Vecchio Mulano
The Old Cantina || Founded 800 A.D.
In the last few days I went to Tuscany. there we met a so-called famous Alchemist who gave us a feast and later we drank an alchemical extraction in alcohol of pure gold, as a shared meditation. This was quite interesting as a meditation. The so-called famous alchemist was more or less an empty bag of mostly water. A man apparently incapable of listening to anyone, interested in nothing but the sound of his own voice. I found him shallow and false in every respect. He seems to be one of those people, so numerous on this earth, who really knows not much but is good at the BS behavior. He is very famous in Italy but his name is hardly worth mentioning. It was quite tedious listening to his diatribe about how great he is. He offered our small group the magical gold extract in plastic cups. I alone refused. I told him I do not believe the truth can be served in a plastic cup. He got up and found me a wine glass, and so I alone had the magic drink in glass. He seemed to have no idea at all about how to present such an opportunity. The dozen or so other people present were all doctors, potential clients of his famous extracts- So I learned it was not so much a ceremony (which is what i thought it was) as a sales pitch for his products. Sometimes even fools do something good by accident, in the same way that a broken clock is right twice each day for a moment. I was not surprised at this broken attempt at pretending to the sacred. It is something i have seen more often than I can count.
The real fruit of the journey was that we stayed in a charming historic old hotel for several days in Tuscany. Tuscany is a magical place. The food and wine are legendary and deservedly so. On the last day of our trip we went driving into the high mountains around Tuscany. These mountains have the famous white marble and we saw magnificent white marble mountains, the very place where Micaelangelo gathered his stones for his masterpieces of sculpture.
In one small village we stopped at an interesting old cantina. A place where you come in and sit down and they serve you little bites of the local food in fruit, cheese, meat and vegetables. It was quite a magical place. We ended up meeting Andrea Mulano, the owner. He tells us the cantina has been in the same building, serving this food and wine since the year 800. He is the man in the photo above. Next to him is his sister, Cinzia. Their family has operated this cantina, this house of wine and food for 1,200 years. Think of that! This big man was everything the famous alchemist will never be. His blessing was worth more than all the gold we consumed in the plastic house of plastic knowledge of the famous wise man. His sister was charming. Together, in this small cantina in a tiny village in the mountains they offer the true sacred magic of Tuscany, of the ages, of the true divine spirit of great humanity. What a contrast. Andrea has some good English. He says he picked it up some years ago when he visited Napa Valley. I was very impressed and touched by his kind and loving spirit-
Sometimes when you look for what is wisdom, and what is a treasure, you find it in the most unlikely and humble place....and almost never in the golden tower where everyone says it is. I enjoyed drinking the gold, even though I had to endure three hours of bullshit from the stuffed shirt wise man. I will treasure forever my two hours drinking wine, eating the treasures of Tuscany, drinking the wine and talking to Andrea Mulano and his sister Cinzia.
We are thinking to move away from Pantelleria and feel Tuscany would be the perfect new home for our sacred work. It was a rewarding trip.
