A HEALING CEREMONY
FOR
PLANET EARTH
A LUNATION JOURNEY OF COSMIC ATTUNEMENT
With
the discoveries of quantum physics, it is evident that light
is the source and universal medium of exchange throughout the
universe as we know it. As individual humans, on a planet hurtling
through space, we live, move, and have our being in a galactic
ocean of light. What I reveal to you in these pages is an introduction
to a spiritual technology that is about navigating our way more
and more consciously and successfully upon this galactic ocean.
Every
New Moon, Sun and Moon conjoin in the sky and a process of ordered
unfoldment begins. The complete cycle of this unfoldment, from
one New Moon to the next, is what is known as the lunation
cycle. It is a process analogous to the growth of a plant
from seed, to shoot, to stem, and leaves, to flower, and back
to seed.
The Lunation Cycle
The lunation cycle is a cosmic
metaphor to this process. It is known as a cycle of relationship.
Cycles of relationship are cycles that relate two distinct entities
for a specific length of time and reveal themselves through a
process having a beginning, a middle, and an end.
When cycles repeat, what changes
are the contents contained within the cycle, not the structure of the cycle
itself.The lunation cycle is
the most obvious astronomical analogy to this universal process.
It can be seen as a kind of "building block of experience",
a discrete unit in a neverending evolutionary process sourced
by the Sun.
When used in a way such as I am
presenting here, the lunation cycle is seen as a powerful, cosmic
metaphor capable of guiding each of us into a deep re-membrance
of our cosmic origins as Light. For, seen in this mythic way,
the lunation cycle is an extraordinary model of an ordered and
measured process of transformation which periodically and perennially,
returns to its Source. In the case of the lunation cycle, that
point of eternal return is where the Moon is lost to the radiance
of the Sun: New Moon.
In 1986,
New Moon became, for me, a very potent point of creative origination
linking two indigenous cultures to which I had become passionately
engaged: Hopi and Mayan. My many-year attunement to the lunation
cycle suddenly one day led me into a transcendent realm of consciousness
I now call The Temple of the Feathered Serpent.
THE FOUR MINDS
OF MAN
According to the Maya, humans
have four distinct minds symbolized by four hieroglyphs from
the sacredTzolkin calendar. These minds are only potentially
activated in each of us. Steps must be taken to bring them to
life and to integrate their powers.
The
first Mayan mind is signified by hieroglyph CHICCHAN. CHICCHAN
refers to the reptilian mind with its qualities of regular transformation
and change, through molting.
The
second Mayan mind is that signified by hieroglyph OC. OC refers
to the mammalian mind of Man, the one we are most familiar. As
mammals, we are birthed live, not hatched. Because of our initial
vulnerability, we are in need of close nurturance. This develops
in us a degree of loyalty and faithfulness to those who care
for us and with whom we develop all manner of emotional connectedness.
Hieroglyph MEN refers to the Mind of
the Planet, what futurist Peter Russell refers to as the Global
Brain. It is the symbolic ally of all who sustain an intention
to align themselves with a Greater Reality of Spirit, a reality
inaccessible to a merely casual or parochial view of life. MEN
is present in all endeavours aimed at expanding human consciousness.
The
Maya refer to AHAU as the Solar Mind, the Mind of Light, the
resonance of human consciousness with the consciousness of the
Sun. AHAU refers to unconditional love, teamwork, the magic of
flowers. It is the Mesoamerican equivalent of Christ consciousness
and represents the ultimate goal of any Mayan spiritual practice.
A
FOUR-FOLD, MULTI-LEVEL RITUAL OF LUNATION ATTUNEMENT
In order to move toward the goal
of developing Ahau consciousness, it is useful to view each Mayan
mind as having one of four available bodies: physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual. These bodies naturally align with the
four major sectors of the lunation cycle. Most
mass-market calendars provide this level of information to us.
PHYSICAL BODY- New Moon to First
Quarter
New Moon is a natural starting
point for the attunement process. A New Moon occurs every 29.5
days, and it is at New Moon that the angular separation between
Sun and Moon, as viewed from the Earth, reaches a zero point.
New Moon, therefore, represents a condition of great potential
energy. The whole rest of the cyclic process lies dormant at
this time. It is the realm of the idea. Quantum physicists would
call it an apex of quantum potential. Mystics might refer to
it as the Godhead.
The physical body is the densest
octave of a multidimensional body of light. It acts as the three
dimensional vibratory vehicle, or resonator, through which multi-dimensional
energies may flow to Earth. Contained within the physical body
are cellular memories both recent and ancient. Much of the work
of being alive in a physical body is about activating and releasing
these memories so that new, more vitalised energy can flow through.
New moon to first quarter is an especially good time to do this
by honouring the body and its inner knowing, its instinct. Instinct
is the body's way of spontaneously weaving a continuous web of
purpose, the purpose for which we were born. Instinct is that
kind of knowing that does not question or deliberate before action.
