MYSTIC ISLANDS OF MALTA
Workshops, A magical mystery tour, ancient
sacred sites and HUMAN
HISTORY RETOLD by Vincent Bridges
Booking deadline April 15, 2011
 Arrive
June 3rd, 2011
June 4-5 Weekend workshop with Vincent
June 6-7 Full day study tours of ancient temples
Free to view these videos from 2010 Malta Tour
HOW TO GET THERE
To experience Malta, you won't have to travel far. Just
a few hours flying time away from most European cities, the Islands are serviced
by direct scheduled flights operated by the national carrier and major
international airlines.
Our group from South France, will be departing from GIRONA, where
there is a direct Ryan Air flight. We depart for Malta on Friday, June
3rd.
You can easily join our group by arranging your own flight to Malta
and meeting us at our hotel/teaching venue in Malta.
BOOKINGS
All info - Email Roger on info@fengshuiseminars.com
YOUR PACKAGE
Package includes 5 nights accommodation, tuition, transportation (once
you arrive at the hotel), breakfast and lunch each day and sacred
site admission fees. Does not include any airfares. 1200 Euros
Workshops and tours only (for locals) 680 Euros
WEEKEND WORKSHOP WITH VINCENT- HIGHLIGHTS
June 4th, 10-5pm with lunch
Morning session: Alchemical Secrets of the Knights of St. John
Could the Knights of St. John have inherited the inner
secrets of the science of alchemy from their former rivals in Outremer, the Knights
of the Temple? Examine the traditions and the real science behind the
mysterious workings of Alchemy, from its discovery in ancient Egypt
through its golden age in the late Middle Ages.
Two of the most famous,
or notorious, of Renaissance alchemists, George
Ripley and Cagliostro,
claimed to have been taught the inner secret by the Knights of St.
John on Malta. In this lecture we will examine the traditions and the
real science behind the mysterious workings of Alchemy, from its discovery
in ancient Egypt through its golden age in the late Middle Ages and
to its climax and disappearance in the 16th and 17th century. As we
follow this twisted thread of science and magic, we will learn why
the island of Malta might just be the world’s best alchemical
training center.
Afternoon session: Megalithic Malta: Atlantis, Geomancy and Neolithic
Magic
Who were the “giants” who built the temples
and vaults of Malta? Malta’s remaining megalithic temples and chamber allow
us to glimpse inside the spiritual perspectives of Europe’s original
geomancers, and from that perspective to understand in a deeper way
the megalithic culture that once unified the continent.
A last outpost of Atlantis or the first major
civilization of Neolithic geomancers and magicians? Or perhaps a little of both… Malta’s
remaining megalithic temples and chamber allow us to glimpse inside
the spiritual perspectives of Europe’s original geomancers, and
from that perspective to understand in a deeper way the megalithic
culture that once unified the continent.
June 5th, 10-5pm with lunch
 The Enochian and Ophanim Angelic Language and principles of communication
“When Beautiful Minds Talk To Higher Intelligences”- …for those
ready to do the “Work”…for serious students of alchemy-
and seekers of truth
The historical background of famous Alchemist’s Dr John
Dee and Sir Edward Kelley and their angelic communication, along with how
the system grew through the intervening years, will be taught and demonstrate.
We will explore the basic tools and skills required to work with this
powerful consciousness expansion process. We will examine the hardware,
including the Holy Table, the Elemental Tablets, the Tablet of Union,
and work with the basic operating system, derived from Renaissance
magick, and the sacred geometry that underpins any understanding of
the Ophanic system.
TOUR SACRED SITES- HIGHLIGHTS
Malta and Gozo were very important centers since pre-historic times,
places where "medical cures" were conducted, oracles and
ritual encounters with the priests of the goddess. There, on both the
islands, existed many sanctuaries and thaumaturgic centers, where priests
surrounded the healing goddess, direct expression of her divinity.
June 6th
 Day tour by boat to Gozo, Malta's neighboring sister island. Gozo
is the island of the legendary Calypso, who lured Ullyses to stay with
her on this island paradise as told in Homer's "Odyssey".
Tour to Ggantija, one of the most spectacular power places in the world.
