Kukulcan, Kukulcan, carnal and divine.
Kukulcan, Kukulcan, shiver in my spine
Slither in my bones, flood my blood,
Kukulcan, spread your wings in me
In my skull find your home
Ku-kul-can, Ku-kul-can,
Melek Taus oh Lord of the Painted Fan
Kukulcan, Kukulcan, Io Ia,
Iris I invoke, double-chaliced,
In P'ara palace, Io Ia
In the 24 hours of Kukulcan,
We spin the Ssseven powers of Kukulcan
Ssseven chakras, Ssseven colours, Ssseven heavens,
Ssseven notes, Ssseven tones, Ssseven heights
Ssseven stars, Ssseven sisters, Ssseven sssevens,
Ssseven daimonds, Ssseven seas, Ssseven lights,
EquiNox, EquiLux, ATU Ssseven we invoke,
12 hours of day, 12 of night
IPSOS By the same mouth, by the same bone
By the same tusk, by the same stone
By the same feather, by the same tooth,
By Maat, in Balance,
By Kukulcan, in Truth
Wing and tail, feather and scale,
Quetzalcoatl of earth and sky,
Wing and tail, feather and scale,
Slither and fly.
Diany-Glas, FuturePast,
MorningStar,
Kukulcan, Oh Kukulcan
Kukulcan, Kukulcan
Oh Yum H'Yum Kukulcan!
SPRING EquiNOX/EquiLUX RITE -19th March 2000.
I headed up to Chichen Itza with 3 other travellers on the bus from
Palenque. After numerous delays, a flat tyre, changing buses, etc., we
eventually arrived at the Pyramide Inn near the Chichen Itza Mayan Ruins.
One of those I travelled up with, Pyramid, has her birthday on the 21st,
the day after Equinox and the day before my birthday, another on the 24th,
when two others who travelled up from Palenque seperately also celebrated
their birthdays. A gathering of Equinox babies!
Everyone (there was a whole posse from Palenque) was rather disorientated
upon arrival, as the Pyramide Inn was rather posh and strange, with
neatly-rowed palm trees, chlorinated pool, big bright restaurant and kitsch
neo-Mayan 70s architecture -rather different from Pancham campground
integrated into the jungle in Palenque, and relatively expensive too.
Nevertheless we were all pretty excited about the imminent equinox
spectacle at Chichen Itza: Every year on the equinoxes the sunlight forms
seven triangles down the steps of one side of the Great Pyramid of
Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl, appearing like the body of the feathered serpent
whose great stone head is sculpted at the base of the structure. These
triangles of light represent the Seven Powers of Kukulcan, the Mayan version
of the hindu Chakras.
I have long had a fascination with Kukulcan, who is supposed to return in
2012 when the Mayan calendar 'ends', so this phenomenon and its vicinity to
my birthday compelled my presence. I was pleased to hear on arrival that the
spectacle was actually visible for several days, from the actual equinox (on
the 19th due to 2000 being a leap year) until my birthday (22nd). Strangely
enough, due to unforeseen circumstances I didn't actually get to see the
sunlight serpent until my birthday. In the meantime, however, I had an
incredible revelatory meditation and rite at the peak of the
Equinox/Equilux...
Since a week after initial arrival in Mexico, before my journey to Bolivia
and Peru, I have not had a lover. This 2 months is the longest time I've
ever not had sex for, and strangely enough I haven't missed it. There were
attractions but I was too much on my own inner journey to follow them
through. My eostrogen intake is probably related, but mostly it seemed like
a spiritual journey into a deeper discovery of my anima (woman within) and
self-completeness.
The funny thing is that the first real attraction I had after this lunar
journey was to my fellow equinox-babe Pyramid, and she turns out to be a
lesbian! Ha Ha! She is not into men but we had a fun
sensual-rather-than-sexual time together over the equinox (and our
consecutive birthdays) at Chichen Itza.
She wanted a tattoo band around her shin/calf incorporating Mayan and
Celtic designs and a star of david/hexagram. As she was also considering
including a pyramid I suggested she combine this with the hexagram to form a
merkaba (3D hexagram -two pyramids, one obverse and one inverse,
interlocked). She liked the idea and I set about drawing some designs around
her lower leg. Little did we know what impact this symbol (which some of you
will remember I worked with in relation to the HML sigil many nu moons
ago...) was to have on our imminent experiences.
The day after we arrived was Sunday so the ruins were conveniently free
that day. It also happened to be the 19th, the date of the Spring Equinox
2000! After doing some tattoo-designing in the morning we walked up the road
to the ruins at around midday, went in and headed straight for the central
Pyramid of Kukulkan. It is an impressive structure, large and dominating the
entire space with its great foursided presence. There are nine large
steps/platforms on each side, with central staircases on each side which
each contain the exact no. of steps corresponding to the no. of days in each
of the four seasons. The top platform represents the zenith of the solar
cycle on the solstice. On one side are the two famous feathered (feathery
patterns carved into the surface of the limestone) serpent heads at the
bottom of the stairs, about 4 ft long, with great stone tongues hanging from
their open mouths, towhich the seven triangles of sunlight descend.
We checked these out then climbed the many steps up, moving easily up on
all fours catlike in the seething midday sun.
At the top is a temple, shade within gates decorated with carven stone
reliefs of hybrid-humanoid-serpentine-feathered figures and other strange
half-eroded God-Beast-Men and surrounding hieroglyphs. It was difficult to
relax in the shade up there though due to the amount of tourists there.
Every corner you turned there would be another 3 loud people with video
cameras, sweating and huffing about. I sat down several times in relatively
secluded spots only to have the hordes ascend moments later. Eventually I
just sat amidst them all and wrote some more of the Kukulcan invocation I
had begun the night before. Pyramid and I decided to put Kukulcan feathered
serpent heads on either side of the central merkaba at the front of the
tattoo design.
