The avenging of the father in the outer world is the complete obverse to what really needs to be achieved by the shamanic Mysteries initiate, which is the redemption of the father in the inner worlds. It is the avenging of the father that leads to war on Earth; it is the redemption of the father that leads to peace on Earth.
In ancient myths, the dragon-slaying, zodiac hero meets the challenge of the redemption of the father when he is bitten by the scorpion at Scorpio, and falls down into the Underworld of Sagittarius. There, he has to face his Shadow, which is comprised of the ‘sins’ of his ancestors, and heal and purify them in order to pass his trials and be reborn again at Capricorn, on the Winter Solstice. (See explanatory diagram in the header.)
This sketched self-portait by the architect of Glastonbury Abbey, Dunstan, who went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury, shows that he knew this Mystery teaching.
As you will notice, he is prostrate and praying at the point of circle where Sagittarius falls on the Glastonbury Zodiac, with the words: “Remember, I beg you, merciful Christ, do protect me, Dunstan, and do not allow the Taenarian storms to swallow me up.” (In those days, Taenaria was a cave at the entrance of the Underworld, which was guarded by the multi-headed dog, Cerberus.)
We know it’s as close at Dunstan could portray to a zodiac in those days because the diagonal symbol that the Christ figure is carrying is cognate with where the Milky Way falls on the Glastonbury Zodiac, at Baltonsborough in Sagittarius, where Dunstan’s church is sited today. It is no coincidence … and that the stained glass window over the altar of that church depicts the alchemical recipe for the Philosopher’s Stone. [There’s much more about all this in my book Stories in the Summerlands.]
The avenging of the father as a cause of war is not just confined to men; quite the contrary in fact to Boris Johnson’s nonsense, that if Putin had been a woman he wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine. History is littered with women that used warfare to avenge, rather than redeem, their fathers. So obviously his very expensive public school education was wasted on him.
Even in the present day, the tip of the spear against Putin is carried in the US State department by the childless Victoria Nuland, who has dedicated her whole career to trying to exact revenge for how her grandfather was exiled by pogroms against the Khazari Jews when Ukraine was part of Russia.
I could give Boris Johnson a long list of women who led their countries into war, beginning with Boadicea and ending with Margaret Thatcher. If he learned about Cleopatra, who wove her sex magic in the last centuries before Christianity to lure the leaders of Rome into allying with Egypt to follow the vision of Alexander the Great’s global empire, there is no evidence of it.
Even her name spelt out her destiny: Cleopatra meant “glory of her father” in the Koine Greek that was spoken in Alexandria in those days. The glory of her father, I think though, would have been better served if she had used that tantra to turn her efforts inwards, rather than spin her enchantments to try to achieve world domination.
The redemption of the father can only be achieved through deep spiritual work in tandem with one’s own spirit guides, because only they know how to get us past the multi-headed Cerberus and through the Taenarian storms.
It is deep, very private and personal work but to me, it is the ultimate aim of the shamanic initiate because it leads to “the peace that passeth all understanding”.
Shaman of Avalon 