This more than 5,000-year-old immense Goddess temple is considered
the oldest freestanding stone construction in the world. The magnificent
cyclopean architecture, with its significant southeast orientation,
has mystical spirals carved in the rocks.
June 7th
Visit Goddess sites including the world famous ancient underground "Hypogeum" Temple
and the "Tarxien" prehistoric temples. It seems by all accounts
that the Maltese were firm believers in early fertility cults centred
around the existence of several hundred discoveries of large bodied "mother
goddess" figurines, such as the "sleeping lady" or "Sleeping
Mother".
ABOUT MALTA
 Malta has had such a rich history that the country is practically saturated
with attractions and places of interest.
A unique dugout system of temples named the Hypogeum and several stone-temples
scattered all over the islands are proof of first civilisations and
easily date back over 7,000 years. The Hypogeum
of Malta, literally
meaning "underground" in Greek, is a subterranean structure
dating to the Saflieni phase in Maltese prehistory. Thought to be originally
a sanctuary, it became a necropolis in prehistoric times. It is the
only prehistoric underground temple in the world. The
Oracle Room is
roughly rectangular and one of the smallest side chambers has the peculiarity
of producing a powerful acoustic resonance from any vocalization made
inside it. This room has an elaborately painted ceiling, consisting
of spirals in red ochre with circular blobs.
 Megaliths, medieval dungeons and Calypso's Cave – The Maltese
Islands are positively mythic. The narrow meandering streets of their
towns and villages are crowded with Renaissance cathedrals and Baroque
palaces. As the countryside is dotted with the oldest known human structures
in the world, the Islands have rightly been described as an open-air
museum.
The Maltese archipelago lies virtually at the
centre of the Mediterranean,
with Malta 93km south of Sicily and 288km north of Africa. The archipelago
consists of three islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino with a total population
of 400,000 inhabitants over an area of 316sq km and a coastline of
196.8km (not including 56.01 km for the island of Gozo).
Malta is the largest island and the cultural, commercial and administrative
centre. Gozo is the second largest island and is more rural, characterised
by fishing, tourism, crafts and agriculture while Comino is largely
uninhabited.
With superbly sunny weather, expansive beaches, a thriving nightlife
and 7,000 years of intriguing history, there is a great deal to see
and do
With over 7,000 years of history, the sites to visit are endless – the
Megalithic Temples (including Ggantija, the oldest freestanding temple
in the world), the underground St Paul’s and St. Agatha’s
catacombs and The Knights of St. John’s significant sites.
For those who love art, the possibilities are endless – we wil
visit the impressive artistic collection at the National
Museum of Fine Arts, to see the Caravaggio’s Beheading of St. John.
 Food and drink are a big part of daily life in Malta. A hilly, fertile
Island surrounded by the Mediterranean, it is in an excellent location
for healthy and tasty produce.
Conventional History (To be retold by Vincent Bridges)
Malta has been the venue for the exchange of cultures since the beginning
of time. The strategic location of Malta and its deep, natural Harbour
have always attracted the powers of the day.
The first settlers who arrived in Malta 10,000
years ago were a civilized, farming community. Neolithic temples circa 3600 BC are considered to
be the oldest free standing structures in the world and bear testimony
to a glorious past.
This peaceful society was involved in the earliest forms of commercial
activity due to the settlement of Phoenician traders in circa 800 BC.
The Maltese boat (dghajsa) is a replica in miniature of the Phoenician
ship. Even the roots of the Maltese language are traced back to this
Semitic group.
The extension of Phoenicia to Carthage in North
Africa, meant the
eventual colonisation of Malta by the Carthaginians (300BC).
Hannibal’s father Hamilkar Barka was governor of Malta and it
is also believed that Hannibal was born in Malta.
 Malta was heavily involved in the consequent Punic
Wars between Carthage and Rome and was eventually annexed to the Roman Empire. The Maltese
became citizens of Rome. Archeological finds of Roman baths, villas
and mosaic works have been well preserved throughout the centuries.
In 60 A.D. the apostle Paul was shipwrecked off
the coast of Malta.
Paul was one of the first long stay winter visitors to the island and
the hospitality shown to him by the locals is well recorded in the
Acts of the Apostles.