I wandered off in search of some nook or cranny to sit and do chakra
breathing and tones. Unable to find space to do so, I eventually stepped
down one level onto the second one down of the nine platforms, not sure if
this was permitted but desperate to get away from the rampaging crowds for a
while.
I sat there on the corner of the great Pyramid and did the full 13 pranic
breaths through each chakra, linking the chain through the colour spectrum
to the culminative Sahasrara fountain. It felt incredible powerful doing the
meditations atop (almost) the pyramid.
At this point Pyramid discovered my location and joined me, sitting just
around the corner on this second level down. I had showed and practised the
chakra vocal tones with her and 4 others at the Pyramide Inn the night
before, but she didn't feel like joining me in intoning them on the pyramid.
I wondered whether I should wait til dusk, performing them with the sunlight
spectacle, then decided I could do them again then too...
My mistake. They were going well, but I had just reached the Vissuddha
throat chakra 'eeeee' tone when a guard came down and told me I had to stop
and leave. Startled out of a rather deep space, I looked up to see a whole
gaggle of tourists gathered just above us watching and listening. And there
were more down below, staring up curiously.
Slowly we rose and moved back up to the crowded top platform. But the guard
was not satisfied with this. We not only had to leave the prohibited area,
we were told to leave the entire site for our apparent misdemeanor. Despite
persistent pleas that we hadn't known the other platform was not to be sat
upon (there were no signs or ropes) and that we wouldn't go back there, the
stupid little fascist kept shouting at us in rapidfire Spanish and
threatening to call more guards and the police to remove us.
So eventually we had to leave, were told we could come back tomorrow but
were of course thoroughly pissed off that we were to miss the sunlight
patterns at dusk on the actual day of the equinox. Still, it ultimately
turned out for the better; If we hadn't have been kicked out that day, we
probably wouldn't have snuck in to the ruins that night to perform a rite at
the peak of the Equinox...
Walking back to the campsite, we soon cheered up, realizing the relevance
of the tattoo to what we had just experienced. Pyramid, who speaks
considerably more Spanish than myself, had said something along the lines of
just wanting to speak with God on the pyramid. The guard had retorted that
she should speak with God in a christian church, because she was a white
westerner, whereas he was a 'Mayan'. The irony being that by the looks of
him he had far more Spanish conqueror than Indian blood.
That we were going to combine celtic (our caucasian heritage) with Mayan
design for the knotwork forming the feathered serpents' bodies seemed apt:
feathered serpents /the caduceus/ the kundalini/ rainbow serpents and
chakras exist in multiple cultures over the world, after all. It was just a
process of 'bringing the family back together,' as Pyramid put it. -The
Thirteenth Tribe.
We decided not to waste our pesos on staying at the Pyramide Inn again
that night, instead just leaving our packs there with friends and taking a
few blankets and such in to the ruins. Our friend Jonni, an older woman who
had lived in Mexico intermittently for many years and knew many of its
secrets, told us how to get in via a back gate, which led along a narrow
dirt road to the smaller temples away from the main area. I arrayed seven
feathers in my hair for the Seven Powers of Kukulcan, mostly macaw with one
huge black condor feather. As we walked towards the back entrance along the
main road at dusk, the full moon rose a vivid golden yellow colour. My
spirits rose with Her. The full moon before the Svadisthana working at Lake
Titicaca, She had appeared a vibrant orange -colour of the svadisthana
chakra- after beign eclipsed. Now after that working She was bright yellow
-moving on and up towards the Manipura chakra.
This was a lucid confirmation of my idea of the Palenque-Yucatan area as the
Crossroads between these chakras, and the Equinox/Equilux as that Balance
point of lunar(Svadisthana) -solar(Manipura) equality in Time as well as
Space.
How this relates to the astrological cycles is an interesting addition to
the beautiful pattern, the intricate and subconsciously perfect weaving of
travels through time and space: the equinox, and our birthdays, are on the
cusp between pisces and aries -which again relate to Svadisthana (water,
dreaming, lunar introversion) and Manipura (fire, action, solar
extroversion). As I crossed that cusp over the Equinox period, I felt myself
begin to emerge from my introverted hermit phase of lunar dreaming and
selfexploration in rainy Bolivia and Peru, into the Spring heat and fire and
outwards manifestation and expression of my learnings. The transition is
culminating presently... I am AHACANNACK'NAN (Mayan for
malewatersnake/femalefiresnake) Od X Ob. I have just passed the X, the
water/fire pisces/aries cusp equinoX equiluX.
We climbed over the high wire gate and crept along the winding dirt road in
the brilliant full moonlight, treading lightly in the night. After ten
minutes or so we suddenly arrived at a pyramid, glowing white limestone in
the moonlight. What a beautiful sight!
This was a smaller version of the Pyramid of Kukulcan. It was the same
design, probably a model or precursor to the great pyramid. The major
difference was that there were two snake heads at the bottom of the stairway
on each side, not just on one, and on one side there were also two
snakeheads at the top of the stairs. On one side there was also a fantastic
totem pole, not joined but close to a corner of the pyramid. This was formed
of threedimensional stone glyphs and faces, notably one large
caricature-like one which had a huge and bent-backwards nose, actually
incredibly like an elephant trunk! I later saw other similar such faces on
other temples which looked even more like elephants, with big round flat
ears also. Strange, especially considering all the correspondences between
Mayan and Hindu tantric traditions (eg. chakras, kundalini/k'ulthanlinli).
Om Gam Ganapati Namah, how you travel oh great strange One with the Twisted
Trunk!
We climbed to the top of the pyramid. Although not as large and spectacular
as the great pyramid, it was a vastly superior experience to be there alone
at night, under the full moon. We both felt totally charged and began to
trance out as soon as we attained the summit, where there were four round
pillars (it had no roof like the great pyramid). Pyramid sat in the centre
between these, and I left her to meditate there for a while.
