Sophia - Rite 9. Scorpio and Kundalini

Priestess: (Invocation) Divine Kundalini, the World's Mother, Hidden Fire, Mystic Life Force, Devi, Shakti, arise within us and bring us eternal life! For without Thee we are as lifeless shadows astray in this land of delusions, entangled in dead thoughts, stale emotions, sucked of energies by debilitating forces which we cannot control. Aid us, helpless wanderers lost in this dream of existence, fearing that when the nightmare ends we shall be no more.

Oracle: Seek Me throughout all the realms of being with selfishness, and you shall never find Me! You acknowledge that from Me proceed the vital flames of the Cosmic Life Force. But why do you seek My Power? Do you love Me, your Mother? Do you desire to bring to birth, to care for others, as I do? Or rather do you seek My energy that you may increase your importance without regard for your fellows? A planet savaged by power-hungry humans is left a waste land, devoid of all living things, pock-marked with craters. And as with a planet, so with My children, both human and beast. For My Fire either creates or it destroys. It will never for long lie inactive. It is not the Fire Goddesses who destroy planets in their anger: it is Their children who lay waste through war and greed.

My occult Power may be still more misused both by the foolish and the wicked. But know that a severe penalty is paid by the ill-doer for each act that misuses My Force, whether in this world or the next. For though permission to use or misuse My Gift is granted, in order that free choice may bring wisdom through experience, part of that experience is gained through paying the penalty for wrongdoing.

If you truly seek My creative energy with good intention, find Me in the Heart of Love. Feel Me through parenthood, through caring for all existences. Then your noble ideals, your great projects, will come easily into manifestation with ever-increasing effectiveness. Take heed to balance force with gentleness. For know that My Power comes through the harmony of two energies of the Sun and of the Moon: of Fire and of Water: of Gold and Silver. These are symbols: they who truly know Me feel Me within themselves.

On a crimson and blue draped altar let there be a red candle floating in an earthenware bowl of water, 8 candles, burning incense and a star map of Scorpio. 2 Priestesses wear gold open crowns, 2 Priests wear gold headdresses, all 4 wear purple robes. Companions wear gold uraeus circlets, women crimson robes, men, blue. Priesthood at Northeast to Southwest of altar. 4 Companions at cardinal points of temple.

1st Priest: Companions on the path of the awakening of Soul through Spirit, we are here assembled to contemplate the mystical reality bestowed by the Goddess Kundalini through the constellation of Scorpio.

1st Priestess: Know that this is the Stellar House of Initiation. Our instructors on the Path, the Alchemists, taught that only when the Sun is in Scorpio may Iron be transmuted into Gold. For as the sun declines after the autumnal Equinox, so does the individual soul face the apparent extinction of her dream of separate existence, when faced by death. So does a candle fancy itself extinguished when the sun rises! Scorpio rises in the cold hours of the dawn. So be watchful and fall not into inertia, for who can tell when the Scorpion stings.

2nd Priest: Ponder on the fate of the giant Orion, stung by the Scorpion and so sinks into apparent death in the red Western sky. Was not even the Child God of Initiation, Son to Isis, Harporcrates, killed by a scorpion? He was revived by Isis, and shows Himself to the wise as a naked child with His finger to His lips, enjoining silence. Was not the mighty Sun God Ra-Temu bitten by a snake, which Isis sent to Him in the autumn? He suffered from the poisonous serpent power circling in every limb, until He fell through the flaming twilight into the watery abyss. Only when He had surrendered His Secret Name with all His magical Powers to Isis, did She restore Him as Ra-Horus, in the bright dawn when spring returned to earth. For though the Mysteries are preserved through silence, we must offer ourselves and all we have to the Goddess, that we may be reborn with knowledge of our immortality.

2nd Priestess: Know that the Path of Scorpio provides a sudden shock! The cunning scorpion strikes at the foot, yet its poison courses throughout the body. Like the serpent it is called the One Who Lurks. It is most potent through water and through the blood. Know that this very cruel sting, which seems to torture and to slay, is in verity the Awakener! Only through the sting may the stigmata of Initiation be gained. Yet this awakening may not be bargained for, nor induced, for only when the soul is ready may the Coming Forth by Day be achieved! Scorpio is also the sign of the Eagle and of the Winged Serpent. May we, with the Wings of the Goddess Selket, the Scorpion Goddess, rise above the Path and so learn to know its serpentine deviations, its pitfalls, its goal. Thus may we, with the aid of the presiding Deities, receive the onrush of the Fire Goddess, Kundalini, without loss of integrity or peace.