The Barbarian invasions of Europe during the
Dark Ages did not spare
Malta, until eventually in the sixth century A.D. Malta was colonized
by the Byzantines.
The rise of Islam and its dispersion over North
Africa, placed Malta
on the frontier between Christendom and Islam. The invasion of Sicily
by the Moors was followed by the introduction of the Arabs to Malta
(900 A.D.) A period of internal tension based on religious conflicts
followed. This period has yet to be studied since Christian historians
have relegated it to oblivion. Street patterns,
tombs and trinklets bear witness to the presence of the Arab culture
in Malta.
 By 1091 A.D. the Normans settled in Sicily and eventually conquered
Malta thus introducing the Maltese to the system of feudalism.
Anguvine and Aragonese cultures battled each other for the domination
of the central Mediterranean. Aragonese supremacy dominated and neighbours
Sicily and Malta became an extension of Aragon.
The 16th century witnessed the division of the
Mediterrranean into two armed camps, the Christians led
by the Pope and the King of Castille and Aragon, and the Muslims
led by the Sultan of Costantinople. This
state of affairs emphasized the importance of Malta as a fortress Island
and shield defending the Catholic South. The Kinghts of St John
were entrenched on the island in 1530 specifically for this purpose.
The building of the European and Baroque cities in
Cottonera (Birgu, L-Isla and Bormla) and on the peninsula of Xebb-ir
Ras (Valletta) confirmed Malta as an extension of Catholic Europe. This
fact is further emphasized by the failure of the Turkish siege of 1565.
The era of the Knights of St John in Malta introduced extensive building
schemes all over the island. A new pattern was established – Malta
was transformed from a cultural society to an urban, modern state. The
fleets of the Order of St John helped to integrate the Maltese within
their Mediterranean environment.
 The bankruptcy of the Order and loss of land in Europe marked a weakening
of the Knights’ stronghold over Malta. Impoverishment
on the part of the Maltese population led to corsairing. By the
middle of the 18th century we witnessed several uprisings against the
Order of St John, until the eventual arrival of Napolean and the French
Republican army.
The arrival of the British in the 19th century saw Malta redefine
herself as a stepping stone on the route to India. The importance
of Malta to the British empire augmented with the opening of the Suez
Canal in 1869.
The invention of the aeroplane and the missile decreased the importance
of Malta as a strategic fortress colony.
During World War II, Malta survived relentless raids from German and
Italian military forces (1940-43). In recognition, King George VI in
1942 awarded the George Cross "to the island fortress of Malta--its
people and defenders." President Franklin Roosevelt, describing
the wartime period, called Malta "one tiny
bright flame in the darkness." Malta obtained independence on September 21, 1964.
More on Vincent's Sunday workshop
 Although humanity has spawned thousands of languages, fewer than a
dozen instances of the invention of writing are recorded in human history.
Most of these occurred in or around the ancient Near East. Cuneiform
script in Sumer, Proto-Elamite in Caanan, and hieroglyphs in Egypt
appeared roughly at the same time, around 3000 BC. Cretan pictoglyphs
and the Indus Valley scripts are dated to around 2000 BC. Hittite hieroglyphs
and Chinese pictograms developed between 1700 and 1500 BC, as did the
Semitic alphabet which would eventually become, with the Chinese alphabet,
the form by which all living languages are written.
The Semitic alphabet developed, according to the best archeological
evidence, in the turquoise and gold mines of Sinai just after 1700
BC. Hieratic or cursive Egyptian phonetic letters were applied to a
proto-Semitic language. We can easily read the Semitic word “b’lat,” the
goddess, in hieratic characters on the quarry walls at Serabit El-Khadem
in the Sinai. Similar developments occurred over the next two hundred
years throughout ancient Caanan. By 1400 BC, roughly the time of the
Exodus of Moses, these trends had merged into a form that scholars
call the Caananite Linear alphabet. From this developed all other alphabetic
scripts, from Latin Gothic to Old Hebrew and Imperial Aramaic, from
Cyrillic to Kufic to Sanskrit and Amharic.