After wandering around the top platform for a while, marvelling at the
patterns of the gateways at the top of each stairway (the risen moon was
directly aligned above the eastern gate), I decided to go
exploring some of the other outer ruins now, so as to return in time to
perform a rite on this pyramid at the peak of the equinox, 10:45 Mexican
time.
Pyramid decided to stay and meditate there, so I set off across the lawns
in the starkness of the moonlight, treading oh so lightly on my bare paws so
as to hear well ahead if a boot-clomping guard should approach.
There were a quite a few significant ruins nearby, still out of the main
guarded zone. Exploring them in the moonlight on this quiet bright night was
wonderful. Especially fantastic was the Observatory, a large multi-tiered
structure with a round tower in its centre. The sign said it was for
observing the stars, particularly the setting of Venus on the Equinox. So I
climbed up. The top few layers were crumbled and access to the uppermost
interior was difficult. 'No pasar' signs were everywhere so I was glad to be
there at night! By climbing over the long curled nose of another weird stone
face on a narrow ledge, I was able to cross to the centre of the tower,
where I found a small chamber with little observation windows out to the
night sky on different angles. They seemed to frame no particular stars or
constellations at that time. From there was a body-width dark passage with a
narrow spiral staircase winding down. I carefully followed this, which felt
great, until I came to a sudden drop into nothingness...
I went back up and returned cautiously to the pyramid and Pyramid, hoping
to return to the Observatory later in the night to see if Venus was framed
in the windows or anything. It occurred to me that Venus was often
associated with Kukulcan...
Pyramid was almost asleep. She wasn't sure where I had stashed the
blankets in the bushes so I went and got them. I brought everything up to
the pyramid summit, so that we could crash there and be ready to depart at
sunrise.
She decided to join me in my equinox rite, so we sat and talked about the
possibilities. As she did not know the Merkaba breath meditations I
suggested they may be good to learn if she was to have the symbol tattooed
on her. She concurred and I explained the sequence of the exercises before
opening the circle. It occurred to us that it would probably be a powerful
thing to create these light pyramids around our bodies while sitting atop an
actual physical pyramid temple. I had a flash and decided to also visualize
a larger macrocosmic downwards-pointing pyramid intersecting the one we were
sitting on.
I told Pyramid about the Horus-Maat double current and that I wanted to use
Nema's Egyptian 6-fold (aeonic) opening and mudras to tune into that and
other Lodge members possibly working that night, combining them with Mayan
godforms for the local aspect and also Incan names to integrate that element
I had so recently learned about. The combination of these three
already-very-related cultural currents proved effective beyond my
expectations...
Pyramid did silent meditations and movements accompanying each of my
whispered directional invocations:
Below -Bes, with the Bes-Kali AHA mudramantra also which also relates to
our Mayan birthglyph 'Ik' (see later);
West (where the sun had set) -Osiris as the father Yod, Inti (Incan
sungod), H'Yum Kin (Mayan sungod);
East (where the full moon glowed, almost directly above the pyramid now)
-Isis as the mother He, Kia (Incan moongoddess), X'Yum Ixchel (Mayan
moongoddess),
South -Horus as the son Vau, Wayda (Incan name for the Wind), Kukulcan (often
associated with the Wind)
North -Maat as the daughter He, Pacha Mama (Incan Mother Earth),
Coatlicue (Mayan/Aztec earth 'Goddess of a thousand serpent skirts').
Above -Harpocrat (Sh), Yum Hunab K'u (the galactic core),
Hanam Pacha (Incan name for the Milky Way).
After the openings, which felt powerful and appropriate, we both sat
between the four pillars on the top of the pyramid and after some deep
breathing went into the Merkabah excercises.
On the first cycle of breaths I formed the microcosmic merkaba form around
my body. It felt more solid and defined than usual. On the second cycle I
tried to visualize a larger upside down pyramid intersecting the Kukulcan
pyramid we were on top of. I couldn't seem to form it properly in my
minds-eye. Then I visualized the HML sigil of the black feather in the
upside-down red triangle. I took the large black condor (very similar to a
vulture) feather from my hair and held it in equipoise before me. Suddenly
with something akin to a physic implosion everything clicked into place:
I felt myself swirling down a black tunnel and emerging saw Egypt, bright
in the midday hot desert sun, except it was all upside-down. I realized it
was probably around midday there now, as it was about midnight where we
were, and remembered that the Egyptian pyramids were almost opposite the
Mayan ones globally. I had astrally slipped through to the other side of the
planet. The Great Pyramid of Giza (and this is the Throat chakra of Gaia, so
it is interesting that I had been stopped on Vissudha in my chanting earlier
that day.) glowed bright red in the sun, inverse, hanging off the 'bottom'
(from my perspective) of the earth -the Horus triangle of the HML symbol.
Turning the feather slowly before me, I drew myself with this great red
pyramid up into the core of the earth, and the astral double of the Mayan
pyramid I was physically sitting on, glowing white in the moonlight, down to
meet it. The Egyptian red inverse and Mayan white obverse pyramids
intersected each other in the centre of the earth, forming a great merkaba.
The Earth was like the sphere one creates about the merkaba in the
microcosmic meditations, and as the great merkaba spun, so too did Gaia.
Like a stroke of lightning I realized that the affiliated stellar and
cosmic energies of the ancient Mayan and Egyptian currents formed a great
axis through the world, earthed in their pyramids and temples.
I felt pretty blown away but somehow managed to complete my personal
microcosmic merkaba exercises, consolidating the information within the
self.
The whole experience was of course deeply rooted in the whole balance
point of EquiNox, which I realized is also EquiLux. My astral journey was
like a 'Space' analogue for the balance-point in Time which this period
created. Cthonos Ycronos intersecting. In Latin Nox is darkness and Lux is
light, and this point of the year has a perfectly equal (equi-) Balance of
daylight nightdark hours. Hail Maat!
