ARK OF THE COVENANT FOUND

Indian Jones reveals secret map to Shambhala

By Douglas Gabriel

After posting several articles on this site about Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I was contacted by the coordinators of the popular Indiana Jones fan club site at www.theraider.net with some penetrating and deep questions about the Jones back story. They also have a podcast site at

www.theindycast.com. My wife and spiritual partner Tyla felt that both their questions and my answers might be of interest to other raiders and even Star Wars fans so we have offered this dialogue in an open format for anyone to peruse. The questions come from THE RAIDER. Answers from Douglas Gabriel

If you have surfed on to this article by happenstance, the following links can give you a deeper understanding of how these questions arose.

Star Wars: The Real Secret Weapon and why George Lucas has Kept it Hidden

INDIANA JONES: The True Back Story That Has Never Been Told

Source of the Force: Secret Behind Star Wars Inspiration

[youtube_sc url= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHT9Cz-Z1oM&w=560&h=315]

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Q. What years did you meet Marcia Lucas, and talk to and meet Kathleen Kennedy?

I met Marcia once and worked with her and a group of three or four other Waldorf teachers who were in training at the Waldorf Institute in Detroit, Michigan. I am not sure of the exact dates, but I believe it was either late in 1974 or early in 1975. Between six months to one year after working with Marcia, I was working at the Waldorf Institute bookstore when I received a phone call from Kathleen Kennedy. At the time, I did not know her Hollywood connection. I thought she was a student interested in attending the Waldorf Institute. I just knew in passing that she knew Marcia Lucas.

We talked several times within a period of six months, during which time I sold and mailed her many books. Some years later, when I was working at the Mayflower Bookshop in Berkley, Michigan, Kathleen called the shop and we resumed our conversations, this time over a period of about a year. At the end of that year, Kathleen came to Berkley, Michigan to meet in person at the store. This was the last time I had contact with her.

Q.What prompted you to tell your stories now?

A. I decided to write about my associations with Marcia and Kathleen and the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, not to take away from the amazing work that they did in getting these stories into the world, but to shed light how these movies have spiritually nourished millions (maybe a billion) people, whether they know it or not, over many, many decades. It is time to awaken the force within, hopefully arising from seeds that were planted many years ago as fans first watched Hans Solo, Luke Skywalker, Indy Jones and their companions confront their own personal and spiritual challenges, hopefully providing living archetypes to aid all seekers on their path towards enlightenment.   

One might think that I had an enviable position to share my ideas with the creators of movies that had such a tremendous impact on the world. But actually, at the time, I was part of a school movement that discouraged parents from letting their children see movies. They believed that movies and television took away a child’s power to develop his/her own imaginations with living pictures, not contrived pictures from Hollywood. So when I was asked to join the think tank to rewrite the film treatment* that became Star Wars, I wasn’t very excited about it at all. I was just helping Marcia rewrite a story that wasn’t written too well. I didn’t know if it would ever become a movie, and I really didn’t care. Of course, as I look back, I see that this galactic fairy tale was just what the world needed at the time, and because it had all the proper components of an archetypal story, it would become an eternal story, just as Indy has become the everlasting grail adventurer seeking truth.

Initially I did not know who Kathleen Kennedy was. A few years later, I became aware that she was Spielberg’s assistant and she later confirmed that she was gathering information for Spielberg and Lucas. Once I left my teaching assignment as a Waldorf teacher, I was interested in getting spiritual ideas into the hands of movie producers in Hollywood. (Little did I know then that I had already done this!) I had heard Spielberg speak about his movie Poltergeist, and I was excited that he said in an interview that Rudolf Steiner’s ideas had helped him inspire the movie.

• A film treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play.

Q. There seems to be a common thread that runs through these movies. Can you elaborate?

A. The essential golden thread that runs through what I shared with Marcia and Kathleen is that the story should be about the development of a person on the path towards self enlightenment.  The Quest for the Holy Grail, transcendence, mystic union, self-development, or the wedding of the soul to the spirit is at the heart of all good stories. Some call it magic, ascension, or being the “thief of the gods.” Indy and Luke Skywalker are perfect aspirants on the path as the proverbial “prodigal sons” who need to find the way back to their fathers and deal with their inherited characteristics that compel them to be seekers of the truth.  

