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Not Peace But A Sword    

Control and the Desire Body

                  According to Christ’s teachings, changing the peace of stagnation and disharmony into a harmonious Peace requires the sword. The bulk of the Israelites had stalled and become “lost”—crystallized in materialism. Throughout history the strong wield their power by acquiring money and goods through cleverness and cunning and by brute force. One reader remarked very astutely that it is imperative to understand a problem and know that the problem is part of the solution.

                     Today’s world demands self-regulation and self-governance. External conditions control weak individuals; internal conditions (viz. willfulness, feelings, imagery) control our external conditions as well as determine our new internal conditions When the bulk of humanity yearns for independence through cooperation instead of just yearning for personal power, prestige, and prosperity through selfish competition, and then sets about to live what they believe, the scale will immediately tip, dumping out the self-interest that pervades most governments of today. The good news seems to be that we are nearing the tipping point of the balance scale. But first must come the time of adjustment to the new freedoms bought by the price of the struggle. Timing is always a factor in bringing change. A sword can be a scalpel or a scythe

                As we have seen, the uprisings of the Middle East are contagious, aided and encouraged by the Information Age Explosion, and by the astrological aura that bathes our planet, as well as the pervasive and interpenetrating Desire Stuff that we all inhale daily. A sense of brotherhood and universal fellowship spreads across national boundary lines. The very pace of history seems to be speeding up, and in the meantime the Desire World, that inter-penetrates our physical world, becomes polluted. Conditions in the Desire World affect us all.

                  This could be likened to a gigantic FACE BOOK in the atmosphere, connecting and affecting everyone, by the exposure experienced. Thought forms of similar vibrations coalesce. Emotionalized thought forms from the populations hang like mists and dust clouds over the various lands, and can be read by trained clairvoyants. Popular emotions are as unseen controls of a people that determine the nature of their government and their leaders. Change the misty dust clouds (thought forms) and the government will change accordingly.

                 The higher Archangels are above mistakes, but while we humans dwell in this densest of worlds we cannot help but make mistakes, because we are learning. Race Spirits (Archangels and their agents) give each nation and tribe a comforting sense of belonging to a group. They fill the auric atmosphere, a sort of womb for that locale, with the attributes the group needs for their cultural and spiritual development. Early on we are like children and need family/tribal support, but as we mature spiritually and move closer to the coming ages, the more independent and self reliant we become, making fewer mistakes.  We broaden our sense and expression of love and fellowship toward strangers and “foreigners:” people outside our family.

                 These friendly feelings must be expressed, not just discussed and written about, because we human beings, by exercising our freewill, bring about the very conditions we ourselves need in order to evolve properly in our System. The mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms have yet no independent freewill. We have it and must use it lest it atrophy. Our pattern for doing this is perfect.

Nelson Mandela

                When people of any region of the world reach a stage where they need new conditions in which to live and evolve properly, they individually, then collectively, rise up to declare themselves, and take appropriate action. The Higher Kingdoms (Angels, Archangels, Lords of Mind, etc.) then move in and help. Nelson Mandela of South Africa is an example of the willingness to stand alone, if necessary, to demonstrate the pathway and to clear the way for others. Mohandas K. Gandhi was another who lived his beliefs in his daily life; then led others to freedom. These two individuals became focal points for Higher Help. We hope that the Middle East uprisings will also seek this higher road.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

                 We can help them by holding uplifting thoughts about their struggles. Positive thought forms, when invested with sufficient intensity of will power, if aligned with God’s Divine Plan for that nation, will be directed to bring relief to their people. There can be no rancor of any sort in the thought forms, because such feelings have low, destructive vibrations which neutralize the good that would otherwise be done. When motivation is pure, it strives to strengthen the good, not criticize the “evil.” Thought forms of opposite vibrations do battle, and the stronger destroys the weaker. A heaven-sent Arab leader might be preceded by another charismatic dictator seeking office.   Will the people distinguish between the two and choose the higher road? Nationalism, racism, tribalism, must /will in time give way.

