In November, 2007 I wrote the following:
You will know that your doom is upon you
when the rider and horse become one
when horse becomes flesh of the rider
and the rider returns from the Sun.

Here is a belated explanation.

Most people assume that reference to a “horse” must always mean the “four-footed” kind. But in some contexts the “horse and rider” refers to a more symbolic relationship.

One of the most important royal rituals in the ancient Vedic religion was the Ashvamedha. It is often called the Great Sacrifice or mahakratu - the great display of force and power.

It is literally translated as “horse sacrifice” and many of those who came after imagined a great many things about what the “king of all rituals” actually involved.

Today, there are at least two widely divergent views. One holds that the Ashvamedha is a really an inward ritual (yajna) of self transformation linked to the renewal of the Sun while the other holds that it was about the expansion of royal power and sacrifice of a noble horse on this earthly plane of existence.

Both the ancient texts of the Mahabharata and Ramayana provide only fragmentary accounts of this ritual. We know that Yudhistira performed the “horse sacrifice” after winning the Kurukshetra War but little is said about what it actually involved.

If you read about the Ashvamedha today you will find all manner of elaborate descriptions of a ritual that can only be performed by an anointed king and one that is also expressly forbidden in the present age of the Kali Yuga.

Various learned sources, including some religious texts, will tell you that the Ashvamedha involved selecting a stallion, sprinkling it with holy water, whispering prayers in its ear, and then setting it loose to wander for a year. If the horse wandered into neighbouring provinces hostile to the sacrificer, the people were subjugated. On its return the horse is yoked to a gilded chariot, together with three other horses. It is bathed, anointed, decorated with golden ornaments, bound to a stake and ritually slaughtered.

The mantras relating to the horse-sacrifice in the Rig Veda are in RV (1.162) (22 mantras) and RV (1.163) (13 mantras). Ashva - the steed - is the standard symbol for life-energy (prana) both inside the human and in the Cosmos. Medha means both “offering” and “intelligence”.

Ashvamedha means offering of the life-power. The ashva (horse) is an embodiment of the great dynamic force of life that also implies strength and speed. The root of the word includes such meanings as “to pervade”, “to possess” and within this family of words the existence of forceful strength, sharpness, and speed as in ashani - thunderbolt.

One of the issues is the interpretation and translation of many terms. For instance the term “ikshamana”: iksha is connected with sight but it has been generally translated into English as a wooden rod to check whether the meat has been cooked. The term “sunah”: in numerous mantras it is connected with sons and heirs but it has been translated as a knife for cutting meat. “Aja” has the natural meaning of “unborn” or “life-soul” but it has been translated in popular texts as the goat which is slaughtered before the horse. “Shamita” and “shamitara” are rendered as “slaughter” but
it is much better understood as a “quickening” of life-force.

So instead of the slaughter of a sacrifical animal the real ashvamedha may be a quickening ritual which speeds the ascendance of the life-energy of the king to heaven.

My translation of the Ashvastomiya hymn preserved in the Rig Veda (1.163) is the one I use. The English translation is mostly based on the 14th century commentator Sayana and Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860) who was the first to translate the text into English. My major variations from them are Mandala 1:163:5 and 1:163:12.

ASHVASTOMIYA
Wings of the Falcon: RV (1.163.1)
Your great birth, O Horse, is to be glorified
whether first springing from the firmament or from the water
for you have the wings of the falcon and the limbs of the deer.

Riden by Indra: RV (1.163.2)
Trita harnessed the horse given by Yama
Indra first mounted him, and Gandharva seized his reins
Vasus fashioned the steed from the rays of the sun.

Soma Steed: RV (1.163.3)
O Horse you are Yama and you are Aditya
You are Trita by a mysterious act
You are associated with Soma
The sages have said that three are your connections to Heaven.

Three Bonds: RV (1.163.4)
Your bonds to the Heaven are three upon this Earth and three in the Heavens;
You declare to me, O Horse, who is one with Varuna
That which they have called your most excellent birth.

Bridles of Right Action: RV (1.163.5)
O Swift one, these are your haunts for bathing;
Here is the foundation for your conquering hooves;
Here are the auspicious bridles of right action (rta);
That protect both the rider and the knowledge.

Soaring Aloft: RV (1.163.6)
I perceive with my mind your form from afar
Going from below, by way of Heaven, to the Sun;
I behold your head soaring aloft with wings on dust-free paths.

Swooping Down: RV (1.163.7)
I see your most excellent form
Coming eaglerly to your food in your place of Earth;
when your attendant brings you near
You devour the fodder.

Magnetic Attraction: RV (1.163.8)
O steed, the chariot follows you; men attend you;
Cattle follow you; the loveliness of maidens waits upon you;
Demi-gods following you have sought your friendship;
The Gods themselves have been admirers of your vigour.

Golden One: RV (1.163.9)
His mane is of gold; his feet are of bronze;
and fleet as thought, Indra admires his speed;
The Gods have come to partake of his sacred offering;
His first rider was Indra.

Heavenly Rays: RV (1.163.10)
The full-haunched, slender-waisted, high-spirited
and celestial coursers of the sun,
gallop along like swans in rows,
when the horses spread along the heavenly path.

Swift Fire: RV (1.163.11)
Your body, horse, is made for motion;
Your mind is as swift as the wind;
Your mane tosses in many directions;
and spreads beautifully in the forests.

Taking Flight: RV (1.163.12)
The place of discernment has neared and is in your mind;
You are meditating and wishing to the reach the Gods.
Its source is the life-soul which leads the life-force;
After whom the seers and those who chant walk.

Return of the King: RV (1.163.13)
To his highest abode has the steed come,
To his Father and his Mother;
Today you will ascend to the Gods rejoicing;
As you give you shall receive in full.

According to scripture, specifically the Kalki Purana (comprised of material taken from the 18 major puranas), the the “real” ashvamedha will be performed one more time on this Earth.

That is when Lord Vishnu - incarnated as Kalki - finally defeats the evil and sin of the the age of darkness that is the Kali Yuga ushering in the golden age of the Satya Yuga.

Most modern scholars calculate that this time is still many hundreds of thousands of years in the future.

Perhaps they are right. But, just in case they are wrong, keep your eyes peeled for the rider and the horse.

Games can be a valuable learning tool. It depends on the attitude of those playing.

Many people today know of chess; but few of them spend any time to consider the first chess game and the lessons it taught.

I taught my nephew, J, the game when he was only 6 years old (I was 15).  I gave no quarter and crushed him mercilessly every time we played. He begged me to let him win. I told him only those who deserve victory can ever triumph. He finally lost his temper and attacked me with a stick. It was a lesson that has stuck with him all his life.

It is obvious, even to the uninitiated that the game of chess is an abstract battle simulation. But the question you should ask yourself is: What battle does it commemorate?

The answer lies in its deeper roots.

Chess is an evolution of a game that was popular in India as early as 200 AD called “Chaturanga” - “the army”.

Chaturanga literally means “to have four limbs”: a way of neatly describing the four divisions of the ancient army: chariots, elephants, cavalry and infantry. It also included the two essential feautres found in all later versions of the game. Different pieces have different powers and victory depends on the fate of one piece - the King.

Over time the Padati (foot soldier) became the Pawn, the Ratha (chariot) became the Rook, Ashva (horse) evolved into the Knight, Gajah (war elephant) transformed into Bishop and the Mantri (General) became the Queen. But the King (Raja) has always remained - the King.

The most common early chessboard is very similar to the modern variation and was known as the Ashtapada - an uncheckered 8×8 board — sometimes with special markers.

For those who seek to truly understand, the term chaturanga does not relate to just any army or battle but to one very important conflict that took place a very long time ago.

It is a story of game within a game. The deeds that changed history had their roots in a game of destiny. We are all still playing in our own way.

It is a tale that is told in perhaps the longest epic poem ever written: the Mahabharata dictated by the great sage Vyasa. The main narrative of the Mahabharata is the Kurkshetra War between two inter-related clans descendended from the Gods: the Kauravas and the Pandavas. These two families were both part of the greater Kuru clan and the battleground on which they fought: the Kurukshetra literally means “Field of the Kurus”. It was also holy ground -  “Dharmakshetra” (Field of Dharma), or the Field of Righteousness.

The conflict was spawned when the blind king, Dhritarashatra appointed his nephew Yudistira (the eldest of 5 legitimate Pandava brothers) as heir to the throne instead of his own son Duryodhana the eldest of 99 brothers (the Kuarava family). Duryodhana, believing he was being robbed of his birthright, became obsessed with killing the Pandava princes.

