Sacred India Tarot Archive – Page(s) of Staves: The Ashwins

Posted on November 17, 2015 by janeadamsart

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Buddha, 2008

This post contains Rohit Arya’s inspiring reflection on the Ashwins. Through last week’s dark events in Paris which bring close to home, hearth and empathy, the shocking daily reality in many lands, I got some uplift with his writing, and I hope so do you.

Ashwin gentlemen

Rohit’s Notes (2003)

“I have searched diligently for any sort of artistic representation of the divine twins and failed. It is a disgrace actually, that no such representations exist. The attached article will convey the feel and tenor of the solar twins. We are breaking fresh ground here, the first representation of the Ashwinis. The story of the Rishi floating on the log and thus saved from Cosmic Flood by the Ashwinis could give us our link with wands.”

Ashwini Kumara – the Swift Gods of Light –
From an earlier Article by Rohit Arya

“The Ashwini twins are Vedic gods who were once held in high esteem but have been all but forgotten. They were however, the prototype for the notion of Kumara the eternal youth, which is how both Skanda and the Buddha would be represented in future sculpture.

“It is known to a few, that the Awhwinis were the first physicians, doctors to humanity as well as the gods. They were one of many Solar deities in the Vedas; many of their attributes were taken over by Vishnu when his cult by a process of osmosis, engulfed all the solar gods in his vast embrace.

“The Ashwinis seem to be the most energetically joyful of all the gods known to man. They hurtle through the cosmos in a dizzying effervescence of joy. They are the lords of speed, the swift rivers, the falcons of light, the riders of the fleet horse, agile and brilliant as Rig Veda says. Speed is their keynote. They bounce off the walls of heaven with a rush of energy, like young colts. They are the most dazzlingly handsome personages in the universe, and they know it – ‘swift footed lords of bliss, much enjoying’. Later stories would elaborate on them as sensual gods. In some versions they marry jointly, Savitri the daughter of Surya the Sun God. She was nominally supposed to marry Soma, lord of the moon and the sacred drink, but the Ashwins were much more handsome and cut a spectacular dash! Other myths tell that they married the ten rays of the Sun, Surya’s daughters … But they had no time to lech like other gods. Savitri was the only one who could keep up with their rapidity.

Sukra – the Jyotish deity Venus. This illustration is in Andrew Foss’s new book on Vedic astrology, Yoga of the Planets (out soon).

“The Ashwins were not effete dandies, careering across the cosmos in solar powered Ferraris. They were that rarest of heroes, intellectuals who could act decisively and swiftly. They were described as ‘effectual in action, the powers of movement, fierce-moving in their paths: they embodied the Samurai dictum – ‘to think and to act are one and the same‘. They are the power of movement itself, so speedy and firm were they perceived to be. They used their great knowledge to help the gods – which was appreciated – and also to alleviate the sufferings of Humanity – which was not. Like Prometheus they had to face an angry Indra, leader of the gods, who punished them by depriving them of the right to drink the sacred Soma, which conferred strength and immortality on the gods. Soma was only too pleased; they had cost him a wife. However, the angry gods could not punish the Ashwins – they moved too fast to be caught, and they were no pushovers. Nobody knew the extent of their strength, nor wished to risk finding out.

Red horse by the sea, 2008

“The Ashwins did not care too much about being excluded from the sacred drink. They were caught up in their experiments and always on the move, as an active life principle. They made an iron leg for the warrior named Vispala who lost his in battle. They were physicians and worked tirelessly at their craft. The jealous humans said they had forfeited divine honours by associating too much with humans! In later medieval times, the physician’s job was regarded as greatly polluting as it interfered with the evil Karma which produced the disease – a cruel doctrine. It is greatly to the Ashwins’ credit that they chose compassion over the approbation of their fellows, and continued to do what they had always done. They healed countless numbers of the lame, and restored sight to many who were blind – an apt action for the Lords of the Light. The similarities with events in Palestine many thousands of years later are also obvious. One of the Ashwins’ most coveted boons was to restore youth and vigour to the aged and decrepit. That might explain why they did not need the Soma like the other gods did.

“The Rishi Chyavana was old, feeble and ugly. Constant immersion in meditation had covered his body with vegetation until an anthill arose around him. The beautiful Sukanya thought his still visible eyes were glow-worms and poked them out with a stick, to capture them. Instantly the people of that region were cursed with terrible pain; the only way out of this was to marry her off to the sage she had wronged. Sukanya accepted the grotesque situation as being fair – the blind sage needed someone to care for him. One day however, at the riverbank (a liminal, threshold site) Sukanya observed the Ashwinis frolicking in the water, and sighed for her lack of such joys.

“The Twins had a rare moment of lust, and propositioned her, confident in their youth and beauty. But she rebuked them severely and abashed them. Yet they still had their hats in the ring, and offered to cure her husband of blindness and senility, and give him a handsome form like their own. This was the catch: she must pick out her husband correctly from the identical trio, or agree to go with them. Sukanya consulted her husband who decided to teach the presumptuous gods that he may be old and blind, but did not become a rishi for nothing. When they emerged from the water in which the gods dipped the old man, she instantly recognised her husband through his instructions; the gods do not blink, sweat, cast shadows or leave footprints – and the human was easily found out.

Secret dakini oracle 42, Wave of Bliss. Note the longboat under the crest.

“The Twins were sporting about it, and Chyavana, grateful for his rejuvenation, instructed them in an esoteric part of the Vedic sacrifice that even the gods had forgotten. Armed with this new knowledge, the Ashwinis marched back into the divine company and traded off the right to drink Soma for this new rite in the fire sacrifice. They came full circle – rejected for their love of humanity and restored by it too.

“Some have mistakenly translated their name to be Horsemen, from Ashwa the horse they ride. The horse as a symbol of prana indicates the Ashwinis’ perfect control over the breath, as well as their dazzling speed. The word Ashwini is derived from a root word which means ‘to fill everything’. One of the twins pervades the universe with Light, the other with Moisture – another indication that they were proto-Vishnu, ‘he that pervades’.

(Diagrams of solar-fusion which is set to replace nuclear fission by 2050 as our main energy source, and could totally revolutionise the human world-view and society, See this link: https://janeaquariel.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/perhaps-fission-is-the-learning-curve-to-fusion/

“In another story, they rescued a great sage from a flood that threatened to drown his learned life. The Ashwins sent him a log to clamber up onto and float around until realising who was responsible for this providential intervention. Then they appeared before him, blessed him and instructed him in spiritual matters.

big wave near Marloes, west Wales

“The Twins were heralds of the dawn, lords of the fleetingly transient state between night and dawn, again an attribute of their great speed. This places them firmly as liminal or threshold deities, guardians of sacred and rare times when higher levels of consciousness may be accessed. This peculiar aspect of their potency is acknowledged in verses where the Ashwinis are addressed as the children of the sun, of the earth, of the waters, and even as sons of the submarine fire. All are conjunctions, especially the horizon where one space interacts with another, forming a natural threshold, and are key areas for the Ashwini to act. They are the great facilitators of transition, but only to the Light. They simply do not have the time for anything else.

They give that impelling energy for the great work which, having for its nature and substance the light of the Truth, carries man beyond the darkness.

“The Ashwinis represent a glorious phase of Indian culture, and there are very few gods who are so reverberant with light. They are action incarnate, joyful graspers of life and laughter, quick to act and determined in their courses, intelligent and compassionate. The thrill they get out of being alive, is magnificent; it is a great pity that India has lost the ability to be in sympathy with such an exultant use of talent, ability and power. This is life lived to the fullest, to delight in action and glory in the mind … ‘Take joy in the Word, the holders in the intellect, by the luminously energetic thought’ …

http://www.ludgerphilips.org/gallery/images-of-synthesis/aries-the-fire-of-life

“It was a sad time when India forsook the speedy gods of Light for more sedate worship.

“In the Vedic constellations, the Ashwins are in Aries, the sign of the New.

“In a reading: Light: Creative beginnings – difficult to pin down – potent card for spiritual breakthroughs. Shift to higher, more spiritual approaches to life … Honest and straight-forward talkers … Always shooting off in a new direction, may need restraint. Enthusiastic team worker, but may not always follow team policy. Lots of travel indicated.
Shadow: Instability and misdirected energy … ominously they can become passionate followers of dubious leaders, the hitler-youth sort of personality, fall into trances of admiration for peculiar people and weird ideas.
This is the moment to stay on track, not veer off to interesting sidelights.”

From Rohit’s book with the deck

Sacred India Tarot – Pages of Staves: The Ashwis

Rohit’s feedback to the Card, 2003: “My enthusiasm for the Ashwins is unbounded. I cannot recall feeling so excited about something. No change at all.”

wave yantra pattern

From Jane’s Journal/channeling in October 2003:

“Last night while watching The Omen on TV, I drew for IndiaTarot the Ashwini Kumara from Solar Joy upon a foaming white horse of the wave. They reach down a great white arm to the struggling sage of humankind adrift with his log at sea whose arm is feebly raised, like that of a baby. The Lord Sustainer Sanatkumar out of Vishnu’s endless dharma comes swift with the dawn and gathers him. The Lord Sustainer Sanatkumar overtakes the destiny of the rolling log, with that of the cosmic Law.

“In the Psalms and Songs of David, uplift from wickedness is eternal throughout the many forgotten races of man. The rod and staff built into our infancy in the cosmic deep brings us through, again and again, until our own IAM is that: the Arm of the Psalm.

“… What requires completion will be done, be assured, and it is a waste of time and energy to attempt what is assigned to other time and place. Have confidence in the work. Service to the Hierarchy enlarges access by guided acceleration, and guarantees clear sighted fulfilment. See the Horse of the Ashwins, whose heavenly wave pearls and takes along with it the surfing Wand. Be not afraid. Surf the Father/Mother, surf the Son: surf I Am – be this your AIM! IAM AEOLIAN and I play your strings. IAM your wind, the Hebrew H or wind-door. Why AMI this? because you love what IAM.

“Symbols are patterns of vibration, like the Chladni figure on a glass, like the sand on the beach patterning the waves. They are not abstract, they are representations as concrete as anything you believe in the material world. … Every part and atom of the teaching is an actual jewel, a vein of rock, a garment, a body, a breath, a blessing. Sacred geometry is representational … the shoulder blades, the wings of your ageless archetype.”

Jane’s Notes Today 2015

Rohit’s “speedy gods of Light”! Indeed, our “sedate forms of worship” in the world when they become sad and constraining, can lead to cancerous affiliations.

What is the worship? Perhaps a spontaneous response to the miraculous mystery of our life and being. Self-importance collapses in such moments, forgetting what it had to say. There is a deep human need for ritual and ‘the music’: to come close. When the heart is deeply moved it likes a little ceremony.

The Sanskrit for the worship or spiritual instruction is “upadesa” – to draw near. We bring to the worship our infinite variety of needs and archetypes. I was never able to establish a regular habit of prayer or meditation, but I respect those who do. Spontaneous offerings arising within the soul – sometimes wisely and sometimes unwisely – are my worship and my daily bread, through raincloud, sun and winter.

Worship may be a steady practice, or it may fountain, touching base in synagogue, cathedral, temple or on prayer mat alike. The paradox of worship is that it is a deeply private and yet communal power. When inflated with politics and unbalanced accumulations of wealth, it gets trapped into every extremity which human nature is capable of, and is lost.

What can I do with my values? Change starts here at history’s crossroads, in us each as individuals through our deltas of extended family. Change begins within each atom, and imperceptibly at first, begins to overcome the molecular infrastructures. The political leaders cannot do it, for they are locked within the competing forms. It is my responsibility and yours, to live what we are given.

For me, the wonder in the Ashwins is: the weakened sailor moves his subconscious left arm by an effort of will – and to it descends in joy and glory the Will – the powerful helping hand of the divine Solar Twins. We are so much more than we think we know.

