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In a dream, as I gaze at my reflection in a mirror
I am twice amazed. First, I see that I have no head. I am holding my severed head about
chest high in my hands. Second, I am amazed that even without a head I can see quite well.
I stare even more intently into the mirror, marveling and attempting to understand this
mystery.
I had this dream many years ago and have been
spellbound by it ever since. I once read a book on Buddhism that suggested that the
experience of enlightenment might be simulated by imaging seeing the world while having no
head. The head restricts consciousness to within an enclosed identity. By replacing the
restrictive head with the entire world, consciousness is liberated and de-localized. The
exercise symbolizes opening the shell of the ego boundary to allow one to become one with
all of life.
I encountered further understanding of my dream at
the ball court of the Mayan ruin of Chichen Itza. On the wall of the stadium is the carved
image of a decapitated ball player. Out of his neck portal gushes the world tree, which
branches and flowers as seven kundalini serpents, pouring life out into the world. The
image suggests that if we surrender ourselves to the game of life, sacrificing our own
personal identity to the play itself, we can be channels of profound creativity.
These ponderous thoughts were but dim intuitions
until I read the book The shaman's secret: The lost resurrection teachings of the ancient
Maya (Bantam Books). The author, Douglas Gillette, a theologian, had written an earlier
book, King, warrior, magician lover, exploring the archetypal symbols of the spiritual
masculine. He now brings his well developed gifts of symbolic interpretation to the Mayan
world. Much progress has been made in deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs. Drawing upon both
Jungian techniques and comparative religion, Gillette is able to reveal the meanings of
these intriguing carvings and paintings in a manner not possible before. The result is a
stunning revelation of a worldview of "terrible beauty."
We are prone to dismiss or reject the Maya as
teachers because of their blood sacrifices. We learn in this book, however, that there are
many exact correlations between the Mayan world and the worldview we associate with Edgar
Cayce's esoteric vision of a mystical Christianity. We are also reminded of the extensive
bloodletting symbolism and magical blood practices in the Christian myth. The Mayan world,
however, includes a more candid embrace of the darker aspects--suffering, cruelty, and
death--in a brave, and, according to Gillette, successful attempt to use these demons to
liberate consciousness.
"In ancient Maya belief, we are all called
upon by the gods to become one with them and live forever. In the simplest and the most
dramatic happenings of our lives the Lords of the Otherworld are giving us opportunities
to create resurrection events for ourselves. But, according to the Maya, we must engage
our own hidden depths in order to succeed. Those hidden depths embrace a universe filled
with terrible beauty and divine power, and one that is vitally, miraculously, and
ecstatically alive."
The goal is to become a companion to the creator
god. To be such a companion to the divine requires the heart-challenging task of being
both transparent to the transpersonal and yet an individual who provides the knowledgeable
and conscious reflection that companionship requires.
In my dream I remove my head and allow my mind to
become transparent to the transpersonal. Yet still I have my personal awareness--I can see
what is happening. Thus the event has me for a witness. In the Mayan world, this
witnessing is an important aspect of their responsibility to to the Creator.
The Mayans believed that there were four worlds
before them. Each was destroyed by Creator because the people could not say the prayers
correctly. Only when the people correctly acknowledge in their awareness the presence of
Creator does that Creator God fully exist in a conscious state of being. The Mayans
realized that God is dependent upon the people for its conscious existence. The Creator
God created the people for companionship to give God this special dimension of being.
It is hard to be the only one who knows. Sharing
an experience with a companion relieves a burden of loneliness. A companion who reflects
our experience back to us births our experience outward into the world. It makes us seem
more real to ourselves. We can relax and grant greater reality to the world itself. We
want to return the favor.
According to the Mayans, the Creator God created
the world through a process of self-sacrifice (symbolized by self decapitation). To become
companions to God, we are asked to similarly perform this self-sacrifice in order to bring
God into conscious existence in this God created world. Gillette describes in detail how
this service to God was the Mayan's "resurrection machine," giving their souls
immortal bodies that defeat the illusion of death. Our creative self-sacrifice bestows an
immortality upon us, and resurrects us as co-creators of the world.
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