La Serpiente y el Loto

Prior to the dawn of Western civilization in written language, science and spirituality were not two separate things

In the teachings of the great ancient traditions, the outer search for knowledge and certainty was balanced by an inner feeling of impermanence and intuitive understanding of the spiral of change

As scientific thinking became more dominant and information multiplied, fragmentation began to occur within our knowledge systems

Increased specialization meant that fewer people were capable of seeing the big picture, of feeling and intuiting the aesthetic of the system as a whole

No one was asking, is all this thinking good for us? The ancient knowledge is here in our midst, hidden in plain view, but we are too preoccupied with our thoughts to recognize it

This forgotten wisdom is the way to restore the balance between the inner and the outer, yin and yang, between the spiral of change and the stillness at our core

In Greek legend, Asclepius was the son of Apollo and the god of healing

His wisdom and skills at healing were unsurpassed, and he is said to have discovered the secret of life and death itself

In ancient Greece, the Asclepian healing temples recognized the power of the primordial spiral, which is symbolized by the rod of Asclepius

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, whose oath still forms the moral code of the medical profession, was said to have received his training at an Asclepian temple

To this day, this symbol of our evolutionary energy remains as the logo for the American Medical Association and other medical organizations worldwide

In Egyptian iconography, the snake and bird represent the duality or polarity of human nature

The snake, the downward direction, is the manifested spiral, the evolutionary energy of the world

The bird is the upward direction, the upward current oriented towards the sun, or awakened single-pointed consciousness, the emptiness of akasha

Pharaohs and gods are depicted with awakened energy whereby the Kundalini snake moves up the spine and pierces Ajna chakra between the eyes

This is referred to as the eye of Horus

In the Hindu tradition, the bindi is also representative of the third eye, the divine connection to spirit

King Tutankhamun's mask is a classic example showing both the snake and bird motifs

The Mayan and Aztec traditions combine the serpent and bird motif into one god, Quetzalcoatl or Kukulkan, the winged serpent god represents the awakened evolutionary consciousness or awakened Kundalini

The person who awakens Quetzalcoatl within themselves is a living manifestation of the divine

It is said that Quetzalcoatl, or serpent energy, shall return at the end of time

The snake and bird symbols can be found within Christianity as well

Their true meaning may be more deeply encrypted, but the meaning is the same as in other ancient traditions

In Christianity, the bird or dove, often seen above Christ's head, represents Holy Spirit or Kundalini Shakti as it rises to the sixth chakra and beyond

The Christian mystics called Kundalini by another name, Holy Spirit

In John 3

12, it says, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up

Jesus and Moses awaken their Kundalini energy, bringing awakened consciousness to the unconscious reptilian forces that drive human craving

Jesus was said to have spent forty days and nights in the desert, during which time he was tempted by Satan

Similarly, the Buddha was tempted by Mara, as he sat to reach enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, or wisdom tree

Both Christ and Buddha had to turn away from the lure of sensory pleasures and worldly grasping

In each story, the demon is the personification of one's own attachments

If we read the Adam and Eve story in the light of the Vedic and Egyptian traditions, we find that the serpent guarding the tree of life is Kundalini

The apple represents the lure and temptation of the external sensory world, distracting us from the knowledge of the inner world, the tree of knowledge within

The tree is simply the network of natties, or energy meridians within ourselves, which literally form tree-like structures throughout the body

In our egoic quest for external gratification, we have cut ourselves off from the knowledge of the inner world, our connection to Akasha and the wisdom source

Many of the world's historical myths about dragons can be read as metaphors for the inner energies of the cultures in which they are embedded

In China, the dragon is still a sacred symbol representing happiness

Like the Egyptian pharaohs, ancient Chinese emperors who had awakened their evolutionary energies were represented by the winged snake or dragon

The royal totem of the jade emperor, or celestial emperor, shows a balance similar to Ida and Pingala

The yin and yang of Taoism, awakening the pineal center, or what in Taoism is called the upper dantian

Nature is full of different light detection and assimilation mechanisms

For example, a sea urchin can actually see with its spiky body, which acts as one big eye

Urchins detect light striking their spines and compare the beam's intensities to get a sense of their surroundings

Green iguanas and other reptiles have a parietal eye or pineal gland on top of their heads, which they use to detect predators from above

The human pineal gland is a small endocrine gland that helps to regulate waking and sleeping patterns

Even though it is buried deep inside the head, the pineal gland is sensitive to light

The philosopher Descartes recognized that the pineal gland area, or third eye, was the interface between consciousness and matter

Almost everything is symmetrical in the human body, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils

Even the brain has two sides

But there is one area of the brain that is not mirrored

This is the pineal gland area and the energetic center that surrounds it

On a physical level, unique molecules are formed naturally by the pineal gland such as DMT

DMT also forms naturally at the moment of birth and moment of death, literally acting as a unique bridge between the world of the living and the dead

DMT is produced naturally during states of deep meditation and samadhi, or through entheogenic means

For example, ayahuasca is used in the shamanic traditions of South America to remove the veil between the inner and outer worlds

The word pineal itself has the same root as pinecone, because the pineal gland exhibits a similar spiral phylotaxis pattern

This pattern, also known as the flower of life pattern, is common in ancient artwork depicting enlightened or awakened beings

When the pinecone image is seen in sacred artwork, it represents the awakened third eye, single-pointed consciousness, directing the flow of evolutionary energy

The pinecone represents the flowering of the higher chakras, which are activated as Sushumna rises to the Ajna chakra and beyond

In Greek mythology, the worshippers of Dionysus carried a thersis, or giant staff, wrapped with spiraling vines topped with a pinecone, again representing Dionysian energy or Kundalini Shakti as it travels up the spine to the pineal body at the sixth chakra

