Energetic Halos

When Francis prayed his mind would object, reminding him of the duties of the world still yet to be performed; and when he turned his work to the practical, the Heavens called, saying "why do you deny us?".

Of course his days and nights were not all such distraction; they were content and enlivened, particularly by the auras that he could see, illuminating every living thing before him.

These energetic halos explained much of the mood and the nature of the plant or the animal, the rock or the man about him - to Francis the whole world glowed in code, and each explained themselves with this obvious and apparent auric display.

Francesco closed his eyes. He could feel the damp pat of the night's dew.

He could hear the hum from the town five miles down, as the sounds flew up with the wind to where he lay resting, and if he focused intently, he could even make out the garbled conversations flying close by, about in the ethers.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second 

Chances

Is the Pope a Roman?

“I've brought you a seed-cake my friend", said Tobias.

Murmur made a gesture of thanks by bowing his head and putting his hands together as though in prayer. He quickly stuffed it into his tunic pocket - his only pocket - forgetting the lizard was there.

"There's to be a meeting in the blessed town at eventide. Every community and order from here to Rome will be represented. There is word that the Holy Pontiff himself is sending an emissary from the Big House."

Tobias revelled in the unity of the Mother Church whilst Murmur had the soul of a loner, preferring to keep his life private from any such gathering of loud men.

''Do you think there'll be food?" he asked hopefully.

“Is the Pope a Roman?" Tobias laughed.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Land of Shamballa

We are approaching an age in which man will not only feel himself surrounded by a physical sense world, but also, according to the degree of his development, a spiritual world. The leader in this new world of the spirit will be the etheric Christ. No matter what religious community or faith people belong to, once they have recognized these facts in themselves, they will acknowledge and accept the Christ event. The Christians who have the experience of the etheric Christ are perhaps in a more difficult situation than those who belong to other religions, yet they should endeavor to accept this Christ event in just as neutral a way as the others. It will, in fact, be man's task to develop, especially through Christianity, an understanding for the possibility of entering the spiritual world independently of any special religious confession, but simply through the power of good will.

Anthroposophy should help us above all in this. It will lead us into that spiritual land, described in ancient Tibetan writings as a remote fairyland but meant to be the spiritual world, the Land of Shamballa. Not in a dreamy way but in full consciousness should man enter this land under the guidance of Christ. Even now the initiate can and must go often to the Land of Shamballa in order to acquire new forces. In future, other men, too, will enter the Land of Shamballa. They will see its radiant light, as Paul saw above him the light that streamed from Christ. This light will stream toward them, also. The portals of this realm of light will open to them and through them they will enter the holy Land of Shamballa.


-Rudolf Steiner 

Mysterious Land of Shamballa

The time will come when men will again see into the spiritual world and there behold the land whence flow the streams of true spiritual nourishment for everything that happens in the physical world. Again and again we have heard that it was once possible for men to look with clairvoyant vision into the spiritual world. Oriental writings also contain the tradition of an ancient spiritual land into which men were once able to gaze and whence they could draw the super-sensible influences that were available for the physical world. Many descriptions of this land, that was once within reach of men's vision but has withdrawn, are full of sadness. This land was indeed once accessible to men and will be so again now that Kali Yuga, the Dark Age, is over. Initiation has always led thither, and it was always possible for those who had achieved Initiation to guide their steps into that mysterious land which is said to have disappeared from the sphere of human experience. Deeply moving are the writings which tell of this ancient land, whither the Initiates repair ever and again in order to bring from there the new streams and impulses for everything that is to be imparted to mankind from century to century. 

Those who are connected with the spiritual world in this way resort again and again to Shamballa — the name of this mysterious land. It is the deep fount into which clairvoyant vision once reached; it withdrew during Kali Yuga and is spoken of as an ancient fairyland that will come again into the realm of man. Shamballa will be there again when Kali Yuga has run its course. Mankind will rise through normal human faculties into the land of Shamballa, the land whence the Initiates draw strength and wisdom for the missions they are to fulfil. Shamballa is a reality, was a reality, will be a reality again for humanity. And when Shamballa reveals itself again, one of the first visions to come to men will be that of Christ in His etheric form. Into the land declared by Oriental writings to have vanished there is no Leader other than Christ. It is Christ who will lead men to Shamballa.

