Gulaga Creation Dreaming: Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison

Max Harrison is an Aboriginal Elder of the Yuin People who lived throughout the south coast of New South Wales.

He shared his cultural knowledge and on this weekend organised by The Sutherland Shire Citizens for Native Title Reconciliation. I was very fortunate to be introduced to Gulaga and the Creation Dreaming sacred site by Uncle Max and members of his family at Narooma, New South Wales. 

Here is Max’s book cover.

I took very few photographs of the weekend because of the sacred nature of our activities and rely here mostly on reproduced images from Uncle Max’s book that are the sites we visited.

The weekend was a journey that opened the eyes, ears and the ability to feel the spirit of the land.

What is especially important about the approach that Uncle Max takes when he introduces people to his country and its dreaming is the ceremonies.

For me these ceremonies were profound and facilitated access to the land with depth that I have not previously experienced. Essentially, Uncle Max gave us the keys to certain experiences for that weekend. Keys that we keep for when we return to the glorious mother. The place were all things begin, where knowledge is gained and healing found.  She is the spiritual mother who demands both fear and respect.

Uncle Max began the weekend on Friday night with an introduction to his country and 27 people introduced themselves to each other, and family members who represented 4 generations. I had the sense that Uncle Max was preparing us for something.

Saturday morning we headed out to the beach for sunrise at 6 am and he asked us not to eat or drink beforehand. You can see from the beginning of the hymn below why it was important not to eat before the ceremony.

The ceremony was greeting and gratitude for Grandfather Sun.  The hymn begins:

Thanking Grandfather Sun (1) 

Thank you for your light,

thank you for your warmth that

you will give me today,

thank you for the food that you have raised that I will have to eat.

We began our walk up the mountain after breakfast. Over 60 million years ago Gulaga was an active volcano and its peak was some 3 kms high. Now it is less than 1000m high but still dominates the Tilba landscape. It can be seen from almost everywhere in the region. We started at the village of Tilba at the base of the mountain.

We walked in silence and fairly soon we spread out. It was a steady incline. Uncle Max had shown us how to rest on big rocks to draw from the mountain, the mother. After an hour or so I felt that I was walking alone in a tunnel and my world was a bubble that contained the mountain.

The beautiful rain-forest surroundings often formed a canopy that gave the appearance of a tunnel. Closer to the top the mist came down from the clouds, appearing to come from the end of the tunnel.

We arrived at the saddle that was the junction between the 4 x 4 track from the other side of the mountain and the walking trail that we had taken. Uncle Max was bringing the lunch and the rest of our gear in his truck. We soon heard on the walkie talkie that he was blocked by a very large tree trunk lying across the track. By this time the clouds from above had merged with the mist and we waited in light rain. I walked further towards the summit as far as I could with a slippery and rough track and was met by deeper rain-forest. Stunning softness, barely there but nonetheless thick and encapsulating. The softness of the mother was how the mountain could be felt. Find the softness and you are in the space of the mountain.

The tree was eventually removed by a mysterious farmer who came to the rescue not once but twice. His farm was on the mountain and I like to think that the mountain told him where to go to find Uncle Max. After the tree was initially cleared the farmer left and Uncle Max and his crew encountered another very large tree lying all the way across the track nearer the top. After deciding that they should walk the rest of the way, the farmer mysteriously appeared again, to make sure that Uncle Max got to the top without problem. Another tree cleared and this time the farmer drove all the way to the end of the track to be sure that Uncle Max got to his appointment with us.

About 2 hours had passed while the trees were cleared. During that time we all simply let go and I think ultimately we surrendered to the mountain. Perhaps this was the wisdom of the delays. The ceremony to allow us to enter the sacred site in the care of the ancestors was profound. I think we all felt that this was a sacred moment in our journeys. During the walk through the ferns to the sacred site, I felt the importance of surrender, no expectations, and gratitude for all that was given.

From Max Harrison’s book pp. 19-20.

Up on Gulaga there are many rocks and tors that form a straight line and each one tells part of the story of all things. Each tor is a chapter in our Creation Story. 

My first vision of the sacred site was a platform floating somewhat above the ground. It was a well defined area containing a series of rock structures and trees. Here I understood something that Uncle Max had said earlier when I mentioned that the trees in the area felt unique to me on the drive through. At times I thought they could speak. Uncle Max added that the trees formed tribes. These trees had something to communicate.

