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The Edifice Complex

Article by Christina Nealson

Crestone pyramid – November 1994 – Colorado Central Magazine

You remember the polished pink granite pyramid, the “architectural masterpiece” transmitted by the Ascended Masters to aid the enlightened to move from the third dimension to the fifth?

No?

Well, in case you missed the first episode…

Many years ago, Dr. Norma Milanovich, a former home economics teacher from Albuquerque, began channeling with some extraterrestrials who contacted her from a starship hovering near earth. Originally from the star Arcturus, those extraterrestrials came, according to Milanovich, in order to help earthlings move into a higher dimension, and from them, Milanovich has learned many things — enough to write a book, We The Arcturians.

Ascended Master Kuthumi, the Arcturians’ principal spokesman, is not new to this earth, however. In fact, Milanovich claims that in past lives, Kuthumi was known to earthlings as Pythagoras, Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal), John (the apostle of Jesus), St. Francis of Assisi, and as Koot Humi Lal Singh, a native of India educated at Oxford.

And historically, Kuthumi isn’t new to channeling, either. To those whose beliefs encompass communication with non-earthly beings, Kuthumi is an old associate who started contacting Madame Helena Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, back in the nineteenth century. Kuthumi currently communicates with numerous adherents, and his messages can often be read in “New Age” publications.

Of interest in Central Colorado is that Milanovich now contends that Kuthumi has chosen her to oversee the building of a huge pink granite pyramid somewhere in the United States. One “sacred” site under consideration by Ascended Master Kuthumi is in the San Luis Valley.

According to Milanovich — and her Trinity Foundation, an organization founded to implement the Arcturians’ plans — such an edifice is necessary for the enlightenment of humankind, and must go on whatever site Kuthumi designates.

When Colorado Central published an article about the pyramid proposal last March, most residents of Saguache County were less than thrilled at the prospect of hosting the Arcturians’ plans for Earth’s salvation.

But at that point, Milanovich hadn’t communicated with valley residents in a year, so residents were fairly content to hope that their homeland had been rejected by the Arcturians.

Ask around Crestone today, however, and no one seems to know what’s happening. Folks aren’t sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief, or to extend their antennae a little further in an act of healthy paranoia.

EVEN THOUGH no physical pyramid has materialized, people associated with it — members of the Council of Twelve of the Trinity Foundation — have recently materialized in Crestone as property owners and construction clients.

Two are building homes. Mark Jacobi, fire chief and outspoken pyramid adversary, owns a home next door to one of the Council members, Dr. Shirley McCune, and he’s not pleased with the height and scope of her three-story, several-hundred- thousand-dollar home, now under construction.

Shirley’s neighbor is Dr. Norma Milanovich, herself, the executive director of the Trinity Foundation. But Milanovich’s lot is vacant at the moment.

Down the mountainside, Lee Temple, who is also on the Council, is building an impressive home and a sustainable resource center. His “center,” when completed, will contain information on sustainable housing, along with samples of ecological building materials and household products.

Meanwhile in Albuquerque, home of the Trinity Foundation and command central for the “Templar Project,” Milanovich works with architects several evenings a week to refine the pyramid plans.

According to the Trinity Foundation’s June Newsletter, the location of the pyramid has not yet been given by Kuthumi, except that it is to be “somewhere in the Southwest.” The Four Corners area is a possibility, in addition to Crestone. Nor has Kuthumi announced when the pyramid is to begin, but he has postponed the completion date to 2012. (Could Kuthumi also be setting the schedule for Denver International Airport?)

The size has changed, too. Proposed at 396 feet last year, the pyramid is now to be 453 feet, 4 inches tall, the exact height of the Basilica of St. Peter. It is to be surrounded by a wall that encloses 125 acres. The pyramid itself will cover 93 acres.

Although its completion date has been set back by a dozen years, the pyramid is still a going concern. “There’s a lot happening with the Templar, but we’re not at liberty to discuss it,” I was told when I phoned their office. “Norma doesn’t want to fragment the energy or be bombarded with negative energy.”