Logically, if any ancient alphabet could be called sacred, it must
surely be that original alphabetic source. Tradition would also suggest
that the origin of this sacred alphabet, the moment when the “flame
letters” were revealed, involved the conjunction of Egyptian
and Semitic sources in the Sinai. Working the mines where proto-sinatic
inscriptions appear were the Midianites of the
Bible, the people with
whom Moses lived while in exile from Egypt. They were a Bedouin sort
of people, pre-Yahweh Hebrews who worshipped a nameless God on a mountain
top. It was while tending his flocks on the sacred mountain that Moses,
the Egyptian prince, encountered the Burning Bush. Moses, of course,
eventually returned to the Midianites’ sacred mountain with a
vast horde of wandering Semitic refugees to receive God’s
commandments;
carved, we are told, by the divine appendage on slabs of stone.
 Languages and scripts as far apart as Ethioptic,
Tibetan and Arabic all have a “kabbalistic” tradition because of the sound/shape/symbol
quality of the alphabet itself. Since all of these sacred alphabets
were originally derived from a Caananite Linear source, we can speculate
that the source of the concept is also the source of the alphabet.
In the tenth and eleventh century AD, the city of Troyes in France
was home to a group of Jewish mystics. As Babylon declined as the center
of the Diaspora, Islamic Spain became the focus of Judaism. This effervescence
spilled over into southern France where the authority of the Church
of Rome and its dislike for the Jews held little sway. In the latter
half of the eleventh century, this community of scholars and mystics
introduced a new elegant form of the Hebrew alphabet known as the Nachmanides-Rashi
letters.
The core text of the Kabbalah, the Sepher Yetsirah, achieved its final
form in the late eleventh century in southern France. Long thought
to be the work of the school of Isaac the Blind, modern scholars have
found traces of third century Gnostic thought as well as evidence of
a ninth century reworking. The mystical scholars who assembled this
traditional wisdom into its written form also adopted the use of the
Nachmanides-Rashi letterforms. These Kabbalists were mathematicians
as well. It is not beyond possibility that they had decoded the torus
shape inherent in the arrangement of letters in the first verse of
Genesis, and the outline of its tagin delineated spiral. From this
realization might have come the “shadows on the meeting tent” idea
expressed in the Sepher Yetsirah, and later elaborated by Abraham
Abulafia.
 From this perspective, the letterforms could easily have been generated
by the rabbis of Troyes. All this becomes even more interesting when
we remember another famous citizen of Troyes in the late twelfth century.
The medieval poet who introduced the Grail Myth, Chretien de Troyes,
wrote just a century after the earliest manuscripts of the Sepher Yetsirah.
The Grail Myth, as begun by Chretien, is an elaborate
blend of Celtic myth, Christian chivalry and Gnostic experience. Women serve the sacrament
from a “graal” that provides for all needs, except that
of healing the wounded king and the wasted land. For that, a question, “Whom
does the Graal Serve?” must be asked. Both Chretien and later
Wolfram von Eschenbach, whose Parzival claims to be the real story
that Chretien only partly understood, reported that the tale originally
came from one Guyot, or Kyot, of Provence. Wolfram also claims that
Kyot heard it from Flegantis, a Jewish astrologer from Spain. Wolfram’s
grail, unlike Chretien’s large shallow bowl, is a stone fallen
from heaven. It spells out the names of those called to its service
and otherwise communicates through miraculous means.
Perhaps what we have at the core of the Grail Myth is a glimpse of
the language generating “stone” or tetrahedron of the mystics
of Troyes. The possibility is a fascinating one that invites further
research.
 We have answered only part of the puzzle. The medieval
Kabbalists may have invented the letterforms from a geometric model, but that
model came from the text of Genesis, dating roughly to the sixth century
BC. While the mystery remains, we have gained valuable knowledge about
the nature of a “sacred alphabet.”
So then, how can we define this concept of “sacred alphabet?”
First, it must do more than just spell words. The shape/sound/symbol
coherence of the alphabets descended from the Caananite Linear allows
languages as dis-similar as Hebrew and Tibetan to develop “kabbalist” symbologies.
This can be seen at a glance by comparing a medieval Kabbalistic talisman,
embedding the entire Tree of Life into one symbol using the first letter
of each Sephiroth, with the Tibetan Kalachakra “Power of Ten” emblem.
