The fellow on the other end of the line, a chemical engineer, was surprisingly kind and rather effusive in his praise of Odyssey Magazine, as incarnated in the hands of my-beloved-of-this-life, Silke, and me. Christopher Erasmus Odyssey Editor 200 to 2018
We were well into our tenure at the helm of Odyssey, after Rose de la Hunt’s long and remarkable stewardship of this title, which is globally almost an unique creature and far longer-lived than any equivalent we are aware of, anywhere. The Odyssey we took charge of was overtly ‘spiritual’ in tenor and content, as well, one may say, in style.
But times had changed and so had Odyssey to meet those changing consciousnesses-hungry for alternatives to a system, already clearly in decline, while the whole planet was equally clearly in distress, thereby to provide options, choices, alternative narratives (though never loathsome trash such as QAnon-style made-up ‘alt facts’) and, above all, a sense of hope and empowerment for individuals seeking to understand and optimise their individual experience of life.
We saw that a subtle but important shift of emphasis was called for: Not overt spirituality but rather a focus on holistic lifestyle, incorporating elements of the former as generalised into all of life.
Odyssey became, thereby, more accessible to those who did not resonate necessarily with the language of those overtly living ‘spiritual lives’, but who shared many of the same attitudes towards nature, animals, other humans and even themselves.
As an example, Yoga, a frequent subject of the title, moved, in this small but important reframing, from being a spiritual practice based largely in the Hindu system and using body and mind techniques, to a consciousness tool for integration of body and mind.
The switch to an explicit focus on consciousness as the key to self-development, mirrored by the switch from a focus on different religious and spiritual expressions and forms, was designed to incorporate essential points of crossover or commonality.
And it was timely, albeit implicit, in Odyssey’s very existence from the outset.
We were far past hearing about ‘diamond mind’ Buddhist-type systems, not because what was being described was no longer relevant, but because being a Buddhist monk, for instance, sitting in splendid isolation to achieve an elevated consciousness state – while others, all herky-jerky ‘jivas’, just like you and me, served the ‘ascending one’s’ physical and worldly needs, don’t you know – was simply an impossible indulgence for the vast majority of people.
We found that ‘spirituality’ was frequently the self-claimed domain of those keen to teach (for a fee) what they claimed to know or be able to do, but which claims all needed plenty of scrutiny.
In consequence, in the course our more than 17 years at the helm, we sent packing and refused advertising and editorial space to a range of scamsters and straight-up con people, as well as many self-deluded types, writing in great earnestness to either Silke, editor for Odyssey’s last several years in our joint hands, or myself as executive editor and/or publisher.
Some of those clamouring loudest for space to express themselves, thereby to expand their baleful influence on others, have since gone off to become shouty proponents of the aforementioned QAnon dementedness, complete with the latest ‘proof’ (actually utter BS, if one has any science and common sense), in some cases, of the very flatness of the earth, posted inevitably in social media with ‘BOOM!’ necessarily tagged on, proving not their point at all, but rather the sheer idiocy which is unavoidable when we stop working in ‘best known facts’.
Humanity, it is clearer by the day, has a minimal grasp on reality at best – hard physics and cosmology reckon we know something about maybe five per cent of everything in the physical universe.
Indeed, recent AI-driven quantum computer analysis shows that, at the level of the very small, the universe seems to be all about consciousness, rather than matter – the ‘quantum wave function’, in terms of which a photon of light or electron can be both wave and particle at the same time, their potential expression as measurable physical aspects of reality not only collapsing upon measurement into the hard reality we are familiar with, but that the wave function collapses in anticipation of the determination by a scientist to make the given measurement, by some 400 nansoceonds to be exact.
I suggest the reader re-reads that last point, since it is crucial to everything upon which Odyssey is based.
In short, it turns out with increasing probability hedging towards certainty, that the universe pre-exists as a range of potentials (undifferentiated energy) which collapses into the matter and forms, we know, all consequent to interactions with observers of those very interactions. Thus, the observer ‘makes’ the universe as he or she goes along.
