Why all the sudden interest from Brazil in all things Hieronimus?

We are pleased and honored to announce that a film crew from Brazil is coming to Owings Mills, Maryland later this month to make a short film about Dr. Bob Hieronimus and his iconic “Woodstock Bus”. Spray Filmes of Sao Paulo (www.SprayFilmes.com.br) has been hired by Volkswagen in Brazil and the PR firm ALMA BBDO to create and present some high-class awards to a few select people around the world that they determined had the most touching stories related to the classic VW Kombi bus. The last Kombis in the world were being manufactured in Brazil until only a few weeks ago when they ceased production forever, causing many diehard fans to grow very nostalgic at the end of an era.

You can view some of the other recipients receiving their homages and telling their stories here: http://kombi.vw.com.br/pt, and we’ll tell you more about this exciting award in a couple of weeks. Click here for more about the first round of homages paid to Hieronimus from VW. http://www.21stcenturyradio.com/news/Kombi/Hieronimus-Kombi.html

Dr. Bob was presented with a one-of-a-kind art kit and die-cut sketch page in the shape of the VW Kombi. He immediately went to work and created this beautiful thank you card for Volkswagen. “Thank you for the honor, Kombi. Dr. Bob”.

Zohara Hieronimus receiving an award for her work in healthcare and peace activism from the Peace and You Movement from Spiritist leader Divaldo Franco. Click here to read one of many articles she has contributed to Spiritist Magazine.

The closure of the VW plant in Brazil has generated a flurry of inquiries about Dr. Bob’s Woodstock Bus, which reminds us of a similar flurry of interest paid to Dr. Zohara Hieronimus from a Brazilian group that became captivated with her work on the women of prophecy and the Kabbalah. In 2008, Zoh was honored for her book The Kabbalistic Teachings of the Female Prophets: The Seven Holy Women of Ancient Israel. She received an award for her work in healthcare and peace activism from the Peace and You Movement founded by Spiritist leader Divaldo Franco co-founder of Mansion of the Way in Salvadore Bahia, Brazil. Zoh had supported the Maryland and Virginia Spiritist chapters by providing free meeting space at her health center for many years, and in 2012 they honored her again for her book Sanctuary of the Divine Presence.

So why all the interest from Brazil in all things Hieronimus?

Well, as students of the ageless wisdom teachings, we can think of several reasons.

We have been attracted to Brazil for many decades because of several signifiers that this country will become a place for a more evolved humanity of the future. One prophecy predicts that Brazil will function as the leading division of the great Sixth Race which, according to Blavatsky and Bailey, will demonstrate group consciousness, telepathic rapport, high intelligence, and intuitive skills.

The current flag of Brazil

And have you ever seen the flag of Brazil? It is a unique beauty, and after the American flag, one of our favorites.

On a green background representing their lush rainforests, there is a yellow rhombus or diamond shape representing their mineral wealth. In the center of the yellow rhombus is a blue celestial globe featuring stars aligned in nine constellations as they were in the sky over Rio de Janeiro at 8:37 AM on November 15, 1889, the day the Republic of Brazil was declared. The 27 five-pointed stars represent the states of Brazil and in 1992, the flag was modified with the addition of six stars in honor of six newly created states. Encircling the globe is a motto reading “Order and Progress” inspired by August Comte’s motto of positivism “Love as a principle and order as the basis; progress as the goal.”

The constellations seen in the flag of Brazil include: 1. Procyon (Canis Minoris) 2. Canis Major, with the largest star depicting Sirius 3. Canopus (Carinae) 4. Spica (Virginis) 5. Hydra 6. Crux Australis 7. Sigma Octantis (Octantis; south pole star) 8. Triangulum Australe 9. Scorpius, with the largest star depicting Antares

Speaking of South America and destiny makes us think of one of our revolutionary era heroes, Simón de Bolívar, a general who played the key role in Latin America’s struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire in the early 1800s. He led Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia to independence from Spain. From 1819 to 1830 he served as president of a large state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America including the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru, western Guyana and northwest Brazil.

In addition to laying the foundation for democracy in much of Latin America, Bolívar held some insightful views about America, according to Manly Palmer Hall in America’s Assignment with Destiny:

Simón de Bolívar, Founder of Six South American Nations

“America,” said Bolívar in 1823, “is not a problem; neither is it a fact. It is the highest and most irrefutable assignment of destiny.” In a document dated 1829, the Liberator wrote: “I have achieved no other good than independence. That was my mission. The Nations I have founded will, after prolonged and bitter agony, go into an eclipse, but will after emerge as states of the one great republic, AMERICA.” (p. 103)

More recently in Susan Martinez’s book, The Lost History of the Little People, we have discovered Brazil has a fascinating, mysterious past as well as a mysterious prophesied future. Martinez quotes archeologist and explorer Percy Fawcett as saying: “The region was full of such legends. “The Brazilian remains, which I have seen,” wrote Fawcett, “show a civilization with which nothing in any of the Americas can compare….they antedate anything previously known….their scripts astonishingly…ancient.” In fact, the living Tapuyas in eastern Brazil seem to be refugees of that civilization: “fair as the English, with white, golden, and auburn hair.” From whence came this fair race?” (p. 81)

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Perhaps some of these little bits of esoterica related to Brazil help to explain why Hieronimus & Co. is receiving attention from this quarter of the globe lately. If there is any place on planet Earth that the work of Drs. Bob and Zohara is to be understood, it makes sense that would be Brazil.

We’ll alert you to the next installment of this exciting new relationship as the Brazilians pick up on the Hieronimus Woodstock Bus. As the authors of the 2007 book, Traveling with the VW Bus and Camper, David and Cee Eccles concluded: “Not only was Light one of the first VW campers to be painted in this way, but its Woodstock heritage adds to its importance and influence on the future. It is not just another ‘hippie bus’, but a work of art in its own right which captures the mood and aspirations of a generation searching for its own identity and place in the universal scheme of things. The bus may have passed into legend, but its legacy as inspiration for new generations of camper owners lives on.”

This attention from Brazil is giving Dr. Bob one more example to point to in the long line of international recognition he’s received while struggling for even a little press in his hometown of Baltimore. His books have been translated into Russian, German, French, Spanish, and Japanese, he’s seen on TV in Germany, Russia, and now Brazil, and on a score of documentaries on the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Syfy BBC, der Spiegel, and yet he can’t get the local papers interested in reviewing his books or noticing his artwork. He is especially pleased to finally be associated as the artist of this famous Woodstock Bus, which has been used for decades to illustrate stories about Woodstock in the Associated Press, Rolling Stone, Life Magazine, USA Today, and hundreds of other magazines and newspapers, none of which ever identified the artist, the owner, or the “Light” bandmembers sitting on the roof in the iconic Woodstock photo. It was not until the 40th anniversary of Woodstock in 2009 when Sun Star Die-Cast Model Cars produced a 14-inch exact replica model of the Woodstock Bus that anyone truly learned its history and meaning. See WoodstockBus.com for more.

The actual Woodstock Bus in 1967 (left) and the Sun Star Die-Cast Model in 2009 (right), complete with tiny little musicians’ gear. www.WoodstockBus.com.