A few years ago, I visited Auschwitz. My ex and I went on a short trip into Poland. She was pregnant with our daughter and we didn’t really have a plan except to get away for a long weekend. We sort of bumped into Auschwitz really and soon discovered there was nowhere with room for us to stay. I recall we ended up staying as paying guests in someone’s home. The next day, we did the visit. The atmosphere there is dark, glum, silent, heavy. The blustery weather didn’t make it any better. Depressing. I was relieved to leave.
It’s a place everyone should go to. It isn’t at all difficult once there to understand the depths of evil and depravity that even rather ordinary people can descend to if given the opportunity. Humanity can be truly evil. Yet, whenever I read someone expressing hatred for humanity or wishing us all dead as a virus or whatever word they use to describe us, I react quite strongly, for humanity also has the ability to rise to a nobility of goodness. Humans can be kind, loving and generous. And without an Auschwitz, we would not be able to compare and see the goodness in people – the light of their souls. Opposites allow us to compare.
The funny thing is that as I observe humanity it seems that while our tendency to evil is collective, the ability to be good seems individual. It is when in group mode, group-think, that somehow the personal compass of love and compassion so often gets lost. Maybe it is just how I see it? But when I think of the evil done in the name of ‘religions’ and contrast that to the good done by individual religious people, perhaps you see my point.
In the end, being human is to be flawed and imperfect. We live our lives mostly swimming with the current afraid to be different or to stand out. Occasionally perhaps, we rise above that and connect with our inner selves and in that moment perhaps realize we are all one connected life force. It’s not that humanity is a virus or a curse – something to be exterminated. It is that humanity is a miracle of life in which we can find love, hope and the light. But we find it within ourselves when we are still and composed. It is then that we know that we can correct our mistakes and flaws, confront our individual and collective darkness, and excel.
Czesława Kwoka (15 August 1928 Wólka Złojecka – 12 March 1943 Auschwitz) was a Polish Catholic child who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 14. She was one of the thousands of child victims of German World War II crimes against Poles. She died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland, and is among those memorialized in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum indoor exhibit called Block no. 6: Exhibition: The Life of the Prisoners.
Every time I see this picture I oscillate from anger and disbelief to immense sadness…… You can read the story of the photo here. Please do your bit to share that article far and wide to remind people how cruel humans can be and how easily these things seem to happen – are happening even as I write. Also – to shut those apologists who say this never happened or wasn’t that bad. It did. It was horrendous and we need to never forget.
If you read my blog about the earth energies at Velehrad inside the Basilica there and then our discovery of the two dragons overhead of that earth energy then you may have picked up that my Czech friend Jan was quite stunned by this. He even asked the question if I thought it was deliberate? I told him, it was a case of hiding something in plain sight and that the Basilica was likely built on a pagan site of veneration anyway. But there was more….
As we took the tour of the foundations of the Basilica complete with exhibitions of various types – where we also saw the black moth or butterfly, there was one exhibit that dealt with some archeological excavations of the site. It was a poster board collage of photographs and text in Czech but I had a speaking guide in English to help me. There, in the center of the collage, was a floor tile with dragon. The archeologists expressed puzzlement as to ‘why a symbol of evil was found in the Basilica/Monastery.
AsI pointed this out to Jan, I told him “Perhaps they once knew and maybe they still do.” There was the evidence. Right in front of us.
I had always thought dowsing was for finding water. My Dad used his rods for finding pipes and wires. I use the sticks to work with Earth energies. So, I was quite surprised to learn the Dowser and House Healer, Tim Walter, uses them to communicate with spirits! It turned out that this is how he had first seen them used.
I interviewed Tim for the latest edition of My Magical World podcast and it turned into a great conversation not just about dowsing but about entities and the nature of reality. Give it listen…
As we sat drinking soft drinks in the heat of the day and watching the innumerable butterflies flitting by we googled for other things to see in the Velehrad area. It was I who found reference to a dolmen – the King’s Table (Kraluv Stul) in the area. I had never seen a stone in the Czech Republic – not one so this seemed like a reasonable objective.
Quickly, Jan started looking for references to it as did I and we both found it on Google maps and on several websites. Finishing our drinks, we got in the car and punched in the name of the village nearby where the stone was supposed to be. After several kilometers, I pulled over. Where we going to the right place? Still 33km and yet the stone was supposed to be nearby? We then discovered that there were two ‘Jankovices’ in the area and we had chosen the wrong one. “These stones can be hard to find,” I told Jan.