Our first stop was Creation Rock where Uncle Max took us through an unforgettable sacred experience. For me a descent into the depths of the mountain. Deep, black and soft. A sense of return. There are still times when I find myself being drawn back to the spaces of this rock in my meditations. And other times when I am having difficulty finding my equilibrium, I find the space of Creation Rock and the disequilibrium is resolved.

From Max Harrison’s book p. 20:

The story starts with the first rock of connectedness; we call this the Energy Rock of Creation Rock. This rock tells how Daramah, the Great Spirit, created the heavens and the earth and all nature.

So much more took place that words cannot describe. Here is more from Uncle Max’s book. Pregnant woman’s rock below.

From Max Harrison’s book p. 22:

“The three rocks that sit on top of one another. These rocks are one of the most valuable things about Gulaga to me. When I am in trouble in my mind, body or spirit, my mind goes straight to these rocks. They show me where I come from, where I am now and where I am going to in the spirit world”.

From Max Harrison’s book p. 29:

“The Rainbow Serpent, who went underground and created all the rivers. Here he is coming up to look at all his good work. The story of the Rainbow Serpent is common to all Aboriginal Tribes”.

From Max Harrison’s book p. 29:

“The Whale Rock. Can you see him breaching? This rock signifies the whale coming up out of the water to spread his lore so we can understand more about the sea”.

The Whale take me directly to the final ceremony of the weekend. Sunday morning Uncle Max took us to a lagoon inlet to the beach where we participated in the Whale Dreaming Ceremony. Again, we were held in remarkable softness. Here are my snaps of that closing to our time with Gulaga and Uncle Max.

Our Saturday night sharing with Uncle Max revealed that each person had been touched deeply by the sacred site experience. A gift from the Yuin Ancestors of great magnitude.

Quotes from RW Emerson’s essay Nature (2) say more than I ever could about this experience.

“Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us”.

“The best moments of life are these delicious awakenings of the higher powers and the reverential withdrawing of nature before its God.”

Family members taught in the sacred ways by Uncle Max offer cultural tours at this website: http://www.ngaranaboriginalculture.com/

Here is an interview conducted with Uncle Max. I consider him a national treasure.

(1) First verse from the hymn ‘Thanking Grandfather Sun’ pp. 44-45.

(2) Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature. PRS E Book. http://prs.org/wpcms/?page_id=8&category=58

This is an icon that I was compelled to work with. Icons arrive for me in various ways. Sometimes its just a good idea, or feeling drawn to the prototype, or I think I can handle it technically, or as often happens, the prototype is suggested by my icon teacher (master iconographer Michael Galovic) as one that both challenges and satisfies my level of skill. This prototype showed itself at a meditation retreat late 2010 and was completed May 2011. Until then I had often looked at the prototype and been put off by the disembodied image. More than a few times I had said “not doing that one”. As with many things that I discover in life, when I say I won’t do something, I find myself doing it sometime later. Not because I am required to, but because I change my position completely and voluntarily. The arrival of this icon is for me another of those ‘turn arounds’ that seem to come my way regularly. My hope is that such ‘turn arounds’ bring with them some measure of humility, reminding me that I don’t know very much about anything important.

The prototype of this particular icon can be found at the Tretyakov State Gallery, Moscow, Russia. (1) It was made around 12th century. The Eastern Orthodox Church feast day of this icon is August 16 which commemorates its translation from Edessa to Constantinople.

The history of the icon is substantial. There are many myths surrounding it and stories similar to those about the Shroud of Turin. (2) In essence, the Mandylion is considered an icon of miraculous powers. As the Image of Edessa it was said to be a square or rectangle of cloth upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus was imprinted. As such it was the first icon image. Eastern Orthodoxy refers to the image as the Holy Mandylion. Legend says that the King of Edessa wrote to Jesus asking to be cured of his leprosy. In response, Jesus sent a disciple to bring to the King a cloth that he had used to wipe his face with and the king was miraculously cured. The image of Christ became the protector of the city of Edessa and was believed to aid Edessa against attacks from the Persians in 544. The image was moved to Constantinople in the 10th century. The cloth disappeared from Constantinople during the sacking of Constantinople that was the Fourth Crusade. It reappeared as a relic in King Louis IX of France’s Sainte Chappelle in Paris, only to disappear again in the French Revolution.