The Trinity Foundation’s June newsletter refers to the “third phase concerning the plans and messages. Master Kuthumi has asked us to computerize the drawings that have been assembled, and we are expecting seven architectural staff personnel to do this work over the next few months… We project that a total of $250,000 will be needed to complete this next phase.”

The newsletter goes on to suggest that 100 people who receive it each send $100 to meet immediate needs. But more than that, the foundation wants help in reaching “those who can and will feel the immediacy of this divine project.”

A November 1993 message from Kuthumi, published in that same June newsletter, instructs his followers:

“I come this evening to inform you that all you need to do to raise the money for the Templar is to begin the decrees. The sound vibrations are set, and the electromagnetic grid line is in order. Put the thought and sound energy out on the grid line and you shall be met by all the higher Light Workers of the universe…”

The Trinity Foundation literature tells us that it was created to oversee the building of the Templar, that the Executive Director and Council of Twelve “have joined to create a more beautiful world.”

BUT MOST RESIDENTS of the San Luis Valley feel that their world, shadowed as it is by the stark heights of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, is already exceptionally beautiful.

The folks I spoke with don’t want any large-scale interventions in the valley. Popular opinion continues to be: come to Crestone, live your spiritual beliefs, but don’t overlay gargantuan plans on or near an existing community.

Some go further, and question the self-indulgence of the affluent.

“I know it’s probably possible, but I wonder if rich people can be spiritual?” asks Mark Jacobi, referring to Milanovich’s Cadillac and yuppies with amulets. “I want to see these people crawl out from behind their computers, roll up their sleeves and teach a man to fish. I want to see them on the fire department or the EMT team.”

The latest Crestone joke, “It’s already here, but only the enlightened can see it,” may provoke a giggle and a few seconds of relief, but those concerned with reality continue their vigilance.

Many Saguache County residents are greatly bothered by the lack of accountability and responsibility associated with this project. The Ascended Masters are in charge, leaving real human beings off the hook.

For instance, when Jacobi asked McCune to shorten the height of the meditation tower atop her new house because it blocked his view of the valley — an important consideration for a fire fighter — she responded that she had consulted with Kuthumi, and he had told her not to change it.

Although Lee Temple, the Baca resident on the Council of Twelve (the Trinity Foundation’s version of a Board of Directors), initially seemed willing (albeit reluctant) to talk about the pyramid project, he later called back to say that when Milanovich found out that he had spoken with me, she called him immediately to request that nothing be published at this time.

SHE WANTED A YEAR of silence because “we are moving it [the pyramid Templar] through the etheric.” When I phoned her office to get further information on this statement, I was told “No comment. We are giving no information on the project at this time.”

Temple, who consistently shows up to fight local fires, is grappling with his commitment to the community and his support of the values of the Templar Project. He says that his connection with the project may end with his current board term, in December, if the other council members do not answer his questions satisfactorily.

“I felt it [the Templar Project] needed some very real grounding in the reality of this place… I began to address this grounding by asking the executive director [Norma Milanovich] some very important questions … the project is only viable to me if it respects nature, the spirit of this place and the people who live in it.”

Temple considers the pyramid another large-scale human intervention into the natural order of the valley (others include ranching, agri-business and the Closed Basin Project). His goal is to “see that all of these large-scale interventions begin to work and cooperate more harmoniously with nature and the natural order here.”

One would expect that beings who can travel from star to star, and communicate without benefit of voice, telephone or telegraph would be better about public relations.

But apparently human relations aren’t an Arcturian strong point. And thus, it’s not surprising that Milanovich has to avoid being bombarded by all those negative vibrations flowing her way.

From where she lives and writes, Christina Nealson can see San Antonio Mountain in New Mexico, the tallest free-standing mountain on the continent. She wonders why people can’t be satisfied with what is already given to them.