Luke finds his father Darth Vader and must redeem his evil actions. Indy finds his father and through the cup of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christian Holy Grail, heals his father from certain death by drinking from the cup that brings “eternal life.” Luke and Indy may have found their fathers and claimed their inheritance, but neither one has reach enlightenment yet. Each of the movies (stories) is about their adventures for personal enlightenment. Neither one can stop traveling the path towards ascension. Indy helped the alien (crystal skull) return to his group (space ship) and ascend back into space, but he is still earthbound and filled with human flaws.

Star Wars was a fairytale set in a place beyond time and space as we know it. Indiana Jones, on the other hand, is an earthbound character with huge flaws like pride, greed, lust, anger, and an unquenchable desire to find and possess “objects” that have animistic power and spiritual magic associated with them. He is like the mischievous Loki from Norse mythology. He steals, lies, and is always caught up in some mischief with the gods and goddesses. Loki is the bastard son of Odin, the Father God, who again and again trusts Loki and is let down in the process. Loki has many powers including shapeshifting. Indy seems to have powers and can shapeshift between humble college professor and global master of archeology, history and languages. Indy, like his father before him, seems to know everything about the history, religions, mythology and all of the details of the spiritual paths of all traditions. He is somewhat promethean or herculean in that he has tasks or labors that he has to do on earth so that he can finish the work of his father.  

Luke and Indy are grail warriors looking for something they can find and hold. Many are lost or die on this path. It is a matter of life and death because enlightenment is also a matter of life and death. Enlightenment brings the assurance of life after death, eternal life. Indy finds eternal life through finding the Holy Grail; he attains the grail like few grail warriors before him. But still, Indy is still searching, making mistakes, and creating karma as unintended consequences of his sometimes selfish pursuits. Luke, on the other hand, believes he has removed himself from the stream of karma by hiding after finding his other side, his sister. Indy’s guts and boldness are so human, that we have to love the guy even when he is messing up and causing chaos by boyishly trying to acquire a golden head, crystal skull, ark, or grail. Indy begs the question, “What’s next?”

From the first telephone call with Kathleen, I assumed she was a person on the “spiritual path” (as I describe above). I simply shared with her what I would share with any seeking soul. The more questions she asked, the deeper the conversation would go. From the beginning, I could see that Kathleen was a serious student who wanted to know truth as deep as it could take her.  So I told her about the dark side of the path also. For example, the character of Indiana Jones has a dark side that is taken from the most notorious Nazi who worked in the SS of Himmler and was commissioned with endless resources to research and find all of the religious, mythological, magical or animistic talismans in the world and make them available to Himmler and the SS.  his “dark” archeologist is like a Sith Lord of spiritual talismans. His name was First Lieutenant Otto William Rahn of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS).

 

The Dark Side of Indiana Jones

Otto Rahn wrote two books that brought him to the attention of Heinrich Himmler: Crusade Against the Grail and Lucifer’s Court.  I recommended the books on Otto Rahn to Kathleen at the time, but also indicated that Rahn was antithesis of the true seeker.  Rahn, like the Nazi’s in the Indiana Jones movies, is trying to get to the same treasures that Indy is, but they want to use them as weapons of evil whereas Indy wants to put them in a museum for all to share. It takes the intellect and magic of Indy to attain the treasures when no one else can unlock the mysteries. Indy is guileless. He seems innocent like the fool Parzival who is the hero of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s grail story. Indy doesn’t think about what will happen if the sacred talisman falls into the hands of the likes of Otto Rahn and the Nazis. He is simply following the trail of another mystery that must be solved.

Indy’s path is the path of humanity which penetrates the caves of Agartha (Temple of Doom) and rises through many levels before reaching the etheric realm of Shambhala. Along the way, if the aspirant stays attentive, the Holy Grail itself may come into view. This is the path of self-development, which is like a path up a mountain of seven stories. At the top, the aspirant encounters the higher self, or Tushita Heaven, or a chance to don wings and fly even higher. I shared this entire Tibetan tradition with Kathleen when she first inquired about Rudolf Steiner’s path of development in relationship to the many other traditions I had personally studied.  