Back to the making of this icon. I was extremely nervous about this one. I am always especially nervous when I work on an icon of Christ or Mother of God. It just is that way. This time the anxiety was off the scale. I could work on it only a few hours at a time. It is not a complex icon but its simplicity means that any and every error stands out.

This is the icon with the base colours and pencil outline of the facial features. At this very early stage I was aware of what seemed to be a fierce space that came with the image and I tried hard to soften that as I went but regardless it is an image that brings with it a fierce space. I think of it as a space of will or unwavering determination.

The application of the first highlight for the face is an unusual approach and brings the face to the image in a ghostly way.

The application of facial features is next. More definition, still ghostly.

The fierceness emerges when the facial features are fully defined and the beard applied.

Colour to the facial features brings a measure of softness.

The gold highlights for the hair are relatively unique. Gold is not simple to apply to icon painting and in this case every wobble and glitch becomes obvious. Countless reworks are essential.

Here the 2nd facial highlights add more softness to the image.

By now I am completely immersed in this image. For me working on this icon was something like falling into an abyss of beauty and will. At times the beauty brings joy and at times the icon is on fire.

The final highlights to the face and beard are both softening and fierce. I simply stared for long periods at this icon. Not wanting to finish it.

Here is the final image after varnish with shellac bringing out the depth of the colours. They become rich and final.

(1) Link for the Mandylion Icon at the Tretyakov State Gallery Moscow http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=141

(2) Link for mythology of the Mandylion Icon – The Icon Made without Hands http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/holy-mandylion-napkin-of-christ-not.html

I waited until I had a better term and it arrived through the studies I am currently involved in and specifically looking at the work of Heraclitus, a great pre-socratic philosopher. It was explained to me, by Dr Geldard, that Heraclitus,  is usually identified with becoming, with flux and infinite change.

That is exactly what I think that this section is about. Not insisting on change, but becoming one with the force of infinite change. I hope that more of this theme will emerge in time.

The photo is Brokeoff Mountain, Lassen National Park. Mount Shasta is behind. This was my biggest summit hike so far.

For more about Heraclitus, I think the most insightful book you could ever read on his fragments is from Dr Richard Geldard, http://rgbooks.com/

I can feel the beginnings of a different understanding of personal development, spiritual or otherwise, but I don’t think I can articulate yet, and maybe never. I will wait and see. So for now this section has no place to go.

The lovely rock flower is from Mount Shasta on the South Gate Meadows Trail. I was informed that it is a rock flow anenome. Very beautiful spaces from these curious flowers. They seemed to come from deep within the mountain.

This post marks the beginning of a new phase. It has been some time between posts. The phase that is passing has been one where I have had no idea what is coming next or even what I want to come next. At times exciting and at times unsettling.

I am about to leave the USA after a 3 month stay in Northern California. Throughout this period I have been participating in a lot of practices with the school of meditation that I love, where the sense of the Divine possibility is never far away. Of course it is a process of deconstruction that has plenty of ouch along the way but its so much better than not doing it.

My sanity breaks during my time in the USA were solo camping at Mount Lassen Volcanic Park and Mount Shasta. Magnificent land energies at both locations which will be the subject of future posts. Solo camping, for me, is akin to solo meditation. Better than the rest.

What next for me is the subject of much speculation and I prefer to allow that to unfold with time. More to come soon.

Introducing Apollo and Friends from Olga Christine on Vimeo.

The idea for this slide show came while I was walking the spaces of Apollo. These spaces were often, but not always, very tangible. At times I would be immersed in them and find myself wondering how could I possibly pass the experience. Truth is I can’t because sometimes you just have to be there. But I can hopefully offer a glimpse of what it might be like to follow the spaces of Apollo today in Turkey and Greece.

I have used mostly my own images. Images that were not mine were of Asclepius, the son of Apollo.

The format I chose was to firstly introduce the god Apollo, then other gods related in some way, usually also children of Zeus, and Zeus himself. Then to end I return to arguably the greatest of all Apollo temples that can be visited today, the temple at Didyma, Turkey. The spaces of the Didymaion are thick with the presence of the oracular functions and devotional practices.

What is especially good about all the ancient temples in Turkey is that you can walk through them. You can sit, stand, and wonder at the glory of the temple construction, and its remains. Greece is very different. All the temples I visited on mainlaind Greece were fenced off and you could only wander around them. It’s just not the same experience. Still wonderful, but everything is much more tangible in Turkey.

