The Book

The Glorious Body: Consciousness, Energy, Substance.

The book is a product of more than thirty years of intensive research and practice. Addressing the subject of the glorious body directly through the body is challenging enough, the mystery revealing and concealing itself in response to ever-shifting conditions and ever-evolving perspectives. Writing about it means being on continual alert to see if words are taking us towards or away from the experience of oneness in the body. Observation and experiment are the essential here and all explanations are given mainly to support the process and only secondarily to give an overall view of the philosophy involved.

Since I began to put my notes together for a book, fifteen years ago, the writing and the practice themselves have been in dynamic partnership. The body’s intelligence in this process of awakening reveals its workings to the intellect in a conscious re-enactment similar to the manner in which a child discovers ways to be in its body; once the mind is able to name what it is observing it becomes a support to the physical research.

As a reference book, “The Glorious Body: Consciousness, Energy, Substance” traces the channels between the teachings of the seers and shamans and the work here today in the living body; as a manual it shows, step by step, what can be perceived and embodied individually and in a group. The book will be of value both to those attending the various courses, workshops and sessions our Centre offers and to those who are working alone or in their own groups or who are using other teachings as the base.

It is a condensed version of “The Glorious Body: Consciousness, Energy, Substance” that is available on this website. Click on the Mystery of Seven, the Matrix of Twelve, the Idea, the Knowledge and the Practice. You will find the essential components of the theory and various diarams and illusrations. The website provides enough concept and theory for you to consider the posibility of engaging with the practice. The book will provide a comprehensive and detailed view of the conceptual framework and the technical research done in and through the body.
Here is the index to the book and an excerpt from Chapter Six on the subject of the Merkava:

The Glorious Body: Consciousness, Energy, Substance
CONTENTS

• Introduction : Reclaiming the Glorious Body
  
• PART ONE The Mystery of Seven
  
  
  
  • The luminous sphere of Unity
    
  • Dance of Spirit and Matter : Two in One
    
  • the Synthesis of Sun[, Lotus, Jewel
    
  • In The Tree of Life in its absolute divine, abstract psychical, relative living and concrete material manifestation.
    
  • The Alchemy of the Five Elements : Ether Air Fire Water Earth
    
  • The Chariot of the six human faculties assembled : spirit, body, soul, mind, life, action.
    
  • Self Transcendence through the Sevenfold ladder of the being.
    
  
  
  
• PART TWO
  
  
  
  • The Session: guidelines for the physical practice
    
  • Teachings and traditions
    
  
  
  
• PART THREE The Matrix of Twelve
  
  
  
  • The Twelvefold Hologram of the Zodiac
    
  • The Twelve Realms of the Body
    
  
  
  
• APPENDICES
  
  
  
  • About the author
    
  • Glossary of technical terms, Sanskrit, Hebrew and etc.
    
  • Bibliography
    
  
  
  

The Merkava, the Glorious Body, the Chariot of Light

Spiritual evolution involves an awakening to the reality of spirit: the essential being and consciousness that transcends the universe and all its individual expressions.
In the integral view, spirit calls forth manifestation through the elements, earth, water, fire and air, and from them assembles the vehicle that it drives and inhabits. Our body, our mind, and the universe we perceive, are the vehicle of the spirit.

The term merkava or merkaba, from the Kabala is increasingly used in spiritual discussion today: publications, workshops and numerous websites.

This must be due to some extent to the current fascination with the energy body and how it may link and us with spiritual realities and with our ultimate destiny.
The merkava is an energy vehicle for consciousness. Activated, the merkava, raises the human being above the earthly plane into spheres of cosmic and transcendental awareness. The traditional view of the merkava is of a subtle field of energy surrounding the human body and able to be extended significantly. Today we are growing in the knowledge of this conscious energy field as not only an extension of awareness but also as inherent to the very structures and workings of the human body.

The Hebrew word “merkava” means “chariot”, from the same root as
“assemblage” and “component” and as “vehicle” and “driver”. The activation of the merkava in the mysticism of the Kabala completes the integration of the assemblage of thought, feeling, will and physical existence.






In our bodies, energy fields, and consciousness, the activated merkavah is the higher integration of the four material elements:
earth, water, fire, air, with the etheric.

