EARTHQUEST NEWS

A Newsletter from Andrew Collins, Vol 5 No 3, Winter 2002

 


QUESTING CONFERENCE 2002

This year’s Questing Conference was a great success with over 450 people attending the event from all over the world. Blinding lectures were given by all the speakers, who adhered exactly to the very rigid time constrictions imposed by the hall, due to another function occurring in the evening. Reviews of some of the lectures will appear on the site shortly.

On the whole, the move across from Conway Hall to the Kennedy Hall at Cecil Sharp House in Camden was the correct one. There were a few murmurs about the basic nature of the toilets, the lack of air conditioning and difficulty in parking locally, but otherwise it is a fine venue.

Plans are already afoot for the Questing Conference 2003, see below for exclusive announcement.


STARS AND SIGNS III TOUR

Along with my wife Sue, I have been invited to join Robert Bauval and Karen Ralls on the Stars and Signs III tour of Egypt in May. I will provide talks on subjects such as evidence for the existence of a subterranean world beneath the Giza Plateau as revealed in Egyptian texts, and its implications for our understanding of Egyptian origins; as well as the rise and fall of the Amarna age, and, of course, the events surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, including the story of the missing papyri. In addition to this, I have offered to hold regular meditations on many of the topics broached by the tour, such as temples visited and deities encountered. Through them it is hoped that certain questing themes might develop as the tour unfolds.

The tour will include a Nile cruise, taking in places such as Abydos, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Denderah, Luxor, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Aswan, Elephantine Island and Philae. Prior to this, you stay at the Mena Hotel, Giza, and in addition to its pyramid field you visit those at Abusir, Dashur and Saqqara. Then there is the visit to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and the Great Sphinx, to watch the sunrise. At the end of the tour, you will spend some time at a resort on the Red Sea, supping up the sun. This will be an ideal opportunity to experience the ancient world of Egypt on both an intellectual and spiritual level, and who knows what might happen on a questing level. The last time I was invited on a Nile cruise, with David Rohl and Ancient World Tours in 1997, a series of strange events occurred which were presented as a lecture at the Questing Conference that year.

Basic price is $1750 per person for 15 days, although there are variations in the cost and also discounts, as well as an additional excursion to the Siwa Oasis.
Those wishing to obtain further details should log on to the Star and Signs III official website

Also, check out the following sites for further information:
http://www.robertbauval.com/starsandsigns/starsandsignsindex.htm
http://www.ancientquest.com/travel/


TOUR TO PETRA

Because of the significance that Petra played in the search for the location of Mount Sinai in my TUTANKHAMUN: THE EXODUS CONSPIRACY (Virgin, 2002), co-written with Chris Ogilvie Herald, and in Graham Phillips book THE MOSES LEGACY (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2002), I announced in a previous newsletter that I would be putting together a tour of Petra to explore the key sites involved. I am pleased to announce that Ancient World Tours (AWT) have now offered to plan a schedule for a ten-day tour of Jordan based on my specific recommendations. Although no schedule or dates have yet been finalised, it is likely to take place during the last week of March 2004 when the first moon after the spring equinox is rising (vital for watching alignments from Petra’s High Place). In order, the proposed sites to be visited are:

AMMAN. You will fly out to Amman and settle into a night at a hotel before moving on the next day to:

MOUNT NEBO, the traditional site in the biblical land of Moab, north-east of the Dead Sea, where Moses looked out over the Promised Land before expiring on the spot and being buried nearby. Here too the Ark of the Covenant was said to have been hidden for the final time. Then the party will journey southwards along the King’s Highway, which the book of Numbers says the Israelites were denied access to by the king of Edom, and visit:

KERAK, the mighty fortress east of the Dead Sea constructed by the Crusaders in the twelfth century and used by the Knights Templar as their centre of operations in Jordan. As we shall see, Kerak would also appear to have been of interest to Templar revivalists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From here the tour will journey on to:

PETRA, the ancient city of Kadesh in the book of Numbers, where the Israelites remained at least 38 years during their time in the wilderness. You will visit obvious sites associated with its Nabatean rock city, such as the narrow gorge known as the Siq, or Cleft of Moses, linked with the story of Moses striking the rock and bringing forth water; and the Treasury, where the final scenes in ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ were filmed and the treasure of Pharaoh’s Daughter was said to have been hidden following the Exodus. In addition to these, a number of sites will be included on the tour including:-

JEBEL MADHBAH, Petra’s High Place, which both Graham and I identify with Mount Sinai, the Mountain of Sin, the Aramaic moon god, where Moses encountered Yahweh in the form of a burning bush of fire and later received the Ten Commandments and the instructions for the construction of the Ark. Don’t worry it is only a walk of around 45 minutes! Yet once here you will be able to watch the sun set close to Jebel Harûn (see below) as the new moon sits directly overhead.

