THE TEMPLE OF SERPENTS
MOON CYCLE : 8 CIMI
December 23, 1992 to January 22, 1993
EIGHT
Resonance. Wholeness. Sharing. Unions formed. Marriage. Fertility. Healing. Systems of integration. Re-orientation. Listening to your inner voice, the sub-conscious and the higher conscious. Assistance from a guide in the physical or spiritual world. Increased auditory awareness. Divorce and war games. Restraining oneself to one's own world.
CIMI
Crying, release, victory, warrior, triumph, humility, mourning, catharsis, surrender, revelation, forgiveness, transmutation.
A PILGRIMAGE TO MEXICO
The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan synthesizes the previous five suns and commemorates the coming Sixth Sun. The five levels and platforms that form the Pyramid of the Sun correspond to the completion of the human being as a total sensory organism during the first five suns. The lowest platform of the base foundation corresponds to the sense of touch, followed by taste, smell, hearing, sight, and then the opening above the platform at the top to the Sixth Sun of Consciousness. All knowledge of this world and previous worlds is coded in the Pyramid of the Sun and is awaiting the moment of transfer from the fifth to the sixth order of cosmic reality.In the Sixth Sun, mind will open to the Absolute. During this era we will see the development of the mind as the science of telepathy. The Sixth Sun of Consciousness completes the human being and integrates the senses as we move into the Age of Harmony.
Jose Arguelles Book of the Timespace
As presented on The Lightning Path, the overarching mythic structure of the Tzolkin provides practical spiritual guidance on a Moon-cycle-by-Moon-cycle basis. Each Moon cycle is embedded in a mythic context that can be drawn upon to give added meaning and purpose to one’s life. The Lightning Path carries with it an ancestral wisdom that can inspire us if we are open to it and through my own direct experience I can affirm that this is so. For example, my participation in Harmonic Convergence incited in me a deep desire to understand more about the mythology of the Feathered Serpent. That desire peaked during passage through The Temple of Serpents where CHICCHAN, the serpent of sacred knowledge, rose to the crowning 7th chakra position of the human light body. Inspired by this realization and in a complete departure from my normal routine, I uncharacteristically and unexpectedly took a solo pilgrimage to Mexico to seek out the ancestral source of the myth of the Feathered Serpent.
Inspiration for my journey to Mexico came to me while reading the book Sky Watchers of Ancient Mexico. In that book, author Anthony Aveni reveals that just outside Mexico City sits the ancient pyramid city of Teotihuacán, otherwise known as “The City Where Gods Speak to Man” and where the myth of the Feathered Serpent played out on a grand scale. Aveni’s passionate and scholarly commentary about not only Teotihuacan, but about all things to do with ancient Mesoamerica, ignited my interest and over the course of a few days, I plunged into my studies with unexpected gusto. I felt that I was on the verge of discovering something very special and this feeling persisted for several days until it culminated very early on morning of New Moon 6 KAN (October 25, 1992) when I awoke from a dream with the vivid feeling that I was actually standing on top of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán! I was aware of the feel and smell of the air around me and of the vast spaciousness of the view before me. My whole body vibrated with what seemed to be a remembrance of some long lost chord of being. Attentive to that remembrance, I responded to what my body was telling me. I took it to be a clear invitation from my spiritual ancestors to join them and as a late winter Sun rose through treetops surrounding my little cabin in the frigid woods of Bragg Creek, Alberta, I made a firm resolve to somehow make my way three thousand miles south to the designated meeting place: the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán, Mexico.
The Crowd Inn, Bragg Creek, Alberta, Canada
Now, for me to have made such a resolution was a complete act of faith in what I took to be a directive sourced in the realm of pure spirit. Even though I was living on a shoestring budget and in no way, shape or form had the money to be traveling to Mexico, I communicated that faith to my friends, I declared that I did not know how or when I would do it but that I would someday soon be traveling to Teotihuacán to fulfill my vision. Three months later, my faith was firmly substantiated on January 1, 1993, during the eighth Moon of the Temple of Serpents I was suddenly inspired to create a sponsorship program for myself! I knew that if I surrendered completely to that inspiration and acted immediately, I would be assisted in manifesting what I required. I did exactly that, and within a few hours, I had all the money I needed to make the journey! Eighteen of my friends each committed $50 or more to my sponsorship in exchange for two things: a hand-crafted sterling silver Feathered Serpent medallion I would craft for them and for free attendance at a slideshow I would present upon my return. I was ecstatic at their response! Not only did I now have all the money I needed but I also had a whole group of friends vicariously joining me on the adventure! Within a week, I was on my way to Mexico having purchased the last available seat on a charter flight from Calgary to Puerto Vallarta.
