Grand Sextile

Well we had the Grand Sextile - or Star of David on 29th July

It has added its awesome power.

I have re done the youtube with team member suggestions - including using celtic music associated with AA michael.

An Ra Nae has added some awesome perks including £555 as Blue Flame angel and I removed the £5 for free pilgrimage pass as not needed and made it clear it was from Listowel only.

Also added a section with pilgrims photos (not all in yet) and will add voice over with the names and function of each pilgrim.

Found that I need a custom domain for pilgrimage website so that it can be verified with google - so upgraded groupspaces to basic plan £5 a month and bought a domain name for £12.50 for a year.

Checked paypal linkage - and asked pilgrims for help with Twitter - and emphasied need to get 25% to 40% from friends and family initially.

Planning go live

Finding the amount of work is getting quite heavy - but fortunately getting help from other team members.

Sent out an email to pilgrims with:
1. Target for each of us to raise at least £130 from friends and family
2. Then get out to wider networks when there is some money in the pot.
3. Draft email to send out with flyer
4. Note to pilgrims on what to bring etc.
5. Request for a photo so we can add to video (with name to use)

Plus received suggestions for video and mission.

Will re record video tomorrow - saturday
And added mission to campaign details.

It is looking much better now.

Next step is draft thankyou email to donors.

Post go live planning

Now that the Indiegogo site is almost finished (one of the group members is going to do some last minute editing) - I can start thinking about post go live promotions

I draft two documents:
1. Email to be used by pilgrims (and others) to send to their friends
2. a Flyer to be sent with the email.

I also figure out we need a thank you email (with a share on facebook link) - which can be personalised and also used as a template.

I also figure out how you can choose custom thumbnails in youtube - you have to monetise your channel first (under channel settings under video manager)

Anna, Skype call and route plan

Following a very useful Skype call, the travel arrangements for the pilgrims is beginning to come together.

I checked out campsites on route and discovered lots of places that take motorhomes set in beautiful locations:

Tir Abbey outside Swansea in Wales
St Margaret's near Rosslare
a super campsite opposite Newgrange on the way back
and the Whitelodge campsite on Anglesey.

Other connections are being made. An Ra Nae asked that all pilgrims read the book by Claire Heartsong - Anna, Grandmother of Jesus. It is an amazing book that gives the (long) life story of Anna who prepared the way for the birth of Yeshua to her daughter Mary Anna.

Anna was an Essene but not from the Qumran community, but from Mt Carmel. That is the location of the end of the third phase of the pilgrimage planned for next year. She visited Britain many times with her son Joseph of Arimathea. Well the second phase of the pilgrimage is to Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury where Anna came all those years ago.


The next step is to communicate the route plan to the pilgrims - so the travel arrangements are finalised. Also we need to start preparing for the Indiegogo campaign go live - planned for end of July. Ruth has offered to help me with any emails etc that may come in (whilst Trish and I are on holiday in Croatia). An Ra Nae is helping with the email wording etc - and the campaign wording as well.

It is all progressing nicely

On Monday, I will visit the workshop in Upper Dicker to check out Bessy. The cash is in place and Ray has agreed to let her stay on the farm until winter.

Update to pilgrims

Using the groupspaces website, I send out a short email to the 10 pilgrims to keep them putrid ate with plans. Cecily, who was the original inspiration for the trip to Skellig, has kindly agreed to co-ordinate the Irish end.

Eg
Accommodation, meals and transport.

I have started paying deposits, eg the deposit for accommodation at the hostel in portmagee. So I have found another task to do: keep a record of payments to be re-imbursed when money starts flowing into the PayPal bank (Barclays) from the Indiegogo project.

I received a very helpful list of comments from Edwin eg the need to mention my personal commitment to the project in buying a motor home which is not cheap! Looking at eBay, they range from £5,000 to £30,000. I need to spend sometime figuring out what is best.

Here is one that looks promising - at AMC motorhomes, Peacehaven.

http://www.amcmotorhomes.co.uk/used-motorhome-bessacarr-e435-motorhome-212.htm

Prepare for change

Inspired by a beautiful video - prepare for change by Vossa.

http://prepareforchange.net/









The pilgrimage is definitely one of the projects that Vossa is inspiring us to lead to change the system.

The Video

The help for Indiegogo says the video is the key to a successful campaign. So today I start the process of building the video. The new children of the sun website is live and there is an super welcome video by tiara with opening shots of the planet earth and lots of people coming together.

So I wonder if I can use the first opening sequence for this campaign. I also download the new logo. This is easy on a mac as you can take a screenshot of anything on the web, using the shift command 4 keys ( pressed all at the same time) then after measuring out what you want and pressing the enter key.

To download a YouTube video there are lots of apps - I have iskystudio.

So the set up that I am going to use is
iMovie as the software
Load photos via iPhoto so they are available in iMovie
Download you tubes with iskystudio and crop and trim using iMovie
I have an Olympus camera with a HD movie option. I need to buy a tripod.
Will take the video of me on my verandah when the sun is shining ( morning will work best)
Then we can use photos of skellig Michael, Stonehenge, etc and have a voice over
The voice over could be recorded using the iMac recorder or an Olympus recorder. Will need to check for sound quality
iMovie can upload directly to YouTube - the new account that I created a few days ago.

I do a test run, it all comes together and works. The iMac is running slower than normal. I wonder if it is because it is a few years old and more and more stuff on it, slows it down somehow. I wish apple would provide a mechanism for cleaning it up. Instead I may need to buy the mac speed cleaner.

I am running mac keeper anti virus. Maybe that is the culprit. So difficult to find out what it is doing. Rather like the body. One day we will be able to communicate directly with our bodies and find out what it needs to function at its optimum, ie what food to eat and when. What exercise is needed, when to go to sleep etc.

Maybe one day we will get the same control over computers.

Back in the UK

Back in the UK, I was able to set up a draft (ie unpublished Indiegogo campaign), together with various other items - so the full list is:

• Indiegogo site (using skellig.pilgrimage@gmail.com sign in)
• New email address - skellig.pilgrimage@gmail.com
• New youtube channel (pilgrimageskellig) - to hold the video
• Facebook group (for pilgrims) - but links to Indiegogo.
• Groupspaces website for communication with Pilgrims.
• Paypal (again skellig.pilgrimage@gmail.com - linked to a spare bank account I had at Barclays)
• Blogger - this blog and may need another one for the actual pilgrimage (Trish's area)

The things to do (by 18th July - my own date for publish date for Indiegogo)

1. Youtube video
2. Enter crystal details on Indiegogo
3. New COS logo to add
4. Write up a pilgrimage plan - so i can circulate to An Ra Nae etc.

Other news is that the Pilgrimage is becoming clearer with the Pilgrims being

• Me and Trish
• An Ra Nae & Sephi Ra (plus James)
• Stuart with the crystal skulls
• Cat and Ruth
• Cecily and Deirdre.

Plus there is a need to buy a motorhome to take everyone over there. At the same time as all this, I am selling just over half of my share in Evolution which will raise funds for the motorhome.

This will be the team for phase 1 - the Skellig trip. Phase2 (Stonehenge & Avebury) is still under discussion.