There were other ancient sites that I left out because the spaces were harder to capture from images and this slide show is already quite long – at almost 20 minutes.

Why Apollo? Because the space that I came to recognize as ancient devotion to this particular god just kept showing up. And it became unmistakable. This was a very enjoyable approach to mapping spaces of consciousness and fortunately I am trained to do just that from my many years of studies with the Clairvision School. (1)

Apollo’s twin sister Artemis is also always discernible at these ancient sites. My experience was that wherever there was a temple to Apollo, there was also a sanctuary to Artemis. And wherever there was a temple to Artemis, there was a sanctuary to Apollo.

The spaces overlap and at times become the same and at times they are different. It is a mystery to me. There is much written about Artemis temples and devotion to the goddess as being pre Greek.

It seems that often, but not always, the temples of the Artemis were located on the site of earlier temples to a Mother Goddess, from Phrygian (as at Ephesus) and also from Minoan temples. Of course that makes me wonder what gods the original the sites of Apollo temples had been devoted to, as the ancient layers of devotional spaces at particular sites were often apparent.

The slide show should speak for itself. To help with the experience, I have brought Apollo back into the end of each section about other gods, using images from the most beautiful statue I saw of the god, located at the Istanbul Archeology Museum. I was stunned by this statue and sat with it for probably 30 minutes.

The head of Zeus was also among the most beautiful statues I came across. I always see Elvis with a beard when I look at it. This statue was located at the Ephesus Museum. Sadly the most famous Zeus temple perhaps anywhere was ancient Pergamun at Bergama. I have not used images from the Zeus sanctuary and altar at Pergamun because it has been almost completely stripped and removed to the Berlin Museum of Pergamun. Sadly there is nothing much there now to meditate on.

I could not resist putting in a few slides about the evangelism of St Paul at Ephesus. It was unmissable in the space. St Paul challenged the Ephesians to leave their devotion to their Lady of Ephesus, the goddess Artemis, and they rose up loudly against him, and put him jail for the winter to cool him off. He must have been a brave man to go up against those Ephesians and their devotion to Artemis.

I hope you enjoy this slide show. After many views of it while preparing it, I still get butterflies each time I tune into these spaces.

(1) Clairvision School of Meditation www.clairvision.org

Back in January this year, I wrote about my return to writing* the icon of St Catherine of Alexandria. This was the 2nd icon of this saint that I have worked on.

See the previous posting for background information about the icon and who I think the persona of this non existent saint was based on: Hypatia of Alexandria. http://www.olgachristineinnerspace.com/?p=390

See another icon of Saint Catherine of Alexandria prepared by my hand on my icon website. http://olgachristine.com/icon_stcatherine.html

Friends have asked to see how icons are made. In response, it seemed a good idea to record the process of making icons. Here is my first attempt beginning with an icon that was already 70% complete when I started recording the process.

I began work on this icon sometime during 2007/2008. I always found it particularly difficult. It is a complex icon, much more so than I expected. But more important than complexity, I simply could not find the right space for the icon itself. Something of a space arrived when I found literature on Hypatia of Alexandria and then much later, after I saw the movie Agora, the space of the icon to work from became much clearer to me.

Then came a realization regarding the spaces of icons. From this and other icons I am working on right now, I have begun to understand, and maybe begun to see, that for a creative work to take on its own presence, there must be a seed. This makes perfect sense to me now. I see the seed in the esoteric sense, as the progeny of a greater archetype.

I watched the seed for this one land as I reworked some areas of the icon, especially the face. The presence become more apparent with each session of work until at one point I realized that this icon had her own presence. Not a reflection, not a connection to somewhere else, but the unique presence of this individual icon.

Returning to the process of this icon writing, I re-started by removing the work I had previously done on the face. It had not been good work and there was no sense of presence. Here she is without face and then followed by another view with the new color for the face. Maybe you will notice an absence of presence.

There was much reworking that went on with the gold paint, as well as the wheel, the books, and the robes. That work is not obvious from the photos here.

The next phase is the work on the face. I was very surprised to see that the face that landed here was not very different from the face that I had previously worked on and removed. However the technique for this work was much improved and a much more gentle face emerged, than before.

