Please come to our special event held each Summer Solstice at Divine Science Center in San Jose, on the Saturday evening after the exact solstice, at 7 PM. Free; donations requested. For more info call (408)293-3838. This essay is my 2006 talk; revised.
In the first half of our event, first we're going to talk; then we're going to Bach, and a little later we're going to walk. We're going to walk our Bach talk.
On the medicine wheel, we seek wholeness, balance and integration. To do that we can't forget the mind. It is part of us. I'm using signs and symbols to point to the vital parts of ourselves, and our link to the cosmos and the divine within us, so we may experience ourselves as whole beings.
Exactly 40 years ago, and just two blocks away from here, at the Summer Solstice, I experienced a vivid awakening of spirit. I learned that the world was love. A few months later, the implications began to dawn on me. For example, I no longer rejected the concept of God. My old problems remained. But I had a different view of life and reality.
So I studied philosophy, both East and West. As I explored this tradition, I discovered that the various schools of thought were arrayed along two great polarities. This is something even the philosophers don't know about, but I think it's true.
The first polarity is spiritual vs. material. Spiritualists, the camp most of us here subscribe to, says that the world derives from the spirit, or the consciousness within. Materialists say that the reverse is true; that our spirit derives from outward physical causes in the world, and that these causes explain things. Now, we may have decided they are wrong, but materialists represent an aspect of how we all relate to reality. So let's give them their due.
The second polarity is often referred to as left brain vs. right brain, or yang and yin. This could also be called male and female. Our left brain is dominant, assertive and rational, while the right brain is receptive, and perceptive. Along this polarity, one school of philosophy emphasizes that things are known by reason, while the other says things are known by experience. The first side values logic, order and decision-making, while the second values spontaneity, freedom and randomness.
When you put these two polarities together, you have a cross. Spiritual and material is the up and down axis, running from the earth to the sky. Reason and experience is left and right; not only the left and right brain, but the left and right hand. The cross is in our own body. Our backbone is the up and down axis, and the left and right hands are the left and right arms of the cross. We also know that the backbone is the axis along which we find our 7 main chakras. These range from the first chakra which focuses on worldly survival, up to the 7th which connects us to divine wisdom. Thus, the great debates and polarities in philosophy, science and religion are all hard-wired into our own bodies, and this represents the basic polarities within us on all levels of our being.
Now, Jesus died on the cross, making it the Christian symbol. But the cross also forms the four directions of the circle, the Medicine Wheel. And just as every planet has a North-South axis around which it rotates from west to east, so does every circle. We are here to celebrate the Summer Solstice. The solstice and equinox points are the four corners in the great wheel of the seasons. When the Sun is in the south, far away from us, the days are shortest and it is Winter Solstice. When it is in the north, as it is now, the Sun stays up longer and it is Summer Solstice. Halfway up its journey north, the Spring Equinox happens. When it is half-way going back south, it is the Fall Equinox. At the equinox, the days and nights are equal.
The Sun, then, moves up and down each year along the great axis of the world, which forms the north and south pole. This great axis is just like the backbone in our own bodies. In other words, your own Summer Solstice, your north, is your head, and your own Winter Solstice, or south, is your feet. In between the Solstices, we reach the Equinox. This axis is like our right and left hands. These 4 times of the year form a great cross, just like the one in ourselves between up and down, left and right. If you stand up, hold out your hands and twirl around, you are turning on your axis just like the Earth does. You and the Earth correspond; you are one.
The Sun's journey through the seasons is also its journey through the zodiac. The seasons and the zodiac are the same thing (for tropical astrologers, not sidereal ones). When the Sun enters Capricorn in December it shines directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, and Winter begins. When the Sun enters Cancer in June it shines directly over the Tropic of Cancer, and Summer begins. Aries begins at the Spring Equinox, and Libra at the Fall. In between are all the other signs. If you know astrology, you know that each sign of the zodiac is either yin or yang. For example, Aries is yang (meaning assertive, masculine, etc.), Taurus is yin (reflective, cautious, feminine, etc.), Gemini is yang, Cancer is yin, and so on through the zodiac. You also know that each sign is ruled by a planet, and that each visible planet rules two signs similar to it by nature, one yang and one yin. Thus, the signs wiggle back and forth between yin and yang, like a snake.
