Autumn Equinox 2003
the E-magazine of dowsing & geomancy,
in Australasia and beyond. Edited by Alanna Moore.
(the Bureau of Meteorology want to know!)
*Letters
Welcome to the autumn equinox 2003 edition of Geomantica.
In this edition you can read about the practise of cloudbusting to make rain, cosmic pipes, angels and nature spirits and some geomantic dimensions on art - another fascinating smorgasboard to feast on!
It has been a long hard hot dry burning summer in many parts of Australia, with the worst drought in 100 years. So thankfully autumn brings great relief, the bush fire season just about over. The El Nino effect recedes, the heatwaves are past and the winter rains have already started to fall - at last! In central Victoria it's time to dig out the woollens and watch the greening of bare paddocks as nature responds quickly to the first proper rain in a couple of months.
By the way - if you want a reminder that this magazine is out and what is in it, then please submit your email address for quarterly Geomantica Newsbriefs.
Alanna Moore
By James Woodford
February 15 2003
From the Sydney Morning Herald website 14-2-03.
To Frances Bodkin, a traditional D'harawal
Aboriginal descendant, the massive flowering of the Sydney green
wattle 18 months ago was a terrible meteorological warning.
According to the calendar of her ancestors, it signalled a meeting
between the climate cycle Gadalung marool and the season Gadalung
burara, bringing the harsh weather we are now experiencing.
Ms Bodkin, a botanical author, teacher and
traditional storyteller at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens, is one
of the last people in the Sydney region who inherited tens of
thousands of years of weather wisdom. She knows the city's six
annual seasons and the 11-year cycle which determines what they
will be like. And she is the kind of person the Bureau of Meteorology
is trying to track down in its quest to learn about indigenous
calendars and record traditional weather knowledge from every
region in the country. Every region in NSW would have had its
own indigenous calendar. Some areas are known to have had as
few as two seasons.
It is hoped the information will give meteorologists a new forecasting
tool - greater insight into the environmental indicators of climate.
The bureau, and Monash University, are working
with communities and will not publish any material without the
consent of elders. So far, three Northern Territory communities
have allowed their calendars to be published and agreements about
15 others are being finalised.
In Sydney, says Ms Bodkin, there are eight phases to the 11-year
cycle. They do not last for set periods but are based on subtle
changes in the environment, invisible to all but the most observant.
Gadalung burara is the hottest and driest
part of the cycle and is indicated by a massive blooming of Acacia
decurrens. Also, gums begin to lose their leaves.
When Gadalung burara coincides with January and February - traditionally
known as Gadalung marool - there will be "real trouble",
Ms Bodkin says. Unless her ancestors began burning as soon as
the wattles flowered they risked fires getting into the tree
crowns.
To Ms Bodkin, the four seasons inherited from
the Northern Hemisphere are a gross oversimplification of Sydney's
weather. Traditionally, for Sydney's Aborigines, the new year
began with the season of Murrai'yunggoray, which coincides with
September and October and is marked by flowering waratahs.
On top of the seasons there were bigger and
more complicated cycles, as well as plant and animal behaviours,
used to forecast short-term weather changes. When the bearded
dragon stands with its head erect, for example, it is a sign
of rain.
A researcher with the Bureau of Meteorology,
Dr John McBride, said: "Our real point with this project
is to open our eyes up and see what else is out there."
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927802150.html
Hi Alanna,
good to hear from you again and happy new year to you too! ....
I myself am busy with on orgon-tower-group and zero-point-energy-group, they might be interested.
On www.cloud-busters.com <http://www.cloud-busters.com> you can read about these orgone-towers, I myself have a feeling that they too work with the Devas and I really like to hear your feelings/ideas some time about these "tools" . (The website talks about chem-trails but i think the "tools" have a much wider "range" than clearing the sky of chem-trails.)
'Till later,
Maryanne & Melvin
Dear Geomantica
I read with great interest your piece on the
56 year
cycle (issue 17 - ed) and its relationship to Stonehenge and
the tarot
cards. I was wondering if you were aware of the 56
year cycle found in patterns of Us and Wn European
financial crises since 1760
www.nor.com.au/users/mcminn/pages/fcnum56.htm
This is strongly linked to cycles of the Moon and Sun.
www.nor.com.au/users/mcminn/pages/smnum56.htm
Lunar phase may also be firmly correlated
to cycles of
the biggest one day fall in any given year.
www.nor.com.au/users/mcminn/pages/lpusc.htm
I hope you find these pages of great interest.
Regards David McMinn
Hi Alanna,
HAPPY NEW YEAR - have you seen this info ?
I am providing a page of rainmaking links on the web - do you
have any suggestions / content ?
I will be likely running a few tours with Dan Winter soon to
sing up the land if you are interested,
see www.excelink.com.au/rainsongs.html
regards,
Richard T O'Neill
Excelink Pacific / Australian Visions / Song & Dance Adventures
Tel 9957 1099 Mob 0417 244 600
Trade - Training - Travel
www.excelink.com.au. Enjoy www.excelink.com.au/rainsongs.html
Hello there
I have just launched a site from Lismore,
Australia, about a mystery that
briefly made international headlines in 1978 - The Glowing Cross
(a subject
mentioned before in issue 6 of your magazine).
Basically a headstone was found inexplicably
glowing in a local cemetery.