In a truly classic case of an escalation of violence the feud became more and more intense. Duryodhana used deceit to attempt to tried to trap them inside a burning building and then had them exiled for 13 years by way of trickery in a game of dice.

Even Lord Krishna’s attempts to negotiate peace failed and he, himself, was attacked. Duryodhana’s fate was sealed.

Because Krishna had one of the largest armies and was also a great general, Duryodhana and the hero Arjuna - son of Indra - both pleaded for his assistance in the coming battle. Arjuna (the Shining One) was such a great archer that he is often also called Jishnu (the Undefeatable). Duryodhana arrived first, and found Krishna asleep. Arrogant and viewing himself as equal to Krishna, Duryodhana chose a seat at Krishna’s head and waited for him to awake.

Arjuna arrived later, and being a humble devotee of Krishna, chose to sit and wait at Krishna’s feet. When Krishna woke up, he saw Arjuna first and gave him the first right to make his request. Krishna told Arjuna and Duryodhana that He would give His mighty army to one side, and himself unarmed to the other.

When Arjuna chose Krishna, unarmed on His own a relieved Duryodhana thought him a fool and couldn’t believe his luck. Arjuna requested Krishna to be his charioteer.

The Pandavas gathered an army of seven Akshohini (divisions) with Dhristadyumna as the supreme commander. The Kauravas managed to raise an even larger army of eleven divisions with Bhishma in command. Each Akshohini consisted of 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horses and 109,350 infantry. It is something like a golden ratio of ancient army strength: 1:1:3:5.

Interestingly each of the digits of the “four arms” adds up to the number 18. By strange coincidence the total number of divisions (7 Pandava and 11 Kaurava) fighting in the battle also adds up to 18. This number also equals the number of chapters in the Bhagavad Gita. Numbers are just another part of the game.

On each day of the war the Kaurava army stood facing west and the Pandava army stood facing east. During the battle, the supreme commander of each army used distinct battle formations (”vyuhas”). Students of chess would do well to remember them: krauncha (heron) , makara (crocodile), kurma (tortoise), trishula (trident), chakra (chariot wheel), padma (lotus), garud (eagle), oormi (ocean), mandala, vajra, shakata (box), asura (demon), deva (divine), soochi (needle), sringataka (horned), and chandrakala (crescent).

Rules of ethical conduct (dharmayuddha) were agreed by the supreme commanders before the battle commenced and included:
- Fighting must begin no earlier than sunrise and end exactly at sunset.
- Multiple warriors cannot attack a single warrior.
- Two warriors can “duel” only if they carry the same weapons and are on the same type of mount or unmounted
- No warrior may kill or injure an unarmed, unconscious warrior, one who has surrendered or whose back is turned.
- Non-combatants, women and any animal not considered a direct threat are off limits.
- No dirty fighting.

As usual in war, most of these rules were broken at least once by both sides before the end. Victory was determined by body count. The winners were the ones who survived.

On the eve of battle, Arjuna realised that he would have to kill his dear great-granduncle (Bhishma), on whose lap he had played as a child, and his respected teacher (Drona), who had taught him how to hold the bow and arrow, making him the greatest archer in the world. Confused about “right and wrong”, Arjuna turned to Krishna for advice. Krishna’s response forms the heart of the famous Bhagavad Gita. He told Arjuna not to waver but to fight to win because that is the only path to righteousness. Krishna reminded Arjuna that this, after all, was a battle between “right and wrong” (dharma and adharma). I recommend this text to anyone, with sincere heart, who faces a similar dilemma.

One of the great themes woven into the Mahabharata is the twin fates of Arjuna and the tragic figure of his brother Karna who ends up through the twists and turns of his fate fighting on the opposing side. It is one of the most powerful stories of ancient history, retold over and over the centuries to the present day.

In fact, in many ways the Mahabharata is really the story of Arjuna and Karna. They are the mirror image of each other. The lesson they teach is that even though we may be sincere and of good heart this alone is not enough to ensure victory. We are really all pawns in the great game of the Gods and cannot escape our destiny.

The next time you line up your chessmen on the black and white squares of your 8×8 board perhaps you can take time to think of Arjuna and Karna. Who is black and who is white? Only the outcome of the battle will decide.

Each army takes the field with 32 squares: 4 on each side are unseen and belong to those who control the fate of mortals.  The 64 squares visible and the 8 unseen = 72 (4 x 18).

The choices you make in chess, as in life, set you on the path to either victory or defeat. Perhaps, if you are worthy, you will be guided to victory.

But make no mistake, each game of chess wherever and whenever it is played, is a commemoration of the one epic struggle: the great 18-day battle to the death on the field of righteousness long, long, ago.

It was a day unlike any other in the summer of 217 BC.

Morning mist covered the hills along the northern shore of the lake.

Marching in column formation in the shadow of the hills along the narrow road (where today runs the main highway between Perugia and Siena) were two legions led by Gaius Flaminius Nepos, incensed by the devastation caused by a Carthaginian army on Roman soil. He intended to find the general Hannibal Barca and end his impudence on that very day.

But the man responsible for building the famous Via Flaminia between Roma and Ariminum (Rimini) three years earlier, was so bent on revenge that he ignored the obvious signs of heavenly displeasure. At the start of the day’s march his horse tumbled to the ground suddenly for no apparent reason. And as equally inexplicable, the standard bearer found he could not move the standard. Later historians would say that violent earthquakes were felt throughout Italy on that same day.

And then there was the lake itself: a beautiful spot but one with a tragic history. Legends recalled that is was named after Trasimene, the son of an Etruscan king who became infatuated with a nymph called Agilla who lured him into the water where he drowned.

On this day it was the Romans who were lured to the water’s edge through a narrow bottleneck between the hills and the northern shore of Lago Trasimeno.

Unseen by the marching cohorts the entire Carthaginian army was lying in wait, completely hidden by the morning mist upon the heavily wooded heights: allied Celts, Iberian infantry both the light armed caetrati and sword-wielding scutarri in their white tunics lined with purple, Balearic slingers, African infantry of mixed Libyan and Phoenician descent; heavy Spanish and Celtic cavalry supported by light Numidian cavalry and the now one-eyed Hannibal with the single surviving elephant. They had been waiting in expectant silence since the previous night.

When the Roman army made contact with the Carthaginian light infantry waiting at the head of the valley the Roman front ranks began to deploy in battle order. But at that moment the Carthaginian forces came sweeping down from the hills. The Roman rearguard was still marching through the bottleneck and was virtually swept into the lake by the Celtic cavalry. The men around Flaminius were also caught in marching order and before they could form their triple ranks were cut down where they stood. General Flaminius was butchered alongside his men.

In his classic work The Second Punic War (1886) Thomas Arnold wrote:
“The stillness of the mist was broken by barbarian war-cries on every side, and both flanks of the Roman column were assailed at once. Their right was overwhelmed by a storm of javelins and arrows shot as if from the midst of darkness and strking into the soldier’s unguarded side where he had no shield to cover him; while ponderous stones, against which no shield or helmet could avail, came crashing down upon their heads. On the left were heard the trampling of horse and the well-known war-cries of the Gauls; and presently Hannibal’s cavalry emerged from the mist, and were in an instant in the midst of their ranks; and the huge forms of the Gauls and their vast broadswords broke in upon them at the same time.”

In three hours the slaughter was over. The only Romans to escape were those at the front of the column who had managed to deploy and cut their way out up Mount Castelluccio. They were later overtaken by Carthaginian cavalry and light troops and forced to surrender.

When the mist cleared, 15,000 Romans lay dead and 4,000 were taken prisoner for the loss of less than 2,500 Carthaginian troops. For centuries afterwards the Battle of Lake Trasimene has been regarded as the “classic” ambush and its mastermind, Hannibal, remembered as one of the greatest generals to have ever led men to war.

But underlying the very real life and death struggles on that day in 217BC was an even more ancient struggle featuring the goddess known to the Greeks as Aphrodite, to the Romans as Venus and to the Carthaginians/Phoenicians as Astarte.

Once upon a time, a people called the Elymians (recent archeological finds confirm they came from Anatolia) migrated to the western tip of Sicily. The Greeks identified them as Trojans and Thucydides, in particular, claimed they were refugees from Troy. Virgil says they were led to Sicily by Acestes. According to
one legend Acestes was the son of the Sicilian river-god Crinisus (who appeared in the form of a bear) and the Trojan princess Segesta.

