Derek’s Newsletter – September 2020
Hooray! And a very warm welcome to all visitors to this first Newsletter on my new Website. It is here that I shall enjoy sharing my interpretation of current events ultilizing my mastery of the symbol systems of Astrology, Tarot, Kabbalah, Psychology and Magick – so look forward to my monthly Newsletter. It is with great pleasure& passion that I finally have launched a new homepage after many, many moons of relative silence – and I have chosen the very symbolic date of the Autumn Equinox 2020 to celebrate this announcement- and this rebirth!
This is the date for the Sun’s entry into the sign of Libra and a statement of the equal Day & Night on planet Earth – so there is a relative balance, peace & harmony that prevails. It is also the harvest period.
The start of the Autumn Season is so pregnant in meaning, as we gather up the fruits of our endeavours – and this year, this dramatic year of 2020, has shown itself to be a radical game-changer, transforming the very fabric of our societies. All Newsletters tend to focus upon a specific theme – and my first Newsletter on my new website is no exception. The theme today is addressing the issue of “Wounding”.
We can approach this topic from several angles. In this month’s Newsletter it evolved quite organically into a distinctly Celtic flavour, and as you read on, you will understand why.
As a species, humanity as a whole is out of balance and not in attunement with the natural cycles of life and our global pandemic, Covid-19 virus, can be read as Nature’s “correction” process to restore a new vibration of wholeness. The obvious question that we all ask ourselves is will we make the right decisions to improve our futureand recognize what is important and what is less important? And that answer depends entirely upon our values – are we coming primarily from the ego, with its limited range of desire for personal satisfaction, or from the soul, which sees the underlying meaning behind the outer forms and constant changes, and relates to the whole? Health can be properly understood as the right relations between the personal and the universal energy dynamic. So when this relationship and rhythm is interrupted or out-of-balance, the inevitable result becomes health concerns – for the individual and so for humanity as a whole.
In fact, the Covid-19 virus has effectivelydivided the world into people who respond in “fear”, thus reducing their immunity levels, or people who respond in “love”, expressing their concern & compassion for the people in their environment, thus raising their immunity levels. Nature is challenging us to raise our frequency levels, to welcome and embrace the inevitable descent of more powerful Aquarian vibrations for change sweeping the planet and transforming our consciousness.
The Autumn Season was traditionally linked to the Grail Cup in the Celtic traditions, and the Grail was a magnificent symbol for healing and transformation. In the Celtic world view, there were 4 sacred or holy objects: the Sword, the Spear, the Stone & the Cup or cauldron. Originally the magical cauldron was the vessel of transformation, yet during time and certainly with the focus upon the new myths of the new religion of Christianity, it became the Chalice Cup used by the Master Jesus at the Last Supper. The Grail Cup is a vessel, a shape-shifting vessel in the Celtic traditions, becoming different things to different people – yet always an object of Healing. And the story of the Grail is perhaps the single greatest healing story of all – so by working with it in a deeply personal way, we can open ourselves to its many levels.
The Grail stories deal with the loss of connectedness, especially to the healing waters of life. In the legends it was this that produced The Wasteland & the Wounded King/Queen. In this ancient myth, the mysterious Wounded King possesses a terrible wound that will not heal until a certain set of circumstances exist. To be cut off from the living energy of the land, which also includes our modern “social distancing” and isolation, was also to be cut off from the magical power of the Otherworld – and that meant losing the vitality of life itself.
Within each one of us exists a barren area, a frozen dead zone, cut off from the rest of our psyche, lacking love and recognition. The Wounded King is representative of everyone who is wounded and who has lost, or forgotten the ability to restore him & herself to health. And in the legend, only when the Wounded Fisher King went fishing did he find some kind of healing and a reduction of his painful wound. And fishing clearly symbolizes our need to make connection with our deeper, often unrecognised & repressed authentic emotions. In other words, only when the King (Carl Jung’s Superior Function in the psyche) is engaged in the work of making the unconscious conscious, bringing light to the dark places – does he feel some relief. Clearly we can see the connection between fish and initiation, the journey of going into the sea of the emotions, our collective feeling life. We are all being challenged to make the journey into emotional truths which have been denied or suppressed.
And whatever we fear has ultimately power over us. Our collective self-denial regarding death as loss, is one obvious example of this. And with the ever-increasing number of deaths from Covid-19, humanity is being challenged to recreate a new mind-sets regarding the nature of death, and our traditional concepts of Heaven & Hell. The enormous significance of this new emerging consciousness cannot be underestimated. It is these healing Waters of Life that are shown in the image of the Water-Bearer, the Cup Bearer of Aquarius – for it is circulation, circulation of energies, circulation of shared resources, not repression and self-denial that is our way forward. The contents of the Grail Cup never fail to satisfy or heal. The Grail Winner is often called “He who Frees the Waters”.