No-one was ever able to agree on what made the gross glow and
eventually it
was stolen. It has not been seen since 1986.
This may sound a little far-fetched, but please
have a look at our website:
www.glowing-cross.com and decide for yourself.
Perhaps we could get a link on your site (or
you may be interested in doing
a story).
Please fell free to email me for further details
if needed (but the site is
pretty comprehensive).
Regards,
Jeremy Fenton
Hello Alanna,
There's a map on the location page of the
website that will direct you to
the cemetery (or if you get to town just ask a local).
The exact position of the cross is more problematic.
It has glowed in 2
locations. The first was the original location of the grave (about
20-30
meters from where it now is), and the second is where the replica
is now
placed in a memorial row of headstones. It is basically the only
cross in
the cemetery so isn't hard to locate (especially if you take
a hard copy of
one of the pictures we have on the site).
Failing the above, don't hesitate to give
either myself (02) 6621 9666 or
my co-editor (02) 6625 2239 a call when you're in the area.
Thanks for your interest.
Regards,
Jeremy
Dear Geomantica
The tale of the TANIWHA reminds me of events
surrounding Coronation Hill (Australia) in the late
1980s. If this region was mined, a creature named
BULLA would have inflicted sadness over a large area.
The then Prime Minister (Bob Hawke) halted work here,
much to the disbelief and scorn of financial
commentators.
Antony Riddell
Dear Friends:
Just to inform you the new site of the Associação
Cultural Radiestesia Lusitaniae: www.acrl.web.pt email: info@acrl.web.pt
Someway you are there!
Personally and in the name of the Executive Commission of ACRL,
I wish you a Happy New Year.
Jose Alexandre Cotta
Hi Alanna, Thank you for answering my last
email. I apologise for not
writing a reply until now.
In my last email I said I was interested in
combining geomancy with art and
you suggested that I write an article upon the subject. I do
not think I
would be very good at explaining my ideas. Here are some further
thoughts on
the subject anyway.
I believe that an image can do more than just
be pleasing to the eye or
communicate an idea. I have wondered what field effects a painting
could
have on its environment. I intuitively feel that a 2 dimensional
shape can
radiate a subtle energy. In my research I have come across a
book called 'A
Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe' which deals with
essential
geometry and the shape and patterns of our world. I have noticed
that
Classical and Renaissance art is built upon such geometrical
proportions.
Moving onto other ideas. At the moment I am
interested in geomancy and
garden design. I recently purchased with my mother an acre of
land in the
Perth Hills. I am planning to build a garden that is in harmony
with its
surroundings. I read an interesting article that you co-wrote
called Healing
Design and I wish to create a garden upon such priciples.
Before I finish my long diatribe, I must relate
to you what happened
yesterday when I got out my diving rods and was trying to map
the Earth
grids on the new block. Unfortunately I was geting confused between
the
Hartmann and Curry lines. I was originally shown the dowsing
technique by a
chap who practised the Alexander method. I think I need some
more
practice and I will have to go to one of your workshops when
you come to
Perth.
Regards
Chris Gregg
by Tim Strachan © February 2003.
Water is the most essential element to life, it carries life. Without it, life shrivels and dies, as anyone inland from Australia's eastern seaboard can attest. So an investigation into sustainable methods of encouraging rain is a worthwhile effort for many reasons.
As I sit here, the drought may be breaking in NSW. Rain has been falling for 4 days, and our ponds are full, the birds are ecstatic, the vege gardens bursting with all colours of life, while the land quietly soaks it all up with a smile.
But in the west of NSW it never rains but it pours there are flash floods as there is a violent reaction from the previous pole of dryness, suggesting a system which is out of balance, and trying hard to find it again.
It seems to me that 'rain-making' or 'cloud-busting', two oft-used phrases, are not quite right in describing this process. The right amount of rain will appear when there is an energetic balance in an unpolluted environment, as night follows day. Just as with any 'dis-ease', the problem is a lack of flow due to blockages, blockages that occur on many levels: pollution, electromagnetic congestion, abuse of the aquifers and water table, and human energetic interference and distress, amongst other factors.
History of rain-making
All cultures seem to have had methods of stimulating rain. Indigenous cultures used ritual to focus human energies in order to restore balance, often with good success. Wilhelm Reich devised 'orgone' devices which stimulated rain with a lot of success in many trials. Reich's work was furthered by others, including James Constable with his 'etheric rain engineering', and Don Croft with his simplified portable energy balancers. Rudolf Steiner had a very advanced understanding of the energetics of the eco-system, and his work has been advanced by a number of anthroposophists, including most recently, Hugh Lovel, who has recently been giving workshops in Australia and the US. And of course there is the current culture's more materialistic method of cloud seeding.
Cloudbusting v rainmaking v energy balancing
There is a lot of confusion involved in these terms. Successful rain-making really occurs when the environmental energies are balanced, and this is what Reich did repeatedly in various trials in the early part of the century. His understanding of 'orgone' energy (related to the concepts of 'chi', 'prana', 'manna', 'odic force' in other cultural systems) enabled him to devise ways of balancing energies by building up orgone in the atmosphere, and by draining 'dor' or deadly orgone from the environment. This draining was achieved by a pipe connecting his device to running water, the only element which can properly deal with such energies.
The work of Don Croft
More recently, a dowser and energy worker by the name of Don Croft has taken this work further. Don has created a simpler orgone device (see photo of my version of this).