So it was these people from Troy who founded the town of Segesta and the Temple of Aphrodite on Mount Eryx (the Temple of Venus Erycina). Just like Mary Magdalene was later to become, Venus Erycina was the patron of “impure women”. Ritual prostitution was a key part of her cult.

Most people know that Aeneas, son of Anchises (cousin to King Priam of Troy) and Aphrodite herself, has always been claimed to have been the ancestor of the people known to history as the Romans. Aeneas was the father of Ascanius also known as Iulus or Julius (with Creusa) and of Silvius (with Lavinia). The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius) founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings. According to the mythology provided by Virgil in the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia. The Julian family of Rome, including Julius Caesar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus.

As the story goes it was after the fall of Troy that he led a group of survivors on a long search for a new homeland in the West.

After six years of wandering Aeneas and the Trojans made landfall in Carthage. Virgil tells the story of the year-long love affair between the Carthaginian Queen Dido (Elissa) who offered him joint-rule if he and his people would settle there. But compelled by Zeus and Aphrodite to continue his search for a new homeland he departed leaving Dido to commit suicide in her grief uttering the curse that would forever turn Carthage and Rome against each other.

It was at this point that the Trojans went to Sicily where they were welcomed by Acestes and the Elymians who held funeral games for Aeneas’ father there. It was at this point that Aeneas is said to have founded the temple of Venus at Eryx - a place which is still considered by some to be of great religious significance. In his work “On the Nautre of Animals”, Aelian (ca 175–235 AD) wrote that animals chosen for sacrifice would voluntarily walk up to the altar to be killed there.

In the 1st Punic War between Carthage and Rome several attempts were made to gain control of the area. For a time, Hannibal’s own father Hamilcar held the territory but the Romans wrested control of the temple from them with a decisive victory in 241 BC.

Today, on the site of the ancient temple stands the enigmatic remains of the Norman fortress, fittingly called the “Venus Castle”. If you really want to stretch your mind think of the much celebrated Tour Magdala of Rennes-le-Château as a modern-day model of the Venus Castle.

Totally unrelated but part of one of the science community’s most intriguing mysteries, Erice (today’s name for Eryx) is also the site of the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture. Ettore Majorana (5 August 1906 - unknown) was an Italian theoretical physicist who disappeared after pioneering revolutionarywork on neutrino masses. After returning to Rome from Nazi Germany in 1933, he spent the next four years as a reclusive hermit; shutting himself off from friends and publishing nothing. He disappeared on March 27, 1938 after withdrawing a large amount of money from his bank account and his fate remains unknown. There were rumors that he was sighted in South America in the 1950s and the story made news in Italy when a man found living on the street claimed that he was once a famous physicist.

So what does the Temple of Venus Erycina have to do with the ambush at Lake Trasimene?  Well, after the slaughter the Romans blamed the defeat on Gaius Flaminius’ flagrant disregard of the ominous signs and portents.

The issue of his religious offences was officially brought before the Senate in 216 BC. In order to make amends, on the advice of the Libri Sibylinni (Sibylline Books), a temple to Venus Erycina was constructed on the Capitoline Hill. The Sibylline Books were a collection of oracular utterances collected in Anatolia in the neighborhood of Troy, set out in Greek hexameters and consulted at momentous crises. Only fragments have survived, the rest being lost or deliberately destroyed. Not long after the temple of Venus of Erycina was built, fortune began to shine again on the military efforts of the Romans - those wayward descendants of Aeneas the Trojan.

So if you happen to take a visit to the area of Lago Trasimeno, remember to pause for a moment and think about the fates of Hannibal and Flaminius and do not forget to thank Venus Erycina for your continued good fortune in battle.

And finally, never ignore the warning signs of impending doom.

Today (October 28) is the day that Gerard Gerardson celebrated his birth. The illegitimate son of Roger Gerard of Rotterdam later went on to make something of a name for himself (literally) as Desiderius Erasmus.

Among his musings was a collection of Greek and Latin adages first published in 1500 were refer today simply as “Adagia”. By his death in 1536 he had compiled 4,658 adages, many of them still in common use today.

One of my favorites, for many reasons, has always been: “In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.”

For me it touches on the old story of the “Blind Men and the Elephant”. In this tale a group of blind men touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part. When they compare notes on what they felt they find they are in complete disagreement. The story is a way of showing the deceptive nature of half-truths.

There is a well known explanation of tradition as being “a system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols”. The problem of passing information intact from generation to generation, however, is difficult. All that may remain may be a partial truth guarded by the those who do not see.

Which leads me to another story about symbols. People today see symbols everywhere but seldom see the truth.

It was April 1998 when I first raised our standard.

Those who know something about ancient Egypt will have come across the djed.

The djed pillar is an ancient symbol. Many people in modern times have offered different intepretations regarding its meaning. To some the djed is a symbol of the “cosmos” and the bond between heaven and earth. Some say it represents the backbone of Ausar/Osiris and means “stable” or “enduring”. A ceremony of “Raising the Djed” took place on the eve of the agricultural New Year at Per-Asar-Neb-Djedu (The House of Osiris - Lord of Djedu).  The Legend of Osiris told by Plutarch tells murder of Osiris in which his body is trapped inside a chest and becomes enclosed in a tree at Byblos.  The trunk of this tree containing the body of Osiris is then cut down and turned into a pillar for the house of the King. This pillar is referred to by the djed hieroglyph. This has led some to refer to the djed as a pillar of cosmic stability, the tree of life, world tree or the rising sun, the bond between Heaven and Earth.

The word djed also means “to speak,” “to declare”, “to say”. The word for astral light or psychic brilliance - the cosmic beam travelling through the emanation of the sun also sounds the same.

Our djed was raised for a specific purpose: to send a message. If you have ever read Frank Herbert’s story Dune you will understand the idea of the Fremen “thumper”. A djed can also be a signal - like a pebble on the water.

As soon as our “thumper” was activated we received a response.

In May 1998, when we returned from our honeymoon around the South Island of New Zealand we were told a courier had been trying to deliver a package in our absence. We were home when they tried again.

It was in invitation to a round table meeting hosted by the European Commission at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels, Belgium.

The Business Round Table on Global Communications was organized by Martin Bangemann, European Commissioner, former Chairman of the FDP and German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs.

On 30 June, 1998 Computerworld ran the following story. Seventy global companies active in the Internet yesterday agreed to establish what they called a “Global Business Dialogue” to resolved obstacles to the development of electronic comerce. The participants were called a: “Who’s Who in the world of the Internet”.

I was among the 70 people who took a seat at the Round Table on this particular day. When the meeting broke for refreshments mid-morning a young woman approached me and said: “You may be wondering why you were invited“. I smiled. “We liked your web site,” she said.

So, the official explanation, of why an individual of no-account from a small country at the end of the Earth was invited to a 70-person meeting of business leaders was an “attractive web site”.

On my return to New Zealand, we created another symbol which was later adopted as the logo of the global business group established after the meeting.

This particular symbol was another “pebble on the water”. The Eye of Horus is something some may be familar with. It is a symbol of power associated with the Lord of the Sky. In one story he lost one of his eye’s in a battle to avenge his murdered father. To some then, he is the one-eyed king. But rather than rake old coals I prefer to tell another story.

Life on Earth has developed under the protection of the magnetosphere.  The Earth’s magnetosphere is a bullet-shaped enveloping this planet where our internal magnetic field, the solar wind plasma and interplanetary magnetic field interact.

The internal field of the Earth is believed to be generated in the Earth’s core by a dynamo process associated with the circulation of liquid metal within its molten heart. The solar wind is a fast outflow of hot plasma from the sun powered by the temperature of the sun’s corona.

I have always thought that to see the Earth as a living planet you have to look at its complete form and that includes the magnetosphere. When you look at it that way our planet really is itself a pebble on the waters or as I remember growing up: a big blue marble in space.

The Big Blue Marble was a children’s television series that ran from 1974-1983. It included stories about children around the world and a pen-pal club that encouraged inter-cultural communication. In 1987 the show’s former producer Rick Berman was selected by Gene Roddenberry to help him create Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ve paraphrased the theme song as follows:

The Earth’s a Big Blue Marble when you see it from out there.
The sun and moon declare our beauty’s very rare.
Our differences, our problems
from out there there’s not much trace.
while looking at the face
of the Big Blue Marble in space.

The Global Business Group has long since lost its lustre. But the signal has been sent - and received.

