Well, now, let's get comfy and have a little chat about some of the things you may have seen here in the Temple. Each person faces the Powers of the Universe differently, and as Priestess, my own feelings and insights are a composite of what I have seen, read, and experienced. As a Nurse I have seen suffering, terrible suffering, and learned that the human spirit is like unto a bird in many ways....graceful in flight and at somewhat of a disadvantage when walking on the ground. Birds look constantly around themselves, unlike most of us. I know that I often miss the things closest to me in my facination with something just on the horizon. The Ancient Egyptians struggled with this reality as well, and perhaps that is why they used the lotus and the ankh so often in their art and religious events. Let's sit and talk about that for a bit, ok?
"The map is not the place." (Korzybski)
The Symbol of the Lotus
The lotus as a symbol of The Kundalini
Magical applications concerning a lotus
The lotus in the seventh chakra
Let this mortal clay (self) be the immortal God....Rig Veda viii,19
Waterlilies shut their flowers in the twilight and retreat so far into the water that they cannot be reached by hand. At the rising of the sun, oriented to the east, the waterlilies strive upwards and open again in the light. In Egyptian and Eastern myths, the red waterlily, the lotus, "the blossom which came into being in the beginning" came forth from Nun, the primeval waters, sort of a way of saying that they emerged from the light of Creation . The flower was seen as close to both water and fire, and was therefore associated with the darkness of chaos and the divine light, respectively. The lotus emerging from the water became a symbol of the sun breaking into light from the darkness of the night. The Egyptians were very familiar with the concept of a Sun God/Goddess appearing on a Magickal lotus flower sprung from that first primeval lake. In Chapter 15 of the Coming Forth By Day (Book of The Dead) the god Ra is mentioned as "the golden youth, who came forth from the lotus". In Chapter 81 a deceased person mentions the desire to be transformed into a sacred lotus, which I see as a statement of hope in rebirth. The blue lotus was particularly valued and seen as a sacred flower, and was favored as it not only was pretty to look at, but had a lovely fragrance; making the plants sought after for private pools and gardens in the homes of wealthy persons and members of the religious establishments. In many New Kingdom tomb paintings you can see deceased persons refreshing themselves with the blue lotus flowers. The lotus flower was also thought to "belong" to the god Nefertum, who was Patron of perfumes, among other things.
The above information was found in "The Gods And Symbols of Ancient Egypt" by Manfred Lurker, Thames and Hudson, Ltd, London C.1980
Let's begin by qualifying our terms, it's all too easy to slip into misunderstanding because words mean different things to different people, I will define my terms based on my understanding of the words I use. So,if you disagree, so be it. ( she grins )This is my website, I get to say whatever I want......
The word Kundalini is a sanskrit term that literally means "serpent power" and is associated with a fire snake imagery described as a sleeping coil at the base of the spine. This energy can be awakened and made to rise, transforming the power centers called chakras. Another word used in yoga for these power centers is padma, which means lotus.Interesting.
The word chakra is another sanskrit term which means, literally "the wheel".They are something like nodes that exist along the spine,and each one relates to particular states of mind, nerve plexus, glandular systems, and magickal focus. There are many view points that have a variety of attributions to each of these "little lotus places", some using a system of five, some seven and some nine. To make matters even more confusing, there are is a wide variety of "subchakras" or lesser centers, depending on whose book you read, or what system your own teacher believes in.
The Egyptians saw the lotus, floating on the surface of the waters of the Nile and recognized that while the lotus is exquisite in beauty, it is a pretty hardy little plant. The lotus has a long root that reaches into the silt of the riverbed and somewhat anchors it. Their "stems" are not seen, only the pads and flowers floating on the river. However, if too many lotus flowers grow, they form a dense matting that will completely cover the surface of the water, shutting out light. Fish like this for awhile, and dart among the lotus roots. However, a time comes when the water is choked with the lotus roots. Guess what happens then? Well, either humans rip out a few of them, a storm tears them from the riverbed or water animals eat them.If none of the above mentioned events occur, then the lotus plants begin to die off on their own. Picture a group of people whose entire lives depended on the river and you can bet they paid attention to the lotus population. One interesting fact is that lotus root is a very delicious food, somewhat in taste like a mild turnip. Consequently, I really doubt too many sections of the Nile ever got choked up with lotus plants. If you take this roundabout discussion and apply it to the chakra centers, you get a pretty good idea of where I am going with all of this. When we allow the energy centers of our own bodies, our little padmas, to become clogged, we become like the river, choked with the overflows. A psychic center (chakra/padma/lotus) is a whirling vortex of energy situated at the conjunction point of the body and the mind. As blood is the vehicle of oxygen, the mind is the vehicle of chakra energy; this is the entire secret of revitalizing and rejuvinating the body. Magickal systems of meditation and yoga are a sort of cleaning out process for our bodies. Yoga, a form of unifying exercising the body and bringing the mind into the process then becomes a cleansing and exercise program for the nervous system.
