AMIENS

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Exiting the rail station I see the Cathedral, towering high above the surrounding city offices and apartments. I know I’m in for a treat here! It’s the largest gothic cathedral in the world with verticality of 140 feet. I’m about to enter when something stops me. I’m not ready after the 2 hours of travelling.  So I sit in the sunny square for a coffee and relax. I ponder this intricately carved huge majestic building and imagine it in the 13th century surrounded by small medieval homesteads rather than the modern 5 story buildings of today!

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It’s startling on first entry – so high, so light, so spacious. I sit quietly to tune in and breathe myself there.  I know already this is going to be unexpectedly special. I begin to slowly wander and notice embedded in the black and white floor tiles a huge labyrinth! Later I find it was completed in 1220 – around the same time as the famous Chartres labyrinth and I’ve never been aware of it. No one is walking it which surprises me as Chartres labyrinth (when open) is always crowded but when I slowly walk it later, others join me.

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Here too, in a small chapel, is a relic said to be the head of John the Baptist. The chapel is closed but I’m sceptical – I peer through the gate and see a copper circular reliquary with a brown ‘thing’ inside. I believe this is his face and I’m curious. I put my camera to a space in the wrought iron, zoom in and notice a pulsing light within the reliquary as I peer through the lens. I move the camera away – nothing! I snap a photo but it is dull and dark. I decide to try and video and am stunned to witness in the short video that the pulsing frequency appears there. I look up at the ceiling to see if something is pointed at it? I stare to see if there is a candle, a reflection, a pulsing light within the reliquary – the latter being a ridiculous idea! Nothing. I don’t wish to question what I see, but just believe it is an energy emitting from the mummified head and rest with that.

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Amiens’s high windows bring light but not colour but as I wander further round the apse I find a few columns of stained glass one being the Tree of Jesse (also in Chartres) which documents the ancestry of Jesus descending from Jesse of Bethlehem (the father of King David). This is the original use of a ‘family tree’ showing genealogy.  I stand facing the sun shining through and as I half shut my eyes I can see the streams of light particles emanating from the images. I suddenly experience my body as cells – every part of my body. It’s expansive. The clouds dim the brilliance but the charge remains the same illuminating and enlightening.  It is glorious.