Soon after the rite we went to sleep. I wanted to rise early enough to go
see the seven triangles of light which the moonlight also apparently made on
the opposite side of the great pyramid of Kukulcan to the sunlight
triangles, at 5am moonset on the equinox.
However after several hours of half-sleep with a continued semi-conscious
awareness of the moon's place in the sky, I eventually fell into a deeper
sleep just before the appropriate time.
When I awoke the sun was just beginning to rise on the other side, and the
full moon was just above the horizon. I knew that by the time we got to the
main pyramid it would be too light to see the lunar triangles. Nevertheless
perhaps we would catch the dawn sunrise ones on the other side shortly. We
rose rather creakily and packed up the handwoven Peruvian blankets. Pyramid
moved to the edge of the pyramid and peered down, then jumped back with a
start. 'A guard just saw me,' she said.
I threw my small pack onto my back. Then we heard boots coming up the
steps, fortunately (and stupidly on their part!) on the side opposite the
one which led to the back-road out. 'Let's get the fuck out of here!' I
breathed and we bolted down the other side of the pyramid and up the track.
By the time the guards had reached the top we would have been well out of
site down the road. We kept running for a while then slowed a bit as pursuit
did not seem to be happening.
We laughed breathlessly in the dawn light, still hurrying along the track.
What a dramatic way to start the day!
The following day (the 21st) was to be free again, being the date Equinox
usually falls on and thus the big tourist hooha day, so as we were both
low-financed we decided to pass on the ruins for the rest of the 20th,
waiting till Pyramid's birthday on the 21st to return.
We spent the day drinking Cafe con Leche's, meandering about and designing
the tattoo to be executed on her birthday.
The knotwork we designed for the snakes' bodies was a combination of celtic
and Mayan styles winding around the back of the leg, where there was to be
the Mayan glyph 'Ik'. Aptly, this is both her and my own Mayan birthsign,
representing communications, wind, breath (AHA) spirit, constant change and
(not just physical) travel. Its 'T' (remember my email about the Mayan
letter Te and its relationship to the Tree of Life and communications -well
now I've discovered its my personal glyph) shape I curled the edges of, so
as to combine it with our Aries 'Celtic astrology' birthsigns. On either
side of this glyph were the black Mayan stylized symbol representing the
markings on the jaguar's fur. I also designed several tattoos for myself,
hopefully to be executed on my own birthday the day following -the Ik glyph
entwined within my Caduceus and Arachne forearm tattoos, and a stylized
Mayan Kukulcan feathered serpent head on my hand with forefingers and thumb
forming the mobile mouth. I eventually want to echo this on the other hand
to form the double snakes of my CannaC Mayan name.
I tried Jonni's carbattery to power the tattoogun that evening but it
wouldn't work, so I went to sleep (dead tired) soon after, deciding to work
out what to do about the power situation tomorrow...
The next day, Pyramid's birthday, we spent much time finding someone at
the Inn with a car (most there had come on buses etc.) willing to let us use
it. Eventually a kind fellow let us sit in his van and do the tattoo, so
that we didn't have to remove the battery. This was perfect, for there was
actually a Kukulcan altar in there where we began the work...
Setting up, sterilizing equipment and all took ages, and by the time we
got going we were only able to do a few hours before feeling it was time to
go up to the ruins. We resolved to finish later that night. As we packed up
we discovered it was actually much later than we thought. We rushed off up
the road, which had become a circus. There were tourist everywhere, almost
all going the other way which was not a good sign, and the entire main road
was totally lined with walltowall market stalls selling 'refrescos' and
various Mayan souvenirs, little pyramids and other assorted trinkets.
Very hungry, I stopped for Chocolo con queso while Pyramid charged ahead.
A friend coming back the other way said the triangles were still visible
when he left. When I reached the ruins I found the entrance blocked off,
although it was still daylight; the overcrowding on this celebration day had
caused them to not let anyone else in while the hordes were flooding out.
Disappointed, I wandered off back up the road. I soon ran into a big crowd
gathered around two friends who were drumming and dancing and performing
acrobatics, so I took out my violin and joined them. We had an exuberant
time and made quite a lot of money by Mexican standards, enough for a few
good meals each.
Pyramid joined us as we finished. She had fortunately just made it into the
ruins in time, and seen the last of the seven triangles of Kukulcan on her
birthday! I hoped I could do the same tomorrow, despite not having the
entrance fee to spare.
The clinching information for my equinox rite came that night: two Irish
girls had performed colour-spectrum meditations on the sacred hill at the
Pyramide Inn while we were at the pyramid. They had found themselves diving
astrally deep into the core of the earth, where they found a spinning
Merkaba! They had not worked with and knew next to nothing about the
symbol...
When I told them about my own similar experience, they told me that the
pyramids of Egypt and Mexico actually formed a three-point giant isosceles
(the triangles of sunlight and the merkaba pyramids are both isosceles or
equal-sided) triangle across the planet with some sacred stone circles in
Ireland, their next destination.
...And the celtic element!
That evening we did some more work on the tattoo, but we were both too
tired and the candlelight too difficult to do much. It seemed I had to
finish it tomorrow, which was damned annoying as I had wanted to keep my
birthday free for my own stuff.
Nevertheless, after a bad start I did end up returning to the ruins on my
birthday to see the seven triangles, felt Kukulcan descend into my being and
subsequently performed an intense blood-rite on the night of my birthday. (report following)...
Happy EquiNox EquiLux everyone!
-love Od X Ob AHACANNACK'ACNAN
Birthday Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl Characith BloodRite,
March 22nd 2000
Chichen Itza, Mexico.
I awoke early on the morning of the 22nd in full
sunlight (I don't know how long I had been frying my
brains there before that) on the lawn of the Pyramide
Inn campground at Chichen Itza, grumpy as hell.
