Black Jade. David Zindell
Both taught the opening of the body’s chakras: the wheels of light that whirled within every man, woman and child. But each put different names to these things and understood their purpose differently.
Master Juwain, noticing how closely Daj followed their argument, turned to him to explain: ‘We of the Brotherhood teach the way of the Kundala. At birth, it lies coiled up inside each of us. There is a Rhyme that tells of this:
Around the spine the serpent sleeps.
Within its heart a fire leaps.
The serpent wakes, remembers, yearns –
And up the spine, like fire, it burns.
And through the chakras, one by one,
Until it blazes like the sun,
And then bursts forth, a crown of light:
An angel soars the starry height.
‘This is man’s path,’ he said to Daj, ‘and it is a straight one, though difficult and perilous. Seven bodies we each possess, corresponding to each of the seven chakras along the spine, and they each in turn must awaken.’
At this Daj’s eyes widened, and he looked down at his slender hand as he patted his chest. He said, ‘How can we have more than one body?’
Master Juwain smiled at this and said, ‘We have only one physical body, it’s true. But we have as well the body of the passions, associated with the second chakra, which we call the svadhisthan, and the mental body as well.’
‘I never knew they were called “bodies”. It sounds strange.’
‘But you understand that a boy could never become a man until they are fully developed?’
In answer, Daj rolled his eyes as if Master Juwain had asked him the sum of two plus two.
Master Juwain, undeterred, went on: ‘I’m afraid that most men do not progress beyond these three bodies, nor do they ever develop them fully. The physical body, for instance, can be quickened so as to heal any wound, even regenerating a severed limb. It is potentially immortal.’
At this, we all looked at Kane. But he said nothing, and neither did we.
‘But what is the fourth body, then?’ Daj asked him.
‘That is our dream body, also called the astral. It is the bridge between matter and spirit, and it is awakened through the anahata, the heart chakra.’
So saying, Master Juwain reached over and laid his gnarly hand across Daj’s chest.
‘Then, higher still,’ he went on, ‘there is the etheric body, which forms the template for our physical one and our potential for perfection, and then the celestial. There lies our sixth sight, of the infinite. The highest body is the ketheric, associated with the sahastara chakra at the crown of the head.’
Here Master Juwain stroked Daj’s tousled hair and went on to say that each of the bodies emanated an aura of distinctive color: red from the first chakra, orange from the second and so on to the sixth chakra, which radiated a deep violet light. The highest chakra, when fully quickened, poured forth a fountain of pure white light.
At this, Daj exchanged smiles with Master Juwain and recited:
And through the chakras, one by one,
Until it blazes like the sun,
And then bursts forth, a crown of light:
An angel soars the starry height.
‘Yes, that is the way of it,’ Master Juwain said as his voice filled with excitement. ‘When we have fully awakened, every part of us, the Kundala streaks upward and joins us to the heavens like a lightning bolt. And then as angels we walk the stars.’
Liljana scowled at this as she eyed Master Juwain’s hand resting on top of Daj’s head. Then she huffed out, ‘The serpent does not so much break through as to light up our being from within. And then, when we have come fully alive, like our mother earth turning her face to the sun, we can draw down the fire of the stars.’
Here she sighed as she shot Master Juwain a scolding look and added, ‘And as you should know, the serpent’s name is Ouroboros.’
She went on to tell of this primeval imago, sacred to her order. Ouroboros, she said, dwelled inside each of us as a great serpent biting its own tail. This recalled the great circle of life, the way life lived off other life, killing and consuming, and yet continuing on through the ages, always quickening in its myriads of forms and growing ever stronger. Ouroboros, she told us, shed its skin a million times a million times, and was immortal.
‘There is in each of us,’ she said, ‘a sacred flame that cannot be put out. It is like a ring of fire, eternal for it is fed by the fires of both the heavens and the earth. And our way must be to bring this fire into every part of our beings, and so into others – and to everything. And so to awaken all things and bring them deeper into life.’
So far, Atara had said very little. But now she spoke, and her words streaked like arrows toward Master Juwain and Liljana, and were straight to the point: ‘Surely the spirit of Alphanderry’s song was that both your ways are important, and indeed, in the end, are one and the same.’
Kane smiled at this in an unnerving silence.
And Maram willfully ignored the essence of what Master Juwain and Liljana had to say, muttering, ‘Ah, I’ve never understood all of this damn snake symbolism. Snakes are deadly, are they not? And the great snakes – the dragons – are evil.’
Master Juwain took it upon himself to try to answer this objection. He rubbed the back of his bald pate as he said, ‘Snakes are deadly only because they have so much power in their coils, and therefore life. And the dragon we fought in Argattha was evil, as are all beings and things that Morjin and Angra Mainyu have corrupted. But the dragon itself? I should say it is pure fire. And fire might be used to torture innocents as well as to light the stars.’
I thought his answer a good one, but Maram said, ‘Well, I for one will never like those slippery, slithering beasts. Whether they be found in old verses and books, or in long grass beneath the unwary foot.’
Liljana shot him a sharp look and said, ‘You’re just afraid of them, aren’t you?’
‘Well, what if I am?’
‘Your fear does neither you nor the rest of us any good. Perhaps if you had spent more time practicing Master Juwain’s lessons and moving into the higher chakras, you wouldn’t be as troubled as you are.’
‘But I thought you scorned Master Juwain’s way?’
‘Scorned? I can’t afford such sentiments. We do disagree about certain things, that’s all.’
The Sisters of the Maitriche Telu, as I understood it, also taught the quickening of the body’s chakras, but they numbered and named these wheels of light differently: Malkuth, Yesod, Tiphereth and seven others. Strangely, Liljana called the highest chakra, Keter, which corresponded almost exactly with the Brotherhood’s ketheric body, associated with the crown chakra at the top of the head.
‘You dwell too often,’ Liljana told Maram, ‘in the first chakra, in fear of your precious life. This impels a movement into the second chakra, in a blind urge to beget more life. And there, as we’ve all seen, you dwell much too often and wantonly.’
‘Ah, well, what if I do?’ Maram snapped at her.
Master Juwain, allying himself for the moment with Liljana, added to her criticism, saying, ‘Such indulgence fires your second chakra at the expense of the others and traps you there. It leaves you vulnerable to lust – and to drunkenness and the other vices that aid and abet it.’
Maram cast his gaze toward the horses, where the brandy was safely stowed within the saddlebags.