Horses by the sea in west Wales, 2007

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

This blog is a vehicle to promote also my published work – The Sacred India Tarot (with Rohit Arya, Yogi Impressions Books) and The Dreamer in the Dream – a collection of short stories (0 Books). Watch this space.

aquariel link

All art and creative writing in this blog is copyright © Janeadamsart 2012-2014. May not be used for commercial purposes. May be used and shared for non-commercial means with credit to Jane Adams and a link to the web address https://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/

Sacred India Tarot Archive – Creation of Staves 5 and 6: Ravana Falls

Posted on April 25, 2015 by janeadamsart

Continuing the Sacred India Tarot Archive by Jane Adams and Rohit Arya:

In thy valorous strength – rosicrucean emblem 2

We all have our interior demons and resistances to fight: and in the world out there, they are plain to see. In the present era of Pluto (upheaval and transformation) moving through Capricorn (established institutions), nothing can be hidden any longer – all is visible, each shadow is upturned to the light. Every hoary Karmic poison along the centuries erupts into a birth-bed for the new Dharma – a changed order of human values. Pluto went into Capricorn in 2008 with a financial crash, and will enter Aquarius in 2023/24.

by all through all - rosicrucean Emblem 1

Sacred India Tarot Kaccha & Devyani lovers

It is interesting to note that in the Indian mythology, demons are rarely evil per se. They are gifted forces of the mind and spirit. They have a tendency to overrun their citadels and cause the chaos and self-doubt that every creative artist must navigate. The Yoga Vasishta is filled with stories of powerful demons who attained enlightenment, humility and liberation through the intensity of their concentrated tapas – spiritual practice over the aeons. Brahma the creator-god could refuse them nothing: the demonic force has this potential for purity. Therefore there was always a respectful interaction between the gods and the demons – see card 6 (above) in the Sacred India Tarot: the story of Kaccha and Devyani. For the gods, the demonic energy is at source divine, and they cannot live without it. The Greek word “daemon” is a creative spirit.

Rohit’s writing below, throws an interesting slant onto the demonic “bhakti” – the constant focus in the demon’s mind, on God as the foe, in due course liberates.

In the Ramayana, Ravana the demon King overreached himself by kidnapping Rama’s wife Sita; in so doing, he put the cosmic balance out of order, and faced defeat.

Visual reference for Kumbhakarana

Rohit Arya’s Notes – 2003

Card Five – Kumbhakarana Falls. Kumbhakarana is to be depicted as an enormous armoured giant, holding a huge club towering over Ravana and the rest of the battlefield. He has four fiery arrows stuck in him which will lop off his legs from the knees and the arms from the elbows, while the fifth arrow fired by Rama is about to cut off his head. The five wands could be depicted as five fiery arrows that Rama uses to kill the giant brother of Ravana.

From Rohit’s Book with the Deck:

Kumbhakarana, middle brother to Ravana and Vibheeshana, takes the field against Rama. It is an action born of desperation, for the Rakshasa (demon) forces have been decimated in the preceding days … Kumbhakarana is the most gigantic warrior in the universe, a great intellectual and highly spiritually developed. He shares Vibheeshana’s opinion that Ravana’s incompetent blundering has brought them to disaster, but war is upon them and he selflessly agrees to do his duty.

He knows that Rama is God, but in his estimation nothing could be more honourable than to die for his country. Death at Rama’s hands is guaranteed liberation, and Kumbhakarana is disgruntled with his unlucky life. He has been tricked by the Devas into sleeping for six months at a stretch, awakening for only a day. Ravana has untimely roused him, and his strength is not at its peak. Nevertheless he unleashes carnage of a ghastly and terrifying nature that forces Rama himself to fight.

This is a unique and startling form of Bhakti – devotion to God – called ‘vipareetha karani’, the path of opposition. You literally fight with God, as the foe is ever present in the enemy’s mind. This is a tamasic (inertia-inducing) form of meditation and constant awareness of the Divine. It guarantees liberation, but at the cost of your life! It is the rocket route to the Divine. Kumbhakarana chooses this conflict-path to achieve what would otherwise take many lifetimes.

Rama understands this, and is also pleased with his heroic loyalty to his people.

This card signifies inner and outer growth: a struggle and challenge confidently taken up – perhaps a group effort or sharing of creative endeavour. Lessons that life teaches in battle. Place spiritual priorities above mundane ones. Patience is well rewarded, but lots of it is required. Martial arts. Focus on one thing and see it through.

Shadow: Trying to take on more than you can handle – an inflated sense of power. Blindly supporting and following the leader. Confusion in thinking leads to flailing about: quarrels and disputes, vainglorious boasting. Overwork and strain impacts health – the card of the moonlighter! Irritation with incompetence. Wishful thinking and writers block. Young children act up.

Your expectations are getting in the way of what is actually possible. Are you competing or getting into an impossible situation?

Jane’s Notes

There are parallels here with the Eight and the Nine of Arrows, where the great warrior king surrenders his life to Krishna, understanding that he will at last be liberated from his duty.

This great demon – Kumbhakarana – also had a duty: his loyalty to the Lord Ravana and the realm of the rakshasas. His willingness to disable his own magnificence, to be Ravana’s fore-runner in defeat, and to agree to fight when not at the peak of his powers, is an astonishing and moving sight. His hands holding weapons, appear to be raised in surrender. The deep intelligence is in his eyes; the out-thrust tongue is demonic like a gargoyle, yet also giving his all.

I painted Rama lightly armed, as befits a young David to this Goliath. Accuracy of aim takes priority over displays of martial magnificence. He shoots the demon in five places. The outline of Kumbhakarana’s human pentagram begins to collapse.

Rama aims at the third eye – the coup de grace. I found it difficult to arrange the scenes in these long narrow cards compositionally: yet the great demon on his mountain range suggests a different dimension of space and time.

Psychologically it is an extraordinary event to meet and engage with these forces in the soul.

Sacred India Tarot – Five of Staves/Wands

Rohit Arya’s Notes – 2003

Card Six: Victory – Ravana Falls. This should be easy to depict, though one arrow should be clearly penetrating the navel of Ravana which was where he stored the elixir that renewed him each time he was wounded or had a head cut off. We need only Rama and Ravana in the card, though celebrating monkeys in the background might bring out the ‘Victory’ aspect of the card meaning.

visual reference for the fall of ravana

(respect for demons – yoga vasishta – tifareth 6 – danda – dharma – guru mantra)

From Rohit’s Book with the Deck
Ravana has destroyed the resources of his kingdom and sent all his generals and relatives to their death, but he is still intransigent about releasing Sita. He is in thrall to his rapidly fraying reputation, still manifesting aplomb and insouciance in a cataclysmic situation. He has assumed his most fearful form, convinced that the fame of his exploits combined with his horrible shape will dazzle and intimidate Rama – the yokel from the forests.

He has rested on his laurels so much that he cannot, dare not, recognise his slide into delusional ineptitude.

Rama is called the image or embodiment of Dharma. Rama is beyond form so everybody projects their own ideal upon him. Hence his chameleon-like appearance in the suit. For Ravana, he is a meek, forest dwelling hermit – hence he appears so.

For all Ravana’s strength of belief, danda has descended upon him in the form of Rama’s astras. Rama uses the Brahmastra – the deadliest arrow (speculated to be a nuclear weapon) created by Brahma. Ravana wasn’t totally wrong in feeling invulnerable. Only the final never-to-be-used weapon could vanquish him; it was a small validation.

ram-ravana-the-ramayana-indian-mythology-brahmastra

Rama sends Laxmana to hear the dying words of what was the Age’s mightiest king: “Do not put off till tomorrow the good you could do today. I could have turned the oceans into sweet water and been hailed as a benefactor of humanity. Now I die with tarnished glory as a kidnapper of the wives of others.”

It is an astonishing summation of wasted potential and opportunity.

In a card reading: victory and success. Triumph and recognition of one’s work; public acclaim. Vindication of one’s course of action – freedom from fears and anxieties. Very good for students and intellectuals. Period of unusual resilience and recuperative powers. Reaching the next level of skill or qualifications. Aggressively seeking the limelight.

Shadow: resting on past laurels – a legend in one’s own mind. A conclusive victory eludes you. Too proud to acknowledge one is losing it – “remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.”

Don’t let all this acclaim inflate you to absurd levels of self aggrandisement. What new challenges do you need to take up?

Sacred India Tarot – six of Staves/wands

Jane’s Notes
The missile enters the dantien – the source of all Ravana’s delusional heads. The dantien (below the navel) is our body’s gravitational and subtle centre: through yoga and t’ai ch’i, it can earth and quieten the mind’s electricity. This card is like the Tower – to collapse walls of falsehood or belief.

The danda (see Rohit’s description above) is a sacred staff. It is traditionally used by hermits and aryas, and placed in temples. Throughout the suit of Staves/Wands, the danda plays a significant role, as conduit of power and authority. Rohit mentions also the astra – the weapon by which Ravana was slain. Astras are intense aerial vibrations: a focused mantra is an astra – it commands the elements by force of sound and concentration.

See the Guru Mantra Bhashya in this blog, and Part 2 of the same, for the rich symbolism of danda and astra.

The danda lends its name to a game played in India:

Correspondence – Rohit’s feedback on cards 5 and 6 of Staves

Wand 5 – The energy and power in this card is great, and the Kumbhakarana is perfect. Rama needs some golden body armour and the moustache needs to go. As a composition it perfectly conveys the sense of the card. The monkey’s vantage point of the events on the card is a nice touch.

Wand 6 – Rama needs to be depicted in accordance with the rest of the suit, he has suddenly taken to wearing a dhoti, he has a moustache and no helmet or armour. But the composition is fine, and the Ravana is a superb example of unrepentant defiance.

Correspondence – Jane:
Re Rama – all the examples you sent me had him moustachio’d, and so do books here, so I thought that was the way he is traditionally represented; with the possibility he might sometimes shave for Sita! Or the fact that an epic such as this covers much spacetime – note that the buddha series also changes the physical features somewhat, according to his states of wisdom. Anyway, we can adjust this detail if required. I shall also add some body armour to the shooting of Ravana’s brother.

The fall of Ravana and his brother remind me of another great bowman in our Sacred India Tarot Archive:

Sacred India Tarot card 16 - Siva Tripurantaka - the Tower. With his arrow or astra, Siva pulverised three demon cities which were aligned for just a second, once every thousand years.

Sacred India Tarot card 16 – Siva Tripurantaka – the Tower. With his arrow or astra, Siva pulverised three demon cities which ravaged the universe but were aligned for just a second, once every thousand years.

For other Sacred India Tarot posts, look under Recent Posts, Search, or Archive of All Posts in the title bar.

Rohit Arya

Rohit Arya is an Author, Yogi and Polymath. He has written the first book on Vaastu to be published in the West, {translated into five languages} the first book on tarot to be published in India, co-authored a book on fire sacrifice, and is the creator of The Sacred India Tarot {82 card deck and book}. He has also written A Gathering of Gods. He is a corporate trainer, a mythologist and vibrant speaker as well as an arts critic and cultural commentator. Rohit is also a Lineage Master in the Eight Spiritual Breaths system of Yoga.

Earlier posts about the deck, including the first 15 Major Arcana archives are in http://aryayogi.wordpress.com The deck is copyrighted (c) 2011 to the publishers, Yogi Impressions Books pvt, and available also on Amazon and internationally.

Jane Adams

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

All original art and creative writing in this blog is copyright © Janeadamsart 2012. May not be used for commercial purposes. May be used and shared for non-commercial means with credit to Jane Adams and a link to the web address https://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/

Sacred India Tarot Archive – 3 & 4 of Staves: Dislodging Ravana

Posted on February 28, 2015 by janeadamsart

Visual Reference – Ravana

Continuing this series from the Sacred India Tarot Archive, the creation of Two of Staves – it is extraordinary what may befall an intellectual and spiritual giant who wears too many hats.

visual reference sent by rohit

Rohit Arya’s Notes – 2003
“Three of Wands/Staves – Ravana rejects good counsel. The illustration is good enough to serve as the basic template, except that Ravana is to look angrier. He does not realise that finally he has found somebody who has the strength and ability to stand up to him, something his counsellors realise only too well, but he is still banking on past glory to see him through. The three wands could be three flaming torches that illumine the scene.”

Rohit’s remarks on the hubris that can overwhelm the spiritually gifted are so interesting, that I quote them here, in full:

From Rohit’s Book on the Deck
“Ravana, a shape-shifting sorcerer, manifests his fearsome, ten-headed, many-armed form in his outrage. He has been truthfully told that Rama and his army are invincible, but he dislikes such honesty. He has been the greatest warrior of the age, the very gods have submitted to his power, and the entire universe pays tribute to Lanka. Never has such power and glory been seen in the world. To have to bend before mere humans (rakshashas eat them when in the mood!) and with Vanara allies, is an intolerable humiliation.