Arriving in Jankovice, we asked a man and his kids where the stone might be. He scratched his head and told us it was way back where we had started. This didn’t appear to gel with out Google map GPS so we decided to go with technology and go to the point on Google maps. After driving along gravel and bumpy single track roads, we pulled up and headed into the forest convinced the stone was just a couple of hundred meters away….
“I told you these stones were hard to find,” I said again. “In fact, Sue often tells me they sometimes don’t want to be found at all!” as we reached the spot on Google maps and yet saw nothing but forest. No sign of any stone nor anything that looked like the pictures we had seen on internet sites. By this time, it was 5ish and with an hour trip home to Brno, I figured the stone was hiding from us and didn’t want to be found.
No Stone to be Found….
A tad despondent, we got back in the car and drove along the road hoping perhaps to catch a glimpse of the stone in the vicinity but no such luck. We ended up in a small village well off the beaten track where we asked an older lady walking her dog. She had heard of it but didn’t know where it was – we should try the pub she told us. At the pub, detailed directions were duly provided and off we went.
“Told you these stones don’t like to be found,” I said again.
After following the directions back to Jankovice, we came to a road up and over the hill that I didn’t fancy driving on. It looked like one large pothole! However, one last try! “It’s hiding from us,” I said.
The road was horrendous and I feared for my suspension and drove slowly until we reached its end. “Perhaps I should have asked how far along this road it was,” Jan said. I nodded. Plainly, we had missed it and the stone was determined not to be found afterall.
Despite this, we stopped at the T-junction and walked a couple of hundred meters into the forest either side in the vain hope of sighting it. We didn’t but…. we did meet a family mushrooming who informed us that actually, it was 250m away down the road.
We thanked them and jumped back in the car.
The stone that didn’t want to be found had been found. The King’s Table.
The King’s table is shrouded in many legends, especially related to the Great Moravian past of Central Moravia. It is considered by some researchers to be a megalithic dolmen, which was supposed to be used to determine the days of the equinox and solstice. For this purpose, not only the marks on the stone block itself were to be used, but above all the surrounding stones, formerly called “benches” and destroyed in 1870 during the construction of the road. Apparently it could have been a cult place, as some archaeological finds suggest. Undoubtedly, however, for centuries it served as a natural landmark part of the boundary of the cadastre of the Velehrad monastery. It is first mentioned in the property deed of the monastery in 1228. As a natural landmark of the border, it remained at least until the 18th century, when a treaty on the mutual border between the Velehrad monastery and John of Rotal was concluded on October 6, 1706,
The king’s table was the subject of much research. The first detailed description with a plan and a map was prepared and published by the school board J. Chodníček in 1903. He was intensely interested in members of the Starý Velehrad association, who conducted a survey here in 1929 and published the results in the Velehrad collection. Antonín Zelnitius published the results of his research in a separate paper in the mid-1940s. Exploratory archaeological probes were carried out in 1976 and 1977. At present, it is again in the center of attention of researchers and archaeologists who are trying to answer the question of the true origin and purpose of this monument. Previous surveys have confirmed the prehistoric landscaping and artificial settlement of stone and Dr. St. Štěrb managed to prove the carved characters as Celtic runes.
The stone is a large block that immediately reminded me of a dragon’s head or snake – some kind of serpent – though the sign there says archeologists thing it was a bull’s head. It is within a circle of smaller stones but not in the center – it is offset to one side. My dowsing rods suggested to me the stone was displaced and should have been more or less in the center of the circle. It is marked with runes and as I touched it, it seemed to rock and sway under my touch.
The Stone
In the fading light late in the day, it seemed at time to be ablaze with solar energy. Earth and Solar energies melded together in a dragon’s head circle.
I like to talk to stones and so I had a mental conversation with it. I talked about my desires, hopes and wished as well as thought on someone else who needed the stone’s attention. Jan also held a silent conversation with the rock. It listened in silence seeming to sway and rock under my touch. You could feel that there was a remnant of energy and that it appreciated our presence but I also knew it was damaged. The building of the road had disrupted its circumference and some stone had been removed for road foundation.
As we said goodbye and drove away in the fading light, I made a promise to return when I would have more time to sit, meditate and try to work with it further.
…The Irish are particularly fond of the riddle and of the consciousness, which underpins its use.
When living in the village of Saughall on the border of Chester and Wales my brother-in-law and I were frequent visitors to the village pub which boasted two stouts: Guinness and Murphys.
We prided ourselves on being able to tell the difference and would often buy one of each in order to discern which particular brew had been ‘kept best’.