The structure of the merkavah accords with the classic fourfold order of the worlds on the Tree of Life and can be identified in our bodies as follows:
Yod
air absolute LIGHT in the body as liberating vortexes
Hey
water abstract LOVE in the body as unifying lotuses
Vav
fire relative POWER in the body as focusing pyramids
Hey
earth concrete MATTER in the body as stabilizing jewels

Silent, still and empty spirit, ether or space, the fifth element, pervades and transcends it all.
Let us look at this in the framework of the other system most central to our research into the glorious body. The mysticism of Tantra sees being as the partnership of Sakti and Siva, the female and male principles.
Tantric practice brings us into the continuum of the manifestation of earthly solidity, watery fluidity, fiery force and airy mutability, and the essential ether, which is their source: Sakti -manifestation with Siva -source. The seeker undertakes a process that supports an ever expanding awakening to the unity between limited mind –life- body and infinite truth-consciousness-bliss. This interpenetration of She and He is depicted in the Sri Yantra. Similarly, the central geometrical feature of the merkava, is a descending triangle and an ascending one juxtaposed as a six pointed figure.
DIAGRAMS


In our work, the merkava is activated through integration of the breath, the gaze, the will, the position and posture, and the articulation of movement, all explored in dance-meditation and yogic trance, and supported through discussion, artwork and video feedback. Through these techniques we progressively familiarize ourselves with the twelve primary attributes of the merkava. These attributes are the result of the twelve partnerships of the four elements that arise out of the six ways those elements inevitably combine:

air and fire
water and fire
earth and fire
water and air
water and earth
earth and air.


Each of these six combinations expands into two distinct partnerships giving us the twelve realms of the zodiac
Freedom, watery air; Aquarius
Unity, airy water; Pisces
Impetus, earthy fire; Aries
Poise, watery earth; Taurus
Speech, earthy air; Gemini
Provision, earthy water; Cancer
Strength, watery fire; Leo
Measure, airy earth; Virgo
Balance, fiery air; Libra
Stimulus, fiery water; Scorpio
Direction, airy fire; Sagittarius
Structure, fiery earth; Capricorn

These realms are physical, anatomical, psychological and spiritual and each is a mode of living. The twelve realms are inextricably involved with each other through all manner of affinities and differentiations. Each in its place reflects and simultaneously serves the entire body and every one of its parts; the merkava field is thus the holographic matrix of the glorious body.
Diagram of twelve in body
The twelve partnerships of elements produce 24 functions, two for each partnership. It is these 24 functions, as physically practiced, studied and discussed in our workshops, that reveal the merkava to us: an ever growing conscious activation of our being within the six directions .
the spiritual
pisces air/water aquarius
silent, knowing, transcendent
above




the psychic
libra air/fire sagittarius the intellectual
loving, guiding, justifying gemini air/earth virgo
from behind thinking, discriminating, addressing
to the right



the vital
leo fire/water scorpio the executive
aries fire/earth capricorn
feeling, empowering, forming acting, instigating, organizing
to the left to the fore “outside”





the material
cancer water/earth taurus
containing, channeling, instrumental being
below


The material direction of the being, below, is one of stabilizing and supporting poise (Taurus) practiced through the neck
and of feeling and shaping provision (Cancer) practiced through hands and breast.

The vital direction, within, is one of rhythmic, regenerative stimulus practiced through the hips and concentrating radiant strength practiced through the solar plexus and heart

the executive direction, to the fore, is one of seeing and allowing impetus practiced through the eyes and forehead
and of effort and resistance in structure practiced through the knee

The intellectual direction of the being, to the right,
is articulate, relating speech (Gemini) practiced through face, lungs, shoulders and arms, and of refining, assembling measure{Virgo} practiced through the belly
The psychic direction, to the left,
is focusing and distributing balance(Libra) practiced through the kidneys and waist and of aspiring, propelling direction (Sagittarius) practiced through the thighs the spiritual direction, above,
is all absorbing, inclusive unity (Pisces) practiced through the crown of the head and the feet and is freedom of play in the vertical (Aquarius) practised through the ankles and calves.
In meditation and dance, we listen and observe as we breathe, hold still, and move within the vastness and the detail equally.