“Ravana was actually a Brahmin rakshasa, the greatest scholar of his time, having written treatises on ayurveda, the performing arts, and on machines of war. His titanic power arose from the fact that he was a great devotee of Siva, and was capable of tremendous tapasya (spiritual austerities). His Siva Tandava Stotram is one of the greatest devotional hymns known to man.

“It is difficult for such a being not to have an inflated sense of self. Faced with Rama, his equal in every way, and another great devotee of Siva, he simply could not summon the awareness that in kidnapping Sita, he had committed a blunder that would devastate his people.

“A person who has been supernaturally successful is immune to any suggestion that does not please. In Ravana’s case, nothing failed him as much as his success. The brightly flaring Staves are Kala Danda – the staff of time, the remorseless chastisement of hubris that descends upon one in the grip of hamartia – the talent and force of personality that takes you to the pinnacle and is the seed of your ultimate destruction. Ravana is succumbing to the Shadow side of the card.

If this card appears in a reading:

“Light – the first great success in life: take decisive action, knowledge is power. Seek advice and counsel – need for a global perspective. Enterprising and creative phase. Good health … and writers have a creative purple patch.

“Shadow – Complacency and arrogance because of early success. Addicted to euphoria and to dangerous risks. Toxic arrogance – promising leads and ventures are deflated. Outright failure and defeat. Do not offend people around you, as you will need them soon. The past is catching up with you; is that good news or bad news?

Jane’s Notes
My impression is of the fragmenting or disintegration of a citadel of wisdom. The ageless wisdom is simple: knowledge about it gathers complexity like a wheel through mud. It accumulates priesthoods to maintain, maidenly trophies to win, and properties to defend.

Here is the finished card:

Sacred India Tarot Three of Wands – Ravana rejects counsel

Kala Danda is the staff of time. Within it is coiled the cyclic time of global tide and rotation. In the ancient world, the staff of life transmitted an electric currency of healing or destruction, as harnessed by its user.

It is said that the 4 sacred volumes of Hermes, containing the laws, science and theology of Egypt, correspond to 4 volumes of the Vedas, which the Puranas say were carried into Egypt by the Yadavas at the first emigration to that country from Hindustan.

If we travel any of the great sacred rivers upstream, we find their common source. Who came first, the chicken or the egg? the Vedic Hymns or upper Egypt?

Osiris and Thoth with “staves” of power and life

Part Two – Four of Staves: Ravana’s Brother Defects to Rama

This depicts Ravana’s dislodged power as it leaves him through an emissary – his own brother negotiates with Rama.

Rohit Arya’s Notes 2003
“The illustration shows Rama promising to protect Vibheeshana, brother of Ravana against the advice of his monkey allies. Rama’s hand is in abhaya mudra; Vibheeshana is the figure with folded hands, third from left.

From Rohit’s Book with the Deck
“Vibheeshana, youngest brother of Ravana, has defected to Rama’s camp. His irascible brother has just threatened to kill him, if he continued to remonstrate about the kidnapping of Sita and the annihilation awaiting them. Vibheeshana knows that Rama is an avatar of Vishnu and invincible. He also understands that not a stone of Lanka will be left standing, nor one rakshasha left alive to weep over the ruins, if the mad folly of Ravana continues unabated.

“To save his race and their civilisation, he seeks refuge with Rama … Vibheeshana has been granted enlightenment and immortality by Brahma, but he is still a fearsome looking rakshasha. Even his name means ‘Terrible to behold’. The Vanaras are suspicious of his defection. Rakshashas are notorious for cannibalism, genocide and plunder, not for wisdom and enlightenment … Their suspicion changes to puzzlement when Rama nobly accepts the plea of Vibheeshana … promising to spare all non-combatant rakshashas and crowning Vibheeshana king of the new golden city, instead of annexing it to his own kingdom.

In a reading:
“Light – Auspicious and propitious: feelings of joy and celebration. Relax and wait, as success is there. The card of the builder and decorator. Favourable interventions by seniors and powerful people: happy marriages.

“Shadow – Delays. Property dealings are especially hampered. Unmerited anxiety, tension and nervousness – a break or gap in work or career; holding back out of fear. Success is certain, but may be delayed. What foundations can you lay now, that will endure?

Sacred India Tarot, Four of Staves – Rama welcomes Vibheeshana

Rohit’s Feedback to Three and Four of Staves:
“Wand 3: While the feeling of the demons scattering before the petulant wrath of Ravana is clear, there does not seem to be a clear focal point to the card. The demons in the foreground are perhaps too distracting. Perhaps they could be replaced with a couple of demons on chairs ringed round the demon king, holding their heads because they know their master has condemned all of them to destruction?

“The Ravana itself is a powerful and fascinating figure, but the card seems to be hanging somewhat in a context-less limbo. Should we make the Ravana bigger and neater (more complete in regions like the crown and lower torso?) It looks a bit unfinished compared to the other cards.”

(I do not recall if I altered this card or not. We may have agreed it should stay the same, depicting an unstable situation where the shakti power held tightly by the demonic empire, begins to release. An abyss opens up before Ravana’s throne.)

Rohit continues: “Wand 4 – This is a very lovely card, and the observant and puzzled monkey is a delightful touch. I would not change any of it. I especially like the fact that Vibheeshana though a good demon, is nevertheless still a demon and looks grotesque. It adds a very sharp edge to Rama’s unconditional extension of grace and protection granted to all who ask, even demons.“

Jane’s Notes
Yes – there is a beauty in confronting these strange beings of the underworld.

An interesting psychological point concerning demons: they are forces of energetic consciousness, and they are not always negative. The Yoga Vasishta teems with stories of great demons who attained to holiness through the force of their spiritual concentration – every raw force in the subconscious psyche has capacity to transform and to transmute.

The Greek daemon is a creative expression.

The child-hobbits to the right, are descending to the alchemical region below the forces of Karma which play on the surface landscape. 1987

The demons in Lanka faced destruction through their king’s arrogance. Up to this point, they were effective guardians in the balance of nature.

photo by tarananda shiva

For other Sacred India Tarot posts, look under Recent Posts, Search, or Archive of All Posts in the title bar.

Rohit Arya

Earlier posts about the deck, including the first 15 Major Arcana archives are in http://aryayogi.wordpress.com The deck is copyrighted (c) 2011 to the publishers, Yogi Impressions Books pvt, and available also on Amazon and internationally.

Jane Adams

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

Ganapati Muni’s Science of Mantra – Part Four

Posted on November 20, 2014 by janeadamsart

In this concluding post of the series, Ganapati Muni’s commentary elucidates the forms of Skanda and Indra which bear the mantra’s sound-wave, Sabda Brahman, seeing them realised in his spiritual brother and mentor, Ramana Maharshi of Arunachala. See also the three preceding posts, and search “Puranas” on this blog for a racy account of the Skanda mythology.

Note: the god Skanda is also known as Kumara, Murugan (or Subrahmanya) and Krtikkai.

Third Chapter: The Vedic Mantra of Guha
by Ganapati Muni

We have commented upon the two Tantric Mantras of the master Ramana. Yet his Mantras are found even in the Veda. Amongst them, here is a clear cut Mantra of Bhagavan:

“Vrsa jajana vrsanam ranaya
tamu cinnari naryam sasuva.
Prayah senanir adha nrbhyo astinah
satva gavesanah sa dhrsruh.”

The seer is Vasishtha. The Deity is Indra and the metre is Trishtubh.
vrsa is “Rudra who is of the form of Sabda Brahman”. He is vrsa because “he pours down (varsati) the special knowledge”;
vrsanam “the God who showers down flames ranavya for battle”.
To wage war brings forth the meaning – vrsa jajana – (Rudra)

Tamu – the way God, u, is indeclinable (without inflexions) – suggests the loftiness of the Name with which it is closely associated

nari cit is the divine Force: cit is indeclinable, used to denote the indescribable.
If nari is derived from nara, men, then the word nari (feminine) means the Kundalini sakti hidden in man. (*)

sasuva – “is produced”. In what way ? Naryam – “born amongst men” – are the leaders, or perfected beings.

FOOTNOTE -
* Nari is feminine (nari-kundalini)

THIS IS THE TRANSLATION IN ESSENCE:

“Kundalini sakti in the body of perfected man produces for ‘battle’
Indra’s form within the fire of astra from Sabda Brahman.”

God, taking birth, “becomes the commander – senanih – of the armies of the Gods”.
The third and fourth lines of the verse conclude:

adha nrbhvo asti – “and a helper to their leaders”
inah (means) svami – “the Master”,
satva “is the possessor of sat, of Truth”
gavesanah “seeking out”
sa “the acclaimed God”
dhrsruh, “assailer of all foes.”

Arunachala, inner path

To read here that Indra is being referred to and not Subrahmanya (Skanda), presents no problem. The ‘ordinary’ name for the fire of astra is Indra, and Kumara (Skanda) is the special name.

In what way ordinary? or special? For instance, the common name for the sun is Light, but his special or personal name is Surya.

Indra denotes broadly, all ideas of multi-faceted strength.(18)

According to a thing’s true nature, each facet of it has separate specific or ‘special’ names. In the Veda and the Brahmana it is well-known that Indra is the god of strength. The fire of astra is a powerful and mighty concept, for which, combined with supreme Lordship, Indra’s name (as the ‘ordinary’) is appropriate. The commanding fire of astra is described specifically as Kumara. There exists another reason beyond all this, which we shall submit later.

FOOTNOTE:
18 Indra denotes the strong lord, as in Mahendra, Kavindra, 
Munindra, etc.

Sacred India Tarot – Indra and Garuda

WHERE ‘ITIHASA’ IS APPROPRIATE

When the world was afflicted by powerful Asuras, the Gods begged and prayed to Brahma the Creative power for relief. Brahma replied the young Kumara (Skanda) born of Rudra from Gauri would destroy the Asuras. Later Kama the god of lust was sent by the Gods to incline ascetic Rudra towards the idea of progeny. Kama was burnt up (by one look from Rudra’s third eye). Thereupon, the young Gauri did tapas. Attracted to the severity of her tapas (spiritual effort) Rudra married her. Uniting with her, he ejected his seed upwards. The seed took shelter successively in the fire, in the water and in the stalk of sara grass, and finally became the young one, Kumara.

Parvati(Gauri) and Siva with Ganapati and Skanda

Parvati(Gauri) and Siva with Bull Nandi and their children Ganapati and Skanda. Ganapati’s vehicle is the rat, and Skanda’s is the peacock.

In other words: All human means were futile to conquer the Asura race (of demons) who devastated the world by the strength of their maya. Here we should take the Asura race as a specific, or special human type; in the world of men the Kingdom of Asuras became perpetual. (A problem cannot be solved with itself; the higher octave has to be called in.) The Gods gave astra, wisdom (*) to the seers, in order to destroy the Asuras. With the destruction of the Asuras, the Kingdom of the devotees of God became once more established on earth.

This story is related by Itihasa in a covert manner. When the jiva does tapas, firstly kama, desire, is burnt by the glory of tapas. We should not forget the fact, that the state of tapas is poised in the effulgence of Sabda Brahman. Though desire is burnt up in its gross form, it prevails in the seed form, and impels the Kundalini sakti, called Gauri (or Parvati), to perform tapas. About Kundalini being called Gauri, it is said in the Upanishad: “pita bhasatyanupama.” (19) Gauri’s form of Kundalini is fairly wellknown in the Tantra. By her tapas, the Sabda Brahman manifests.

The whole purport is that the form of the Supreme Vak (pronunciation, divine speech) becomes capable of experiencing. When Kundalini herself, reunited with Sabda Brahman, performs tapas, the sound vibration (energy) manifests. It impels the energised sound in the sky, and becomes the astra.

The seed of Sabda Brahman is cultured in the fire of muladhara (root) and the nectar of the head (sahasrara) – these are said to be its consecutive sojourns in Agni and in Ganga. (20)

The manifestation in the stalk of sara grass has been described in the Second Chapter.

We have to take the Asuras as belonging to all times, not as born in a particular period. Itihasa’s aim is to propound an all time truth.

FOOTNOTES: 
* - or Awareness

19 - Gauri, lit. "of golden yellow colour." The Narayana 
Upanishad says "Yellow, like an atom, she shines."

20 - In the subtle body, the centre at the base of the spine 
is muladhara and the centre at the top of the head is 
sahasrara. Muladhara is the seat of Fire, while sahasrara 
is the seat of the moon wherefrom the nectar flows.
 
As Ganga is the celestial river, she symbolises the nectar 
in sahasrara while Agni is the element in muladhara. The seed 
of the Sabda Brahman passes from muladhara to sahasrara, and 
has its sojourn in both centres before it manifests. 

This is the meaning of the Puranic story that Skanda is 
born from Agni as well as from the Ganga.

Gauri – Parvati – being pestered by sages

WHO IS THE ASURA TARAKA?

Well, is it not to destroyTaraka that Skanda is born? Is Taraka a historical personage?

No. Yet, Tarakasura represents a truth. Taraka is death, one who (as the ferryman) takes across – tarati – all men. (20A) In both ways, Guha (in heart’s cave) conquers Death. By granting Self knowledge, he conquers death, the lack of awareness which causes samsara. By the strength of the astra, he conquers death, the desire of his foes. It is said in the Puranas that the Tripura Asuras are sons of this same Taraka. The Tripura Asuras are none other than the three bonds. (21) Their father is lack of awareness. That is, we fall from the Self into the body – into the idea (of being separate), of considering it as the self.

FOOTNOTE:
20A See also tara, goddess of time

21 The Three Bonds are the three pasas from which release is 
sought from Varuna by the Vedic Rishi. In the later Tantra, 
these take the form of the three granthi knots in the subtle 
body: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Asura Lord (Demonic)

COMMANDER OF ARMIES

How do the words commander of armies in the Mantra signify ‘commander of armies of the gods?’ Indra, the King of Gods, becomes in this context their commander. This is made clear in another Mantra:

“Indra asem neta brha spatir Let Indra be the leader. Let Brhaspati
dakshina yajnah pura etu somah           go in front, Dakshina, the sacrifice, and Soma
Devasenanam abhibhanjatinam   Let the Maruts march in the forefront
jayantinam maruto yatvagram.”    of the army of the Gods that demolish and conquer

Rig Veda X.103.8

This Mantra is mentioned in the chapter on astra. Also, the word ina in the Mantra became later on in the common parlance the word svami, (22) Master.

“Vavrajasim anadatir adabdha   He moved all round the seven mighty ones
divo yahvir avasana anagnah   of Heaven; undevouring, inviolate.
Sana yatra yuvatayah, sa yonir        neither were they clothed, nor were they naked;
Ekam garbham dadhire sapta vanih.”   here, young and eternal in one native land
the seven Voices held in their womb the one Child

Rig Veda III.1.6. (Sri Aurobindo’s translation)

Sapta vanih are the Seven metres* in Sanskrit poetry. The birth of Agni as this Mantra is nothing other than the fire of astra. This is revealed in the hymn of Agni in the sense of burning: but not with the idea of physical fire.

FOOTNOTES:
22 - Svami is one of the principle names of Skanda.

* - The seven metres represent also seven stars in the 
Pleiades constellation, the 'natural mothers' of the child 
Skanda.

Gauri Siva's bride was the daughter of the Himalaya. She is
also known as Parvati in the Puranic cycle. The river
Ganga, lit by the seven stars and the moon,"poured down"/
descended through Siva's matted dreadlocks in their love-play.
As stated earlier, neither the fire (Agni) nor the water 
(Ganga) could receive his seed. It finally came to rest
in the stalk of the mantric sara grass. From the mythology
we gain some idea of the elemental power of mantra. 
See previous post - Part Three.

Skanda as Muruganar and Krttikai (pleiades

Another version of this tale is Siva's seduction of the 
wives of seven Rishis (seers) in the forest. Entering 
the heart of the fire (Agni) to which the women came to 
warm themselves,Siva impregnated them through their hair 
follicles, causing chaos in the ashram. The seed could
not be held by them, or by fire or by water, until it 
came to rest in the grass; then Gauri's breasts filled,
and the world rejoiced, unknowing as yet where the 
divine child with six heads lay.



Ganapati Muni saw in his spiritual brother Ramana 
Maharshi, the effulgence of Skanda the warrior of light who
delivered us from Taraka. Ramana taught Self-enquiry which 
dismantles the mind and quests consciousness:  the "I ... I".
(J.A.)

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi

COMMENTARY CONTINUED: ENQUIRY INTO THE PERSONALITY

Now we must say a word about the individualised Personality of the maya (23) form of Brahman with attributes, which is known as Subrahmanya.

We say that Indra alone is Guha’s form pertaining to the Gods. This is because Agni, the energy of sound-vibration is in the middle region; and Indra is the Lord of the middle region. This is proven in the Aranyaka when, referring to Indra, it closes with the words, Subrahmanyam, Subramanyam.

Indra’s Vedic fame as the War God, lends additional support.

What is Siva’s form among the Gods? It is Indra only. If it is said, that as father and son they are one and the same, this is correct. The only difference to note, is regarding the hidden Sabda Brahman and the manifest sound vibration. The relationship of father and son is mentioned to specify Siva and Subrahmanya (Skanda).

What is Ganapati’s form among the Gods? It is Indra only. If it is said, that as brothers Ganapati and Subrahmanya are one and the same, this is correct. The only difference to note, is that regarding the perfected mantra within, and the astra Agni impelled by it. The fraternal relationship demonstrates that first the mantra is born from Sabda Brahman; then the astra Agni. Through the concept of Ganapati, we explain Brihaspati and Brahmanaspati. (24)

What is lightning’s form pertaining to the Gods? It is Indra only. Here he has a unique quality. Indra is named as the deity of Lightning.

There are other great conceptual facets in the middle region, with Indra as their deity. They are not mentioned here, as we would have to go into a lot of detail.

FOOTNOTES:
23 Maya - form - the form that we measure out of the 
immeasurable

24 Ganapati, Brihaspati and Brahmanaspati - all three names 
denote the same Godhead in the Veda of the famous Rik 
"Gananam tva ganapatim lawamake ..." 

Brishaspati - Lord of the letters; Brahmanaspati - Lord of 
the Mantras. Brahma means both letter and mantra in the veda. 
Ganapati Lord of tantra, and these two names, denote the 
same Godhead.

Doorstep chalk pattern at dawn in Tiruvannamalai

THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE DIFFERENT DESCENTS

By means of whichever portion of energy the Lord Indra descends into awareness, the descent bears that specific or personal Name.

Indra’s descent as a portion of the lightning bears his own name. His descent as a portion of Sabda Brahman is named Rudra. His descent as the force of Tantra is known by the name Ganapati, and his descent as a portion of sound vibration is called Skanda. Ganapati and Subrahmanya (Skanda) are brothers, and they are interdependent.

We have briefly interpreted the three great Mantras of the Master. We shall develop the conceptual truth of Skanda in our Devata mimamsa. (25)

FOOTNOTES
25 - Another of Vasishtha Ganapati Muni's works, where he 
unravels the significances of the Deities

Thus Ends the Third Chapter.

Thus ends the Commentary on the Mantras of the Master,
a work of Ganapati Vasishtha, son of Narasimha
and disciple of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi

The Closing Verse

“Munina srimukhe simhe dive suryendusangame
Suryoparagasamaye bhasyam etadudiritam.”

“In the month Sravana of the year Srimukha
on a new Moon day, at the time of Solar eclipse,
this Commentary was given out by the Muni.”

APPENDIX TO THE COMMENTARY

1). Subrahmanya is the one who is born of the auspicious Brahman, that is, Sabda Brahman.

2). By this we have explained the name Brahma garbha (from the womb of Brahma)

Vide Amara: “Subrahmanya brahma-garbha svami saravanodbhavah”.

3). Kumara, eternal child. He is born, finishes the work and again vanishes. Again manifests at the time of work. Therefore, he is called the eternal child. In the Veda, in the Hymn to Indra, is mentioned ‘arbhako na kumarakah‘26 . Also, ‘sadyo jajnano nirinati saturn’.27

4). By this we have explained the name sanat kumara – sanat always; kumara, young one.

5). Sanatsujatah also in the same way. sanat, always; sujatah, well born.

6). Sanandana samanah equal nandanah, son (giver of happiness) to Rudra along with Ganapati.

7). Sanakeh, eternal.

Thus these four names denote one and the same person. Perhaps because of their different manifestations, it appears they were mentioned as four (28) .

26 The youth like a little child

27 Born at once, he demolishes the foes.

28 The four disciples of Shiva as Dakshinamurti: Sanaka, 
Sanandana, Sanatkumara and Sanatsujata. Etymologically they 
have the same meaning and denote one and the same principle.
(See also Sanatanadharma)

Here the Commentary and Appendix by the Muni ends.

We express our grateful thanks to Sri K.Natesan of Ramanasramam for making this rare manuscript available to us, and for his help with the text. Ganapati Muni’s Commentary on the Mantra of the Master, was recently published by Ramanasramam, along with the first translation into English of Kapali Sastri’s sanskrit Commentary on the Ramana Gita. Material from this has been utilised for the present work.

For the benefit of English readers, the language and presentation of the Guru Mantra Bhashya text have been slightly adjusted, and translations of Vedic Mantras, that were provided as footnotes, are now incorporated in the text, for easier reference..

J.A. Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK 2002

Arunachala village children

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

aquariel link

Ganapati Muni’s Science of Mantra: Part Three

Posted on November 19, 2014 by janeadamsart

CONTINUED FROM PART TWO – the “Guru Mantra Commentary” by Ganapati Muni (see previous post.)

Mantric language is cyclic, rhythmic, primordial. Whether we know any Sanskrit or not, the vibration grows through a commitment of the syllables to archetypal visual images. This passage develops the ASTRAGNI or weapon within the mantra. In my understanding, only a pure intention may access the metaphysical power of the Word: otherwise it rebounds.

In Part Two, we bowed to Guru in the heart’s cave. Here in Part Three, the repeated sounding of vacadhbu, agni, sara, sastra encircle and warm up my path of awe. I do not know. Unconfined to the mind, the resonance is received afresh; I begin again to ascend the mountain at dawn.

Second Chapter: The Enunciation of the Second Mantra

The Muni continues:
In this second chapter, we shall comment on another Tantric mantra of Bhagavan. Here is its verse of enunciation: (No English translation available)

“Sukham krsanuh kilalam
murdhanyascanunasikah
Nidra vari ca vikhyato
Namo mantro vadadbhuvah.”

The letter sa, Sukham happiness; the letter ra krsanuh, fire; the letter na kilalam, water; the letter va murdhanyah anunasikah; the letter na nidra, cerebral nasal; the letter bha vari, sleep; the letter va, water.(**)

1. Happiness sa
2. Fire ra
3. Water va
4. Cerebral nasal na
5. Sleep bha
6. Water va

When these six letters are read together they become sa ra va na bha wa. – “One who is born from the forest of sara”. As there are six letters in this Mantra also, like before, we understand by this the six faces of Skanda. (*)

FOOTNOTES - 
**- Sri Sankaranarayanan’s translation of this paragraph 
was ambiguous, and K.Natesan apparently overlooked my query 
about it. I have arranged it as best I can, and would welcome the 
advice of an educated Sanskrit reader. J.A.

*- The child Skanda (Kumara)- seed of Agni in the wives of Seven 
Rishis who warmed themselves by the fire - could not be carried 
by wives (goddesses of Krttika the Pleiades constellation) or 
Himalaya mountain or Ganga river, so it fell in a bed of reeds 
(grass). Six parts of the seed joined in this birthplace as one
six headed child; Siva's wife Parvati filled with milk and the 
universe rejoiced - for this child of Siva (through the inter-
mediary of Agni) was destined to defeat the demon of the 
reactive mind, Taraka. 
Skanda's older brother was Ganapati.

Note from Wendy O’Flaherty: ‘Siva the Erotic Ascetic’

ramana embryo

THE MEANING OF THE SECOND MANTRA: Saravanabhawa

“One who is born from the forest of sara, a kind of grass”. ASTRAGNI : (astra, missile or weapon invoked with a mantra, agni, sacred fire) – this means “fire of guided missile”. Here, a physical fire born from igniting grass, is not what is meant. If it were, it would not be vacadbhu – born out of the sound vibration (energy).