 Control and the Desire Body

                 A philosopher once said, “Let me control the people’s music and I will control the people’.” Someone else paraphrased that to say, “Let me control the people’s food and I will control the people’s disposition.” At this time, desire gives the incentive to move and to take action, so taking control of the desire body helps us move in the right direction. The desire body wants to be in absolute control of people, things, and situations. It resists being brought under its rightful owner, the Ego Within. An untamed desire body is the enemy of high aspirations. Transmutation of the lower nature means taking the energy out of the lower expressions and re­directing it to the higher parts of our nature. It does not mean stamping out desire or egotism. Drain your swamps and recycle its water.

                 We are seeing increased numbers of military people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition indicating that the desire body has been overly strained, affecting the dreams and waking states with flashbacks. One psychologist found that “ghosts” of the victims haunt the dreams and sometimes waking states of the soldier who caused their death. This suggests that over-exposure to conditions of war with its over-stimulation of the desire body causes a loosening of the connection between the etheric body (containing memories) and the physical body.

                Our vehicles interpenetrate, causing ripple effects between them. Loose connections between one’s vehicles produce sensitivity to sights/sounds in other Worlds which slip in through the slack. War victims die untimely deaths and therefore cleave to the death scene and to the “enemy” fighters. One PTSD sufferer healed his affliction, while the two could still see each other, by holding a private memorial service in Viet Nam for a dead Viet Cong victim who had been haunting him. They then became friendly.

                 If physicians who treat PTSD would prescribe healing music along with abstinence from popular “beat” music, plus a healthful, bland, non-stimulating diet, and some of the newer therapeutic de-stressing techniques, these patients could recover faster and more fully. If someone else could help a PTSD Veteran make spiritual contact with his own soul and with his haunting ghost in an effort to heal “the poor ghost,” we believe that total healing would occur much faster. We hope someone will do research in this field to show the need for adding spiritual dimension to the traditional materiel medico treatment.       PJP

Tags: archangel, desire, not peace but a sword, peace, race spirit

Ecclesiastes 3

 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

Tags: Ecclesiastes, season

Found by God Tonight                                

My Salvation Army rocking chair… a friend of many years,           

creaks in just the way it should

with a sound that brings a certain calm instead of annoyance.

There’s a rightness about this sound and how it joins the music of evening tide…

hummingbird bedtime chatter,

howling canines at wandering coyotes,

distant railroad cars intersecting highway noises,

while Mesquite and Palo Verde branches dance in a desert’s hushed breeze.

Needing to be found by God tonight,

I went out on the patio to listen for God to call my name,

Praying for life’s new revelation… anxious about next steps… wondering why I’m here…

Having been given a second chance some twelve years ago.

Regardless that continued efforts defy fulfillment,

Or that dreams disperse in the light of day,

If God would speak to His people of Biblical times… all by name,

Perhaps I would be noticed, sitting here, in unwavering rocking fashion,

Waiting… always waiting… for God’s call to me.

“Yes, Lord,” said Abraham

“Here I am,” spoke Moses

“Your servant is listening,” responded Samuel

“According to your word,” replied Blessed Mary.

And I?

“Lord God of All Creation

I don’t know how to receive the unfathomable love of You knowing my name.”

“But tonight is different.

I want to… need to… allow myself to be found by You.”

“Yes Lord, here I am, your servant is listening, according to your word.”

*****

I notice a bird perching on a telephone pole, some distance away.

We stare in the same direction… westward,

It seems we are both waiting for the cream-hued sunset to take its final bow for the evening.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the bird takes flight in my direction

And, in a matter of seconds, swoops disturbingly close overhead.

It is a hawk…

Or has God adorned feathers to speak my name across tonight’s sky and tell me of His love.

*****

Earlier lost in myriad concerns about future,

I now rock in my Salvation Army chair a different rhythm…

One step closer to being found by God tonight, my heart sighs relief,

As the earth closes this first day of Lent.

[Anonymous]

Tags: Found By God, hawk, revelation

You enter into this Fifth of the Four elements.  It is a wonder of wonders.

