It's 3 Days before the Solstice and the Sage must prepare him

"It was three days before the solstice and the sage must prepare him."

It is now only a few days before I start to share the teachings of the Elements on my blog. It may seem strange to some of you or even funny that over the next few days I will be doing a lot of preparation before I begin to share these teachings.

I remember when my old teacher first taught these teachings. As a he stood on stage  before us, his students, you could feel a change in the energy of the room. My teacher looked nervous. I never quite understood why until I decided to share these teachings in such an open forum as a blog. The moment I made the decision I could feel a change in the energy around me. I was at once excited and then nervous as I began to realize the power of the teaching that I was about to share. To say the teaching is life changing is an understatement. For those of you who commit to the teachings and the odd discipline that will be thrown in, your lives will never be the same again.

For the three days before the solstice I would like you to sit somewhere in nature and meditate for twenty four minutes, one minute for each hour of the day. This is to be done to prepare you to connect with the cycles within nature; cycles which exist within man and mankind or woman and womankind if you prefer.

The Elements of Man is probably based on Taoist teachings which came from The Sages of the Plum Red Robes, an order of Old Chinese Taoist monks who lived 2500 years ago. The Taoist Sages revered the winter solstice as their most sacred time of the year. The winter solstice marked the longest night of the year, where the sun is then reborn, bringing in a new energy. These Sages would gather for three days for a Plum Wine Fast and tap on a table with bone knockers.

In honor of their tradition, there are a number of groups around the world who gather each year during the winter solstice for a Plum Wine Fast and tap on a table for three days with bone knockers, just as the Taoist Sages of old once did. It’s a deep meditative process that takes one into a very deep trance state. The wine didn't put the sage into a drunken state, rather a deeper state of awareness and perception of the inner worlds. 

On the nineteenth and through to the twenty first of June I would like you to honor the solstice with a drink on each day of plum wine, which can be bought from most good bottle shops. Before you drink your glass of plum wine meditate four twenty four minutes and allow yourself to be open to what ever comes forward. While drinking the plum wine allow your imagination to take you back 2500 years ago and experience the Sage's Winter Solstice ceremony. 

The Elements of Man will begin in Fire which is the Winter. The plum wine is a celebration of many things but importantly the beginning of a new cycle.

My old teacher taught us that if we lived in touch with the elements/seasons, we would never die from them or because of them. It is time for us all to reconnect with nature and I will see you again on the twenty first of June when we will begin the Elements of Man.

The 33rd Sage is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.

Twitter @GeofSpalding

Official Author Blog - the33rdsage.authorsxpress.com/

Translatable Author Blog - 33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

The Elements Of Man

The Elements of Man

Twenty eight years ago I was introduced to a teaching called the Elements of Man. This one teaching led me off on a spiritual journey which continues today.

There is not a day that goes by where this teaching is not used or develops in a way that I never thought possible those twenty eight years ago.

The teaching of the Elements of Man is the basis for my modern fable 'The 33rd Sage.' the teaching is so powerful that it can truly change lives. I have often contemplated sharing the Elements with small groups but I always felt it was not my place to teach. Even though the great teachers of the Elements no longer wish to teach it, I believe it is more important than ever to share this information. With the amazing changes we are going through on the planet, be it earth changes, spiritual changes or the changes that are occurring in nations and across the financial world. These changes can either be scary or an opportunity for great change. It is my hope that by revealing the Elements of Man, that it will offer people the opportunity to reconnect with the cycles of nature and mankind, but also give each of us a deeper understanding of ourselves and the people we come into contact with.

Over the next ninety days or one full season I will be sharing the initial teachings of the Elements of Man and also some of the insights I have gained along the way. My hope is that many of you will come along with me on the journey through the elements and connect to a deeper part of yourself. This will not just be a read it and learn experience, for to really understand the elements you must become one with them. Occasionally I will ask you to take time out from your regular day to reconnect with the elements. This could simply mean sitting in nature for the day or some other exercise which will further open you up to the teaching of the Elements.

Each day over the next three months, starting on the 21st of June, I will share with you some aspect of the teachings. I welcome anyone who wants to come along for the journey. If you can make a discipline out of the study of the elements they will return to you a gift that will give for ever.