The story that the effulgent seed of Rudra placed in the stalk of grass became Kumara, has some deep truth behind it: Rudra is full of sound. His effulgent seed is the fire born by focussing the perfected astra mantra of a great yogi accomplished in the lore of the astras. It acquires the form of sara, grows, and slays its enemies.

“Vidma sarasya pitaram parjanyam – “We know the father of the SARA,
bhuridhayasam – Parjanya, liberal nourisher,
Vidmo svasya mataram – we know his mother Prithvi,
prthivim bhurivarpasam. – earth with her manifold designs.

Jyake pari nona masmanam tonvan krdhi – O, Bowstring, bend thyself around us,
Virur variyo ratirapa dvesarasya krdhi.” – make my body stone.
Firm in thy strength, drive far away malignities and hateful things.”

Aghawa Samkita II. 1. 2.

Sara described in the above two Mantras is a special kind of grass, not an arrow made of bamboo or metal. This is indicated by saying that its mother and father are the earth and the rain God. If we say that bamboo also, being a tree, can deserve to be the son of the earth and the rain God, the fourth Mantra in that same chapter, removes any doubt :

Yatha dyam ca prthivim cantas tiethati tejanam
evarogam casravam cantas tisthatu munja it.

Just as the sharp point stands
between earth and heaven,
let the munja grass stand between wellbeing and illness.

Breaking through – For the Rose and the Fire are One

Here by the word munja he deduces the aforesaid sara. Munja is a type of grass and not bamboo. How could fragile grass be capable of killing enemies without relating to astra, the fire warming the word which an accomplished Mantra fills ? (15)

“Isikam jaratim stva
tilpinjam dandanam nadam
Tamindra idhmam
krtva yamasyagvim niradadhan

He sought the grass, Isika
tilpinja, nada and dandana.
He enriched Indra’s fuel
and the fire of Yama.

Athawa Samhita XII.2.54.

Isika, Tilpivja, nada are types of grass. Dandanum might be of bamboo. Amongst them isika is a synonym for the sara grass. Here by the word Indra, the Jiva is meant. As the Veda says: “Rupam Rupam pratirupo babhuva.”16. He, the perfected Person knows the astra. He bound the isika grass into faggots, and nourished the sages around the fire of Yama, Kala, Time. This means he expanded and increased that which stood in the sky as the fire of Time.

Time is not different from sound. The sound resonates subtly in the sky and cultures everything.

FOOTNOTES 
15- ASTRA from the root AS - to throw; a missile, usually of grass
or any fragile material backed up by a powerful Mantra, 
though astra is loosely translated as an arrow.
Sastra(scriptures) is an arrow, while astra is a weapon backed up 
by the Mantra. 
Here the Mantra is significant, and not the material used as a 
weapon.

16- "He put his image in every form."

Frank Humphries, Ramana and the Muni

That is why we have said in our Indra Gita:

“Sadvyapakasaktim pranam kathayanti
Vyaktetarasabdam kalam ganayanti.” (17)

“The pervading force of Existence they call Prana ;
and they reckon as Time the unmanifest Sound.”

FOOTNOTE -
17- Indra Gita is one of the compositions of Ganapati Muni
and is included in Gitamala.

There itself it has been said that Kala, Time, is known by the name of Yama and Rudra.

“Rudram vidureka netarbahulilam
Prahur yamam anye kayam tava kalam.”

“O, Leader, some know you as Rudra of many sports ;
Others call thy body Time, Yama.”

Rudra who is the Sabda Brahman and Time factor pervades the sky. His effulgence impelled by the fire of Mantra becomes the Agni, named astra in the form of sara. This Agni is the Lord, the Commander-in-Chief of the armies, the destroyer of Asuras, the accomplisher of the Divine Purpose. The word isu is formed only from the word isika. The ancients employ the word isvastra to denote astra.

“Isvastram esam devatvam paritranam satamiva
Bhayam vai manuso bhavah parivado satamiva.”

“Their astra denoted divinity.
It bore divine protection to good people.
Fear is their human aspect to the wicked.”

By esam (*) the Kshatriyas (warriors) are covered. Also the primary name for astra is only isikastra. (See Ramayana and Mahabharata). Though the word sara meant astra, later on by derivative significance, it came to denote the arrow. The word sara is a pointer to the other “faggot bundles” (weapons) of astra. Principally, the usage is the form “from out of the forest of sara”, saravanabhava.

FOOTNOTE - 
* esam, a Sanskrit word for prowess (footnote supplied by 
K.Natesan)

THE APPROPRIATENESS OF SKANDA AS THE GURU?

If “Skanda” had these attributes alone, he would be a War God, not the Guru Causal. Yet being the God of war does not deter him from being the Guru Causal. In fact, it helps. The one who manifests the fire of astra, destroying foes, is our inner illumination. He burns away the ties that bind, and reveals the shore beyond darkness.

An effulgence of sound is inner knowing. By this alone, the Brahmin attains a vision of the Divine.

By the effulgence alone, the Kshatriya (warrior) masters the divine astra. The effulgence is the Brahmanhood of Brahman; the kingship of the Warrior caste.

And thus ends the Second Chapter.

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

aquariel link

Nilakantha and the Golden Constellation

Posted on September 5, 2014 by janeadamsart

Sacred India Tarot – Ramana as Skanda son of Siva

Tensions are imagination trapped in illusory codes. The tension appears to have the power to materialise, but it has no substance after the thought. Whenever I get through a bit of rotten concrete I turn and see how weak it is. The human lower mind is powered mostly by negative apprehensions. This is why it became embedded in our psyche and expectation, that we have no power to see above the hedges or to change direction – no power of Magic.

There is a huge gulf between general human bedtime, and the real human nature to draw together the stars and move with them consciously, joyfully. The power and the dawn and the history of Magic is simply … this! to take up my bed and walk.

The tapestry is the stars and the Great Heaven: quantum unity. This theme of the tapestry is mirrored back to me from persons I move with, this week: things they say. My tiny thread-loop in the tapestry stands in the lane at night and looks up at the sky.

Starling murmuration by jchip84

Back in history, some priests got hold of Magic and began to manipulate aspects of it with a tendency which grew and grew. For a while they had power and the passwords to re-shape people and environment beguilingly. It concealed from them, the Power. They lost sight and lived inside dark glasses to write history. Tension bred and grew, which obscures and fragments the Power. The political world is ruled by Tension, which manifests nowadays all our yesterdays. But I see the Power and I see the monster in the waves. The Power is hauling it up and out to be seen. Tension appears eternal (so does hell) but in due course it breaks and self destroys. It dismantles. It is rotten concrete whose reinforcing wires get rusted and snap.

The Tension which obscures the Power is separative. By “separative” I do not mean the sword-tip which parts the elements to live with and enhance each other, like brush strokes of colour. “Separative” is the dreary default dream-like notion that I am an isolated object, and therefore powerless, a frightened wage slave, reading only the headlines.

The Power which dissolves the Tension, is “all there is”. There is as Robert used to say – the power that knows the way. I need only turn toward it voluntarily, and see. This is metanoia: a word meaning ‘repent’, in the sense of ‘turn around to face the light’. Whenever and wherever this happens in the world, those stars come out and form a constellation linking oceans: a golden net.

http://thesunhermit.wordpress.com

http://thesunhermit.wordpress.com

I just came across this, in Katie Spero’s blog Let Yourself Learn: – together with a golden mountain and what happens when the subtle thread to your friend strengthens over the ocean:

“When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer
in his absence as the mountain to the climber
is clearer from the plain.”

Kahlil Gibran

Siva – Rudra the Wild Hunter

A Story – adapted from Alan Jacobs’ “Myths of Siva: Siva Nilakantha”

“Once upon a time the Gods in heaven and Demons in Hell formed a parliament. To create ambrosia, they planned to churn the Milky Way as if to make butter. They tore great Mount Mandarva from its roots, for a churning stick; Vasuki, snake of the world became the rope.

“As they whirled and stirred the celestial ocean, to their horror there rose to the surface, a hideous black oil-slick – Kalakuntha, the world’s poison: Time itself. The Gods and Devils in terror like smart young ladies seeing a mouse, appealed to Lord Siva.

“Siva dipped his hands in the sea. Drinking the poison to the last drop, he held it in his lily throat which – as if kissed by a serpent – turned a sinister peacock blue. Now named Nilakantha, Blue-throated One, he retired to his cave in Mount Kailas. All the sages and rishis made their pilgrimage.

kailas and manasarovar

“Ramana on Siva’s hill Arunachala says, ‘When the selfish thought returns to the Self, Self-awareness shines, distilled and pure: the elixir of health and wholeness, ever enduring.’

“Mixing too much with the world, I swallowed poisons churned up by confusing my activities, good and bad. With a deep exhalation, I cleanse my body. Drawing in fresh prana, I use that attention to dive within and find in my heart’s cave, Siva Nilakantha … ever illumining those who, from dreaded Kalakuntha, call upon His transmutation.”

Alan Jacobs 1993

“Within a cavern of man’s trackless spirit
is thrown an image so intensely fair
that the adventurous thoughts that wander near it
worship, and as they kneel, tremble and wear
the splendour of its presence, and the light
penetrates their dreamlike frame
’till they become charged with the strength of flame.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Siva – Rudra Immerses

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

aquariel link

Sacred India Tarot Archive – the Suit of Staves – Ace

Posted on August 23, 2014 by janeadamsart

The Sacred India Tarot bridges Indian yoga and mythology with western esoteric schools.

Tarot key 1 – the Magus – belongs here, to open a new Suit – the Suit of Wands. His is the Intelligence of Transparency. With the Wand in his right, he conducts the divine current. His left hand indicates the garden. In front of him are the tools for the Work.

Jane’s Notes – More than a decade has passed since Rohit and I worked on this suit. Reviewing it, I see the essence of the Wands – the Staves in Indian mythology – as a warrior’s dance. The action is martial but it moves with grace – for instance the wonderful episode which carries Rama and Sita across the sea to freedom and the homeland: an End-of Karma card, as with the Eights in the other three Suits.

There is also the gesture of the multi-dimensional Ashwin Twins, children of the Sun – as they reach a long hand to the struggling mariner in the high seas. We created a rare depiction of this stupendous and health giving deity.

We began to touch upon the martial art as a dance form, towards the end of the Suit of Arrows in this Archive (See Archive of all Posts, or use the Search button). Returning through the Wands/Staves, the form and its focus matures, giving Rama the power to pierce the formidable Ravannah King of Demons.

There is an old Buddhist teaching: the well placed stone. Not how many stones you throw – but which one, and where it lands – in conversation and in dance, as well as in battle: the Art of Life, the great middle way.

In the Indian sense, these pebbles are lingum, the Sign.

Rohit’s Notes (2003)

“I have selected for this Suit of Wands, the Yuddha Kanda – the section of the Ramayana dealing with the battle to recover Sita from captivity in Lanka and its aftermath from the Ramayana. We cannot deliver the whole epic in one Suit, but we can distil some essence from this archetypal chapter. A Gnostic book I read says that, as well as their more traditional meaning as the Fire Suit, the Wands represent the air and the intellect, just as we suppose the Swords to do. So we get multiple layers of meaning here.

“The Ramayana and Mahabharatha are not just India’s epics; they are the national epics also of Java, Bali, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand. I would like to show by hinting at those costume styles, that Indian mythology like the Tarot, transcends local contexts and has universal relevance. The Balinese look is spectacular, as this illustration shows.

“I like the tunic clad bearded Ravana; it shows a sense of virile power instead of being grossly ugly and repulsive as most representations of Ravana are. Perhaps the demons should be shown in this style all through?”

Rohit’s Notes (2003): The story goes: Rama in alliance with Sugriva king of the monkeys, and with Hanuman’s assistance, attacks Lanka where his wife Sita is held captive by the King of the Demons, Ravana. Rama slays Ravana and rescues Sita who then undergoes an ordeal of fire in order to clear herself of the suspicion of infidelity. At a later stage, Rama becomes imperilled by doubt, loses his trust in the feminine and banishes her to the forest where she meets the sage Valmiki. Valmiki is the traditional author of the Ramayana and its seer. In the forest, Sita gives birth to Rama’s two sons, but after having to again protest her innocence, asks to be received by the earth, which swallows her up.

