The Magus of Strovolos

PENGUIN BOOKS THE MAGUS OF STROVOLOS Kyriacos C. Markides, a native of Cyprus, is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maine. He is married to Emily J. Markides from Famagusta, Cyprus. They have two children, Constantine and Vasia. He has also written Homage to the Sun, a sequel to The Magus of Strovolos, Fire in the Heart and Riding with the Lion. The Magus of Strovolos The Extraordinary World of a Spiritual Healer KYRIACOS C. MARKIDES PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwetl, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 1 1 0 017, India Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rose dale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Ptyl Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England www.penguin.com First published by Routledge St Kegan Paul Ltd 1985 Published in Penguin Books 1990 20 Copyright © Kyriacos C. Markides, 1985 All rights reserved The moral right of the author has been asserted Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic Filmset in 10/1 lpt Sabon Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser ISBN-13: 978-0-14-019034-2 www.greenpenguin.cauk Penguin Books is committed to a sustainable future for our business, our readers and our planet. The book in your hands is made from paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. To the memory of my mother To my father To Emily, Constantine and Vasia Contents Author's Note ix 1 The Magus of Strovolos 1 2 Exorcising the Nazi Spirits 12 3 Elementals 29 4 The Authenticity of Experience 47 5 Karma 62 6 Memories 74 7 From Death to Rebirth 88 8 Encountering the Logos 112 9 Cosmology 123 10 The Guardians of Planet Earth 145 11 Tales of Possession 159 12 Healing 171 13 Materialization and Dematerialization 14 Afterthoughts 210 Glossary 220 vii 2 Elementals Iacovos called me early in the morning and said he would be glad to talk to me about how he became a member of Daskalos' inner circle. He was one of his closest disciples and was being groomed by the master to succeed him. I had repeatedly expressed a desire to meet him and talk about his life but somehow he was hard to locate. Three weeks had passed since I had last seen him. I was very pleased to hear from him. In spite of his young age he seemed to be exceptionally knowledgeable about Daskalos' teachings. Most importantly he was one of Daskalos' beloved disciples and I assumed that through the young adept I could have an even easier access to the master. With time both of my assumptions proved to be valid. Daskalos had mentioned to me that in 1974 during the Turkish invasion of the island Iacovos was taken prisoner to Turkey and remained there for five months. During that time he exemplified great courage and even though he was only fourteen he was an inspiration to the other inmates. He allegedly used to stand in front of the guards trying to block their way every time they came into the cell to abuse some of his fellow prisoners. Iacovos was badly beaten as a result of his actions. He purportedly said to one of the guards as he was hitting him, 'You are hitting at yourself but you don't know it.' One of the invisible helpers, said Daskalos, that was assisting Iacovos during his ordeal was 'brother Ismael,' a Sufi master who, in his last corporeal existence, lived as a Turk. At a local cafe Iacovos told me of his relationship with Daskalos which began when the latter cured his father of a cancerous tumor on the neck. From that day on Iacovos became one of Daskalos' closest disciples. His psychonoetic powers began developing before he was sent to Turkey. There he kept contact with Daskalos through clairvoyance and 2 9 3 0 ELEMENTALS exomatosis and informed his fellow-prisoners of events in Cyprus, which, according to Iacovos, he was later able to verify. 'You know,' Iacovos said, 'the first time I began consciously to leave my body I became quite confused. I reached a point when I was not sure which world was more real, the one we are in now or the various psychonoetic planes where I found myself while in exomatosis. Later on I learned that both this world and all the psychonoetic planes are illusions in the final analysis and that Reality is beyond all the worlds.' Iacovos' puzzlement reminded me of the classical Chinese tale when Lao Tzu woke up one morning very confused. He dreamt of being a butterfly but he was not sure whether it was he who dreamt of the butterfly or whether he was in reality a butterfly dreaming of being Lao Tzu. Did Iacovos and Lao Tzu, I wondered, have a comparable experience? Iacovos went on to tell me that when he was being sent to Turkey, and while on the boat, memories of similar experiences from past lives entered his mind. 'While the other prisoners were crying and screaming I suddenly experienced the Logos coming to me in the form of white light and felt peaceful.' 'Have you ever encountered the Logos again?' I asked. 'Yes, just before the day I was about to become initiated into Daskalos' inner circle.' 'Was it a dream?' 'No. I was fully awake when Christ appeared in front of me in a vision. He made me understand certain things about my life.' 'And what did he reveal to you?' I asked and noticed that Iacovos hesitated. 'He stood in front of me,' he said in a low and sad voice, 'and showed me the scars on His hands from the Crucifixion.' 'What was the message?' I persisted. 'That I too will have to bear a cross in my life,' Iacovos replied softly. Realizing that he wished to discuss the subject no further I shifted the conversation to other topics. We agreed to meet at Strovolos the following day when Daskalos was scheduled to give a lesson. I arrived at Daskalos' much earlier than the scheduled meeting. Before every formal encounter with his students, ELEMENTALS 3 1 Daskalos usually met with some of his closest associates and chatted casually on a potpourri of topics, from local politics to the various techniques for journeying out of one's body. When I reached his home Daskalos was having lunch with Iacovos and Kostas, another one of his closest associates, a forty-year- old engineer. I found them in the midst of a discussion about the Greeks of old. I politely declined their earnest invitation to join their feast but merrily plunged into their debate. Daskalos brooded on the over-zealousness of the ancient mystics in guarding 'the secrets.' 'They should have tried to educate the people, particularly the philosophers,' he said forcefully, 'rather than keeping the knowledge egotistically to themselves.' 'But Daskale, what about Plato?' I pointed out. 'As far as I know he was involved with the Eleusinian mysteries. Much of what you teach about the higher noetic world reminds me of Plato's world of ideas.' 'There are some similarities but our teachings are not quite the same. Incidentally, Plato was not involved with the Eleusinian mysteries.' 'That is what some authorities say,' I noted. 'They are wrong. Plato went to Egypt and became initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. That is why he was called Plato.' 'I don't get that,' I said. I had learned in school that he was called by that name because he had a broad chest. The name Blaton (Plato) allegedly was a derivative of a Greek word meaning the 'broad one' or the 'wide-shouldered one.' 'That is historical nonsense,' Daskalos scoffed. 'His name comes from Baal, meaning God, and Aton which in ancient Egyptian meant "the Invisible God." Baalaton was cut into Blaton and in the English translation became Plato.' Daskalos then went on to make a similar case for another ancient sage, Pythagoras. It was he, according to Daskalos, who introduced the idea of reincarnation to the Greeks. 'Pythagoras traveled to India and was introduced to Oriental mysticism. He adopted his name from a Sanskrit word meaning "he who has been initiated into the temple." ' I commented that his interpretation of the names of these ancient philosophers would probably raise the eyebrows of many a scholar. Daskalos was not the least concerned. His 3 2 ELEMENTALS information, he said, was based on the 'Akashic Records' and not on historical interpretations. He explained that the Akashic Records is another word for Universal Memory. Whatever exists, existed and will exist is imprinted in this pan-universal supercomputer. Furthermore, a single atom contains within it all the knowledge of the cosmos. It is, therefore, possible, by concentrating on a single atom, to acquire information of something or some event that took place in the distant past.

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