to us now?

The Tree of Life appears in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and also the last – the book of Revelation. At the beginning and the end. It’s almost as if it’s the framework into which the rest of the Bible fits.

The Zombie Survival Guide

by Max Brooks Published by Duckworth 2009 ISBN 978 0 7156 5318 2

Are you alive and kicking? Not so sure? Perhaps you feel your own level of vitality, vim, and vigour are at a low ebb. If so The Zombie Survival Guide may be for you. It is a self-help book with a difference. It purports to protect the reader from entities called zombies. These fantasy creatures have became popular in modern horror fiction since the success of the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. They are portrayed as lifeless, sterile and apathetic, supposedly roaming around with a shambling awkward limp, and experiencing little or no physical sensation or emotion. The popular myth is that they are either re-animated human corpses or human beings controlled by someone else by magic. In either case they are said to be devoid of life of their own, and so assumed to be wanting to suck the life-blood from those who get into their clutches. If they get hold of you the book suggests this would be a living death and it aims to give practical advice about how to avoid this peril.

Yes, it all sounds rather macabre but I do wonder if this is a potent symbol for our times.

Soul Symbols

Soul Symbols Cover

by Helen Newton and Becky Jarratt

Published by spiritualwisdom.org.uk 2008 pp 157 £10

This book encourages us to stop, take notice of the world around us and reflect on the inner reality it contains. Everything in nature is said to exist because it is a reflection of something of spirit. The book mainly comprises photographs of scenes and objects together with commentary regarding their psycho-spiritual significance. Some of these pictures can also be purchased as separate cards.
The suggestion is we reflect on what each picture might be saying to us about ourselves, and then read the comments provided including quotes from a variety of sources including from Swedenborg, who wrote in depth about the meaning of symbols. The authors claim that the thirty six symbols that form the heart of this book are just a start to understanding this key to both the Divine and our own personal, spiritual transformation.