“Like Krishna in the Suit of Arrows, Rama is an avatar of Vishnu the Sustainer. The poem is immensely popular in India, setting prototypes of a harmonious and just kingdom, conjugal love, filial and fraternal love. Everything is designed for harmony which after being disrupted is at last regained.”

Jane’s Notes:
Significantly, this story is a multi-level parable. For instance, Rama attains the ideal of wise government and conjugal happiness, but “loses” the plot when he drops to a lower level of the mind and its advisors. The prototypes are self-sustaining, eternally. They bide their time while the human reascends to their timeless horizon. The woman, received into the earth, is the earth’s wisdom which births us. All ideas which battle to the contrary, are time drawn out in fantasy. This suit of Staves depicts some of the psychological uplifts and downdraughts between the Worlds.

Rohit’s Notes – “Ace of Staves – Building the Stone Bridge over the Sea to Lanka – representing creative endeavour”

“We need to have a scene of frantic activity with a bridge of stone receding into the horizon over the sea, monkeys clambering about helping in the construction, and so on. Rama, Laxmana and Hanuman can be shown supervising the operation. This is not very popular as a scene in art, so we have only this vague reference to offer. Please feel free to use your imagination.

“The scene of Sagara the ocean offering to help Rama may also be used as a reference. The Single wand could be a fiery flaming arrow that Rama holds and threatens to release into the ocean to dry it up, so that the building of the bridge is not hampered. Perhaps it would be best to combine Sagara before Rama and bridge-building as one composite scene. The bow held in Rama’s hand in the sculpture panel does look remarkably like a wand anyway!”

Jane’s Notes – An observation: The immense labour in building up a causeway of stones in the sea, to access the higher dharma dimension. This is our human way, committed to our real relationships as well to sadhana and all creative endeavours – the sweat of our brow, the fruit of our lives. Interestingly when Rama returns with Sita, they are borne effortlessly by the dimension attained through Ravana’s defeat ! (See 8 of Staves, pictured above.)

The initial work itself reminds me of this painting:

Rubicon 63 – Building a Jetty 1986: the beginning of the process, with all its friends and backers and a salutary shipwreck nearby. This was about relationships, the ache and hunger of the soul for connection. The island the jetty is being built from looks like a mushroom cloud, but was based on the Alet headland near St Malo in Brittany.

Rohit’s Notes – from the Book with the Deck
“The impossible is suddenly prosaic reality: a bridge has been built upon the ocean. The demon king Ravana was secure in his island fortress of Lanka – the city of gold bounded by the impassable sea. Ravana who has kept the kidnapped Sita wife of Rama prisoner in Lanka, is shockingly confronted with the unbelievable news and unthinkable consequences.

“… The Ace of Staves sears away the illusions and delusions dear to the heart; it forces a creative and ultimately more integral response to the challenge of life. If one persists in the old ways, the consequences are swift and harsh as one of Rama’s weapons. This colossal feat was accomplished with the help of his great brother Laxmana and his simian-like Vanara allies – magical creatures of equal, if not greater accomplishment than humans … Such unorthodox brilliance in the swift use of resources, the sheer chutzpah of conception and execution, is typical of the Staves energy… The Staves are only apparently disruptive, and integrate the churned situation at a higher level of consciousness.

“In a reading: Situations unfold at bewildering speed. Vision and visionaries: energy, fiery and swift; resiliance and enduring courage, stimulating thinkers. Shadow: low creative energy, or misapplication – frustration and delays, over-commitment at all levels, sexual imbroglios. There is no need to take on the world. Are you running away with yourself and your enthusiasm? Conversely, what is the strangest, weirdest thing you could do to get this done?“

Here is the finished card:

Sacred India Tarot – the Ace of Staves

Correspondence – Rohit to Jane
“Ace of Wands – There is nothing significant I would like to change in this card as it has a very unusual other worldly element to it. Supernatural events are manifestly taking place as we look. The monkey in the picture can be safely regarded as Sugriva or any one of the innumerable simian hordes who supported Rama. When portraying Hanuman he should be white in colour as he was an albino monkey, very handsome and muscular with warrior’s helm and holding a mace or even hammer. (See Sacred India Tarot, Knight of Arrows in this series.) The hammer might be a strange choice but I have actually seen pictures of him holding one, and it would be a refreshing change to the normal depiction of Hanuman.

“A very small point that did not occur to me until I saw it. Rama is shown with Vaishantha forehead markings, in acknowledgement of his being an avatar Vishnu, but he was personally a devotee of Siva, having in fact just established the famous Rameshwaram Siva temple by the Ocean before the events of this card. It would make a good point about tolerance and the peculiar Hindu genius to meld and assimilate, if Rama was shown with Shaiva markings on the forehead. I never thought about this point as I did not anticipate any such depiction, but now that it has emerged, it will significantly deepen the spiritual and cultural aspects of the suit. In all other respects, the card is perfect.”

Unfortunately I do not seem to have taken this on board for the finished card; all the better to mention the detail here.

For other Sacred India Tarot posts, look under Recent Posts, Search,
or Archive of All Posts in the title bar.

Rohit Arya
Rohit Arya is an Author, Yogi and Polymath. He has written the first book on Vaastu to be published in the West, {translated into five languages} the first book on tarot to be published in India, co-authored a book on fire sacrifice, and is the creator of The Sacred India Tarot {82 card deck and book}. He has also written A Gathering of Gods. He is a corporate trainer, a mythologist and vibrant speaker as well as an arts critic and cultural commentator. Rohit is also a Lineage Master in the Eight Spiritual Breaths system of Yoga.
Earlier posts about the deck, including the first 15 Major Arcana archives are in http://aryayogi.wordpress.com The deck is copyrighted (c) 2011 to the publishers, Yogi Impressions Books pvt, and available also on Amazon and internationally.

Jane Adams
My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.
This blog is a vehicle to promote also my published work – The Sacred India Tarot (with Rohit Arya, Yogi Impressions Books) and The Dreamer in the Dream – a collection of short stories (0 Books).

All original art and creative writing in this blog is copyright © Janeadamsart 2012 – 2014. May not be used for commercial purposes. May be used and shared for non-commercial means with credit to Jane Adams and a link to the web address https://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/

Sacred India Tarot Archive: Arrows Queen & King – Draupadi and Garuda

Posted on July 6, 2014 by janeadamsart

Shape shifter – Eagle King (2002)

With the Queen and King of Swords (Arrows), this suit transmutes to its creative realm of power and grace – Indra’s thunder and Draupadi’s forest magic.

Sit in the forest and hear the rainfall: the swords of the sunlight, reaching earth. Throughout the suit of Arrows which express the Laws of Heaven, we lived, accepted and illumined our Shadow. As often said before in this series, the Arrow turns into a Wand – a staff of authority – powered by eagles’ feather.

Rohit’s Notes – 2004 “Some things about Draupadi are very clear. She was fantastically intelligent, very beautiful and a very tough cookie. She was also in all the descriptions rather voluptuous, and – we need to be very careful about this – her skin was black.

“In fact, her first name was Krishnaa – the feminine of Krishna – and it means the same thing: Black. She had extremely long unbounded hair. She is like the Queen of pentacles, but without the softness; a more intense, slightly angry expression, as her temper was famous, and holding a bow and arrow as she also practiced archery. Her dark skin is essential; for too long, India has depicted her with peaches and cream. She should be clad in sky blue clothing. She had a peculiar preference to stand and dispute matters with her husbands the Pandava princes instead of sitting down. So she should be standing upright, perhaps leaning on her bow.”

Jane’s Notes – This Queen is liberated from prejudice and cruelty to the feminine. She is no copy or competitor of the male. She stands in her strength and knowledge, having loved her men, carried their children and won her battles. She has in her the hidden force of the forest, the earth and the stars. Her consort is the Eagles’ strength and vision, riding the skies and watching the rivers.

This woman bears fruit, wherever she is not demonised by civil wars, religious dogma and the media. The shadow of sexual ignorance, inflation and persecution is still a core wound of our world today, in every form of waste and tribal conflict. But the liberated core eros, the rose of life in men and women, is human evolution … and wide like an eagle to the sky, it opens wings.

Look within my mind, when it is closed. Whose battle standard do I blindly follow? Whom am I taught, by political Spin, to hate? – where do I vote with the herd, without knowing? The Spin-word is interesting, implying the random placement of a gaming wheel. I borrow my opinions from other opinions, and put my stake on them.

This woman has no stake, but truth. Do you dare?

SITA visual reference – Draupadi

Rohit’s Notes – from his Book with the Deck: “One of the greatest and saddest women in Indian myth is Draupadi – the dark beauty – the daughter born of Divine fire to King Drupada. She is one of the five exemplars of chaste, wifely devotion (the original meaning of Siva’s first wife Sati) and yet her Karma caused her to simultaneously have five brothers as husbands.

Sacred India Tarot – Krishna in Mahabharatha – Detail

“In an age of polygamy, rife with hatred and jealousy, Draupadi was universally acclaimed for not only living in peace with her husbands and their co-wives, but for having gained their overwhelming love and respect too. For everyone she was the pinnacle.

“The inspiring eloquence that characterised her speech gave her the best lines in the Mahabaratha epic. Her best friend and only intellectual equal of the day was the god Krishna. Draupadi was as great a warrior as her husband Arjuna, as wise as his eldest brother Yudhistara, as tempestuous and generous as the middle brother Bhima, as versed in statecraft and the arts as the youngest twins, her husbands Nakula and Sahadeva, and yet left doubting if any of them really loved her.

“She was also the most beautiful woman of her time, and her great spiritual powers had rendered her eternally youthful. The epitomy of grace under pressure, she would not however, forgive and forget lightly. Every injury and slight had to be avenged, preferably in blood, and crossing her was normally a death sentence. Yet she could display a calm mercy when everybody was seething for blood; her most magnificent moment being sparing the life of her childrens’ murderer.

“In a reading: Hugely talented and capable people … having tasted sorrow, they prefer to go it alone. Independent action and thought … Extremely charming and persuasive but … very combative on behalf of those they like, of for issues they believe in … Cannot be manipulated or emotionally blackmailed.

“Shadow – neglectful in relationships, especially of children … Intolerant and troubled. Detached misleading flirtation which lands other persons in hot water. Divorce, separated, widowed, multiple relationships or the energy thereof … Cold fury if crossed. Dangerous enemy. Are you trying to do everything by yourself? Unlucky in love? Do you need to manifest your strength and not depend on others?”

I drew these two Queens (and many others) when I was about eight years old.

SACRED INDIA TAROT – Queen Draupadi of Arrows is a wild dark huntress, like Diana in the west – a formidable encounter for any unprepared male. Note the snake around the sinuous tree. The publishers of the deck requested she wear pantaloons, respecting the conventions in contemporary Indian art; but here is the original drawing.

Sacred India Tarot – Queen Draupadi of Arrows

Through the Royals in the Suit of Arrows, a shape-shifting occurs, as the animal kingdom – the animal soul – becomes integrated and uplifted into human consciousness. Hanuman the Knight embodies the simian intelligence, loyalty and strength – our ancient vital thread in the gene pool.

Garuda the King has an eagle’s face and wings.

As a friend of mine wrote: “the dung of the eagle flies higher than we do. The dung of the ox falls deeper than we do.” We ignore or disrespect our elder animal nature at our peril. We know very little of our ancient Friend. We try to make a pet of it.

In Pullman’s His Dark Materials, each human (rightly) was companioned by his or her animal daemon, furred or feathered: our essential gravity..

Rohit’s Notes (2004) “I am prepared to go with Garuda instead of Yudhishtara (original choice). The two Kings of the Air could be Garuda and Indra, both atmospheric AIR signs, which is after all the suit of arrows. The illustrations depicting Garuda and Indra could be used as a base, though Indra should probably be shown in profile.

SITA visual reference from comic book – Indra & Garuda

Correspondence – Rohit “Gautam, we need a picture of a vajra, the thingie that is on top of our meditation bell. I will try and bring pictures with me. Do a search of Tibetan vajras on the net. Garuda articles and the Garudra Indra picture from the comic we have scanned already so that is no problem. Take a picture of your Garuda and send it to Jane.

