Believe in the Magic! Installment Number 2 of our Memorial Tributes to Paul H. Trattner, M.F.A., F.R.C.
By Dr. Bob Hieronimus
Decmber 2013
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This is the second installment in our memorial tribute to our great friend, Paul H. Trattner, who passed into spirit on August 28, 2013. Because we are posting this in December 2013, we are focusing here on Paul’s alter ego known as “Santa Paul”. For many years, Paul was a beloved performer at holiday events and Christmas parades. Imagine visiting what you think is a standard department-store Santa only to see him captivate the crowds with his charming and innocent magic tricks. I’ll bet you all would have gone home that night believing in the magic of Santa Claus! Paul had a truly magical twinkle in his eye that came from his deep and passionate study of the esoteric mysteries of human potential, and he had a sparkling quick wit to match, always treating everyone around him with infectious chuckles.
We are very sad to miss him in the physical body, but we take comfort in knowing that he’ll be back again some day in a revised and expanded edition. Benjamin Franklin may have put it best when he wrote his own epitaph saying: “Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms, but the work shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant edition revised and corrected by the author.”
As I noted in the first memorial to Brother Paul we posted here in September 2013, over 40 years ago Paul Trattner was the best student I ever had at the AUM Esoteric Study Center in Baltimore. He soon outpaced me and everyone else in the school with his mastery of the occult sciences, mystical arts and religious metaphysics. He was the only student in entire history of AUM to earn all three certificates in our curriculum.
Part of this Santa Paul memorial includes an 8-page assignment paper Paul prepared for my Symbology I course. It is a study of his astrological sun sign, Capricorn, and a quick glance will demonstrate his profound insights into the multiple levels of meanings for the goat-fish. All you Capricorns out there, consider this a present from Santa Paul. He has done your homework for you! Symbology I taught the multiple levels of meanings of your sun sign which is just a fraction of your unique being, reflecting only a segment of who you are and your multiple purposes in life. Symbols are a great journey into the adventure of your magical being!
Please click on each image to see the full page
I’ll close now with Santa Paul’s advice on how to stay on the Nice and Awesome list. Notice how he made it the “Nice and Awesome” list rather than the “Naughty and Nice” list. That was so like Paul.
1. Be kind to everyone
2. Be grateful for everything – say “Thank You” often
3. Be helpful and of service to others
4. Give praise often to others
5. Never leave angry
6. Be careful of what you think – thoughts are things
7. Be honest
8. Recognize that we are all special in some way
9. Do your best always
10. Treat others as you would like to be treated
Thank you Santa Paul for making our spirits sparkle during this holiday season. We will never forget you, but it will be especially at this time of year that we fondly recall the image of you chuckling away in your big red suit.
Love and Shalom,
Dr. Zohara and Robert R. Hieronimus
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