Mar 07 2025
Dorothy Walters – Once More Turn Me to Gold
Once More Turn Me to Gold
by Dorothy Walters
(for Kabir)
Every cell,
each bone and covering.
Let me shine
like a golden coin
spinning in the summer sun,
a yellow leaf
that falls to earth
in early autumn, late spring.
Let me be a beacon for all
yearning to pass this way,
to become pure,
like the alchemist’s dream,
the cabalist’s desire.
Let me be dipped
in liquid gold,
now luminous,
radiant as the sun,
complete at last.
— from The Goddess Speaks: Poems of Ecstasy and Transformation, by Dorothy Walters
/ Image by Chu Son /
I have been thinking about Dorothy Walters recently. She was a close friend for many years. We met initially through our parallel work, both of us in different ways being early explorers of poetry and spirituality on the Internet. She published a blog of her poetry and Kundalini experiences while, at the same time, quietly connecting one-on-one with those who reached out to her, seeking to better understand their own private spiritual experiences. She soon came across my work with the Poetry Chaikhana and emailed me, beginning a correspondence.
At the time, she lived in San Francisco, but she had strong ties to Boulder, Colorado, where I lived. She had been a professor at the University of Colorado for many years before retirement, and she decided to return to the area. This serendipitous move allowed us to become closer friends.
My wife and I would regularly meet Dorothy on a Sunday morning and go out to brunch together. We had wonderful, far ranging conversations that returned again and again to the spiritual journey, seasoned with plenty of laughter. It was always a treat to meet with this sweet, elderly woman who often wore a knitted cap, eyeglasses with Chinese characters engraved around the rims, and draped herself in wild colors.
I wonder how many people in Boulder knew what a treasure they had shuffling around the downtown, occasionally popping into discussions on lucid dreaming or poetry readings.
In her final years, a wonderful, dedicated group of people worked together to make sure that her few basic necessities and health care were taken care of. She passed away in 2023, well into her nineties.
For many, she was seen as a spiritual teacher. There were times when I saw her that way too, but more as an inspiration, a template of how to be an elder in the world — quiet, yet active, unconventional, playful, caring, engaged, always touching people’s lives for the better. As I begin to enter my elder years, I hope to embody my own version of those uplifting energies she brought to those around her.
Mostly, however, I thought of Dorothy Walters as a friend, a friend who still sometimes shows up to whisper in my ear.
Recommended Books: Dorothy Walters
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Dorothy Walters
US (1928 – 2023) Timeline |
Dorothy Walters, PHD, spent most of her early professional life as a professor of English literature in various Midwestern universities. She helped to found one of the first women’s studies programs in this country and served as the director of this program for many years. After an extended residence in San Francisco, she spent the later years of her life in Colorado, where she had a close relationship with the mountains as well as various streams and canyons.
Ms. Walters underwent a major Kundalini awakening in 1981 (a phenomenon totally unfamiliar to her as well as to most of her contemporaries at the time). Following that experience she devoted her life to researching and writing about this subject and to witnessing the unfolding of this process within herself as well as assisting others on a similar path through writing and other means. As someone who made her extensive journey without the direction of any external leader or guru, church, or established order, she was a strong believer in the “guru within,” the inner guide rather than the external authority figure or institution.
She felt that universal Kundalini awakening is the means for planetary and personal evolution of consciousness, and that evidence of planetary initiation is becoming more and more prevalent. Her Kundalini awakening and subsequent process of unfolding are described in her memoir Unmasking the Rose: A Record of Kundalini Initiation. Her poems taken from her four previous volumes are published as Some Kiss We Want: Poems Selected and New. Her article on “Kundalini and the Mystic Path” was included in Kundalini Rising, an anthology from Sounds True Publications. Her poems, which have been included in many anthologies and journals, have been set to music and sung at the Royal Opera House in London as well as Harvard University, used as texts for sermons and read aloud in churches, included in doctoral projects, been frequently quoted, and have given inspiration to many.
The Poetry Chaikhana publishes her best-known collection of poetry, Marrow of Flame.
She often gave counsel and referral free of charge to those undergoing spontaneous Kundalini awakening and/or spiritual transformation.
Dorothy Walters published her blog, Kundalini Splendor, at www.kundalinisplendor.blogspot.com.
She passed away in 2023 in Colorado.
The poem is beyond perfect, and the appraisal and tribute by you is exquisite. This is why we love and appreciate Poetry Chaikhana, Ivan. Keep up and continue your important work.
So many layers of meaning in this short poem. Written for Kabir, it echoes Kabir’s “Let there be Your Love, Lord, burning in every cell of my dying and transfigured body… Lord of Truth, TURN ME TO GOLD” the essence of what Kabir lived for – purification and transformation of his being, including the “earthen vessel,” the body – every cell… the alchemical process of turning the lead of ordinary mundane human into pure gold of a divinized human. Kabir, who lived this rebirthing process, gave us a precious account of it in his poems, and in that he was the forerunner, a beacon for all who long to be reborn to truth “in perfect fullness.” In her poem, Dorothy Walters asks to be, like Kabir – “a beacon for all yearning to pass this way,” to be transmuted “every cell, each bone and covering,” to be turned into a “golden coin spinning in the summer sun” to attain the alchemist’s dream of purity, the kabbalist’s desire for spiritual fulfillment – “complete at last.” …and here’s Kabir’s: “So I can love in perfect fullness You – who loves in me” (WOW!!!)
There are more layers, of course …I’m blown away by this poem, a great example of how a poet’s longing can ignite or deepen the longing in the reader.
Thank you, Ivan, for giving us these gems, Blessings.