POST SCRIPT

Purely by coincidence, on October 30, 2008 (two days after my story was posted here) NASA published an article on a phenomenon called a “flux transfer event” (FTE) being discussed by an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama.

Flux transfer events are magnetic portals which open up on an average of every eight minutes connecting the magnetic field of the Earth with that of the Sun - 93 million miles away. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth typically forming above the equator and rolling over the Earth’s winter pole.

The article ends with the following line: “Meanwhile, high above your head, a new portal is opening, connecting your planet to the Sun.”

Tradition is a way of remembering the past.

Whenever I travelled to Brussels - a city where Michael is patron saint -  I followed a simple tradition.

I would stroll down the Rue de Namur to to the Royal Square where the Palace of Coudenberg used to stand until it was destroyed by fire during the winter of 1731. For some it is still considered part of the old kingdom of Lotharingia which later became known as Lorraine.

Today, in the center of the Square is the statue of Godfrey of Bouillon, the second son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida of Lorraine (also my grandmother’s given name) created by the sculptor Eugène Simonis and officially dedicated in 1848. Godfrey is not considered much of a hero these days. But once upon a time he was among the first to retake Jerusalem in July, 1099 and, for a brief time until his death,  became Lord of the Crusader Kingdom.

Later, Godfrey became associated with the legend of the Knight of the Swan who, thanks to Wolfram von Eschenbach, was transformed into Lohengrin, the son of the grail knight, Percival.

All variations of this story have a common thread, a mysterious knight arrives on a boat drawn by a swan to defend a damsel in distress. He marries the maiden on the condition that she must never ask his true identity. In the story of Lohengrin, when the Duchess Else, finally asks where he comes from he tells her that his father was Percival, and that God has sent him from the custody of the Grail. He then calls his children to him and says to his family:
“Here are my horn and my sword, keep them carefully; and here, my wife, is the ring my mother gave me - never part with it.”

At dawn the swan reappeared on the river. Lohengrin re-entered the boat and departed never to return.

In another story, the princess Caer Ibormeith would change into a swan for a year every alternate Samhain. She eventually married Aengus, who proved himself by correctly identifying her among group of one hundred and fifty swans. Having chosen wisely, he also transformed into a swam and they flew away singing beautiful music. Aengus and Caer Ibormeith were the foster-parents of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.

From the Koningsplein I would wander down the Rue de la Régence to the Place du Petit Sablon (Little Sand) designed by the architect Hendrik Beyaert. It is a small oasis surrounded by 48 statuette’s on columns representing one of the Brussels guilds. In the center of the garden is a statue of the Counts Egmont and Hoorn.

Lamoral, Count of Egmont, (1522– 1568) was a general and statesman in Flanders whose execution helped spark the national uprising that eventually led to the independence of the Netherlands. His life and death inspired the tragic play “Egmont” (1788) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; about the downfall of a man who trusts in the goodness of those around him. Later Ludwig von Beethoven composed incidential music for an 1810 revival of the play.

As a leading Flemish nobleman, Egmont was a member of King Philip II of Spain’s official Council of State for Flanders and Artois. But together with William, Prince of Orange and the Count of Hoorn, he protested against the introduction of the inquisition in Flanders. After Philip II sent the Duke of Alba to the Netherlands, William of Orange decided to flee Brussels. Egmont, believing he had nothing to fear, refused to heed Orange’s warning and decided to stay in the city. Upon arrival, Alba had the counts of Egmont and Hoorn arrested on charges of treason. Pleas for amnesty came to the Spanish king from throughout Europe, including from many reigning sovereigns, the Order of the Golden Fleece, and the Emperor Maximilian II. Despite these efforts, on June 5, 1568, both men were beheaded on the Grand-Place in Brussels.

Among the most noted parts of Goethe’s play is the song by Egmont’s distressed mistress Klärchen in the third act. One sentence from that has become something of a proverb among those who are themselves broken on “fortune’s wheel”: “Himmelhoch jauchzend, zu(m) Tode betrübt” - basically: “Up one minute, down the next”. In despair Klärchen commits suicide but the play ends on the hero’s last call to fight for independence.

In the end Egmont’s death stands as a beacon for those who would fight oppression. It is appropriate then that Egmont, or more correctly Egmond, comes from the word Agimund (Germanic) from “agi/ek - edge” and “munt - protector”: hence Agimund is “the sword”.

Just across the street is the Église Notre Dame du Sablon (Church of Our Lady of Sablon) where we would stop to pay our respects. This late Gothic church is in the ornate Brabantine style of the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1304 the Brussels Guild of Archers, had a little chapel built here in honor of the Holy Virgin. (Bring me my bow of burning gold). In 1348 a woman called Beatrijs Soetkins received a vision from the Holy Mother.  She asked Beatrijs to steal a statue of the Madonna from a church in Antwerp and to bring it over to the Sablon chapel in Brussels. It was soon believed that the statue was miraculous, which, of course, started to attract flocks of pilgrims to the Sablon.

Inside the church is a pieta with the inscription in French taken directly from the Book of Lamentations in which the prophet Jeremiah mourns the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The verse is Lamentations 1:12: “O all you that pass by this way, attend and see if there be any sorrow comparable to my sorrow.”

From the church, I would then find my way down to the site of Egmont’s execution - the Grand Platz and stop in at a little restaurant right on the market square called: La Rose Blanche - The White Rose. The tudor-style construction with the rough-hewn heavy beams always made me feel cosy and right at home even on those times when I walked alone among strangers. Always, I would order warm goat cheese drizzled with honey and in the taste be transported to times long long ago and places far far away. I read a review about La Rose Blanche by a testy tourist who complained about surly service. Obviously, he was very much in the “here and now” because I never had anything but warm courtesy when I dined there.

In modern times the White Rose also became something of a symbol of resistance to tyranny. It was the name of a student protest group based at the University of Munich in Nazi Germany who were arrested by the Gestapo, convicted and executed by beheading in 1943 - just like Egmont and Hoorn. Today, the members of the White Rose are honored as heroes by some because they opposed Hitler in the face of almost certain death.

As some also know, the “rosa alba” also represents the Virgin Mary - who is also called the Mystical Rose of Heaven. In Chapter 2 of the Song of Songs (Shir ha-Sharim) also known as the Song of Solomon it says: “I am a rose of Sharon, a rose of the valleys. As a rose among the thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons; in his shade I delighted and sat, and his fruit was sweet to my palate.”

But that was a long time ago: a remembrance of things past. Here is what Shakespeare wrote many years ago. It only fails to move those who have no memory.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

The relationship of human and horse has always been a powerful icon in myth and legend. In many cultures the horse and rider has been a symbol of a unique and enduring bond: for want of a horse the rider was lost…

I was only a young boy of 9 when I saw the film of “A Man Called Horse”. It was about an English aristocrat called John Morgan (played by Richard Harris) who is captured by the Sioux in North America and - being the first white man they have seen - they treat him as a type of horse. When he eventually proves himself to be a warrior and leader he keeps the name: “Horse”.

Being a “man called horse” is not such a bad thing. I should know. It was both my “pet” name growing up and also my given name. I come from a old family of “horse” folk. For centuries they shared their lives and death with their steeds. My great-grandfather and grandfather were the last of our people to take their horses to war. My mother rode a horse to school when she was a young girl. My father has been involved in horse racing all his adult life.

Once upon a time the warrior lords of the Mitanni ruled in Northern Mesopotamia. Today, people still use the techniques of Kikkuli - Master Horse Trainer of the Land of Mitanni (UM.MA Ki-ik-ku-li - LÚA-AŠ-ŠU-UŠ-ŠA-AN-NI ŠA KUR URUMI-IT-TA-AN-NI) who wrote a chariot horse training manual for the Hittites around 1400 BC. The Egyptians called Mitanni “nhrn” (pronounced Naharin or Naharina) from the Akkadian word for “river”. According to one tradition, Ur Kasdim - the birthplace of Abraham - was also located in the land of Mitanni or Aram-Naharaim (Aram of the Two Rivers).

The White Horse has always been a powerful totem. If you look in many stories you will find it still. Tacitus recorded that the Germans observed the actions of sacred white horses to foretell the future. Many years ago, Herodotus, the father of history, recorded the deep bond between the Scythians and their horses.  In the West, the symbolism of the great mare has been remembered in the Horse Goddess, Epona - a symbol of fertility and protector of cavalry. In Welsh, Rhiannon - the Great Queen - rides a white horse.

