Cathedral Happenings

This took place on January 22nd 2025. Rod and I were in Melbourne for the day. We travelled in on the train and on the way I heard a voice say; ‘beliefs are the filters we place over perception.’ Personally, I have decided that there is nothing quite like a good, worldview shattering, experience to expand my understanding of possibilities available in ‘reality’, whatever that is.

          We went to the Eye and Ear Hospital to see if I could get an appointment and were walking back towards the CBD as we passed St Patricks Cathedral and decided to go in. It is a beautiful gothic revival style building. Although I am not catholic nor religious I lit three candles for my guides, Caspar, Stephen, Martin and all the Saints of the Sacred Well. As I lit the candles I said a prayer, which, because I was in shaman mode I cannot recall. However I felt that prayer take effect in the world at some level, it had power.

            We walked around a bit, marvelling at the construction, the organ, the gentle light filtering through stained glass. Then Rod decided to sit on a pew and wait while I continued to walk around all the chapels at the side.I passed a man sitting opposite one chapel, he had lovely energy and we smiled at each other, fellow souls enjoying the peace and power of love. Further on I came across a stained glass window depicting the magi beholding the infant Jesus. It filled me with love, I had tears in my eyes.Then I wandered slowly back to Rod sitting at one end of a long wooden pew which was otherwise unoccupied. While I had been taking in the majesty of the side chapels Rod told me he had been applying himself to Step 11 of AA/NA which is: sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.

            I sat down with him and we spent some time discussing the beauty of the cathedral and the sheer glory of its presence. Rod pointed out that the craftsmen would not have been subject to time constraints and would have been free to display their talents. I mentioned at some point having become teary at the vision of the magi and Rod said, ‘you are magi Kim’ It seemed an odd thing to say.

            Suddenly our pew received a hard shove from directly behind us and it moved the pew forward a few inches, it made a sound as it dragged forward over the tiled floor. We both looked around, there was no one behind us or anywhere near us. A small woman sat in the pew behind us at the far end of that pew about 20 feet away. She could not possibly have performed such a feat from there.  There was no explanation for what had occurred, we were alone. Rod looked at me and said; ‘that was spooky!’ Not frightening though.

            What I did find intriguing was it would have taken quite a bit of energy to move a heavy wooden pew and the over 120kg of us as well. What wielded that energy, where did it come from and how did it do it? Why did it do it? We were both actively practicing a spiritual attention in response to our surroundings. Did something sense this? It certainly makes it plain that there is so much more to reality than the sliver we allow ourselves to view. In the New Thinking Allowed magazine I came across the following: In 1974 research by William G Braud indicated that a highly relaxed state is favourable for the occurrence of dramatic instances of paranormal or psychic phenomena. Perhaps this is a partial explanation, we were both very relaxed.

            Later in the day, on the train home I was looking at Facebook and my FB friend James had posted about his wife. He called her a magi. Rod and James do not know each other but both are over 40 years sober and have active spiritual practices. I asked Rod why he called me that but he said he didn’t know. Having never heard of a woman being called a magi before to hear it twice in one day was quite an astonishing synchronicity as far as I am concerned. Perhaps it speaks to the historic tendency to down play women sages and the need for a greater balance today in this domain.

            The following day I did a little research on the matter and came across an article that first appeared in the St Louis Beacon 2010. The Reverend Benedict Thomas Viviano, an international authority on the Gospel of Matthew used his command of Old Testament references and his ease with gender in ancient Hebrew words to suggest that one or more women may have been among the magi who visited the infant Jesus. He goes on in the article to give further support to his theory. ( Source STLPR-St Louis Public Radio Morning Edition )

            All in all it was a fascinating few days, I learnt more about the magi than I had previously known and had experienced yet another example of the power of intelligences as yet little known to us. I wonder when we will be wise enough to be trusted with further knowledge concerning the true nature of reality. Sometimes the confines of materialism severely irks me!

            On the first day of February I hosted a meeting where we discussed a broad range of unusual things. A friend of mine, after I had told of being teary when I saw the window of the magi and of Rod calling me magi, became excited and told me that he had been researching the magi a few days previously and did I know that women could be magi. This is before I had mentioned my own research on the subject. Telepathy perhaps?

            I sit in awe of moving pews, magi and synchronicities which bless my life. May you too, sit in awe at the wonder of your life and the life that surrounds and permeates us all.     

(copyright Kim Parker 2025 January.)