The Arundell family have a fascinating history here, from the time of Henry the VIIIth to the Civil War. Readers interested may find food for creative thought in a good library in the area.
Two points of interest should be noted here about the New Castle. It has a splendid chapel that is unusual in that the altar is at the West end. In ideal, traditional terms the Altar and main window behind it should be aligned to the East exactly to the point of sunrise upon the Saint's Day that the particular church is dedicated to. Here we have the spiritual sun expected to come from the West, as the Shaston Eagle does...
The second feature is very relevant to the creative Vision of this book. One of the Great objects kept at Wardour is a perfect embodiment of the Glaston-Shaston alchemy - the Glastonbury Cup. This ancient cup is carved from the wood of the Glastonbury Thorn, and is thus a union of Grail and Wand. This Cup is an ideal candidate for the physical representation of the Holy Grail. The Twelve Apostles are engraved around it, three lions are at the base, and the lid shows the crucifixion. Remove the lid and the deeper Truth comes forth in Immortal Triumph.
What a symbol to have within the Crown Chakra of the Shaston Eagle! The Crown, in Cabala, contains the Highest Image of Divine Will. This cup unites Grail with Joseph's Wand. Joseph of Arimathea was sent on his mission by Christ to plant the magnetic seed of the future Aeon in England. There are two versions relating to the Glastonbury Thorn. The better known says that the Holy Thorn took root and grew from the walking Staff of Joseph. The second version is perhaps more interesting in a magickal sense: Joseph had a staff of walnut which took root. But the Holy Thorn grew from a piece of the Crown of Thorns taken from Christ's head. This makes perfect geomythical sense: We have the alchemical transmutation of Christ's pain, centred within his crown chakra, transformed into a Grail Cup and kept within the Crown Chakra of the Shaston Eagle... Meditate upon this...
Metatron is the Cabalistic angel of the Crown chakra. Enoch is the physically Immortal being traditionally connected to Metatron.
Enoch was the first in descent from Adam to find the way back into the Garden of Eden where entropy is not a law of physics. Invoke Metatron and Enoch within the Crown of the Eagle at Wardour. Call upon these high aspects of the Divine to illuminate Your True Will. Breathe greater Life and Light in through the top of your head into the Crown chakra. May the Great Marriage of Wand and Cup take place within your Crown of Life. Oh Let it Be...
The beautiful and Romantic ruins of the castle of Wardour is an ideal locale for you to search the depths of your own Divinity and to listen for the answer to this question: Do you have a Divine, Creative Gift to contribute to the Message and to the Full Manifestation of the Shaston Eagle? It is my firm belief that many of you who read these words have such a Gift. May you be inspired to share your Divine Gift with all Beings!
In both the movie and the Shaftesbury figure, this site functions as a crown chakra, or divine will, centre. Encounter with the site illuminates and activates purpose or true will.
When Robin Hood returns from Jerusalem, he finds his home destroyed and his father dead. He takes a blood oath on his father's grave to restore justice, to right wrong. In the movie, this grave is located by a tree at the left front of the grotto in the grounds of Old Wardour. This grotto is an important energy site. The destroyed castle becomes a pivotal archetypal symbol representing the mortal wasteland. Life, beauty and justice are in a state of ruin. The holy vow to restore things to the way they should be is at the heart of the true will.
In the Shaftesbury Eagle, Old Wardour has a planetary function identical to its usage in the movie. Old Wardour is the guiding pilot, or will centre, for the Eagle. The message of the Eagle is its Will: The Truth of Everlasting Life redeems the Wasteland. The Eagle flies around the world to restore life, beauty, truth. It flies to build the Planetary New Jerusalem.
It is fascinating that Old Wardour Castle was chosen to be a part of the movie. Millions of individuals have now seen this hexagonal castle, which is a vital sacred site in this Shaftesbury Prophecy representing Planetary Immortality and Ascension. It is no accident that, out of the hundreds of suitable locations in England, Old Wardour was selected. From the crown chakra of the Shaftesbury Eagle, may the True Will for Beauty, Immortality, and Liberty embrace this earth! Let the Planetary New Jerusalem manifest upon every continent, within every nation, from out of every individual Heart!
In the Fonthill Park area, which includes Beacon Hill and Beckford's Abbey, we are in the lower front area of the north wing of the Shaston Eagle. The corresponding area in the south wing is also a ''font'' - Fontmell Down. May fonts of Living Light rain upon this earth with every wing beat of the Shaftesbury Eagle!