I wanted to perform some kind of intense personal
transformatory rite for my birthday but knew that I
had to finish my friend Pyramid's tattoo first (never
leave a tattoo unfinished while travelling is a lesson
I learnt a few years ago!), and she wasn't up yet...
I felt a bit better after a cafe con leche and
greasy Mexican breakfast (I usually start the day with
fruit but felt like being indulgent on my birthday)
and set about preparing the equipment.
The problem was that the guy whose car battery we
had used to power the gun the day before (Pyramid's
birthday) was about to leave town, so I had to find
another option. By this time she was up, so as there
were no other people at the campground with cars
available, we headed up the street in the hot morning
Mexican spring sun in search of a battery. We headed
for the Mechanics right up the other end of town,
hoping to hire a battery from them cheap.
After some talking to (mostly by Pyramid, since she
speaks better Spanish and is sexier) the mechanics
agreed to let us use one of their batteries, but only
on their premises, which is probably a good thing as
it was a large truck battery and we were hardly about
to lug the damn heavy thing all the way back down the
street!
So we sat there on old truck tyres amidst an
assortment of car bits and pieces thick with pasty
black grease and finished the tattoo. What a stark
contrast to the setting of the last tattoo I did, the
vision serpent on Spencer's back executed in the thick
of the jungle at Palenque!
After about an hour the tattoo was complete. The
work (two Kukulcan
serpents with Celtic-Mayan knotwork bodies on either
side of a Merkaba -see EquiNox EquiLux Rite report)
turned out fine and we both very happy that it was
finished.
Thanking the mechanics profusely (they found the
whole scenario as amusing as we did and didn't charge
us anything) we set off back to the campground to
clean up before heading for the Mayan ruins.
Pyramid decided to stay there as she was leaving
that night and wanted to finish the moccasins she was
making me in exchange for the tattoo.
This time I arrived at the ruins while the seven
triangles of sunlight spectacle was still present on
the side of the great pyramid of
Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl, which was fortunate as this was
apparently the last day on which the equinox phenomena
was still visible.
As I had little money to spare I entered via the
back road I had used on the night of the equinox,
hoping I wouldn't be kicked back out again upon
arrival in the main area.
There were many people there and I hid in the crowd
for a while, staring at the serpent pattern on the
pyramid in awe. They were not allowing people to go on
or right up to the structure, apparently so that
people could take pictures of the phenomena without
people crawling everywhere. A film was also being shot
that day for Discovery channel.
The seven triangles, which must have first appeared
for the day (at about 4pm) just before my arrival,
became progressively more distinct and defined as I
watched. They led straight down the stairway of one
side of the pyramid, forming a daimondback
rattlesnake-like serpent body ofwhich the great stone
head jutted out onto the ground at the base of the
pyramid.
After looking for a while I decided to take what was
probably my final opportunity to view and feel some of
the other nearby ruins there. I wandered off into the
giant ballcourt behind the bulk of the crowd. The
largest Mayan ballcourt known, where they played with
life and ritual sacrificial death as the stakes, it is
a spectacular arena, resplendent with hieroglyphics
and carved figures of Gods and priests along the high
walls, with the stone ball-rings at their tops. At the
end of the field, high above one of these long walls,
the Temple of the Jaguar loomed impressively.
I went back out and around a smaller structure
nearby, with more great stone serpent heads jutting
out in four directions, then was approached by a
guard. Sure enough he asked to see my ticket. I began
repeatedly emptying my pockets of assorted interesting
debri, muttering about it being in there somewhere. He
said I had to buy 'another one' or leave, I pleaded
that the place closed in half an hour and it was my
birthday and I had a ticket 'somewhere' anyway and
kept searching. He obviously didn't believe me but
eventually tired of the game after five minutes or so
and, telling me once more that I had to leave,
wandered off towards the main crowd.
I quickly slipped away and went off to see the
sacred Cenote, a
spectacular large almost-perfectly-round natural well
where the Mayans had mysteriously deposited many
mummified children and various treasures along the
crevices in its stone walls. The water below was a
bottomless black.
I returned to the pyramid of Kukulcan and, hoping it
was now late enough that they wouldn't bother kicking
me out, and sat in the front row of the mostly-seated
crowd staring at the seven triangles.
The sunlight serpent looked pretty but I knew there
was something deeper to be felt from the phenomenon,
so I meditated upon it. I stared at each triangle
consecutively while doing my 13-breath meditations on
each corresponding chakra within my own body. Rather
than performing this ascending the spine, I began at
the crown of my head and the apex of the pyramid and
worked down towards the Muladhara and the stone
serpent head on the ground. This felt incredible, I
felt totally charged with the serpent energy and yet
completely grounded. I remembered that the Mayan
syllable 'Ku' -as used in Kukulcan and Hunab Ku (the
galactic core at the centre of the Milky Way) and
K'ulthanlilni, their word for sacred breath- means
both God/dess and Pyramid, as they considered such a
form representative of the ascent of divine spirit
into matter...
Then I realized a remarkable crosscultural
correspondence. On the previous dark and nu moon I had
invoked the Yeziddi Blue God Melek Taus or Shaitan,
the peacock angel and 'Lord of the Painted Fan'. I had
realized then how he corresponded with
Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl in terms of the seven
powers,chakras and colour spectrum, but it only just
clicked now that both were associated with the planet
Venus, which the Mayans called the 'morningstar'.
One of Lucifer (who relates to Shaitan)'s names is
'Morningstar', and the Peacock is the birdmask of Maat
for the sephiroth Netzach, the sphere of Venus. And
both Kukulcan and the peacock angel are represented as
both snake (on the Tree of Knowledge) and bird.