Like Reich's, there are several copper pipes about 1.8m long embedded in an 'orgone' matrix, i.e., a mix of organic (resin) and inorganic (metal shavings) material. This seems to be an improvement on Reich's device, as it appears to absorb the deadly orgone from the atmosphere and rebroadcast it as a benign energy. The photo shows one of these standing on a highly paramagnetic material (special rock dust) in a copper spiral (industrial heater element) in our garden. These are additions to Don's device which seem to improve its functioning.
Results we've seen
We live in Bucketty NSW, an hour north of Hornsby inland from the central coast, a normally dry area which is ecologically very clear and fairly undisturbed. We have had it there since the middle of 2002, that is, through the worst of the drought. Our property has been designed somewhat according to geomantic principles, with a lot of standing stones, stone circle, ponds, flow forms, solar electricity and heating, etc., all of which helps in modifying energies for the better. What I can state is that in spite of the drought, we've had more rain here these past 8 months than normal. Our tanks have been often full, and rain patterns are changing rain used to come up from Sydney and stop about 10 km away or curve away from us. Now we get that rain, and another pattern has started up rain to the west of Sydney will move up to our area, often bypassing Sydney. And what also happens, somewhat unbelievably, is that rain clouds will form above our area, rain will fall, but you can see it's like a pancake over us right around the horizon, the sky can be blue
I believe it's made quite a difference in this area, and the effect is cumulative. This area is responsive to small energy differences, but a city like Sydney, which is increasingly blocked on an energetic level, would need quite a number of these devices spread around to make a difference
Similar action to the Lakhovsky Coil device
It seems that if there is humidity/rain about, it will now be more likely to be drawn in. This device acts rather like another device I have made (and sell), called the PowerHouse. It's a double Lakhovsky coil which is plugged into a power point in a house, and which balances energies in the house by draining toxic frequencies, which are 'spun' into the coils and disabled. In fact, it's scientifically called a 'wave trap' and that is its function, to trap certain unwanted 'waves'. It works on electromagnetics and geopathic stress.
Further information
I work with energies in various ways, including geomancy, energy surveys, dowsing and have a catalogue of effective energy devices see the Geomantica website or www.megadisc.com.au for more information, and if you call, let me know you saw the article in the Geomantica magazine.
If anyone wants to contact me about these
or other energy matters, please do so at:
strachan@megadisc.com.au
Tel:02 9388 9994
Further references
On Don Croft:
http://educate-yourself.org/dc/
On Trevor James Constable
http://www.newknowledge.org/ga.php?linkid=31
The Energy Store
www.megadisc.com.au
" Tim Strachan 2003
This article was first published by Acres USA. This is an expanded version.
© Alanna Moore, June 2002
Australian farmer David von Pein has maintained his passion for organic growing since retirement by developing a business that helps other farmers to monitor the health of their soil and crops. They call him 'The Meter Man'.
David farmed all his life until recently, starting on his dad's farm in the Darling Downs of Queensland (north west of the state capital Brisbane). The Downs are an intensive agricultural region irrigated by the Condamine River (a tributary of the huge Murray-Darling River system), where cotton farms now dominate. The friable black topsoil can go very deep, averaging 4 feet, with limestone-clay underlying it. High magnesium in the soil is very common. Winters can be very harsh with an average of 7 or 8 frosts annually and at the worst , David recorded 31 frosts in a row.
The von Peins ran fat lambs and grew mixed grains and Davids dad was a very astute farmer on just 440 acres. In the late 40's he got the best prices for his Corriedale wool, better than others were getting for Merino. Lambs from the Poll Dorsets crossed with Dorset Horns were growing to 30 33 pounds average in 3 months. They always had a few house cows, steers and vealers on the farm as well.
Davids mother educated him at home and since he was 14 David also worked on other people's farms yard building, post hole digging, fencing, ploughing, harvesting and livestock and water carting. He also taught himself welding. In the '70's he bought a lathe and started doing engineering work for people skills that have lately been very handy for the meter business, as he is building certain meters himself.
Farming the Old Way
"Dad didn't use a lot of chemicals
(sometimes spraying 24D on the turnips). He relied on the traditional
rotations and sometimes the hoe as well" David explained.
Wheat would be grown for a year or two, then paddocks left to
fallow, or else Sudan grass was sown. Oats were grown for the
stock, to be fed off a few times before allowing them to go to
seed.
David reminisced about new varieties of crops that had come and gone. In the '60's a new variety of Sudan was introduced Sweet Sudan. But planted out in the paddock alongside the usual Sudan grass, the stock always went for the old variety first. The same thing happened about 3 years ago when a new variety of oats 'Enterprise' was introduced. The stock still preferred the old Lampton variety that Davids dad had been keeping since 1948.
"We never had nematode or disease problems in the old days. The new varieties are supposedly being developed to avoid problems, when it's the modern farming methods that are causing them" David believes. He related the story of an American farmer who could finish fattening pigs on 13 bushels of a modern corn variety, but found that when he used an old variety of organically grown, open-pollinated corn that it only took 8 bushels to get the same result.
Changing Weather patterns
When his dad was getting too old and he
was developing back problems himself he went away from running
livestock. Davids bad back was probably the result of starting
to irrigate the farm as drought insurance in 1962, with spray
lines having to be dragged around to water a small amount of
lucerne. It was very hard work.
