The places of refuge were in the hills according to Michael, so we have hired a car and, with Simon and Amy, made a journey of some 2 hours up into the region north west of here, the hills from Huelva. (Journeys from here would have been as likely by sea as by road, so north west is not too unlikely.)

The first place we visited was Almonte. The city felt open, and in the main square was a statue to the Constitution of 1812. It was erected in 1978, just 3 years after Franco’s death, indicating that the place was looking forward, refusing to be gripped by fear. At by the statue were wild-geese. Such an encouragement to us to pursue more. However, in spite of being open, there was no sense of the angels walking the streets. Just did not feel as if this would be the place to connect.

We went on to Niebla – a city with a remarkably well preserved old city wall, and with a history of Muslims, Jews and Christians. It had a significant synagogue that became a church. Here we felt there was something to connect with. Subjective of course. While praying two swifts came in and flew around the area where we were praying, circling twice. We do not remember them being present at any other time on our time of prayer that day.

Then back home… our night of sleep (or lack of) was so reminiscent of our night post praying in the Cathedral. Something has shifted – enough? Maybe not. Perhaps now they will be able to land, perhaps we have more to do here to prepare the ground, perhaps we have to dig deeper elsewhere. We certainly have other plans – into areas where the Inquisition was very vicious, for example, Arcos de la Frontera, and we are off to Badajoz – near the Portuguese border – this week, planning to drive back up through the hills of Huelva en route. Certainly in that region Jews from Spain, including Cádiz, were given refuge. There is a village there, called Hervas, about a further 2 hours beyond Badajoz that we will visit that even a former PM of Israel came to see because of the remarkable blessing that was on it due to protecting Jews.

Oh and while out on the road we can do some modelling for travel brochures. What do you think of this pose in the streets of Niebla?

A couple of weeks back we had a phone call from Michael Schiffmann (Hanover, Germany) who did not know where we were living in Spain. He had previously been very helpful to us with regard to revelation about Mallorca. He did not have contact details for us, but eventually tracked us down. The previous night he had had a visitation about the city where ‘Martin and Gayle were now living’. His opening line was:

Where you are living the heavens are not too open so the angels cannot land. There has been a threefold layer of negativity set up over the city.

For those of you that have read the previous post on this you will understand how this resonated with our experience. When we began to talk about this in a focused way a few days later, out of the blue a swift flew into our apartment – circled the living room and then flew back out again. Then repeated this another 5 or maybe 7 times. It has never happened before nor since. Our understanding is that this is not normal behaviour. Signs are related. Birds are not angels, but one would expect creation to make responses, with changes in the wind or in the air (and so with birds) would be the area in which the sign was likely to be seen.

Michael went on with:

The source for these layers is from the Inquisition. There were Jews living there, and three powers were released over the land through the Inquisition. 

• First a spirit of FEAR came over people as they were threatened that if they did not hand over Jews then they would be punished.
• Then there was CONTROL through religious brainwashing by the church hierarchy, saying that Jews were anti-God and needed to be judged.
• And thirdly there was GREED released, as people were promised land if they betrayed Jews.

(Gayle has extensively researched many hours since that phone call and the above is frighteningly accurate.)

We had not researched extensively into the Inquisition, but have made our focus on the Civil War and the ancient history. We are also aware of many who have rightly made prayer journeys and repentance into the issue of the Jewish blood on the land, but realise that now is the time to pursue this.

Back to the angels… Michael said that through intermarriage there were Jews who were protected and that in the places of refuge we would find the angels. Once we had done that they would be able to come back with us and then living here would be much easier. Again the last phrase resonated. Almost on a daily basis we wrestle with this place. Living here – at a living level is not too difficult – but seeking to interact with the spirit over the city is a daily wrestle.

More tomorrow.

Angels. Now we enter into controversial and speculative areas. How many archangels were there? Was Satan really a third archangel? Do you converse with them? How do you know they are present? And in the posts that I will write on this there is a subjective element. However, when we follow the finger of God it also means we have to follow signs and our gut feelings. So to an ongoing journey:

Gayle and I first came to Cádiz in June 2010. We were driving along much of the South of Spain seeking to learn from what we saw. We looked at a map and thought we could get as far as Cádiz and still make it back to Alicante for the flight home. We were in the city a maximum of 2 hours, but felt ourselves praying for the city on something pretty close to a daily basis ever since. We knew nothing of the history at this stage. A year later - June 2011 – we came for a few days to discover if this was the place we were to move to. During those few days we were struck by certain things:

• Cádiz has a main entrance to the old city of Puerta de la Tierra. (Earth / Land gate: not surprising as the main gates were to the sea.) We asked where is the Gate of Heaven. Later we saw graffitied on a wall the word ‘Cielo’ – heaven.
• We had been praying for a ladder to heaven for here while we lived in Palma – and I had made a most creative (??) ladder from corks that was a symbol for us. (Must find out who drank the wine so that we had enough corks.)
• In our few days here we never saw a ladder until…
• We had felt that we needed to keep looking up while walking the streets. We cannot be pressed down, becoming earthbound. Towards the end of those few days we made a connection with a man standing on a balcony, and asked, from the street, if there was a property in the building to rent. When he said ‘yes’ we came to see it – inside was a ladder. Then we saw ladders almost wherever we went.
• All of that made us feel that we were on the right track.

So we finally decided to climb the Cathedral, realising that religion in whatever form makes a claim to be the gate to heaven. So up we went and at the top prayed that the false claim would be broken and then called for the angels to come. It felt (subjective statement) immediately that there was a shift but we were both convinced that the angels were not able to land. They were in the ‘air’ all around but could not land.

That then was our final night here in the city that visit. Prior to that night we slept well – but not that night. Broken and disturbed sleep right through the night. There seemed so much activity and conflict that it was not possible to sleep.

That is over a year ago, and we have not felt too much of a shift from that in the last year. Praying many times for angelic activity but also aware that we need a shift.

Back in Palma Gayle then painted this picture of the city: activity all above the city… but still with no landing place. So I’ll continue the story on Monday.