8. Giza and Cairo - The Wonders
6th March 2020
Part 2

After our profound experience at the Great Pyramids site, we are taken for a ride around the township of Giza - one of the most ancient settlings in the world.

Across torn roads framed by derelict buildings, we find ourselves immersed in an area of extreme poverty, where survival is ensured by fighting through each day.

Through the grime, litter and distraught faces we pass by, worn by the struggles of a hard life, further clarity shines around the extreme discrepancies of duality. From the burial place of the Kings to the living quarters of the slaves, from unnameable riches to the deep trenches of lack, it requires a deep breath to bring my vision of these opposites into balance. All part of creation. All here for a reason, each their own journey to travel.

Finally we get to the place where we are shown how papyrus reeds have been transformed into parchment across the ages. Interesting process.

Of course the final aim is for us to buy something… And I do. Isis. Glorious Isis… She, who invited me back to Egypt, is the one I choose to bring with me in honour of the Wisdom She radiates. An Aspect of our Divine Self, reuniting Light and Dark in the delicate balance that removes the veils of illusion.

The essential oils shop is right next door and we are invited to be shown their exquisite scents and properties. It is a rhapsody of aromas which captures us in the rapture of their loving bounty.

With the electric tingling of our uplifting contact with the pyramid earlier on, the Presence of Isis’s loving care and the mesmerising concoction of so many smells, the feeling of these oils on our skin, the power of Egypt herself, I become lightheaded and intensely expanded, very aware of my physicality as well as of my intangibility, the orgasmic force of life flowing in my veins, accelerating my cells and filling me with Gratitude.

Joana and I buy a combination of 4 essential oils which over a year later I am still using.

I have actually become quite a fan of these oils and use nothing else on my skin. Now I also use oils on my hair and it is healthier than ever before. A combination of Egypt and has India brought me these precious elixirs and made my life even simpler, just as I have chosen. I am definitely not a good fit for the consumer market of cosmetics and so many other things I find utterly superfluous.

The other day I was reflecting on how we as a whole society of consumers have been tricked into believing that having huge supermarkets where we can buy virtually anything has made our lives easier and saved us time.

Now that I live in the countryside and have the privilege of having my own vegetable garden together with contacts nearby of people who produce organic food that I don’t have here and might want to have now and then, I have weaned myself off of so many household products that going shopping to a supermarket is a fortunately seldom necessary chore. Very seldom in fact.

For me it is tiring to have to choose out of so many products for just one thing, especially because I have made the option of buying as little plastic packaged goods as possible so it really requires a whole lot of attention. It is literally like coming into a minefield with sticky hands trying to grab you at every corner saying “take me, I am delicious” or “take me, you need me, I am excellent”. It makes me smile.

And the time I now save not having to go shopping or to take out the rubbish all the time, I use to enjoy playing in the vegetable garden, picking and preparing the bountiful kilos of fruit that come out all at once and mesmerising at the rich colours, scents and feelings that nature provides us with - the joyous vitality of aliveness instead of the dead stiffness of the artificially lit supermarket aisles.

I have concluded that it is an illusion that having everything packed and ready on supermarket shelves is practical and saves us time. Even if one chooses the option of going through those same aisles on an online application and then having them delivered at home, it is still an artificial foray into a concrete jungle and it takes huge amounts of time.

The thing is that so called modern life, where people have to work out of home and thus have very little time to appreciate their dwellings and tend to their gardens so much so that they cement everything and put in plastic grass, this modern life has enslaved everyone into believing that it is less time-consuming and more practical when in fact it is just another way of keeping us entertained and busy at work for that very purpose of buying more.

Amazingly, it is the fact that people have jobs where they have to fulfil a certain amount of hours per week that has brought about this massive availability of excessive things to consume. Too many hours are taken up by jobs that we are told we need, thus making us busy and therefore making our existence justifiable and worthy! And because there are so many paid hours toiling at a job out there, a massive amount of things has to be produced and thus consumed and so on and on and on.

