Egypt, one hour’s flight from Tel Aviv was a totally different world. On arrival into Cairo we were greeted by dense, thick smog with very poor visibility.  Noise and more noise grated our senses.  It was a culture shock after the clean fresh air of Israel.   Hotel was reasonable and close to the Nile and the main 5 star hotels.  We were there for only half a day and one night prior to flying to Aswan. That was enough!

 In Aswan we joined our boat, the Nile Ruby, one of the 300 boats that traverse the Nile carrying curious tourists.  Our tour guide Mohamed is accompanying us.   It’s interesting that the two Egyptian (Muslim) men we have met, one near our hotel in Cairo and the other in Aswan, are both unmarried and intend to remain that way.  They are rebelling against religious doctrine and the huge responsibility of taking on a wife (chattel) for life.   They prefer freedom.  The one in Cairo has a successful business and the one here in Aswan is an excellent, informative, intelligent and questioning tour guide.  Both are self-employed.

Aswan is a breath of fresh air after Cairo.  Clean air, green grass, wide streets, calm, quiet - at least where we are on the waterfront! Our first tour was to the ancient temple of Phillae (The Temple of Isis).  Our guide described the hieroglyphics very well so we were able to read some of the stories engraved in the huge walls. 

One thing that our guide said connected the missing links to my understanding of universal ancient sacred wisdom. And this was that the Egyptian pantheon of Goddesses and Gods were worshipped as deities much like the Romans and Greeks worshipped their gods.   I instantly connected this information to western astrology, which has at its base the archetypal energies of the Greek and Roman gods.  

For example Venus is Aphrodite; Mars is Ares; Zeus - Jupiter; - Saturn - Cronus; Poseidon; Neptune; etc. Astrology is a tool to enable humanity to evolve into higher consciousness. So too was the Egyptian pantheon given as a tool to assist human evolutionary development.   This understanding excited and made sense to me!

I love to see the bigger picture, meaning and purpose behind my adventures.  They are always for my spiritual growth as well as the spiritual purpose given to me!  It’s my job to extract meaning and relevance.  I also love to see, and enjoy, the Great Cosmic Joke.

On our first grey day, as we cruised down the Nile, we watched a movie on Mohamed’s computer.  Guess the title of the movie lent to us by a Muslem Arab - Australia!  He had learned much about Australia from this movie and we learned a lot about him!  Good exchange! 

“What am I doing here?  Why was I directed to come to this ancient land?” were questions I asked myself on completion of our Nile cruise whilst we were being driven into the desert towards the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor. Those same questions again came into my mind the following day.  I felt as if I might be losing connection to my guides and the mystical treasure hunt given to me.

And then I looked up and saw the next sign-post!  Nag Hammadi, the town where the important Nag Hammadi scrolls were found!  Excitement, gratitude and joy welled up in my heart.   Excitement and gratitude because I had no idea I would have the privilege of visiting this place. Joy because I knew I was on the right path.   It was in the caves around this town that the gnostic gospels were stored and possibly written by some of Yeshua’s disciples following his crucifixion.  Why did I momentarily doubt?

Self doubt vanished!  I knew we were on the right trail and that more would be revealed this day, the day of the New Moon and Solar Eclipse in Capricorn.   It would be a new beginning.

The first temple we visited was Abydos, two and a half hours drive from Luxor.   We were the first tourists there, reaching it at 9.00am.

I began to feel weak and strange in my stomach.  I knew then that ancient memories were stirring!   It was a magnificent old temple, dedicated to Osiris, with seven sanctuaries where only high priests/priestesses could go to worship their deities.  As we entered the sanctuary of Horus, the divine child of Osiris and Isis, the strange feelings became stronger and then, when we visited the sanctuary of Isis, I felt as if I might collapse. I also felt emotions of sadness and grief.  “Was I transmuting the psychological density contained within this temple on behalf of the mass consciousness?” I wondered because this has been part of my spiritual ‘job’ for many years, and “Am I feeling Mary Magdalen’s sadness and grief about her necessary exile from a land she loved?”   I believe the answer to both of these questions was yes. 