Staring at the serpent's head on the ground, it all
made sense: the
descent of spirit into matter, not as a bad thing in
the perverted Christian version where Shaitan/Lucifer
is the Devil, but in the sense of the splitting of the
white limitless light of the Ain (or the black light
of the Abyss) into the colour spectrum, the beautiful
forms and patterns of the manifest world!
Also associated are the Greek Hermes and Iris (also
a rider of rainbows), 'Messengers of the Gods' and
thus intermediaries betweem spirit and matter. Hermes'
caduceus wand is also feathered and entwined with
serpents, and like Quetzalcoatl he is associated with
the wind.
Still sitting there in half-lotus asana staring at
the pyramid after my chakra meditations and these
realizations, I had a strong urge to go back up the
chakras, chanting their vocal tones from base to
crown. I knew the guards would come and complain, but
as they were about to close anyway I figured this was
my last opportunity to do so and had nothing to lose
anyway.
Sure enough, the guard who had asked me to leave
earlier came right over not far into my chanting and
demanded my rapid exit. I stopped and requested a mere
'sinco (five) minutos' to complete my ceremony, and
pointed to the seven triangles on the pyramid, then at
the seven chakra points on my body in way of
explanation. He just kept demanding I leave, while
some tourist behind me asked them why they were
hassling me; so I stopped trying to explain and just
proceeded with the next tone. This was the Manipura
one, which after the relatively-mellow and inwards
nature of the first two is thefirst really loud, outer
and potentially-aggressive 'solar power' sound. I
blasted the guard with it full force, and he stepped
back, somewhat stunned, and after a bit more mumbling
retreated. I think once it became obvious that I
wasn't going to leave on request, they decided it was
better not to make a display of dragging me out in
front of all the yuppy tourists, some of whom seemed
to be enjoying my performance.
So I completed the tones uninterrupted, and
afterwards felt thoroughly charged and rather
victorious. As I slowly rose to leave, bowing my
thanks to Kukulcan in the direction of the temple then
H'yum Kin in the opposite direction of the now-sinking
sun, a new-agey looking middleaged woman in white
rushed up to me and said thank you, and annointed my
wrists (one ofwhich is tattooed with the feathered
serpent caduceus staff, the other with the swordqyl of
Thoth and Maat) with a very potent and
delicious-smelling frankincense oil. (In aeonic magick
frankincense is
associated with Horus, the air/wind aspect of the YHVH
formula.)
I wandered off as the seven triangles on the pyramid
began to fade with the setting sun. As I exited the
site and headed off down the road, totally recharged
now after my slow and annoyed start to the day, I
began to skip and dance. I could feel Kukulcan
tingling in my spine...
I got back to the Pyramide Inn to find almost
everyone had suddenly left, most of my friends on
their way back to Palenque. Various precious little
notes and presents had been left with my pile of scant
belongings, including the not-quite-finished moccasins
from Pyramid (who had to catch her lift when it left)
with thread and leather needles. Wish I could've done
the same with her tattoo, left her a needle and a
small bottle of ink and told her to finish it herself!
(Just kidding)...
I checked my plane ticket from Mexico city to New
Orleans and discovered it was actually on the day
after I thought, and realized I could fit in a brief
visit to the nearby ruins of Uxmal the next day before
heading off to Mexico city. So I would not need to
catch a bus out of Chichen Itza til morning. Instead,
I had a light dinner in the restaurant, packed up all
my stuff and left it with a friend (the only one still
there!) outside her tent to pick up at dawn, heading
back to the ruins with just an Incan blanket and a
small shoulderbag of ritual tools. It looked like I
would be able to perform some kind of conclusive
birthday rite at Chichen Itza after all, as well as
explore the remaining temples. I wanted to do
something with the energy from my dusk meditations...
...little did i suspect what trouble I would get
myself into, delaying and almost preventing my
departure from Mexico...
I had wanted to perform some kind of blood rite on
either equinoXuliuqe or my birthday. The Mayans passed
barbed ropes or thorns through their tongues and/or
penises to see the visions serpent, and I had toyed
with the idea of doing this. In cusco, Peru I had
picked up a beautiful little swordfish nose, a
straight bone with little spikes along each side. This
seemed an appropriate tool, although as its actual tip
had broken off and was blunt I was unsure how I would
actually start the piercing process.
I had looked at the bone speculatively earlier that
day, and laughed at how much like a little laughing
horned face the end of it looks. With the ridges
protruding like ribs along either side of the 'spine',
the whole thing has the appearance of a bizzarre
little snake skeleton with a semihuman face -an
appropriate implement to activate the 'vision serpent'
atop the pyramid of Kukulcan, most surely!
I stashed my things in the bushes near the smaller
Kukulcan pyramid again, and went off to check out the
large temple I had seen on Equinox night looming
behind the Observatory.
It was spectacular: Many large dark musty rooms and
labyrinthine tunnels to feel my way through, until
eventually emerging on the other side into the
moonlight, which illuminated the much-decorated far
wall, probably actually the entrance, with a stone
relief of Kukulcan in semihuman form about the great
door. A side structure was plastered with intricate
glyph-work and more curly-nosed stone visages.
I returned to the pyramid and climbed up to the
platform atop, spread out my blanket, sat and
performed my chakra meditations and some kumbukka
pranayama, then recited my Kukulcan invocation, the
verse of which is at the start of this report.
I took out the swordfish bone and looked at it. Its
little face grinned up at me rather mischeiviously.
I fiddled around with various possibilities, with it
probing first the centre then the tip of my tongue. I
realized it was going to be impossible to get it
through the centre of my tongue. Perhaps I could saw
with its ridges from the front, splitting the front of
my tongue as I had considered doing for a while now.
Then again, this would take some time and speech
impediment to heal and probably be inappropriate for
the last leg of my world travels. I tried sawing from
the tip, made a slight indentation but realized it
would be a very long and laborious, if not impossible
process...
