[H{e(art)]h}

Heart)h

I'm beginning to detect a theme, and it includes something that I've wanted to share for a while (the novelty of words). Think about the macro/micro relationship again. The heart is to the Person as the hearth is to the home as the earth is to the . . . what, universe. . . Or should it be solar-system?  Why wouldn't we call the sun the heart?  Well, blockhead, where is the poetry in that? The earth is something special to be sure, but I don't think I could justify its heartness in its system -(There are a bunch of dudes that will go on about the galactic center, the cosmic center of the milky way, and cite it as the important vessel.  I read galactic center more womb(y).)

So we watched Iron Man last night, and also Disney's Atlantis - The Lost Empire recently. "Hearts" are coming at me.  We are planning on watching Hearts in Atlantis tonight. You know, plumb the depths. . .

Do you remember the chakras? They can also be called the Seven Lotus Centers of the Kundalini. I'll give you an image, but if you are lost, I suggest that you read my post entitled "Eden". 

I don't want to kill you with details even though I know that is how you feel right now.  Suffice to say, there is a lot of information one could impart about each of the chakras.  The point, and this is how some people answer "the question"(the purpose of life), is the climbing of this ladder. Do you need an image?  Joseph Campbell loved and showed lots of snake-climbing images.  Here is an image along w/ Lilith for good measure.

Where I'm going with this is to a quote by Joseph Campbell.  His point is important because it is an explanation of the first three chakras and what they mean to existence.  Each of us makes this journey (symbolically/metaphorically) as we grow, but the world as whole is undergoing this journey as well.  He speaks to the functions and results of the first three chakras:

These, and these alone [the first three chakras], have supplied the motivations of historical man, his effective moral systems, and his nightmare of world history. They are the centers of the basic urges, furthermore, that mankind shares with the beasts -- namely, (1) to survive alive by feeding on other lives, (2) to generate offspring, and (3) to conquer and subdue. Unrestrained by any control system, these become devastating, as the history of the present century surely tells. For as declared in the Indian Arthasastra, "Textbook on the Art of Winning": "When uncontrolled by virtue (dharma) and the big stick (danda), men become wolves unto men." The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, pg. 63-64 by Joseph Campbell, St. James Press, Toronto, 1986.

There is a bit of rumble that humanity is ready to rise to the next level--level four, the chakra located at the heart. And so this is why I'm seeing images of tin men everywhere, maybe. What did the Tin Man need? What was the defining feature of Iron Man?  The answer is the heart. The heart of Atlantis in the Disney animated feature is a crystal, which Eckhart Tolle describes as an "enlightened" rock--yes I'm last person in the world to begin reading him, and what is his new book called?  A New Earth (I don't care, I'm going to read the earth hearty.  The sun pumps the solar blood, but the earth is heart-like in its way.)

So now we have got the serpent started: let us follow her up the spinal staff, which in this yoga is regarded as the microcosmic counterpart of the macrocosmic universal axis, its lotus stages being thus equivalent to the platforms of the many-storied ziggurats, and its summit to the lofty marriage chamber of the lunar and solar lights. The Mythic Image, pg. 334 by Joseph Campbell. MJF Books, New York, 1974.

"And so we ascend to chakra four, at the level of the heart, where what Dante called La Vita Nuova, 'The New Life,' begins." (356) The Mythic Image.

This is another theme coming at me. The New World,  The New Age.  2012! Do you know what the coolies were drinking during the summer of 2008? A light bubbly wine on ice with lime. The wine?  New Age.

So, to restate,  one can read the climbing of the lotus ladder a few ways.  One way is as a metaphorical journey that everyone takes as they age and mature.  Another way is literally.  A yogi actually feels this serpent power come to life and begin rising literally! One can supposedly feel the heat at the chakra where the serpent energy or kundalini is and cold where it (she) was. This journey is both physical and spiritual though.  The people whose crown chakra opens like a thousand petal lotus have names like Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. 

(Black Elk)

If you are interested in this stuff, check out any Joseph Campbell.  He makes it pretty accessible. I like his The Inner Reaches of Outer Space as a starting point.  It encapsulates his whole deal, but does so in a fairly concise manner. I'm tempted to describe the individual chakras more, but I guess I'll hang back for now.

And my point?  My point has to do with the whole behaving like the part (a fractal).  Not only does an individual climb Jacob's 7 stepped ladder to heaven, but so does the world.  This is what Tolle's book is all about--a mass flowering/blossoming of humanity.  Are we seeing the signs of the world about to open its heart chakra collectively?  Look, and you too will begin seeing Tin Men everywhere. Last night my daughter watched The Iron Giant before bed, and two weeks ago my wife painted this: I didn't really understand it at the time, but now I think it makes perfect sense. Onward to The New Age. To The New World, Ho!