Upon joining a couple of Irish chaps at their table one night they must have observed our traditional ritual with some amusement and challenged us to ascertain what they were drinking.
“You are both drinking Guinness,” we said after taking a sip of their drinks.
“I am drinking Guinness,” said one, “but that is Murphy’s” and then pointed at his friends drink.
“You are both drinking the same stout and it is Guinness,”…
Velehrad is a small village with a significant past and is the center of an important pilgrimage in the Czech Republic. It is thought of as the 9th Century capital of the Slavic state of Great Moravia and recent archeological work has turned up some evidence of that period. These days though, it is know for the Basilica there. The Basilica of the Assumption and of St. Cyril and Methodius.
800 years ago, it is said that 12 Cistercian monks founded a monastery in Velehrad. A national pilgrimage to Velehrad takes place every July which draws thousands of pilgrims. Pope John Paul II visited the monastery in 1990, his first visit outside the country after the fall of Communism. On July 5th every year, the site is inundated with pilgrims to celebrate the evangelisation of the Slavs by the two Greek missionaries (Sts. Cyril and Methodius) in the 9th century. It features some Romanesque remnants and is a very beautiful building.
Velehrad Basilica
I noticed immediately that at the back of the church around the alter and in the Romanesque part, there is a tremendous Earth energies. While we we were there, several people had arrived seeking healing and undoubtedly, it is these pulsating energies that they seek and utilise. My friend, who usually professes to feel nothing at all, also felt the energy. I took a few moments to meditate and redirect the healing energies to another friend in need of it and trust that it found its way.
My friend Jan is gradually becoming aclimatized to my views on the magic of the land himself. He has a healthy degree of cynicism but having visited a couple of other sites with me this year, beginning to wonder about such things. So it was I felt a bit of a cosmic joke that as we walked around the Basilica and towards the end with the energies, I looked up and saw a dragon. “Is that a dragon?” I asked incredulously. We both stopped and peered up and indeed, there was not one but two dragon heads on the ends of drainage pipes at that end of the Church right over the part of the church were I had felt the energy strongest. Jan already knew that dragon’s often symbolize the Earth energies and so the point was not lost on him either. “Do you really think the builders knew about the energy?” he asked. I don’t know but I have seen this before – clues hidden in plain sight.
The Dragons!
Interestingly enough, there were also numerous examples of spirals on and around the church.
Spirals…..
The incredible wasn’t over for the day however as the powers that be had something else in store for us. We decided to visit the underground part of the Church where we examined various pieces of masonry and so on before walking around the entire building in a maze of narrow and dark corridors and crypts. Again, I felt the energy strongest at the Romanesque part of the Church. There were some interesting symbols on old tombstones as well.
As we walked I was talking to Jan about the Butterflies. Indeed, I had been pointing out the Butterfiles all morning outside and marveling that there were so many at this time of the year. I had just told him about my last blog on Butterflies in fact when out of nowhere, a large black Butterfly or Moth suddenly appeared flying around INSIDE this part of the Church! It seemed like a final bit of proof, if any where needed. Another synchronicity to guide us on our way….. and later that afternoon, we would need guiding as we searched for an ancient stone that didn’t seem as if it wanted to be found….more on that later.
I’ve written a couple of times about seeing Butterflies and even having them land on me. Well, here we are in mid-September and everywhere I go is filled with Butterflies of some shape or description. The flutter across my path as I walk my daughter’s dog or along the side of the road as I drive my car. They are everywhere and I cannot ever recall seeing so many for so much of the year.
For me, a Butterfly represents joy, happiness, transformation. I’m reasonably happy and I have transformed in recent months becoming happy with alone time and living alone but I fear I’m also angry and not joyful. Perhaps the Butterfly is a signal o remind myself to be joyful and to let things be. Anger over what other people think, behave and believe doesn’t do me any good and doesn’t do anything at all to them. Why this angers me I haven’t truly gotten to the bottom of. It’s not a control issue. It’s more a ‘can’t you see the truth when it staring you in the face‘ sort of thing. It’s not my problem really.
Maybe the Butterfly is saying that I should focus on my spiritual world and express the joy that I feel when in nature in my entire life? When in nature, I’m filled with a deep love and awe of what I see around me and I am joyful because of it. It is only when I have to deal with other humans that I become angry and morose.
The answer isn’t to become isolated. I think the answer is to care less about others – their thoughts, actions and interactions. Not to care less about them as people and to allow them to live. To be joyful for them.