I sawed at the web underneath my tongue, which is
there is little left of anyway as I have been
gradually wearing it away with semi-regular practise
of the Bes-Kali AHA mudra-mantra. The negation of this
web increases the effectiveness of kechari, a yogic
energy-circulation technique involving the insertion
of the tongue down the back of the throat.
I made the web a little smaller with my sawing, but
it is a very tough muscle and thus slow progress.
I took out my penis and inserted the ridged bone
into my urethra. As I have already stretched this
passage quite considerably this didn't hurt. The
symbolism suddenly struck me: due to my recent work
with the Merkaba on Equinox, I had been thinking about
the Chariot ATU a bit. Merkaba means Chariot in Hebrew
(as well as spirit-light-body in Egyptian), and that
path/card relates much to the equinox/equilux,
concerning the union of the sun and the moon in
relation to motion. And I had thus been reminded also
of the nightside tunnel corresponding to the Chariot
path, that of Characith. Characith being the 'spine of
the serpent' related obviously to Kukulcan and
kundalini. Characith also concerns the chalice of
blood, and the Chalice has been a focus for me lately
with all my Svadisthana lunar work.
Even before I began to stretch my urethra, I
consecrated this passage as the microcosmic vagina of
my anima, and as thus the 'Chalice within the Staff',
an inversion of the traditional 'staff within the
chalice'.
So here I suddenly realized I had a symbolic
'serpent spine' within my chalice, which was about to
be filled with blood -Characith, the nightside EquiNOX
shadow of my EquiLUX work with the Chariot of light on
the 19th. I suppose I should warn readers that the
next few paragraphs may make some feel strange in the
stomach, but it was for me a pleasurable, though
rather intense, meditation.
I began to saw away from the inside of my urethra.
It was painful but the flesh gave way quite easily to
the back and forth motion of the little ridges, and
soon blood began to pour out. I stopped for a rest and
decided to smoke a little lump of dried peyote brujo
Spencer had left me. It had served me well as the
travel token forwhich it was intended, but I didn't
fancy taking it through US customs, so to smoke it now
seemed an appropriate farewell to Mexico.
I had a small pipe, as yet unused, also made from a
(larger) sawfish nose with a coconut-shell-carved bowl
affixed. Seemed like a most appropriate vessel for
this rite!
I lit a candle (having been previously working in
the near-full moonlight due to guard-paranoia) then
with it lit the pipe, and sucked in several big
lungfuls of sweet brujo smoke. I put down the spiny
pipe. The effect was mild but pleasant, a slight
visual gloss on my surroundings.
I resumed my work. I wanted the tail end of the bone
to come out just under the head of my penis, so I
could leave it in there, with the little horned head
of the serpent-spine sticking out of my eye. But I
unfortunately did not have the technology to execute
this, I soon discovered. The tail of the bone was too
blunt. I tried cutting away at the outer layers of
skin with my Mayan knife, but still could not get the
bone through. So I took it out and pierced just below
the head (from the inside) with one of those
oldfashioned large safety pins, which hurt like hell;
then put the bone back in and began sawing again on a
diagonal angle. There was blood pouring out
everywhere, all over my ankles and the blanket, and I
began to really trance out, seeing some nice if vague
swirls and zigzag patterns.
I took out some paper and let some of the blood run
onto it.
The bone then bent -the blood had softened it it
seemed; the skin underneath was now quite swollen from
the puncture and it soon became obvious that I was not
going to be able to get the now-bending spine through.
Realizing this, I just sawed away on less of a
diagonal angle instead, deciding to just widen my
urethra more. I almost sawed the bottom of the head in
half, from the inside. I was starting to get really
dizzy from bloodloss so I stopped, sitting there for a
while in deep trance.
I smoked the rest of the peyote then rose and moved
slowly, giddily towards the great stone serpent heads
at the front of the top of the temple, chanting
softly, rhythmically, 'Kukulcan, Kukulcan,
Kukulcan...'
At the time I didn't realize how out there I was, on
the verge of posession, but when I think about it now
it seems like some surreal dream.
I don't think I consciously decided to paint the
snakeheads with my blood, I just did it. Winding back
from their agape mouths large stone spirals, as if of
breath or prana, were engraved. Dipping my finger in
the blood pooled on the page, I traced these with my
fingertip. The red and grey spirals looked beautiful
in the moonlight.
Then I went and lay down with a tingly back and a
fuzzy head, and sank slowly into sleep.
I awoke as dawn began with a soft pink-orange haze.
I packed my small back, slung it over my shoulder and
headed down and towards the main area of the site,
hoping to catch the dawn sunserpent on the great
pyramid. As soon as I approached it, however, a guard
spotted me and pointed me towards the exit. With a
murmured, 'Beunos Dias' I walked out ahead of him and
continued down the road without a backwards glance.
I stopped and picked up my backpack and violin at
the Pyramide Inn, where all was quiet, then went to
the bus-station next door. One had just left so,
having to wait an hour for the next bus to the nearby
city of Merida, I went off and had some breakfast.
Returning to the bus-station, there were a dozen or
so people now waiting there for the imminent bus. A
guy who had been staying at the Pyramide came in and,
thought we had never even talked or anything, gave me
a beautiful
quartz-in-the-process-of-turning-into-amethyst clear
purple chrystal his friend had found, for my birthday.
As I thanked him the bus pulled in, and I was very
excited to be off out of Mexico city, via a brief
daytrip to the Uxmal temples nearby...
Then a whole squadron of three Inah ruins officials
and three police officers came into the bus station,
surrounding me. One explained that I had been seen in
the ruins that morning, and blood had just been found
painted on the ruins. So I had to accompany them to
the hospital for a blood test to match types...
