My path took some interesting directions during 2005 and introduced me to new fields of awareness and self-knowledge.\u00a0 It had started with the vision quest and the\u00a0 arrival of \u2018Tone\u2019 in the Cedarberg mountains.\u00a0\u00a0 I then traveled to Russia in July to meet up with Ronald who had been learning the language in Samara \u2013 a distant town on the Volga, seventeen hours from Moscow by train.\u00a0 He had been under the impression that his next posting might be in a Russian-speaking country and was adding a seventh language to his existing skills.\u00a0 He had learnt as he was leaving for Samara, however, that he would be returning to Angola.\u00a0 He would therefore need to brush up on Portuguese.\u00a0\u00a0 So, he was rather tired when I met him in Moscow, having done Russian classes in the morning and his own Portuguese in the afternoon!\u00a0 His Russian was understandably limited but sufficient to guide me through museums, the metro and menus.<\/p>\n
I loved the energy of Moscow, although normally I am not very comfortable in huge cities.\u00a0 But there was such dynamism and life in the streets.\u00a0 We were also fortunate to connect with an Armenian artist, Ashot R. Khachkalyan, whose painting we finally bought after seeing a photograph of it in the brochure his brother-in-law had at the artist \u00a0kilometre -long street market.\u00a0 He actually took it off his wall at home and carried it through the streets of Moscow, standing and observing us from a distance for quite a while before he approached.\u00a0 And even then, he didn\u2019t quite part with it.\u00a0 We spent hours with him, being introduced to the rich Armenian sub-culture which underlies Moscow.<\/p>\n
Under Ashot\u2019s guidance we moved through the \u2018alternative\u2019 financial system, the taxi system, the restaurants and music scene.\u00a0 That evening we found ourselves at a jazz club with a blind pianist.\u00a0 All the while carrying the large painting with us. Finally at some late hour we were back at the hotel.\u00a0 Ashot saw us to the door of our hotel room and then, with much emotion and promising to be friends forever, he handed us the painting.\u00a0 It was with total trust as we had not been able to cash the required amount in all our attempts at banks.<\/p>\n
One other memorable experience of Moscow was finding Scriabin\u2019s home, now a museum on the famous Arabat<\/em> street.\u00a0 I spent several hours in this atmosphere, examining the books on the shelves, quite a few in Sanskrit.\u00a0 His experiments with color and sound, ahead of their time.\u00a0 I had been guided to research Scriabin through reading Cyril Scott, a British twentieth century composer with esoteric leanings and was fascinated by what Scriabin was exploring at the time of his death at thirty three.<\/p>\n Finally, we had been able to secure tickets for the last night of the mid-summer music festival in St Petersburg,\u00a0 known as the \u2018White Nights\u2019 since the sun seems never to set during this time.\u00a0 We boarded the midnight express;\u00a0 the overnight train from Moscow to St Petersburg.\u00a0 It was a red-carpet affair rolled out on the platform at Moscow station.\u00a0 A band was playing while white-gloved, black-hatted officials helped us onto the train where we had our own small compartment.\u00a0 There was already a tray of champagne and caviar waiting for us!\u00a0 I can almost swear that the band had been playing \u2018Midnight in Moscow\u2019!\u00a0 Or maybe not\u2026<\/p>\n The three days and nights in St Petersburg, when the light doesn\u2019t completely disappear, were intensive experiences to say the least.\u00a0 I worked out that on one day I walked for fourteen hours!\u00a0 And then in a Russian production of \u2018Tristan and Isolde\u2019 awake for almost another six!\u00a0 The last hour was indeed like doing penance, as it seemed impossible for Tristan to die!\u00a0 Every time it looked as if it was over, Isolde would trill out \u2018Tristan’, which seemed to revive him once again and they would embrace, and the end was averted!\u00a0 Ronald was beside himself. We were totally shattered and stumbled out at two in the morning.<\/p>\n But a most interesting visit it was, and particularly the visit to the Hermitage.\u00a0 There were not many tourists around for some reason, and we could move through the rooms in that gracious and light-filled building in our own time.\u00a0 Our return train trip to Moscow was less clich\u00e8d and took place during the daytime which allowed a fascinating glimpse into rural Russia \u2013 a far cry from the materialism, brutal capitalism and glitz of Moscow.<\/p>\n When we returned to Thonon, Ronald began preparing for his departure to Angola.\u00a0 The posting was possibly for one year.\u00a0 We would schedule regular meet-ups in Namibia\u00a0 for when I was in Cape Town later in the year.\u00a0 I would fly up from Cape Town and he would fly down to Windhoek.\u00a0 In addition, he would have several return trips to Europe during this time.<\/p>\n It was in early August before he actually left, that I had another very powerful dream suggesting self-knowledge,\u00a0 which I was again able to share with him.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My first and only visit to Russia, Moscow and St Petersburg. Introduction to Armenian sub-culture in Moscow; following threads of Scriabin on Arabat street and the famous White Nights in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":384,"template":"","categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","episode_posts","type-episode_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-part-2-music-and-my-soul"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/episode_posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/episode_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/episode_posts"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylisteningheart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}