The wasteland and wounded king is a state of affairs which can only be healed when another Knight or Initiate, comes to the Grail Castle and asks the Grail King how he may help. It is because our culture is so outward-directed that the only place we know to look for what is missing in our lives is “out there” – but in the Grail Quest, it was the asking of the question itself that caused the waters to flow again and restored health & fertility to the Wasteland. There is obviously great significance in the words “Quest” and “Question”, for they are synonymous. The ultimate mystery at the heart of the Quest is the question: “Whom does the Grail serve?” And the answer us: “All Beings”.
In our current climate during the global pandemic, each nation pursues its own political& economic agendas and there is little inspired international leadership or genuine cooperation. In our fear driven information seeking societies, we believe that finding the right vaccination will be like finding the Holy Grail of medicine. There are many alarm bells to consider going down this pathway. Is this material product the exclusive answer? For instance, what happens in our freedom-loving democratic societies when Covid-19 vaccination becomes compulsory for all citizens? And do we believe that the Pharmaceutical companies truely have our well-being at heart? And then we have the actual contents of animal, plant & mineral used in the manufacture of vaccines – do we ever question that?
Humanity has stored its wisdom in myth, legend and story. If you study the great classic myths you will find that one never gets “stuck” in the journey – oh yes, there are many obstacles to overcome and questions to be asked, yet there is ultimately movement and progress. So myths don’t only belong to the past, they contain essential eternal wisdom that we can also have access to – if we make the investment.
The Grail Keeper & King is a tradition that begun with Jesus the Christ on the Cross and continued with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, and those that followed. In those myths & legends our attention is drawn to the fact that the Grail/Fisher Kinghas 3 possible wounds. These three wounds are connected with symbols and initiation into the deeper mysteries of life. In the Arthurian/Celtic tradition there is the mysterious wound, caused by a spear, in the thigh region, which is actually the genitals or sacral center. Early Christian writers referred to this wound as located in the thighsor groin region. For a man to be wounded in this way, the myth means many things. For the Fisher King, to be wounded is a symbol that he is not “whole” and that the country around him is a wasteland, devoid of fertility. This refers not only to the masculine principle, sexuality, sterility and the theme of potency, but to our power to impose new creative rhythms on the everyday life. In the thigh region or sacral chakra, is the powerhouse for our body, providing the power of locomotion and the power to create, so not just to reproduce, but introduce new forms and patterns for creative living. This is the wound the Grail King suffers until all those under his care move into higher consciousness. One way to understand this wound in our collective is to consider the business world so obviously consumed& addicted with the power to generate money, but not as an act of service and community sharing, but primarily for selfish interests. There are however, many new positive trends emerging in more enlightened companies to change these values and promote sharing and distribution of resources – and this provides inspirational hope for the future. And the challenges of Covid-19 have been largely responsible for the reassessment of the directions we are going towards.
Then there is the wound to the Heart, as exemplified by Jesus on the Cross and the lance of the Roman soldier Longinus which pierced his side. The heart is the centre of our intelligence and deals with understanding. If we have no understanding we have heart wounds – heart pains that show our lack of understanding about something. Jesus the Christ showed the Grail King the way when upon being crucified his last words were “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.
And then with have the third wound, which is where we need to place our main focus – the sword wound to the throat. This has truly become the focus of our modern world in 2020, not only with a deluge of fake-news & media manipulation, which challenges us to discern what is truth - but more specifically with on-going police brutality highlighted in USA, as well as other countries and the correspondence to racism against the black communities. When George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, who used unnecessary force upon the neck &throat to prevent a black man from breathing, the victim’s final words “I can’t breathe” became a mantra all around the world for challenging such injustice and created the movement “Black Lives Matter”.Isn’t this an astounding symbol of the collective wound to the throat centre? The voices of millions demand justice, equality and respect for basic humanitarian rights – and these are the outstanding keynotes for the emerging Aquarian societies. We want truth – we demand that our leaders demonstrate truthfulness. The energy of truth must manifest through the spoken word, through the vehicle of the throat center.
It is often said that fear is the most terrible of all the adversaries we must face. If you don’t love very well, then you are a fearful person. A person with fear lacks love – and the antidote to fear is another 4-letter word, LOVE. A person who is excessively controlling lacks trust. If we have trust we are more open, and that makes us more free. True faith is trust in God’s Love - so not to have that faith means that you are not experiencing it yet and therefore this can make you ill and others too. Notice that when we experience fear, one of the first things to occur is the drying up of the throat, and we feel constricted. And if the fear intensifies, we experience extremes of fear, which is the state of “panic”, which is a word meaning “to lose one’s head”. Panic also derives from the word “Pan”, who was the Greek God of Nature and a symbol for freedom and contact with nature, our own body and sexuality.
Within the throat lies the organs of speech, and as we all know, our words can open or close doors. It is certainly true that we use our own words to imprint the habits that make life go on unconsciously. If every word lays down an imprint in the mind, is every word bound to be limiting? That is the paradox of words – you have to use them to discipline and train yourself. It is through words that we can make people feel good or bad, right or wrong.