We must inscribe into our souls what can come to pass for humanity if the omen [Halley's Comet] referred to in the lecture yesterday is rightly understood. If men realise that they dare not allow themselves to sink more deeply into matter, that their path must be reversed, that a spiritual life must begin, then, at first for a few and in the course of two thousand five hundred years for a greater and greater number of human beings, there will arise the experience of the land of Shamballa — woven of light, shone through with light, teeming with wisdom. Such is the event which for those who have the will to understand, for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, must be described as denoting the most momentous turning-point in the evolution of humanity at the dawn of the Abraham-epoch in the Christian era. It is the event through which men's understanding of the Christ Impulse will be enhanced and intensified.

Strange as it may seem, wisdom will thereby lose nothing of its value. The more insight men achieve, the greater and mightier will Christ appear to them to be! When once their gaze can penetrate into Shamballa, they will be able to understand much of what is indeed contained in the Gospels but for the recognition of which they will need to experience a kind of event of Damascus. Thus at the time when men are more sceptical of the original records than they have ever been, the new form of belief in Christ Jesus will arise when we grow into the realm where He will first be encountered: the mysterious land of Shamballa.

-Rudolf Steiner  

Low on Provisions

[ c. 13th Century ~ ]

Murmur knelt steadily on the hard ground to inspect his little seedlings. They simply weren't doing as well as he had hoped.

Hannah-Mary was coming to join them as soon as the days lengthened, and he wanted to be able to feed her and his little niece well with produce he had grown himself.

Some weeks prior, the hives had been stolen, and their other supplies were now very low. The beaded beef and baby turnips had been kept in an earthy treasure chest, while the olives and sugared fruits were long gone. Six sacks of moth-filled grain remained, which would keep them in bread, until the New Moon's cast.

A lizard slid over the tree root and slipped onto Murmur's hand. He contemplated eating it for just a moment, but instead he gave its shiny head a tap and popped it into his tunic's inner pocket.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Thirty Doors Popped Open

“Do you have any family George?"

"Just Francis." George said with significance.

It was that very moment that Francis appeared in the doorway. This was his very first visit to Zone C of the outer buildings. There had been something of a natural revulsion inhibiting him from walking through the doors up until now. George mentioning him had drawn him in.

With one click the magnetic seals on the enclosures relaxed, and thirty doors popped open all at once. Francis gently lifted each of the detainees down, setting them gently upon the ground.

Instead of scurrying wildly about, the rabbits ordered themselves in groups of color, and waited patiently at the laboratory door before making their break to freedom.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Vivisection

Johnstone Pharma disposed of hundreds of rabbits every month. They found them to be more docile than the rats, and ideal for skin sensitivity tests for the more mundane products, whilst piglets were best used for tissue grafts, being reliably compatible to human dermatology.

Even though Johnstone Senior was himself now clothed in a spirit form, it appeared that he still lacked the eyes to see the cluster of wounded animals around his ankles.

Johnstone’s sight was upon earthly things, and although he saw George, he could not see the rabbit that George would cradle in his arms as they were speaking to one another - or the small fairies that stroked their spirit fur.

Placing a small piglet back down upon the ground, George took his little notebook out from his coat pocket and started to write out again - this practice of note-taking came from forty years on the job - and nowadays it helped him greatly to filter his thinking.

When he was working as a health inspector he also found that it also worked to keep the interviewees honest. Note-taking was powerful, he would say to himself.

Each of the rabbits had a circle of fur shaved from their rear flank with a neon pink number inked upon their bare skin.

''My boy's looking after it all now you know."

George nodded. "Yes. l met him in the hospital a few months back - he's been missing you".


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances