Barry Goddard – Surfing the Galactic Highways

 

(p 109) “Reality and the human imagination cannot be separated.”  

Barry Goddard’s book is aptly named, as it has a current of energy that carries you along. His worldview is that life is – or can be – a series of initiations into a larger consciousness. Our lives are a story, and, like Parsifal, the hero of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s story, our aim is to reach the Grail Castle, in full consciousness. And on the way to reaching this desired goal we will go through various passages, trials, challenges, not knowing what is going on or what we are ‘supposed’ to do or if we have taken a wrong turning, failed, sinned, all these doubts and fears that beset all of us humans are perfectly natural because that is the way things are mostly for humans on planet earth. That is the normal field of consciousness.

If you suspect that there is more to be known beyond the regular 3D consciousness i.e. that there is a greater consciousness and perception, you will need to go and search for it like Parsifal did, each in our own clumsy way. That is how it is if you don’t know what you’re looking for or where to go or what to do or even how to act in social situations. We start out as the Fool in the Tarot pack, innocent and ignorant. Where we go, what we do, who we encounter, will give us pointers and opportunities, we will make choices and we will make mistakes. We will gain in experience. If we are lucky we will get a glimpse of the Grail Castle. This is one of many metaphors (like pearl of great price, the alchemist’s gold etc) for a state of being/consciousness where we are reconnected with the spiritual/light being of our true Self, and with everything in the cosmos. This experience of connection with everything, which is love, (which we previously felt separated from, there was a perceptual barrier between us and the outside world) is our true home. This consciousness is what we have been looking for. And it changes us (which is not the end of the story, it is actually the beginning).

Barry points out that in indigenous societies there were initiation rituals set up which young people went through, and they were not considered adult until they had done so. In these rituals, facing one’s fear was part of it, and, if they survived the encounter, they would recognize that fear comes from within, and if faced, can be overcome, which will bring courage to face life in the future. (And this is also part of the Parsifal initiation story, where he had to fight Feirifis but they were so equally matched that they had to give up fighting, and ended by embracing.)
p 57 ‘We do not, uniquely, have such rites of passage in our culture nor do we (again, uniquely) have a prevailing mythology that provides meaning.’ But, he goes on to say ‘life has a way of initiating us anyway.’ 

Neptune from first Voyager 2 fly by: Wikimedia commons

The transits of the outer planets show both the changes that we will experience and the opportunities that these changes will present. We make choices, Barry says, and we will gain from these initiatory passages if we work with the energies, however painful and difficult, rather than try to suppress them. This is not something that simply happens to us as if we are passive. On the contrary, recognizing the energies of the transit – of life itself – is an active engagement and we are always involved in the choices we make, even at those times when we have no idea what to do or where to go, even when we feel our faith-in-life, that necessary and beloved companion, sidling off to ‘be alone’ like some mourning Achilles, gripped with grief. Come back! We may have to shout, may even have to storm the tent and grasp the hand of our most-needed companion. Faith is what lets us know that the universe loves, protects, supports us. Not an idea, a knowing. As Barry says many times in this book.
He talks about (p 88) ‘ ... engagement with those deeper and demanding currents that flow through us all. Life is only truly fulfilling when we are living according to them, and rising with courage to what they ask of us. This is what the outer planets are really about.’

Pluto: wikimedia commons

Barry describes Neptune and Pluto transits through his own story, what they brought to him and this is both the interest and the energy and lived knowledge of this work. Look he says, this is what happened to me. And because he is a good storyteller and has thought deeply about his life and its events and also, very important to me, he mentions some of his big dreams, well, I found this book unputdownable. Hooray! That’s my response.  

Northern Celestial Hemisphere from Atlas Coelestis seu Harmonia Macrocosmica, Amsterdam 1660