But the power of words can also create something new, and not just a limit. It is also essential that what we say is what we truly mean and that we commit ourselves to what we mean, for herein lies the strength of our magical oath. Words must be backed up by intention – because it then enters the field of awareness as a clear message or request to the universe. The throat is the bridge that connects the head and the heart. Traffic flows both ways, so the throat is also an area for personality integration.
The Chalice Cup at the Last Supper, where Jesus shared with his disciples the Mysteries of the Eucharist, breaking the bread and sharing the wine, “My Body broken for you….My blood shed for you…”, has received a great deal of speculation in the centuries since that time – both as to its meaning and its whereabouts. A clue to all of this lies in the human body itself. As the Temple wherein Spirit dwells, each step in expanding consciousness creates specific change in the body physical, and in the surrounding finer bodies. The Chalice Cup represents specifically, a new etheric organ which is beginning to develop within the conscious members of the Body of World Servers in the Aquarian Age. Its centre is the larynx, which tells us that this is the centre for the emission of great power – a power that can only be grasped and utilised when the co-creative process is sublimated to the spiritual counterpart. It is this “new organ” that creates a link between head and heart. The head begins to function as has done the heart – with love. Humanity will begin to “think with the heart, and love with the mind”.
With the powerful presence of the planets Jupiter, Saturn & Pluto in Capricorn throughout 2020, this year has already challenged us to “let-go” of the past, with its various controlling institutions, and “let-in” the future, to renew our faith and trust in the type of future societies that we wish to see manifest during our lifetimes. The ego judges gain to be good and loss to be bad – but Nature doesn’t make such distinctions. The cycle of birth & death becomes a matter of fear and struggle only when it becomes personal. We are challenged to make choice between the known which is stale & familiar, and the unknown, which is fresh – a field of infinite possibilities.
In astrology Saturn represents the past and Jupiter the future – yet Saturn helps to define and to manifest our Jupiterian ideals and movement into the future. They are “initiation planets” preparing us to enter into a new vibration. Astrologers have been enthusiastically talking much about the approaching Jupiter-Saturn 20-year cycle, as they form their conjunction at 1-degree of Aquarius on the day of the Winter Solstice, 20th. December 2020. This is to be seen as a major planetary push to get us deeper into the Aquarian vibration and will ultimately carry us into many years ahead. How will we prepare for this? Both as individuals, as nations and as One Humanity? Are we prepared for an upgrading? Or is it further downgrading? There cannot be any “going back to normal” – there can only be support for our more future orientated Aquarian societies.
Sounds like utopia and new-age mumbo jumbo? We believe that we have to work hard to make our dreams come true, when in fact most of the work we run around doing is preventing our dreams from coming true. Be clear. Clear mind & clear heart. Why should our minds be full of mixed signals, why should we constantly doubt the things we wish to accomplish? We need to commit ourselves to the future that we most wish to see and participate in. I do what I do – and you?
To celebrate this future increase in Aquarian networking and multi-dimensionality, and to offer my services to help reduce further planetary fear thought-forms, I will continue to promote my “Entry & Exit - your Birth & Death Horoscope”; “Liberating Painting” and “Transforming Your Inner Dragons”workshops throughout Scandinavia, UK and USA. Since its first publication in Swedish December 2012, my “Entry & Exit”book has undergone some radical editing, plus the addition of exciting new material and is almost a completely new revised publication in English. This book is the culmination of no less than 30 years of research and client work.
I will also be starting a new 1-Year HallowQuest Journey on this year’s Winter Solstice. This is a Healing Journey where we use the Arthurian Tarot deck and explore the Celtic Mysteries, which is the inner search for the 4 sacred or holy objects, called the Hallows in Celtic. Full details are available on my website.
This will culminate with two wonderful Scandinavian Group Tours during Spring 2022. “In the Footsteps of Merlyn”, exploring southern England, and, “Exploring Eternal Egypt”. I am, of course, tremendously excited about these two magical journeys, even though it might seem a long time away as we read these words. This gives all interested people good time to prepare for these future activities, stretch the time frame and hold the vision. It will also be in 2022 that I shall celebrate my 70th. birthday, so these two Tours are some of the more public activities that I shall do during that magical time.
And for parents & family looking at alternative “Confirmation” arrangements for their children next year 2021, I am very happy to announce that in cooperation with “The Magic Garden” in Fredensborg, we shall meet that need. It is a sad testimony of our times, and certainly here in Denmark, that these significant “Rites of Transformation” and “Coming of Age”events have a primarily Church orientation. But what if the youth of today cannot resonate with those teachings and presentation? Our creative and imaginative process will seek to honour essential traditions in a truely unique Aquarian fashion – stay tuned for further information onmy website.
Hooray! Thank you for reading this, my first Newsletter on my new website all the way to the end. You held the vision – and now its time to nourish your own visions! I hope you foundthe read enjoyable and enlightening! Stay tuned for Oktober month’s presentation.
