More Work with DNA/Double Helix Symbolism: A Divination

I experienced another meaningful coincidence around the subject of DNA/Double Helix symbolism in a passage I opened to at random minutes after publishing my last blog post titled, Shamanic and Jungian Perspectives on Sacred Geometry, Serpentine/DNA Symbolism. The passage is from Jeremy Taylor’s book “Dream Work.” In it, JT describes a lucid dream experience in which he twists two pieces of oak railing he is holding in his hands together so that they wrap around each other like the snakes on Hermes' caduceus and the molecules of the DNA helix.” He does this before he is to give a sermon in the dream to everyone he has ever known in the past and is going to meet in the future.  The passage continues, “I decide that I will use the archetype of the double spiral as my ‘text.’ As I float down the amphitheater, I hold the pieces aloft as a concrete example of the archetype of spiral, evolutionary development…As I hold up the oaken helix, it metamorphoses in my hands into a large, self-luminous sphere within which the genetic material can be seen repeating the shape of the oaken pieces. I am surprised and filled with joy at this transformation…The shiny spherical image is a kind of confirmation from the dream itself that my lucidity is not merely a manipulation of the dream experience by ego, but rather an activity in harmony with my deeper being.”

This morning I decided to do a Tarot reading having to do with a relationship that I have been troubled about. I’ve been feeling an estrangement with my son that saddens me, because I love him very much. I have several divination decks from which to choose, but felt drawn to the "Intuitive Tarot” deck.  In the service of brevity, I will include just snippets from the four cards that showed up in the reading, representing the Past, Present, Future, and Overall Look at the Situation. The information I've included below is the most relevant to the question I asked about what is going on and how to remedy the situation I'm concerned about. I haven’t included in this post the beautiful guided meditations that go with each card, but will be using them privately to go deeper into the cards' meanings ~

1^st Card – Past: Page of Discs…Self-protective could have been hurt in the past. Vain. Searching for a deeper sense of self. Remember to what degree the card mirrors myself.

Starter Interpretation: A quiet, thoughtful person who reveals themselves as unexpectedly earthy, witty, and perceptive. May have been badly hurt in the past and tends to ward off superficial contact. Financial issues may be an abiding concern. Humanist.

2^nd Card – Present: XIII Death (Reversed)… Transformation.  Usually, about change, the death of a situation rather than physical death. Face our deepest fears about disintegration, loss, loneliness, rejection, homelessness, rejection, disfigurement, illness. By allowing the images to surface, and then letting the fears flow through and around us, we transmute them into energy. If we deny them, our souls wither. If we move towards death with love and acceptance, our world is transformed.

Starter Interpretation, Reversed: Preoccupation with death of something. Enforced removal of old, outdated ways. Stagnation. Rigidity of mind.

3^rd Card – Future: Six of Swords…A ferryman rows a boat towards a narrow straight, the entrance marked by six of swords. In prow of boat are two passengers, possibly mother and child [Yes!]. The adult inclines her head solicitously towards the child who is staring into the water as it slips by…the worst is over. You might feel a sense of hopeful anticipation in response to the dawn[Smiling]...concern over health or bereavement [Yes. A tragic death in the family].

Starter Interpretation: Travel that allows a release from cares and worries [I will be visiting him and his wife soon]. While challenges still lie ahead of you, the main difficulties have been overcome. The ability to give care to yourself and the vulnerable areas of your psyche. The beginning of something unknown.

Overall Reading Card: Three of Rods…”The focus in the Three of Rods is a strange and beautiful egg-shaped object, its shimmering colours pulsing across the surface. The figure holding the object, caressing it with careful fingers, seems almost awestruck by its qualities. Twin strands of energy, the double helix of life, emerge and interweave through the three interlocked strands of rods above. An oval tunnel of light in the background echoes the egg shape and frame of the card."

The Philosopher’s Stone…The alchemical egg can be seen as creative inspiration; the idea that comes to you in a dream [certainly in JT's!]…the gift of life, love, and inner vision. Forged from both sorrow and joy, it can offer you a doorway to the universe [This double helix orb seems to be an Archetype across all levels of life - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual].

