Coming upon the scene of murder.

Another angle on the murder.

The photos are of the victim, the trunk of an apple tree, to the deforestation rage now going on in Latvia. This phenomenon is directly related to the debt imposed (rather than forgiven) on the Latvian people by Swedish banks and their lobbyist in Latvia, the President of Latvia, Andris Berzins.

We have taken the murder victim and placed it on the steps to The Temple of Black Johns. This is our temple to the memory of destroyed forests.

The forests shall rise again and human beings will live peaceably with them again.

18  Temple MELNAYS JĀNIS. August 14.

In its Saturday, August 14th issue, the Latvian newspaper "Diena" [suspect for some time to be the voice of the neo-capitalist right wing (Šķēle, Šlesers, Ulmanis, et al)], published a "questionnaire” under the heading "Politics with a tune for religion” (Politika ar reliģisku pieskaņu). All six men interviewed, politicians of as many political parties, came out for politics in religion and religion in politics. The most cited reason for collaboration is that collaboration of church with state has a long tradition. The first politicians, one Cilevičs, describes this “tradition” as one where one “should not build a fence” [between the state and religion]. The last helped the newspaper “Diena” to identify itself with the Bible. Said Šmits: “We will encourage the teaching of the Bible until High School.” (Rosināsim obligātu Bībeles mācību līdz pat vidusskolai). The politicians are:

Boriss Cilevičs (SC)
Dzintars Rasnačs (VL-TB/LNNK)
Juris Sokolovskis (LPCTVL)
Aleksejs Loskutovs (V)
Staņislavs Šķesteris (ZZS)
Jānis Šmits (PPL)
Not least among the above named is the editorial board of "Diena" standing up for the Bible and not separating politics from religion.

The tyranny of reactionary religious thought (I describe it as the projection of an attitude that claims for itself to be „I am my own state and social service and no law against it however I understand it”) highlighted by its collaboration with a corrupt state has troubled Latvia with its exclusionarism for a very long time. This once beautiful countryside, where once the endearing word ruled everyday speech of the people who lived there, has become a mind-oppressive closed-end bottom of the spiritual barrel. The men listed above are not the only ones for keeping Latvians there. The Latvian Prezident Zatlers, too, is a not so hidden Christian mole in government. Who speaks for the “religious” who do not identify themselves with the neo-Christian movement that arch-Christianity has been forced to become?

The Temple Melnays Janis invites the reader to build more private temples to challenge the prejudiced state of their state. It is time to shake off the iconoclasts that would prevent nature from becoming our garden again.

15 Our private temle, “Melnays Jahnis”  (Black John) takes the idea of the temple garden into the 21st century. Of course ours is a different time. We no longer live in the days of the ancient Greeks, or Romans, or Chinese, or Japanese. But this does not mean that the idea of a sacred place does not have a place in our time or in our lives. We believe that the idea of the temple—even if it originates as a private affair—connects to a much larger public. This is why “we” by inviting “the larger public” to visit us dare claim this private temple to be “ours”.


Our “Melnays Jahnis” is a temple still in its developmental stages. One of our “developments” are the trees. We have planted and are still planting trees all around the property. Some of the trees are still under the grass, so to speak, but in ten and twenty years time, the appearance of the temple should change substantially.

Our private temple is dedicated to our private faith, each his and her alone. This writer has his own, and it is inevitable that I will share with the reader some of my ideas and theology. A private temple is, after all, also a personal temple. On the other hand, no visitor is in any way asked to “buy” my beliefs or orientation even as the management may be so rude and ask you for a donation or entrance fee. “Melnays Jahnis” is a temple garden which makes (or if you will, makes-believe) the land it occupies to be sacred. We validate our claim by dedicating it to Nature, more specifically to Trees, Trees which are alive and Trees which are no more, Trees which are growing as we speak and Trees which have been sawed down and not replanted.

As circumstances will have it, we are located in what is known as a "biosphere reserve"  . The biosphere reserves are under the auspices of UNESCO. Specifically, we are within the boundaries of the North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve.


We plan to keep you informed of our developments, ideas, and events.


“Melnays Jahnis” is located at the “Ceļmalnieki” estate. You may reach us by way of Valmiera. Take the road from Valmiera to Matishi. When in Matishi take the road to Aloya (left). When at Vilzeni (a small village with a crossroad) turn right and drive about 6 km toward the Old Braslava center. You will soon reach an oak lined alley. Several hundred meters down this alley you will see (on the right) a sign that reads “Matishi” and “MELNAYS JĀNIS”. Drive about a 1½ km. We are on the right hand side of the road. Please park on the road. Enter under the sign that reads Melnays Jānis….

If you live in Latvia or come to Latvia, please be sure to visit us. We prefer Saturday and Sunday visits. There is a gong (or soon will be) near the entrance. Please hit it several times with the hammer provided if no one is around. Some information about Melnays Jānis may be found at the entrance sign.

Forest News
For the curious: We take the name of our temple from the name Jahnis. This is a cognate of John, Johann, Ivan, Huan, Giovanni, etc. While there is no definite proof of it, we believe that the name "pagan" originates from Jahnis prefixed with a "pa-" + Janis, re "pa-gan". The word "gans" in Latvian means herder. Thus, pa-gan (originally pa-jahnis) is meant to belittle John by making him a lesser John, a lesser herder. Lesser to whom? You figure it out.

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline+ Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/, http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/

Cut it down, cut it down!
Yesterday, July 13, 2010, traveling from Riga to Valmiera, I noted that the deforestation which I noted last fall and this spring, is turning these areas--thanks to the +30C heat--into a desert of grey sand an dry brush.

Sitting high in my bus seat, and thus able to look beyond and through the row of trees that flank the highway, one can see vast areas of just such a desert.

This morning this revealing article at the DELFI fortal (in Latvian) about the further deforestation of Latvia.

Note the letters accompanying the article. At least a half are from people who wish to see Latvia deforested, that is to say, these letters are more or less plants (no not real trees) to confuse the reader's mind. The Temple of Black John (Melnays Jānis) is opposed this "strip mining" of Latvia.

The photo below is our symbol of the saw-(ac)ross the tree's heart.