Here's where it gets fun. As you move through the signs along the great axis of the seasons, you also move in and out of the solar system, made up of a ladder of planets that rule the signs (demonstrated with paper plates). We start at the south, and far out in space with Saturn, which rules Capricorn and Aquarius, the southern signs of Winter. Capricorn is the yin sign, and Aquarius is the yang sign. Saturn represents what is cold, dark and far away. As we move north, toward the Summer Solstice, each ruling planet is brighter and warmer. The next level in the journey is Jupiter, which rules Sagittarius the yang sign, and Pisces the yin. Next up is Mars, which rules Scorpio the yin sign, and Aries the yang sign. As we move north across the Equator, we reach Venus, which rules Libra the yang sign and Taurus the yin. Next is Mercury, which rules Virgo the yin sign, and Gemini the yang. Finally, the Sun and Moon, the great cosmic father and mother, the two great lights, rule one sign each. The Sun rules Leo the yang sign, and the Moon rules Cancer the yin sign; and these are the signs of Summer.
Notice that now you have seven planets on six levels, or actually seven if you split the highest level between the Sun and Moon. We know what also has 7 levels; the chakras. Thus, as the Sun moves through these 7 levels, up and down the axis of the world, it is like moving up and down the axis of your own backbone through the 7 chakras (demonstrated with colored circles). We also notice that the signs alternate between yin and yang. This sets up two currents connecting the yang signs and the yin signs, just like the two currents of your chakras, one moving from earth up to heaven, and the other from heaven down to earth. Laid out on the Medicine Wheel, the yin current represents the West, and the yang the East (walk through signs, alternate between yang signs on the east and yin signs on the west). These two currents are represented by the two snakes of the Caduceus. What does the Caduceus symbolize? Medicine. Same as the Medicine Wheel. We mentioned before the left and right brain, and the left and right hand. But we know now that the left brain controls the right hand, both usually considered dominant, and the right brain controls the left hand, receptive. We see the same switch going on inside us as is shown by the ancient Caduceus symbol. The Medicine Wheel thus becomes a spiral of the two snakes as they move up and down the axis.
The two snakes of the Caduceus are the yin and yang currents of our body. The snakes cross each other six times, one for each chakra, and meet at the crown at the top. At the 6th chakra level or third eye, there are two wings, representing our two eyes or the two halves of our brain. The silvery Moon rules the 6th chakra. The golden Sun shines radiantly at our crown chakra. The Sun is the source of life, the great symbol of Enlightenment. We celebrate its time of glory at the Summer Solstice. This is also the best time to remember and celebrate just how special our planet Earth truly is, for we have a Moon that, when seen from Earth, is exactly the same size as our Sun. And these two greatest lights in our sky, look just like the two most radiant and precious metals in all creation, silver and gold. Perhaps no other planet in the universe is in such a unique situation. Perhaps, a precious planet indeed, and worth preserving.
The Caduceus is also called the Staff of Hermes, from where we get the word "hermetic." Hermetic philosophy gives us the law of correspondence, "as above, so below." In other words, things are reflected on different levels; just as in a hologram, or a fractile, the whole can be seen in each part. Thus the solar system is reflected in the Earth and its cycle of seasons, which in turn is reflected in our own body. The point is, we are all each potentially the cosmos in miniature, and each individual expresses the whole, the Divine. In my handouts and here on this web site you can see all the correspondences I have drawn between the Medicine Wheel and philosophy to the chakras, astrology, alchemy, the Kaballah, the Enneagram, Jungian Types, the Tarot, the Divine Science attributes, the colors and tones, and so on (just click on the links to the articles related to my forthcoming book "The Philosopher's Wheel", or see the links below).