The challenge I see with the way Kathleen and her team displayed the path of spiritual development is that there was too much focus on talismanic power derived from objects. Indy, as a modern day Odysseus, must outwit the booby-traps around the treasure like Odysseus outsmarted the Trojans with his wooden horse full of soldiers. Once the prize of Helen was returned to Menelaus, Odysseus took the physical talisman of the Palladium back to Greece as a sign of power transferring from Troy to Greece. The Palladium was a meteorite that was naturally the shape of winged Pallas Athena. It was placed in the outstretched hand of Athena in the Parthenon of Athens. This object was held sacred and was believed to be the source of power of the dominate culture in the Mediterranean. Later, it was taken to Rome and then Constantine carried it to Byzantium when he conquered it and renamed it Constantinople.

 

Indy’s Obsession with Relics and Holy Objects

Hitler was obsessed with possessing the Spear of Longinus that stabbed the side of Jesus of Nazareth that was considered holy by the Kings of Europe. The book, The Spear of Destiny, tells this story as a novel and is the prototype of Dan Brown’s books. When Hitler came to power, so the story goes, he quickly conquered Austria to gain access to the Hapsburg royal jewels, which contain the Spear of Longinus. This worship of “occult” or magical objects has no end in the Catholic Church with relics and holy objects. Even meteorites are turned into sacred objects and incorporated into statues and buildings throughout Christiandom. The Holy Kaaba has a meteorite built into its outer wall and it is kissed and worshiped to this day. This meteorite was stolen from a Lybian temple dedicated to the Goddess Cybele. Animism is the oldest religion.  Worship of meteorites continues to this day in Indonesia where priests forge them into sacred knives that are believed to be actual living deities.  

It was this type of confusion between physically animistic objects and spiritual power that arises throughout the Indiana Jones series. Focusing on Shiva stones, the crystals of Atlantis, the Ark of the Covenant, the physical Holy Grail, and the magic of Atlantean crystal skulls will only get you so far. The rest of the path is taken through self-development which eventually means learning to love yourself and others. Humans, not objects, should be loved. This is what wisdom shows us on the path of self-development and the process of ascension.  Indy seems to go through parts of this path as he becomes a better person who can forgive his father and sacrifice immortality to save his father’s life, even though his father had not been a good father. Indy went beyond his father’s example – he has evolved spiritually.

 

Nature Becomes a Physical Manifestation of the Spiritual World

The ancients worshiped the sun, stars, planets, fire, meteorites, living springs, seas, the sky, gold, crystals, diamonds, electricity, lightning, thunder, clouds and every other thing that gave its own independent energy. The ancients were clairvoyant and could see and interact with these forces and created and molded nature into “living substance” that was then a physical manifestation of the spirit. Greek statues were alive to those who worshiped them. They still knew they were marble and gold and ivory and meteorite – but to the Greek they were truly the incarnation of a god or goddess. Athena was alive and present in the Parthenon. These traditions are true for all temples throughout the world and the sacred objects inside of them. The begging bowl of Buddha is a sacred object that is worshiped in India. Countless sacred objects fill the temples of all religions around the world. The point isn’t the object; it is the spiritual energy that has gone into the object that makes it holy.

Moses spoke to a burning bush and took his magic staff from that bush. He spoke with God and brought the stone tablets that God himself had carved the Ten Commandments into with his finger. Moses did magic with his staff and wrought miracles. Where is the staff of Moses?  Where is the rod of his brother Aaron? Where are the stone tablets? We know that the stone tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant and helped create the amazing power of the Ark to glow like fire at night and rise like a pillar of smoke in the day. Many mythical powers were attributed to the Ark of the Covenant. But like the Ark of Noah, it was the spiritual consciousness of Moses that made it work. Eventually, the Jewish high priest could only directly witness the Ark once a year, and he had to have a rope tied to his leg to pull him out if he became overwhelmed.  What type of magic was this?  These were the questions that I had to answer the best I could for Kathleen when we spoke.

Though I was quite versed in these issues, having higher degrees in comparative religion and philosophy as a Jesuit, it was hard to explain that physical objects do have power but it is the consciousness of the worshipers that is placed into those objects that is even more powerful.  All of the pieces of the cross of Jesus of Nazareth are fake, but that doesn’t stop them from healing people. Indonesian shamans go into trance and forge meteorite knives and cool the metal with their lips, as if they are kissing them, and they do not burn their lips. This is somewhat like firewalkers who seem impervious to the fire. Religious belief trumps what we know as scientific physical laws. That is why materialists (Nazis) seek sacred objects to turn them into weapons and yet they never can. Nazis like Otto Rahn and other spiritual materialists may possess sacred objects, but that doesn’t mean that they will be able to understand or utilize their power.   

