Tosia H Zraikat

Black Holes and the Sacred Serpent

I watched the movie Interstellar - again - trying to understand its theory about black holes.  

 Once considered the galaxy-eating monsters of our universe, black holes may, some think, "grow the galaxies surrounding them" (L.A. Times Jan 08, 2009).  Black hole HE0450-2958 located 5 billion light years away is thought to be  "powering star formation in the nearby galaxy by spraying its jets of high-energy particles toward it".  The team of astronomers has "identified black hole jets as a possible driver of galaxy formation"(www.space.com 30 Nov 2009). 

The paradox here is that spinning black holes also absorb entire galaxies and anything else that comes close enough, making them both cosmic destroyers and creators.

I suspect that as it discovers more about the nature of black holes, science will find that what they destroy in this universe provides the creative energy in another universe. Rather than our black holes spitting back the energy of absorbed galaxies, they may be releasing through wormholes or some other means the energy of other universes into our galaxies.

Simulated black hole. NASA.gov

 

If this is true, then black holes are cosmological demonstrations of a profound metaphysical and spiritual paradox:  Life born of Death; death and rebirth.

One mythological expression of this paradox and its deeper spiritual meaning is the  serpent.

                      Egyptian

                          Ancient Greek

 

On one level, the serpent is the supreme symbol of the soul's death or descent into materiality. The serpent is linked to the fall - the spiritual death - of mankind, and our attachment to the physical.

On another level, the serpent represents the rise of the soul from entrapment in materiality to its spiritual awakening to its divine nature...the soul's liberation from ego consciousness to the realisation of Christ, Buddha or God consciousness. Why the serpent? Because it represents embodied spirit. The awakened soul does not rise above the body and the world: rather, it engages more deeply, joyfully and meaningfully with the life being lived as it was intended to. 

This awakening of the soul, however, requires the repeated death of the lower self (that part that is attached to, addicted to sensual and ego gratification), and repeated rebirth into ever higher levels of awareness.

See it terms of energy: the transformation of spiritual energy.

Another mythic representation of the life-from-death paradox is the Vedic triad:  Shiva the destroyer, Brahma the creator, and Vishnu the preserver...three aspects of the one supreme divine principle. As the destroyer aspect of this divine triad, Shiva brings about the end of an aeon and destroys the world, which, after time of non-being, through the grace of Vishnu - "embodiment of mercy and goodness, the self-existent, all-pervading power that preserves the universe and maintains the cosmic order" - is created once again by Brahma.

In Vedic mythology, Vishnu floats on the cosmic sea on the coils of a great serpent, out of him rising Brahma who recreates the world. 

Vishnu resting on Ananta-Shesha as his onsort Lakshmi massages his feet

 

The spiral of Ananta-Shesha is a symbolic expression of the eternal cycle of Being. The god Shiva dances in cosmic spirals, representing the active force of truth in the  universe.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In mythic symbolism, the soul's awakening is often represented as a serpent spiralling upward, usually two spiralling  serpents, each spiral representing a stage in the soul's evolution.

 (Left: Mesopotamian Ningizzida).

 

 

To me, this grand mythic cycle of sacred serpents represents the fundamental cosmic cycle in which galaxies -  perhaps even whole universes - are born, grow, and die, their forces stilled like the pause between the inbreath and the outbreath until they are reborn as new into a new world.

'As above, so below'. So is the cosmic order mirrored in the spiral of a person's spiritual liberation.

It is also a fundamental form in nature...sacred geometry seen in the spiral of a coiled fern frond; the endless spirals of fractals; the orderly spirals of magnetic energy and the spirals of galaxies, dark holes and other cosmic bodies.

Who knows.  If, at the moment of transition from waking to sleep, from one thought to another, from one dimension to another, we could really see our consciousness, it might appear as a galaxy, a cluster of galaxies spiralling joyfully towards the black hole of transformation.

Nothing Passive about Acceptance!

Spiritual teachers of many persuasions teach the idea of acceptance, that through acceptance, we find peace. that we must say 'yes' to everything.

But this brings one face to face with the problem of evil. Do we say 'yes' to that as well, and accept it as part of life, or do we actively distance ourselves from it and focus only on the good?

I have struggled with this dilemma many times over a long life time, and the only answer I come up with is this:

That what is, is, because somehow, we have allowed it to be, perhaps even (unwittingly or no) helped it to be.

The state of our world, including the evil in it, reflects back to us, to all of us, all that we have thought, believed and done....every hateful thought, every cruelty, every neglect of someone in need, each refusal to acknowledge another's suffering, and be moved enough to try to relieve it...all of it. 

In accepting what is, ugly as it might be, we are admitting to ourselves that we are all responsible for what is. We are all part of the society and its history that has helped to create this ugliness, and we are all accountable for it. 

Accepting it, recognising it as it is, is to say, "this too is me". In other words, the potential to do this, commit this act, be this way also exists in me.

The potential for evil is part of being human. If we refuse to accept it in ourselves, we will continue to project it out onto others, other people, other cultures, other societies etc. They in return are projecting all that is unacceptable onto others. We are always projecting, and very rarely, and only with great effort do we realise that 'the enemy is us'.

So acceptance of what is, saying 'yes', that is part of my reality, is the first step to taking back our projections. When we take them back, we can begin the hard work of dealing with them, of recognising our shadow selves and finding ways to integrate them in positive ways.

Saying 'yes' is not the final step. It is the first. First, recognise and accept.

Then, heal and correct that thing, that evil, that fault or whatever in ourselves. This is the true basis of forgiveness.

