Mount Pantokrator - Ruler Of Them All
Mount Pantokrator, Ruler of them all... All powerful....
Today I ran from Stefanos place to the path that goes around the summit of the mountain – the highest point in Corfu.
Athena Jane later drove up the winding road with Anadi, as he was not keen on the 'nothing but uphill' run for 90 minutes or so…!
Instead he met me mid way along the dusty track, whilst Jane drove on up to the summit to sketch in the monastery and enjoy the experience of being on top of the world....
There is something about the words 'all powerful' and ‘ruler of them all’ that resonates, feels expansive, and accesses something eternal within me...
I like the word ‘Pantokrator’ and its energy.... I was looking its meaning up :-
'Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek words πᾶς, pas (gen.παντός. pantos), i.e. "all" and κράτος, kratos, i.e. "strength", "might", "power". This is often understood in terms of potential power; i.e., ability to do anything, omnipotence…'
And I happened upon a band named Pantokrator… It briefly crossed my mind that had I formed a band, this might en the name I would have chosen...
The run to the top accesses inner power… It is a difficult route but a rewarding one, and as I journeyed I reflected that true power is not 'power over others' or even power that escalates us to the pinnacle... But instead an understanding of the limitlessness of who we truly are...
We are free, we are limitless and we are all powerful....
The body can be weak and the circumstances of our life can be challenging, but beyond what we know in this paradigm is true power.
It is there for us to access even when it seems all is lost. Our body may be fragile, even dying… We may be experiencing loss on this earthly plane but the power never leaves and is always available to us....
We must simply relax, and let go and not fight… Our true power arises from the still place of self trust... Knowing the truth of ourselves, the part that was here before we were born and does not die. The truth of ourselves that is freedom…
I set off an hour before Jane and Anadi… The first three miles wound uphill along the road to Spartilas where I turned right, off the road, and steeply followed the trail up the side of the mountain...
The route looked completely different, to just under two months ago when I last travelled it... Almost unrecognisable, overgrown…
I was aware that I might not see the snakes, so I made my footsteps more 'stampy' and through a patch of very long grass, even more stampy!
I arrived on the dusty track, the peak of Pantokrator still and tall in the distance, and then ran along the stony path to find Anadi.
I soon saw him coming towards me from the other direction... I had only travelled eight miles but had already been running for an hour and forty minutes. I remembered Nikos Kalofyris saying that in mountainous land you count the hours of running not the miles...!
Anadi and I ran round most of the rim and back again, another eight miles…
I felt far from omnipotent in my body, it was a scorching day, and the uphill start had tired me for the second half... After twelve miles I felt 'too thirsty', 'too hungry', 'too hot' and ‘too tired’, but there was something within me that in that space felt the inner power, I was aware of the energy of Pantokrator.
‘Ruler of them all’… ‘All powerful’...
It is almost as if the body breaking down accesses the true power within... As the body gives in, the mind quietness completely too and there is no active thought, and so no attachment to any construct of who we might be…
Absence of the body, but very much in a body allows for a meditation on the move in a different way…
just space, no thoughts…
When Anadi and I wanted to talk, if it was uphill, I had to walk, because I didn’t have the energy to run uphill and talk!
We finished running and Athena Jane was there to meet us… We poured water over us, towelled down and changed by the car…
And were ready to drive down the mountain to Agnadios tavern for a very delicious lunch….
Yiannis creates our meal for us… We never look at the menu and he always brings us a banquet…
Platter after platter of wonderful food appears for us…
We enjoyed every mouthful, savouring new tastes and new dishes… 'It is a new menu' Yiannis told us, whilst sitting on the cool stone terrace looking out over the expanse of sea and mountains… The strip of Ipsos seafront below us, curling round like a lizards tail to the point that ends in the harbour…
‘Are you ready for the race next weekend’ Yiannis asked us as we were leaving….
‘My time last year was 1 hour 18 minutes’
The gauntlet had been thrown!
‘Yes’ I laughed, ‘I think so…’ We then told Jane the story of Kassios Dias, when I was at the top of the first hill, where I had frozen in fright... then many runners appeared and galloped confidently down the hill whislt I was clinging to a tree…
‘I went straight past‘ Yiannis quipped ‘laughing too… ’I was like the wind…’
