Vincent Bridges

By Vincent Bridges

Far up the Nile in Upper Egypt, sometime during the fourth millennium BCE, three great confederations, formed around the cult centers of what our earliest references call “the living gods,” unified to create the first great Egyptian kingdom. Eventually, this federation would spread north and south to conquer the Two Lands of the Nile and become the 1st Dynasty. In the south, a cult of Horus the Elder formed around Edfu and Neken and grew into its own state. Just north of Neken, in the bend of the great river, the living god was a goddess, Hathor, the consort of Horus. Since time immemorial, far back into the mists of Egyptian prehistory, the Lady of the House of Heru sailed down the river each year to meet her mate, Horus the Elder, at the ancient mound of Behdet at Edfu and celebrate the sacred marriage.

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Nestled neatly within the Luxor Temple complex is the Sufi Mosque of Abu ‘l-Haggag.

To understand the significance of the Abu ‘l-Haggag, it is essential to understand the lineage of the founder’s Alexandrian teachers. At the time Yusuf Abu ‘l-Hagggag, travelled to Alexandria to learn the mysteries, the city was a meeting place for all the foremost Sufi masters from the eastern and western lands of Islam. Among his many Sufi contacts was al-Jazuli, the leader of the Madyani brotherhood who became his teacher. When Abu ‘l-Haggag returned to Luxor, he created a zawiyah (school) within a mosque which had as its very foundation, the Temple of Luxor. He died in 1243 and is considered to be one of the greatest shaykhs of Southern Egypt.

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Even in North Carolina, the predawn hours in late December are bitterly cold. A full moon hangs low in the southwest, as if waiting for its appointment with the earth’s shadow. The air is crisp and clear; a faint whiff of wood smoke from the sweat lodge fire sweetens the breeze from the east. The earth seems hushed, as if the animals and the plants, the devas and the landscape-angels are holding their breaths in anticipation. Through the chill, a tangible sense of hope can be felt rising up from the ground.

The People are coming! The quiver runs through the woods. The old raccoon chatters nervously and the wood sprites dance with a wreath of swirling leaves. The People are coming up the hill, a slow solemn procession walking reverently in the bright cold darkness. They pass through the rainbow gate and enter the earth temple, forming two concentric circles among the stones. They are here–as the animals and the spirits know–to attempt something almost forgotten, something that must be remembered if our planet, the planet that belongs to all of us, is to survive …

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The labyrinth is an example of what Gurdjieff called objective magick, a coherent symbol construct capable of working directly on the unconscious mind. Its origins are mysterious, although the maze family of symbols have been traced back over 3500 years in places as diverse as Peru, Arizona, Iceland, Crete, India, Egypt and Sumatra. This symbolic continuity is perhaps our strongest proof of its spiritual coherence and magickal effectiveness.

When the Zodiacal Earth Temple project began, I was told by the landscape angel that the people working on the project, especially at the beginning, absolutely must build and walk a labyrinth before any work began on the temple itself. At the time, I was not too familiar with the idea of labyrinths, other than as a historical artifact, and so I asked the landscape angel to explain it to me. Why did we need to do this?

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The Gnomon, The Labyrinth & The Celestial Tree of Life

Introduction - The meaning of the Evidence

In this article, I will present mathematical and geometric, historical and astronomical evidence of a past understanding of a unified field of knowledge. The evidence suggests that this understanding has formed a core part of the secret teachings of many of history’s wisdom traditions and secret societies.

What this means is that Mind has a way to inhabit matter, through us. Evolution is a co-creative endeavor, with nature providing the basic building blocks and the tools with which grow beyond yourselves. Contact with Mind, the experience of gnosis, can be accomplished in many ways, but any contact leaves residue in the form of an increased understanding of the nature of reality.

Our evidence is composed of such residue, anonymous, eternal and sometimes poignant in its abstract simplicity. Form is the envelope of pulsations, and words are the residue of insight. But the Throne of Osiris is the fixed point on which all cycles of change and flux rest.

I am One that Transforms into Two.

I am Two that transforms into Four.

I am Four that transforms into Eight.

After This, I am One again.

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By Reverend Vincent Bridges

All too often, our theoretical discussions of Geomancy leave the impression that this is something best left to professionals. However, by being a little observant anyone can become a solid, practical geomancer. You don’t even need to dowse or know how to read a map. Just keep your eyes open on your next walk in the woods and try these simple experiments and observations.

First, walk a few yards off the path into the woods. Roughly face east and just relax. Feel the forest around you. Turn slowly to the north, your left, and stop when you see one of the following: 1) a tree with multiple trunks 2) a clump of unusually twisted trees or 3) a tree with an unnatural growth pattern of any kind.

If you turn about a quarter to the left before seeing one of the above, you are in an energy-rich geomantic area. Turning less than a quarter is very energy-rich. Half-way is normal energy patterning and three-quarters suggests that the area is energy-poor. These are rough estimates, but reliable as a guide. Continue through a complete turn, noting the above in each quadrant.

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by DARLENE, Sacred Artist and Steward of the Land

In 1997, I created this black and white photo montage and called it “Earth Mother.” I wanted to show our relationship with the planet and chose a human fetus growing from within a rock as a visual metaphor.

Geometrically, the human is the natural choice to be caretaker of the land because his geometry is sympathetic with that of the earth. The shape of man’s body is that of five, with head and four limbs. The earth grid geometry is that of an icosa-dodecahedron which also has a direct relationship to the pentagram. Based upon the phi ratio, pentagrams are the most sharable of geometries. Whereas four represents stability, five is a dynamic number. Fractally, it connects the earth with man.

But what happens when the nature’s best choice for the role of caretaker forgets, then denies his geometry? As modern man forgets he is a part of live’s rhythm, inexplicably tied to the health of the planet, he alientates himself. Feeling separate and separated, man feels free to mine and denude the earth of its natural resources. In the process of modern industrialization, the life-sustaining energy grid of the earth is disrupted to a point where maintaining balance is no longer possible. The earth’s self-sustainable regions become smaller and smaller pockets. Modern man has been paying a terrible price. The fractionation of the earth directly reflects the fragmentation of modern man.

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