As my old teacher said to me when he asked me whether I wanted to learn about the Elements of Man. "Would you like to look at a person and know them better than they know themselves; to be able to talk to them in their own language, to know their strengths and weaknesses and be able to their see their health and disease patterns now and into their future?" I now ask you the same question.

Come with me on a journey through the elements.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in these teachings please share my blog link with them.

Some of the teachings that I will share are in my book 'The 33rd Sage.' For those like me who learn through story I would suggest you purchase a copy of the book. Through reading the story the hidden elements seem to connect with a deeper part of you and allow the teachings to come from within. Even today when I reread the story there are teachings that come forward that I was not aware of when I first wrote the story or more correctly when the story was being written through me.

Come with me on a journey through the Elements; a journey that will take you deep within who you are; a journey that will open up world's that you never thought possible. As Shakespeare said, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio, than dreamed of in your philosophy." 

The 33rd Sage is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.

Twitter @GeofSpalding

Official Author Blog - the33rdsage.authorsxpress.com/

Translatable Author Blog - 33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

You see the world as you are

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but in the case of the one above it says far more than that. I am not sure who created but it was so powerful that when I first saw this picture I had to take a pause and contemplate how I see the world. In my fable 'The 33rd Sage,' the protagonist Conway sees the world from his limited perspective and it is not until he meets, and becomes apprentice to an old Chinese sage that he realizes how biased his own view of the world is. The old sage teaches him about how each of us is influenced by the seasons and how we all view the world from our own genetic predispositions. The key for Conway, like us all, is first to know ourselves, to understand that our thoughts and beliefs determine how we see the world.

The old mystics talk of the world being Maya or an illusion, because they knew that the world we saw was one that we created everyday in our own minds.

As a Homoeopath one of the first things I try to do is to understand what it is that is stopping my patient from seeing the beauty of the world. The person's own individual biases stop them from seeing the world in all it's magnificence. As a writer all my characters have their own biased world view and it is there journey to go beyond its limitations.

Take a moment to reflect on what it is that is colouring your world view and does it still serve you or is it time to step beyond it and see the world as it is in all its beauty.

It is not that easy to step back from your view of the world and realize that it is an illusion. If you do I will guarantee you will see a deeper and more beautiful world than you ever thought possible. You will open yourself up to experiencing synchronous moments that will change your life. It will not always be easy, sometimes your old beliefs and values will try to drag you back into the world that it is comfortable with but continue to expand who you are and new worlds will open up to you.