But how you view the relationship between rider and horse depends on how you look at the horse. To God a human may serve the same purpose. When we talk about the White Horse we sometimes mean the two-legged kind. This is most clearly illustrated in a logic riddle first recorded around 300 BC in China.

The White Horse Dialogue (When a white horse is not a horse - Báima fei ma) is a famous paradox in Chinese philosophy. It was written down by Master Gongsun Long who was head of the “School of Names in the Hundred Schools of Thought”. The elegant logic of the White Horse Dialogue is lost in translation but in essence it proves that it is possible for a “white horse to not be a horse”.

In an interesting coincidence the Temple of the White Horse (Baima Temple) in Luoyang was the first Buddhist temple in China. It was established by Emperor Ming (AD 58-75) of the Han after he dreamed of a golden man with the sun and moon radiating from his head and his neck. The emperor dispatched envoys to the Western Regions in search of the god, and, as a result, acquired Buddhist scriptures and images.

It was the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602 AD - 5 February 664 AD), born in the region of the White Horse Temple, who formed the bridge for spiritual knowledge between China and India in the early Tang period. He became famous for his 17-year overland journey from China to India and back. Xuanzang was recognized from an early age for his lively intelligence and earnestness and was ordained as a monk at the age of 20. Contradictions and discrepancies in available texts prompted his decision to travel to India to search for new sources of Buddhist teaching. In preparation he studied Sanskrit and Tocharin and the metaphysical Yogacara school of Buddhism. He became famous for his 17-year overland trip to India and back. During his travels he studied with many famous Buddhist masters and returned with more than 650 Sanskrit texts. His translation of the Heart Sutra remains the standard.

In 646 AD, at the Emperor’s request, the monk completed his book “Journey to the West in the Great Tang Dynasty”. It has since become one of the primary sources for the study of medieval Central Asia and India. Xuanzang’s journey along the Silk Roads also inspired the classic Ming novel “Journey to the West”.

In this novel Xuanzang is the reincarnation of a disciple of Gautama Buddha and is protected on his journey by powerful disciples. One of them, the monkey, became a popular favorite and profoundly influenced Chinese culture. Less well known, particuarly in the West, is the fourth disciple  - the White Horse.

The White Horse accompanied the Monk on his the quest. But the White Horse was also a Dragon Prince. He was the Son of the Ocean Dragon King who was ejected from Heaven for the sin of disobedience and sentenced to be reborn as a White Horse whose duty was to carry the monk to fetch the Buddhist Scriptures.

When you look up in the night sky and find the head of Scorpio (Beta, Delta, Pi, Rho) you may also see a horse and chariot. In the East it is mostly called Fang (the heavenly room) and is part of the Azure Dragon but it is also linked to Tiansi - the ancestor of all horses and Tien Tze (Beta) - is also known as the Chariot of Heaven. The Babylonians once called this part of the heavens - Gis-gan-gu-sur - the Tree of the Garden of Light. According to some, it was in this region that a bright nova appeared in the summer of 134 BC which provided the catalyst for the west’s greatest astronomer of antiquity Hipparchus (190 BC – ca. 120 BC) to begin cataloging stars.

The Ballad of the White Horse (1911) is an allegorical poem by G.K. Chesterton about the King Alfred the Great of Wessex. It was a significant influence on J.R.R. Tolkien and also on Robert E. Howard who dreamed up the character of Conan the Barbarian. In the summer of 1927 during a weekend in Austin, Texas, Robert Howard purchased of a copy of The Ballad of the White Horse. There is some evidence that Chesterton himself was satisfied with The Ballad in that it was the only one of his poems he dedicated to his wife. Here are some lines to remember:

Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.

Before the gods that made the gods
Had drunk at dawn their fill,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was hoary on the hill.

Age beyond age on British land,
Aeons on aeons gone,
Was peace and war in western hills,
And the White Horse looked on.

For the White Horse knew England
When there was none to know;
He saw the first oar break or bend,
He saw heaven fall and the world end,
O God, how long ago.

For the end of the world was long ago,
And all we dwell to-day
As children of some second birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.

Both Chesterton and Tolkien were also familiar with an even older poem called “The Wanderer”. It is an old Anglo-Saxon lament from before the Norman Conquest preserved in the Exeter Book.  It is about exile, loss and the passing of all “earthly glory”. The Wanderer’s true meaning is hotly debated to this day.

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers, Aragorn sings a song about the kingdom of Rohan that begins:

Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing…

Here is the matching section of The Wanderer.
Where is the horse gone? Where the rider?
Where the giver of treasure?
Where are the seats at the feast?
Where are the revels in the hall?
Alas for the bright cup!
Alas for the mailed warrior!
Alas for the splendour of the prince!
How that time has passed away,
dark under the cover of night,
as if it had never been!

and here is the end:

All is troublesome
in this earthly kingdom,
the turn of events changes
the world under the heavens.
Here money is fleeting,
here friend is fleeting,
here man is fleeting,
here kinsman is fleeting,
all the foundation of this world
turns to waste!

So spake the wise man in his mind,
where he sat apart in counsel.
Good is he who keeps his faith,
And a warrior must never speak
his grief of his breast too quickly,
unless he already knows the remedy -
a hero must act with courage.
It is better for the one that seeks mercy,
consolation from the Father in Heaven,
where, for us, all permanence rests.

Once upon a time a politician (now passed) referred to the media and the market as “reef fish”. They all move together spooked by the same shadow on the water.

But you didn’t have to be a seer to read the writing on the wall. You just had to look around you.

At the close of the 20th century, I came to America because all roads led here.

In April 2000 I attended a meeting in the boardroom of Time Warner to be a first-hand witness to the beginning of the dot com crash. It was a fitting symbol. Both Jerry Levin and Steve Case presided over the event - attendees included Carly Fiorina who went on to make such an impression at Hewlett-Packard and later became an economic spokesperson for Repulican Party nominee John McCain.

Just prior to the meeting we had stopped off in Wheaton to visit “L’s” father - who was fading fast. We shared some last, quiet moments together. When we left for the airport in the morning, we all knew it would be the last time “L” would see her father alive.

After the meeting, we were treated to dinner at New York’s “21″ Club. Lining the grand staircase are 30 jockeys, donated by wealthy equestrian lovers. As a “Man called Horse”, I felt right at home. As a boy I once even modeled my father’s jockey colors.

Entertainment for the evening was an intimate audience with Natalie Cole. When she sang “Unforgettable”, “L”  - who had been putting on a brave face - melted. Tears rolled down her cheeks. We flew from New York back to New Zealand, where we were living at the time. On the night we got back, in the early hours of the morning, we received a phone call. “L’s” father had died.

In 1999 AOL was worth more on paper than General Motors and Boeing combined. On January 11, 2000, AOL, acquired Time Warner, the world’s largest media company. It set in motion a chain of events that led to a loss of over US$200 billion in shareholder value. Its a kind of magic to vaporize that much money.

When they come to review the history, they should say that the dot-com crash led directly to the housing bubble. One speculative obsession replaced another. We were watching.

The booming housing market crashed for many parts of the U.S. in late summer of 2005. For three years it was only a problem for home owners. No one seemed to realize; not even former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan.

The ominous part is that two thirds of the world’s largest economy is dependent on consumer spending. But real median household income has not risen since 2001. In 2005 it was reported Americans’ savings rates sank into the negative for the first time since the Great Depression. Consumer prices have continued to rise. The majority of Americans earned less in 2007 than they did in 2000. It doesn’t take a “rocket surgeon” to add up the numbers.

Somehow consumers continued to spend and keep the economic engine ticking over. We all knew it was all being financed by credit. Household debt almost doubled to $13.9 trillion dollars - mostly concentrated in the mortgage market.

Now people have used the sub-prime lenders as the scape-goats but the real story is that a great many supposedly smart people in leadership positions were in the “denial and dependence enabling business”.

Underpinning all this has been an erosion of civic virtue that has reminded a few commentators of the Roman Empire. How does recovery happen? In simple terms, not until things become worse. Much worse.

On February 13, 2008 I wrote some words under the heading Alea Iacta Est (the die is cast): the words Julius Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon to seize power in Rome. No one took much notice.

ALEA IACTA EST
Signs of times
Die is cast
Rolling numbers
First is last

Summoned horsemen
Heed the call
Day is dawning
Pride will fall

Temples ransacked
Greed is great
Money changers
Tempted fate

Oil and drugs
Replace the Lord
Lacrimae mundi
Wield the sword

I have been a long time fan of Leonard Cohen - a descendant of Aaron - who has something of a hereditary channel to a higher power. Here is some of what he wrote down as Anthem.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
the widowhood
of every government -
signs for all to see.

