Entries about gods

Crystal Castle is the home to beautiful private botanical gardens filled with extraordinary crystals and sub-tropical plant life.

As 1985 was drawing to a close, Naren King was invited to a New Years Eve part in a unique and magnificent building on a property near Mullumbimby, New south Wales. eccentric architects Edwin Kingsbury has pioneered his concept of 'harmonious architecture', designing a round central building with four radiating wings, no 90 degree angles and a series of magical reflecting ponds. The building was positioned right on the point where the earth's energy lines, or ley lines, intersect. Owner Mal Cooper has demanded the very best materials from around the region for its construction in 1980, and has gone broke as a result.
Captivated by the extraordinary property, Naren set his sights on becoming its new owner. Five knock backs from the banks didn't deter him and his persistence paid off when a Harley-davidson-riding bank manager lover the adventurous nature of the crystal business Naren was envisioning. At that point the land was bare as much of it had been cleared for grazing and banana growing.

Naren has spent over 25 years travelling the world in search of extraordinary crystals.

the entrance

walking past this pond, the path leads to the first set of Amethyst Crystals

although these are huge, there are plenty of smaller ones to buy in the shop, some of them are so pretty.

an all shapes and sizes

and one in particular is almost a cave!
Fairy Magic

This extraordinary amethyst geode cave was discovered in Rio Grande do sul, in the south of Brazil in May 2007. 10 million years old, and hidden deep in the earth in an ancient lava flow. Rare crystals have grown within over these millions of years, white clear quartz crystals, some double terminated (points at both ends) and pink ‘rose quartz’ crystals.

The Mural

‘Journey to Shangrila’ is painted by local artist Peta Laurison, the painting features a grand archway inspired by the famous Ankor Wat temple in Cambodia with a winding stairway leading up to the Tiger’s Nest Monastry, one of the holiest Buddist monasteries in Bhutan. The tiger stands guard at the entranceway, bringing awareness to the plight of this majestic animal which is on the brink of extinction

The Amethyst Geodes

Discovered in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2007, they are believe to be the tallest Amethyst geode pair in Australia. They tower over me! They are around 10 million years old and would have begun life as an enormous bubble in a volcanic lava flow, where under intense heat and pressure, crystals were formed. The presence of a tiny amount of iron creates the colour purple. At 3.4m high, this cave weighs 1,121kgs!

Ancient Giant Fossil

This piece of hard desert rock has been cut from the Sahara desert in Morocco. It has recently been polished revealing fossilised ancient orthoceras and other sea creatures.
Unbelievable though it seems, these creatures are around 500 million years old, dating from prehistoric times when the Sahara was under water and these fish were alive and swimming in the ocean.

Dewi Sri

In Bali, Dewi Sri is the goodness of rice. Rice is considered a sacred food given to humankind by the deities to sustain us in a way no other food can. Rice is said to have a soul and to have been created from the merging if Dewi Sri’s body and the earth.

Ganesh

Ganesh is the remover of obstacles. The Hindu religion believes that honouring Ganesh before new ventures and during life changes assures easier trasition and success. He is also revered as the god of education and literature, knowledge, wisdom and wealth.
Ganesh’s broken tusk is a symbol of sacrifice. The rosary in his hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. The laddoo (Indian sweet) he holds in his trunk indicates that one must discover the sweetness of Braham (the absolute or ultimate reality). His trunk leaning to his left means success in the world. His fan-=like ears convey that he is ‘all ears’ to our prayers. The snake that runs around his body represents energy in all of us.

Lakshmi

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of fortune, prosperity, wisdom and fertility. She is also the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm. She is always shown with a lotus, rooted in the mud but blossoming above the water. Completely uncontaminated by the mud, the lotus represents purity and spiritual perfection.
Lakshmi’s found hands symbolise dharma (the path of right living, the root of which is compassion), kama( desires), artha (wealth) and moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death).