Starter Interpretation: This is the card of the artist, writer, inventor, dreamer, scientist, or visionary. Inspired gifts that need expression. Creative possibilities coming up. Connecting to the different dimensions of existence. A gift, freely given. Talent.

Note: The cards say it all! I resonate to each one in the reading and see in each a portal to healing the relationship with my beloved son. I especially find the overall reading card, Three of Rods, as symbolic of what we have to offer each other and why we chose to walk this path together in this life: gift of life, love, and inner vision…forged from both sorrow and joy. 

Jenna

Shamanic and Jungian Perspectives on Sacred Geometry, Serpentine/DNA Symbolism

Several months before the move from my house in Florida to California where I now live, I’d been wondering about the symbolic meaning of a black snake in my yard. It had been there since we moved in to the house, but mostly showed-up during times of transition in my husband’s and my life. In 2008, the year my husband died, Snaked presented itself by lying across the steps at both the front and back doors at different times, then, disappeared. It began showing up again before my move to California.

Four months before the move, I Felt drawn to a beautiful mandala that I’ve included here, titled “Serpentine Fire” by Jean Raffa. I copied it from Jean's blog “Matrignosis” in the post titled “Dream Symbols of the Beloved,” June 12, 2010.

Later in the same day I’d found the Serpentine mandala, I opened at random Alchemy of Nine Dimensions by Barbara Hand Clow and Gerry Clow to an Australian aboriginal painting of “The Cosmic Serpent.” Underneath the picture, the caption compares the serpents with double helixes and DNA.

Below that, the Clows write how “Shamans often see serpentine images, especially double ones, which resemble the DNA double helix. The DNA molecule is a single long chain made of two interwoven ribbons connected by four bases: DNA is both single and double, just like mythical serpents. Jeremy Narby (The Cosmic Serpent, pp. 78, 80) concludes that DNA is the origin of shamanic knowledge.”

A few days later, working with my Medicine Cards (1988, Jamie Sands and David Carson) I shuffled and picked one at random, as was my custom, to give me a focus for the day. I pulled #34 Grouse ”of the sacred spiral, leading us on to reach the everlasting heights, where we live as one.”

Also, copied from the text: “…If you have Grouse medicine in your cards, undertake a meditation on the various qualities of movement within your world. Begin by visualizing the sun as one member of a huge group of stars swirling in the massive pinwheel shape of the Milky Way. Then draw yourself out of this pinwheel of light into the spiraling of your own DNA’s double helix, an arrangement similar to a rope ladder coiled like a corkscrew…contemplate if

your own movement is compatible with your greatest desires and goals…Grouse medicine is an invitation to the dance, and offers this dance to you as a gift. You can spend a lifetime learning Grouse’s lesson on how to harmonize your dance with Mother Earth’s cycles, and how to offer the dance as creation of selfless beauty.”

I was beginning to feel like there was an important message here for me in the DNA double helix! Perhaps, Jean Raffa would have more information for me.

So, that afternoon, I commented on the “Dream Symbols of the Beloved” post and told Jeanie about the meaningful coincidences I’d experienced and had recorded in my synchronicity journal about Snake, the Clows’ passage, and the Medicine card I'd chosen, and how they all seemed to point to the double helix symbol and its meaning.

Jeanie’s reply:

Dear Jenna, Welcome to my garden! It’s so good to hear from you. I love your synchronicity journal and wish I’d been keeping one all these years. Here’s another synchronicity you can add to it: I just came to my computer moments ago and as I was waiting for my mail to open up, I picked up my copy of Aion (Jung’s collected works, Volume 9, ii) and opened it to a place I marked some time ago to have another look at what Jung says about Self symbols. I was thinking I need to write another post about this topic because it’s been so popular and there’s so much more I could say. The paragraph I was most interested in (#356) is the one where Jung says that the Self also has animal symbolism; among these is, you guessed it, the snake. A few pages later he says that the snake symbol brings us to the images of Paradise, tree, and earth; together these symbolize creation, our origins. This brings to mind the idea that the original unity had to be split up into the multiplicity of the visible world and that our job is to reunite our separate parts (in the inorganic realm) into a whole, unified being. So after I read that, I opened your comment. I think snake is talking to us both. I need to get busy writing that post! Much love, Jeanie