Next, this symbological ability must reflect mathematical and geometric
processes in the greater universe. In other words, a
sacred alphabet also describes a cosmology. The alphabetic symbolism of the Sepher
Yetsirah implies a sort of cookbook of creation. The Kalachakra system
embraces all fields of knowledge, allowing ontology to recapitulate
cosmogony.
 A truly sacred alphabet may just be the quantum states which forms
the shells/shapes of the atoms expressed in a sound/shape form that
resonates with the atomic structure. These “letters” are
then primal wave guides for space/time coherence. Their expression
collapses probability’s infinite wavefront into one hologramic
reality. The building blocks of God, indeed.
To understand this, we must look at two vastly different sacred alphabets,
Egyptian hieroglyphics and Dr. Dee’s Ophanic script.
Hieroglyphs developed suddenly in Egypt just
after 3100 BC. They appeared
almost of a piece, with little or no developmental states. Old Kingdom
Egyptian, as a language, is full of sophisticated ideas and strange,
ritualistic concepts, things that would suggest a long period of evolution.
But the alphabet in which these ideas are written appeared and reached
its ultimate perfection in the course of a few hundred years. It would
remain in use, though it would evolve into other forms, for the next
two thousand years.
An Old Kingdom Pharaoh, visiting a Ptolemaic temple, could have read
his descendant’s name from his cartouche, though he may not have
been able to pronounce it. This continuity suggests that hieroglyphs
served the sacred function of embedding symbologies extremely well.
By this measure, they might be the most successful sacred alphabet
in human history.
Perhaps the best way to see this is by examining the spelling of the
name of the Neter, or god, Ptah. As the creator god of Memphis, Ptah
symbolized the cosmic process brought down to human scale. Atum-Ra,
the Sun God of Heliopolis, represented the creative force of the universe
and Tehuti, or Thoth of Hermopolis, represented the actualizing of
that creative force into the patterns of nature, into space/time itself.
Ptah then shows how these forces shape the nature and being of man.
We can think of Ptah as the architect of humanity, the DNA doctor braiding
intelligence into simple Handy Monkey genes.
 Esoteric Egyptology has long equated Ptah with the ratio known as
Phi. This relationship can be shown simply by superimposing the glyphs
that spell P – T – H. The glyph for P is a square; T is
a semi-circle. Overlay these and you have the basis for the geometric
derivation of the Phi proportions. Add the H, a cotton twist resembling
a braid, and space appears for the development of the pentagram/pentagon
from the Phi rectangle. This recursive nest of Phi ratios has often
been thought of as relating directly to the human condition as a glyph
symbolic of self-reflexive intelligence.
Add the determinative that indicates the divine condition and you
have spelled a description of the force that embues life with consciousness.
Egyptian hieroglyphs seem designed to convey a direct experience of
the essence of the word. Reading the name Ptah in elegant old Kingdom
glyphs imparts a wealth of understanding at a level far deeper than
just the intellectual. In a very real sense, you
could never know who “Ptah” was,
until you could read his Name. This ability to impart a direct experience
of sacred realities makes the Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet almost
unique among human alphabets. Learning ancient Egyptian was perhaps
as mind expanding as learning Martian was in Stranger in a Strange
Land.
The spiritual core of Egyptian religion was the
power of “words” to
shape the texture of reality. Pharaohs, such as the Sixth Dynasty’s
Unas, went to great lengths to inscribe whole texts on the inside of
their tombs. The royal Ka could then read these words of power and
re-shape death into immortality among the stars. By the Middle Kingdom,
commoners were using some of these same texts in their coffins and
tombs. Hieroglyphs remained the royal and preferred alphabet, but a
more fluid form emerged.
This hieratic script was an attempt to reduce the hieroglyphic symbols
to a form that could be swiftly rendered by a brush-like pen. Its more
fluid motion of stroke abstracted the concrete images of Old Kingdom
hieroglyphs into form-suggestive curves. Eventually, hieratic developed
into Demotic and then the Greek influenced Coptic. The last hieroglyphic
writing dates from the early fifth century AD.