UMM EL-BIYARA, the site of a key Edomite settlement west of Petra, and a candidate for Sela, ‘the rock’, another name applied to Petra in the Bible. Here also are some impressive waterfalls, lunar rock carvings (if they can be found) and some rock-cut cisterns of probable Edomite origin.

EL-BEIDHA, near the Wadi Arabah, north of Petra, a pre-pottery Neolithic settlement dating to 7000-6000 BC, which is the oldest and most important site of its age in the region.

THE WELL OF MOSES. The party will visit the two candidates in the vicinity of Wadi Mûsa (the Valley of Moses) for Ain Mûsa, the Well of Moses, where Moses struck the rock and brought forth the Waters of Meribah.

LITTLE PETRA, a lesser known Nabatean rock-cut city where rock carvings of the ‘feet of God’ have been found. These might well be linked with the story that the Nabatean god Dhushara stands with his feet on the highest mountains of the Seir/Shara range, a story echoed in the book of Exodus when it says that the 70 elders of Israel climbed half-way up the mount and saw ‘the feet of God’.

JEBEL HARUN (Mountain of Aaron), the biblical Mount Hor, which stands on the edge of the Wadi Arabah, overlooking Israel. Here Moses’ brother Aaron ascended in order to convey the role of High Priest of Israel on his son Eleazar and afterwards died on the spot. A white-washed Muslim shrine that stands there today is said to contain the body of Aaron. Like Jebel Madhbah in nearby Petra, it is integrally bound up with the biblical account of Mount Sinai, and may also provide a key element in solving this mystery. I additionally identify Jebel Harûn with Mount Seir, near to which was the original home of the Edomites, the descendents of Esau, Jacob’s brother, and the mountain on which Aaron sacrificed the scapegoat for Azazel in the book of Leviticus. Since Jebel Harûn can only be reached by a grueling five-hour two-way journey on camel, which will take a day out of the itinerary, this trip will be optional to the main tour. Yet it will also take in:

THE SNAKE MONUMENT, a rock-cut tomb, on the track to Jebel Harûn on which is a battered carving of a curled snake, thought to be Nabatean in origin, but likely to be much older still. According to Graham Phillips, it is where an ancient Egyptian staff was found (now in Birmingham Museum) which he considers to be linked with the Rod of Moses.

On leaving Petra, the tour will then journey southwards towards the port of:

AQABA, situated at the head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea. I argue that in the vicinity was biblical Elim, one of the stations of the Israelites following the Exodus from Egypt. Here they rested by its palms and springs before journeying northwards to Petra, biblical Kadesh. The party will stay for two nights at Aqaba, during which time it will visit:

WADI RUM, a true Arabian desert which is famous for its associations with Lawrence of Arabia, who in the First World War acted as the coordinator of the Arab Revolt on behalf of the Allies. Here the party can ride camels and examine prehistoric rock art, including (hopefully) more examples of the ‘Feet of God’.

Afterwards, the tour flies back to London from Aqaba’s international airport. Previously in EARTHQUEST NEWS, I mentioned that we would be able to arrange flights for people into Jordan from other parts of the globe. However, this appears to be unviable and we suggest that people make their own way to London for the direct flight out to Amman and back from Aqaba.

As previously mentioned, the exact schedule has not been decided, and no prices are available as yet, but the tour should last a full ten days, so don’t expect too many free days sunning yourself by the hotel pool (unless you really want to, that is!). There is so much to see, so much to experience and so much to understand. Therefore, after you have found the money for the Stars and Signs III tour of Egypt and start getting the touring bug again, you can book up with AWT and come on what promises to be a holiday of a lifetime.

Don’t worry about the threat of another Gulf War, World War Three or a nuclear holocaust, as Jordan is arguably the safest Arab country in the whole of Middle East, and relies heavily on its tourist trade. There will be no safer place to be than in the mountains around Petra if it does all kick off. For your information, AWT have said that it would go ahead with the tour even if a new conflict does arise.