Vathek is the story of a Caliph's search for the ultimate secrets of the Cosmos. Vathek pursues this Quest far beyond the limits of safety and sanity. There is much in this novel that reflects the actual life of Beckford. While living at his great house, he was called the Caliph of Fonthill; and when he moved to Bath he quickly became known as the Sultan of Landsdown. In both locales he built a magickal tower. The Fonthill Tower collapsed in 1825, shortly after he sold the estate. But his Landsdown Tower, which overlooks his tomb in Bath, is in fine condition and open to the public. This tower is a small museum devoted to Beckford and is a good place to begin a study of this man. As the Tower of the Caliph in Vathek is a place of magick, so is the Landsdown Tower.
The number of steps in its spiral ascent is 156, one of the most famous numbers in cabalistic gematria. This number is the spiritual equivalent to Zion, the Scarlet Woman, and is the number of squares within an Enochian magickal tablet. It is also the number of sacred site circles which expand to cover the entire earth during the 21st century. (See my book New Aeon, which is a sequel to this work.)
It was not uncommon for the spiral stairs of towers built around 1800 to contain a spiritually significant number of steps. Another example of this is the Burton Pynsent monument within the front foot of the southern Guardian dog of the Glastonbury Zodiac at Curry Rivel. This tower has 169 steps (13 x 13), which is one more spiral of 13 than Landsdown's 156 (12 x 13). The Burton tower ascends to a height needed to see Glastonbury Tor.
The theme of 156 = Zion is a good point for us to creatively build upon in order to relate Fonthill and Beckford to the message of the Shaston Eagle. To begin with, Fonthill and Zion are identical terms. Mount Zion is the spiritual centre of the New Jerusalem. A fountain of Everlasting Life radiates from its summit to maintain perfect harmony and wisdom throughout the universal Paradise which is the New Jerusalem. Fonthill is the same: the hill of baptism or the hill of the fountain. To build a tower at such a place is to attempt to bridge the spiritual gap between the manifest and the Ideal - to gain access to Hidden Knowledge that may be used to establish a global New Jerusalem in actuality. Fonthill is an ideal area to meditate upon this question: How may I best use my Immortal Creativity to help in the building of a real New Jerusalem upon this earth?
The Fonthill Tower collapsed in 1825. Nearby in Shaston, the ancient Byzant Ritual - of which I shall write more on in a later section - was discontinued in 1830. These two events are symbolic of the decline of the Romantic Movement, which was a premature attempt to build the New Jerusalem in the world - this green and pleasant land. Now we are entering a New Romantic Era where the ideals of the former attempt are being put to use once again. What is the goal of Romanticism? Listen to these words of the leading German Romantic, Novalis:
The world must be Romanticised. So its original meaning will again be found. To Romanticise is nothing other than an exponential heightening. In this process the lower self becomes identified with a better self. Just as we ourselves are part of such an essential sequence. This process is still wholly unknown. By investing the commonplace with a lofty significance, the ordinary with a mysterious aspect, the familiar with the prestige of the unfamiliar, the finite with the semblance of infinity, thereby I romanticise it. (1798)
Study the above passage carefully and keep it in mind and heart. My method and purpose in writing this book, Spheres of Destiny: The Shaftesbury Prophecy, are identical to that of Novalis, whose ideas would have been familiar to Beckford. The 20th century Surrealism Movement is a more recent phase of this Romantic Impulse.
Where is the centre of the Word of the Heart? In Vathek we find a clue which shall lead us on a pilgrimage to find many spiritual centres: In pious times, a group of the most reverend Moullahs was sent to Mecca to get the prize Besom, which is used to clean ''the sacred Caaba: a present truly worthy of the greatest potentate on earth!'' Vathek receives this object and uses it to sweep cobwebs from his Palace. This use is seen as blasphemy by the Moullahs. But in the Vision of the Romantic, everything is Holy - the Caaba is only one Stone (albeit, a very important one) of the Global New Jerusalem.
Beckford would have been clearly aware while writing this passage that the great Byzant Ritual was annually performed at nearby Shaftesbury. And Byzant, as a word, is precisely this sacred, prize Besom. This word derivation is stated in almost every book written on the Byzant Ritual and Shaftesbury. This ancient Shaston Ceremony, which was discontinued in 1830 and had been performed for more centuries than anyone could remember has been revived in modern times. This is a good sign, as will become clear in a later section of this book.