 By the seventh century, when the Arabs swept in from the desert with
the hot breath of Allah behind them, knowledge
of hieroglyphics had gone underground. And so we, humanity, lost touch with our most successful
sacred alphabet. The Semitic alphabet forms, such as Greek and Arabic,
allowed for a kind of symbol/shape/sound embeddedness, as described
in the Sepher Yetsirah. But even this lacks the depth and immediacy
of the hieroglyphs. Something important had been lost.
That “something” can best be seen by noting an attempt
to fill the vacuum of its absence. Eleven hundred years after the last
hieroglyphic inscription, Dr. John Dee, Queen
Elizabeth I’s court
astrologer and the foremost scientist of his age, received
a new language from the angels. This language, so powerful that it was dictated backward
to prevent setting off unforeseen consequences, was to be written in
a new script, which was also miraculously delivered.
Dee records that a faint yellow outline appeared on his page which
he then filled in with black to produce his letters. These letters
are unusual on several counts. First, they are not exactly unique.
They resemble several other magical scripts, such as the “theban” alphabet,
in use for hundreds of years by occultists and alchemists.
However, there are a few differences, such as the name or label of
each letter. These were not given as phonetic renderings, but as collections
of other letters conveying a larger symbolic meaning. But
the truly unusual thing about these letters are that they exhibit a
wave guide function. Dowsers have found that each letter
displays a particular vibrational pattern. This suggests that, like
the hieroglyphs, there is a direct energy exchange of some sort happening
when words are written in this alphabet.
Dee and Kelley received these letter/names in an eight
by eight grid pattern, which can be overlaid with the hexagrams of the I
Ching, the
center of the Mayan Tzolkin and the codons of human DNA. The pattern
this produces causes us to look for deeper implications. This much
coherence across scales can hardly be un-intelligent.
 The Ophanic alphabet and language received by Dee and Kelley represents
an attempt by something, be it the collective unconscious or the angelic
logoi, to re-invest human language with this direct experience of symbolic
coherence. That it failed in the sixteenth century is not surprising;
that we should still reject the concept is unfortunate.
As superficial information, both internal and external, explodes in
volume, some way must be found to sort for meaning and value. A sacred
alphabet of quantum consciousness could give us that all-important
center point of understanding necessary to braid order out of chaos.
To close the loop, let me just note that Dee’s Ophanic
language not only exhibits advanced geometry, some of it not discovered until
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but it also contains echoes
of ancient Egyptian. The name for a ruler of the element of fire on
the Seal of Truth, a key component in the Ophanic system, is spelled
out in letter number combinations as Oheoo-ah-atan. This just happens
to be a reasonably good phonetic rendering of a New Kingdom Egyptian
phrase: “strong, wounding (is) the heat of the sun.” Not
only is this appropriate to a being of fire, but the phrase would later
be used in Akhnaton’s hymns in praise of the Aton.
 Ophanic, like Egyptian, shows us that a sacred
alphabet is defined by its symbolic density. The ultimate sacred alphabet would be infinitely
dense and interrelated. One glyph, like a Phi spiral in 3D, unfolds
the logos of creation, read instantaneously by the Mind of all. We
smaller fragments of Mind see only elements and galaxies, like scattered
letters and snatches of phrases, and stumble over our ABC’s like
the kindergartners we are. I’m ready to read the text of the
universe’s one song.
Click the graphic below to download
the workbook for Malta.
BOOKINGS
All info - Email Roger on info@fengshuiseminars.com
The Spiritual World of Atlantis, and its heritage located in Malta
The Untold Story of Human History
Why Malta?
Many researchers identify Malta as the centre of Atlantis. Nowhere else
on earth is the evidence of the Global and highly developed ice age
civilization that suddenly and almost entirely disappeared under water,
revealed better than in Malta.
 Read more about The Mystery of Malta's Long Headed
dolichocephalous skulls, and other topics
The Fingerprints
of the Gods with Graham Hancock
Interesting Links and videos to study - before coming to Malta
with us:
Vincent Bridges: Alchemy & the
Shakespheare/John Dee (Angelic) Solution
Click on one of the images below to view lectures and tour footage from
2010 Malta Tour.
 
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