Flood irrigation eventually became the norm in the Downs, enabling soya beans to be grown there. The gated aluminium pipe being so much easier to handle. Cotton is a thirsty crop too and there are now environmental concerns about the removal of so much river water. David has an interesting view on this matter.
"When my uncle was young he could travel through the area all day in a sulky through ankle deep water after a wet spell. That couldn't happen these days. Now that most of the paddocks have been laser levelled there's nowhere for the rainwater to lie around and soak in. It runs off straight to the river, which is getting more water than ever before."
Drought tends to be the norm these days, with the last 12 years having had below average rainfall. The old springs are drying up. Weather is unpredictable. The last ten years of farming were very hard, with the changing weather patterns and little rain. For 2 years there was virtually no rain and no crop at all.
Going Organic
David heard about the benefits of using
rock dust to improve soils some 14 years ago. He started to import
truck loads of basalt dust from South Australia to spread over
the paddocks. Rock dust promoter David Hall was lecturing on
the subject in Toowoomba, where David now lives, and he had displayed
charts of the human body, with indications of which minerals
were required by which part of the body.
Davids eyes were opened wide and here he also first heard about the Brix meter, a refractometer which measures sugar levels in plant sap, already in extensive use in the grape and fruit juice industries. A friend of his purchased one and he started to experiment with it. It was an expensive model and David tracked down a cheaper version, but there was no-one to gain advice about it from and no guidelines available on its use. Even today it is hard to find information about this valuable tool.
David had been growing disillusioned with modern chemical farming regimes. Some 15 years ago a Department of Primary Industries fellow had recommended the von Peins use lots of urea and triple superphosphate. When David questioned the value of this the man "went off his brain". Now he knows that urea can lead to high nitrate in crops and in the body this nitrate robs oxygen from the system. (Another farmer tells me how putting urea on paddocks lead to his sheep developing eye cancers)
Disillusionment came to the fore when black oats became a pest weed in the barley crop one year for the first time. A professional sprayer outfit was brought in and the oats were killed. Next year, however, they were back again. This time the spray had no effect and the company had all sorts of excuses
Cousin Bernie had been farming organically for some 30 years and he was a great role model for David. One day David saw his fabulous wheat crop, with double the usual amount of head, and he decided to go cold turkey from chemicals and become an organic farmer himself. He notched up ten years of sustainable farming before retirement. Initially everything went fine and he went for BFA (Biological Farmers of Australia) accreditation, with the last 3 years producing at Level A.
David related a good success story for his organic grain. A pet bird breeder was suffering high mortality amongst his birds and felt that it could be the result of poor seed quality. He approached the BFA about organically certified grain and, at that time, David was the only such grower on the books. He had a few bags of canary seed he was able to send down.
There was a heat wave on at the time and, despite this, the breeder was very pleased to find that the birds fed the organic grain responded, within a week, with improved health and decreased mortality. There was a perfect hatching after that and virtually no chick mortality. (David's uncle was also a canary buff and had the same results.) When the organic grain ran out and the breeder was forced to go back to conventionally produced feed the health problems immediately returned. In another case - a woman who he supplied with organic poultry mix phoned him a week later to tell him of the fantastic weight gain in her birds.
Growing problems
David had always grown some 20-30 acres
annually of soya beans. Despite the new organic production regime,
one year the irrigated beans just weren't filling up in the pods.
An independent consultant was called in to run tests and David
studied up on Dan Skows book 'Mainline Farming for Century 21',
which helped launch him on a massive leaning curve.
Various soil programs were commenced, as it was felt to be a nutritional problem. In the region it was generally accepted that a percentage of flowers and pods would be lost. His brother up in the hill country was having the same problem. But the problem was getting worse and different consultants and soil improvement programs weren't working. Perhaps it was an affect of the intense chemical spraying from surrounding farms that may have been drifting over?
As time went on the von Peins found themselves hemmed in on all sides by cotton farms and the spraydrift had become a real problem for the organic farm. One day they had to get out of the soya bean paddock real quick when sprays drifted over and residues were subsequently detected in the young crop. The neighbours offered to pay compensation, but, luckily for them, the mature seed didn't have a traceable amount of residue. Eventually those farmers bought the von Pein farm out and it is all cotton now. "The mentality around here now" David laments "is: if it moves spray it!"
It wasn't just the soya beans that were having problems then. David himself got very sick, and was given just a short time left to live. Of course he had to give up farming completely. Davids health problem eluded diagnosis. His white blood cell count was almost non-existent. He feels that it is probably from the long term effects of using chemicals on the farm earlier in his life.
Brix heralds a new era
After studying Dan Skows book David 'saw
the light' on measuring and monitoring the various factors in
the crops and soil are where farming is headed. But others around
him were mostly slow on the uptake.
David had been tinkering with a friends Brix meter and tracked down one for himself. Before long people got wind of his new interest and wanted him to get Brix meters for them too. Before he knew it he was tracking down sources of meters and testing and comparing their effectiveness. Before he knew it - he was in business again.
Skows book alerted him to the usefulness of pH, conductivity and Brix tests to find out what is happening to crops. In 1998 when Arden Anderson came out to Australia he had the opportunity to learn more. David also went on an organic farm tour in the USA, visiting Phil Wheelers and other top farms. A highlight were the super sweet strawberries and peas he tasted at one farm, despite heaps of rain beforehand. Impressed by the American successes, he always recommends clients to read Phil's 'Non-Toxic Farming' book.