The Besom, or Byzant, is a sacred broom which is used as a Wand of Will. Voltaire gives us a good understanding of the most ancient and sacred Besom at the Caaba in Mecca. In his tale, Travels of Scarmentado, he says: ''This broom is the symbol of the Divine Besom which sweeps away all defilement from the soul.'' This is precisely, as the remainder of this book emphasizes, the true function of the Shaston Byzant Ritual.
The Supreme Function of the Byzant is to summon the Waters of Everlasting Life from the Grail for the cleansing of all life forms and structures on earth. The Besom that cleans the Caaba is the prize byzant because of what the Caaba House and the Caaba Stone spiritually represent. The Caaba Stone is the same as the alchemical philosopher's stone. The Caaba is the central organizing point and the first materialized form of the Heavenly Paradise grounded on earth.
In New Age thinking, Glastonbury is often thought of as the global 'heart chakra' and as the centre of the New Jerusalem. Joseph of Arimathea is seen as the agent who shifts the Grail archetype from Old Jerusalem to the future site of the New. These ideas are rooted in Judaic-Christian terms. A deeper link with Glaston-Shaston which expands the multi-religious nature of this Shaftesbury Prophecy is created when we enter the world of Islam and examine the mythic traditions of the Caaba Stone.
When Adam was expelled from Paradise, he prayed to Allah that he be given a literal piece of Paradise in the form of a House of Worship that would contain all the Keys for the eventual Return to the Immortal Realm he had lost. He asked that this Temple would be identical to the one he saw while in Eden. Allah fulfilled this prayer and the Caaba came to earth. Thus the Moslems consider their Temple to be far older and more archetypal than Old Jerusalem, which only developed into its importance at the time of Solomon. As spiritual concept and in function, the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Heavenly Caaba are the same. Both represent an Immortal Ideal that is destined, according to Divine Will, to be made physical and permanent on earth. The Caaba is considered to be the original manifestation of this ideal.
Adam maintained this House and his son Seth became the second keeper of the Caaba. This was in pre-flood or, in esoteric terms, in Atlantean times.
When the Great Flood occurred, the Caaba was taken back into Heaven and restored to Abraham by the Angel Gabriel. Then Abraham and his son Ishmael reconstructed the Caaba House at its present location in Mecca. It is an historical fact that the Caaba at Mecca had been the centre for Divine Communion for many centuries before Muhammad. When the Prophet came to Mecca, he cleansed the Caaba and raised the purity of the worship there. The Divine Will of the Prophet acts as the first Besom in Islam - he sweeps away the illusions separating us from direct Communion with the Philosopher's Stone.
We see that the Byzant is the Divine Will for Greater Life in action. The great blues singer, Elmore James, poses a question for us with these words: ''I'm gonna get up in the morning and dust my broom.'' If the Byzant is the Wand of Divine True Will, what besom do we use to sweep or clean our broom of Will? The Will only remains pure if it is united with Love of the Divine. Emanate a Will of Perfect Love for the Divine within all phenomena. Do this and you aid that Divine Within to come forth into full physical manifestation. The collective love of the Divine directed at the Caaba Stone is ideally meant to bring into full manifestation that which the Caaba is the herald of - the Earthly Paradise. In our Judiac-Christian terms, the love of the Divine directed by the Byzant Wand of Will toward and into the Spiritual Centre of the Caaba results, in the fullness of time (Omega), in the total earthly Manifestation of the New Jerusalem.
The Caaba is the Centre of the Word of the Heart. Pull Excalibur from the Centre of Immortal Matter - the Caaba - and Liberate the Universe of Thyself!
The sword and the stone are a classical alchemical pairing, as are the Wand and the Cup. The sword represents the power of creative thought and is associated with the element air. The stone is the symbol of the Immortal Divine brought into full material existence. To draw the sword from the stone is to master the laws of Immortal manifestation that are always speaking within the heart of matter. Once extracted from the Stone, the Master of Excalibur is able to use his or her power of creative thought to recreate any and every situation into a greater manifestation of the Presence of the Divine. The Stone Is the Caaba and Excalibur is our sword. Arthur pulls this Sword from the Centre of the Word of the Heart. In Jewish Millennial thought the Messiah transforms Leviathan and rids the world of death with his sword. In the Glaston Zodiac, Arthur is found to be performing this same function. Additional insight into Arthur as the Celtic Messiah is to be found in my book Voyage To Avalon.
The laws and the dimensions of Paradise are, in their entirety, at work within frequencies above entropy. There is no death in Paradise; physical Immortality is the norm. To bring this reality into full manifestation is the goal of the major religions. This Shaston Vision provides a pathway map towards the full establishment of this Gaian Paradise.
In an earlier section of this book, From Mount Shasta to Shaston, I mentioned the contemporary work involving Great Dragon circle Leys. These are the longest possible leys on earth, 24,000 miles in length. A map of the Two Great Dragon Leys and their associated Gates of the New Jerusalem is contained within the appendices to this book. An Englishman, Terry Walsh, has taken the information contained within this map and has discovered additional information relating to the major earth chakras. My correspondence with Mr. Walsh has inspired several new discoveries - one on which I shall develop now, illuminating our theme of the Caaba.
Imagine a Moslem bowing to pray in the direction of Mecca. If this Moslem is praying at the planetary heart chakra at Glastonbury, then he or she is also in a direct alignment with the Great Pyramid, which is the global Throat Chakra. Glastonbury, the Great Pyramid and Mecca are on a direct ley-line with each other. Unify the essence of these three sites and you develop an important theme...
The Centre (Caaba) of the Word (Great Pyramid) of the Heart (Glastonbury)... Through the circulation of earth energy along this ley-line, we are able to unite these three archetypes into one geomythic and creatively useful whole. What we create through this unity becomes a major aspect of the expansion of the global heart chakra from Glaston to Shaston.
The Caaba Stone represents the first structural and visible establishment of the Heavenly, physically Immortal, Paradise on earth. This alchemical Stone is at the centre of the Word. The Great Pyramid is, with the Mount of Olives and Mt. Sinai, the inspirational centre for the World’s Throat Chakra where the Word is made manifest. ''And out of his mouth there came a Flaming Sword!'' - the Image of the Risen Christ as he appeared to John on Patmos. The Millennium of the Immortal Child, as I previously stated, was inaugurated at the Great Pyramid at the instant of the Autumn Equinox of 1979 within the Global Thought Realm. The Kingdom of Heaven - Everlasting Life - is within You. Direct all your spiritual awareness into the centre of your heart and seek to hear and feel the Word being perpetually spoken therein. In order to hear the Word being proclaimed within the expanding global heart chakra of Glaston/Shaston, we must listen to the Word of the Great Pyramid. In order to find the true centre of this Great Pyramid Word, we must contact and master the centre of this Word which is at Mecca in the form of the Caaba Stone.
From the centre of the World’s Heart hear the Divine Will speaking from the Source of all Creation: This earth is destined for Immortality. We are now in the beginning of the New Aeon which shall build this Immortal Terrestrial Paradise. The Gates of the New Jerusalem are now opening at major sacred sites around the world. Listen to the Caaba speaking at the deep centre of your own Heart! Elevate this Word to the Summit of the Great Pyramid so that its Truth may be integrated into global awareness through archetypal resonance and via the circulation of the great planetary dragon currents. May your Message from the centre of Caaba-Heaven be creatively used for the building of Peace and Everlasting Love upon this Earth... Be still and ask with all your Strength of Divine Will this question within the centre of your heart: How may I best be a servant in dedication to the building of the New Immortal Eden upon this earth? Listen... Listen... Dedicate your Life to creating the Truth that you hear speaking from the Caaba-centre of your Heavenly Heart.
This blend of the Glastonbury - Great Pyramid - Mecca Great Ley-line suggests an intriguing possibility. Esoteric speculation has long been intrigued by the missing capstone to the Great Pyramid. As the history of the Caaba Stone is extremely ancient and lost in time, it is possible that, immediately after the Great Flood, the Caaba was contained within the Capstone of the Pyramid. Adam and Seth would have been Guardians of the Stone in Atlantean times (or even earlier). The Caaba was placed atop the Pyramid to begin the reorganization of the sacred landscape of the post-Flood world. Although the Pyramid appears as earth centre, it is not the exact centre of the unfolding New Jerusalem. It was discovered that it was essential to shift the Caaba to its present site at Mecca so that it could act as the connective centre for the dynamics of the Opening of the Planetary Chakras and Gates of Earthly transformation. Mecca is centred at the ideal location. This is made clear if we look at Mecca's relationship to the 12 Opening Gates of the New Jerusalem located at major sacred sites around the world. As Walsh has demonstrated, Mecca is aligned with more of the 12 Gates than any other major site. And the sites which Mecca is connected to form a balanced pattern. Mecca is on three Great Ley Circles which directly connect it to six of the twelve Gates.