One legend says that even Solomon could no longer understand the power of the Ark of the Covenant and therefore he gave it to Makeda the Queen of Sheba who took it back to her home in Axum, Ethiopia. The Christian Coptic Church derives from this legend and Makeda bore a son named Menelik, fathered by Solomon. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims that the Ark of the Covenant is housed in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum with the Ten Commandments still inside. Miniature copies of this Ark are found throughout many churches in Africa and priests wear these Arks upon their heads one time of the year when the people are allowed to see this ceremony.

Is it the Ark that creates the power, or is it the consciousness of the believers? Are there objects that have pure, raw energy that can be used for good or ill?  I think we all know the answer to that question. Indy’s path is about gaining wisdom or enlightenment, not collecting artifacts and power objects from ancient religions and mythologies.  

Q. In your video interview did you mention South American explorer Percy Fawcett as a model for Indy?

A. I have heard people ascribe the character of Indiana Jones to the South American explorer Percy Fawcett, Otto Rahn, Admiral Byrd, and other such explorers. Certainly these characters might be found in Indy’s character, but Indiana Jones is not limited by them. He is a mixture of all students on the path. In Indy we see a selflessness that sometimes shines through with a purity and devotion to the path of knowledge or enlightenment. It is evident to me that the character of Indy has not been exhausted, and I hold many ideas of how future stories of characters like Indy or Hans might unfold on the screen, taking viewers on new adventures, which is really the self-discovery of oneself as an aspirant of higher knowledge.

The adventurer I recommended as archetype for the “seeker” was Sir Richard Francis Burton who was a captain in the British East India Company. He was spiritually oriented and studied the religions of the East, releasing the first versions of The Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra in English. He spoke 29 languages and traveled the world with the authority of British Imperialism.  The British East India Company stole the treasures of every land they encountered. Burton was the good side of an evil empire. He was always looking for the sacred and sometimes he would take it for the British Empire. Burton, like Indy, was the ultimate adventurer.

Nicholas Roerich was a Russian archeologist, painter, writer, philosopher and dedicated activist for the preservation of art and architecture. His work led to the United Nations art and architecture preservation act called the Roerich Pact. His wide travels and explorations are legendary. He began his own Agni Yoga Society and wrote many books with his wife. He was seen as a guru who had been taught by the masters in the East. He was one of the first people to travel throughout Tibet, the Gobi Desert, Ordos, the Helan Mountains, the Altai Mountains, Ladakh, Kashmir, Punjab, Mongolia and claimed to have found Shambhala. Roerich loved objects of art and preserved them instead of stealing them. He was a beautiful example of mixing the physical and spiritual together and is the archetypal seeker.

In my conversations with Kathleen I emphasized that all of us are like Odysseus on an odyssey that requires the mental shrewdness of Odysseus combined with the resolve of Menelaus and the power of Achilles. Every epic is the journey of the soul towards its higher spirit. Whether it was the spiritual teachings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner or Homer’s Iliad, the story is the biography of humanity that is an archetypal path of development that has common challenges or labors that must be met and subdued. Telling this story is telling the story of history, from ancient animistic beliefs and rituals rooted in magic and transcendence to modern beliefs in the power of the Ark of Covenant, crystal skulls or Holy Grails. Indy is “everyman” striving to solve the mysteries of the world and find the part of our true self that lies therein. Indy is a believer and wants to hold and share the magic powers found in this realm, even if it takes a heroic deed to win the prize.

I characterized much of what is said above in simple stories from my own life of world travel and adventures as a clairvoyant trying to find the pieces of my previous incarnations. Many of the ideas I shared with Kathleen came from elements of my trips to sacred spots. But I always emphasized that physical artifacts, talismans, meteorites, holy objects, sacred crystals and animistic substances and creations are not true spirit. They are simply the place where spirit manifests in its lowest form. Therefore, no object in this world is truly spiritual.

All that a person needs is within themselves. I learned that truth after many adventures and travels. I shared the stories of my trips to places like the Great Pyramid, where I spent the night in the sepulcher in the King’s Chamber or my trip to the crypts of St. Vitus where I found the hermetically sealed tomb which held my preserved body from an incarnation 400 years prior, or travels to Fatima where I found another grotto spring (above the well-known one) where the Holy Mother still appears. As a clairvoyant who was trained as an exorcist, I was drawn from place to place to meet the spirits there and work with them in a positive way. What were holy places, had in some cases become evil and vice versa.  