The next phase that can be seen is the crown and the hair. St Catherine of Alexandria icons are relatively unique for having gold through the hair and jeweled crown.

Also the double headed eagle of the Byzantine Empire, on her cloak, is relatively unique. The astrolabe indicates her work (or Hypatia’s) as a mathematician/astronomer. The books indicate her knowledge and work as a philosopher. The crucifix indicates her devotion to Christ. The palm held in her left hand indicates peace.

Here her crown is almost finished, waiting for pearls to be applied, in paint of course.

The Greek inscriptions are finished here. These tell us that she is St Catherine of Alexandria.

The halo is also finished. The halo and inscriptions are arguably among the most difficult parts of an icon to paint. They are painted directly onto gold leaf (guilding) and every waver shows.

Then comes the pearls. This was an intense phase that took a whole day. For me, it requires a level of care that can be very challenging but is a wonderful experience when complete.

I love each one of those pearls. Here they are most of them on the brocade for the robe. Pearls are also on the crown and around the collar.

At this point I thought I was done and worked the final retouches. For me, just about everything is reworked or retouched many times.

As I retouched the main robe, I discovered that the original color in my paint tray had changed which made a mess of the retouching. Not surprising that the paint aged over 4-5 years. Also this red, or perhaps any mix of red color, is difficult to apply. Red covers very poorly. The application needs to be as good as I can make it.

You can see here some splotches on the red. Every time I retouched it got worse. I left it for a week or wondering what next. I could not bear the idea of removing the red robe color, which by the way I had already removed once back in 2008. ‘Not again’ was all I could think of.

Eventually the remedy became obvious. It turned out that I could remix the color and paint over the whole lower robe, around the highlights. This type of correction is not always possible, but thankfully it worked.

In this final image below, the icon is ready for shellack, to be followed by varnish. You may notice that the first image of this icon (at the top of this post) has more intense colors than the one you see completed below. That is because the shellack and varnish had been applied to the image at the top of the post.

For reasons I do not understand, I find that the image here, without the shellack and varnish, takes me back to the spaces I felt in the writing of the icon and in that sense is different to the image of the finished icon at the top. This image below makes my heart sing -  perhaps because it holds the journey of the making of the icon.

* the traditional description of the work involved in an icon is to write an icon, not paint an icon. From http://orthodoxwiki.org/Icon

The most literal translation of the Greek word εικονογραφία (eikonographia) is “image writing,” leading many English-speaking Orthodox Christians to insist that icons are not “painted” but rather “written.” From there, further explanations are given that icons are to be understood in a manner similar to Holy Scripture—that is, they are not simply artistic compositions but rather are witnesses to the truth the way Scripture is. Far from being imaginative creations of the iconographer, they are more like scribal copies of the Bible.

While the explanation of the purpose and nature of icons is certainly true and consistent with the Church’s Holy Tradition, there is a linguistic problem with the insistence on the word written rather than painted. In Greek, a painted portrait of anyone is also a γραφή (graphi), and the art of painting itself is called ζωγραφική (zographiki) while any drawing or painting can be referred to as ζωγραφιά (zographia). Ancient Greek literally uses the same root word to refer to the making of portraits and the making of icons, but distinguishes whether it is “painting from life” (ζωγραφιά) or “painting icons” (εικονογραφία). Thus, from a linguistic point of view, either all paintings—whether icons or simple portraits—are “written” or (more likely) “painted” is a perfectly usable English translation, simply making a distinction between the painting appropriate for icons and that appropriate for other kinds of painting, just as Greek does.

The immediate response to this position that comes from many of my professional colleagues is – how can an organization be vulnerable?

My view is that organizations can only survive if the people making decisions are prepared to be vulnerable when necessary. One excellent example of this would be the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. My reading of BP’s behavior in this crisis has been to duck responsibility. It is very likely that the public perception of BP would be much better than it currently is, if the company had expressed their shame and grief over the horrible mess they caused. Instead I assume they took the safe legal route whenever responsibility came up and the public perception is one of cover up. I for one, avoid purchasing anything from BP since this disaster. (1)

In my own spiritual journey – I continue to confront my vulnerability from more directions than I would have believed possible. At times I think I have developed an endless number of strategies to avoid vulnerability. Fortunately I have a spiritual teacher and spiritual school that relentlessly targets the smallest and the biggest blocks to my vulnerability. The techniques developed by the Clairvision School speak for themselves so I won’t repeat them here. (2)

Many of us that could be described high achievers, are especially good at blocking vulnerability. People with lots of will are typically way too busy for all the messy stuff. Too much to do. And we like it that way.