1st Priestess: (Northwest) I invoke the Goddess Kundalini. Devi, Consort of Siva, the Serpent Fire, Universal Life-Principle, the World's Mother, Divine Power, Mystic Fire Force, reveal to us the Path to Thee, that we may join Thee in Thy Creative Manifestation! Thus art Thou spoken of in the Shatchakra Nirupana: "The Devi shines in the fullness of Her lustre. Thereafter, in Her subtle state, lustrous like lightning and fine like lotus fibre, She ascendeth, the beautiful Kundalini." Also it is written: "She is curled three-and-a-half times round Herself at the base of the spine. Then She uncoils Herself, and raises Her Head, and enters the Raja Road of the spine, piercing the mystic lotuses, until She reaches the Temple of the Head. You taste Her nectar and you know that She is Life." This life manifests through the union of opposites, through Her two snakes which interlace about the spine. Pingala is active, Ida, She who receives. When they cross each other they combine, and the Power of the Goddess breaks forth in glory! Aid us to prepare for this outpouring. For none may live forever save through Thee.

1st Priest: (Southeast) I invoke the God Siva. Wielder of the Trident, Rudra, the Fiery One of the Five Faces, the Three Eyes and the Four arms, bring us Power controlled by meditation! For when Thy Consort Durga brought devastation to the earth through Her Fire, Thou didst swallow the poison of Her Sting - so art Thou the blue-throated One. Thy Right Hand holds the fires of destruction. Thy lower Right Hand is raised in Blessing, and Thy lower left Hand points to Thy upraised Left Foot, worship of which bringeth salvation. Thy Right Foot standeth upon the dwarf of ignorance. A serpent is coiled three-and-a-half times around Thy hair, its hood raised above it. Thy second serpent is upon Thy shoulder and Thy third forms Thy sacred thread. The lovely Goddess Ganga sitteth within Thy matted hair and poureth forth the holy waters of the Ganges. Thou art the great Yogi, also Thou art God of the sacred Lingam. Thy lovely Consort is Devi, who manifests as Parvati of the Lotus, the golden Uma, fiery Durga and Black Kali of the earth. She is also the Shakti Kundalini. Within the fiery cosmic wheel Thou doth enact the Dance of Creation. Gonsort of Kundalini Devi, aid our search for vitality and wisdom.

2nd Priestess: (Southwest) I invoke the Goddess Selket. "Beautiful Goddess Selket, we invoke Thee! Thou doth herald the sunrise through Thy Temples oriented to Thee. It is spoken of Thee and Thy Divine Mother in the Book of the Dead: "Get Thee back, O Crocodile that dwellest in the North, for the Goddess Selket is within my body and I have not yet brought Her forth. I am Watch-Maati. The things which are created are in the hollow of My Hand, and those which have not yet come into being are in My Body. I am clothed and wholly provided with Thy magical words, O Ra, they which are heaven above Me and in the earth beneath Me. My face is open, My heart is upon its seat, and the Crown with the serpent is upon Me day by day." Consort of the Sun God Ra, Guardian of the souls of the dead, Protectress of Matrimony, help us face the ordeal of Initiation with serenity. For it is spoken of Thee: "The Scorpion Goddess Selket hath cast fetters upon Thee. The sting is in the Scorpion Goddess, and mightily hath She, Whose course is everlasting, worked it upon thee." Awaken us to greater life!

2nd Priest: (Northeast) I invoke the God Ra. "O Thou beautiful Being, Thou dost renew Thyself in Thy season in the form of the Disk within Thy Mother Hathor, therefore in every place every heart welleth with joy at Thy rising forever. Thou comest forth from the water, Thou illuminest the two lands with rays of turquoise light, Thou art made strong each day by Thy Mother Nuit. Ra liveth by Maat the Beautiful. Isis and Nephthys seeketh Thee, They sing unto Thee songs of joy at Thy rising in the boat, They protect Thee with their hands. Thou doth travel through untold spaces requiring millions and hundreds of thousands of years to pass over. Thou passest through them in peace, and Thou steerest Thy way across the watery abyss to the place which Thou lovest ; this Thou doest in one little moment of time and then Thou dost sink down and dost make an end of hours. Divine Ra Temu that sinketh below the horizon into the underworld, aid us to know the secret of Thy Hidden Fire glowing within the watery abyss!"

1st Priest: Let us invoke the Guardians of Scorpio!

1st Companion: (South) I salute the Regent of the twofold star Antares, fiery heart of the Scorpion and of the Azure Dragon! This is the Lurking One, Jyestha Nakshatra and is the ruddy ear-jewel of Ronini, the rosy Goddess. The noble temples of Apollo at Delphi, of Zeus at Aegina, the Heraeum at Argos and the Erechtheum of Athens were oriented to this rosy star of Auspicious Fortune. Antares of the Scorpion Goddess Selket is veiled by a cloud nebula, and rises in the red and azure twilight. May the Regent of Her Star bring us good fortune!