It is the spirit of discernment that Luke and Indiana Jones develop just as every student on the path of self-knowledge must develop.  Call it the Indiana Jones’s Intuition or the Jedi Force, both Indiana and Luke are drawn forth into a greater destiny than either might have imagined by their unending desire to “know.”  This is the primal desire of the eternal student who wishes to be the prodigal child who inherits their higher nature. Whether it was Marcia, Kathleen, or the team at Star Wars and Lucas Films, my message has always been the same – the signposts on the road to spiritual development use all traditions as a foundation but only the individual spirit is the ultimate sacred tool. No physical tool, whether a Kyber crystal that is the source of energy for a light saber, or an Atlantean crystal skull of an alien is needed to spiritually advance. Jedi warriors and treasure hunters still must develop morality to gain the wisdom needed to transcend. It is this morality development that has led people throughout history to revere objects that represent the embodiment of spiritual effort. Physical forces represent spirit, but they are not spirit. Spirit resides in the human heart and the workings of the spirit are there to remind us of our spiritual inheritance as prodigal children.

Q. Do you suspect the books you recommended are in the Skywalker Ranch library?

A. As I shared ideas with Kathleen, I also told her about books that elaborated those ideas. She bought most of the Rudolf Steiner books that I had at the Waldorf Bookstore and many other books by his followers who are called anthroposophists. Later, when I was working at the Mayflower Bookshop in Berkley, Michigan, I sold her many books on many topics. The Mayflower Bookshop is one of the best spiritual bookshops in the world.  I stamped each book with the Mayflower stamp in the front of the book. When Dr. Rudi Wilhelm (a close friend of mine) was invited to Skywalker Ranch, he told me he spent much time in the Skywalker Library and was amazed that many of the books had the Mayflower stamp in the front.  He thought it a small world that the Mayflower had provided many of the books on spiritual and historical topics to this wonderful library that is a resource for film makers.

Some of the books that I recommended were:

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth, The Hero’s Journey

Rene Guenon, Lord of the World

H. P.  Blavatsky, Isis Unvealed, The Secret Doctrine, From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan

Timothy Otis Paine, Solomon’s Temple and Capitol, Ark of the Flood and Tabernacle

A. Wallis Budge, The Queen of Sheba and her Son Menyelek: Being the History of the Departure of the God & His Ark of the Covenant

Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, The Initiates of the Flame, The Hiramic Legend, Orders of the Quest

Dialogues of Plato, Timaeus and Critias

Scot-Elliot, Legends of Atlantis and Lost Lemuria

Ignatius Donnelly, Altantis: The Antediluvian World.

James Churchward, The Lost Continent of Mu

Davidson, Great Pyramid Its Divine Message

Richard Garvin, The Crystal Skull: The story of the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull

Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory, Christ and the Spiritual World and the Search for the Holy Grail, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation, Atlantis and Lemuria, The History of Spiritism and the History of Hypnotism and Somnambulism,

Paul Allen, The Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology  

Ita Wegman, The Mysteries

Isabel Wyatt, From Round Table to Grail Castle

Skywalker Ranch library would have many books stamped from the Mayflower Bookstore. Once you have visited the Mayflower, you will know why you are a “survivor.”

Q. Were your consultations with Kathleen taped for transcription like the Raiders story conferences? 

A. I don’t know if Kathleen taped the phone conversations, but I do know she took handwritten notes because I had to speak slowly enough for her to write. She also took copious notes when she visited me at the Mayflower Bookshop during our conversations.

Q. Producer Rick McCallum said writing is painful for George Lucas and he’d rather gather all the material. Does that sound about right?

A. I have never spoken with or met George Lucas so I couldn’t say, but I do know that Marcia said as much when we were working on the film treatment for Star Wars. The little writing found in the original treatment that Marcia showed us was not developed and very sketchy. Many of the ideas were aimed at a young audience, and the script had little depth or character development. It was our task to create a solid plot that sustained the characters that George wanted in his treatment. We were able to change some of the characters and had free reign with the details of the dialogue and such.     

