Prokopton
31-05-2011, 11:26 AM
There’s a lot of over-generalized stuff on the net about cross-cultural kundalini, which is a shame because there is in fact evidence of it as a widespread phenomenon. A great key there is that it can awaken in people who don’t practice at all and merely go through an NDE for example, with absolutely typical symptoms. But you can also get a lot of clues from looking at cultural objects. Most people who have seen the Caduceus of Hermes know they are in all likelihood looking at an Ancient Greek version of the familiar serpent power, in symbolic form:
http://news.review-of.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/caduceus.gif
Gorgon statues are particularly interesting. The hair of Medusa was often said to be composed entirely of live snakes, but gorgon depictions often showed her very differently — as an ugly or monstrous woman with ordinary hair, but with two intertwined serpents at her waist which actually recall the caduceus.
http://lightningoak.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/gorgon-with-snakes.gif
Kundalini is often associated with the monstrous feminine via the Hindu goddess Kali, so this is a Greek continuation of a traditional trope. Medusa’s blood at her death came up in two streams, one a deadly poison used by Athena afterwards, and the other a wonderful healing balm used by none other than Asclepius, who was also one of the few definite examples in actual Greek Myth of a divinized mortal, and whose Rod shows the method by which he got his divinity plainly enough.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MFkT6R_yyYM/TTAjvCsgprI/AAAAAAAACW0/YIgd97TiVw4/s400/Rod+of+Asclepius.gif
It’s also said in some Greek myths that Pegasus, the wonderful flying horse, sprang from the blood of the slain Medusa. The horse pre-eminently (amongst many other symbolic roles of course) is an OBE animal cross-culturally. Both Mohammed and Odin, for instance, journeyed in the non-physical on the backs of horses with mythical attributes.
Not all Greek art shows Pegasus as winged. We get a great clue from a 5th c. BCE terracotta relief from Melos.
http://lightningoak.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/bellerophonweb.gif
It shows the hero Bellerophon on the back of Pegasus, fighting yet another monster, the chimera. The chimera has a tail which is a snake, yet the unwinged Pegasus also has front hooves being raised off the ground by a snake, suggesting that the snake is in some way his means of flight. One snake lifts the magical horse and thereby the hero, whilst the other forms part of the monster which the hero must conquer — yet the snakes are very alike. The monstrous chimera represents a nervous system out of control, but Pegasus is an animal nature that has risen harmoniously and is able to soar. It’s the poison/healing balm duality again. It’s a duality within us all.
Bellerophon may have had kundalini but clearly he did not achieve full enlightenment, since he is specifically remembered as having been thrown off Pegasus in his attempt to assume immortality, when Zeus stung the horse with a gad-fly — he ended his days as a misanthropic cripple, and did not join the likes of Asclepius (or Heracles) in becoming an immortal.
However, Pegasus himself did make it to immortality.
http://news.review-of.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/caduceus.gif
Gorgon statues are particularly interesting. The hair of Medusa was often said to be composed entirely of live snakes, but gorgon depictions often showed her very differently — as an ugly or monstrous woman with ordinary hair, but with two intertwined serpents at her waist which actually recall the caduceus.
http://lightningoak.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/gorgon-with-snakes.gif
Kundalini is often associated with the monstrous feminine via the Hindu goddess Kali, so this is a Greek continuation of a traditional trope. Medusa’s blood at her death came up in two streams, one a deadly poison used by Athena afterwards, and the other a wonderful healing balm used by none other than Asclepius, who was also one of the few definite examples in actual Greek Myth of a divinized mortal, and whose Rod shows the method by which he got his divinity plainly enough.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MFkT6R_yyYM/TTAjvCsgprI/AAAAAAAACW0/YIgd97TiVw4/s400/Rod+of+Asclepius.gif
It’s also said in some Greek myths that Pegasus, the wonderful flying horse, sprang from the blood of the slain Medusa. The horse pre-eminently (amongst many other symbolic roles of course) is an OBE animal cross-culturally. Both Mohammed and Odin, for instance, journeyed in the non-physical on the backs of horses with mythical attributes.
Not all Greek art shows Pegasus as winged. We get a great clue from a 5th c. BCE terracotta relief from Melos.
http://lightningoak.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/bellerophonweb.gif
It shows the hero Bellerophon on the back of Pegasus, fighting yet another monster, the chimera. The chimera has a tail which is a snake, yet the unwinged Pegasus also has front hooves being raised off the ground by a snake, suggesting that the snake is in some way his means of flight. One snake lifts the magical horse and thereby the hero, whilst the other forms part of the monster which the hero must conquer — yet the snakes are very alike. The monstrous chimera represents a nervous system out of control, but Pegasus is an animal nature that has risen harmoniously and is able to soar. It’s the poison/healing balm duality again. It’s a duality within us all.
Bellerophon may have had kundalini but clearly he did not achieve full enlightenment, since he is specifically remembered as having been thrown off Pegasus in his attempt to assume immortality, when Zeus stung the horse with a gad-fly — he ended his days as a misanthropic cripple, and did not join the likes of Asclepius (or Heracles) in becoming an immortal.
However, Pegasus himself did make it to immortality.