Tudor Pole's Message For Our Time

Two years ago, we bought a CD in Glastonbury: “A Message for the Coming Time”, a recording made in 1963 by Wellesley Tudor Pole. He was one of the instigators of preserving Glastonbury’s Chalice Well, but on this CD, you can hear the man’s spiritual vision. In “2012, Science or Fiction?”, I list non-Mayan prophecies for our times, and in that line, I could have added
Tudor Pole as one of those who saw our current era as one of great change.

In this lecture in 1963, he uttered his conviction that fifty years ago, a century had begun, which would culminate in fifty years – 2013 – and which would be a decisive moment: either we would move on to a higher spiritual plane, or Mankind would fall back to its most basest of living conditions. So from 1913 onwards – the year before the First World War – until 2013, Earth was at a crossroads. He believed that in this time, Mankind was guided by intelligences from beyond this plane of existence, and specifically mentioned the archangel Michael as the person who would make sure that light would conquer the forces of chaos, darkness. How? Tudor Pole was convinced that for this to happen, light merely had to shine. And when it shined, joy and happiness would be. And if we could live in love, joy and happiness, the forces of chaos would have no hold over us.

For this, the forces of good had apparently created a “Blended Ray”, which had blended the Energy of Love with the Energy of Wisdom. This Blended Ray was there to “bless and inspire Mankind as well as all life on Earth.” To put it in 1963 posh-English speak: “this Blended Ray has manifested in a particularly potent manner to inspire and prepare the way for the Dawn of a new Dispensation for the Human Race, an era of Goodwill, Brotherhood and Peace.”

So long before the Mayan Calendar became popular, or even before the Age of Aquarius reached its peak in the late 1960s, Tudor Pole was already emphasising our times as a time of great change – the end of one era, and the beginning of a new one. Instrumental in this change was the macrocosmos and the microcosmos. He speaks with great emphasis on the division of the atom that led to the atomic bomb, arguing that we needed to properly harness this energy, as otherwise, it could lead to serious repercussions. When we look at the historical record, it is clear that we have an imperfect score. Mankind did manage not to blow itself into annihilation, to which we came closest during the Cold War, and specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. But the “peaceful” exploration of the atom, especially for energy, has clearly soiled the earth greatly: Chernobyl in 1986 and the recent disasters in Japan stand out. And I find it interesting that Tudor Pole specifically warned for this peaceful usage of the atom – an unusual warning to be heard at the depths of the Cold War, and one which Mankind did not take then; it seems Japan 2011 needed to occur before several nations in this world began to seriously reconsider their atomic energy policy.

He also used the separation of the atom as an analogy for how in modern Man, the intellect and the heart had become detached and how this separation had lead to some of the greatest atrocities ever witnessed on the earth – and 48 years on, this is still the case. Living by the intellect, we have abandoned our soul. We live in a world of scientific reductionism, in which death, spirit, the soul and all things paranormal are “out of bounds”, however much our heart, when used, feels and knows those topics are the only true sciences worth studying. Indeed, the separation of the mind and soul seems to be so omnipresent with most of us, for there is no real cry of outrage that science should give the exploration of the “paranormal” total precedence. Or maybe it is because we perfectly know the attitude the mass of scientists would take if this challenge were placed in front of them?

Give Peace A Chance

In 1991, when President George Bush – now referenced as Senior – decided to attack Iraq because of its invasion of Kuwait, a group of musicians labelled themselves “The Peace Choir” and re-recorded “Give Peace a Chance”, originally released by John Lennon. The British BBC decided not to air the song either on radio or television, for it was felt that the song was too controversial. Of course, by 1991, the two decades old
song was already world famous, hummed and whistled on a daily basis. But it was, together with “War Is Over” and “Imagine” part of a trilogy of songs written by Lennon that sent out a powerful message of peace, a message which the leaders of those and our times did not want to hear.

War, rather than peace, is the ambition of politicians, even though they declare that wars are instigated to protect “our freedom”, even though our freedom is condensed more and more by those same politicians, “for our protection”. Of course. Logical. Not?

The 20th century knew three fervent promoters of the Message of Peace: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon. All three were assassinated. Two were politically active, but Lennon was a musician. But he understood better than anyone that the entire world was his stage, due to the popularity of The Beatles. “The Summer of 1968” was in part Lennon’s creation, for an entire young generation listened to Lennon as one of their potential social leaders.