The Elements of Love

The Elements of Love Understanding the elements of love allows us to have better relationships. Whether it is your partner, a friend, a client or even a character in a book, they all have their own element or season of love. Each of them because of this inbuilt genetic bias can only see the world from their viewpoint. The key, firstly, to understanding your own elemental type, is that it allows you to be free and be able to see the world in all it's magnificence, not just from a single viewpoint. As a Homoeopath and writer understanding the elements allows me to fully understand how my patient or the character in my books will act in any given situation. After studying the elements or the seasons that exist within all of us I wrote down the teaching in a modern fable called "The 33rd Sage." The story itself follows the ark of the Hero's Journey while at the same time allowing the reader to better understand themselves and the people around them. In the next twelve months many of my bloggs will be about these wonderful teachings which I was given by a character I will called old Chinese. When I first heard the story of the sage and the emperor I was transfixed by the majesty of the story, but even more than that I began to understand myself. Today I would like to talk about the Elements of Love. This will be done in the form of a quote from my book where the Old Chinese Sage has taken on his female form and begins to teach about the Elements of Love. The love languages which match with each of the elemental types are called words of appreciation (Fire), Acts of Service (Air), Quality Time (Water) and Physical Touch (Earth). These names of each of the love languages are taken from his classic book, The 'Five Love Languages,' by Gary Chapman. She lent forward, her heavy jowls sagging under her words. "The heart has four chambers, one to represent each of the Elements. It is as though each of the chambers was designed to carry one of the love languages; the top two chambers being the extroverts corresponding with Fire and Earth and the two bottom ones, the introverts corresponding to Water and Air." Conway cringed, shifting uneasily on the log. He dropped his head, his eyes scanning the dirt in front of him. His shoulders drooped. He bent over and scratched the ground with a stick. His breathing became shallow, almost stopping. "If the word love scares you, I can use the word rapport.” Conway looked up, smiling weakly. He sat up, forcing a deep breath into his body, immediately lifting his shoulders. She continued, a wry smile creasing the corners of her lips. “Using the language of love brings us into a symbiotic relationship with others. Without understanding the Love Language of others, the lust soon dies and we are left with ashes, another missed opportunity. Anyone we come into contact with deserves to be heard and spoken to in their own language; this is the greatest gift of the ‘Seasons of Love.’ It is not about passion, for that is only natural when we are in rapport with one another; it is about understanding the differences and honouring them. The differences are what give us our life, and our passion. Ask anyone you meet, if they would they like to live in a world without friction. If they answer yes, I will show you a person who does not know life, but is merely going through the motions. For without friction, there would be no sex, there would be no life. "Get to know everybody's ‘Seasons of Love,’ honour the differences and exalt in the friction, for without the friction our world and our universe would not have come into being." Her passion flowed forth in her words. Conway was in the presence of Fire burning true. She spoke from her heart to his heart, using his language and he knew it, but it was not in the way of manipulation; no it was with a sense of honouring, of respecting, the differences and caring so much about them, that she changed her language so he would understand. For the first time, he understood the meaning of the word communication. He was taken on a ride of discovery, with her words. His mind was filled with word pictures. Words; how he loved their sound and the way the passion of one person could lift another, just by words. "The love language of the Fire Element is words of affirmation, or appreciation, words that uplift the individual. Verbal comments or words of appreciation are powerful communicators of love. They are best expressed in simple, straight forward statements of appreciation such as I really love your cooking, or you look fabulous in that dress. Fire people can almost live on words of appreciation. "The object of love is not getting what you want, but doing something to support or increase the well-being of whoever you are in relationship with. "Even during lovemaking, the Fire personality responds to words of appreciation. The most important foreplay for them is words. If their second Elemental type is Water then they will require quality time and words of appreciation as a turn on. If their secondary Element is Earth then physical touch along with words of appreciation will be the best form of foreplay. "The Water Element needs you to spend quality time with them-time when you totally focus on them. Turn off the television. Put down the book. Whatever it is that you are doing, forget it for a few minutes and give them your full attention and you will not believe how much love one person can give. You need to be the ultimate listener. They will respond well to candlelight dinners at home. Sit with them while they share their day and their emotions; for without a good listener they will be trapped inside a bubble of feelings, feelings, which need to flow, like fresh running water. Dam them and they become frustrated, stop the flow and it will kill them emotionally. If it is a Water child they will constantly beg for your attention, not like a Fire child who wants you to tell them how wonderful they are; the Water child wants you to spend time with them, whether it is playing, watching television or reading stories with them. They want to do anything where they will get your full attention. "If you give the Water type words of appreciation, or cook and clean for them, or do material things for them, or give them physical touch they will not feel loved unless you are first and foremost able to give them quality time." The passion, with which the feminine side of Old Chinese spoke, held Conway spellbound. "The Air Element’s love type is acts of service. If you are in relationship with an acts-of-service person they will clean for you, darn your socks, mow the lawn, have dinner waiting for you when you come home; being the social conscience of all the Elements, they are in service to mankind and their loving style is the same. Foreplay for them is painting the spare room and washing the dishes. Do not make the mistake of allowing them to do everything because they appear to like it, or you will develop the martyr who is crying out for you to share some of the load. "The Earth type being sense-indulgent, their love style is physical touch. Not just sex or physical foreplay, although that is also important to them. They are the ones that need to touch and be touched, sometimes they lack a sense of your space, which they will quickly fill, with their own. With this type if you want a loving relationship, you need to touch them and allow them to touch you. A kind word or a gift has little weight without the loving touch of your hand or the brush of a leg. In times of difficulty, they want to be touched, but only if they say so." "In times of stress the Fire Element wants to communicate their difficulty to you. The Water wants you to sit with them. The Air wants you to serve them, while the Earth is warmed by the touch, the senses. "Of course, we are all aspects of the four of these, but generally we have a dominant love type that we respond to positively, more quickly than the others." What is your element of love? What is your friend or partner's element of love? Are you giving them what you want to receive in return?

