Step 15: "The Holy Mountain" and Modern Mandalas

"We have exhausted the world of three dimensional space. We are polluting it.

We are using it up. Somehow the redemption of the human enterprise

lies in the dimension of the imagination. This is all part of an awakening which will

then make us part of the living world and not a disease, a parasitic force upon it."

-Terrence McKenna

Roger Dean's YesShows

Ancient Mandalas

Besides having a shared mythology, ancient cultures had other types of strengths in connectedness through a special type of communication: symbols. After spending his life researching ancient schools of teaching, Manly P. Hall concluded in his book The Mysteries of the Mandala that "The spiritual, philosophical, and scientific secrets of the past are preserved, but concealed, in the symbolic forms of mythology, drama, poetry, and fables." 

The ancient Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax wrote in his book Respecting the Exposition of the Symbolical Signification in Circles that some converse, 'not only by speech but by symbols also'." After reading this, I came to realize that these same elements have continued to weave their through the mythology of our age, and have become equally obscured. Near the beginning of Hall's career, he wrote that "Among the ancients, philosophy, science, and religion were never considered as separate units: each was regarded as an integral part of the whole." The symbols and other messages embedded in forms of art were able to be universally communicated - across creeds and careers.

Building culture-wide bridges in the present begins with using symbolic language. After escaping the opposite polarities of the material world, the symbolic world awaits, representing timelessness, infinity, or the fourth dimension, which Carl Jung included in his analytical psychology theories. Noted Jungian psychologist Donald Lee Williams summarized Jung's view of life:

 "To go forward- into study, moneymaking, responsibilities, entanglements, confusions, errors, submissions, defeats, (that is, into time) and yet not deny the perspective of the timeless." The Mandala is a symbolic answer to personally reflecting timelessness, and a feeling of inner stillness, completion, or harmony." 

According to A Dictionary of Symbols, "All genuine mandalas are intended to picture forth some aspect of universal harmony." The Mandala Project writes: "The mandala is more than an image seen with our eyes; it is an actual moment in time. It can be can be used as a vehicle to explore art, science, religion and life itself. The mandala contains an encyclopedia of the finite and a road map to infinity." The foremost symbol of infinity is the serpent or dragon eating its tail in a circular shape, called the Uroborus. 

A Vulturous Uroborus

The Uroborus

The Uroborus represents the motion of evolution, as well as the state of equilibrium. According to Erich Neumann's The Origins And History of Consciousness: "The uroborus also symbolizes the creative impulse of the new beginning; it is the “wheel that rolls itself,” the initial movement in the upward spiral of evolution.”  According to Donald Lee Williams,

"The Urobouos has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. It is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites. [It] is a clear and widespread symbol of the "All-in-All", the totality of existence, 

infinity and

 the cyclic nature of the cosmos."

Nearly anything of shapely design can constitute a mandala. Manly P. Hall writes, "We may not realize that the skyline of a city is a mandala which can press in upon us, stimulating responses, pleasant or unpleasant. A tiny growing thing can be the perfect symbol of immortality." While most symbols operate on a subconscious level, like in dreams and visions, Mandalas provide an abstract "road map" to the unconscious, through consciously recognizing the interconnected patterns, shapes and figures in a greater whole. Carl Jung writes in Mandala Symbolism that "Individual mandalas make use of a well-nigh unlimited wealth of motifs and symbolic allusions, from which [it expresses] either the totality of the individual in his inner or outer experience of the world, or its essential point of reference... Conscious and unconscious. It is therefore not unusual for individual mandalas to display a division into a light and a dark half, together with their typical symbols."

Sound wave patterns as a natural Mandala

Jung Continues: "Although the center is represented by an innermost point, it is surrounded by paired opposites that make up the total personality. This totality comprises consciousness first of all, then the personal unconscious, and finally an indefinitely large segment of the collective unconscious whose archetypes are common to all mankind." In addition to being therapeutic, creating art can also be used for contemplative meditation purposes after completed. Describing her visionary art, Amanda Sage writes:

"Ultimately I seek to create portals that open to the infinite possibilities of being and expressing, so that we may remember who we are, where we originate from and where we are headed. My aspiration is to paint messages, visions and narratives that communicate with an 'older & wiser us,' awakening ancient memory; as well as 'the present us', that we may group up and accept the responsibilities towards ourselves, each other and the rest of existence on this planet... now."

Art with the potential to become a 'portal' is often called "Abstract Emotionalism," a phrase artist Jalai Lama uses to describe his art: "Serving as a gateway to self realization, Jalai Lama’s art manifests a magical sense of harmony within visual stimulations. The viewer is brought to experience a deeper connection to the truth of their cocreative and divine nature by immersing themselves within the realms of timeless beauty within art."

Robert Venosa's "Mandala"

Jungian psychologist Donald Lee Williams

 describes 

the fourfold 

shape

within 

an eightfold shape:

“The balance of the elements in turn expresses the containment and the harmonious integration of the varied and contradictory aspects of the personality- light and dark, spiritual and earthbound, strong and vulnerable. The circular form protects from multiplicity and unity, and of the rhythmic movement away from and into the center. We see in this mandala the creation of a central nucleus and the flowering of the whole personality."