Aleister Crowley defined Magick as " The ability to effect a change by an act of Will." Therefore, anything that you do to intentionally change or re-shape anything becomes a magickal act. Food is taken into our bodies and is "changed" by the Will of our systems into energy. Soooo.....the next time someone offers you a slice of pizza, look at it as a Magical Rite of change. I think that is why people say "grace" or prayers over food, the remnant of our ancient awareness that the act of transforming food into energy is a hidden and magical sort of thing that takes place in the hidden darkness of our own digestive system. An innate recognition that the profane (the food) is transformed into the sacred; (energy) for is not all energy of a sacred nature when it is used to create? You are sitting here reading this and mentally absorbing what I am saying because of the Cheerios you ate for breakfast??? Quite possibly so. Most of us know that it is a difficult thing to read and study when your tummy is screaming for attention...
So, now that we have established that these little lotus things are in our systems, what next? Consider that within the lotus lies a sort of fire snake, the energy pathway of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic portions of the Autonomic nervous system. The parasympathetics enervate sexual response, among other things. The idea is to bring that energy up through your spine to your brain....the computer HDD, so to speak. Why? Because while the skin ( the Integumentary system ) may be the largest organ of the human body, the brain is where it is all happening. The brain is Pleasure Center Central. What is the most pleasurable thing humans experience? Hmmmmm??? Ok, cut to the chase, here, kiddo, we all know good and well the answer is sex. The Egyptians knew this, too. Is it any surprise then that the Great Goddesses of Egypt were all seen as attributes of the Great Female...because, like it or not, a healthy woman's orgasmic potential is Limitless. Sorry, guys, you have to rest before your body is ready for another pleasure thing, a woman can go on and on and on.......In other words, a female, when properly prepared, can bring her energies up through her lotus centers to her brain until she either faints from exhaustion, or her partner suddenly realize that Babylon5 comes on in 20 minutes and.........well......*sigh*...you get the the gist of what I am saying here, right?
Personally, I am fairly certain the Egyptians had something that substituted for Television. There seem to be a lot of taverns excavated in the ruins of most ancient civilizations....I think men invented Professional Sports to get away from their demanding women, either that or they went "hunting". Things have not changed much, have they?
Ok, so how does all of this tie into the Seventh chakra? The Crown chakra is seen as the lotus of 1000 petals, all of which are something like different layers of concious awareness.It is mystically perceived as suspended just over the top of the head, its color is purple and it is the center of absolute unity, silence and bliss...a reality beyond duality, a space of eternal knowing. Can you see why it might be handy to know how to bring your sexual potential to such a state of conciousness? Keep in mind that this is all fairly steeped in mysticism and somewhat difficult for many of us to grasp thoroughly. (Can you imagine what our world might be like if the various governments on our planet spent the "trillions" of dollars on exploring the reality of heightened sexual and sensual awareness that are spend on weapons?)
I am not lecturing on yoga techniques here, but I can recommend a fantastic book if you want to know more about the chakra/padma/lotus symbolism. There are scads of books available, but my favorite and the one I own and use the most is "Energy Ecstasy and Your Seven Vital Chakras" by Bernard Gunther, The Guild of Tutors Press Copywrite 1978,, ISBN-0-89615-000-3. It has meditation exercises, diagrams and some of the most beautiful full color plates of the chakras images that I have ever seen. If you can get a copy it is well worth the investment.
If you have a further interest in the symbolism of the lotus either surf the net or break down and actually go to a local library and check it out. Oh, and as a last thought.....lotus oil is a really exquisite and delicate fragrance that works well when placed on pulse points behind the ears, knees, under the breasts and on the soles of the feet.
(Michael Skrtic, creator of the NAR magical system)
The ankh as symbol of Eternal Female
Spiritual applications of the Ankh symbol
Reclaiming the Ankh as a modern symbol of Male-Female unity
The actual original meaning of the ankh symbol is lost in the mists of Time. Gerald Gardiner suggested that it was originally supposed to represent a sandal-strap, or may have been a magical knot. The hieroglyphic sign means "life" ('nh ) and as a symbol it points to divine, or eternal existance. With this in mind, Egyptian artists showed it as a recurrent sacred attribute of the Goddesses who were often seen in art work and paintings handing it to Kings and Queens. Air and water were vital elements, for which reason they can be portrayed by the mystical symbolic use of an ankh; as when we see a Goddess holding the ankh in front of a deceased person's nose, giving the " breath of life" or when we see streams of ankhs representing water being poured over the deceased person during a ritual purification. The ankh was a symbol of imperishable vital force and was used on Temple walls, tombs, artwork and stelae. Ankhs were most particularly used in the region of the feet, which explains why many see it as an image of a sandal-strap. (For more information about the sacred connotations of sandals and feet I suggest reading Joseph Campbell's works reguarding Sacred Kingship and shamanic journeys.)