2nd Companion: (North) I salute the Regent of the three-fold Star Graffias, the Claws. This star with four-horsed chariot was worshipped in ancient times by all horsemen. It forms the white and violet Crown of the Forehead of the Scorpion, and is The Friend, the Star of Success. May the Regent of Graffias grant us success in our work for good!

3rd Companion: (West) I salute the Regent of the twofold star Shaula, the Sting. The ancients saw these twain as a little maiden Pin-ere-ua, the inseparable, who with her smaller brother, flees from home to the sky because of the ill-treatment of their parents, who pursue them.

"And now in ocean deepe

Orion flying fast from hissing snake,

His flaming head did hasten for to steepe."

When She strikes us, may the sting of the scorpion be assuaged in the starry sea!

4th Companion: (East) I salute the Regent of the Star Al Niyat, Protector of the heart of the scorpion:

"Whilst Scorpio, dreading Sagittarius' dart,

Whose bow press'd bent in flight,

The string has slipped,

Down slid into the ocean flood apart."

May our hearts be protected from the passions in the deep sea of meditation.

Music. Egyptian music is suitable.

1st Priestess: Companions, harken to the story of Isis and the mother and her child. Isis was seeking for the body of Her slain husband the God Osiris, and She came to the city of Byblos. She was discovered by the royal handmaidens as She sat by a well. Isis braided their hair, breathing a heavenly perfume upon them from Her Divine Body. Queen Astarte of Byblos smelt this perfume and took Isis to Her within the palace, to be nurse to her child. Now Isis discovered that the body of Osiris, unknown to the King and Queen, was concealed within a tree pillar of the palace. At night in the form of a swallow, She was wont to flutter around the pillar of the palace, twittering mournfully.

2nd Priestess: Now Isis loved the baby boy entrusted to Her and She decided to confer upon him the gift of Immortality. So every night when all slept, She used to hold the child over the fire in the hearth. But one night Queen Astarte discovered Isis placing her baby on the fire, and she seized him and clasped him to her and bitterly upbraided her nurse. Whereupon Isis revealed Herself in Her Divine Being and gave Her Name. And She said unto the Queen: "Wretched woman, if Thou hadst let me I would have made thy son immortal! As it is, he shall be as other men and I must leave him." When King Malcandre heard of this he understood the mystery of the swallow and the pillar, and he gave Isis the Tamarisk tree which contained the coffin of Osiris.

1st Priestess hands round candle in bowl to company who in turn hold their hands over the flame.

1st Priest: (to each) May the Fire of the Goddess awaken within thee!

Glowing power may be felt within.

2nd Priestess: There is a star within Scorpio called Gis-gan-gu-sur, the Tree of the Garden of Light. Without the sap of life the body is but a dried up mummy.

2nd Priestess carries bowl with candles to Companions, placing water on each head.

2nd Priest: (to each) May the Water of the Starry sea bring thee serenity.

Silvery cool power may be felt.

1st Priest: In celebration of the sacred Marriage of the Opposites, the Initiation of Fire and Water which takes place in the House of Scorpio, let us perform the Dance of the Azure Dragon! For the Chinese sages depicted this dragon as blue as water, flying in the sky, and breathing fiery flames!

Music. Stravinsky’s "Firebird Suite" or an Indian raga are suitable. The Dragon Dance is performed by ‘threading the needle’ through upheld arms, men and women alternating. Strong fiery power may be felt and red and green colours seen. The experience is of elation tempered with tranquillity.

1st Priestess: Let us contemplate the night sky of Scorpio!

2nd Priest holds out star map of Scorpio.

2nd Priest: Behold the constellation of the Scorpion lurking between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. See its claws and the fiery Antares, its Eye! Its sting is in its tail and it emerges from the sea of heaven, in pursuit of Orion who flees far across the sky. Hot in pursuit is Sagittarius with his bow, and above him is Hercules, who when he was a child strangled two serpents in his cradle. Below him is the giant Ophiuchus, holding the twisting constellation of Serpens the snake. Ophiuchus was revered by the Greeks as representing their deified healer Aesculapius, whose emblem was a staff entwined with a snake. Some saw Ophiuchus as Chiron the centaur, wise in knowledge of healing herbs. Observe that the right foot of the giant rests upon the serpent's head. That which poisons may also cure.

2nd Priestess: First with a hissing, then with a sting does the Goddess Kundalini bring us to life! The child cries out when it is born.

1st Priestess: Yet in silence comes wisdom. Let us meditate upon the mystical awakening bestowed on us by Kundalini Devi through. the constellation of Scorpio.