I had never traveled alone in a country other than my own and this made my journey into a country where I did not speak the language even more daunting. However, whatever fears I had regarding how difficult it was going to be to navigate my way across the country vanished on the day of my arrival in Puerto Vallarta when I was able to successfully convey to a taxi driver my need to get from the airport to “anciano,” the old part of town. I anticipated that there I would find inexpensive accommodation and not only was this the case but it put me right next to the bus depot I needed for the next leg of my journey! At dawn the next morning I boarded a bus for Guadalajara where, in what proved to be the most difficult juncture of my whole journey, I successfully caught the correct train to Mexico city.
I traveled overnight sitting erect in a kind of mystical stupor, half asleep half awake, imagining that I was in the belly of a Feathered Serpent returning to its den! It seemed as if a spiritual force emanating from the pyramid city itself was guiding me and I distinctly felt my sixth chakra opening wide. Mystical feelings I experienced back in my little cabin in the woods of Bragg Creek swirled through me.
When I finally arrived at Teotihuacán, I instinctively felt the urge to locate the southern end of the long road the city is known for. Some call it the Street of the Dead; others call it the Highway to the Stars. What mattered most to me was that there was a hotel located at its end and I immediately set off on foot to check it out. After walking for most of a mile in the hot sun I was relieved to step into its shaded entranceway, even though it was already clear to me that it would be beyond my means to stay there.
I used what little Spanish I had learned to inquire unsuccessfully of the registration clerk as to alternative accommodations in the area. Suddenly, a strikingly beautiful Mexican woman in a bright red dress intervened on my behalf saying she knew a very good place for me to stay. We became instant friends and as we walked back to San Juan Teotihuacan, the little town adjacent to the pyramid city, I could not help but feel overwhelming gratitude for such a personal and gracious welcome to the area.
My newfound friend’s name was Maria and she proved to be exceedingly cordial and helpful. After assisting me in checking into an inexpensive hotel, she invited me home to meet her family and to share a meal. I was very grateful for this show of hospitality as it had the effect of fully grounding me to the local community and by the time I tucked myself in bed later that evening, I felt very much at home on the outskirts of the “First City of the Americas.”
Daybreak the next day saw me eagerly out on the dusty streets of San Juan Teotihuacán where the cool morning air was filled with the familiar scent of wood smoke. Roosters crowed here and there and the occasional dog barked noisily, each declaring it existence to the world at large. Dozens of songbirds cooed contentedly in the trees. I walked for a mile or more through dusty, sleepy streets to reach the Western gateway of the sacred city. It was a half hour before opening so I wandered through stands of cactus nearby. A scruffy and unkempt golden haired dog appeared and we bonded instantly. It had been a few years since I had had a dog of my own. Meeting this fella at such an auspicious moment cracked my heart wide open. I received the boon of having such an unconditionally loving companion as I entered the sacred city for the first time.
Approaching the central compound of the Teotihuacán through the Western gateway put my newfound friend and I on the east-west roadway leading directly to the Pyramid of the Sun. Astro-archaeologists believe this east-west orientation to be the fundamental alignment of the whole city. They say that 2000 years ago when Teotihuacán was first constructed, this roadway aligned with a location on the western horizon where the constellation of the Pleiades descended each evening.
My awareness of this Pleiadean alignment added considerable grandeur to my experience of entering the sacred city, an experience made even grander when a second dog joined me as I neared the base of the Pyramid of the Sun. He was grey-black and mottled like the surface of the pyramid itself and as he and my golden friend escorted me to the top of the pyramid, I felt deeply humbled by what I took to be very good fortune.
Having ascended the shaded steps of the pyramid in the cool of the morning made my moment of arrival at its warm and Sun-drenched peak a very welcome experience. Nor was that peak narrow nor confined but rather, is very spacious and hospitable. There is literally enough room for dozens of people to easily assemble there. On this very special day, however, as I stood there with two dogs at my side in the morning Sun, gazing out across the vast expanse of the Valley of Mexico, I truly felt like a king surveying his grand domain. I had been moving toward this moment ever since I had awoken to its potential back in my little cabin in the woods of Alberta. Now, as I stood there, atop the pyramid of the Sun, I felt completely resonant with what I had experienced then. This confirmed for me my sense that I was intuitively in touch with ancestral guidance and that I had developed an expanded capacity to act successfully on that guidance.