David has been quite a pioneer himself when it comes to the application of Brix and other meters, having invested much time and money into research. When he started using the Brix he measured his wheat at 5 or 6 points on the Brix. After applying soil additives such as basalt rock dust, sulphate of potash, boron etc to the crop the reading went up to 11 and 12 points. So he knew he was on the right track.
More confirmation came from the rockmelons that friends were growing. Before they discovered about soil nutrition the melons registered about 3 or 4 on the Brix. Any fruit left lying around would go rotten in just a few days. After a program of natural nutritional inputs (fish, kelp etc) and reduced chemical spraying the reading went up to between 11-14. That same type of melon was now keeping a lot better. One blemished fruit that had been left lying around the shed was still good after some weeks! They tasted a lot sweeter too.
There is an art to using and maintaining meters, which need to be treated with great care. David sells meters to check for nitrates, but they can be one of the trickiest to operate, needing constant checking and calibration and cleaning with a special solution.
The engineer in David has been quite an experimenter too. During his engineering phase he converted a boom spray to apply liquid fish, kelp and rock phosphate, but it wasn't as successful as he would have liked. He has also modified a ripper bar, to act like a kind of Yeomans plow with interchangeable tynes and attachments. Consequently when his neighbours had lots of run-off he had none, thanks to the improved absorption of the soil.
David found out that the Brix meter is an ideal tool for testing the effectiveness of foliar sprays. After spraying a small area of crop (using a hoola hoop to define the area and to easily find it later) he found that if the Brix reading hadn't gone up 1 and a half or 2 points on the scale it wasn't worth spraying. He has seen sprays bring up a reading by 1 and a half points in just 20 minutes. The same spray did nothing to a different crop nearby. So the Brix is saving time and money with the near instant feedback it provides.
"The lowly Brix meter is an underutilised tool in farming. But you need to understand that readings can change with changes in the weather" David explained. "The Brix reading goes down when there's a lot of cloud or moisture, or if a storm is coming it crashes. I feel that in these times the plants energy is being sent down to the root system. During storms plants get extra nitrogen, minerals and energy and have a big growth boost." he says. "You also have to be careful when testing for foliar sprays because chemical reactions may occur to alter the levels of conductivity, pH and Brix readings." A Brix reading can be affected by acid conditions and so you have to watch for false readings.
David can extract sap in a short time. This is made possible with the tough garlic crushers that he recommends and sells. To get a true Brix reading he advises not to take the sap from the highest or the lowest of leaves. In the case of a crop like wheat- usually the second leaf down from the top is the best. Consistency is important to get the correct readings and weather conditions must be noted at the time of measurement.
It seemed that a fabulous alchemy was at work here when I was told that if the Brix is correct for a crop then it will be lower for the weeds growing around it. Therefore the insects will get stuck into demolishing the weeds! If not the soil needs fixing. For example date growers have noted that only the low Brix trees are bothered by insect pests. Dates untouched by insects are always high Brix. Bees will not pollinate a flower that gives a below 7 Brix reading, he told me.
"When a high Brix plant gets the bugs into it this usually indicates an imbalance of an element, and this aspect needs further research." He gave the example of some cowpeas that had patches where they were full of aphids, yet they gave a high Briz reading at the time. David says that this is the plants defence mechanism - to send all the sugars rushing up to counteract them.
"The Ellendale mandarin is a bit of a mystery too they always taste sour despite having a high Brix reading. This could be a genetic factor, but it could also suggest a mineral imbalance" he ponders.
So David is keen to point out that in order to get a true, wholistic analysis of what's happening you really need to test for conductivity, pH, and nitrates as well as Brix. These are the fastest indicators of crop health and quality. Some people like to check other factors too, so he also sells potassium meters and infra red sensors. The latter reads plant stress. If its temperature measures a bit below ambient air temperature - then it is okay. When a plant is operating at the same temperature as the air or above it, then it may be stressed from fungal or disease problems. Ideal health is characterised by temperatures in the plant of 1 to 3 degrees below air temperature.
David likes to supply his meters with written guidelines, developed by an American colleague with years of experience. He only likes to sell people meters if they really need them and only stocks the best value ones. If a farmer only needs a Brix reading occasionally he will do it for them, to save them the expense of having a meter gathering dust on a shelf. He prides himself on his ethical business basis. His deep religious belief is a sustaining factor in his own life and he often speaks of the 'Christ factor'.
Because David has 'been there and done that' and is 'an important link in the industry' (as someone dubbed him) people ring him from all over Australia for advice and he spends hours on the phone. He is happy to pass on tips for sustainable farming and wants to become a trainer in the field. The BFA have booked him to be a speaker at their annual conference, to be held in Lismore, New South Wales, in October. Naturally he will talking about the Brix meter.
Flavour is it!
"The sweetest fruit has the highest
Brix reading and also, of course the greatest taste appeal. If
kids don't like to eat their veges and fruit, then they should
try those grown with a high Brix," David explained. "Since
Christmas time there has been a glut of stone fruit on the market.
