Caught the 8:42am train to Stirling to go to the Wallace Monument and whatever awaits me this day, and had a sudden urge to stay on the train all the way to its terminus: Aberdeen. Have no idea why, but I feel like I'm supposed to meet someone there. Haven't been to Aberdeen in my other trips to Scotland, either.
The train pulled into Aberdeen about 11:30, and I went to the TIC, hoping to get a lead about where I was to go to next. Tons of material, including a lot about mine tours of the gray granite that's mined for the buildings here, but not much called to me.
I grabbed a brochure about a walk around King's College, headed out, and came upon the free Marischal Museum, part of Aberdeen University, on the way.The ground floor offered a small marble-tiled room that housed about seven chunks of stone, each faintly carved in pictographs of shapes and animals.
The only other visitor was someone who activated my "Warning, warning, Will Robinson" radar: a tall man dressed in full Scottish regalia and then some--kilt, sporran, buckles and shoulder scarf, accented with black leather jacket, palm-sized medallions across his chest, multiple wide belts with big square buckles, tall black leather boots with silver spikes around the ankles, a brown fur stole over a shoulder, black fur wrapped around his forearms, furred leather gauntlets, several chunky silver rings. He was bald except around the back of his head, which had black hair about a foot long trailing down his shoulders and back. All he was missing was a broad sword, and he'd be ready for the set of Rob Roy Meets the Terminator. I expected him to reek of unwashed body and sweat-soaked wool, but he smelled of fresh soap.
We examined the stones in the kind of respectful, mutual silence that people reserve for museum viewing, staying out of each other's way as we moved from spot to spot. After a few minutes he asked if my camera, which I was using to try to capture a high-contrast image of the stones in hopes of better viewing, could take a good picture of the carvings. Alas, it really couldn't in this indoor space, and he went on to speak about what he was seeing in the stones--a black aura shimmering over that one (invisible to me), an eagle consuming the world in that one (to me, it was a simple four-legged beast with a lizard-like snout), and that one over there, which, he said, was being displayed upside down.
I still felt wary but was hoping to find out a little more about him and his unusual getup, so I asked his name. He identified himself as Parasuram, a writer, astrologer, and just written up in Awareness Magazine. He then launched without pause into a dissertation on the Picts, stone carvings, astrological chakras of the Earth, Mars, and other planets, lay lanes in Aberdeen, and the fact that Aberdeen is the center of spiritual activity and energy for all of Scotland. (The concept lay lines has been popping up all over this trip, from Bath to Dumfries).
He said he was part of the healers, had lived in India a while, mentioned Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus as spiritual leaders who've been all over Europe and Scotland, and applauded Tolkein for tapping into the fact that our solar system is part of Middle Earth, with dark worlds below us and heavenly worlds above us and that's why we've got so much light and shadow in our world.
His world view was very different from mine, which was OK in its way, but I was starting to feel cornered and bored when he segued, non-stop, into how the Age of Aquarius ousted the Age of Pisces from 1960 to 1999 and that those were the times of questioning all the old ways, blahblahblah.
I may have found it more interesting if we'd been dealing with a conversation, but he just kept lecturing about all this knowledge, without really bothering to connect with me as a person or to ask first if I were open to hearing this perspective. He even offered to send me info over email. Bleah. I felt irritated, like I was being evangelized, and I had already had enough of that yesterday in Glasgow, when a Hari Krishna gal did a 180 and trailed along with me down the full length of a pedestrian shopping block, giving me her special spiel on human happiness all the way, just because I had made eye contact and said hello.
Why is it that these kinds of people so often glom on when I bother to acknowledge them? I say hello, give a smile, and whoosh--they swoop in like I've given them an open invitation into saving my soul. I don't feel so trapped and rude about dusting them off now, but the fact that some of the more evangelical religions and belief systems take any overture as an opening keeps me reluctant to create an opening with strangers at all. And I don't like that kind of distancing.
I was casting about for some semi-polite way to extract myself from this deluge of data while still acknowledging all he had just said, when he seemed to run out of steam long enough for a pause. "These stones do have a lot to tell," I conceded, and to my surprise, he stopped talking altogether and very soon wished me to enjoy the rest of the museum and left me to the room and the stones.
I let a few minutes pass, then went upstairs to see what was there, ending up in the Encyclopedia of NE Scotland, a room in which artifacts and information about this region's 8,000-year-old history are presented A-to-Z in glass wall-cases. "Broadsword" before "Burns," "spinning wheel" before "stone circle," etc. The juxtapositions were interesting.
Parasuram found me again in that room and invited me to take one of the Awareness Magazines he'd left in the foyer. Then he went. I drifted into the foyer after reaching Z, and found the issue.
I didn't have the nerve to photograph him in person, but that's him on the cover. He's interviewed in this edition. The magazine sounds sensible enough--deals with organic food, healing practices, speaking one's truth, being self-confident about accepting compliments: many of the kinds of things I lean toward now.In the interview, Parasuram describes his attire as that of a Universal Warrior, a blend of costumes from India, Tibet, Native America, and Scottish Highlander/Celtic influence. He talks about travel being important. And about self-knowledge as the way of the freedom warrior.
One part stuck with me, quoted directly here. "Q: What is the best piece of advice that you can give to those who seek freedom?" A: “Trust your own instincts and develop your own mind. To find freedom physically, one has to think freely within one's mind. This comes from knowing what is one truly seeking? Never follow man made perspectives. Develop your own soul and intuition and learn to trust yourself. Let go of attachments which no longer have any meaning. The more you desire freedom the more truth comes to you. Ask your self the following: Who Am I? What am I doing here? What kind of world destroys its resources? What can I do to stop our destruction on earth? These questions will motivate you to go forward and these questions are the foundations which bring change and a new understanding into your life. This is when the journey begins and inspirational people come into your life.”
I sighed. Inspirational people do come in such odd shapes and sizes. I wouldn't have picked up this magazine if I hadn't met "Aberdeen's Scottish Highlander" himself in the museum. My purpose here done, I returned to the rail station and Glasgow, still feeling a little bemused and weirded out about the whole experience.