I can’t run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

“Nothing in the Universe can resist the cumulative ardour of a sufficiently large number of enlightened minds working together in organized groups.” - Teilhard de Chardin.

When I was a youngster I enjoyed Asimov’s Foundation Series (there were only the three at the time). In later life he said he thought his most enduring contributions would be this series and the “Three Laws of Robotics”.

The aviophobic claustrophile first began reading the science fiction magazines sold in his family’s candy store. His writing was encouraged by the patron of science fiction, “Astounding Science Fiction” editor John Wood Campbell Jr (known to some as Don A. Stuart) - credited with founding the Golden Age of science fiction and who, in later life, became a big fan of L. Ron Hubbard.

Asimov’s big break came in September 1941, when his 32nd story “Nightfall” was published in Astounding Science Fiction. In 1968 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted “Nightfall” the best science fiction short story ever written. Campbell urged Asimov to write the story after discussing with him a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!”

In “Nightfall” (the original story) the fictional planet “Lagash” is located in a stellar system containing 6 stars which keep the whole planet continuously illuminated; total darkness is unknown, as are more distant stars. However, a group of scientists begin to make a series of discoveries that all point to an astronomical body that orbits Lagash and plunges the planet into darkness once every 2,049 years leading to civil disorder and the collapse of civilization. In ancient history the Sumerian city-state of Lagash was the home of Ninurta - son of Enlil and Lord of Girsu. Ninurta is often depicted weilding a bow and arrow and a mace named Car-ur - sometimes shown in the form of a winged lion. He is a mighty warrior and legends record his slaying of several monsters including the mighty thunderbird Imdugud.

Less than a year after “Nightfall” the first of Asimov’s Foundation stories appeared in Astounding (a total of 8 from May 1942 - January 1950). These were later collected in the Foundation Trilogy: Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953) which tell of the collapse and reconstruction of an interstellar empire. the collapse and rebirth of a vast interstellar empire in a universe of the future.

According to Asimov the idea was based Edward Gibbon’s (1737 - (1794) “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. Gibbon is regarded as the “father of modern history” and thought the Middle Ages was a priest-ridden, superstitious Dark Age. He wasn’t a big fan of the Christian Church saying it contributed to the demise of Rome and helped sap its spirit. He believed the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become lazy and soft, outsourcing their duties to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, military lifestyle.

In the Foundation series scientist Hari Seldon has spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a large mass of people is predictable. Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. To shorten the period of barbarism, he creates two Foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy. The first Foundation is based at the edge of the empire on the planet Terminus. The people living there are working on an all-encompassing Encyclopedia and are unaware of Seldon’s real intentions to preserve knowledge of the physical sciences after the collapse. The Foundation’s location is chosen so that it acts as the focal point for a new empire which will emerge in a mere one thousand years.

Psychohistory is based on group trends, however, and a secret Second Foundation was established to counter variations from the predicted course of events. The arrival of the mutant Mule almost destroys the Seldon Plan. The secretive Second Foundation is able to avert catastrophe but only by also revealing its existence to the First Foundation - who seek to destroy the Second Foundationers among them. After inventing a device that can jam telepathic abilities, the Foundation finds and eliminates telepaths on Terminus (which they wrongly assume is where the Second Foundation is located based on clues from Seldon). The Second Foundation was actually located on Trantor, at the centre of the galaxy. It was called “Star’s End,” due to the ancient saying that “All roads lead to Trantor (Rome), and that is where all stars end”.

The role of the Second Foundation has always reminded me of “The Power-House” written John Buchan (1875-1940) and published in 1916. Buchan, First Baron Tweedsmuir, was a Scottish novelist, politician, Governor General of Canada and presumed British spymaster who is best known for “The Thirty-Nine Steps” which formed the basis of a Hitchcock spy thriller in 1935.

The passages from “The Power-House” which remind me of the Second Foundation are located in Chapter III, “Tells of a Midsummer Night” in which the central character, lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, the hero of Moutain Meadow has an unsettling encounter with a strange old man in the library of a country cottage. Here are some of the old man’s words:

“Consider how delicate the machinery is growing. As life grows more complex, the machinery grows more intricate, and therefore more vulnerable. Your so-called sanctions become so infinitely numerous that each in itself is frail. In the Dark Ages you had one great power - the terror of God and His Church. Now you have a multiplicity of small things, all delicate and fragile, and strong only by our tacit agreement not to question them.”

“Civilization is a conspiracy…Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences. And it will succeed till the day comes when there is another compact to strip them bare.”

“Do we really get the best brains working on the side of the compact. Take the business of goverment. When all is said, we are ruled by amateurs and the second-rate. The methods of our departments would bring any private firm to bankruptcy. Our rulers pretend to buy expert knowledge, but they never pay the price for it that a business man would pay, and if they get it they have not the courage to use it. Where is the inducement for a man of genius to sell his brains to our insipid governors? And yet knowledge is the only power - now as ever. A little mechanical device will wreck your navies. A new chemical combination will upset every rule of war. We think our castles of sand are the ramparts of the Universe.”

“I only know of the existence of great extra-social intelligences. Let us say they distrust the machine. They may be idealists and desire to make a new world, or they may simply be artists, loving for its own sake the pursuit of truth. If I were to hazard a guess, I should say that it took both types to bring about results, for the second to find the knowledge and the first the will to use it.”

“Supposing anarchy learned from civilization and became international. Suppose that the links in the cordon of civilization were neutralized by other links in a far more potent chain…Let us call it iconoclasm, the swallowing of formulas…All that is needed is direction…In a word, you want a Power House and then the age of miracles will begin.”

So is the Second Foundation - or The Power-House as I sometimes call it - set in the past, present or future? Aren’t they all the same? Don’t all roads lead to Star’s End?

It is fitting to mark this date (September 10, 2008) with a story of creation.

Today the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland was activated. It has been called the “largest and most complex” scientific instrument ever built and seeks to replicate, here on Earth, the energy present at the creation of the Universe.

In a successful test protons were spun round the giant particle accelerator’s 27 kilometre-long circular beam tunnel close to the speed of light. Later (maybe as early as the first week in October 2008) the particles will be made to smash into each other at energy levels up to seven times higher than any seen before.

The UK’s Independent newspaper stated: The collisions, in four huge detectors arranged around the ring, will create conditions as tightly squeezed and hot as they were less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

No one knows precisely what will emerge from the bright flashes of disintegrating protons. As summed up by Einstein’s famous equation E=MC squared, energy and matter are interchangeable. The LHC is expected to create new particles and hopefully provide answers to the mysteries of mass, gravity, invisible “dark matter” and the current state of the universe. A key discovery would be the “Higgs’ boson”, nicknamed the “God Particle”, that physicists suspect provides the fundamental mechanism underlying mass. The LHC could also produce the first evidence of extra spatial dimensions and even create mini-black holes.

Every culture has a creation myth: a story of how it all began.

The Enûma Eliš is recognized as one of the oldest recorded creation myths. It is named after its opening declaration - which is usually translated as: “When on High”. It was first rediscovered from a ruined library at Nineveh (near Mosul in modern day Iraq) in 1849 by Henry Layard.

The Enuma Elish Layard discovered was from the library of Ashurbanipal and dated to around the 7th century BC. It has about a thousand lines recorded on seven clay tablets. Some of the text is damaged and modern scholars only have fragments to work with. The original version of the story is much much older.

It begins:
e-nu-ma e-liš la na-bu-ú šá-ma-mu
šap-lish am-ma-tum šu-ma la zak-rat

What follows is my edited version of this very old story:

WHEN ON HIGH heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name
And no destinies were ordained
The primeval Apsu, who begat them
And chaos Tiamat, the mother of them both
Their waters mingled together
Then were the Gods created in the midst of heaven

Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being
Ages increased,
Then Ansar and Kisar were created
And over them long were the days
Then there came forth Anu, their son
Abounding in all wisdom
He was exceedingly strong
He had no rival

But Tiamat and Apsu were still in confusion
They were troubled and in disorder
Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods
Cried to Mummu, his minister, and said to him:
“Come, let us go to Tiamat!”
So they went and laid down before Tiamat
And consulted on a plan regarding their sons
Apsu opened his mouth and spoke
And to Tiamut, the glistening one, he addressed these words:
“By day I can not rest, by night I can not lie down in peace
So I will destroy their way
Let there be lamentation, and let us lie down again in peace.”

