Jacobus Swart
In a parody of the synchronic I met up with Jacobus and in doing so I put him out. 'I suppose you've left by now,' said Jacobus on Facebook, 'if so we'll meet some other time. I am off to Budapest.' And then I got a mail saying much the same thing.
In fact, at almost the precise moment Jacobus was typing the word Budapest I was looking at a photo album with pictures of Budapest and thinking. 'Should I take these? No. What possible meaning could they have.'
'What people don't realise,' said Jacobus, 'is that there is a connection with that woman cooking a stew in her house and that rabbit running across the road.'
I came across Jacobus through his close mentor and father figure, William G. Gray. Josephine, the old lady who used to work managing bookshops and who then worked at the Oxfam bookshop in Twickenham and who always said: 'I like matching up a book with a person,' helped me find the first William G. Gray book in which he refers to spiritual seeking 'sub-culturalists in the west who consume a mish mash of Eastern occultism whilst ignoring the western tradition:
'Such souls appeared unaware of, or unwilling to develop the wealth of potential already present within themselves as a genetic spiritual inheritance of the Western world. So they took what seemed to be the easiest way out for themselves and grabbed at anything exotic and available that looked like a ready made remedy for their inner deficiencies.'
(Western Inner Workings, 1983)
This struck a chord and at the end I found Jacobus's name as the president of the Sangreal society and looked him up. It turned out he was in Johannesburg. Jacobus is also a concert pianist and a conductor.
I wrote to Jacobus, who seemed a little shocked by my approach.
'But how did you end up at my doorstep?' He asked. And so I told him that I was following a paper trail and that it had lead me to him. I told him I felt a special affinity with Mt. Carmel.
'That's the mountain in front of my parents' home in the bush. It's the mountain I dreamed of. The cave of the patriarch.'
He told me he had learned in a school nearby when he went to Israel. 'In fact they think I have committed a great act of treachery,' he said,
'Because I thought these esoteric Jewish teachings could be of use to humans and so I made them accessible to everyone through my books.'
Being open minded Jacobus kept in touch with me and so when I finally did come to Johannesburg two years later we met.
But, as I said, I put him out.
'I have a lunchtime concert,' said Jacobus, but I'll change out of my tuxedo quickly and be in time to see you - I have had a lot of practice - and I'll be there at three.' I had explained to him that Teresa's strictures meant that I could only meet him between three and four and in truth I had to snatch the time by doing something else that was useful.
Eve didn't want to go, so I bribed her with a Nando's and she came along. She was quite tolerant and open minded about the whole thing. I bought a beautiful bunch of yellow roses for Jacobus and his wife Gloria and we set off.
In Sandton all the houses have razor wire and rapid reaction alarms, guard dogs, high walls and locks. But Jacobus lives in an admirable magical reality.
'I refuse to live in that world of fear,' he said. 'we have nothing. Our gate doesn't even close because it swelled up in the last rains. I've never been burgled, ever. But my neighbours installed a high security system and the very first day they did so they woke up on the floor with all their possessions gone. They had been sprayed with a narcotic gas while they were asleep and robbed. because I was untouched they thought I must have been in on it and I had to threaten to take them to court before the rumours died down.'
In fact my parents lived in this same way at Matumi and over ten years they were never once burgled.
'Our society is probably the first in the world that has no leader or guide. We want to emphasise and value the diversity of people and how each has their own path. An American woman tried to take the society over and make herself its pontif and I had to take her to court. We won, but it cost a lot. Anyone who is sincere can set up a Sangreal Society and now the laws stipulate that they can not set themselves above anyone else.
'Come he said, I'll take you to this cafe just down the road.' And so we went, and he bought Eve a soft drink and me a bitter black coffee. The staff were very respectful.
'William G. Gray was evacuated from Dunkirk. There was nothing glorious about it. It was horrendous. The Germans were bombarding them and it was hell on Earth. Body parts and mud flying everywhere. It was hard to see more than a few feet ahead in the storm of metal, blood and dirt. William said you couldn't imagine it. He felt he was going to die very soon. The officers had all been evacuated and the men were left there to wander aimlessly and they were being slaughtered.'
Jacobus said. 'As William told me about the experience I felt I was there in that unimaginable terror. Then it happened...
'William and his friend were together, about to die and William felt himself going mad. He let it happen. He slipped over into madness. And he was mad, you know, said Jacobus as an aside. And when he let himself fall he felt a great peace come over him. For him the world stopped entirely. The planet, it's war, everything and all he felt was a complete and utter peace. He turned to his companion and saw that he was experiencing the same thing and then William asked him.
"Did you bring your chess set?"
'And his friend answered. "Well yes, but a couple of pieces are missing."
'And they set about playing chess in the middle of the hell storm.
'As he told me that story I felt the same enlightenment that he must have felt, perhaps by osmosis.
At this point Jacobus peered at me with his green eyes. Perhaps I would feel the same.... No.
'The point is,' said Jacobus, 'to create a magical reality. That will provide you with all the protection you need.'
'But how do you create this magical reality?' I asked him.
'Simple.' he said.
And he looked at me.
'By acting in accordance with belief.'
'I saw a woman in town who accused me of blasphemy after I made a comment to her. On the bumper of her car I saw the sign: Jesus is my saviour, I put my faith in him. And underneath in small letters were the words. This car is protected by ADT security services and so I said. "Oh, is Jesus your security service."
'She practically screamed. Blasphemer! But she was not acting in accordance with her belief. You must act in accordance with your belief. That is the core and the beginning and then you will create your reality.'
Eve listened intently. The conversation continued.
As we walked back to his house I asked Jacobus. 'You mentioned you had problems with your sight.'
'Yes I am practically blind he said.' But I would never have guessed that he was.
Jacobus gave me a signed copy of his book.
I gave him a red pen to sign it with. 'I accidentally bought 50 of them.' Jacobus blanched a little.
I forget. Colours. Numbers. These all have meanings him. He saw a rabbit ran across the road. I saw nothing. But I shall read his book, which seems to make a lot of sense and is very practical, and I'll get in touch with him once I have.
I enjoyed meeting him. I hope to meet him again. As William Gray is quoted in the forward to Jacobus's book: The Book of Self Creation:
'Unbreakable are the links of love which faith and friendship forge among all souls discerning one another by the Light within them. Welcome indeed are they that enter with entitlement our closest circles of companionship'
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