I could feel how Mary Magdalen would have wanted to come back here for the last time before she went into exile in Europe.   She wanted to express her gratitude to Isis, a symbolic representation of the Divine Mother Goddess, for her safe travels thus far and to receive blessings and strength for the continuation of her life journey. 

We spent a couple of hours in this temple before leaving to visit Dendera, a temple dedicated to Hathor, the beloved goddess who wet nursed Horus and later married him.   It was here we saw the famous ancient Egyptian zodiac on the ceiling of a small room high up in the building.  This temple was much younger than Abydos and had been completed in the time of Alexander the Great and the Romans who followed. Therefore the zodiac could have been a representative of the kind understood by Mary Magdalen that formed a necessary part of the esoteric training of the Priestesses of Isis.  The original of this piece of scientific art is found in the Louvre museum in Paris however the replica was intact and clearly visible. 

Karen and I studied it well but the room was very small and we couldn’t take it all in.  What we could see very, very clearly was that there were four goddesses represented at the four cardinal points.  Four goddesses! Our western astrology model has two feminine and two masculine deities with Ares, the god of war, as the rising planet!    Aggression and war has become a collective thought form that was deliberately created thousands of years ago to facilitate the state of our world today. Cronus -Saturn, the Lord of Karma and Time is the other god.  Maybe humanity needed to balance the karmic scales of past times before a return to Source/Oneness/Mother Goddess could be experienced?    When was the Dendera temple zodiac created, when was it changed, and by whom? 

Some of the answers to these questions were downloaded to me during 2007/8. I have recorded them and will publish them in one of my upcoming books. They are quite revolutionary.   

To be continued...

Cancer/ Capricorn Eclipse theme

Prior to departing on my journey to Israel to follow the footsteps of Mary Magdalen's escape route from the biblical Holy Land I realized I had many astrological transits affecting me on the journey, shown clearly on my birth chart.   I wondered how these energies would play out.   I understood I would have the opportunity to learn spiritual lessons relating to my subconscious limiting motivations.  I also knew that I would have the opportunity to expand and grow beyond them.   What form would they take?

My supportive companion and driver of our Avis rent-a-car, Karen, travelled with me.  Having experienced for five days the peace, calm, beauty and tranquility of the country area of Sharona near the Sea of Galilee and being guided by and relaxing into Flow, we decided to head for Jerusalem.  We wanted to spend time here to experience the old city and to arrange our exit from Israel. I was the navigator.  I used an outdated map. Unwise!

We followed main route 60, and drove through beautiful fertile countryside straight into Palestinian territory, complete with huge steel barricaded open gates, beyond which was a steel and barbwire fence and control check point.   Karen instantly did a U turn to retrace our steps.  We found out later it was dangerous territory and we wouldn't have been allowed to enter anyway!

Our peace was disturbed!   I felt a slight tinge of fear in my stomach as we approached the high steel fence and an old pattern relating to 'fear of the consequences of making a mistake' momentary arose.  I was the navigator and responsible for the route! This was the remnant of an old fear/ control pattern arising and I could see it in all its glory!  I allowed Miss Capricorn control to temporarily take me over!

We found a major brand new highway on our updated Avis map that also had clearly marked the areas to avoid! "We must find a reputable travel agent when we get to Jerusalem" I said to Karen.  "We must organize (control) our exit!"

I was carrying this Capricornian energetic package when we arrived in Jerusalem.  Karen drives into cities by intuition and she stopped in beautiful King David Street in a select area of Jerusalem.  She easily found a park and then we found a hotel in which to spend the night. However I then started the control process again.  I wasn't allowing flow to guide!   No luck! Blockages every which way!  Resistance to flow attracts resistance!