Our comments continued:

Jenna Says:

June 14, 2010 at 8:44 am

Oops, forgot to put the title of my synchronicity journal entry in my last post: Synchronicity: June 14, 2010 Sacred Geometry/Serpentine/DNA

jeanraffa Says:

June 14, 2010 at 9:48 am

Dear Jenna, Of course. At the beginning of the chapter in Aion I just told you about, Jung reviews the facts that led psychologists to conjecture an archetype of wholeness, i.e., the Self, and says, “These are in the first place dreams and visions; in the second place, products of active imagination in which symbols of wholeness appear. The most important of these are geometrical structures containing elements of the circle and quaternity…” Jeanie

Jenna Says:

June 14, 2010 at 1:34 pm

Thank you for sharing your synchronicity, too, Jeanie. What fun! I bet there are others of your readers who have their own events of synchronicity to share around these discussions. It has been my experience that when an archetypal subject comes up in group, many in the conversation experience a synchronicity which highlights their own personal meaning(s) around it.

By the way, do you mind if I share this exchange in my thesis/book, using your name and referencing your blog? If you would prefer that I do not, please don’t hesitate to say so. I always ask, before using anyone’s ideas or words.

Can’t wait for your next posts…

Jenna

jeanraffa Says:

June 14, 2010 at 1:52 pm

Jenna, Of course you may share this exchange and any others we may have in the future. I already know of at least one other synchronicity occurring around this same topic. A few days ago a Jungian friend sent me a dream featuring an elephant and asked for any thoughts I may have. I sent a few, then two days later picked up Aion and turned to the page I cited in my previous comment about the animals that represent the Self in dreams. The elephant was the first one mentioned. When I wrote that to her she responded that she had done a meditation and active imagination with her dream elephant and its message to her had been about how much it loved her. Nothing could point more strongly to the Self than that.

Jean Raffa's newest book, Healing the Sacred Divide: Making Peace with Ourselves, Each Other and the World, will be issued from Larson Publications in June of 2012.

One Man’s Life: Tempered Like the Perfect Blade

Awhile back, I commented in an email to my friend “E” about how amazing it is to me that he has been able to look beyond the difficulties of his life to the overall integrity and beauty of the larger picture (he experienced a brutal upbringing in many ways). I also chose, in my communique, to compare E’s journey to the process of firing and tempering steel that occurs before the creation of the perfect blade of a sword. That analogy just popped into my mind with no pre-thought as to what I was going to write - my not being really big on swords or blades. A few hours after sending that email, I picked up the novel I had purchased in the airport while waiting for a delayed flight. Soon, I came to this passage:

The steel arrives in my workshop and I have to transform it into parts for cars, agricultural machinery, kitchen utensils...First, I heat the metal until it's red-hot, then I beat it mercilessly with my heaviest hammer until the metal takes on the form I need. Then I plunge it into a bucket of cold water and the whole workshop is filled with the roar of steam while the metal sizzles and crackles in response to the sudden change in temperature. I have to keep repeating that process until the object I'm making is perfect: once is not enough. Sometimes the steel I get simply can't withstand such treatment. The heat, the hammer blows, the cold water cause it to crack. And I know that I'll never be able to make it into a good plowshare or an engine shaft. Then I throw it on the pile of scrap metal at the entrance to my forge. I know that God is putting me through the fire of afflictions. I've accepted the blows that life has dealt me, and sometimes I feel as cold and indifferent as the water that inflicts such pain on the steel. But my one prayer is this: Please, God, my Mother, don't give up until I've taken on the shape that you wish for me. Do this by whatever means you think best, for as long as you like, but never ever throw me on the scrap heap of souls. Paulo Coehlo in “The Witch of Portobello”