When Tiamat heard these words
She raged and cried aloud
She uttered a curse, and to Apsu she said:
“Let their way be made difficult, and let us lie down again in peace.”
Mummu answered, and gave counsel to Apsu
Hostile to the sons was the counsel Mummu gave:
“Although their way is strong, you will destroy it;
Then by day you will have rest, by night you will lie down in peace.”

Apsu listened to him and his countenance grew bright
But since Mummu planned evil against his sons he was afraid
His knees became weak; they gave way beneath him
Because of the evil which their first-born had planned

Then Ea, who knows everything, heard their muttering
And Apsu and Mummu, were taken captive
Ea said: “Let us, their children, lie down in peace
We will take vengence upon them
into battle with the tempest we will go.”

Tiamat heard the word of the bright god, and said:
“Let us wage war!”
The gods banded themselves together and at the side of Tiamat they advanced
They were furious; they devised mischief without resting night and day
They prepared for battle, fuming and raging
They joined their forces and made war

Tiamat who formed all things
Made weapons invincible; she spawned monster-serpents
Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang
With poison, instead of blood, she filled their bodies
Fierce monster-vipers she clothed with terror
With splendor she decked them, she made them of huge stature
Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him
Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack
She set up vipers and dragons, and the monster Lahamu
And hurricanes, and raging hounds, and scorpion-men
And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams
They bore cruel weapons, without fear of the fight
Her commands were mighty, none could resist them
In this fashion, she made eleven kinds of gigantic monsters

Among the Gods who were her sons
She exalted Kingu; and raised him to power
To march before the forces, to lead the host
To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack
To direct the battle, to control the fight
In costly raiment she made him sit, saying
“I have uttered your spell, in the assembly of the gods I have raised you to power
I entrusted you with dominion over all the gods
Be exalted my chosen spouse
May they magnify your name over all the Anunnaki.”

She gave him the Tablets of Destiny
On his breast she laid them, saying:
“Your command will be answered, your voice will have great power.”
Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu
Decreed the fate among the gods his sons, saying
“Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god
Who is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!”

Tiamat weighed her heavy handiwork
Evil she wrought against her children
To avenge Apsu
But she told Anu of her battle plans
Anu listened and was deeply saddened
So he went to the place of Ansar his father
And told him all that Tiamat had plotted

Saying, “Tiamat our mother has conceived a hatred for us
With all her force she rages, full of wrath
All the gods have turned to her
Even those, whom you created, have gone to her side
They are banded together and with Tiamat they advance
They prepare for battle, fuming and raging
They have joined their forces and are planning war

When Ansar heard how Tiamat was in revolt
he bit his lips, and cried aloud
“You have captured Mummu and Apsu
But Tiamat has raised Kingu, and where is one who can oppose her?”

Ansar spoke to his son:
“My mighty hero, Whose strength is great
whose onslaught can not be withstood
Go and stand before Tiamat
That her spirit may be appeased, and her heart may be merciful
But if she will not listen to you
Speak my “word” so that she may be pacified.”

So Anu directed his path to her
Toward her he took the way
He drew nigh and beheld the muttering of Tiamat
But he could not withstand her, and he turned back

So with reluctance, Ansar prepared for war
Marduk of the Pure Mound he nominated as his champion
To Marduk he said:
“You are my son, with the merciful heart
When you go into battle, any that behold you will be pacified.”
The Lord rejoiced at the word of his father and stood before him
Ansar beheld him and his heart was filled with joy
He kissed him on the lips and his fear departed from him

Marduk said:
“My father, let not the word of your lips be overcome
Let me go, that I may accomplish all that is in your heart.”
Ansar replied:
“Do not be afraid when Tiamat attacks you - rejoice and be glad
You will swiftly trample her neck under your foot
Pacify Tiamat with your pure incantation
Go swiftly, your blood will not be poured out; you will return again.”

Our lord rejoiced at the word of his father
His heart exulted, and he replied:
“Lord of the gods, Destiny of the great gods
If I, your avenger
Conquer Tiamat and give you life
Appoint an assembly, make me supreme Lord
In Upsukkinaku gather yourselves together
With my word in place of yours, I will decree fate
May whatever I do remain unaltered,
May the word of my lips never be unheeded”

Ansar said to Gaga, his minister,
“Go fetch Lahmu and Lahamu
Let all the gods come together for a banquet
Let them eat bread, let them mix wine
So that for Marduk, their avenger they may decree the fate
Go, Gaga, and tell them
‘Ansar, your son, has sent me
He says that Tiamat, our mother, has conceived a hatred for us
With all her force she rageth, full of wrath
All the gods have turned to her
Even those, who you created, go to her side.
They have joined their forces and are making war
I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her
Nudimmud was afraid and turned back
But Marduk has set out, the director of the gods, your son
To defeat Tiamat
And I have agreed that if he is victorious
That I will gather you together
And proclaim his preeminence over the Gods
I urge you to swiftly decree for him this fate
That he may go and fight your strong enemy.”

So Gaga went and humbly before Lahmu and Lahamu, the gods, his fathers
He made obeisance, and he kissed the ground at their feet
Lahmu and Lahamu heard the message and cried aloud
All of the Igigi - the elder gods - wailed bitterly, saying
“What has happened to bring this about
We do not understand the deed of Tiamat!”
Then they gathered, all of them, who decree fate
They entered in before Ansar, they filled the great hall
They kissed one another in the assembly
They made ready for the feast, at the banquet they sat
They ate bread, they drank sweet wine
They were wholly at ease, their spirit was exalted
Then for Marduk, their avenger, they decreed the fate

They prepared for him a lordly chamber
Before his fathers as prince he took his place
“You are chief among the great gods
Your fate is unequaled
Your word is Anu!
From now on your command will be obeyed by all
You will have the power to raise up or cast down
Your word will carry full authority
Irresistible will be your orders
None among the gods will challenge you
Your sancturary will be the first to be filled
We give you sovereignty over the whole world
Be seated in might, be exalted in command
Your weapon will never lose its power; it will crush the foe
O Lord, spare the life of those who put their faith in you
But pour out the life or any who rebel against you.”

Then the Igigi laid out a garment of their midst
And to  Marduk - the first-born they said
“May your fate be supreme among the gods
You will have the power to destroy and to create
Just speak the the word, and it will be so
Command now and this garment will vanish
Speak again and it will reappear!”
Then Marduk spoke and the garment vanished
Again he commanded it, and the garment reappeared
When the gods, his fathers, beheld the fulfillment of his word,
They rejoiced, and they did homage, saying, “Marduk is king!”
They bestowed upon him the scepter, the throne, and the ring
And gave him invincible weapony.

“Go”, they said, “and cut off the life of Tiamat,
Let the wind carry her blood into secret places.”
Marduk made ready the bow, he chose his weapon
He slung a spear upon him and fastened it
He raised the club, in his right hand he grasped it
The bow and the quiver he hung at his side
He set the lightning in front of him
With burning flame he filled his body

He made a net to enclose the inward parts of Tiamat
And stationed the four winds around it so that none of her might escape
The South, the North, the East and the West winds
He brought near to the net, the gift of his father Anu
He created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane
And the fourfold wind, and the sevenfold wind, and the whirlwind, and the wind which had no equal
He sent forth the winds which he had created, the seven of them
To disturb the inward parts of Tiamat, they followed after him

Then the lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon
He mounted the chariot, the storm unequaled for terror
He harnessed and yoked four horses to pull it
Destructive, ferocious, overwhelming, and swift of pace
They were skilled in battle, they had been trained to trample underfoot

His garment was radiant, he was clothed with terror
With overpowering brightness his head was crowned
Then he set out, he took his way
And toward the raging Tiamat he set his face
As the lord drew nigh, he gazed upon the inward parts of Tiamat
He perceived the muttering of Kingu, her spouse
As Marduk gazed, Kingu was troubled in his gait
His will was destroyed and his motions ceased
And the gods, his helpers, who marched by his side
Beheld their leader’s doubt and confusion, and their sight was troubled

But Tiamat was not dismayed, she did not turn her neck
Marduk called out:
“Against the gods my fathers you have contrived a wicked plan
So then, ready your host, arm yourself
Stand and let us do battle!”

