Blog o’ Gnosis

This seems like an auspicious time to take up the thread of my previous post, On Fire. I was walking the dog Tuesday as the sun set, gradually lowering itself into a brilliant orange field which bathed the horizon. Going up a slight hill with the sun’s long rays warming my back, I noticed a pale eye of moon just rising over the eastern hills, climbing as I climbed.

At the top of the hill I had walked into that perfect configuration: directly between sun and moon, both hovering just over the horizon. It is a form of human eclipse, I think. Extending one arm to the source of fire, and the other to the cool mirror of the moon, I felt as though I were strung on a necklace between amber and pearl. It was a rarefied moment, and not a drawing-down of anything. Rather it was a drawing across, the human body as mediator between two of the great alchemical forces.

To have fire travel horizontally is an unusual configuration. Normally I regard fire as a vertical force, and carrying fire as an act which calls us into a stronger upright alignment. To carry our fire means we stand up straight.

This would be a relatively easy task if that was all there was to it, but of course it’s a bit more complicated than that. Living a creative life, or following a spiritual path, is partly about finding our fire and letting that express itself through us. But if that is not contained or balanced by some equally strong force, we run the risk of frying our circuits and having the fire consume us. At the very least, we become hell to live with.

One of my first teachers in aikido, Betsy Hill sensei (no relation), often talks about the “floating bridge of heaven” as the point of balance aikidoists strive to embody in our movements. This is symbolized as the meeting point of the vertical axis, fire, and the horizontal axis, water. O’Sensei, the founder of aikido, referred to the floating bridge quite a lot in his teaching, yet not many of his students had the background in Shinto mythology to understand his meaning.

The floating bridge was the pathway between heaven and earth that the two primordial Divine beings, Izanagi and Izanami, descended on when they came down to create land amidst the chaos of a watery world. While standing on the bridge they dipped a jewel-encrusted sword into the sea, and when they raised it, the drops of water which fell on the ocean’s surface turned into the islands of Japan, and they could safely descend to land. This bridge between heaven and earth was always there, but somewhere along the way it was forgotten and the Gods could no longer visit Earth.

O’Sensei was insistent that the true purpose of aikido was to be in the center of creation at every moment, thus re-creating that floating bridge in our movements and in doing so bringing peace to the world. A tall order, especially for a post-war Japanese martial artist. The martial arts were in disgrace at the time, and the people who did come were mostly there to learn his unique blend of techniques from different martial disciplines, while ignoring his more esoteric ramblings.

And yet the theme of creation happening anew in every moment is echoed in many other mystical traditions. Most recently we have the revelation of astrophysics that as the universe expands evenly from all points, any point can be considered the center of creation. Or something like that; read Brian Swimme for the lovely poetic version.

For a long time I would watch Betsy sensei move around the mat demonstrating what she meant by being the floating bridge, and did not have a clue what she was doing. I understood the idea of extending energy vertically through my body to the earth and sky, but I did not know how to visualize, let alone embody, the aspect of water as a horizontal plane through which we move.

I guess this is where I will stop for this evening, with an invitation to try it yourself. Imagine carrying your fire along and through water, with the center of creation resting in your belly the whole time. Quite recently I have figured out a way to work with this on the mat, which has led to more insights about applying the principles in other aspects of life and spirituality in particular. These are all still in early formation for me, but my next post in this series will present them anyway. Happy full moon in Aries, everyone.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Spirit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.