Brene Brown in a TED Talk linked below, talks about her personal journey to vulnerability and she fits well into the category of a person with will. Someone who knows how to achieve what she wants. Her journey toward understanding vulnerability took some 6 years with professional help. I would add that once realized, the vulnerable journey is ongoing. The more vulnerable we are, the more challenges to our vulnerability that we find. The journey becomes our path to growth. In the spiritual sense, this what the Sufi’s call  journey to the Face of God, or to become the Perfect Man (who can then see the Face of God).

The vulnerable path, is by definition, a path of service to others, not a path to self gratification.

Brown described the realization of the importance of vulnerability as a breakdown and her therapist described it as a spiritual awakening. Of course, I prefer the latter view.

What then are key steps to awakening our vulnerability?

I would not suggest that the steps are the same for all of us. We all learn differently. However, I am confident that exploration of ourselves is the key to any genuine path to awaken vulnerability and ourselves. A path to knowledge of the self.

Without deliberate exploration of the self, and some kind of support system to help keep us honest, it is very easy to delude ourselves that we are doing everything that we possibly can to be good members of our community, a good family member, a good partner in our relationship, and so on.

What do we need to avoid?

It is very easy to opt for the numb path. We go out and have a few drinks and some fun and forget about what is bothering us.

It is very easy to opt for the blame path. If only XXX would understand what to do, how to follow instructions, how to help me, and so on – then our lives would be better.

Combine these two major distractions from ourselves, and we have lost touch with what is really going on. We no longer understand reality because we have created our own reality. And the idea that something is very wrong with our world will never completely go away.

Which path you choose depends on your own ability to resonate with a particular path. Your religious or non religious views will influence your choices.

Arriving at a particular path may require some shopping around, some experimentation.

Just begin somewhere and stay focused on the wanting for more than numbing and blaming.

Have the courage to confront the worst of our fears and keep moving because – as the great teacher Rumi has said “There are many excellent spiritual Teachers but there are not many good students”.

It is not hard to find the right teacher, or teaching method. It is much harder to make their teachings work.

Here is a wonderful talk from Brene Brown to wet your appetite for transformation.

(1) http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/04/20114161153981347.html

(2) http://clairvision.org/techniques/meditation-inner-space-techniques.html

The Sufi stories of remembrance are among the most profound I have encountered. (1)

We search and we search and then maybe one day we will not need to search further.

Driven by our own inner knowledge that somewhere we will find God, we walk in the dust and heat of the road, we are the source of humor by many.

Our search leads us to the place of desperation, the abyss, and finally our heart breaks open to the emptiness where God has always been present.

The Sufi’s say this is the timeless moment in which we are bonded together with God. We find Unity. We search to find what was always inside us because then we discover our own true nature.

This is my favorite story of fishes who made the great journey in order to find out what water is. The story says much  about our great search.

There was a lake and in this lake there lived many fish. It was a beautiful lake. There was enough to eat, there were many trees around the lake. The sun shone almost every day because it was in the south. The water was not too cold and the fish were very, very happy. But one day after a heavy rain in the hills, the river swelled and carried into the lake a trout.

“Ha,” said the trout, “this is a lake and bigger than the river. But this lake is really a boring place.”

So the trout swam around and looked at everything, and said, “Water is not flowing here. There is nothing that interests me to eat here. I want flies and there are no flies here. There are just a lot of silly little fish.” And the trout jumped into the air and said, “I bet they don’t even know what water is,” and he swam back into the river.

The fish looked at each other and said, “What did he say? We don’t know what water is? I wonder what he can mean!” And so they founded a university and had workshops and seminars and intellectual exercises, and invited wise fish. However, nobody was able to tell them what water is.

So little by little they became depressed, and had conflicts and needed psycho-logical healing. But none of it helped. Then one day someone remembered that far, far away, at the end of the seventh lake, there was a very wise fish. He was hundreds of years old. He was so mighty and wonderful that he was all silver. So they decided to swim there and ask him what water is.

They swam through the first lake, where some were caught by eagles and others by fishermen. In the second lake more were caught, and others became too tired to go on while still others found tasty morsels and were diverted from the journey.