“Wow!” I thought, “That was a quick confirmation of what I just wrote to E!” So, I sent the above passage to him along with some of the background information in the book leading up to it. I later found out that the words held more meaning for E than I even knew when I sent the passage - for a couple of reasons. The obvious reason being that I had just compared his own difficult life-journey to the forging of steel. But, I was surprised to also find out that for some time E had held in mind the vision of a power symbol for his life: a perfect Samaria sword. Added to these synchronicities, was the fact that the person doing the talking in the passage had a spiritual mentor whom he called the Protector,, and E informed me that he, too, has a spiritual guide who appeared to him for the first time in a vision when he was 10 years old. This guide calls himself – you guessed it! - the Protector. And as if that wasn’t enough meaningful coincidences for me to process, E revealed that, like the person in the book, who eventually changed his profession from one that brought him no joy to the fulfilling art of blacksmithing, he had also wanted to try his hand at blacksmithing for quite some time!

So, where has all this synchronicity work led us? For me it leads to the joy of knowing that the universe is continually providing support for me and through me in a myriad of ways, and that it is always a choice whether or not to open to such gifts of grace as they are given. I remember in the airport that something convinced me to choose that particular book even though I rarely read fiction and have turned down opportunities in the past to read Coelho’s more popular book. Also, why did I say “sword” instead of tool or utensil when writing about tempering steel in the first email I sent? For E, our exchange was meaningful because he was supported in his inner knowing that what has happened in his life has a deeper meaning and has contributed to making him strong like the Samaria blade of his vision. It also supports him in continuing to live his life in ways that preclude succumbing to the bitterness that might “crack” his spirit.

That’s all the confirmation I need to continue to pursue the meaningful symbols and metaphors this  life continually offers up to my own eager spirit!

Dreams, Archetypes, and Synchronicities

I recently attended a Wisdom University course intensive in Oakland, California with dream workers Jeremy Taylor and Bruce Silverman titled “Many Paths Into The Heart of Dreaming: Solar & Lunar Perspectives on the Archetypal World.” There were so many surprises that I and others in the class encountered, such rich layers of meaning between Jeremy’s morning projective dreamwork and Bruce’s afternoon rituals and dream enactments that it’s taken me many days to “come down” enough to write about the experiences at all. Since it would take several pages to describe the multiple synchronicities we – individually and as a group - encountered, I will keep the focus on the remarkable coincidences having to do with two dreamers in the group. But before I do, I want to add that I can’t say enough good things about Wisdom University and the work of Jeremy Taylor and Bruce Silverman - individually and as a team. They are both brilliant masters of dream work. If you ever get an opportunity to do a workshop with both or either one of them, I suggest you jump at the chance!

During our group's first full day of dreamwork (we had met the night before for a two-hour orientation), we assembled in the morning for 30 minutes of Lunar heart and body work with Bruce - drumming, song, dance, poetry. Afterward, we joined Jeremy in a smaller room for the more Solar interpretive dreamwork that lasted until lunchtime. Those who wanted to share a dream and have it worked on by the group were instructed to write their name on a slip of paper, fold it lengthwise for security, and place it in a bowl that was passed around the circle for Jeremy to chose one at random. The dreamer who was chosen that first morning - I will call her Dawn (not her real name) - shared with the group a fascinating and what some considered to be a precognitive dream of inner transformation that required the whole morning session. By the time we took a break for lunch, we had learned many things about Dawn's life as this information related to the dream, including her strength of character. We also learned a lot about each other through our projections onto her dream. In working with Dawn's dream, the group practiced the type of group work that Jeremy writes about in his book “Where People Fly and Water Runs Up Hill.” Following Jeremy's "Tool Kit" for dream groups, deep intimacy between members is nurtured in a safe environment. Our own group space quickly began to feel – as in the morning’s ritual with Bruce - like “Holy Ground.”

After lunch, we met with Bruce on the Lunar side again for drumming, music, and grounding before actual dream sharing with him this time. In Bruce’s group work, those who feel led to share a dream stand up in the middle of the circle. If more than one person is standing, then, those who are led to sit back down do so until only one is standing. Out of four people who initially stood up, John (not his real name), a man in his early thirties, was left to tell his dream when the process was complete. And what a dream it was! He proceeded to share an amazing dream of mythic proportion; a personal and collective dream of initiation and redemption. As John recounted his dream to Bruce's soft drumming , he stood in the center of the room surrounded by the group.