But we are mostly trapped in a consciousness that just makes more of the same old useless ‘stuff’, and which we have collectively outgrown.
The universe, in other words, operates at the most profound level, as a feedback mechanism of exquisite delicacy, driving everything towards more complexity – and therefore beauty – not only in physical form of expression through evolution, but through intention as carried by consciousness and expressed as ever-evolving higher consciousness.
It is a ‘wow’ moment to be alive.
Odyssey’s primary thesis has been borne out – all is one, everything connects with everything (through ‘entanglement’) and at all levels and, therefore, we each are unique expressions of a universal determination to evolve and express consciousness, at evermore complex levels, based on a pre-existing but undifferentiated ‘field of potential expression’.
Another way to say this is that we are the universe itself, at play with itself and unambiguously evolving towards an emergent awareness which, for most alive, seems more fantasy and fairytale than achievable reality.
But it is achievable – if consciousness changes.
While Silke and I have moved on in life, dealing with the same issues of challenge and pain that are inescapable in this resolution of collective consciousness – and therefore, collectively-shared ‘reality’ – which have arisen in our own lives, we are both immensely proud of our efforts to make Odyssey as widely accessible as possible.
We took the title from some thousands of dedicated readers to a multiple of that number, then launched helter-skelter into the digital zone due to turbulence and the impending necessity of that move and thereby suddenly reached, in the December 2013 issue of the title, well over 330 000 sets of eyeballs, globally.
I would have loved to have spent a moment in relishing the call from the chemical engineer, as it was my semi-secret intent from the outset to fully ground Odyssey, under our control and make it a user reference guide for people seeking health of body, heart and mind and the integration of their being up to ‘soul level’, if folks could manage that.
With Silke’s amazing design eye providing beauty and elegance to our offerings and my adamant adherence to basic principles of good journalism, we were more than happy with every single edition we produced and delighted by many.
It was a fulfilling but demanding adventure. It left no time, however, to enjoy ticking any ‘achievement boxes’, as existed in my mind – we only had another edition to produce and so we did.
To all Odyssey’s readers, new and old, know you live in the times of great change long anticipated and predicted.
Getting along in such times is hard enough, but flourishing in one’s being is another, sometimes seemingly impossible-to-achieve, task altogether.
But that is exactly what is being asked of each of us now.
Along with the turmoil come opportunities to free ourselves from limiting identifiers and relocate our sense of being in something much vaster and more enduring, something some folks call ‘soul’.
Our souls are calling us to remember that these life journeys we are on begin and end, but as concious beings, some essential part of us persists.
Turns out the universe preserves information and we are that, embedded and embodied, but also deeply forgetful and neglectful of how we came to be as we are.
Time to remember collectively is upon us and it is required of each to apply themselves to a reassessment of their being – or remain stuck in a consciousness that is increasingly disharmonic with the underlying vibratory conditions of the collective human (and global) resonant fields.
Odyssey has not, therefore, outgrown its own purpose, but has survived long enough to be the genuinely-voiced herald of a new way of being human, of which condition we mainly have some few notable example in history but as yet far too little common experience.
Time for all to become more fully human, more humane, more compassionate, more aware of others, of animals and the eco-systems of our planet on which we depend.
The Age of Aquarius is finally upon us.
Time, then, to become consciousness drivers, co-creators and better players in a much vaster scheme that does not centre around the machinations and moronic blatherings of idiots at large, nor vile self-indulgent material conspicuous consumption, nor any of the many other misdirections of focus of being which are possible to us as free will beings, learning what that means. In what is bound to be, for a time at least, a soupy unclear mix of ‘what is to come’ and ‘what is dying’, guidance will likely be of help.
And so it is, in its 48th year of being, with this 250th edition on the shelves, as you read this, Odyssey remains a shining light upon the path less trodden, but now demanded to be walked by all. Christopher Erasmus.