The Holy Mountain

After leaving the movie theater which showed the 1932 cult classic "Freaks" as a boy, Alejandro Jodorowsky was never quite the same. He then set to work on directing films that would have the same effect on audiences, with abstract and symbolic qualities that surged the 1970s underground. One of his most vivid films was released in 1973 - "The Holy Mountain." Watching the movie is an exercise in novelty - or tolerance to new ideas, objects, or unpredictable ambiguity. The movie can be considered a mandala in motion: each frame is filled with unusual people, bizarre circumstances, and over-sized objects. The story focuses on "The Thief" (Horacio Salinas) who awakens in mud,  and befriends a small appendage-less man, later revealed to be a hallucination. He then ascends a tower to "The Alchemist" (Jodorowsky), where he undergoes a series of rituals, such as removing a gnarly blue tumor from the back of his neck, smashing an obelisk (masculine architecture) with a silver hatchet to reveal a golden sphere (the feminine symbol of completion). The movie is also abundant with three-dimensional mandalas and symbols, unfolding similarly to the experience of a very intense dream.

Introduction to Opening Credits

In an interview, Jodorowsky described his learning of Jungian symbology, which is carefully scattered throughout the film. The theme of finding central ground in opposites is huge. In one scene, The Thief is mistaken for a savior of mankind, and he is molded by gluttonous Romans, before waking up in a room filled with copies of himself and destroying them. After being initiated by the Alchemist, the Thief watches the assembly of their crew of seven powerful people with specific skills, each a different executive of stimulating novelties corporation based on novelty based on individual planets in the solar system. They are instructed to burn their wax effigies of themselves as well as their massive stacks of money before they can begin their journey to the Holy Mountain. On the journey, each character experiences a symbolic hallucination of their deepest fear. To play their roles, the cast underwent three years of spiritual training, and a month of communally living in Jodorowsky's house. In an interview, he says:

"I speak with my unconscious to your unconscious. It's another kind of language. I am trying to put the dreams into reality and not trying to put reality into dreams. When you sit with me to see the picture what I am doing is to put your symbols in reality. Everyone of us have in his unconscious symbols. You have everything in your mind. Man is not a creator. But man is all the time discovering. What I am trying to do when I use symbols is to awaken in your unconscious some reaction. I am very conscious of what I am using because symbols can be very dangerous. When we use normal language we can defend ourselves because our society is a linguistic society, a semantic society. But when you start to speak, not with words, but only with images, the people cannot defend themselves. That is why a picture like this you hate or you love. You can not be indifferent. In every scene I put animals. I went to study the meaning of animals. We have the meaning of animals within ourselves because we have collective memory."

Tarot Room Sequence

The movie moves like a flowing river, known in beat poetry as stream of consciousness where expectations about what will happen next are turned astray by random intermingling themes. Jodorowsky noted that he did not intend to illustrate any one idea or point, but multiple ones. Much of the meanings are hidden, cryptic or obscured. Originally, they had planned on learning the secret of immortality from the supposed immortals that live near the top of the Holy Mountain. However, they turned out to be stuffed dummies, meaning the experience of ascending the mountain is purely symbolic. According to A Dictionary of Symbols, the mountain top is the "Focal point of the intersection of the two world of the material and spiritual planes. ...Once the traveller has reached the topmost terrace, he breaks free from the laws of level, transcends profane space and enters a region of purity. Mountain heights are the chosen abode of the recluse."

At the end of the movie, near the peak of the mountain, the Alchemist decides their quest is too special or sacred for the camera. He breaks the cinematic 'fourth wall' by telling the audience:

"We began in a fairytale and we came to life, but... is this life reality? No. It is a film. Zoom back camera! We are images, dreams, photographs. We must not stay here.Prisoners! We shall break the illusion. Goodbye to the Holy Mountain. Real life awaits us."
They then proceed to ascend the holy mountain before the credits roll. 

Reflecting on the role of life-changing films, Jodorowsky says:

"You must transform yourself from the ill man to the healthy man. Because really we need to cure our society's ills. There are war, there are pollution, we are killing the planet, so many have nothing to eat. So we are like the samurai. We win or we die. Now I think is a fantastic moment for all of us because now we are fighting for our world, our life. Now is the moment to be awake or to die. We are not alone. ...If you discover something to do and you do it well, you are helping yourself, you are helping humanity, you are realizing yourself."

With the help of mandalas, a higher level of awareness - the timeless - may emerge, which in Buddhism is termed Sunyata, the state of emptiness and interconnectedness. In symbolic terms, reaching the peak of a mountain puts multiple worlds into view:

Arik 'Moonhawk' Roper's "The Sighting"

Modern mythic artist Arik Roper describes his piece: "The Sighting illustrates a metaphor of gaining insight and perspective from a new position. The Ice-Age era hunter and his Wolf companion represent the mind in its unadvanced stages, wandering and laboriously ascending the mountain in search of nourishment. The floating apparition represents the revelation flash of the advanced mind, gained from a new point of view and progress on the mountain. The encounter initially appears as a meeting of two separate entities but ultimately a meeting with the self."

When the state of transcendental emptiness and interconnectedness is achieved, then both the ego (conscious awareness) and non-ego (unconscious awareness) have merged into the "tathagatagarbha", which is in fact synonymous with "sunyata" according to the Lankavatara Sutra. To put it into Jodorosky's terms, the when these two aspects of the "tathagata" have merged, then top of the Holy Mountain has been reached. Jodorowsky studied under a long series of masters before playing the role of a master. He concluded:

"The only thing a master can teach is how to learn about yourself. There are no secrets.

They are only techniques to waken yourself. "

Peter Westermann's "Ascension"