Q. What do you think of other books which likely inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark, Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken (1968) and Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft (1972)?

A. Trevor Ravenscroft was a student of Dr. Rudolf Steiner. His book, The Spear of Destiny, brought many people to study Steiner’s anthroposophy. Ravenscroft also wrote, The Cup of Destiny and The Mark of the Beast.  I recommended them to Kathleen as exciting books that describe the path and include Steiner’s ideas. Ravenscroft, who wrote The Ninth Century and The Death of Merlin, was a close friend of Walter Johannes Stein who was the teacher of my teacher—Dr. Werner Glas.  A. E. Waite wrote a principal book on the grail entitled, The Holy Grail, which was certainly a good source. I recommended all of these to Kathleen, along with:

Baird Spalding, Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East

Will Garver, Brother of the Third Degree

Joscelyn Godwin, The Kingdom of Agarttha: A Journey into the Hollow Earth

Bulwer Lytton, Vril the Power of the Coming Race

Raymond Bernard, Hollow Earth

David Lindsay, A Voyage to Arcturus

Novalis, Heinrich von Ofterdingen

Goethe, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily

Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet

James Hilton, Lost Horizon

Q. Michael Crichton’s autobiography Travels (both geographical and supernatural) concludes with an essay titled Direct Experience. Was he a Waldorf student?

A.  I don’t know.  However, I was a Waldorf teacher and teacher trainer for many years and think that I would have heard about him in Waldorf circles. Teachers love to brag about successes, and certainly Michael would have been one.  (Michael Ende, the author of The Neverending Story, was a Waldorf student.)

Q. Did you recommend any of the books in the Fate of Atlantis video game bibliography?
http://www.theindyexperience.com/video_games/fate_of_atlantis_graphic_adventure_history.php

A. Only the two I listed above: Plato and Donnelly.

Q. Did you discuss Sun Wu Kung with Kathleen, for the unproduced 1985 Monkey King script?  http://www.theraider.net/films/crusade/screenplay.php

A. Yes, I did discuss this story with Kathleen. I love the story of the Sun Monkey King. He is the person we call Lucifer in the West. Though I love the character, the West was not ready for the story as it is told in China. At the time, I had one of the only good English translations of the full story, and it was not something I recommended to Kathleen as a story line. I did indicate that the story of Lucifer and his fall was one that needed telling. Lucifer even became a human in China around the year 2000 B. C.  The Sun Monkey King’s rod, a symbol for the axis of the earth, is a powerful spiritual truth that is not understood.  Little is known about that incarnation of Lucifer, but I shared my own story with Kathleen called, The Biography of Lucifer, which tells the story of the Sun Monkey King from a Western point of view. Actually there were four stories that I had written myself that I told to Kathleen. The Biography of Lucifer was one story and Star Seed was another. Star Seed was transformed into the last Indiana Jones movie.  

As my wife and I have developed these stories over the years, we feel that we have a profound chronicle that connects the Sun Monkey King to the characters in Star Wars and Indiana Jones in a multi-incarnational biography that shows the spiritual development of humankind, while at the same time, revealing the stories of a man and woman as they discover the secret of immortality. Told in the right manner over a few movie series, it could be the most profound story Hollywood ever told.       

Q. As a MacGuffin, what do you think about the following:

………………..Sun Monkey King’s Golden-Hooped Rod?

A. The Sun Monkey King’s rod can be shrunk down to the size of a pin and placed in his ear.  This symbolizes the balancing mechanism of the inner ear in relationship to spinning around an axis, the human spine. The rod is tipped in gold which is a reference to the aurora borealis and aurora australis. There is no end to the meanings found in this magic rod. It also represents the human spine and the consciousness that runs up and down it. I find it a noble spiritual object to contemplate because it does so much and changes with the needs of the one who holds it.

The Sun Monkey King was the original “Skywalker” because he could walk, dance, fly, run and cartwheel across the sky and cover huge distances in a single cartwheel. The skywalker tradition was originally found in the Bonpo culture and later became the Tibetan dakini tradition of skywalkers who is led by Vajrayogini. I suggested to Marcia that Luke “Starkiller” (Lucas’s original name) should be changed to Luke Skywalker in the tradition of those who can fly across the sky.  

…………Archimedes’ heat ray used at Syracuse in 212 BC, or the myth the Lighthouse of Alexandria could burn ships on the horizon?

