Preparing to Greet the Goddess
by Dorothy WaltersOriginal Language English
Do not think of her
unless you are prepared
to be driven to your limits,
to rush forth from yourself
like a ritual bowl overflowing
with sacramental wine.
Do not summon her image
unless you are ready to be blinded,
to stand in the flash
of a center exploding,
yourself shattering into the landscape,
wavering bits of bark and water.
Do not speak her name
until you have said good-bye
to all your familiar trinkets --
your mirrors, your bracelets,
your childhood adorations --
From now on you are nothing,
a ghost sighing at the window,
a voice singing under water.
-- from Unmasking the Rose: A Record of a Kundalini Initiation, by Dorothy Walters |
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This poem beautifully evokes the majestic and devastating way in which the ego, the I-sense, falls away in deep ecstasy.
Do not think of her
unless you are prepared
to be driven to your limits...
Dorothy Walters is a well-known modern commentator on the experiences of the Kundalini. The poem's mysterious "her," this goddess we are preparing to meet, she is the Goddess Kundalini.
First, let's take a moment to explore who and what the Kundalini is. In the yogic description of the energetic-spiritual body, we all carry within us a powerful spiritual energy, typically dormant at the base of the spine. This is the Kundalini Shakti. It is considered a manifestation of the Divine Feminine within each individual, thus she is referred to as a Goddess. When, through spiritual practice, through selfless service, through profound inner stillness and opening, the fiery Kundalini is roused from her slumber, and she rises up the spine to the crown, where she joins in union with the Masculine Divine energy. This blissful union opens the individual beyond the limits of the ego, opening the doorway to enlightenment, liberation, awakening...
The more you travel inward, the less fixed the ego becomes. Its seams and fissures start to show -- a terrifying experience so long as you think you are that ego. You will truly be "driven to your limits," until you stop identifying with that ego idea of yourself.
When you finally let go, you find "yourself [the ego] shattering into the landscape," yet you, your true Self, remain standing in the center of a blinding flash of light, which is the summoned image of the Goddess.
Dorothy Walters is, I think, urging us to prepare earnestly, reverently for the reality of the risen Kundalini, rather than casually seeking it as a nifty experience. When we "greet the Goddess," we can no longer cling to the "familiar trinkets" the ego uses to make itself feel real. The ego-self comes to recognize that it is "nothing / a ghost sighing at the window," a potentially terrifying or unbalancing realization if you haven't prepared yourself.
But, in that utter loss of self, one is stunned to find a complete birth or awakening of the true Self. You are no longer the limited, ultimately unreal self of the ego, but a vast, blissful being with no clear boundaries, blessed by the presence of the Goddess.
Recommended Books: Dorothy Walters