Consumers won't buy it because it tastes disgusting. New varieties
are being developed to solve the problem. But how can they, when
it's obviously a soil nutrition problem?A few years ago organic
produce was not of a high enough quality, there just wasn't enough
understanding of soils and plant requirements. Just stopping
to use certain chemicals isn't enough to produce a good crop."
David gave the example of some organic lemons he bought recently. They went rotten in just a few days! The Brix was 7 (12 is top), so it could have been worse. On the other hand a high Brix should bestow good keeping qualities. He gave the example from a story of Carey Reams who exhibited the same prize winning melon at shows for 3 years running!
"People must pay attention to the quality of the food because this will increase the shelf life, through all the transportation and storage and into the shops, as well as delivering higher nutritional qualities."
Davids work is giving a great boost to those who do strive for quality produce. Being independent of any particular soil product, David is providing a great service to help people understand the importance of soil health and status in relation to our crops and ultimately our own health.
David parting comments on the subject were to acknowledge the pioneers who have gone before him.
"I'd like to pay tribute to the work of the late William Albrecht and Carey Reams for the legacy they've left us, and also to Phillip Wheeler, Arden Anderson, Dan Skow, Gary Zimmer and Neil Kinsie, to name just a few of the people who have developed these two gentlemen's knowledge and gone on to help so many other people open their eyes more, including my own."
Hugh Lovel BD Towers
David has always bee n pretty sceptical
about the Biodynamic Towers, as he calls them (aka cosmic pipes).
"There's an old saying," he says " that it's better
a little caution than a big regret. It wasn't that I disbelieved
in them, it's just that like to see things proven first."
But one day he went with Phillip Wheeler and
others to visit a property t and put up a such a Tower.
"They had pre-dowsed on a map for the spot" he continued
" and we went out and found the exact leylines, found a
major ley line and installed it there. Once it was installed
we could see the energy coming out of it. Some people there could
see more than I could see, but we could see a stream of power
flowing out of the top of the pipe, and they realised that was
not how it should have been and that they had forgotten to put
the map of intent into the well of the Tower. So they went back
into the office and worked on a map of intent for the property,
drawing in the paddocks and areas they wanted it to cover."
"They came back and put the map in the well and immediately that flow of energy came down more and when you focussed on it you could see a blue flame right down each side of the Tower and it was flickering and pulsing in and out, slightly shimmering perhaps is a better word. It would pulse out for about 18 inches to 2 feet and then it would come back in and shimmer some more, then pulse out again and then come back in and shimmer and it was absolutely fantastic to see. You have to focus on the thing or on the side of it to see it. If you looked quickly you wouldn't see anything. Other people there could see other little balls of energy and that coming out of it."
"We went to the edge of the field and got out our divining rods and you could pick up by dowsing just where the energy field was ending -just where it was supposed to end. One guy could actually see the edge of the field, and yet he'd never seen anything like it before in his life. He saw it just where the dowsing rods said it was. He couldn't believe it"
"I haven't always seen the blue shimmer. I have been involved with the installation of five cosmic pipes now and sometimes you can just see the energy there, see it coming out of the top and the shimmer down the sides, but you can't necessarily see it as a blue flame, like we did on that first occasion."
"On another property I heard about (although I wasn't present at the time) they put in a Tower at a place and the guy who worked for them there, who had never seen or heard anything about this before, had seen all these little balls of energy, saw little balls of energy shooting out the top of the pipe."
"Those people there now have several Tower on their property. One of the things they ask for, along with their written statement of intent that goes into the well, they ask for a feeling of peace and contentment amongst their workers and everyone on the property. They were just telling me a few weeks ago that they noticed that there is a tremendous sense of peace and contentment amongst the owners and the workers, who all work together well."
"It's been all very interesting and it changed my mind considerably about the cosmic pipes, although there's always more we can learn about these things. So I think there's some more to go and we should be seeing great things from it all in the future to come."
To contact the Meter Man phone 07 4635
7065, fax 07 4635 7784, mobile 0428 987117, website www.themeterman.com.au
Junitta Vallak Writes:
Casurina Healing Sanctuary had its beginnings in 1984 when the
first Custodian, Junitta Vallak purchased the 100 acres of hurt,
abused land. Much work was done to restore the land and thousands
of indigenous trees were planted as well as many fruit and nut
trees, vines etc.
Mud brick buildings as well as solar and wind
energy were established, the aim being for self-sufficiency through
the use of Bio-dynamic and Organic methods as well as working
in conjunction with the Angelic realm.
Promotion of the raising of consciousness through Meditations,
Workshops and Indigenous activities with Aboriginal, Native American
and Maori peoples were an important component among the many
activities. The first Workshop held at Casurina was one on Dowsing
with Alanna on a wet, cold day in May 1985.
The spiritual work was centered in the Peace Chamber which was built according to a Vision of Native American Medicine Man, Joseph Rael, Beautiful Painted Arrow. There are over 100 Peace Chambers around the world from the Isle of Skye, Brazil, Israel, Sth Africa, USA, Europe, etc.
Over the years, a system of Labyrinths evolved,
each one different and together created a Southern Cross Labyrinth
Temple which mirrors the one in the sky.
In 2001, the first Custodian had completed the work she had come
to do and handed the property over to the new owners, a young
family who will continue the tradition in their way.