Personally, Lennon hoped that this new generation did not need or listened to leaders. He was convinced that everyone suffered from a “father problem”. He himself had grown up without the presence of his dad, but that was not the key problem: once an adult, Lennon believed, everyone looked towards politicians and religious leaders as substitute-dads and this was one of the primary problems of society. And though he preached a revolution, he felt that protest marches were not the right way to bring about change. Rallies were always abused by the authorities and the larger they were, the more death or destruction seemed to accompany them.

So how was the Revolution of Peace to come about? It was a subject that Lennon had pondered from the early days of his fame. Once a phenomenon, Lennon realized that everything he said, would not only be scrutinized, but also became headline news the world over. One somewhat loose remark about Jesus made him a most controversial figure in the United States and even resulted in a series of death threats. When he was asked about the war in Vietnam, he bit his tongue for many years, until he could no longer suppress his opinion. By that time, the world had come around to his point of view. He realized that people looked to him as a prophet. But as he realized that the entire world listened to what he had to say, and sometimes went ballistic over it, he realized that there were two distinct methods on how he could, if not should, manage the rest of his life.

He knew that his words could unleash commotion if not a revolt with an entire generation, if he so wanted to. He could become a demagogue. But if he were to, he would become a substitute father himself and that is not what he wanted to accomplish. Instead, he felt that the Revolution of Peace had to occur inside each of us. That he had to meditate and had to live in peace and harmony with himself. Internal peace had to be established and from this core, the world would change, if everyone could embrace this basic message. That was the Peace Message that Lennon wanted to send into the world and music was his initial vehicle.
               

And why was he murdered? Of course, the standard version is that it was a coincidence, but look beyond the official line and it is obvious that many authorities considered Lennon to be a lose cannon – a man who greatly upset the standard social status quo. He was world famous, had the ear of millions if not billions, and preached a message of peace at a time of war. Once The Beatles dissolved and he was married to Yoko Ono, the message of peace became coupled with a message of love. United, Lennon and Ono began to organize specific campaigns so that the world heard the message of peace and love time after time. It had become his mantra. But it was a mantra that was the opposite of the Message of the (Cold) War that the substitute dads preached. And thus Lennon was “accidentally” killed by a lone gunman. But thirty years onwards, his message remains present in the collective unconscious and hopefully continues to inspire more than just one generation of us.

Sitchin, Aliens and Gods

As someone who appears frequently on The History Channel’s series “Ancient Aliens”, one of the more frequent questions or objections I receive is whether ET killed God. My answer is a definitive no, and let me explain why.

There are various types of ancient alien hypotheses and the more literal they are, the more often I find they are erroneous, especially if they are riding on the tail of a “mega-theory”. Take the most famous example of the field: Zecharia Sitchin introduced the notion of the existence of a twelfth planet into our solar system, arguing that this was knowledge possessed by the ancient Sumerians and that the race that lived on this planet, named Nibiru, had colonised Earth and genetically modified our ancestors into us. Only he could correctly translate the Sumerian language, he claimed, and though he maintained so for four decades, we know he read the Sumerian language – at best – poorly.
               
According to Sitchin, the planet Nibiru had an elliptical orbit, which according to astronomers – and common logic – is unlikely to be possible, especially if that planet would also be comfortable in sustaining life along its 3600 year orbit through our solar system. But the less evidence there is for Nibiru’s existence, the more fundamentalist some people come in their promotion and belief of it.

With the arrival of the 2012-phenomenon, Sitchin-fans decided that maybe it was a good idea to link 2012 with the idea that this was the return of Nibiru. But fact of the matter is that if this were the case, this planet would now be clearly visible in our skies, even if there was a massive scientific cover-up in place to “deny the truth”, as some would have it. But it does underline the all too common notion that if two unexplained mysteries are coupled, that somehow this is proof that both are right!

Sitchin’s fan argue that astronomers have noted an unusual pattern in the influx of comets as they enter our solar system, suggestive that maybe there is a planet far out there, in the so-called Oort Cloud. The anomalies could be explained if there was a planet one to four times the mass of Jupiter. Indeed, “some” astronomers argue that indeed, but there is no evidence for this planet, even though it should be easily detectable, especially
if it were to be due for arrival near Earth next year. So, in short, the promoters of “Planet X” – as the planet is commonly referred to – have no evidence.

You might wonder why Sitchin or his theories are not more prominently part of the “Ancient Aliens” series. The answer is quite simple: Sitchin had theories and tried to make the evidence fit his theories. So, yes, whereas Sitchin states that “ET was here”, it is in the detail that his theory is lost. And I would go as far as to say that he did the entire field a disservice, for he was both vociferous and cantankerous in the defence of his theories. Sitchin mistranslated, but specifically misinterpreted. Misunderstood.