Christ taught love and forgiveness not because they are good, but because through forgiveness, we diminish the energies of  evil, anger, guilt, and despair; through love, we nourish the energies of life, growth and inner strength.

But we cannot truly forgive what we refuse to accept, either in ourselves or others. 'Yes', I see that, I acknowledge it. And I forgive it so that I can turn all my energy to good.

 

Looking at a Dream from the Inside

I had this dream some time ago, and working with it was one of my first experiences of Carl Jung's Active Imagination approach to dreams and the unconscious. Yet the dream images often come to mind, so I know that the dream is still working in me, and am using active imagination go a little deeper into it at this time.

Black parrots dream

I watch a child climbing a dense tree and notice small oblong hives of bees (ancient Egyptian style), which will hurt him if disturbed. I tell the child (my grandson) to come down though he is unconcerned and I guide him past the bees. I noticed three big black eagle-like parrots watching him. They are between him and me. I am unusually calm (usually anxious in my dreams). The boy is fearless, smiling as he stops to observe the bees on the way down. The birds, however, are fierce-looking, their hooked beaks partly open and hungry-looking. Yet I know that as long as I am watchful and guide the boy safely past the bees, the birds will not harm him. They watch me, waiting for a moment of self-doubt, of hesitation, and I hear the words, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. I do not falter.

Interpretation

Because of their fierceness and cold bright eyes, I think that the parrots represent my critical ego self waiting for the child/me to be hurt and say, "See, I told you not to trust yourself". I think that I am the higher self watching, guiding, ready to stop the birds if they moved toward the child. So maybe Stupid is directed at my ego, which misunderstood everything, or maybe at the trusting child/inner child who does not recognise the danger. I don't know, and the dream, don't give it any thought.

So I interpreted that dream as telling me that if I am fully present, fully conscious, sensitive to the forces and energies around me, I will be safe. I can trust myself.

Second interpretation

Yet when I used Carl Jung's active imagination approach to ‘speak’ with the birds, I found that the dream had a lot more to say. The birds told me to that I must be “infinitely patient and let things unfold, yet hold a clear purpose.”

When I asked what they represented, they asked, “Don’t you want our fierce will, our determination, our watchfulness?” Yes, I did. I do.

They drew my attention to the bees, which I had taken as representing potential risk or danger, or as gatekeepers to gold (honey, spiritual treasure). “We watch over them,” the birds said, “because they are preoccupied and dreaming. Yet they are life itself; they carry the seeds of procreation.” From this, I understood that the bees represented the creative force that speaks not to waking consciousness but to the dreaming or entranced self.

The birds also represented a part of me that I had considered unacceptable, and often been criticised for, a stern, stubborn, fierce aspect of my being that I had tried to smother with gentleness and compliance.

“Why are you so fierce?” I asked. They replied, “Because you want to be fierce and still, and dangerous.....You don’t feel safe with gentle and loving. You want to feel protected, steely-winged angels at your side....You want to be guarded by fearless ones who love you, cherish you.” “And you do that?” I asked. “Always. As angel, eagle, castle wall, I am with you.”

I cannot tell you how reassuring that was, and how validating to know that I could express those tough, steely qualities with which I had protected myself through a difficult childhood, and accept the fearfulness that lay behind them. My only real protection is to accept and integrate.

"You cannot deny fear," they said. "You must accept it, face it. Until you do, your safety is based on avoiding danger. Instead you must find the courage within you."

"Do you want me to be afraid?" I asked. They replied, "To face it, take it in. Transform it into light, energy, power...or the child will never be allowed to grow. He will forever be held back by what you do not make fully conscious and acceptable." I must say that I was surprised, but it feels true.

Regarding the dream parrots, I had read somewhere Marie Louise von Franz’s discussion on parrots in eastern fairytales. The birds in my dream were eagle-like parrots, with lustrous blue-black feathers and parrot beaks, but the fierce eyes and stillness of eagles. They were also very large and conveyed the quiet power and authority that one associates more with eagles.

Von Franz’s parrots represent the Self, both its destructive and its redemptive power for the soul, and one must be very careful not to arouse the destructive power but to watch for the right moment to catch their redemptive power. I see that in this dream.

The three birds are the Self with a capital S, watching and totally aware, and seeming dangerous. The other watcher, ego self, though confident, is afraid for the child's safety. Stupid might refer to that, the ego as setter of limitations, builder of walls, "the inner critic" that often calls me stupid. It takes courage to ignore ego, which can seem so intelligent, and trust as one's higher Self or Soul pushes me toward the unknown. Yet that is what I must do.

I have found in my own life that the inner guides and the Soul can be very stern with those who lack the courage to leave the ego path. If we do not obey them (for they demand our obedience), they may remain silent, let us suffer the consequences of our choices and learn from them how wrong ego can be . It is very humbling.

Humility is ego’s most efficient teacher, I think, absolutely necessary if ego is to take its rightful place as servant of the soul. Which it must, if we are to become whole, truly conscious beings. 

For now, this little poem is enough to express my dreamwork experience with this dream.

I am still working on a little sketch in response to some more recent, and deeper inner work with it. I'll share it in a new post when it's ready.

I climb through tangled branches, leaves,

Curious adventurer into secret wilderness.

I watch from the side

bees silent as breath around their oval nests.

I guide the child past

Slow, alert, trusting.

I watch other watchers,

Curved beaks, fierce eyes, shimmering like opals in the leaves

Still but for their eager breath, waiting.

I am the child... I am the watcher that guides...

...the waiting birds...

I am the tree and the bees unaware.

I am consciousness

And there is no fear.