If we look at the Rainbow Prophecy for 1990, we find that these 12 Gates of the New Jerusalem are termed the ''Twelve Sacred Driver Wheels'' which are being ''stored and put together to create the figure 8 of infinity sign.'' Look at the map in the appendix to see how the 2 Great Dragon Circles create this figure 8 infinity frequency on earth. Four of these Gates are known as Great Spinner Wheels. They are planetary vortices for the four elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. They are the 4 sacred sites which are primarily responsible for circulating the global leystreams through the remaining 8 centres. Mecca is directly connected by Great Circles to all 4 of these Spinner Wheels. It becomes clear that Divine Will had a direct hand in placing the Caaba Stone. Also, Mecca is directly aligned to the initiatory centres for the activations of both Great Dragon Circles: Glastonbury and Palenque. The first Dragon was set into motion on Easter Sunrise of 1984 at Glastonbury Tor and the second Dragon was activated at Harmonic Convergence at Palenque and El Tule at Sunrise of 17th August, 1987. It should also be noted that Mecca is thus also connected to the largest pyramids in both the eastern and the western hemispheres - the Great Pyramid and Palenque. The three Great 24,000 mile ley-circles which connect Mecca to the 4 Spinner Wheels and the 2 Dragon initiation centres are:
It should be noted that the Great Pyramid is unique because it is a spinner wheel and also one of the 7 major earth chakras. These 7 chakras are listed in the appendix illustrating the 12 Opening Gates. Also, through Mecca's direct connection with one on-line site on each of the two Great Dragons, Glastonbury and Palenque, the Caaba emanation circulates to all of other Opening Gates of the New Jerusalem. This can be seen by studying the map of the 12 Gates and the 2 Dragons. The Caaba now emerges as a True Geomythic centre of this New Aeon - a Centre that is more ancient than Islam and transcends Islam. If Jerusalem is made an open city for pilgrims of all religions, then the Caaba at Mecca should, at the same time, now be made accessible to pilgrims of every faith.
Both Jerusalem and Mecca should be under transnational jurisdiction and should each be declared an oasis of Peace – a Cosmopolis. The highest level of human rights should be constantly refined in law at these sites. The principles of the cultural and spiritual relationships in operation within the orb of a major sacred site should be at the most advanced edge of the surrounding society. The sacred Haj, or Pilgrimage, should take us to the Fount of our Future, not to the dead relics of our past. The Haj to the Caaba, or to any other sacred centre, should lead us to the centre of our own Heart where we may directly Commune with the Living Word and Presence of the Divine. What transpires at the Centre, Caaba or Heart, is destined to flow forth throughout the Body Temple. May the Caaba Stone forever emanate Love, ever greater Life, Liberty, and Light unto all Beings!
In the past, Jerusalem has been seen as a multi-religious site sacred to Jews, Christians, and Moslems - but Mecca has not. Now in this emerging New Aeon, Mecca and its Caaba shall be recognized as Holy by growing numbers of individuals who are not Moslems. When this change is honoured and recognized, then a Lasting Peace shall be rooted throughout the Middle East.
There are other sacred sites within the area of Mecca. These are known as the Landmarks of Allah. A journey to Mecca should include a meditation at the most important of these Landmarks, Mount Arafat. The legends state that when Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, they were separated until Gabriel brought them back together. The place of their new beginning on earth is Mount Arafat. It is also considered the site where Abraham completed his Initiation into the knowledge of sacred Ceremony which was given to him by the Angel Gabriel. Gabriel, the angel of new Birth and clarity of perception, angel of the winter solstice, appears so many times in this Shaston Vision!
We have wandered about the world in many directions, having launched ourselves from out of Beckford's Vathek. Before we return to Fonthill, let us pause at the Great Pyramid for a moment. Next to the Pyramid is an ancient ship. This boat of the planetary throat chakra is designed to carry the Divine Word along the Celestial Ley-Streams of the earth. The identical concept is found within the Glastonbury Zodiac: The sign of Cancer is in the shape of a boat and is known as Solomon's Ship. It carries the embracing tantric couple, Galahad and Dindraine, upon their voyage. The Duty of this Gemini couple in the ship is to image and create the Ideal Word and to hold this Word with firmness and Love until it is made manifest throughout the world. Again, I refer interested readers to my other works for further information on the initiatory patterns of the Glastonbury Zodiac.
Fonthill is a site within the Shaston Eagle where we may seek a Creative contact and Communion with the shape, substance, and energy of the highest Divine Word. Master the centre of the Word of your Heart and use your Wand of Will to bring the Divinity of this Centre forth. Listen! Do you hear the Shaston Eagle speaking within your own Heart? Listen...Act!