You enjoy everything as a potential to open your mind to new horizons and establish a frontier: 

A Story that connects fiction and reality, utopian yet of the moment; immediate if altruism dominates our hearts, if each is a channel for Peace, for Brotherhood, the Light of Wisdom, for Universal Love.

You harvest and you sow in a way that builds a better world, an earthly existence for all the kingdoms that evolve in this University of The Land. 

You assist, taking part actively in the dynamics, looking for the Good in everything, each person, each city, each and every being.

Aroused in their desires, others assume the aspirations of your heart to transform the planet to a Fifth Universal; one where annihilating egoism gives way to Altruism, chaotic materialism yields to Spirituality and intellectual pride bows to Wisdom.

[Prose translated from the Portuguese and adapted from: On Education, by Delmar Domingos de Carvalho from his book “The Farm of Four Elements,” illustrations from Wikipedia]

Tags: brotherhhood, educate, egoism, farm of the elements, Fifth Element, wisdom

Christ Jesus, our Friend,

Our prayers go to all tsunami victims in Japan,
may their spirits live in peace and be protected
by the Angels; our prayers go also to all who are
in hospitals, feeling pain, suffering, waiting
for comforters; may our Invisible Helpers attend
to them and take away their sorrows and pain.
Christ Jesus, we pray for you to protect all human
beings upon earth at these times of turmoil all
across the globe, so that your White Light engulfs
our Mother Earth, purifying her from our sins and
abuses, because we are the only living beings upon
this planet who do not deserve its motherhood. Help us
all remember that we are all responsible for all that’s
happening to our brothers and sisters around the world.

May the Roses bloom upon Your Cross

The Last Supper - Palma Vecchio

Tags: earthquake, Japan, prayer, suffering

I  Am  My  Love’s  And  He  Is  Mine

[Rays From The Rose Cross, Jan/Feb 1996]

The Wise and Foolish Virgins - William Blake, 1826

I am my Love’s and he is mine,

And this is his desire,

That with his beauty I may shine

In radiant attire.

And this will be when all of me

Is pruned and purged with fire.

—Canticles 7:10

HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN spiritual hermaphrodites, the bisexual ego containing within itself both the faculties of masculine will, allied with the Sun forces, and the feminine imagination, always linked to the Moon forces. But due to evolutionary needs incident to incarnation,  procreative autonomy was divided to enable half the available creative force to build and specialize a physical brain to comprehend and gain mastery over the material world, and a larynx to give expression to sense-related thinking.

   Prior to the separation into physical genders during the Lemurian epoch, humans were physical hermaphrodites. But they were also “brainless” automatons perfectly reflecting the will and guidance of their spiritual supervisors. However, due to the ultimately beneficial influence of the class of angels collectively known as Lucifers, an impulse toward individualism and separatism was instilled in involving man.

   Brain consciousness of the external world has thus been obtained at the cost of losing the ability to singly procreate, necessitating the cooperation of a mate who possesses the complementary spiritual force. The institution of marriage sanctifies the male-female bond in which generation takes place.

Andrea Previtali (15th cent.), Church of San Giobbe, Venice

   Yet marriage is but an outward and visible sign of an inward, occult eventuality: the regaining of physical (etheric) wholeness. It is this prospect that is implicit in the term “mystic marriage,” which refers to the attainment of those who “neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matt. 22:30).

   In the Christian tradition, an idea that has served as a particularly fertile subject for the artistic imagination is the mystic marriage, which, over time, became stylized as a depiction of the bride of Christ, named Catharine, meaning “the pure one,” proffering her hand to be ringed by the infant Christ (Jesus) Child. Such a popular representation conveyed more esoteric truth and profundity than most artists or viewers consciously realized.

Pierre-Francois Mignard (1612-1695), Oil on Canvas,

  Christian gospels and Pauline epistles. The marriage is mystic because it is physically invisible.  The bride of Christ is, variously, the chaste physical body, the purified desire body, or the composite soul. The groom is, also variously, the Christed (enhanced light and reflecting) ether—soul Life; the Christed desire body—soul Light; Christed thought—the mind of Christ; or Christed will—Christ Love.