Tibetan Vajra

“Indra’s Vajra could be drawn in a somewhat Tibetan style. Garuda could be shown conventionally, but the colours should be carefully maintained. Golden body, white eagle face and blood red wings characterise him. Indra can be clad in the white silver and blue to depict his role as Lord of the sky and winds and rain.

“I prefer to go with this option, because we get Indra who was after all a major player in the Vedic faith into the pack, and we also get Garuda in, and he is the ‘Michael’ archetype as seen by Indian eyes.”

Shape shifter - Eagle king 3. These shape shifters had an Egyptian archetype in mind, but serve as well to develop the concept of Garuda.

Shape shifter – Eagle king 3. These shape shifters when I drew them, had an Egyptian archetype in mind, but serve as well to develop the concept of Garuda.

From Rohit Arya’s Book with the Deck: “Garuda the senior servant of Vishnu, and Hanuman the junior servant, are the strongest of the strong powers in the universe. However, both these great beings have dedicated their lives to service instead of using their powers to rule over the cosmos …

“Garuda the cosmic Eagle was the child of the rishi Kashyapa. Between his mother Vinata and her co-wife Kadru, mother of serpents, there was sufficient bad blood and malice for Vinata to become Kadru’s slave. To ransom her, Garuda undertook the forcible removal of amrit – elixir of immortality and source of the power of the devas. This brought him into reluctant conflict with the Indra, King of the Devas. Indra chose discretion as the better part of valour, and made an ally of Garuda, craftily blessing him with eternal rights over snakes as his food!

“Garuda’s strength is so megatherian, that one single feather of his wings can hold up a planet. Behind the titanic roaring of his wings can be heard the eternal hymns of the Vedas. His unblinking eyes denote his conquest of sleep, and his infallible gaze penetrates all. His aura blazes like the fires of cosmic destruction. Repeating his name thrice keeps snakes away at night …

“In a reading: Mentors and guides. Wise and knowledgeable about human nature. Powerful analytical mind and … unexpected sense of humour. More head than heart. Intolerance of restrictions and conventionality … Good at romance, but it doesn’t interest him! Values respect over likeability, knowledge over feelings, lofty ideals. Fierce warriors if need be.

“Shadow: Easily bored and mind scatters itself … Exaggerated lone-wolf attitudes – don’t involve me. Fine judgement becomes judging others … the fearsome mind is a weapon used to wound.

“People would like you, even love you, if you gave them a chance. Unbend and relax a little. Sometimes the most intelligent thing may be to listen to your heart.”

Durga shoots buffalo king Mahisha.

Among hunter communities of the Pandyan lands, whenever the community experienced hardships, they used to choose a young girl from among their clan, decorated her like Durga, and worshiped her as Mahishasura-mardhini, the one who killed Mahisha, the buffalo. One of the decorative features of this girl was that an eye was painted on her forehead. (Reference: http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/guest-blogger-jayasree-is-vedic.html )

I include this snippet, because the Eagle’s ascent through Garuda IS the opening of the third eye, as seen in the sketches and in the finished painting below.

In the end, I chose to let Indra be Garuda’s “celestial background”. Garuda is Master of the skies and Indra is the lightning flash.

SACRED INDIA TAROT – The King of Arrows: Garuda is half an eagle. His human face is a double eagle, as in alchemy. The eagle’s vision flies as high as the serpents travel deep.

Guided by Indra’s Lightning, Garuda is a great ruler. He balances Planet Earth lightly on a feather, raises his arrow like the Queen of Justice in the west, and contains his Yogic ojas – the male seed. Before him, the Caducean pair of serpents rest on the ground, entwined.

Sacred India Tarot – King Garuda of Arrows

Correspondence: Gautam and Rohit to Jane – 2 March 2005 “Hi Jane, herewith Rohit’s feedback. Warm regards, Gautam.”

“Gautam, the Garuda with the Indra looking over his shoulder is fantastic. The Draupadi is very good too – as good – though she will need a dhoti-trouser instead of the mini she is currently wearing. Otherwise she will be confused with tribal Rakshasee Hidambas, mother of Ghatkolkacha, son of Bheema. Like with Durga, the dhoti-trouser look is best, both authentic as well as uncontroversial. Also, people will not buy a poster of a Draupadi in a mini skirt. But the way she has been captured – this is the real Draupadi.

“Fantastic cards. Rohit.”

female golden eagle returns to nest. www.nickdunlop.com

female golden eagle returns to nest. http://www.nickdunlop.com

I like to see this great Mother come back as she always does, to nest and feed her little King. Garuda, Indra and Draupadi – may You go forth, and may our heart and eye and mind remain wide open to Your blessing and freedom.

Vedic Hymns to Indra

In the ascending slope of the mountains,
in the confluence of the streams,
by the Goddess-understanding the sage was born.

Hence being conscious at the summit
he looks down upon the sea
from which vibrating, he stirs.

Then they see the morning light
of the primordial seed when beyond Heaven
it is enkindled.

…

The imperious hawk, the song bird taking the stalk,
the joyous delight from the beyond, brought the Soma.
Godlike, the bird grasped it firmly,
which he had received from the highest heaven.

The hawk took the Soma he received
through a thousand times ten thousand effusions.
Thus the Goddess of bountiful intelligence abandoned the ungiving;
in the ecstasy of Soma she in wisdom
abandoned the foolish.

“The knowledge of the Self is the hawk or eagle, the bird of the Sun, the free spirit. It carries the highest bliss, which it effuses infinitely. The Goddess of bountiful intelligence is the consort or mind of Indra, our own soul that is released through this knowledge of the Divine I am, the I am All …”

Translation and commentary by David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri) “Wisdom of the Ancient Seers” Motilal Banarssidas, Delhi, 1994)

Indra

The Sacred India Tarot Archive series in this blog will conclude with the Suit of Wands (Staves) – episodes from the Ramayana epic, including the crossing to Sri Lanka to liberate Sita from the demon Ravanna.

For other Sacred India Tarot posts, look under Recent Posts, Search, or Archive of All Posts in the title bar.

Rohit Arya

Rohit Arya is an Author, Yogi and Polymath. He has written the first book on Vaastu to be published in the West, {translated into five languages} the first book on tarot to be published in India, co-authored a book on fire sacrifice, and is the creator of The Sacred India Tarot {82 card deck and book}. He has also written A Gathering of Gods. He is a corporate trainer, a mythologist and vibrant speaker as well as an arts critic and cultural commentator. Rohit is also a Lineage Master in the Eight Spiritual Breaths system of Yoga.

Jane Adams

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

Sacred India Tarot Archive – the Page of Arrows and Hanuman

Posted on June 18, 2014 by janeadamsart

Continuing the Archive of the deck, by Jane Adams and Rohit Arya.

It is nearly four months since my last SITA post. To recap: Through the Royal Page, Knight, Queen and King, the Swords/Arrows of Karma transform to the coming suit of Staves – the Rods or Wands.

The Wand or Stave is actually the Caduceus, serpent twined – the authority by which Moses struck water from the rock.

The implication is: we enter an agreement with our Inner Ruler, to integrate our destiny.

The transfer of the power in Mahabharath, occurs through the 10 of Swords, when King Bheeshma dying, instructs Yudishtara in the art and laws of government. All mythologies bear the human tale, including precognition and betrayals.

In the 10 of Swords, the old King’s “overwhelming” transmutes to Consciousness, as the blades enter his awakened Kundalini spine: the feeling is no longer pain. It yields. Knowledge awakes when tension against it drops. The snakes enter me. I enter the snakes. We flower, as the room is opened.

This is initiation: peace. I now discover, the Royals – Page, Knight, Queen and King of Arrows – are all of a piece with these perceptions.

SACRED INDIA TAROT – Pages of Arrows

The Pages move together in alert reconciliation. They are Archers, but the truce between them is a Sword.

This card recalls the 2 of Arrows, where the young Bheeshma in training to become a warrior, fights with his teacher. The Pages seem to usher in a new age, where divisions turn into co-operatives.

Rohit Arya’s Notes (2004)
“It is interesting that we have another twin set for the Pages.” (See the Pages of Staves, which were done earlier). “Nakula and Sahadeva are the nearly invisible members of the Mahabharatha, sons of the Ashwins, our Pages of Wands. Yet both of them were very intelligent and capable, true Renaissance men, skillful, adept, wise, eloquent. Sahadeva was widely held to be the most intelligent of all men once Bheeshma died, and Nakula was always the most handsome man on planet earth.

“They were, as befits children of the Ashwins, great horsemen too, so they should be depicted astride steeds. Like all pages their potential was never fully visible, though their gift of the gab and diplomatic skills served Yudishtara (their elder brother) well, when he became King. Both of them were also archers, though they preferred the sword. That automatically ensured their lower status in bow-crazy India.

“ Rohit’s book continues: “Being universally liked, handsome and the youngest, they suffered the fate of favourite children in India – they were pampered and indulged till they almost became useless. It is reflective of their vigorous characters, that they still turned out to be such renaissance men.

“Interpretation: Skillful people – dexterous and creative, with supple imaginations. News about legal matters or government. Silver tongued speakers … they are not taken in or fooled by glitter or honey tongued words. Precocious young people of high intelligence: internet friendships. Ability to convey blunt truths without offending people.

“Shadow: – the born spy and gossip, snoopy and sneaky for one’s personal pleasure. Stir up fuss in seeking to reconcile … anonymous letters. Confidence tricksters. Act decisively upon information, instead of nattering away. Read all documents and contracts carefully. What information do you lack?”

I cannot find any of our letters regarding this card, but here is a visual reference Rohit sent me for the next one, the Knight – Hanuman:

SITA visual reference – Hanuman

Rohit’s Notes (2004):
“The depiction is comprehensive in the given visual, and needs only an arrow in one of his hands, as well as changing the colour of his fur to pure white, as that is the accurate colour of Hanuman. A somewhat wiser expression on his face might not be amiss: in the picture he looks strained. Hanuman is present in the Mahabharatha too” (the Arrows theme) ” and it is too good an opportunity to pass up, to give him a full card to himself.

“This is the Vishwarupam – the Universal Form – and powerful enough to need only minor tinkering. A sense of winds howling through, depicted in flapping flags, would be nice if it can be managed, but it is not absolutely necessary.”

… and feedback to the finished card (below):
“Dear Jane, The Hanuman looks slightly ancient, but as he is immortal that is understandable. He looks like the Colossus of Rhodes, and it is a great touch. However, while it is a very different Hanuman, a wise ancient warrior, to a few we showed the card, they did not realise it is Hanuman. Do you think we need the standard face?

Do let us have your views, as we like the card as it is, but the ‘recognition’ factor is (not) there. Rest of the card is perfect except, perhaps making him look a bit more muscular?

“Regards, Gautam and Rohit”

Jane’s Notes – 2014
I do not now remember what alterations I made, if any. This is one of my favourite cards of the deck. He steps from land to land, faithful to the cause, and trusting in his giant intelligence. Indeed he has a venerable air. Most depictions of Hanuman are considerably more youthful …

SACRED INDIA TAROT – Knight of Arrows – Hanuman

With him, we transit from the Suit of Arrows (Mahabharath) to the Suit of Wands/Staves – the great Ramayana epic.

Hanuman the monkey god – crossing the sea from southern India to jewelled Lanka to help Rama rescue Sita – carries a rosebud and displays great mental and intellectual energy. He is of a par with the agile chessboard Knight’s lateral thinking, where everyone else travels in straight lines. The mind is our wonderful servant; but let him not become the dark dwarf. The dwarves in the underworld play the market with cunning, but do not release their treasure.

Rohit writes – (in his book with the deck): “Hanuman, son of Vayu – the wind god – as a young boy he was a holy terror, but grew up to become the exemplar of self-restraint, wisdom and judicious application of strength. He has supreme siddhis – supernatural powers – but his greatest asset is his astuteness. He is the ideal devotee of Rama, eternally celibate ad immortal.

“Hanuman is an incarnation of Siva in his Rudra aspect: storms and lightning herald his approach to mortal eyes. He is not a monkey but a Vanara, a mythical race with simian attributes belonging to a superior culture and civilisation.”

