“An inner joyousness, amounting to ecstasy, is the normal condition of the genius mind” ~ Walter Russell

I am thinking today about my mentor, Walter Russell (and his wife Lao). I have mentioned him before, but today he came to mind because of a piece I was composing that wove in his philanthropy and activism as a member of “The Twilight Club” (thankfully nothing to do with the abysmal books/films), whose members at one time or another also included Herbert Spencer, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas J. Watson, Andrew Carnegie, Ernest Thompson Seton (who my mom knew as a girl in New Mexico, my grandfather being a fellow Scot), Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and others.

It was after learning about Russell that my mom was turned on to the work of Nicola Tesla in the late ’60s and raised me on both. I am grateful to her for that education, and grateful that she took me as a child to Swannanoa Mansion in Afton, VA, then home of their University of Science and Philosophy, to meet his wife, Lao. It’s my one degree of separation moment: that this woman, who hugged me, shook my hand and blessed me, was deeply partnered with this brilliant man who was friends with so many of these giants of intellect, science, innovation and industry. Gives me shivers still.

“Walter Russell is known as the ‘Man Who Tapped the Secrets of The Universe,’ ‘The Modern Leonardo,’ and ‘The Most Versatile Man in America.’ Gifted as a poet, painter, sculptor, author, musician, architect, scientist and mystic, Walter Russell’s impact on early 20th century spiritual and scientific thought was impressive. His original and unique Periodic Table of the elements accurately predicted the location and characteristics of four undiscovered elements. It wouldn’t be until years later that these elements deuterium, tritium, neptunium and plutonium were detected by laboratory researchers.

[Nicola] Tesla urged Russell, ‘Bury your ideas in a vault for a thousand years to await the unfolding of human consciousness to comprehend your vision.’”

This is a beautiful video which shows in glorious, rich detail numerous works by Russell.