Quinta da Regaleira. "The Palace of Monteiro the Millionaire" My impression

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world
Aha aha
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It's a rich man's world
It's a rich man's world

---

This ABBA song I was singing in my mind, when I was walking towards Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra for one of my walking tours. The name ABBA and Money brings already a connection with this place that was in the past also called 'The Palace of Monteiro the Millionaire', because the owner António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro who was a very rich Merchandiser from Brazil. And ABBA brings also another more spiritual connection. People mostly think that ABBA stands for the acronym of the first letters of the members of the band. In that case it could as well been BAAB, BABA etc. But no they chose the name ABBA, what means in Jewish and the Kabbalah and tree of life also Father. Coincidence? Maybe, but you know when you start writing you come often on places where you don't think of when you start a journey. And that is how I found this article on Internet about the Secret Jewish history of ABBA. What a song can do!

Back to Quinta da Regaleira that Monteiro bought in 1892 and where he could make with his money his dream come to life in the old mystic village Sintra in Portugal with her beautiful magnetic mountain, where the Old Romans wrote already stories about the powers of the moon, and the Fairies and Fauns dancing for Pan who is playing the flute with Bacchus sitting around drinking his wine before human history. Time is here different, and are in several dimensions always around, when there are not to many people disturbing it. Here build the Moors a castle and palace and came later the Portuguese Aristocrats to relax in their beautiful palaces. It seems one big fairy tale and it was not for nothing (or was it for that?) that Hans Cristian Anderson lived here for a while. Also the famous author and poet Fernando Pessoa liked to be here with his friend poet and occultist Aleister Crowley and there were many, many more well known or not well known persons enjoying the healing magical area. Is it because this is the most western point of the mainland of Europe? Who knows. The fact is that the weather can be different than in Lisbon, although only 30 km distance and both situated next to the Atlantic Ocean. Its climate is more humid, it can be raining when the sun is shining in the Portuguese capitol. The trees must be happy, and there are many, local or brought there from all around the world. ​

Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra, Portugal, Hermes

​Not strange also, that Monteiro, who was except merchant was also a botanist, entomologist, alchemist and Free-Mason, decided to spend his money to create his heaven on Earth. And when you arrive you understand that money can be funny. You can imagine this place and garden as a fairy tale. But to really meet it now and here you probably have to go there in the night, when the many loud tourist don't send the other dimensions away. When the people get asleep, the creatures of fantasy times and myths get awake and Pan plays his flute with his fauns dancing around. It would not surprise me. To me it looks like a created Arcadia in the beginning of the 1900's to escape modern times.

​Senor Carvalho Monteiro must have been a happy man when he bought the estate in Sintra, the magical and magnetic area of Portugal, where in old stories the moon was whispering and the sartyrs were dancing, the rhythm of life, light and the other side. Here he could create his composition of dreams of the occult and he had a lot of money, a excellent combination to make his dream come trough. and when they say Quinta da Regaleira is a Free Mason place, they don't tell it all. Because its more than that. The unknown, mysterious and for many people secret looking symbols, statues and other hidden occult and esoteric are often connected with the masons, because, thanks to Christianity, lots of history of the magical way of thinking was forbidden and forgotten. The Church was influencing the daily life in that time very strongly. The people now can not even imagine nowadays, how everything in daily life was under the microscope of the bible, like many Moslem's life is doing it now with the Koran.

But in the beginning of 1900, when they started with the construction of this Quinta, there was a fresh wind blowing through intellectual and spiritual mind land. The Golden Dawn, Allister Crowley, Blavatsky and Gurdjeff were among others who brought the spiritual Alchemy and occult times back in the western world. Old types of thinking, long suppressed by the Church calling it Daemonic. The unexplained, the inexplicable in the nature of power and man brings back the thinking, searching, feeling beyond rationality and the Abrahamic Patriarchal system. 

It was in this time (1892 to be precise) , that Carvalho Monteiro, the excentric millionaire, alechemist and bottanist bought this estate and brought many times eclectic together. Aesthetics, spirituality, the Occult dancing together in all what was once called heresy. In times, not so long ago, they would have been condemned as heretics and may been burned on earth instead of the Christian hell, which they created here on earth indeed. And here the rich Monteiro had the change to create a dream out of nothing. And he mixed many different times together.....Neo Manualistic buildings, original from around 1500, with many styles from all over the world from that time. Nothing is always something of the everything of that moment. Here he could refer with images and secret symbols to different spiritual directions and orders, such as the Tarot, the different pantheons, the Templars, Free Masons, Alchemy etc. etc. a true occult artwork with its own initiation area. As above, as below, supplemented with his botanical knowledge of the sacred trees and plants. ​

​But we have also to remember that this was not very normal in the still very Church dominated times Although Inquisition was gone, it had still strong influence,.A composition of a dream of the past myths, magic as the old knowledge before Christianity, old stories, occult symbolism as a desire for the revealing of divine presence and wonder itself. Hermetic, but always moving and changing, like universe or whatever you want to call it, itself. Wondering around, in the earth and on the earth and all dimensions around. See and feel the old Gods, symbols and signs from long times ago, but not forgotten. And all that and more with as back ground an wonderful garden and beautiful aesthetics where Hermes greets you when you enter in this trip through darkness to light through tunnels and caves, climbing steps and towers, counting numbers with Dionysus and Apollo finding balance in your life. Everywhere you meet statues out of the Greec pantheon. The pantheon, time before the monotheistic believe of one male God where Innanha, Isis and Venus in the form of Eva became a sterilized powerless woman. And the high preistesses and healers were transformed to bad and prostitutes. For the sheperds of the desert from long times ago, the nature must have been not very pleasent. What stories can do with so called humans and how long prejudices can create illusions in mind and life.

​Yes The rich millionaire had the create something out of nothing and here he could make his dream come through.Thanks to him and his artists you can satisfied go back to the palace and drink a good wine over there, reborn and watching life, the earth and everything else, with different eyes and feeling. Unfortunately Carvalho Monteiro's study and alchemy room was locked....... And despite the empty-eyed tourists who walked around like elephants in a porcelain shop, the eyes were kissed. The spiritual feeling would follow later when we were able to let everything work quietly up into our senses at a mystical place in the woods. Sintra is for sure a magical place on earth! 

It inspired me to this Blogpost. Yes you can do nice things with money, It does not have to be only functional and pragmatic rational without feelings for something different, other dimensions and other sides of life. Here your eyes and heart get kissed. Even the beautiful floating butterflies in this garden are spreading love. I say thank you to Monteiro for realizing this dream. .