Further details of the tour will be available by the time the next newsletter appears in late spring. For the moment, sit tight, or simply let us know that you are interested. Around 30 people have already contacted us to say they want more information, email now, putting Petra Tour in the subject box.


PSYCHIC QUESTING

The Questing Conference saw some of the top names in psychic questing giving talks in Cecil Sharp House’s Storrow Hall on different aspects of the subject, including an assortment of personal experiences that challenge the way science perceives reality. All the lectures were well attended, although numbers did go down when some of the key speakers were on stage in the Kennedy Hall. There was also a lively panel debate at the end of the day, which raised some poignant questions regarding the ethics of psychic questing, and whether certain types of psychic communications, i.e. those with characters such as Aleister Crowley, might put off some people who are genuinely interested in the subject but are still fresh, so to speak.

I tried to point out that in the past everything was seen as black and white in the psychic questing field. Messages would come through psychics suggesting that individuals with more nefarious motives were poisoning ancient and sacred sites by conducting rituals and leaving fixing markers (items with sigils and symbols denoting when and why the action was undertaken). It was felt necessary to remove these in order to restore the harmony of the site’s subtle energy matrix, and then empower the site guardian with new energy. Whereas this is still considered the best line of action, if the quester genuinely feels that the site is under threat, there are other considerations these days. Firstly, simply finding devotional artefacts at a site doesn’t constitute evidence of black magic. Indeed, magic is neither black or white; it is only the practitioners that sometimes have dodgy intentions. Secondly, I pointed out that in recent quests I have conceived of other possible motives for individuals being drawn to sites through psychic communications.

I now feel it possible that sites, and thus their genius loci, or guardian spirits, crave human energy interaction and could send out signals, psychic beacons, drawing people to them. These would come in the form of mental downloads suggesting either that something bad has happened there that needed redressing, or that something marvelous will happen if the site is visited and some kind of specific ritual attunement is done. Such actions on the part of the occultist, witch, new ager or quester would invariably involve the distribution of personal energy through visualisation or ritual activity, temporarily satisfying the site’s hunger. In other words, some power sites are pariahs, in that they rely on human interaction to feed their subtle energy matrix, and find excuses to draw people to them.

This situation was highlighted in May when I accompanied Richard Ward and my wife Sue to a tower in a wood close to Ide Hill in Kent. Richard had seen the site specifically in mind and there was an inference that it was important to our on-going quest. Yet nothing at all came through about its history or why the site was important to us, a situation which I deemed highly unusual, if not a little suspect. On arrival at the site, I conducted a powerful Enochian call based on the work of Elizabethan magus Dr John Dee, and then waited. Nothing happened, and when we went to leave the site Richard gained a strange pulling sensation as if he was being drawn back for some reason. We did end up returning to the tower the next day, but still nothing of significance occurred, and no information came through regarding its history.

Yet it was apparent from the pentagrams crudely daubed in paint inside the secluded tower on Horns Hill that it was used by local pagans, who would obviously carry out rituals there. Perhaps the site was simply sending out a beacon calling on any psychic or pagan, who had a mind to listen, that it wanted attention. This is a strange concept, I know, although it was one that I was left to contemplate on leaving the tower for the second time.


BINSEY KEY

In his talk for this year’s Questing Conference, my friend and colleague Richard Ward outlined the sequence of events which led to the discovery by psychic means of an eighteenth-century key in the secluded churchyard of St Margaret’s, Binsey, on the feast of St Frideswide, Saturday, 19 October 2002. Here is also to be found the tranquil well of St Margaret, a site of great beauty. Although it is not my intention to recount the manner in which the key was retrieved, I can say that it is to feature in a book I am writing on the psychic work that Richard, Sue and I have been conducting for the past year. It involves the true origins of the Grail, its connections with the mystery of Rennes-le-Château, the Knights Templar; the cults of Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist, and eighteenth-century Templar societies. It will be the first questing book I have done since THE SECOND COMING, published by Century in 1993. I am very much committed to doing this book, even though I know it will come up against some fierce resistance from those who feel that I should stick to books on alternative history. However, I feel it is the way forward for writers like me, as more and more publishers are becoming hesitant about accepting historical books written by non-academics.


ROBERT BAUVAL

On the same note, Robert Bauval tells me that in addition to a new book out in 2003 entitled EGYPT DECODED, next autumn will see the publication of his and Graham Hancock’s next joint venture called TALISMAN; THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WEST. It argues that via the Hermetic strain, the religion of ancient Egypt permeated medieval Europe and influenced the beliefs, philosophy and sacred teachings of the Knights Templar, the Grail romances and modern Freemasonry.