Spring

Spring - Northern Hemisphere One of my friends asked me to talk about spring as it is coming to the end of that season in the northern hemisphere. Spring is the time when we need to nurture the ideas and possibilities that were brought forward in the Winter. My old Chinese teacher taught me in stories, so let me share with you part of his story about the Emperor and the Sage. "The sage took the Emperor into the Equinox of the Spring, The sun and the moon being equidistant within the heavens, night and day being equal in time. As they walked through the forest of K'an, the Emperor began to see a livingness, a life force, a little more accentuated from the time at the end of Fire, for the water was now leaving the snow, the ground was becoming muddy, was difficult in regards to too much rain. There was a lot of wetness, but within this came beauty, came the flowers, as the buds came forth, the new root, the beauty of the plant, the birds nesting, the animals moving from places of long sleep. Things were coming to life. They were coming to life visually, the outside. You could begin to see the life force. You could begin to see the power within the spring, the beauty of the forest. Warmth lit the air outwardly. It was the beauty of the time. "The Emperor learnt from the sage that it was here that the fertility of nature began to express itself. It was here, as the rains came and the water melted, that there was a tendency for great flooding and the difficulty of the season was too much release too fast. But as the Spring wore on, there began to come forth from the budding the blossom, the fruit began to be on the tree. Birds began their mating and the beauty was there. The sage showed the Emperor that it was the outer experience. Different from the Winter, which was the inner energy; beneath it was the Fire, the power. But within the spring, you could see it outwardly. The outside within Winter looks cold and harsh, but the Spring looks beautiful and flowering and fresh. The inside may not be as strong as the Fire, but the inside, basically, shows what is out, and vice versa. "And they walked through Spring to the Summer, and as they got close to the Summer time, the winds began to come. They began to come faster and reacted upon water, creating tornados, hurricanes, great storms, electricity and thunder and lightning. It began to be the turbulent season, but the season nearing the harvest. The softness was leaving and an energy force of outward brutality, of outward energy that was stark but consistent showed. Within the Spring, The Emperor saw that even with large rains and great melting snow there was beauty, that even as the buds and the flowers would come forth, even in great flooding, they would be moved and they would grow again. It was truly a fertile period, a time to watch, a time to bring forth the creativity of man, a time to understand that you do not want to have too much, or beauty can be washed away; but if you have just enough, it can be accentuated within smell, touch, taste, hearing, as the essence after a spring rain within a forest. "The Emperor began to understand his people a little more - to understand the outward emotions that go along with beauty, to understand the turbulence that some of this beauty had as it approached the summer, the strength that this beauty had as it was near the winter. He turned to the sage as he walked toward the Summer Solstice, and said, `Truly, those people that are in this element have great challenges; for what they are will always be seen. Flowers blossom, trees come forward in beauty.' And the sage said, ‘you have learned the key to this element.' And they walked slowly towards the Summer Solstice." By living in touch with the seasons we create a natural flow in our lives, which makes life as easy as walking from the winter to the spring, then summer and finally autumn. There is a cycle in all things.

Autumn - Time to cut away or release what you no longer need

Autumn It is coming towards the end of Autumn, so I thought it was appropriate to remind everyone what my old Chinese Sage taught me about the season which is the end of the yearly cycle. If you live in harmony with the seasons your life will begin to take on a wonderful flow or rhythm, and your life will become more interesting as you become a part of all things. The teaching of the Elements that I shared in The 33rd Sage, is a teaching that I use every day of my life. It has allowed me to understand the people I meet, not just their personalities, but on a deeper almost spiritual level. Come with me as the Sage and the Emperor take the journey through the seasons. "The Emperor and the sage walked into the Equinox of the fall. And the sage told him it is time for the leaves to fall, for the season to begin to go to sleep. It is the time for all things to come to an end. It is the time, the cycle of all livingness. Not only does this mean that the individual should relax, they should review, but they should maintain their strength, in the time or the time of their passing. It is a time when things are re-fertilised, where they go back to the earth, where the animals stock their homes. It is a time of refurbishing, of rebuilding, of shaking off the old, so the new can come forward within the Winter. It is a time of great growth, for there is always an over-amount of growth when you begin to cut away the deadwood. This always happens. It is vital for all to know that as you walk within the Fall, you begin to see the dying of things. That is why the colours are red and orange and yellow-because they try to bring the life of brilliance in their end. It is the last breath. As things become quiet and the first snow falls and the ice is frozen, the blanket has been laid and things are asleep. It is a time of great rejoicing within, for you have, in essence, completely refurbished your body. You usually find yourself in a place where a lot of old things can fall away. And where new begins to fall into your life, the right way. "The Emperor and the sage walked and they talked, and saw all of these things; the squirrel getting ready for the sleep, the bear, even man, as they were putting together the wood for the Winter, making ready their homes. This was truly a time of getting rid of the old to repair for the new. They walked toward the Winter Solstice, the Emperor seeing more than he had ever seen in his life. He had seen the seasons; had walked within the leaves of the Fall. And the sage said, "You have learned about people. You have learned people are the same as seasons. The person of the Earth is in a lifetime of rebuilding; is in a lifetime of trying to get away, to throw away the physical, the material, and refurbish themselves; you will know such persons for they will be dealing with physical and material lives. Look at them as the Fall, and you will know what to do; they will be creative, they will be highly inventive artists; but within that, they will have a tendency to go through great rejuvenation, great involvement of their life. Know that and you will know your people!’ “The sage walked on with the Emperor."