My journey had called me far out and beyond my comfort zone. I recognized it as an initiation and performed a ceremony to honor its sacred character. Using a few sacred objects brought for the occasion, I set up a little meditation altar. I lit sage and sweet grass to purify myself and called out a prayer to the seven directions. I held a fist-sized clear quartz crystal in my right hand and oriented myself to the East, to the North, the West, the South, above, below, and to the center. In doing so, I became distinctly aware of the presence of Cerro Gordo, a massive mountain directly north of the city. From where I stood atop the Pyramid of the Sun, Cerro Gordo was certainly the most obvious landmark in the area. It seemed abundantly clear to me that the ancients pyramid builders had skilfully situated the pyramid of the Sun, and perhaps even the whole pyramid city, to maximize the presence of Cerro Gordo in the experience of anyone fortunate enough to arrive at this exalted platform. My own encounter with Cerro Gordo was certainly no exception to this and was, in fact, a very important aspect of what I consider to be an initiation into the wisdom tradition of the ancient temple builders who created this sacred city. Central to that initiation is the magic and mystery of number seven.
Throughout Mesoamerica, number seven refers to “heart of the mountain” and my experience of Cerro Gordo from atop the Pyramid of the Sun caused me to understand this concept deeply. Person, pyramid and mountain had all come into harmonious resonance and as a result, I felt expanded and empowered in a remarkable way. Ancient temple builders had moved a mountain directly into my consciousness. Cerro Gordo was now a sacred mountain whose axial heart I now intuitively understood to be one and the same as the axis of my own being.
Human Light Body as Inner Mountain of Consciousness
My experience of resonance with Cerro Gordo had greatly expanded my perception of spiritual energies and as I continued my ritual, my awareness stretched out to include not only the mountain, but the Earth itself, spinning on and on through galactic space. Remembering that the orientation of the axial alignment of Teotihuacan itself draws in the Pleiades star cluster, I imagined the source of the huge wave of energy flooding my whole being to be ultimately sourced in that faraway place.Overwhelmed with gratitude, I turned back to the east and to the Sun. The two dogs swirled with me as I sat down cross-legged to meditate on what had just happened. My golden friend nestled in my lap and his greystone pal snugged tightly into the base of my spine. For several minutes we sat there in holy communion on what felt to me to be the top of the world.
Pyramid of the Moon and Cerro Gordo from atop the Pyramid of the Sun
I completed my mission atop the Pyramid of the Sun with one last task. That task was to leave on this sacred shrine, a tuft of hair from a friend's dog named Soleil (French word for Sun) who had suddenly died a week before I left for Mexico. In profound gratitude to Spirit and to my canine allies I released Soleil’s golden hair to the breeze atop the mountainous Pyramid of the Sun. My mission now fully accomplished, I descended the steps of the pyramid feeling vibrant and full, completely empowered with what the Maya call coyopa: lightning in the blood.
I had made no specific plans for my journey to Mexico other than to find my way to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Now, fully charged by what I had experienced in fulfilling that intention, I was excited to encounter as much as I could of the ancestral remains of the Feathered Serpent tradition. Clearly, I had to travel to Tula/Tollan, ancient Toltec city long considered to be a primary source of the Feathered Serpent tradition.
View my selection of Teotihuacan images on Pinterest here.
TULA/TOLLAN
As I wended my way north by bus from Mexico city I could not help but excitedly anticipate experiencing more scintillating encounters with my spiritual ancestors. As it turned out, I was not the least bit disappointed. It began the moment I arrived at the perimeter of the Tula temple complex where I became fascinated with a beautiful volcanic mountain far off to the North.
Tula is situated in exquisite balance with its environs and the moment I arrived at its entrance, I was infused with the stately presence of an exquisitely symmetrical volcanic mountain far off to the north. A deep surge of excitement rose up in me as once again, I realized that the architecture of an ancient and sacred city was mysteriously aligning my awareness to the heart of a mountain!
Temple of the Feathered Serpent
Sacred architecture such as is found at Tula and throughout Mesoamerica was designed in precise alignment to natural order. Direct experience of such architecture amplifies our experience of natural phenomena and this includes the weather. Perhaps this explains why, even though there were just a few clouds in the sky, I had the distinct feeling it was going to rain sometime soon. It was a feeling that quickly passed as I wended my way into the center of the temple complex where I encountered what is surely the most stunning feature of the whole city: the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It is the most obvious of Tula’s pyramid temples and surmounted by 15 foot (4.6 meter) columns in the form of stylized human figures called Atlanteans (Los Atlantes) constructed from great basalt drums doweled together.