Remember too, that ultimately all polarities and all directions are ONE on the great Medicine Wheel. So some esoteric symbols run the opposite way; the South is sometimes seen as spiritual and the North material, for example, and Saturn can be seen as the highest planet instead of the Sun and Moon. And so with East and West. Without this ambiguity, the symbols would not be true. The spiritual direction stands for the subjective inner life, and material direction the objective outer world. But the greatest enlightenment is to know that the inner and outer worlds are inter-related ("the axis of communion" - Tony McGettigan). You can't have one without the other. All polarities meet in the center, your own heart chakra.
To help you contemplate your microcosm, we're going to turn to the greatest spiritual composer of all time. Now one year, I asked the group who that might be, and someone said "Led Zeppellin." I kinda laughed, but the answer was not off the mark. After all, their greatest song is "Stairway to Heaven," which is what we have just built through 7 levels. But as some of you know, I mean Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote the greatest music for the organ, which is mine and his favorite instrument. His music inspired me to learn to play. His Toccata in F Major, the key of love, has been my favorite piece since the 1970s. Yet it was only in 2004 that I discovered that this piece moves through seven ascending sections. Even the liner notes I read had alluded to this. (Plus, each section in turn has two parts, showing the two currents of kundalini, the two snakes of the caduceus; except that the last two sections (like the 6th and 7th chakras) can also be seen as two parts of one longer section, just like the Sun and Moon rule one sign each (Cancer and Leo) at the Summer Solstice, or as we'll see, two shades of purple. Thus, in the Toccata there's one sub-section for each sign.)
The Toccata in F is an image of the kundalini! It has all its energy, starting with the flamboyant early sections and taking us up to blissful revelation. Organist Lionel Rogg says Bach's Toccata in F was the first modern toccata, a form which is characterized by "an uninterrupted movement" and "an implacable rhythm." Titus Burckhardt in his book on alchemy says "a serpent or dragon as the image of a cosmic power is found in all parts of the world. A reptile moves without legs and by means of an uninterrupted rhythm..." We hear this in how the notes of the piece alternate up and down (or back and forth). In other words, the Toccata in F is a "snake dance!"
But we can also use it to meditate on the chakras, and even to rouse our sleeping kundalini. It truly is a stairway to heaven, and it has 7 steps. You can visualize the color of each chakra as we ascend through the levels. And since each level corresponds to a planet, then Toccata in F is also the "music of the spheres." The first section of the Toccata begins with a long snake-like theme that represents the first chakra of life and survival at the base of the spine, and its color is red. The second section is announced by a majestic chord, after which the same theme is heard again, except that the left hand leads the way instead of the right; just as the second chakra turns in the opposite direction from the first. This signifies the yin polarity of the second chakra, which is the center of joy and sensuality, and this is the most joyous part of the piece. It's color is orange. During these two sections, the foot is held down continuously in what is called a pedal point, like the underlying Ommmm sound of creation. No piece of music has a more powerful Om-like pedal point than this one. In these first two sections, the theme even continuously imitates itself an octave lower a few seconds later, thus twirling around itself, with the pedal note held down between them; the very image of the caduceus! Remember too that the word chakra itself means "wheel."
In the third section things change, and hands and pedal play together through the next 3 sections. A powerful new uplifting theme is heard. This represents the middle part of the soul, the conscious level, while the first two sections represent the lower or subconscious part. The third chakra of power and will is the solar plexus, and its color is yellow. The uplifting theme returns to mark the beginning of each of the remaining 5 chakras. At the 4th chakra of love, and we notice the music feels more balanced and peaceful than in the previous section, and more passionate and lyrical too. We are in the eye of the storm. Its color is green. Then we reach the fifth chakra of expression at the throat, where the music rises higher and becomes more urgent, as more movement is transferred from the feet to the hands. Its color is blue.