Buddha

This Blessing Buddha and his lotus base weigh almost 14 tonnes. He has been hand carved from volcanic rock from a mountain in java called ‘Gunung merapi’ (Mountain of Fire). His raised hand is in Abhaya Mudra, the position for blessing.
Buddha represents peace and freedom from suffering. Siddhartha Gautama was the son of a Nepalese rajah and became the spiritual teacher who founded Buddhism. He sought to overcome old age, illness and death by living the life of an ascetic. He chose to spend his life teaching others how to achieve a state of liberation and freedom from suffering (Nirvana). Believing that neither the extremes of abstinence nor pleasure lead to enlightenment, Buddha taught his followers to pursue a ‘middle was’ of moderation and meditation.

Buddhism is a path of spiritual development and practice that leads the enquirer to insight into the true nature of life. The basic principals are straightforward and practical, nothing is seen as fixed or permanent, actions have consequences (karma) and change is possible. Meditation helps practitioners to develop the qualities of wisdom, kindness and compassion.

Fuchsite

The mystic lore of Fuchsire is ‘Rejuvenation’ It is the green variety of Muscovite and gains colour from high concentrations of chromium. Ruchsite is a healer’s stone, used to find the root cause of disease within the body and facilitate deep healing on many levels. It is said to enhance one’s connection and appreciation of the beauty in nature.

This massive piece found in Brazil in 3005 weight 372kgs.

Nandi

Nandi, the white bull represents joy attained through celebration and also through strength and restraint. IN ancient times, Nandi was the lord of joy and was represented as a man with a bull’s head.

Garuda

Garuda represent courage and man’s higher spiritual aspirations. Garuda is the bird god and appears in both Hindu and Buddist mythology.
Vishnu
Riding on the shoulders of Garuda
Vishnu preserves and protects. He embodies strength, energy, valour and generosity.
Vishnu is one of the three most important Hindu gods. He supports, sustains and governs the Universe. His role is to return to the earth in troubled times and restore the balance of good and evil whenever order and justice are threatened.

Sodalite

The mystic lore of Sodalite is ‘understanding’. It has been said that the longest distance you will ever travel is the distance from you head to your heart. This is the gift of sodalite. IT is said to clear up mental confusion and re-establish inner opeace. Good for healing rifts in partnerships and relationships, and helps bring and end to arguments or disagreements.
This beautiful rock was discovered in Brazil in 2006 and weighs 863kgs.

An enchanting Bamboo path

leads too...
Avalokiteshvara,

widely known as Chenrezig, embodies the compassion of all the Buddhas. Chenrezig may be the most popular of all Buddish deities, except for Buddha himself. According to legend, Avalokiteshvara made a vow that he will not rest until he has liberated all beings of suffering. His four arms symbolise the four immeasurable; loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. The Dalai Lama is considered by many Tibetan Buddhists to be the incarnation of

The Fountain of Peace

Crafted by the world’s best fountain makers in Germany, this fountain began life in Bahia, Brazil, where the rose quartz was found and the ball roughly cut. It was then shipped to Germany where it was polished into a perfect sphere, allowing the 310 kgs to spin in the water. The granite base rock was bought from the Maggia river in Switzerland. The mystic lore of rose quartz is love and compassion.

The Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is an archetypal symbol found in spiritual traditions, spanning 4,000 years of human history. The mysterious winding path that takes us into the centre is symbolic of entering the unknown. It becomes a metaphor for our journey of self enquiry. Unlike a maze, which is a puzzle designed to be solved, there is only one way to the centre of a labyrinth, no tricks and no dead ends. At the point of entering, it is suggested to pose a question or intention and invite the answer to reveal itself. By walking the path towards the centre, it is believe that neurological pathways get activated in the brain and we literally begin to unravel our current viewpoint.

The Wizard’s Hat

This enormous Amethyst geode was discovered in Rio Grande do sul, Brazil in 2005. It weighs a massive 1,256kgs. The miners chip away into the bedrock until they hit the distinctive green shell around the geode cave. From there they carefully follow the shape until the cave has been chipped free from the granite.

This geode began life 10 million years ago, as a bubble of lava flow. The mystic lore for Amethyst is peace, protection and intuition.

These Prayer Scrolls leave something to think about...

 
The Invitation
By Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living,
I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a Fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon,
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear or further pain.

I want to know if you can sit without pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true,
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty, even if it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live without failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘yes’.

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what need to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you come to be here,
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied,
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.