(It is that elder nobility which I sought to portray in my painting of him.)

child siva snake - art work for a Self-enquiry workshop, 1994

child siva dragon lion camel – art work for a Self-enquiry workshop, 1994

“… Hanuman is worshipped as the saviour from troubles. Knowing fully well the imbroglios that whims and wilfulness land a person in, Hanuman compassionately forgives and aids humans.

“The flag of victory signifies his invinciibility: the arrow, his unerring and penetrative insight. The axe compassionately cuts away the tree of delusion. The conch represents prana – the vital breath (and its shared root with thought) which he has mastered. The flower is the self, surrendered at the feet of God. One hand is hidden, as we may never presume to know all about immortal things.

“The card shows him in his Vishvarupa – the universal form, the strength of wisdom pervading all quarters.

“Interpretation: The born warrior, especially in noble causes. Unexpected connections with new sets of people, become important in life. Extremely astute – sees through people and their pretences instantly. A tireless champion and fighter against injustice and for the weak. Laser sharp minds, but emotionally oblivious sometimes. Steadfast work towards goals.

“Shadow: Fighting for its own sake, because one can win – impulsive and breathtaking rashness. Does not suffer fools gladly, and sees fools everywhere: too clever by half. Anger conceals low self image … wastes energy in cranky causes … toxic anger … all aspects connected with breathing are impacted.

“Yoking yourself to a cause greater than your personal benefit, has immense spiritual rewards and makes you grow psychologically. Always act forcefully and in awareness.”

And finally …

Sacred India Tarot, Major Arcana 8 – Varuna as “Justice”

I did not know till now, that Varuna, the Vedic god of the winds, of prana and of cosmic equilibrium, was Hanuman’s father. Recently I have felt a subtle energy with this card.

(Actually – see Comments below – this is my error. Hanuman is the son of Vayu of the winds – not Varuna.)

I felt “the Inner Ruler”: the staff of the skies.

At source … in our dawn, all Ways were one. The Vedic Seers were and are universal; they sat under trees, saw the planets, wrote their Hymns and raised their families. Their faces are like clouds which form in the sky. When I painted this Varuna, back in 2002, an old Egyptian Master came through the veil into his features, and made this contact with me.

I felt the connection like a plucked string. It was startling.

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

aquariel link

Sacred India Tarot Arrows – Transition

Posted on February 26, 2014 by janeadamsart

In some ways, my process with the Arrows, in my inner and outer life, is the deepest yet. The Arrows are of “confrontation” and its passage into peace.

Touching on the 10 of swords is nadir – I feel that resonance – the collapse of the seed and civilization, for the new growth and transmission. King Bheeshma dies – he gives his Arrow of knowledge and wisdom to the young Yudishtara. Rock bottom: from the old as it dies, is planted the new. It is in the martial art movement, an empty leg with the fullness of the ground flowing into it. In my painting of 10 of Swords, the old King dying on the Arrows along his spinal chakras, uplifts his nobility into the compassion of the new King’s listening face.

In the Sacred India Tarot facebook page yesterday, Rohit mentioned:
“In traditional Tarot this is rock bottom, but in yoga that is also understood as the beginning of a new cycle.
Bheeshma failed, but the knowledge and wisdom he accumulated was passed on so that Yudhistara could succeed. Hence the personal failure did not count as much as the societal gain in the end…”

The Fool in the Tarot, is known in our Sacred India Tarot deck as “the wild card”. This is because the archetype comes through the primordial Wild Hunter, the divine Rudra, fore-runner of Siva.

Every innocent Fool – or Wild Hunter – embarks upon an adventure! Each soul who embarks upon an adventure is a Fool! The Fool is the entire Tarot – the space between the lines. Pretty soon, the Fool meets the Magician and the (subconscious feminine) Priestess, who contains him, and reveals in succession, Empress, Emperor, and Hierophant; his sense of proportion returns.

This was the unpublished version of Rudra - the Fool or creative principle of the deck

This was the unpublished version of Rudra – the Fool or overall creative principle of the deck

The Fool begins the journey in an exciting mist. As the sun rises and gains strength, the landscape and its mountain peaks and chief features, appear. Human are we, everlastingly.

But I want to reflect on the 10 of Swords as I am passing through. The nadir (at any point) is reached when a situation overwhelms me. I lose my vital force and die. Dying, I wait latent for the daffodils to appear.

Psychologically, the 10 of Swords carries remorse and new intention. We all get it repeatedly in our lives. This Key is hard, but it is a good one. When we are overwhelmed, we are obscured and off balance. But the “overwhelming factor” is self-correcting in the Tao. When Yang is saturated, when it is filled, it converts to Yin, and vice versa. This movement ever oscillates and stretches, concludes and opens. I am the pebble which is rolled in the river bed.

Truth is the blank, the empty room’s passing; be still and honour it, this morning.

So: the feeling this morning. Stasis, empty room, and sorrow. Not about anything particular. Sorrow is an essential part of the mix; like rain in the sky. Sorrow is awareness, and this feels good and right. It breathes its own pulse. It is love which is object-free; it is the soft talk of the stream that flows on the mountain. I give my sorrow time and space. It cleanses, after each “overwhelming” or flood of the Fishes in Tao. It makes slow Ch’i movements with a candle flame. Nurture the rich field of sorrow, the empty fullness – the Fool in sacred space. Alone in the oscillation, is life. The Swords which move it, are the discipline of the Work: the dance form. This is what I love.

http://www.neboagency.com/blog/fight-fighting-tai-chi-chuan-approach-communication/

Sorrow is a form of the Sword. I found, to illustrate the “Han” part of my previous post, this photo online of two Tao gentlemen on a sea-beach: one of them just tossed the other lightly upside down, and he cartwheels – they wear flowing white jackets and black flapping trousers, they make a Tao symbol. They are not doing the Sword form, but the Sword form is based on the flow around Tan t’ien in the belly.

What is Sword Form? What is the Tao chi? What is citta (sanskrit)? It is total concentration on Life – just as a woman in utmost labour is concentrated. It is a difficult art to get it right; but keep practicing with this Sword – and “no blame” as those Oriental gentlemen would say (whenever it obsesses a bit).

Centrifugal Yang through Yin - sketched from "The Trigrams of Han" by Steve Moore

Centrifugal Yang through Yin – the “destruction cycle’ sketched from “The Trigrams of Han” by Steve Moore. Fire melts metal which cuts wood which uses earth which drinks water … which puts out fire.

In Kabbalah practice are very high ideals when the “concentration” surges. Pleasure-seeking Yesod child in due course pulls it down to the consumer level, where it breaks up – and clings to the bits of wet bread, and weeps with being abandoned, and the job yet again, to get out of the fix.

But the beautiful balance – being Empty for the Full – always returns. Each time there is a little more learning. There is wood to cut and water to gather, as before.

And returning to the space: as De Ruiter would say – let it be tenderly obvious and obscure. The values of life are in the illumined empty-full: the attendance on the tendency … the fluid point between those gentlemen on the beach: between the waves. We are all of a waveband.

Rohit and I are students of Jung. To some extent, Jung seems to have directed our project, The Sacred India Tarot, which bridges the spiritual traditions and their archetypes, for he crops up in my journal over the years, whenever it became intense.

At about this point in our Archive, the Suit of Arrows changes its tone. The battle is complete, with the Ten of Arrows; a new realm opens, as the instinct to make war transforms to “martial art”. Intuitively, the Swords/Arrows change to Rods or Wands – the coming Suit of Staves. The Wand or Stave is actually the Caduceus, serpent twined – the authority by which Moses struck water from the rock.

In the seminal Red Book, Jung’s journey with Elijah and Salome continues:

jung as hermit

Footnote: “Now I learn that Mary is the mother, the innocent and love-receiving, and not pleasure who bears the seed of evil in her heated and seductive manner. If Salome’s evil pleasure is my sister, then I must be a thinking saint, and my intellect has met with a sad fate. … Salome as Elijah’s daughter, is an offspring of thought, and not the principle itself, which Mary the innocent virgin mother, now appears as.”

And: “The image of the cool starry night and of the vast sky opens up my eye to the infinity of the inner world, which I as a desirous man feel is still too cold. I cannot pull the stars down to myself, but only watch them. Therefore my imperious desire feels that world is nightly and cold.”

He refers to abstract perception, and to the refining of his desire. For most of us, the refinement does not nourish us, until we are willing to wait upon it in our empty-full. Then it becomes a nectar waterfall. It is the fulfilment of humanity’s higher Self – everything else is starvation, really. Our origin is this element.

Jung’s painting of himself with Elijah and Salome in the Red Book

The chapter in the Red Book titled “Resolution” witnesses a struggle between doubt and desire: the prophet bids him desist from climbing the high ridge of a rock which separates day and night. To the right of the rock is a black serpent, to the left, a white one. (Goodness, those Oriental gentlemen again !) They pounce and wrestle terribly.

“The black serpent seems to be stronger, the white serpent draws back. Great billows of dust rise from the place of struggle. But then I see: the black serpent pulls itself back again. The front part of its body has become white. Both serpents curl about themselves, the one in light, the other in darkness.”

He thinks it over, and asks Elijah – “Should it mean that the power of the good light will become so great that even the darkness that resists it will be illumined by it?” For answer, Elijah takes him to the high place and stands upon the altar Stone: “This is the temple of the sun. This place is a vessel that collects the light of the sun.”

Then the prophet climbs down, becoming smaller and smaller until he is Mime the dwarf in the Ring Cycle. Mime shows Jung the wellsprings of the deep. “The collected light becomes water and flows in many springs from the summit into the valleys of the earth.” He dives into a dark crevice, and Jung follows him, hearing the rippling of a spring. “Here,” says Mime “ are my wells, whoever drinks from them becomes wise.”

But Jung is scared, and he goes outside his house and walks up and down in his yard, in the full bright air of his interior vision, the cave. Before the vision of the snakes, he had a block, and couldn’t descend: his normal procedure would not descend. He realised he had a conflict in himself about going down, and it took the imaginative form of two dark principles fighting each other, the serpents.

Caduceus on the tree of life. The lower figure was drawn with both hands simultaneously, exercising both sides of the brain – without leaving the paper.

In The Ring cycle, Mime the master craftsman, brought up Siegfried in the cave, to kill the dragon giant Fafner who stole the ring. Siegried slays Fafner with Mime’s INVINCIBLE SWORD, gets the ring(?) and kills Mime who had intended to kill him.

It sounds like the transfer of the power in the 10 of Swords, in Mahabharath. All mythologies bear the human tale. It includes precognition and betrayals. In Jung’s journey, the dwarf Mime represented the allure of the ‘clever’ intellect, untempered by the laws of love.

In the 10 of Swords, the old King’s “overwhelming” transforms to Consciousness, as the blades enter his awakened Kundalini spine: the feeling is no longer pain. It yields. Knowledge happens when tension against it drops. The snakes enter me. I enter the snakes. We flower, as the room is opened.

I now discover, the Royals – Page, Knight, Queen and King of Arrows – are all of a piece with these perceptions.

Nakula and Sahadeva

Hanuman crosses to Lanka

Queen Draupadi

Indra and Garuda

The Pages move together in alert reconciliation. They are Archers, but the truce between them is a Sword. This card recalls the 2 of Arrows, where the young Bheeshma in training to become a warrior, fights with his teacher.

Hanuman the monkey god, crossing the sea to jewelled Lanka to help Rama rescue Sita – (in the Suit of Wands/Staves) – carries a rosebud and displays great mental and intellectual energy. He is of a par with the agile chessboard Knight’s lateral thinking, where everyone else travels in straight lines. He is our wonderful servant; but let him not become the dark dwarf Mime. The dwarves in the underworld play the market with cunning, but do not release their treasure.

Queen Draupadi is a wild dark huntress, like Diana in the west – a formidable encounter for any unprepared male. Note the snake around the sinuous tree. The publishers of the deck requested she wear pantaloons, respecting the conventions in contemporary Indian art; but here is the original drawing.

The King of Arrows is Garuda, who was half an eagle. His human face is a double eagle, as in alchemy. The eagle’s vision flies as high as the serpent travels deep. Advised by the Lightning god, Indra, Garuda is a great ruler. He balances Planet Earth lightly on a feather, raises his arrow like the Queen of Justice in the west, and contains his ojas.
Before him, the Caducean pair of serpents rest on the ground, entwined.

We will discuss these cards more fully in the next SITA posts.

My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.

aquariel link