When we stop. Step back. Choose a different way of life. We realize that it was all just a form of entertainment but there are many others and we can choose. We can actually choose what we want to be entertained with! But while we are so busy that we can’t even breathe properly, it is really hard to see a bigger picture with many other options.

Oh well, there is so much more to share on this…

I will get on with my Egypt travels and leave the reflexions to you, dear reader.

Continuing our day in Cairo.

We are now back at the Hotel and have decided to catch the underground and visit the Coptic Quarter.

It is round about 2 PM and the streets are not very busy nor are the monuments so it seems we have chosen the right time for our foray into the ancient streets of merged religions.

We first visit the Coptic Museum, which is huge and filled with so many works of art and information that we can feel the weight of history weighing down on our legs and have to sit after about an hour walking across the seemingly endless rooms. Beautiful, I must say, but after an hour and half we decide to move to our next visit.

The 9th century Hanging Church is right next door and the feeling of it is a reverence to the art of devotion. Small, simple but powerfully significant.

Which is also the case of the Church of St Sergius and Bacchus where Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus are said to have taken shelter whilst King Herod's order to kill all male firstborn babies was undertaken.

Now here there is a different kind of reverence. The feeling of awe to be stepping into a place where the Virgin Mary and Jesus were physically present. With so many people around, I must confess it is hard to feel the real essence of the place and I believe most of the fuss people make around this place is more related to the power of faith and worship than the actual real feel of the place itself. But this is just my feeling. I am sure many others feel differently.

Not far from there, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, near which baby Moses is said to have been found in the reeds, is a spartan and simple place with a more open sense to it. Definitely not as many worshippers as in the catholic creed pass by this place and that too can be felt.

I love sensing rather than seeing with my physical eyes. There is so much more to each place.

The Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-As, the first to be built in Egypt, is also part of our visit as are some other coptic churches along the way. Each one beautiful in their own way.

The one feeling that stands out in all of the places we feel into is devotion. The devotion to create beauty in honour of what one believes to be sacred, divine. No place is more beautiful than the other. No creation less honourable. We feel the love in all of them.

But as J. Krishnamurti once said, I too believe that “Truth is a Pathless Land”. And the Temple resides within each sentient being. May it be allowed to show itself and be dedicated the same devotion as has been offered to creating temples without. For God resides everywhere and each One is God also.

Nevertheless we are enjoying our touristic explorations and still have some time left before the day ends so we decide to grab a taxi to the Citadel. We stop by at a café to ask where to get a cab and how much it would cost, so that we are not fooled into paying much more than the ride is worth.

An older man takes us to his fairly battered vehicle and Joana and I smile at each other. We are thankful to him for taking us there and it is actually clean and very safe. He is an excellent driver. So much so that when he drops us off we arrange a time for him to pick us up and take us back to the Hotel.

We have around 45 minutes to visit the Citadel, which apart from the Mosques, also offers a fabulous view of Cairo. We consider our 45 time limit to be enough. Large groups of school kids and other groups of people are now heading for the entrance, whilst we are heading inside. And it is very fortunate to be that way, since we have the whole space to ourselves now!

Once again we enjoy the beauty of these manmade works of art in devotion to the Divine. One thing I find with religious quarters is that there is a balance between feminine and masculine in each construction - the majestic grandeur combined with the delicate beauty and creative spark of genius. And yet, still men and women are treated differently in many religions across all continents. Even here, we have to enter the Mosques only where the women enter.

Humanitarian considerations apart, we thoroughly enjoy our visit and as usual, time seems to have expanded way beyond the meagre 45 minutes we thought we had. I just absolutely love the metamorphic nature of what we call time.

We get out 5 minutes early and still have to wait for the taxi, but sure enough he arrives and merrily takes us back “home”.

Phew! It sure has been a full day. We still go out for a light snack and find one of those places where locals go, which is always an indication of good food for a good price. This is a version of Egyptian fast food - can’t tell you now what it was we ate, but it was local and delicious. That, my tastebuds remember.

Once we settle in for a good nights’ sleep it is with deep satisfaction. That endlessly fulfilling feeling of being happy and grateful to be alive.

💙💚💛💜💗

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