Many Israelies advised us that we couldn't get into Egypt from Tel Aviv and that it was unwise to attempt the alternate route, that of driving into the Sinai desert from Eilat, a tourist city at the bottom end of Israel.  We were feeling we would have to by-pass Egypt or go to Rome first before entering Egypt.  Karen was observing quietly my fear based control process!     

The next morning I had a 'wake-up' dream.  My inner dream teacher always shows me where I am 'at' in my consciousness via my dreams.  I take note of them and do my best to decipher, and act upon, the messages.   They are usually symbolic and given to me in graphic and amusing detail, once I decode it!     This one indicated I was no longer stopping to 'smell the roses' and that I was lying to myself.  I needed to let go of the control 'lies' contained within an old belief system and allow Source/Flow to guide me instead.

I could see my psychological game so clearly now!   We leisurely ate breakfast and then enjoyed our walk into another area of the new city of Jerusalem.   And there, upstairs, was American Express travel Agency!   No hassle, no control! It appeared because we allowed ourselves to be guided by energetic flow.    We walked upstairs and met Tali who organises the visits to Israel and the Middle East for the Australian Army, Consulate and UN.   She knows Queensland well, and in particular Canungra, near where I live, and wants to buy a home on Mt. Tamborine!   A perfect Angel manifested when I gave up ego/personality control!

Within a few hours we had our trip to Egypt all arranged, from Tel Aviv airport direct into Cairo, eight nights in Egypt, four of which on a boat cruising down the Nile, stopping to visit temples on the way.    Two of the nights will be spent at the Isis hotel in Luxor, the area where the important temples we want to visit are situated, including and especially the Temple of Isis. Tali chose the hotel for us, saying it was the best value in Luxor and a hotel she personally liked.  We had no say in it!   

Mary Magdalen was possibly born of an Egyptian mother and was trained as a Priestess of Isis.  This means she was trained as a member of an esoteric order that was connected to the Essenes and the ancient Sirian mysteries that form part of the ancient Egyptian spiritual wisdom teachings. Isis was regarded as the Mother Goddess, the giver of life. Sirius is a stellar system situated around 13 degrees of Cancer, and is conjunct my Sun/Mercury.  I know it well!   I believe Mary returned to these ancient Egyptian temples en route to her departure and exile, hence our reason for visiting them.The Priestesses of Iris probably protected her.

So far we have visited the area around the Sea of Galilee where Yeshua (Jesus) taught and where he spent time alone with Mary Magdalen.   We then visited the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  These scrolls took over fifty years to be pieced together and translated.   Qumran is the place where I feel Mary Magdalen travelled to and sought refuge from the turmoils of Jerusalem.  She was given refuge by the Essenes, a break-away spiritual sect of Gnostics (a peace loving people who believed in direct inner knowing and living according to Natural Law) who lived in the area for possibly over 100 years but who were invaded by the Roman army around 69AD, some 36 years after the crucifixion.   

I had a vision the morning of our departure for Qumran that showed very clearly that Mary did go to the Essene community at Qumran and was provided with a camel to ride on her long journey into exile.  She needed this vehicle because she was either heavy with child or had a small infant to carry.

The scribes from that time stored their teachings in sealed clay jars in the high caves of Qumran whereby they were discovered nearly 2000 years later, in 1947, by a Bedouin shepherd.

We also visited a private beach on the Dead Sea and dangled our feet in the slimy, silky highly mineralised and therapeutic water. Kalia beach, associated with the Kalia kibbutz where we stayed for two nights, is situated very close to Qumran and, we found out later, in Palestinian territory.  It was very relaxing even though there were armed guards always present at the entrance/exit.

 It was interesting to see the hills of Jordan across the other side of the Dead Sea and to spend time at the lowest beach on planet Earth - 417 metres below sea level. We visited the old walled city in Jerusalem, saw where the crucifixion and resurrection took place then drove to Tel Aviv and prepared for our departure from Israel.

To be continued...