It is the kind of knowing that rises up from a deep reservoir
of racial memory within each one of us. It is instantaneous in
its expression. Such instinctive knowing is grounded in self-trust
and essential beingness. It is the kind of knowing that culture
immediately begins to subsume under a barage of expectations
and conformities. It is the kind of knowing that is retained
by those living in harmony with the Earth and with natural cycles,
because it is the kind of knowing that understands the nature
of impermanence.
EMOTIONAL
BODY-First
Quarter to Full Moon
The second sector of the lunation
cycle refers to the emotional body, an entity unto itself and
one that has its own consciousness and its own laws of reality.
Significantly, it has an unmanifest portion that dwells in ecstatic
realms and will guide us there, if we let it, for the emotional
body is the body of our heart's desires. Through repeated experiences
of unconditional love and acceptance of ourselves, blockages
thwarting the manifestation of these desires, can vanish.
The resistance and blockages we experience in the physical and
emotional bodies are primarily ego-survival mechanisms constraining
our response patterns within narrow themes, themes dictated by
fear. The ego, however, can be released from fear through the
experience of states of ecstasy and wonderment. In fact, it can
become a focused lens for the release of the divine energy of
spirit. This occurs when, through self-acceptance and surrender,
we are able to spontaneously open to ever-higher centres of consciousness
within us, and to unleash creative insight and action. As a result,
the range of response themes we are able to create, increases,
as do our chances for survival in an increasingly complex world.
Action is a keynote for the emotional body and it is through
deliberate action, in alignment to our heart's desires, that
we move ahead, in wholeness. The consequences of such action
may nevertheless bring us into difficulties. Experiences of overcoming
must be faced, and this is where a period of introspection and
refinement is required. Such is the nature of the time just preceding
the full moon, and the full moon itself, presents a powerful
image of the successful completion of such a period of overcoming.
It reveals also, the feminine principle in its form as the Divine
Mother, shedding her light unconditionally onto all who come
within her radiance.
MENTAL
BODY-Full
Moon to Last Quarter
Direct experience of a Full Moon
can, perhaps more than any other experience related to the lunar
cycle, inspire in us, a conscious understanding of wholeness.
This is because we simultaneously "see,"and "feel",
the essence of wholeness that the full moon disc embodies. This
has been so for millennia, and is still so, for those of us whose
lives allow for a conscious connection to this natural phenomenon.
Within a current lunation cycle, Full Moon can assist us to own,
fully, our own visionary capacity.
From the illumination and objectivity that an encounter with
the Full Moon can bring us, we can consciously begin to release
meaning from the forms we have created in our lives since the
previous New Moon. We interpret, we explain, we disseminate ideas
through words, images, actions. In this way, we fully engage
our mental body, the body of the intellect, the cogitating mind.
That cogitating mind has both a higher, and a lower, aspect.
One component (the "lower", keeps us grounded in practicality
and analysis. The other component allows us to journey into the
depths of our unconscious, through an activated intuition. When
both our analytical and our intuitive modes are brought together
as one, a leap is made into what ancient Chinese seers called
the Mind of Tao or as Dane Rudhyar once put it, the Mind of Wholeness.
Development of the Mind of Wholeness
empowers us to identify for ourselves, deeper and deeper realms
of the spiritual heritage to which we are heir. Such depth penetration
of our own unconscious can precipitate moments of rapture and
ecstasy. These moments are true gifts of the spirit and are necessary,
to raise the vibrations of our physical/emotional bodies. A thorough,
ongoing, meditative practice of lunation attunement can facilitate
this type of deep journeying, and can bring us to the threshold
of revelation and prophecy, the natural domain of the spiritual
body.
SPIRITUAL
BODY - Last
Quarter to New Moon
From the Last quarter to New Moon
each month, we are given the opportunity to open to our most
universal realms being, for during this time, we develop depth
perception. For it is during this time that our deepest spiritual
nature can shine through to a consciousness which has readied
itself to receive. For this to happen, and for the spiritual
body to be truly honoured, the ego must surrender control in
order to experience itself on a cosmic, universal, level. Having
had such an experience, it can become a self-consecrated source,
giving form to the as-yet-unmanifest revelations coming to it
from a newer, more inclusive domain of consciousness. In this
way, the ego itself, completes the cycle of death and rebirth
symbolized by the lunation cycle. It stands ready to begin again,
the spiral dance of yet another cycle of incarnation.
THE JOURNEY AHEAD
Our minds are our own to the extent
that we take responsibility for them. The paths we tread in our
own self-realization need not be ones out of balance with the
rest of Creation. The paths we take can be beauty paths, paths
that include both our light side and our dark side, each in cyclically-balanced
measure. We can together embark on a mystical journey of renewal
and regeneration, a journey that could bring to each of us, a
deep sense of participation and purpose. Thereby can we, ourselves,
become generative sources of unity on this planet. We could become
increasingly empowered to join one-heartedly with Hopi,
Maya and other like-mindeds, to protect both land and life, and
hold the world in balance.
"Together
with all nations,
we protect both land and life
and hold the world in balance."
Hopi
prayer