This certainly indicates that there is going to be a revival in books written in the style of THE HOLY BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL, the seminal bestselling classic by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, first published by Jonathan Cape of London in 1984. Robert has agreed to present a talk on the subject of his and Graham’s new book at next year’s Questing Conference, which I can tell you now will have much more of a leaning towards this kind of topic.


THE NEPHILIM

Over the past couple of months I have been working alongside Carl McCoy, the frontman with gothic rock band Fields of the Nephilim, now simply The Nephilim, putting together the band’s first official website. For those of you who have no idea who they are, Fields of the Nephilim created some truly occult-influenced records during the late eighties, early nineties, which entered the UK singles chart and inspired a generation. It was after seeing their remarkable promo video for the single ‘Moonchild’ on TOP OF THE POPS in 1988, that I realised the band needed checking out. In 1989 they put out a follow up track entitled ‘Psychonaut’, named after a chaos magic grimoire by Pete Carroll. Its strange grainy style promo video is one of the most incredible I have ever seen and features a Sioux ritual in which a candidate for initiation is hoisted into the air by ropes bound to bird’s claws that are affixed to his chest. In an altered state, the initiate experiences visions of the future shown as fleeting news clips of religion, wars and the Middle East crisis.

Fields of the Nephilim’s albums are, as their name suggests, heavily influenced by the Watchers of Eden and their giant offspring the Nephilim, a subject I have written much about. The band’s album ‘Elizium’, released in 1991, was an eulogy to the Watchers, or fallen angels, and their influence on the rise of Sumerian civilisation. Indeed, I can truly say that The Nephilim’s music, which I describe elsewhere as ‘aural soundtracks for the nocturnal mind’, conjures the feel of the Watchers and Nephilim in a manner no other music has ever achieved. Indeed, ‘Elizium’ was my soundtrack when writing the dark tome that is FROM THE ASHES OF ANGELS in 1995. I don’t know why, although I suspect it has something to do with Carl’s childhood experiences. He grew up in a strongly Christian environment, where he would hear the term ‘Nephilim’ on a regular basis, but never with any explanation. Eventually, when he began to experience visitations at night, he concluded that they were ‘Nephilim’, i.e. spirits from the next world. I have written more fully on this subject in the various articles I have done for The Nephilim website, which give an eye-opening look into the background and inspirations of the man behind the band.

After ‘Elizium’, everything went quiet in the Fields of the Nephilim camp for five years. Then, in 1996, came the release of ‘Zoon’, a work almost entirely the creation of Carl McCoy, who recorded it under the slightly altered name of The Nefilim (confused? Don’t worry, so many people are!). It is an aural assault on the senses, which owes more to the death metal genre of Norway than the gothic world. However, like the work of industrialists Nine Inch Nails, melodic atmospheric soundtracks contrast with hard and fast guitar-based tracks which are not for the faint hearted. To me, ‘Zoon’ exudes the feeling of the continuing influence of the Watchers in this world, through the underground stream of the occult and the constant presence of an unseen cabal, or Illuminati, that exists on the very edges of human experience.

Since that time Carl has evolved his graphics design company called SheerFaith, working with corporate companies who admire his unique style of art, which appears on all the band’s singles and album sleeves. At the same time he has been preparing himself for the next aural assault on the record-buying world (An unofficial single, ‘From the fire’, released in September reached No. 60 in the charts without any form of promotion). Carl and I have been working together on various projects, including the official website which is going on-line soon (you will be notified when). This is in advance of the release of new material from The Nephilim in the new year, which will not disappoint fans old and new.

The Nephilim website does not simply reflect the creative output of The Nephilim, for Carl and I have constructed key areas on the history and origins of the Watchers and Nephilim of Enochian tradition. In addition to this I have written an exclusive article for The Watchman, the inner sanctum of the site, which exclusively reveals the discovery of the oldest accepted temple in the world at a place called Gobekli Tepe in south-east Turkey. It dates to 9500-9000 BC and has dramatic implications for the concept of the arrival into the region of peoples from the African continent during an epoch when the end of the ice age was causing severe climatic changes across the ancient world. It is perhaps the greatest evidence we have so far for the existence in Kurdistan of an advanced ruling elite of priest shamans that instigated the beginning of the Neolithic revolution.