If Nibiru is anything, it is indeed a place of crossing: the crossing of one world to another. But not of planet Earth to planet Nibiru, but from the earthly realm to the land of the dead, and the gods. This is a metaphysical explanation, and yes, I do take the explanation of the soul crossing over literally. Not literally in a physical sense, but literally in a metaphysical sense. For I am convinced that there is more to this universe than the mere physical universe; that there are both extra-terrestrial and otherworldly beings… both of whom are definitely alien to our civilization but when you study such topics as the fairy faith of the ancient Celts, it is clear that these ancient civilizations were far more familiar with these creatures than we are.

So, once again, we live in an “and universe”: a universe with room for otherworldly and extra-terrestrial creatures. For we not only have one topic that science needs to explore, but several which it has shied and continues to shy away from. We not merely need to ask the question whether or not we were alone, but also ask questions about other dimensions. History and reality are far more complex than the neat theories of science, or Sitchin. Reality is complex. So is history. But that makes it all the more beautiful.

The Adjustment Bureau

In George Nolfi’s adjustment of Philip K Dick’s short story, “The Adjustment Bureau” is an organisation that makes sure “The Plan” is executed. Congressman David Norris accidentally sees hat-wearing “case officers” adjusting the fate of himself and his entourage, after running into his soul mate – a woman he is not supposed to see as “the Chairman” of the Adjustment Bureau believes that if they find love, “The Plan” he has outlined for the world will not come to fruition.

The paradigm of the movie is that free will and chance are antagonists, with the Bureau making sure that free will does not result in holocausts and world wars, but that it is instead curtailed – which is why there is a Plan. However, the key message is that The Plan is only that: a plan. And on occasion, things like true love – for Love Conquers All – are not only allowed to occur, but seem to be pushed so powerfully that it will change the course of planned history. But also that “Free will is a gift that you only use when you have to fight for it.”

The story therefore captures the beautiful dichotomy of destiny and free will. The dichotomy is most famous when it comes to astrology, whereby the story goes that we are moved by the planets – or at least that at the moment of birth, there is a cosmic imprint made upon us, which is our destiny. This is what will happen to us, unless we use our free will properly. It was one of the greatest astrologers and minds of all times, the Renaissance scholar Marsilio Ficino, who said that the true magus ruled his stars, rather than being ruled by the stars.

When we delve into accounts of people who have accessed past lives and life in between lives –Michael Newton has catalogued his research in a number of books – we hear consistent accounts that before our birth, we do agree to a plan: a map of as to how our life will unfold, with milestones planned in, very much like a project plan; that we want to see certain important things accomplished by certain dates/ages. Newton and others make it clear that this plan will guide a person’s development – his destiny – though adjustments to the plan can be made at any moment in time (though it rarely happens).

Take this idea out of the imaginal, otherworldly realm, and you end up with The Adjustment Bureau, in which angels are case officers and magical powers are only acquired if one wears a hat. What the movie perfectly illustrates, too, is that the Chairman really is God; that They have created a dichotomy which is at its core, an illusion, so that we would really press hard for the rights of free will and use it to meet our true destiny. And this is where The Adjustment Bureau echoes Hermetic material, as the possibility to use Free Will is vey much like a Grail Quest: it is placed at our disposal, but David Norris needs to fight hard for it, and enter the Bureau Headquarters, to win the right – very much like the Grail knight needs to enter the Grail Castle and prove his worth.

Of course, in Newton’s and Hermetic thought, there is no real stand-off between destiny and free will. And this is why the Hermetic tradition also provides a path not mentioned in the movie, which is the path of surrender, in which the seeker entrusts the path in the hands of God. This Plan is the unity of free will and destiny, in which total faith and trust in God is given over to the Chairman – it is maybe what makes you an Adjuster.

E.T. is our home

Our Los Angeles home is in Porter Ranch, a residential area in “the Valley”, making up the north of Los Angeles. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t have to cross streets like White Oak Avenue, while Brasilia Drive is locally notorious for the house on the corner with Reseda, whose Halloween display attracts thousands of local visitors each year. None of these streets will ring a bell with anyone – not even most people from the Valley – as they are nowhere near as famous as other “real L.A.” streets like Sunset Boulevard or Rodeo Drive. But this area of Porter Ranch is where many of the scenes of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” were filmed. It is why Porter Ridge Park, at the top of Reseda, is better known amongst locals as “E.T. Park” than under its real name.