   In Matthew, chapter 25, the (etheric) Kingdom of Heaven is likened to ten virgins “which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.” Five of them were wise, for they had oil (golden light ether) in their lamps (physical bodies), and five of them were foolish, for their lamps were empty, so they could not “go out” in their soul (etheric) bodies to see and meet the groom, the etheric Christ, for they had no light.

   Again in Matthew, chapter 22, the (etheric) Kingdom of Heaven (the New Jerusalem) is likened unto a king (God the Father) who made a marriage for his son (Christ) and sent forth servants (prophets) to call them that were bid (at first, the original Semites). The new servants are those intuitions urging each Ego to make ready for the soul’s wedding by preparing the wedding or etheric garment of light wherein only may they gain admission to the Kingdom of Light. Max Heindel translates this wedding parable into unambiguous language and a pointed message: “Unless we really work and serve humanity, we shall have nothing to bring, no bread to ‘shew’ at the Feast of the Full Moon; and at the mystic marriage of the higher to the lower self, we shall find ourselves minus the radiant golden soul body, the mystic wedding garment without which the union with Christ can never be consummated” (Ancient and Modern Initiation, p. 34).

   The crux of the apostle Paul’s ministry was to make known the fruits of the mystic marriage, the attainment of spiritual wholeness, “a perfect man…the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). The means of attainment was the same as the goal: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14), the incorruptible body of light (Paul’s soma psuchicon) which the aspirant weaves, thread by golden thread, deed by selfless deed. We groan in our earthly tent, “earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:2).

   Paul addresses fellow Christians by employing the metaphor of matrimony: “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 2:2). Or, “my brethren, ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Rom. 7:14). And Christ Jesus referred to Himself as the Bridegroom (Luke 5:34-5) Whose presence was to be celebrated by feasting, not fasting.

Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato, 1650, The Wallace Collection, London

   If Christ is the Bridegroom, who is the bride? Both the church or ecclesia of believers and the individual spiritualized soul, denomirnating a macrocosmic and a microcosmic marriage, respectively. When a man is joined unto his wife, “they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph. 5:31-2). Christ is “the head of the body, the Church” (Col. 1 :18), or, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, “you are the body of Christ and members individually” (1 Cor. 12:27).

   Max Heindel refers to the golden wedding garment as a “luminous vesture of flame” “in which those who are ‘the bride’ will meet their Lord when He comes” (IIQ&A, p. 309). Angelus Silesius often used the same figure:

Child, be the bride of God,

And be thou His alone.

Thou shalt His sweetheart be,

As He’s thy lover grown.

   By sacrifice and service the golden wedding garment forms as an amalgamation of the golden substance “emanated from and by the Spirit of the Sun, the Cosmic Christ,” which, when of sufficient density, shall enable us “to imitate the Easter Sun and soar into the higher spheres” (Gleanings of a Mystic, p. 165). The wedding garment in Revelations is also called the white stone, the hidden manna, the tree of life, the morning star, white raiment, and gold tried in the fire.

   “The mystic marriage of the lower self to the higher, the immaculate conception, and the divine motherhood which nourishes ‘the newborn Christ’ deep in its bosom, unseen by a scoffing world, are actual experiences of a growing number of people” (Message of the Stars, p. 10).

   John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” In Revelations the voice of mighty thunderings says, “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready…Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Max Heindel explains, “There is that marriage in every soul’s experience, and always under similar circumstances. One of the first requisites is that the soul must have been forsaken by everyone else: it must stand alone without a single friend in the world.  When that point has been attained, when the soul sees no succor from any earthly source, when it turns with its whole heart to heaven and prays for deliverance, then comes the deliverer and also the offer of marriage. In other words, the true Teacher always comes in response to the earnest prayers of the aspirant.” (Mysteries of the Great Operas, p. 163).

Hans Memling (ca. 1433-1494), Central Panel, 1479, Hôpital Saint-Jean, Bruges.

