In pre-Hispanic Mexico the native people worshipped Mother Earth. The temezcal, similar to a Native American sweat lodge, was seen as the womb of Mother Earth, a place local indigenous people ritually entered for healing, purification, and rebirth. During the Spanish conquest, images of the Virgin Mary were placed in the sacred places of Aztec female deities. It was through this imposition that the two assimilated, and why the Virgin Mary receives such great devotion from the Oaxacan people.
In talking with Elizabeth, she told me that the Virgin of Juquila is una puerta, a door through which to access the divine. This was a concept with which I was already familiar. For years I’d been noticing the common patterns in spiritual paths. I could no longer see Christianity in opposition to Hinduism or Buddhism, but rather the connection between all things. Halos, hand gestures, silence, light. With prayers, scriptures, symbols, and an enlightened master to help illuminate the path.
My observations were later confirmed when I read in the "Kundalini Vidya," by Joan Shivarpita Harrigan, "When the varieties of mystical/religious/spiritual experience and methods of individual people and religions are categorized and meta-analyzed, outstanding patterns and themes emerge. This is because the human subtle body functions the same in a Buddhist as it does in a Hindu, Christian, Hopi, or Jew, or an atheist or agnostic, for that matter.” And, “While religious instruction to the many caters to cultural preference and style, allowing seekers to begin on familiar ground, the teachings of the realized ones are of the same voice, and they are universally relevant.
My observations were later confirmed when I read in the "Kundalini Vidya," by Joan Shivarpita Harrigan, "When the varieties of mystical/religious/spiritual experience and methods of individual people and religions are categorized and meta-analyzed, outstanding patterns and themes emerge. This is because the human subtle body functions the same in a Buddhist as it does in a Hindu, Christian, Hopi, or Jew, or an atheist or agnostic, for that matter.” And, “While religious instruction to the many caters to cultural preference and style, allowing seekers to begin on familiar ground, the teachings of the realized ones are of the same voice, and they are universally relevant.
This reflects what a yoga teacher once told me, that the many Hindu gods and goddesses are simply different aspects of the one Supreme Being. That these gods and goddesses offer a human like form that we can relate to, call to. That God/The One/The Universe/The Supreme Being is so vast, infinite, and all permeating that the individual gods and goddesses help us to focus. And that we are most drawn to the one that best reflects us. Harrigan writes,“By whatever title, gender, race, or dress all are Kundalini Shakti. The name and form are of little consequence except to attract and focus the seeker more easily.”
The Virgin of Juquila who survived a fire, una puerta. Yes, of course.
In our course in Oaxaca we learned that the role of a curandera is not to cure illness, but to restore balance, the balance between the mind, body, and spirit. This too is the role of Shakti, who moves through the body, clearing her pathway through the mind, body, and spirit in her unyielding determination to unite with the divine.
When speaking of Shakti, the divine inner presence, Harrigan writes, “It gives us awareness and talent and drive. It is the essential source of desire, and it is our spiritual director. With our free will, we choose what we do with that holy, gnawing, burning fire within, and it is that pivotal ongoing choice that makes our life sacred or profane or unremarkable."
When we returned to Oaxaca City, I returned to the antique store for the picture in the pressed tin frame.
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