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Secular or Eclectic Contemporary	About Dorothy Walters Timeline (1928 - )
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Original Language English	Preparing to Greet the Goddess
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger Themes   Water   Wine         Recommended Books Marrow of Flame : Poems of the Spiritual Journey, by Dorothy Walters Unmasking the Rose: A Record of a Kundalini Initiation, by Dorothy Walters	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 Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

This poem by the Kundalini initiate Dorothy Walters beautifully evokes the majestic and devastating way in which the ego, the I-sense, falls away in deep ecstasy.

"Do not think of her" -- the Goddess Kundalini -- "unless you are prepared." 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.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.