I said I had only been in the main area at dawn and
knew nothing about any blood. The official pointed at
my red ankle. 'He's a tattooist,' said the guy next to
me, and I nodded, adding that I had cut my foot. It
seemed feeble but there was now a crowd of gawking
tourists crowded around curiously. I wondered if the
woman in white from the Pyramide Inn who looked at me
with absolute disgust had ever registered that the
ancient culture she venerated even by her presence in
that village practiced such blood rites on a regular
basis.
I showed the officials my bus ticket and even my
conscecutive plane ticket and said I had to go. I
could not handle the idea of being caught up in horrid
legalities now when just about to leave the country.
Their insistence to accompany them prompted me to
demand thay they supply in writing a guarantee that if
the blood wasn't mine they would refund any travel
rescheduling I had to do as a result of their
unnecessary detainments.
They said they would not, that it was illegal for me
to even be in the ruins that morning and that I thus
didn't have a leg to stand on. I did, but it was red,
and I finally got up and got in their car.
We drove to the pyramid, not the hospital, and as we
stepped out of the car I said a blood test was
unnecessary anyway, admitting my actions. I explained
quite straight-forwardly that I had performed a sacred
Mayan ceremony there last night, for equinox and my
birthday, and had offered my blood to Kukulcan. I told
them the blood was from my tongue, as I thought the
penis thing would freak them out too much, and they
would be more familiar with the barbs-thru-tongues
Mayan rite. They were indeed, and seemed quite in awe.
They said they respected that I was performing a
ceremony, that it was 'part of my religion', but that
I had nevertheless defaced the ruins.
I replied calmly that I totally respected the Mayan
ruins and had no intention of damaging them, that it
was only blood and would be gone in a week or so. They
eventually agreed, but said the whole situation still
had to be processed now through their superiors, and
that I would probably have to go to court.
I accompanied them back to their office. Though
dreading the thought of having to stay in Mexico
longer and deal with more officials and legalities, I
somehow felt calm and confident about it all; some
faith that Kukulcan was just keeping me there a bit
longer for some as-yet-unknown reason...
The officials were quite amicable, returning my own
friendliness. As I sat in their pokey little office,
wishing I could understand their rapidfire Spanish
telephone conversations with the 'Manager in Merida',
I looked around and up behind me and started: There
was a large mural painted on the office wall my chair
was up against, of Mayan priests performing the
ancient rite of passing barbed ropes through their
tongues!
'Look,' I said excitedly, pointing at it, 'That's
the ceremony I performed last night.'
They nodded and smiled. Shortly a lawyer came in and
asked me lots of questions, mostly about my religious
beliefs and practises. Like the others, he seemed more
curious than official about it, and I answered
everything truthfully and clearly, explaining my
interests in the One Religion behind different
cultural traditions, and my recent explorations of
Hindu-Mayan syncretism in relation to the chakras and
seven powers of Kukulcan.
They checked out and asked questions about all my
tattoos, taking notes, and one of them kept taking
photos of me, some with the other officials standing
next to me smiling, which also seemed to be mostly
personal rather than official. Weird. They kept asking
me if I ran some kind of 'sect' in Australia.
Getting bored waiting for hours, and rather tired, I
requested some paper and drew a great picture of a
Mayan figure emerging from the jaws of a great
visionserpent. I have reproduced the essence of this
picture, the original ofwhich I let them keep on their
request, upon the page which caught the blood. (See
attachment).
When there were only the two main guys in the
office, I went into a chakra meditation. Noticing my
deep breathing they requested I demonstrate the chakra
tones I had mentioned earlier. I think one of them may
have heard me perform them near the pyramid the day
before. I obliged, discovering that my chakras were
still very open from the rite. They were very
impressed with the harmonics and all.
We lapsed into friendly discussion (their English
was a bit better than my Spanish). They asked me if I
knew any of the Mayan language. I said yes, a bit, and
spoke some. They told me more, saying they both had a
little Mayan blood. I unfolded the evening prayer to
Hunab Ku (didn't have the daytime one on me) from my
pocket and requested an oration thereof. I had missed
an appointment on my first round of Palenque with some
Mayan who were going to read it for me, so that I
could get all the pronunciations correct.
They went through it with me several times, for which
I am most grateful. Now that I have the jist of how
Yucatec Mayan flows, I should be able to work out the
correct pronunciation of the daytime prayer and other
passages also.
After this wonderful sharing, another guard came in
and they snapped back into official mode. The verdict
had finally come through. I was given a bucket of
water and a brush and a whole posse of uniformed
Mexicans accompanied me back to the smaller pyramid. I
was still dizzy from bloodloss and swayed as we
climbed the steps in the searing sun, which made them
laugh. The blood came off the stone spirals very
easily. The two who had heard them wanted me to
perform the chakra tones again for the others, but
they apparently weren't interested and walked off.
I was told not to do it again (one of them also told
me very seriously to never smoke drugs, while his
partner ran to some nearby bushes to have a giggling
fit) and was then showed to the exit.
I was able to change my busticket for a later one
and left town quickly. It was too late now for the
stopover at Uxmal, but I think it was all worth it for
the cultural exchange...
Adios Mexico!
-Orryelle Defenestrate 26/03/000
Serpent engulf me
In blood and fire
Serpent rebirth me
With renewed desire
I emerge from the Serpent's maw
Ever resurgent am I
New featherdown sticky and wet
H'yum K'ine shines down
Upon my fledgeling form
Drying my down as I stretch
In the dewy morn
In a crispy crackling of renewal
I spread wings tentatively
On mouth's-edge
The rainbow rippling below me
Pe of Samekh throw me
Up into seven heavens
With seven powers renewed
In the dawning hours
On new wings rising
With H'Yum K'ine, Hru Sire
Fledged with feathers of Kukulcan
I open painted fan
And launch into the morningfire
-Orryelle 23/3/000
NEXT in Orryelle'sTRAVEL JOURNALS:
OD INVOCATIONS in NU ORLEANS