JOHNZEUS.COM

You Americans are unique amongst the world’s nations and cultures. With a can-do spirit you hit slumps and slowdowns, rise again and soar for the moon, stars and beyond. Indeed your great nation and it’s people are blessed, you have been for generations the beacon of hope and freedom for untold millions around the globe.

You live in the most exceptional country in the world, you have a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes I wish my father had sailed to New York rather than Halifax when he left Europe in the 60’s, then I too would have been born American.

During my college years I studied American History and American Politics. While in high school I worked weekends as a busboy and saved money to further my education. I remember a specific day in grade ten when I played hookie from school and with great joy purchased a bus ticket to Buffalo to visit the offices and possibly volunteer in the Reagan 1984 election campaign. I got in trouble for it later, suspended from my school’s Rugby team, grounded by my parents but had no regrets. It was what I wanted to do, and a great learning experience in US politics.

Today America faces the greatest of threats, the loss of your individual independence and the very freedoms endowed by the Creator. For too long you have allowed your rights to be eroded gradually and subtly. You have for the most part failed in your duty to watch and safeguard the very liberties you take for granted. And now because you have allowed your governments, radicals and terrorists to manipulate and denigrate those very same freedoms, you may be in danger of losing them.

The world is a better place with a free and strong America. My hope is that the greater majority of Americans do all and give all to maintain their individual rights and freedoms for the greater good of your nation and for the rest of the world.  ^

Thought of the day by John Zeus, Toronto, Canada

British philosopher Alan Watts* inspires us all to do what we desire.

…Do what you love!

“So I always ask the question: What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?”

“Better to have a short life doing that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.”

Source: * Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer and speaker.

December 20th, 2000 | Oia, Santorini Island, Greece.

In December of 2000, I embarked on a journey to build a shrine on a cliff edge on Santorini Island (ancient Thira) over the caldera of an ancient underwater volcano.

My pilgrimage to Ancient Thira, a.k.a. Santorini started with a dream inspired by an angel…

Click on the gallery below to scroll through full size images.
Music Tie-in, listen to: Stairway To Heaven.mp3 – Led Zepplin

December 2000, building my shrine overlooking the caldera of an ancient volcano. Location: outside Oia village, on a remote hiking trail northern tip of Santorini Island.

I constructed the shrine out of tin, glass and ceramic tiles and painted it. Inside there’s an alter made of volcanic rocks, an icon of the Old Testament Archangel Uriel, an oil lamp, matches, olive oil, personal keepsakes. It is cemented to a boulder at cliff edge. The caldera is in the distance. The sea below me is very deep almost bottomless, the crater created by the eruption.

Uriel’s shrine cemented to boulder on cliff edge.

Lighting the oil lamp one last time before I leave the island. — at Santorini Island, Greece.

The shrine was visited by my friend Jennifer in 2007: This is how it looked after years of exposure to the sun, rain, wind and saltine air. Haven’t been back to the island since i built the shrine. According to Jennifer it has become a popular stop along a remote hiking trail. Hikers have been maintaining it, writing their names on the rocks, making offerings and leaving possessions. I don’t know when I’ll get back there again. if you are interested in lighting the oil lamp for me let me know. I’ll send you a map and instructions. I buried something special to me under the rocks.

December 2000 | The last eruption in Santorini was the largest in the ancient world. In legend It buried Atlantis which is suppose to be underneath me in this photo. Volcanologists predicted another eruption around 2000 that will sink the island. It didn’t happen.

AEGEAN SEA

A reproduction on wood of this Icon is in the shrine. The inscription reads Archangel Uriel written in Byzantine script. More on: Uriel – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I found an Iconographer Greek Orthodox Monk in Athens. Told him my story and what I saw in my dream. He painted this image of Uriel in traditional Byzantine style on wood.

The Book of Enoch describes Uriel as one of seven archangels who preside over the world. “One of the holy angels, who is over the world… the leader of them all.”

Two of many dogs that call Oia home without belonging to anyone in particular.