Billy Arnold takes up the Story, in a Report to Junitta:
This is a report of a few things I saw at the farewell ceremony
at Casurina. I think I should emphasise that though I've seen
a few things in my travels I have never seen anything like this
Casurinan before or since, not to say such things have
not occurred. I guess I've never been in the right place at the
right time before. I should add I felt humbled and very lucky
to witness such activity.
I was meditating outside the Casurina meditation house watching
for spirit activity while everyone else was inside for the ceremony.
First I was amazed to see an big Angelic being in flowing white
robes whose stature dominated the scene, not only in its aspect
of power but also in its air of peace and goodwill. The Angel
was seated and held a book on its lap.
Initially I thought the Angel was reading from the book, but
in fact the book was opened away from the Angel. Then I became
aware that an aboriginal man, ochred and decorated with paint
and feathers, carrying weapons for ceremony, was facing the angel
with a 'queue' of Aboriginal men and women behind him. The mists
cleared rapidly and I realised the Angel was not reading from
the book, but that the Aboriginal man was speaking INTO the book
and his words were being recorded in it. My concentration was
broken momentarily as I analysed the implications of what I was
seeing. I thought 'stop thinking', just watch, I managed to refocus.
In my view the Angel and the aboriginal man occupied a space
as big as the meditation house and as my mental mists cleared
I saw that the aboriginal man speaking was a living person who
was present in a spiritual form. Behind him were the spirits
of 'departed' aboriginal men and women of country around
Casurina, the queue stretched way beyond the meditation hut.
They all knew and were at home in that bit of country. I was
warmed by their talking and laughing with each other as they
waited their turn to speak.
I choked with emotion at the magnificant beauty of the scene.
I then refocused hoping to take a look in the book. No such luck.
As my focus moved to the book I felt the friendly presence of
a little bit big serpent spirit I sometimes see at Mount Moorul
beneath Mount Tarrengower, not far away.
I raised my eyes from the book to see him and said, "Wogul
!! G'day !!!" Surprised to see him there as he was a fair
way down the queue of humans, which rather surprised me seeing
he is the smaller male of the pair of rainbow serpents who sometimes
sit down there at Moorul. I don't know what his real name is.
What I call him is based on a Western Australian name for a Rainbow
serpent who sleeps by the coastal lakes north of Perth. The female
of the West Australian pair lay down her eggs by the old Swan
Brewery in Perth. She sleeps in the lakes south of Perth.
I don't know egg sites of the Maldon rainbow serpents, but it
was nice to see Wogul at Casinura because when we arrived I had
focused into the small outcrops of pale and reddish coloured
and very finegrained rock part of a curious geological vein and
felt a path of Wogul. Wogul flicked his head and eyes at me,
"come on!", so off we went. Wow. He flew to the Basalt
Tower of Power and swang on it, round and round he went looking
back at me daring me to come on. Off I went with him through
veins of matter in the air and beneath the earth. So fast, so
much to see, beyond my words, more labyrinths than Casurina,
then suddenly he had us back at the meditation house, him back
in the spirit queue and me bracing myself on a lump of rock protuding
from the Casurina homestead vein.
As I was coming back to ordinary consciousness, Alanna came out
from the Meditation house and I tried to babble about the bloody
big angel and she raved about the wise woman in the meditation
house who had seen an angelic being in white robes at the ceremony.
We babbled at each other for a bit and realised we were talking
the same vision of presence of place. I vote with the old wise
woman, that angelic being was surely there and it blessed all
within that sphere.
I didn't get to see in the big white and gold book, I suppose
you could say I was tempted, distracted, by the serpent, if so,
all I can say is thank you heaven and earth for that, maybe one
day all can see heaven and earth as one.
Thank you Junitta for the invitation to experience samadhi of
Casurina. Billy Arnold.
-The Deva Dowsing Workshop Launch in Hobart, Feb 22 23
Angel Hill Sanctuary is nestled in a fertile valley beneath the mighty Mt Wellington near Hobart, Tasmania. For Dr Jocelyn Townrow, a retired botanist, it was a dream come true when she and husband Ian discovered the property. It fitted all her requirements, including the presence of ley lines.
She has been working with the inherent landscape energies since moving there in 1992 and has created, over 8 years, a beautiful piece of sculptural geomancy in her Sacred Garden a 'Tree of Life' with an ever growing number of energy chakras/ vortices appearing along its central axis. The lotus mandala (pictured below) and a brick labyrinth feature colourful mosaics with symbols from the worlds great religions. Above it a ley line passes, heading for Mt Wellington, a massive mountain featuring dolerite columns.
It was the ideal location to run a new workshop on the spiritual elements of the landscape. The weekend of geomancy and deva dowsing attracted 17 participants, included people with extraordinary visionary ability and experiences to share. A highlight was the making of a Tower of Power, being a paramagnetic-rock-dust-filled plastic pipe that had been beautifully painted by artist Jeff Phillips. (See his article elsewhere in this e-mag.) We were interested in the Towers ability to act as a 'deva magnet'. We were not disappointed!
Tower energies
As our Tower programming ceremony concluded feng shui master
Vicki Sauvage clairvoyantly saw a column of light and a devic
being come down into the top of the Tower. The next day we had
a visit from geomancers Darron and Phillip. Darron said that
as they approached the property he had observed a fountain of
energy rising up into the air, presumably from the Tower. He
had spent the previous day with others meditating on maintaining
peace for Iraq. At the meditation we had around the Tower, he
felt that the Tower energies could also be harnessed to help
the peace effort.