Los Atlantes
To stand in the presence of these ancient figures is to stand in the presence of Great Mystery. For me, this fact was made poignant whenI was shocked with how similar their footware was to something I had carved in ice just before departing for Mexico. I had participated in an ice-carving competition and had carved a huge pair of traditional native muclucs, a form of bulky, knee-high winter moccasins. Now before me, carved in volcanic stone were these stupendous Atlantean figures wearing footwear very resonant to what I had carved in ice less than a couple of weeks before! Needless to say, my psychic antenna rose up with this realization and I became even more sensitized to the details of everything I encountered from there on in. As I wandered about the temple site, everything I encountered seemed worthy of focused attention and examination. I felt as if I had taken some mind-altering drug that made everything more vivid and alive.
This same experience of vividness carried on throughout the afternoon and into the evening, finally culminating just after dinner. As I indicated earlier, I was traveling through Mexico never having spoken Spanish which meant that just getting my simplest needs met was a real challenge. This was certainly the case as I negotiated with a small family for my evening meal at their tiny outdoor food kiosk in the center of town. I was their only customer and because none of them spoke English, the only way for us to communicate was for me to haltingly fish words out of my little Spanish/English dictionary. At first glance this whole transaction might not seem too difficult to pull off but when you have a couple of food allergies like I do, it makes it much more difficult to express your needs. Nonetheless, due largely to the patiernce of my hosts, I got what I wanted and had a very enjoyable dining experience until that is, it began to rain. And not just a wee shower but rather, a fierce, unrelenting downpour!
Not sensing that the storm was about to abate any time soon, I scurried back through town towards my hotel. Even though I had earlier gotten a premonition that it was going to rain, I had made no preparations for its actual arrival. So here I was now, camera tucked under my shirt for protection, running through town with rain pelting down upon me. Still several blocks from my hotel room, I suddenly entered the town’s main plaza where a sidewalk led directly to a central gazebo. My first impression of it was that it was some kind of space vehicle. As I sprinted maddly up its steps seeking refuge, I was shocked to find embedded in its floor, a large, eight-pointed star. In an instant I recalled that I had used an eight-pointed star to depict the current Moon cycle on The Lightning Path and elated by the synchronicity of the moment, I pounced directly to the center of the star. I felt as if I was a cosmic arrow hitting an equally cosmic bull’s eye!
Tula Gazebo (above) and its 8 pointed star floor mandala (below).
No sooner did I look up than I became aware of the presence of several teenagers witnessing my unusual antics from little alcoves surrounding the central circle. They too had sought shelter from the storm. Feeling slightly embarassed by my actions yet nontheless excited by my discovery, I continued merrily on my way. By the time I arrived at the hotel I was thoroughly drenched. I went immediately to my third story room, where I was unexpectedly treated to one of the most amazing lightning storms I have ever encountered! It began early in the evening and continued on into the night. For hours, lightning flashed, thunder rolled and the lights of the whole town blinked off and on. The thunderbeings were certainly alive and well that memorable night in Tula and I took it as a real blessing from the Spirit world that they had showed up. On The Lightning Path I was born in the Temple of Thunder within The Temple of the Feathered Serpent and I could not imagine a more complete and fulfilling encounter with my ancestors than what took place that evening. And yet, there was more!
I returned to the temple site early the next morning. Everything had been refreshed by the storm. The previously dusty trails were no longer dusty, the temples themselves were more vibrant and crisp in their presence, the grasses were greener and the flowers shone forth in splendour. Every color was more vibrant and alive and it was in this context that I came upon an stone altar that unexpectedly brought me to a satisfactory completion of my visit to Tula. My purpose in doing so had been to feel out instinctively whether or not it or Teotihuacan was the original site of the emergence of the Feathered Serpent myth and even though my encounter with Teotihuacan and the two dogs had been so powerful, Tula had mysteriously confirmed to me my birthright within the Temple of Thunder. At least that is how I interpreted it!
It all came together for me as I approached a large stone altar at the foot of one of Tula’s small pyramids. I had come to this pyramid city as a spiritual pilgrim open to receiving guidance from the ancestral spiritual lineage embedded in its stones. From a place of openness and receptivity I had been filled to overflowing. Now, before me in stone was an altar graphically potraying this same feeling. The single circle in its center was completely full of water! Instinctively I touched some of that water to my brow and in doing so, fully received the realization I was being gifted with. Then, happy and fulfilled, I joyously began the next leg of my journey, My purpose in coming to Tula had been accomplished and I will always remember it fondly as the completion point of my journey to the Source of the myth of the Feathered Serpent.
Tula Altar
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RELATED RESOURCES: TEOTIHUACAN
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Téotihuacan, Cité des Dieux. Mexique.
Uploaded by lovlamour. - Independent web videos.
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RELATED RESOURCES: TULA
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TULA ON GOOGLE MAPS (with street view).