This article will be available only from The Nephilim’s site for a period of three months, so I recommend you log on now at www.fieldsofthenephilim.co.uk and navigate your way to The Watchman section where, to enter, you will need to register a user name and password. Once past this stage, go to the ‘Research’ section where you will find my article, along with another by Richard Ward on the historical reality of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. This includes a discussion on the similarity between the half-octopus, half-lizard worshipped by the mysterious Manabi culture of Equador and the star beast known as Cthulhu said to be the leader of the Old Ones in Lovecraft’s saturnine pantheon.

GREEN STONE TOUR

In 1979 Graham Phillips and I were involved in a historical quest to find a green gemstone known as MEONIA, believed to have been used by the Fitzwarren family, the Knights Templar, the Guise-Lorraine family of France, Mary Queen of Scots and the Catholic Gunpowder Plotters, and buried thereafter in the county of Worcestershire. There is suggestion that it might have been linked with both the Philosopher’s Stone and the Lapsit Exillis, the name given to the gemstone in the German Grail romance, ‘Parzival’ by Wolfram von Eschenbach. A stone of the description provided by legend and psychic means led Graham and me from place to place until eventually we uncovered, as a marker, a short steel sword in the foundations of a footbridge at Knights Pool, Worcestershire, before the stone itself was discovered inside a brass casket of seventeenth century origin at a place called the Swan’s Neck, at nearby Eckington.
Graham and I are currently planning an exclusive tour of all the key sites involved with the quest in the county of Worcestershire, including contemporary residences associated with the Gunpowder Plot such as Harvington Hall, home of the Packingtons, and Coughton Court, home of the Throckmortons, as well as sites connected with the finding of the sword and stone, and Pershore Abbey, connected with the Fitzwarren family and the Templars. The idea would be for the tour to take place across a long weekend with people convening at a historic hotel in the area on the Friday evening for an introductory lecture, dinner, etc., and then set off on part one of the quest the next day. In the evening there would be a banquet in an Elizabethan hall associated with the story, before returning to the hotel. The next day, Sunday, would see part two of the quest, culminating with the ‘finding’ of the stone.
The entire tour would provide first class service and personal attendance from Graham and me. It is anticipated that the party, which can either be escorted around by people carriers or use their own vehicles, will be limited in numbers to maximise the exclusivity of the experience for those taking part. There will also be a ‘quest’ organised beforehand by Graham and myself, with the prize having to be ‘found’ using whatever means of deduction is available! No dates are planned as yet. However, in order to gauge the interest, if you might like to take part in this unique venture please send an email with ‘Green Stone’ in the subject box.


LORD OF MISRULE

It remains for me to wish all of you a happy festive season, whatever faith you follow. January is named after two-faced Janus, the Roman god of misrule, the Divine Gatekeeper, who looks back into the past with one face and stares forward into the future with the other. He signifies the moment of no time between the old year and the new, which varied according to individual cultures, with five days being the usual amount. However, misrule activities retained in our own new year celebrations, did once extend back to the beginning of December in some regions of Europe. They would often involve total reversals of roles, with men dressing as women (a survival of which is seasonal pantomimes), children being proclaimed as bishops or kings for a day, and out and out debauchery (the best part). So I proclaim Janus, Lord of Misrule, as my god of the festive season.

I have many great memories from 2002 (Getting married. Then on my honeymoon to Las Vegas getting a Dodge truck stuck in a dry river bed in the Nevada Desert whilst looking for Area 51 and walking seven hours in the burning heat to the nearest road! Finding keys in churchyards and encountering cowled figures at the same time! Sitting on the top of Jebel Madhbah, the preferred site of Mount Sinai at Petra. Meding with the Spear of Destiny in Vienna Museum. Finishing off the book on Tutankhamun.). For those interested, my favourite film of the year was unquestionably ‘Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring’ (I look forward immensely to seeing ‘The Two Towers’) and my favourite tunes were: (rock) Puddle of Mud, ‘Blurry’; (dance) Layo and Bushwaka, ‘Love Story’, and (pop) Fischerspooner ‘Emerge’. See you all next year for some great times ahead.

Andrew Collins, Saturnalia 2002.

Please note: This newsletter is only available electronically. Permission to reproduce extracts must be sought from Andrew Collins. Copies can be printed for personal use only. Copyright, Andrew Collins, 2002.