AXIS OF EQUAL
FOR THE LOVE OF PHI
It has become a regular seasonal ritual for me, to balance eggs on their ends at the time of the Spring and Fall Equinoxes. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, I make a point of facilitating this experience because it regenerates me and makes me feel connnected to the Earth in a way like no other. Think about it. For a only a few hours each year, the whole Earth comes to a place of polar harmony in its axial orientation to the Sun. Isn't it wise to take a few moments at that time to consciously tune in?
The Greeks had a symbol for this quality of perfect balance and they consciously used it in the creation of culture and its many artifacts from pottery to architecture. They called it PHI.
PHI
The Greeks weren't our only ancestors to attend reverently to this principle of harmony. For millenia, sacred architecture the world over has supported such reverent experiences by providing a public context for it. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a spectacular equinox phenomenon associated with the pyramid of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl at Chichen Itza, in the Yucatan. Each year, at both the spring and the fall equinox, fifty to a hundred thousand people from around the world gather in the temple courtyard to witness a phenomenon skillfully contrived by ancient temple builders to reveal the secrets of Mayan cosmology. Exactly on the day of the equinox, a distinct pattern of light and shadow forms on the western side of the northern stairway of the temple: a giant undulating serpent, made up of seven triangles of light, descends from the top platform of the pyramid to a huge sculpted serpent head at its base.
In his book Secrets of Mayan Science and Religion, Mayan elder Hunbatz Men interprets this serpent phenomenon as a very special gift of sacred knowledge from our ancestors:
"When we fully comprehend the meaning of this seven in the geometric pyramid, we will enter into the mouth of the serpent as Mayan initiates. In so doing, we will fulfill the prophesies of the Itzaes when they return as luk'umen tun ben can, or "those absorbed by the serpent of the sacred knowledge." At that moment we will become buddhas, or as is said in Mayan, butz hah, "those filled with the truth of the essence, " the ones who manage the seven powers."
It is simply not practical for everyone interested in such spectacular equinox phenomena to journey to Greece, or Mesoamerica, for initiation into its mysteries. This is why I have begun to experiment with the same energies in the sanctuary of my own home. It has occurred to me that because this is a global phenomenon, affecting everyone, and everywhere, on the planet, the privacy of my own home is not exempt. We are after all, speaking here about contacting the omnipresent Soul of the World, Anima Mundi. When successful, such contact engenders a feeling like no other and it keeps me coming back for more. I guess you could say I 've become "a lover of PHI" .
RELATED RESOURCES
| Video that explains what it looks like the equinox at Chichen Itza. |