Standing in for John, here, I recall that his dream went like this:

In the beginning of the dream, I am facing a tall woman with a light, like a torch, in her right hand. This image changes into a wall with the woman and light contained within it. Behind the wall is a white knight. The wall, then, becomes the white wall of a castle where I am the King. I am going through many, many receipts and getting frustrated because my young daughter is playing with two cats on the floor. I ask her to stop playing and help, but she will not. This scene changes into the King (me) going through a doorway into another reality where I become an ordinary man whose house is being built. Two artists of grunge-like persuasion are there working on the house. One, a man, is painting white flowers on the outside walls and the other, a woman, is hanging a wreath on the door. I call these two the Seattle Lights. Dawn (from the group) is there. She is giving me instructions on the building and use of the house.

Without going fully into the extraordinary work that John, Bruce, and the rest of the group did on this dream (I could write a book!), I will merely recount what relates to the synchronicities that unfolded. The first thing, of course, is that the two dreamers of the day, both chosen by random selection, were Dawn and John. They were strangers before meeting at the group and separated in age by many years. Not only had John dreamed about Dawn the night before we worked on her dream, but also the group had a chance to get acquainted with her as person during the morning session before hearing his dream! Ah, but there is more to be revealed about the Dawn/John connection as you read on. In the meantime, we will explore the next meaningful coincidence that happened as John chose people to represent and act out the symbols in his dream. Without thinking too much about it, John picked a woman from the group, whose name was later discovered to mean Angel of Light, to represent - you guessed it! - the Divine Woman of Light symbol in the dream. Little did we know at that time how much light this angel in disguise would bring to the group over the next few days.

There were other interesting matches between people and symbols, but what really made the hairs on our arms stand on end was when John chose Dawn to represent herself in the dream, and she confessed that she had also dreamed of him the night before - perhaps, at the same time he was dreaming of her! In Dawn’s dream she saw a billboard with John’s face on it that resembled that of Alfred E. Newman of Mad Magazine fame. It wasn’t a stretch from that famous jester's image to making the connection between the Court Jester (positive Shadow figure) and the King (the dreamer’s Ego) to associating the jester with the Divine Trickster archetype. In my projection on the dream, it is the Trickster who tells the King and his subjects (sub-personalities) the truth through the back door of humor. He lessens the king's load by showing him the lighter side of life.

I will leave you, the reader, to tie up the dream associations and meanings for yourself. I am a merely a messenger, bringing word that the universe is indeed alive with meaning, mystery, and humor. And I know a group of dream workers who resemble the truth of that statement!

A Heroine’s Journey: Turning Straw Into Gold

Years ago I thought about writing a book about using life's challenges as a way of embarking on a heroic healing path. I even had a title: If Pain is the Teacher, Joy is the Reward. As I wondered if such a book would be meaningful and helpful to others, I thought about my own life and how facing painful moments instead of hiding out in addictive behavior has made me a stronger and more aware and compassionate person (Admittedly, I am a late bloomer, but over the years I have achieved a modicum of awareness). At that moment, a perfectly formed yet tiniest of all acorns fell at my feet. I took this as a sign that all that I needed to write this or any book was within me and just needed to be nurtured to grow. While that particular book was never written, I am happy to be in the process of writing another about a subject close to my heart: synchronicity journaling. I saved my little acorn and pasted it in the journal I was writing in at the time as a symbol to remind me that given the right conditions for growth – focused attention, love, dedication, and time – the books I do choose to write will take root and grow and, hopefully, be sources of sustenance, warmth, and shelter for those who choose to use them.

Thankfully, others have successfully written about using life's challenges as sources of healing. One of my favorite books on this subject is Jack Kornfield’s A Path With Heart. I have recently begun reading it for the second time, and I am mining more nuggets of wisdom in it than the first time around. In the section titled “Turning Straw into Gold,” Kornfield writes, “What freedom this attitude [of the Dali Lama toward the Chinese, whom he calls my friends, the enemy] shows. It is the power of the heart to encounter any difficult circumstance and turn it into golden opportunity. This is the fruit of true practice. Such freedom and love is the fulfillment of spiritual life, its true goal…”

A few days after reading Kornfield's words, I was looking for a Netflix movie to watch and chose “I Dreamed of Africa,” primarily because I’m drawn to stories about Africa lately. As it happens, the universe had different reasons for me choosing this inspirational biography about Kuki (pronounced cookie) Gallman, a woman of courage and heart who turned her own intense suffering into a golden opportunity to help the endangered animals of Kenya and educate future generations of Africans about the joys of conservation. Since I’m going to tell the gist of the story here, if you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, I suggest you quit reading now and come back after you’ve had a chance to do so.