So it went on until out of the hundreds who had started only thirty or forty arrived in the seventh lake. At the end of that lake there was a cave, and in that cave there was a very big, silver fish. It was enormous and almost blind, and it was in samadhi. The little fishes all made a circle around him and waited.

Eventually the wise old fish opened his eyes, which twinkled, looked around him and said, “Brothers, why have you come here? What do you want?”

“Sir,” one of them timidly said, “we came to ask you a question.” “What is the question?” asked the wise old fish. “Sir, we want to know what is water.”

The wise old fish did not answer, but he closed his eyes and went back into samadhi.

The little fish stayed there, patiently but with pumping hearts. After a long while he opened his eyes, and said, “My friends, I do not know what water is. But I can tell you what water is not. Water is not the sky, water is not the clouds, it is not the grass, it is not the stones, it is not the trees.” And he talked for a very long time telling them what water is not. Then he closed his eyes and went back into samadhi.

So the fish looked at each other and said, “He told us what water is not. Ah! Maybe water is where we are!”

And they became very happy, and swam away back to their little lake and lived happily ever after.

(1) Llewllyn Vaughan-Lee. “In The Company of Friends”. The Golden Sufi Center, 1994

This visit to the Temple of Zeus located in Athens was during July 2010. I stayed in a typical Greek pension in Plaka which is the best possible location in Athens, being the ancient neighborhood of Athens. I had wonderful views of the Acropolis and surrounding areas.

My first taste of ancient Athens was the Zeus Temple which was 5 minutes walk from my pension. Just south of Syntagma Square, I turned the corner and marvelled at the Arch of Hadrian with the Zeus Temple behind. Happily I saw that the street running alongside the temple site named Vasilissis Olgas. I think that translates to Olga’s street. From this small photo you can see the temple site surrounded by the city of Athens.

Here is Hadrian’s Arch which once held the entrance to the temple. Unfortunately, it is not possible to walk through the arch and look towards the temple. I suspect there would have been the experience of quite a space when walking through that entrance. This view is looking back from the temple.

Emperor Hadrian completed the temple of Olympian Zeus in the 2nd century AD, 700 years after it was commenced. The construction of the temple had a number of stops and starts, changes in leadership and demolitions. (1)  At its peak, there were 104 Corinthian marble columns and among the largest in Europe. The temple was 354 x 135 feet. Only 16 columns remain, 13 of which stand together.

This was the first time I had experienced a serious Zeus temple. The Zeus temples in Turkey I had come across were consistently raised to the ground, or in the case of Pergamon, removed to Berlin. Here is the Gateway to the Olympian.

My experience of this temple was unique among ancient temples I visited. I was in no doubt of the majesty of the temple space.  I walked around and around the temple soaking up the force of the Zeus Temple. I imagine that this is what the space of the greatest of Olympians should feel like. Here are the images from walking around the temple.

I sat quietly meditating beside the temple and of course I caught the attention of the security. They kept a close eye on me during my stay there which was probably around 3 hours.

Another much smaller site with temple and other building remains sits alongside and below the Zeus Temple. Here I could sit very quietly as few people ventured this far off the beaten track. After an hour or so I was visited by security with 2 big dogs who sniffed my back pack. I was simply too blissed to leave and stayed quietly sitting until closing time, with the security guard and his dogs waiting patiently at the entrance to the adjoining temple area.

Here is what remains of the Law Court of the Delphinion. The large wall at the top of the photo surrounds the Zeus Temple. I found generally that temple sites with only remains of the base did not have spaces that could be discerned beyond interesting or pleasant or not. This one was more pleasant than most.

Adjacent to the Lawcourt was the remains of the Temple of Apollo Delphinios. I sat there meditating for some time, probably 45 minutes. I love the spaces of Apollo Temples and especially Apollo Delphinios temples.

The Zeus Temple of Athens is the perfect location for Vangelis to perform Chariots of Fire. The notion of chariots on fire seems ideal for this location. You can see the Acropolis and Parthenon in the background at the top of the screen. Tuning into the temple space together with this performance makes me cry.

The performance of the Mythodea by Vangelia at the Zeus Temple must be the most inspiring of all that have taken place here. I think that the gods must have been pleased with this performance.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Olympian_Zeus_(Athens)