The Twelve Disciplines of the Initiate

The Twelve Disciplines of the Initiate Firstly I would like to apologize for not updating my blog and answering the many questions from readers of 'The 33rd Sage.' I will ask for for your forgiveness as I have been completing the next book in the 33rd Sage Trilogy, which is called 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate.' One of the promises my old teacher gave me was that if I lived in touch with the elements that I would never die from them or because of them. With the increase in natural disasters from floods, earthquakes, fires, tornadoes and hurricanes I thought it was appropriate to share more of his teachings around this subject. I don't believe 2012 is the end of the world, but I do concede there has been a dramatic increase in the number of natural disasters. My old teacher would say that it is because mankind has lost touch and no longer walks in balance with the elements. This is going to be the subject of the next few blogs as we look at how to walk in balance with the elements within nature and within ourselves. Today I would like to start this series with the twelve disciplines of the Initiate. It was given to a group of us by my old teacher as we walked the path of the Initiate. I will not give his name because he has chosen the silent path and continues to touch those who he comes into contact with. "In each age in all the mystery schools there were always disciplines that lead to an initiation into the deeper mysteries. These disciplines change with time to reflect the age in which the initiation takes place, but they all have the same effect of allowing the initiate an insight into the mysteries and teaching him the importance of discipline and focus. I will now give you the 12 disciplines of the initiate. Sit back and hear them and experience them with all your being. If you do nothing else in your life these 12 disciplines will open up in you a dimension that many would only dream of existing." IMAGINE - Seeing the energy behind the form; the form is not the essence; not caring about what people think, not caring about the time. Seeming wandering; allow your imagination to explore and expand to the point of being constantly moving and growing within a creative way. PURIFY - Take time for self, allow those feelings and thoughts, those things that are a part of your life, to be sifted into the peak of energy - only having what you need. TOLERATE EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING - Recognise that you are here to evolve. That it is in the simple things that you find a deeper part of you. Keep the POWER and wisdom you have to YOURSELF. WALK DON'T RUN - no watch. You are always in the right place at the right time. A day of FASTING - Fruit juices or water on the peak day of your Adrenal (Earth) Biorhythm Cycle. Respect the element of WATER - e.g. no detergents Respect the element of AIR - e.g. no cigarettes or using one's car. Respect the element of EARTH - e.g. no litter. Respect the element of FIRE - e.g. no television, Internet, Social Media, newspaper, or radio news. Do a daily 24-minute meditation. Study some aspect of the HUMAN BODY "The disciplines should be done in a daily rotation (except for the fasting) which sounds easy until you realise that every eleven days you cannot drive your car, so that you must find an alternative way of commuting. One day out of every eleven must be spent without TV, the Internet or any news media. As you work with the disciplines you will begin to notice how trapped we are in our every day life. If followed religiously, the disciplines will not be restrictive, for they will set you free. There may come a time when you follow the disciplines as a regular way of life and only dip into their opposite as a way of balance." By following these disciplines you will begin to see and get in touch with the elements and will notice a freedom you never thought possible as you break away from a normal life and walk the path of the Initiate. For more information and a deeper understanding it might be time to re-read the 33rd Sage, for in every new reading there is a different level of understanding.