The ankh is also called the crux ansata and entered into the symbolism of the Coptic Church because of its cruciform shape.
Water, as an element, is often referred to as being "feminine" and in Magical Circle Rituals is most often associated with the Western Portal, or Watchtower. For those more Ceremonially inclined, the angelic Entity is Gabriel, and the West is seen as the Place of Emotion and Change. The association of the angel Gabriel and females is reinforced in Christian myth as Gabriel was the Angelic Herald who made the announcement to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in reguards to her upcoming divine Motherhood. Pagans today may not actually agree with that event as a reality, but the reverence for the powers of Water as being related to amnionic fluid and birth remains. Do we not refer to Oceans as "She"? I can think of a few Gods associated with water, Neptune/Posidon and Mannan Mac Llyr, but usually it is a Goddess who is considered as the embodiment of Water. (The Yoruba religion of Africa even breaks water down into salt water [Ocean] and "sweet water" [Non-saline water] and assign different Orishas/Goddesses to each, with Yemaya being the Great Mother of the Oceans and Osiun as Orisha of rivers and brooks.) Let us take another look at the actual shape and form of an ankh and leave mysticism and religion behind for a moment.
I do not remember when I first actually looked at an ankh and realized that it, in fact, looked almost like a schematic diagram of female reproductive organs. Keeping in mind that I am a Nurse, this sort of awareness makes sense; aside from the fact that as a female I deal with the reality of my own anatomy on a daily basis....
The ovoid shape of the upper portion of an ankh is shaped very much like the human female uterus, a sort of pear shaped organ, that in a non- pregnant state is about the size of a man's fist.
The two arms of the ankh are similar to the fallopian tubes which branch out from the uterus with the ovaries cradled by the fiberous endings of the tubes on each side of the uterus. The stem portion of the ankh decends, or ascends, depending on your viewpoint, and could represent the vaginal passage, or birth canal.
I cannot honestly recall anyone ever telling me this information, but I sincerely doubt I am the only person to have made this deduction! Is is any wonder, that the Egyptians, some of the finest physicians ever known, came to this conclusion and used the ankh as a symbol of the Female? The current plantary symbol for Venus is the so-called "mirror of Aphrodite", a circle with a cross attached at the bottom of the circle pointing downwards, also the symbol associated with the feminine. In current American culture Afro-American women have taken the ankh and cherished it as a symbol of Womanhood and a remembrance of their glorious heritage from Egypt, an African country.
Magical workings around issues of fertility, love, romance and family often incorporate ankhs as part of the ritual preparation. Many pagans use an ankh as a part of their Ritual altars of worship, and it is a favored decorative icon in art and jewelry for pagan and non-pagans alike, and can be found in many commercial establishments readily available for any who desire to own one. I personally know several women who feel comfortable wearing an ankh when other "pagan" symbols could be a matter of difficulty. It is sad that even today many people still have such a fear of symbols from antiquity. The ankh, possibly because of its cruciform shape, has passed into acceptability even among those who would bitterely resent a pentacle.
If then, we accept the image of an ankh as being a symbol of womanhood, how then can we today, re-claim it as a symbol of the unity of man and woman? Well......as far as I know all humans share one reality.....everyone everywhere had a mother and a father. No one has yet been able to produce a viable human infant without a sperm and an egg having a first meeting. No, I am not commenting on Divine Paternity here, as a pagan and a thelemite I reserve the right to my own opinions on that matter. If the ankh is Woman Eternal then as Mother, all women have the connection with a Father figure.
When we as a species can stop assigning status points based on gender, religion, race, national origin or sexual preference we will have re-claimed the Ankh as what I believe it was first meant to be....and once again it will shine forth as the symbol of Eternal Force....the Force of the Creation, and Aphrodite's Mirror of the Cosmos will reflect that we, as a species, have reached for and gathered blossoms from the Garden of The Stars.
...And by my Will, So mote it be....
Addendum: I chose Erec Clapton's lovely melody "Wonderful Tonight" for this page because I feel it is one of the all time great Love Songs, a true expression of a man's love for his woman. Thank you Mr. Clapton. This song never fails to bring tears to my eyes when I listen to it remembering an evening years ago and the man who held me in his arms as we danced...
..."and those things that we love Eternally, are Eternally ours.." ( Dion Fortune, 1938 ev.)
