{"id":8213,"date":"2023-02-17T09:25:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T16:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=8213"},"modified":"2023-02-17T09:25:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T16:25:06","slug":"dorothy-walters-the-abundance-of-brightness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/17\/dorothy-walters-the-abundance-of-brightness\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorothy Walters – The Abundance of Brightness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Abundance of Brightness
\nby Dorothy Walters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God is not unknown on account of obscurity
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but on account of the abundance of brightness.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 St. Thomas Aquinas<\/i><\/p>\n

1.
\nDante Mounting to the Rose of Heaven<\/i><\/p>\n

Not one of us
\ncould breathe this air,
\nface this naked radiance
\nunscathed.
\nHere music turns to light,
\na tone so sweet
\nthat we, dulled by
\nour familiar calliope,
\nmistake its sound for silence.<\/p>\n

Dante, mounting to tiers of
\ntrembling flame,
\nfound light. Light everywhere.
\nCircles, wheels,
\nlight on light,
\na dance of invisibles.
\nThe flames pulsating, as if
\nmeasuring the breath of heaven.
\nAt the last, he falls forward,
\ncaught in widening rings
\nof implacable bright.<\/p>\n

2.
\nAt Eleusis<\/i><\/p>\n

Even at Eleusis,
\nafter the long journey,
\nthe sea-bath among the sacred waves,
\nthe accounts of the grieving mother
\nand her vanished child,
\nat the end
\nthe shouts rang out
\nlike birth-cries in the throats
\nof the startled pilgrims, blinded
\nby the flare of torches sweeping
\nfrom frames of darkness.
\nThen silence. Then they saw.<\/p>\n

3.
\nA Celebration<\/i><\/p>\n

And then quiet.
\nSomeone who whispers:
\nnow we are free.<\/p>\n

Which was, almost,
\ntrue,
\nbut only in the way
\na bird,
\nleaving a limb,
\ngoes freely into
\na different realm,
\nan atmosphere
\nmore pure,
\nmore transparent,
\nbut that, too,
\nmaintaining its fixities.<\/p>\n

4.
\nThe Clinging<\/i><\/p>\n

[for those who] have beheld the Tao\u2026 gems sparkle on dusty roads; puddles appear as pools of lapis lazuli; tough weeds acquire fragile beauty\u2026
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 John Blofield<\/i><\/p>\n

The I Ching calls it clinging, fire:
\n\u201cFire has no definite form,\u201d
\nit says,
\n\u201cbut clings to the burning object
\nand thus is bright.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Marrow of Flame : Poems of the Spiritual Journey<\/a>, by Dorothy Walters<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Jackson David<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

I found out a few days ago that Dorothy Walters passed away at the beginning of this week. She would have been 95 next month.<\/p>\n

Dorothy and I had been good friends for nearly 20 years. She reached out to me over the Internet in the early days of the Poetry Chaikhana, back when I had just put the website up and had begun circulating these poetry emails. At the time, she still lived in San Francisco but, as a retired professor, she had deep ties to where I lived in Boulder, Colorado and its university, and she soon moved back.<\/p>\n

We liked to meet for brunch and far-ranging conversations. We also, for awhile, met together with a few others to read and discuss spiritual poetry.<\/p>\n

Though a few decades younger than her, I was often in awe of her energy. She attended multiple groups exploring questions of spirituality, psychology, and human awareness. Invariably, everyone was drawn to her small frame and big heart. She contributed essays to a few different books on Kundalini experience, and she spoke several times at different Kundalini conferences. On top of all that, she maintained many rich, personal correspondences with people all over the country and the world who contacted her to discuss their experiences of spiritual and energetic opening.<\/p>\n

She has been a special presence in the world \u2014 and in my own life. As I enter my elder years, I hope to follow her example of joyful, enthusiastic, and heartfelt service. She continues to be an inspiration.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Dorothy!<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Dorothy Walters<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThis Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nMarrow of Flame : Poems of the Spiritual Journey<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Ley Lines of the Soul: Poems of Ecstasy and Ascension<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nDiamond Cutters: Visionary Poets in America, Britain & Oceania<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Dorothy<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nDorothy Walters<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US (1928 \u2013 2023) Timeline<\/a>
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cguru within,\u201d the inner guide rather than the external authority figure or institution.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.\u00a0 Her poems taken from her four previous volumes are published as Some Kiss We Want: Poems Selected and New<\/a>. Her article on \u201cKundalini and the Mystic Path\u201d was included in Kundalini Rising<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The Poetry Chaikhana publishes her best-known collection of poetry, Marrow of Flame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She often gave counsel and referral free of charge to those undergoing spontaneous Kundalini awakening and\/or spiritual transformation.<\/p>\n

Dorothy Walters published her blog, Kundalini Splendor, at www.kundalinisplendor.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Dorothy Walters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Abundance of Brightness by Dorothy Walters \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God is not unknown on account of obscurity \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but on account of the abundance of brightness. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 St. Thomas Aquinas 1. Dante Mounting to the Rose of Heaven Not one of us could breathe this air, face this naked radiance unscathed. Here music turns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,3,1],"tags":[1879,517,2510,2511,1290,935,60,2509],"class_list":["post-8213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ivans-story","category-poetry","category-uncategorized","tag-brightness","tag-dorothy-walters","tag-eleusis","tag-eleusynian-mysteries","tag-flame","tag-i-ching","tag-light","tag-thomas-aquinas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8216,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions\/8216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}