When Tiamat heard these words
She was like one posessed, she lost her reason
Tiamat uttered wild, piercing cries
She trembled and shook to her very foundations
She recited an incantation, she pronounced her spell
And the gods of the battle called for their weapons
Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counselor of the gods
To the fight they came on, to the battle they drew near

Our lord spread out his net and caught her
And the evil wind that was behind him he let loose in her face
As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent
He drove in the evil wind between her open lips
The terrible winds filled her belly
And her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide
He seized the spear and burst her belly
He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart
He overcame her and cut off her life
He cast down her body and stood upon it

When he had slain Tiamat, the leader
Her might was broken, her host was scattered
And the gods her helpers, who marched by her side
Trembled, and were afraid, and turned back
They took to flight to save their lives
But they were surrounded, so that they could not escape

Marduk took them captive, and broke their weapons
In the net they were caught and in the snare they sat down
They received punishment and were held in bondage
And on the eleven creatures which she had filled with the power of striking terror
Upon the troop of devils, who marched at her side
He brought affliction, their strength he destroyed
Them and their opposition he trampled under his feet

Moreover, Kingu, who had been exalted over them
He conquered, and with the god Dug-ga he counted him
He took from him the Tablets of Destiny that were not rightly his
He sealed them with a seal and in his own breast he laid them

Now after the hero Marduk had conquered and cast down his enemies
And had fully established Ansar’s triumph over the enemy
He returned to Tiamat, whom he had conquered
And the lord stood upon Tiamat’s hinder parts
And with his merciless club he smashed her skull
He cut through the channels of her blood
And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places

His fathers beheld, and they rejoiced and were glad
Presents and gifts they brought unto him
Then the lord rested, gazing upon her dead body
He split her up like a flat fish into two halves
One half of her he established as a covering for heaven
He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman
And bade them not to let her waters come forth
He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions
And over the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud
And he founded E-sara, a mansion which he created as heaven
He gave Anu, Bel, and Ea regions to govern

Marduk made the stations for the great gods
The stars, their images, as the stars of the Zodiac, he fixed
He ordained the year and into sections he divided it
For the twelve months he fixed three stars
After he had set the days of the year
He founded the station of Nibiru to determine their bounds
That none might err or go astray

Let us who were created by our Lord never forget
May his deeds endure forever
May they never be forgotten in the mouth of humankind

From first to last
Remember the One
From old to young
Your will be done

Softener of hearts
Guardian of old
All-knowing Lord
Falcon of gold

Bestower of widsom
Mighty in deed
Advocate of truth
Fertile seed

Illuminating counsel
Bringer of rain
Planner of battle
Meadow in plain

Favouring breeze
He who lifts up
Lord of Mercy
Flowing cup

Commander of winds
Thunderous roar
Keeper of secrets
Key to the door

Architect of heaven
Builder supreme
Guide of craft
Radiant dream

Son of the Pure Mound
Far-seeing eye
He who remembers
Lord of the Sky

Life and Death
Holder of reins
Divine peacemaker
Endless grains

Sublime intelligence
Tightening grip
Beginning and end
Navigating ship

Ruler of Destiny
Provider divine
Keeper of bonds
Measure of time

Essence
Watcher
Purifier
Teacher

Tracker
Seeker
Charmer
Reaper

Vanquisher
and
Judge

Ride the Lightning
Steadfast the spine that guides the star light,
To rend the four pillars asunder,
Tether and mirror, hold us together,
A rod in the presence of thunder.
Now, push forth the spear,
Of awe, dread and fear,
Come falcons, we fly toward Wonder.

If you’ve seen the movie “The Right Stuff” and shared the cockpit with Chuck Yeager: you get what I mean. If you’ve looked through John Glenn’s eyes orbiting the Earth as the people of Australia danced by the fire: you will know.

The short verse I call “Ride the Lightning” is a way of describing something.

If you have read the short story - The Epic of Gilgamesh - you may be familiar with the Destiny of Lord EN.LIL - the part where he granted the children of Gilgamesh the power to “bind and to loose”.

“Steadfast spine” is the djed. Many people have speculated about its relationship to electrical current. Maybe it is a form of electrical transformer. A transformer takes in electricity at a higher voltage and lets it run through lots of coils wound around an iron core. Because the current is alternating, the magnetism in the core is also alternating. Also around the core is an output wire with fewer coils. The magnetism changing back and forth makes a current in the wire. Having fewer coils means less voltage. So the voltage is “stepped-down.”

Depictions of “djeds” show them encircled and intersected by 4 disks. The 4 pillars of destiny is a term used in Chinese astrology and geomancy.

The 4 fundamental Forces of the Universe are known to be: electromagnetism, gravitation, weak interaction and strong interaction. There is a widely held theory that in the very early Universe the 4 forces were unified into a single Force - “tear the 4 pillars asunder”.

Earlier references to the Egyptian ankh called it a “mirror” and the “lucky charm” - the “knot of Isis” - was also known as the “girdle of Isis” - think of a transcendental bungy cord.

And the “spear” is shorthand for what some people call the “waas sceptre”. Really this is an approximation of “weben staff” or “Staff of Light” carried by the Gods of ancient Egypt. In depictions of the creator, Noble Djed - Ptah, he is sometimes seen with the “djed, ankh and waas” combined.

Song of the Stars
We are the stars who sing
We sing with our light
We are the birds of fire
We fly over the sky

Like the wind
Wrapped in luminous wings
We make a road
For the spirits to pass over.
- Algonquin chant - Dead Can Dance - Song of the Stars

Scholars say the origin of runes is uncertain. The term once meant “secret” or “whisper“.

Many characters of the Elder Futhark (the oldest and named, in modern times, after the first six sequential runes) bear a close resemblance to characters from the Latin alphabet (partly adapted from Etruscan script). The “North Etruscan” thesis is supported by the inscription on the Negau helmet dating to the 2nd century BC.

In Scandinavian mythology, the runes were of divine origin. In Havamal, we are told that Odin first obtained the runes through self-sacrifice. In Rigsthula we are told that the god Heimdall (disguised as Rig) in the introduction, sired three sons, Thrall (slave), Churl (freeman) and Jarl (noble), on human women. These sons became the ancestors of the three classes of men indicated by their names. When Jarl reached an age when he began to handle weapons and show other signs of nobility, Rig returned, claimed him as a son, and taught him the runes.

The genesis of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, with the Kylver Stone in Gotland being the first evidence of the futhark ordering. The Elder Futhark consists of 24 runes, often arranged in three rows of eight - these have been given the names Freyr’s 8, Heimdall’s 8 and Tiw’s 8.

In some scripts, the rune Hagal mirrors the hexagon - with a star pattern bound within it. It could be classified as the keystone rune, encapsulating the Universal pattern and the passage of time. Rainbows, perceived as a form of transformation of water and “bridges between heaven and earth” are also associated with Hagal. One writer has said Hagal is the rune that is at the root of things, both on a physical, material level, and in time.” Heimdall (Hagal) - the White God - also happens to be the “acute-eared” guardian of the Birfrost Bridge.

The hexagon is one of the dominant geometric configurations in organic and inorganic chemistry. The hexagon is one of the tiny subunits that give structure to DNA; it governs the organizational shape of the purine and pyrimidine bases, subunits of the nucleotides that make up the chains of the DNA double helix macromolecule. The hexagon also governs the microscopic organization of crystalline minerals such as quartz, provides the pattern water takes as it freezes into snowflakes and hardened ice. The hexagon expresses symmetry - when halved down the center, the sides become mirror images of each other.

The solar wheel is one of the most enduring and important ancient symbols. Some may remember the movie Stargate which spawned the television series. In this work of fantasy an Egyptologist is brought to an underground military base where he decodes the symbols on Egyptian cover stones as star constellations. That allows a alien device known as the Stargate to be opened allowing travel across the known universe to a distant planet.

The number 24 has many interesting applications including the 24-hour day. It is the smallest number with exactly eight divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24. It is also a highly composite number, having more divisors than any smaller number.

In 24 dimensions there are 24 even positive definite unimodular lattices, called the Niemeier lattices. One of these is the exceptional Leech lattice which has many surprising properties; due to its existence, the answers to many problems such as the kissing number problem and sphere packing are known in 24 dimensions but not in many lower dimensions.

In geometry, the kissing number is the maximum number of spheres of radius 1 that can simultaneously touch the unit sphere in n-dimensional Euclidean space. In 2003, Oleg Musin proved the kissing number for n = 4 (four dimensions) to be 24. The kissing number in dimensions greater than 4 is currently unknown except for n = 8 (240), and n = 24 (196,560).

Psalm 118:“This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it…The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”