“E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” is a movie that is remembered for all the right reasons. It left an imprint on an entire generation. Shortly after we had moved in, Giorgio Tsoukalos came to our home and we related the E.T.-connections of this area. He explained how as a child, he had identified with Elliot, but as he grew up, he realised that he was Peter Coyote’s unnamed character, but nicknamed “Keys” because of the keys he has on him. Though for many he is the nemesis of Elliot, “Keys” tells Elliot that he has waited to see an alien since he was ten years old. What is happening – alien contact – is therefore a dream come true for both of them.

The vision of E.T. was Spielberg’s, who developed an imaginary alien creature as his personal companion when he was a child himself, after his parents had divorced. The movie is largely autobiographical, on an imaginary scale. But living in Porter Ranch, driving up Reseda at night and seeing the lights of the Valley below you (as in the movie) or driving along White Oak and imaging Elliot take off on his bike are a magical dimension laid onto this landscape by Spielberg. The crew spent only eleven days filming here, but its legacy on Porter Ranch is – three decades later – still alive.

Porter Ranch thirty years ago was being built – as is apparent in many of the scenes. The police car chase ends with a view of Mission Peak and its surrounding area, a view we can see from our home which was not yet built at the time. Today, Porter Ranch is residential and known for it. The only somewhat weird activity that occurs in Porter Ranch and which is visible to residents is geocaching, but imagining NASA personnel walking through the streets with Geiger counters in search of extra-terrestrial beings is something where your mind wanders to because of the movie. For E.T. is so… real. It is like a layer laid upon reality, but touchable – and I guess to some extent it is, for you only need to put the movie into your DVD player and there it is.

What happens in Porter Ranch is to me a 20th century version of an ancient shamanic landscape. The shaman saw not only the land with his physical eyes, he always so it with his mind, as a result of which he saw spirits, demons, the ancestors, each and all of which he could connect with. The movie E.T. is like a film (pun intended) that is placed over Porter Ranch. Always there, as soon as you are aware that this is the landscape where E.T. was filmed. It is that knowledge that gives the eyes to see…

If E.T. was a religious experience, the sites immortalised on celluloid would have been marked with oratories and churches –to some extent that is what has happened. When the Porter Ridge Park playground was to be refurbished, there was a campaign to make sure that the caterpillar remained, as it was so linked with ET. It had become a landmark and when you go on film buff websites, you will find it is an important destination for those doing an ET pilgrimage to Porter Ranch. For them, the area has become sacred… Why? Because it is not so much that the gods walked here, but because it is a landscape where magic and emotions were experienced, and for which we want it to be remembered. The History Channel’s slogan is that history is made everyday. So are sacred places…

Mindswap

While reading my friend Mark Pilkington’s excellent book “Mirage Men”, I came across a paragraph in which he relates a short quote of Karla Turner, a “UFO abductee” and author of “Into the Fringe” – she also wrote “Taken”. Mark refers to her mention of floating silver spheres – UFOS – which she sees, but which to her are “repositories… where human souls are somehow recycled.” She further believed that inside the spheres, these souls were implanted into women’s wombs, a procedure that she described as both surgical and spiritual.

Most UFO abduction writers take most things extremely literally, which is how we have come to the point where extra-terrestrial – apparently malevolent – creatures are abducting human beings and engineering our DNA. But Turner goes beyond that and suggests that the aliens even interfere with our souls?

The same trend is apparent in Whitley Strieber’s relatively recent novel “2012”, subtitled “The War for Souls”. Strieber has mixed his horror-writing expertise with autobiographical accounts of his own anomalous, in his interpretation, extra-terrestrial abduction encounters and argues that “the war” the aliens are fighting is to harvest our souls – in some Luciferian apocalyptic plot.

I don’t want to spend too much space pointing out that abductions to other realms didn’t begin with the arrival of the UFO phenomenon – it is well-documented in fairy lore and other cultures and goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.

What I do want to spend time on, is the notion that we might be an “alien” soul in a human body. All of us. Not just “some” of us. It is something that was expressed for thousands of years and was written down in the Corpus Hermeticum. Seeing the Corpus was a synopsis of the Ancient Egyptian religion, it can be argued that this is also what the Ancient Egyptians believed and knew: that we had a body, but that our soul was somehow “alien” – from elsewhere. Today, we might indeed call it alien, or extra-terrestrial, but I prefer to call it stardust. Part of the Divine Spark.