A. These are no myths. The crystals of the ancients still had living properties and these properties are little understood today. When the stories say there were seven crystals on Atlantis that connected the seven temples, this was a reality. These crystals were moved by Manu and the Seven Holy Rishis to the Central Asia mystery center in China and there set up again in the same pattern. Lucifer incarnated into this city and worked with these crystals.

………………Arthurian legend, Excalibur, and its scabbard which grants immunity?

A. Arthur’s scabbard was more needed than Excalibur in the end, but he gave it to his beloved to protect her instead of himself. This is why Arthur is still sleeping on the Isle of Avalon, waiting to be called again to service when the sword will rise again and the scabbard reunited with it.

…………Athena’s winged sandals and cap of invisibility used by Perseus to slay Medusa?

A. These are wonderful archetypes to center a story around. It is the mirror-like shield that conquers Medusa in the end. The mirror is a tremendous tool of the spirit or weapon of the warrior. It represents the heart of inspiration while the winged shoes represent intuition and the cap represents the higher aspects of thinking.  Or, as we call them in anthroposophy: Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition.

………………..the flaming sword which guards Eden?

A. This is a great question and I wonder why you ask it. I shared a theory from my research with Kathleen that directly relates to the “flaming sword of Eden.”  As we know, the Bible says the Lord “placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”  This statement has many interpretations.  The simplest one is that the human spine is the “flaming sword which turned every way” and that the “tree of life” is the brain or some part of the brain.  

This interpretation did not satisfy me so I researched and found that the Garden of Eden was literally where the Bible said it was, at the source of four rivers surrounding a garden with a flaming sword at the east of the garden. The place I had found fits the bill for every aspect of the description and is the home of lilies and roses, the plants crossbred to create grains and fruits.  The flaming swords were volcanic fissural openings in the landscape literally guarding the east entrance, which was the only entrance into this garden. Eden is not at the mouth of the Persian Gulf; it is literally just where the sacred literature says it is. It was the Garden of Eden that gave us many of the foods we eat today. These truths are imprinted into the botanical history of agriculture.   

……………..the Shroud of Turin or other holy relics?

A. The Shroud of Turin was probably created by Leonardo de Vinci. It certainly is not real. I have seen it, indeed it emanates great energy, but due to the longstanding belief in its authenticity rather than its actual authenticity.  I found the clock of Our Lady of Guadalupe to be more powerful. The Shroud of the Blessed Virgin is quite powerful, and I have seen it do miracles. Greek icons from Mount Athos have tremendous power. The Chalice of Valencia and the other holy grails throughout Europe are very powerful. The Spear of Destiny is powerful also, even the copy that is now in Vienna.  

……………………….the Lazarus Bowl, spun on a potter’s wheel while Christ raised the dead, recording his voice using archaeoacoustics?

A.  This is an interesting idea that I don’t know anything about, but there is a precedent in Tibet of Dropa Stones with groves on them that look exactly like gramophone records. Many stories circulate about these magical discs but it is hard to tell what is true or not.  They are very old and have been translated; when they are spun, they emit sounds.  

……………..hollow Earth tales, including the Greek Underworld and River Styx?

A. Most ancient references to underground worlds has to do with the mystery religions and the sacred teachings about the influences of the sun, moon and planets. The Earth is hollow, just as the Sun is hollow. As an initiate goes into the layers of the earth, just as all great Greek heroes must do, it is a matter of consciousness, courage and resolution that determine if they come back alive.

Hermes, Orpheus, Heracles, Aeneas, Psyche, and many others had to go through this initiation of the dark night of the soul and come out on the other side as heroes that are raised into the stars and become immortal. The mysteries of death and resurrection were taught in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Persephone must be brought back to life in the mysteries. Psyche was the original archetype for these mysteries and her story is told throughout the ancient world as the primal ubiquitous story of paradise lost and regained. Psyche is the original Eve and her visit into the underworld and raising from the dead is the story of humanity. She has been immortalized by being raised into the stars along with her husband Eros.

Thank you The Raider for these deep and thoughtful questions. For those interested in more information about the next steps in your journey towards enlightenment, please visit www.ourspirit.com where Tyla and Douglas Gabriel share their writings, videos, and teachings. And for those of you interested in using a modern-day talisman to bring amazing resonance and vibration into your life, please download our sigils at SIGILS HERE.

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