Then we reach a breakthrough of discovery at the sixth section as we reach the higher or superconscious part of the soul. Suddenly the whole journey opens before you, as you see things clearly from a wide vista at the level of the sixth chakra of vision and imagination, the third eye. It's color is blue-violet or indigo. Finally, we reach the crown chakra of divine wisdom, as the Ommm sounds again, and we experience the blissful climax, the crowning glory of the piece. Its color is purple.
I will climb the stairway to heaven and announce each chakra as we listen to Bach. You can listen too!
See and hear Toccata in F on You Tube. Excellent version from Bach's own church.
Venerable organist Helmut Walcha plays the toccata
See and hear Toccata in F on youtube
See Toccata in F played on youtube (well done)
Later in our Solstice Celebration, Santa Cruz shaman Crowman has led the group in a "snake dance." At first, years ago, he had no idea that this dance, which comes from his own Native American tradition, was related to Bach's Toccata in F or the chakras. It was synchronicity. This is in fact a unique combination, a juxtaposition of experience that can't be found anywhere else except at our Summer Solstice Celebrations in San Jose. Crowman explains that the snake dance tells a story of how humans are evolving. We start out as microbes who can't see, groping upwards toward the light. But they fail and have to start over. The second time they rise through a thick fog, again trying to see, but they fall back again. Finally on the third try they rise up and see the Sun. We humans continue to progress in this way, rising to ever-higher levels on our journey towards the light.
The group reenacts this journey, forming a long line moving or "snaking" around the room, with Crowman reminding us to go down LOW over and over again and then rise up HIGH toward the light. Finally we assemble in the center, in what is often a truly ecstatic moment, all of us moving down together and then raising our hands into the sky, expressing our bliss of enlightenment at this-- the peak of solar light during the year.
This parallels the journey up through the chakras, and especially the Toccata in F with its two hopeful opening sections that end in pedal solos that take us down into the dark again; but rising the third time with the bright, fiery new uplifting theme; and again through more stages, until the blissful, bright climax is reached in the crown chakra.
Another connection is also made to the Medicine Wheel, which is evoked in our opening ceremony. This ceremony is often led, and its 4 directions explained, by astrologer Tony McGettigan; also host of the Vibrational Voyage radio program.
Each chakra is ruled by a planet, which in turn rules (is linked to) two signs each, one yin and one yang; except the Sun (yang) and Moon (yin) which rule one sign each. Yang signs are in bold, yin signs are in italics. The ascending, liberating yin current or "snake" flows through the yin signs, and the descending, manifesting current flows through the yang signs. This scheme is a combination of the chart from Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life (1989, Llewellyn), page 123, and Titus Burckhardt, Alchemy (1960, Penguin), page 88.
| chakra | Autumn signs | Planets | Spring signs | chakra |
| 7-crown | Leo | Sun/Moon | Cancer | 6-third eye |
| 5-throat | Virgo | Mercury | Gemini | 5-throat |
| 4-heart | Libra | Venus | Taurus | 4-heart |
| 3-solar plexus | Scorpio | Mars | Aries | 3-solar plexus |
| 2-genitals | Sagittarius | Jupiter | Pisces | 2-genitals |
| 1-base | Capricorn | Saturn | Aquarius | 1-base |
Note also that this symbolic scheme can be represented in an alternative way, with the yang signs all placed on the left (or east) and the yin signs on the right (west). In this arrangement the current flows through the sequence of the signs through the seasons. In each case, the chakra spins in a direction opposite to the one below it, because the currents switch from side to side as they ascend and descend. Some occult symbols (like the Golden Dawn's Tree of Life) reverse the sequence shown above, putting the outer planets at the top instead of the Sun and Moon.
Table of correspondences:3 parts of the soul and 7 levels of the mystic quest
Table of chakras, exalted planets, colors, New Thought
Toccata in F by Bach as a symbol of the soul's journey through chakras, Tarot trumps and the Tree of Life, with more tables
Find out your philosophy and where you are on the map of the mind
The Chakras by Anodea Judith
The Caduceus, from Wikipedia
Horoscope for the New Millennium by E. Alan Meece