In the heart of the Vatican you might expect a giant sculpture of Jesus or Mary, but instead we find a giant pinecone statue indicating that in Christian history there may have been knowledge of the chakras in Kundalini, but for whatever reason it was kept from the masses

The official church explanation is that the pinecone is a symbol of regeneration and represents new life in Christ

The 13th century philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhart said, The eye with which I see God, and the eye with which God sees me, is one and the same

In the King James Bible, Jesus said, The light of the body is the eye

If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light

The Buddha said, The body is an eye

In a state of Samadhi, one is both the seer and the seen

We are the universe aware of itself

When Kundalini is activated, it stimulates the sixth chakra and pineal center and this area starts to regain some of its evolutionary functions

This meditation has been used for thousands of years as a way to activate the sixth chakra in the area of the pineal gland

Activation of this center allows a person to be able to see their inner light

Whether it is the proverbial yogi or shaman retreating deep into a cave, or a Taoist or Mayan initiate, or a Tibetan monk, all traditions incorporate a period of time during which one goes into the darkness

The pineal gland is the gateway to being able to experience one's subtle energy directly

The philosopher Nietzsche said, If you stare into the abyss long enough, eventually you find the abyss stares back at you

The dolmens, or ancient portal tombs, are among the oldest remaining structures on earth

Most date to the Neolithic period of 3000-4000 BC and some in Western Europe are 7000 years old

The dolmen was used to enter into perpetual meditation as a way for a human to bridge the inner and outer worlds

As one continues to meditate in total darkness, eventually one begins to observe inner energy or light as the third eye becomes active

The circadian rhythms, which are governed by the sun and moon channels, no longer control the functions of the body and a new rhythm is established

The seventh chakra, for thousands of years, has been represented by the om symbol, a symbol which is constructed by Sanskrit signs representing the elements

When Kundalini rises beyond the sixth chakra, it begins to create an energy halo

Halos appear consistently in the religious paintings of different traditions, in all different parts of the world

In the The halo, or the depiction of an energy signature around an awakened being, is common to virtually all religions in all parts of the world

The evolutionary process of awakening the chakras is not the property of one group or one religion

It is the birthright of every human being on the planet

The crown chakra is the connection to the divine, that which is beyond duality, beyond name and form

Akhenaten was a pharaoh, whose wife was Nefertiti

He is referred to as the son of the sun

He rediscovered Aten, or the Word of God within himself, uniting Kundalini and consciousness

In Egyptian iconography, once again the awakened consciousness is represented by the solar disk, seen above the heads of gods or awakened beings

In Hindu and yogic traditions, this halo is called Sahasrara, the thousand-petal lotus

The Buddha is associated with the symbol of the lotus

The phylotaxis pattern is the same pattern as can be found in a blooming lotus

It is the flower of life pattern, the seed of life

It is the fundamental pattern into which all forms fit

It is the very shape of space itself, or a quality inherent to Akasha

At one time in history, the flower of life symbol was prevalent all over Earth

The flower of life is found guarded by lions at the entrance of the most holy places in China and other parts of Asia

The sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching often surround the yin-yang symbol, which is yet another way of representing the flower of life

Within the flower of life is the geometric basis for all of the platonic solids, essentially every form that can exist

The ancient flower of life begins with the geometry of the Star of David, or upward and downward facing triangles

Or in 3D, these would be tetrahedral structures

This symbol is a yantra, a sort of program that exists within the universe, the machine that is generating our fractal world

Yantras have been used as tools for awakening consciousness for thousands of years

The visual form of the yantra is an external representation of an inner process of spiritual unfolding

It is the hidden music of the universe made visible, comprised of intersecting geometrical forms and interference patterns

Each chakra is a lotus, a yantra, a psycho-physiological center through which the world can be experienced

A traditional yantra, such as can be found in the Tibetan tradition, is invested with rich layers of meaning, sometimes incorporating a complete cosmology and worldview

The yantra is a constantly evolving pattern, which works through the power of repetition or iteration of a cycle

The power of the yantra is all but lost in today's world, because we seek meaning only in the external form, and we do not connect it to our inner energies through intention

There is a good reason why priests, monks and yogis traditionally have been celibate

Today all but a tiny few know why they are practicing celibacy, because the true purpose has become lost

Quite simply, if your energy is going into producing more sperm or eggs, as the case may be, then there is not as much to fuel the rising of kundalini, which activates the higher chakras

Kundalini is life energy, which is also sexual energy

When awareness becomes less focused on animal urges and is put into the objects reflective of the higher chakras, that energy flows up the spine and to those chakras

Many of the tantric practices teach how to master sexual energy so that it can be used for higher spiritual evolution

Your state of consciousness creates the right conditions for your energy to be able to grow

Entering a state of consciousness takes no time

As Eckhart Tolle says, awareness and presence always happen in the now

If you are trying to make something happen, then you are creating resistance to what is

It is the removing of all resistance that allows evolutionary energy to unfold

In the ancient yogic tradition, yoga postures were used to prepare the body for meditation

Hatha yoga was never intended solely as an exercise regime, but as a way to link one's inner and outer worlds

The Sanskrit word hatha means sun, ha, and moon, tha

In the original yoga sutras of Patanjali, the purpose of the eight limbs of yoga are the same as the Buddha's eightfold path, to liberate one from suffering

When the polarities of the dual world are in balance, a third thing is born

We find the mysterious golden key that unlocks the evolutionary forces of nature

This synthesis of the sun and moon channels is our evolutionary energy

Because humans are now identified almost exclusively with their thoughts and the outer world, it is a rare individual that achieves a balance of the inner and outer forces which allow kundalini to awaken naturally

For those identified only with the illusion, kundalini will always remain a metaphor, an idea, rather than a direct experience of one's energy and consciousness