   The spiritual and esoteric meaning of the mystic marriage became crystallized around the name of Catharine, as in the sense of catharsis (to purify) and Cathari (the religiously pure). St. Catharine of Alexandria was the original “bride of Christ,” but the devout and rightly proud people of medieval Siena also made this claim for their Catharine, who did not fail to impress her contemporaries with her extraordinary powers as a saint. She joined the Dominican Order in which, solely because of her sanctity and in spite of her lack of culture, she played a prominent part in the historical events of her age. Popular belief naturally ascribed to her all the honors of her namesake of Alexandria, and her mystic marriage has been pictured by numerous Umbrian and other painters. Max Heindel writes (A&MI, p. 119) that both Dominicans and Franciscans attest to her having received the stigmata.

   The near-formula portrayal of St. Catharine depicts the infant Christ placing the ring of betrothal on her finger. Once, she said, when she was fasting and praying, Christ Himself appeared to her and gave her His heart. This should come as no surprise. As Paul, an occultist, exhorts his fellows to cultivate the all-comprehending mind of Christ, so the Catholic church urges its charges on the mystic path to develop the soft, sensitive, all-embracing heart of Christ.

   Ultimately, Catharine is a representation of the chaste soul which has both wedded the Christ Spirit and given mystic birth to the Christ Child. The original Catharine of Alexandria is a semi-historical figure who is revered by the church as the patron of philosophy, science, and language. She is the tutelary saint of the University of Paris.

According to the Roman Breviary for November 25, the Saint’s day, she was a noble maiden, distinguished in all virtue, especially wisdom and moral purity. She attained such a height of holiness and learning that by age eighteen none could best her in logic or persuasion. But when she protested the torture and death of Christians at the hand of King Maxentius, rebuking him for his cruelty, he sought the most learned men of the day to confute her and vindicate his practice of worshiping idols. These sages, however, were overcome by her keen intellect and piety, and the love of Jesus Christ was kindled in them.  Maxentius, outraged, had Catharine flailed with leaden whips and then bound to a wheel set with numerous sharp blades. But as she prayed, the wheel was shattered and so Maxentius had her beheaded. Tradition tells of her body being laid on Mount Sinai by angels. The wheel associates Catharine with the Solar Christ and she is frequently depicted wearing either a wheel brooch or star-wheel patterned raiment.

   The marriage of St. Catharine to Christ was the subject for a remarkably large number of painters, including Carlo Crivelli, Albrecht Durer, Jan Van Eyck, Pinturicchio,  Raphael, Hans Memling, Fra Angelico, Bernardino Luini, Andrea del Sarto, Ghirlandajo, Fra Bartolomeo, Borgognone, Paul Veronese, Parmigianino, Correggio, Murillo, and Tintoretto. Obviously, more was intimated in these representations than meets the eye. They satisfied the deep surmise in their viewer that a special union could and does take place between the Christ and the pure and devoted soul. 

   Max Heindel reminds us that the mystic wedding is neither a fantasy of sublimated eroticism nor a unique occurrence. “All who are upon the Path, whether the path of occultism or mysticism, are weaving the ‘golden wedding garment’” by both inner alchemical work, as detailed in The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, and by outer service, whereby they transmute the body into the ruby soul, the red Philosopher’s Stone, or the white Philosopher’s Stone, the diamond soul. Eventually, when the aspirant nears completion of the process of transfiguration, the body transfigured by the Christ Light will have the uniform color corresponding to the pink color seen by occultists as the Spiritual Sun, the vehicle of the Father (A&MI p. 101). How, then, do we prepare for and bring about the mystic marriage? Let one who knows tell us: “The sooner we learn to see in ourselves a whole creative unit, the more we preserve our own creative force, and send it upward for spiritual purposes, the sooner we shall find the man or woman within ourselves. The mystic marriage will then have been performed.”

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1808-1853

   “Thus by degrees the man finds the finer feminine qualities in himself, and the woman finds the noblest traits of the man. When that point has come where there is a perfect balance, the mystic marriage takes place.” (IIQ&A, p. 456-7).