Kuki was born to an Italian family of wealth and means. Although, she had everything she could ever want materially, she dreamed of leaving Italy and living a more meaningful life in Africa after having spent time there with her father in her teens before he passed away. In 1972 Kuki, her husband Paolo, and son Emanuele moved to Kenya where they acquired the farm known as Ol Ari Nyiro. In the farm's idyllic setting they raised cattle and began an anti-poaching initiative to save indigenous animals from extinction. In 1980, Paolo died in an auto accident transporting a crib for their unborn daughter. Three years later Emanuele died from a poisonous snakebite. The movie spent much time building up family's love of Africa and the loving relationships between Kuki and the two male loves of her life. At Emanuele’s death I was beside myself, wondering how a woman goes on after losing both her husband and her son. But Kuki is an extraordinary woman. She has continued to find meaning in her life by writing the book I Dreamed of Africa (made into a movie) and starting the Gallman Memorial Foundation, dedicated to the memories of Paolo and Emanuele, to protecting endangered species of wildlife in Kenya, and to training young Africans about the importance of conservation.

I found the heroine's words at the end of the film quite moving: “Finally, all we can do is let the days instruct us, and know the only gift worth having is the Grace to go on. There’s a job to be done, people to love, and knowing what we love we can never lose. There is no holding on in this world. We came to this extraordinary place, and Africa let us lead extraordinary lives. Then, Africa claimed an extraordinary price. That was Africa’s privilege. And now it is my turn to look after Africa.”

Wow! That’s what I call turning straw into gold!

The New Humanism Re-visited

David Brooks is a columnist for the NY Times. He wrote an article March 7, 2011 titled "The New Humanism" that caused quite a stir in education circles. The article has to do with our nation's "overly simplistic view of human nature" and our belief in the West that "society progresses to the extent that reason can suppress the passions." As a result, we focus on our kid's test scores and achievement and competition in school and put subjects having to do with the arts on the back burner. Brooks notes that that historically in our culture something has to be quantifiable or measurable to be considered worthy of our attention. Unfortunately, this causes a major disconnect between our hearts and heads.

I have experienced this disconnect recently during a visit to a new doctor for a ‘complete’ physical examination which consisted solely of discussing my blood work and her giving me a print-out of exercises to do for my wounded rotator cuff. I was thrilled that my blood work looked so good, but disappointed that this doctor didn’t touch my shoulder or look at any other part of me to back up the medical report with her own intuition. I walked away feeling disappointed as if I'd been reduced to technical notes on a piece of paper.

It is interesting to note that my physical examination was on March 7^th, the same day that Brook’s editorial was being published in the NY Times. I discovered this the next day when a friend - not knowing my thoughts about the doctor's visit - sent me a link to the “Point Reyes Dialogues” between author/philosopher Jacob Needleman and other philosophers, humanitarians, and high-profile service workers. There were several dialogues to choose from...I chose, at random, to listen to the one between Needleman and Dr. David Heiden, an Ophthalmologist who serves individuals in developing countries in an effort to save their eyesight from complications due to AIDS. Both Needleman and Heiden praised Brook’s editorial, and discussed their beliefs that touch is essential for a doctor/patient relationship to have real integrity. The dialogue supported my own feelings during my less-than-physical examination.

“One of the greatest things you can give me is your attention," says Needleman, "When you give me your attention…when I feel you’re really letting me in…hearing me, feeling me, seeing me, that is as much a healing force as almost anything…technology is good up to a point, but if the other part isn’t there, something is going to be dead wrong.”

I am touched by those words. Right on, I say. Right on!