Francis saw a teardrop shaped deva at the top of the Tower and I could dowse its presence there. The top of it tailed off into the air above. After our meditation the deva appeared to Francis to have compressed down into a disc shape. (I have previously seen mysterious discs of energy hovering up the Towers. Author Marko Pogacnik suggests that they are dancing water spirits.) We had also done a cleansing and re-programming of the amethyst crystal that had been placed under the Tower cap. Amy Murray saw the deva as heart shaped after we did that.
All of us could see energy shimmering around the Tower as well by then. Initially I had seen red energy shooting off the top, which is not surprising as the Tower embodies yang energy and the element of fire. During our meditation this raw, masculine energy, as Darron explained, became tempered by the bringing down of goddess (yin) energy. At that point Jocelyn was shaking and I was swaying to and fro with the pulsing, incoming yin energy. So our efforts made for a better energy balance.
Phillip was happy because he felt that the Tower had initially created a landscape energy imbalance between nearby yang and yin natured hills behind the Tower. The energy of the yin hill was strengthened by our actions, he said, and Francis observed the yin hill to be glowing then.
As we stood around after the meditation we were delighted to watch 3 baby blue wrens hop over boldly and gambol all around the Tower. Next, a female red robin came and flew a tight loop around the base of the Tower. Certainly an attractive energy there. That evening Esther, a workshop participant, came to visit and she observed yellow energy around the Tower -another yang colour, although probably less yang than the red that I had seen previously.
Esther related to us how, when she had returned home after the weekend, she had been inspired to ask to be able to see the devas living around her. She asked to see the great deva of Mt Wellington and it revealed itself to her in the distance. She asked to see the overlighting deva of her garden and there it was
In the morning Jocelyn told me that all the weeds near the Tower were all standing bolt upright and glowing with vitality. We were all quite exhilarated by the previous few days events. But also exhausted! Deva dowsing can be taxing on your energy levels! But a good mornings sleep-in soon fixed that.
(Note: Angel Hill Sanctuary will be featured in a future geomancy video documentary being made by Alanna Moore.)
Hobart artist Jeff Phillips writes.
In 1990 I began to feel a very strong connection with what I called "aboriginal consciousness. It was at this time that some of my art began to have that sort of feel to it. Only when I travelled to central Australia earlier this year, however, did I realize the depth of the connection.
For years I felt there was a connection between "aboriginal consciousness and "dolphin consciousness. Ever since the late 70,s I had been keen on understanding the whales and dolphins, large-brained mammals like ourselves, who have lived harmoniously on the Earth for tens of millions of years. Dr. John C. Lilly had speculated that the whales and dolphins were "repeater stations for signals from other water-based life-forms elsewhere in the galaxy (signals that are far weaker than those of the electronic SSE, or "solid-state entity which is vying for control of the Earth) [see Lilly,s The Scientist: A Novel Autobiography]
I knew that dolphins figured heavily into the dream-time cosmologies of almost every coastal aboriginal tribe in Australia; I guessed that the aborigines and the dolphins were conveying similar information about nature herself and how she works.
People had told me for years that a lot of my paintings contained images that reminded them of cellular structures, mitochondria, chromosomes, ribosomes, membranes, nuclei; this made sense in light of my background in biology.
Now it gets even freakier. My friend Moira Timms (Egyptologist, archaekonicist [someone who studies ancient symbols], author of Beyond Prophecies and Predictions] had sent me a copy of a book called The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, which she said she thought was one of the most important books of the (20th) century! In it, Jeremy Narby relates his hypothesis that shamans, medicine men and indigenous minds in general are in direct communication with the global network of DNA-based life, that this intelligence directly imparts knowledge that mainstream science cannot explain.
When I was in central Australia near Alice Springs I connected with some extremely wonderful aboriginal women artists who form the Keringke group. It was like we are doing the same thing only in different parts of the world. They are going beyond traditional aboriginal art, using a full spectrum of colors and creating their own stories, just like I do. I look forward to spending more time with my Australian art sisters!
But when I returned to New Zealand and was examining in depth the Keringke art book, I was totally blown away when I saw Serena Haye,s painting. It was extremely similar to one I had done around the same time in America. Both of us were working directly from within, and neither of us had seen the other,s art.
Further, Huddersfield University geneticist Martin Richards has shown that the origin of ALL humans can be traced back to a single family tree, even an original "Eve 7000 generations ago. These studies are based on mitochondrial DNA, of which the aborigines of Australia have the oldest of any human beings.
In quantum physics a "non-local connection is a sort of bridge or continuum which simultaneously links people, places or events from different spatio-temporal coordinates; Jung called this synchronicity.
My mind boggles at the meanings of all these connections. We truly ARE all a part of the same web of life, even beyond the Earthinter-galactic Gaia? It,s as if life herself is non-local, synchronistic, and highly intelligent, and she,s helping us to paint pictures of her!!! I am honoured to be a participant in this process!!!!
The picture on the left, "Elohim Photon Dreaming", was done by me in the mountains of east Tennessee in the summer of 1999; the painting on the right, untitled, by Serena Hayes of the Keringke group in Northern Territories, Australia, was done in 1998
www.regainyourbrain.org
"On Spaceship Earth, there are no passengers: everyone is crew." R. Buckminster Fuller