In the Corpus, it is said that a human being has several levels of intellectual and spiritual existence, somewhat on par with the three levels of the brain that science has uncovered. The Hermeticists believe(d) that a human body had an intelligence of its own, but that this began a co-operation with a spirit that somehow came from elsewhere and entered it around the moment of birth. The end result is you, and me, and all of us.

As bizarre as this may sound, Michael Newton’s “Journey of Souls”, which describes case studies of people that he has hypnotised so that these people can describe the life between lives. The book is very much in agreement with the Hermetic assessment of how souls enter our body. The soul speaks of utilizing the body and that they don’t control the human mind as such, but try to elevate it.

Newton has reached these insights practically, through hypnotising people and analysing their stories. Indeed, in the West, we often think that religion was somehow either divinely inspired by the likes of Jesus or Mohammed or fabricated by the Church, but there is also the practical exploration of the mind, and from those observations, the creation of a framework. Thus, it is entirely possible that in our distant past, people experimented with the mind, reached the same conclusion as Newton, and wrote it down.

So where does this leave Karla Turner? Her observations might be totally correct, but her interpretation of these things being a purely extra-terrestrial affair, might be too small of a framework. But in the final analysis, we might indeed be alien minds occupying human bodies, and we don’t even know it ourselves.

FutureMankind

The Mayans and Hopi believe that we live in the Fourth World (though some traditions list it as the Fifth World). The previous eras were considered to be all about human evolution on a physical level, while the present world – which began in ca. 3000 BC and will come to an end in 2012 AD – is about psychological – or to be more precise spiritual – evolution.

Though some civilisations date back to 10,000 BC, mostly, civilisation as we define it today started in Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Asia and pockets of the New World in ca. 3000 BC. Civilisation was a global event, often happening independent from each other, from ca. 3000 BC onwards… as if it was a cosmic imperative.

How civilisation came about is not truly the point. But it is clear that civilisation has brought us to the 21st century, where all of these civilisations have melted into one global civilisation,
creating a global village where everyone is connected via phone networks, millions of flights crisscrossing our skies and an economy on a global scale. We are all connected. Whether we like it, or not.

Most of these changes, or at least radical revolutions, have occurred in the last two decades. This, too, is in accordance with the prophecies of the Mayans, who singled out the period of 1993 to 2012 – the final “mini-era” of the 5000 year cycle – as a time of great change. We are, as they say, in “the thick of it”.

With great periods of change comes great uncertainty if not fear. An old world is disappearing and a new one is born. What does the future hold for us? “We don’t know” is the answer… but it is also up to us to define it! The central legends of the Mayans state that at the turning point of each Age, “leaders” – selected individuals – convene to define the fate of the New Age with the gods. Though the general trend (e.g. that it is of a spiritual nature) of such a change is predetermined, specifics are left to be worked out. It is therefore an interesting combination of predetermination and free will.

The general trend of all ages is about evolution and human development. The general trend of this age will obviously be further human integration and spiritual growth. At the same time, each turning point has a review of the previous Age, where appropriate conclusions are drawn.

If we look at the world today, we might say it is in bad shape. Switch on any news channel and you will be told that the world is allegedly a very bad place. Indeed, it could be better. But look upon it from the perspective of 5000 years and make a conclusion based on that and a totally different picture emerges, I think.

5000 years ago we were largely individual tribes, going on an adventure that should be described as “tribal” or “national”. Today, we still have nations, but we also have come to the understanding that we are one world. However much some political parties feel they have to play the isolationist card – that “out there” there are “those” who are “out to get us” – the fact of the matter is that we are working together and working together is the only way forward. There is no alternative and anyone who pretends there is, is either stupid or a demagogue. Or both.

We ARE a global village and we have become global citizens. That is the FutureMankind. This comes with tremendous challenges and problems, which frustrate and infuriate many. But is that such a bad thing?

The challenge of the New Age is therefore to embrace this even further, and work on some of the outstanding agenda from this age that is not yet fulfilled. Don Alejandro, a Mayan elder, sees the world post 2012 as a world in which we can fly on airplanes without passports. Indeed, borders and the insistency in keeping them “solid” – including “Fortress America” – have no future. Reality is that borders are not solid (and never were) and they are in many cases total illusions – take for example most borders drawn in Africa or in the middle of a sea. But they continue to be the biggest contributor to division, death and war, for no real reason other than “national interests”, which truly have become another illusion too. There are no more “national interests”. In truth, there only ever was, is and will be “human interest” and our challenge is to understand to the fullest as soon as possible. That is FutureMankind.