Late on December 6th, 1958, I sat on a train bound for Carlisle, a few miles from the Scottish border. Dr. King had gone ahead driving a rented car, on the first leg of a 660-mile journey to one of the most northerly villages in Britain—Tongue—the area designated by the Cosmic Masters for Phase 3 of Operation Starlight. As a Member of three months’ standing, I was gripped by feelings of hopeless inadequacy. These were superseded only by an enthusiastic fervour and an inner feeling that I was about to become part of something big…very big!
Arriving at Carlisle early on the 7th, I joined Dr. King for breakfast. It was then a day’s drive to Forres in Morayshire for an overnight stay. The next morning, the third team Member, Brooke Marvin, arrived, and we departed. The desolate landscape of Sutherland, with its eerie beauty, had me spellbound from the moment I saw it. Tongue could boast nothing so sophisticated as an hotel, but we found reasonable private accommodation. The 9th was spent on reconnoitre. Ben Hope was sighted, and the following day we made the hour-long car journey to the southern end of this gently-rising giant of the wilderness.
In snow and swirling cloud we trudged along the spine of this mighty bulk for what seemed an eternity. As we neared the summit, we were suddenly encircled in thick cloud. Like vast, white theatre curtains closing, two banks of cloud reduced visibility to but a few feet in a matter of seconds. It was at this point that Dr. King went ahead alone, disappearing into the fog. The minutes ticked by. When he appeared again we knew the Mission had been completed!
Sadly, he had injured his right hip, and this was to haunt him throughout the rest of Operation Starlight, and beyond. The small town of Aviemore, our base for Phase 4, is scarcely recognisable today. Developed as a ski resort in the 60’s, it became a playground for the so-called ‘smart set’, losing much of its original charm. However, every cloud has a silver lining. A ski-lift to the top of Cairngorm, which is higher than the Charged Spot on the Creag-an-leth-Chain, and close by, now provides much easier access for pilgrims. No such luxury, of course, in December 1958. Neither would Dr. King’s action have had such a potent effect on world Karma, if he had just sauntered down from the ski-lift. Sadly, there is a price to pay for mankind’s Karma.
A long, pack-laden slog through the Rothiemurchus Forest in ice and snow was part of the price. Daylight in this part of the world in December lasts from about 8.30 am to 3.30 pm, and we just managed to reach the Sinclair Memorial Hut at the entrance to the Lairig Ghru by dusk. This stone icebox would have been declared unfit for cattle, never mind human habitation! A brass primus stove burned fiercely all night, but had little effect on the temperature. We brewed endless cups of tea, heated soup, and ended the night with an enormous fry-up of eggs, bacon, sausage and baked beans. Candles at the windows had failed to melt the ice on the inside of the glass.
Striking out the next morning at 9.30 am, we scaled the boulder-strewn cliff wall of Creag-an-leth-Chain, zig-zag fashion, to arrive at the top about midday. As usual Dr. King disappeared for a while, in the snowy mists of this, the most forbidding area encountered in Operation Starlight.
The Charged Rock was an almost oblong block of granite perched on the precipice over the Lairig Ghru. As Brooke and I prayed on this Rock, I felt tremendous Energy already radiating, only a few minutes after it had been Charged.
Many months later, Saint Goo-Ling commented that Dr. King’s and his Team’s actions here had enabled the Great White Brotherhood to move into this area, thus bringing them closer to so-called civilisation. It was a proud moment!
This area is a very ancient battleground between the Forces of Light and darkness. Indeed the very name Lairig Ghru, translated from the old Gaelic means ‘dark pass’. It has a history filled with tales of the strange and supernatural. A few days later an article appeared in the London Evening News. A married couple, professing the Buddhist faith, had been walking through the Lairig Ghru some years previously. At one point they became aware of being followed. Turning round they saw, some yards behind, a tall man in white robes and long white hair, who began to talk to them in a strange language. He appeared excited and they decided to quicken their pace and vacate the area as soon as possible. A few moments later, they heard a sound of rushing wind. Turning round for the second time, they saw the man had left the ground. The last they saw of him, he was disappearing over a nearby mountain top!
Keith was a Member in London, and was one of the principal Team Members on Operation Starlight. This article was first published in December1994 in The Aetherius Society Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 3.
The photograph shows a group of plgrims on Creag and Leth-Choin. In front of them is the Lairig Ghruand to the left, just out of shot, Ben MacDui.