   “And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come…Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

—C.W.

The Art Representations

The Wise and Foolish Virgin  Watercolor with pen, 16 5/8 x 13 7/8 in. (42.2 x 35.3 cm.), William Blake (1757-1827). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine  Andrea Previtali (15th cent.), Church of San Giobbe, Venice

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catharine  Pierre-Francois Mignard (1612-1695), Oil on Canvas, 1669, Hermitage, St. Petersburg.  Painter to the court of Louis XIV, Mignard has given his conception a sumptuous formality at the expense of compromising the sense of the sacred. The sword in the foreground is the saint’s alternate symbol, being the instrument of her martyrdom.

The Mystical Marriage of St. Catharine  Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato, 1650, The Wallace Collection, London.  Similar to the Mignard but conveying a degree of sanctity.

The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine  Hans Memling (ca. 1433-1494), Central Panel, 1479, Hôpital Saint-Jean, Bruges.  The emblematic and signature wheel is present in most depictions of the martyred saint. The Virgin and Child-Groom are flanked by John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. St. Barbara is represented reading a book.

The Marriage of the Lamb  Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1808-1853

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”—Revelations 19:7.

Tags: hermaphrodite, immaculate conception, King Maxentius, Lucifers, Mystic Marriage, Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, Philosopher's Stone, procreative autonomy, St. Catharine, wedding garment, Wise anf Foolish Virgins

SWEDISH PANCAKES

Elegant for a holiday breakfast or comforting and cozy on a winter night, the Swedish version of the thin pancake can be ready in 20 minutes and requires only the most basic ingredients. 

These quickbreads came into my family via my German heritage as “egg pancakes.”  Grandmother did the baking for the local tuberculosis sanitarium, but I clearly remember that once or twice on her day off, she arose early to do her own baking, creating apple and sour-cream coffee cakes to deliver to each of her four children.  

She never called her “egg pancakes” crepes, but that’s what they were.  Add orange sauce and you have crepes suzette.  Al Johnson, of Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant called his egg pancakes: Swedish Pancakes.

The restaurateur, WWII veteran, public servant, and grandfather to a village died in June 2010.  Myles Dannhausen, Jr. wrote a tribute in the Peninsula Pulse:

Standing alone, his first and last name were the epitome of ordinary. Put together, they were Door County royalty. Al Johnson.  His restaurant was one of northern Door County’s largest employers. Countless area kids paid for their college educations with paychecks earned beneath Al’s famous grass roof. When former workers fell on hard times, he found a place for them, even if they had once left on bad terms. 

Most notably, the restaurant with the grass roof provided the pasture for Al’s goats; their grazing on that roof provided a special ambience for Wisconsin’s summer tourists; the lingering memory of — Al’s Swedish pancakes with lingonberries ripened in the intense summer of northern Sweden, where the summer sun never sets, inspired this article.  The simple recipe follows:

• 2 eggs
• 1 scant cup of milk
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil or melted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with a wire whisk. Mix in the flour and a little of the milk to make a paste, stirring until smooth.  Add the rest of the milk and the remaining ingredients.

Preheat a large non-stick skillet to medium-high heat.  Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into the skillet, and quickly tilt the pan to spread it into a thin circle.  Bake it until the top surface appears dry.  Flip the pancake and bake it for another 15 to 20 seconds, or until it is golden brown.

The pancakes may be stacked and held in a warm oven until served.  If a non-stick skillet is not used, it may be necessary to lightly oil the skillet between each pancake. 

Roll or fold each pancake and serve with lingonberries.   The batter may be made an hour ahead or even the night before.  The recipe makes 8 large pancakes, (two servings). 

Other toppings: powdered sugar and lemon juice, maple syrup, fruit compotes, jams and preserves.

For healthier pancakes, substitute egg whites for yolks, whole wheat flour for white flour, oil for butter, and use low-fat milk. 

And here is something to chew on:

THE GOAL ISN’T TO LIVE FOREVER.  THE GOAL IS TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT WILL.                                                                  Chuck Palahniuk

Tags: Swedish pancakes