Curse of the Snake

by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | Clarifying Confusion, The Gods | 4 comments

In response to the previous blog, Sarah asked, “How does one know if one carries the curse of the snake?”

Right off we need to address the phrase, “curse of the snake,” which no doubt for some people (particularly westerners I suspect) has the feeling of a grade B movie about vampires or some such thing.  Instead, we need to remember the principle of mapping.  The idea that every operator permeates all levels and aspects of existence just as mathematics permeates all of existence.  The different ‘operators’ of math are things like addition, multiplication, division, etc.  The operators that permeate existence can be referred to as the Gods, each having their own unique nature.

The quality of one such operator is that of the serpent or snake.  To understand an operator, you can begin with how it feels.  Firstly, the idea of a snake has a powerful effect on the psyche.  Some are enchanted.  Some are terrified.  In every case, the feeling is powerful because the operator is a powerful one.  We also know that it is an operator that must be handled with great care and respect.  If not done, the snake may bite.  If not done, the medical (crest) error may cause great problems.  If not done, the powerful practice of kundalini yoga can create terrible damage.  The serpent power is not to be employed with a cavalier attitude.  If you are just innocent about it, this is all intuitively obvious.

So the serpent power has a very positive aspect.  Yet the undesirable quality the word ‘curse’ elicits is intuitively there also.  How do you know the nature of that quality? That is easy.  You FEEL it. How do you know if there is imbalance with respect to the serpent operator?  You feel it.

Now admittedly, when you enter the arena of feeling, your biases, fears and other distortions easily overtake your perceptions.  Then enters the age-old question: Are you experiencing perception or projection.  That we have discussed in great length many times.  You could even say that striving to perceive accurately, when done wisely, is in and of itself the entire path of human evolution.  Again proper meditation and wise, reflective (admitted redundancy here feels necessary) discernment are you greatest tools.

The way to determine if there is imbalance with respect to the serpent operator (in other words, if there is ‘the curse of the snake’) is to feel it.  Otherwise, at least one of the list of signs provided below could apply to everyone.  Yet the list is valuable if it is wisely used to assist you in getting a feeling for that arena.

Now, take what is said here in a limited sense and you learn a bit about the serpent operator.  Generalize these principles however, and you have the path to enlightenment in a nutshell.

Pandit Prasad and Lakshmi offered the following additional information regarding the Curse of the Snake question:

If a person has the curse of the snake, there is a problem with the kundalini energy.  These are some signs:

• Marital problems
• Problems getting married
• Having all girls and no boys
• Long-standing unresolved problems
• Negative thinking and problems interacting with people to the point that most interactions are negative or give a negative result
• Hearing problems from birth
• Skin diseases (psoriasis, etc.)
• Intestinal problems

If all the planets in the Vedic birth chart are between Rahu and Ketu (Kalasarpa Dosha) when going clockwise, that is another sign of the curse of the snake.

Oh Say Can You See?

by Michael Mamas | Monday, January 9, 2012 | Clarifying Confusion, The Gods | 1 comment

It has been twenty years now that I have been teaching principles such as mapping, the mechanics through which everything in life and existence is interconnected.

I originally started my school to teach healing.  However, it quickly became evident that my methods of healing could not be conveyed unless deep and abstract principles of life were evident to the student.  To teach healing was to teach profound spiritual principles.  Few were willing to go that deep.  They wanted simple step-by-step techniques… a sort of paint by numbers or cookbook approach to healing.  Healing is life – profound, vast, far reaching, intricate, yet rooted in the one and only absolute truth that underlies all existence.

For years I spoke of the personified aspect of all things… a river valley, a mountain, any and every aspect of human physiology.   I spoke of how those fundamental principles permeate all levels and aspects of existence, the operators of existence.

The language of existence is personified in nature – the Grahas, the Gods, etc.  No other language can sing the song of life, lest it’s meaning fall far short of full eloquent expression.

I originally intended this blog to address specifically the universal principle of the serpent.  How snakes map through all levels of existence.  I trust that what I have said here, combined with what follows from Pandit Prasad and Lakshmi, will attain that objective.  It is up to you to connect the dots.  That is done in one and only one place… namely, within you.  Are you willing to go there?  Though all long to go, few are willing.  In order to see, you have to be willing to look.

Before and/or after pujas and homas here at Mount Soma, we like to briefly discuss the mechanics of creation in terms of the Deity we will be addressing.  The following emerged from one such discussion after a lovely Karthideya puja.  Ever deepening is our understanding of the Divine.

From Pandit Prasad and Lakshmi:

Nadis are a network of subtle channels.  According to Shivasamhitha (ancient scriptures), there are 14 principal nadis.  Of these, the ida, pingala, and sushumna are most important.

Ida is the left channel originating in mooladhara (1st chakra) and ends at the top of the left nostril.  Ida is Valli, Karthikeya’s wife.

Pingala is the right channel that also originates in mooladhara and ends at the top of the right nostril.  Pingala is Devasena, Karthikeya’s other wife.

Sushumna is the central channel (the straight line going up the spine, like a serpent).  It starts just below the mooladhara chakra and it goes through the third eye, touching both the ida and pingala, and reaches the sahasrara (7th chakra).  Sushumna is Karthikeya and looks like a snake.  According to Vedic scriptures, Karthikeya (Subrahmanya) is the snake god.  Those who carry the curse of the snake should awaken the nadis (in other words, meditate, worship Karthikeya).

These three nadis play a vital role in kundalini yoga.  The first step of kundalini yoga is the purification of nadis.  We purify them by performing the Karthikeya puja and of course, meditation.

In another sense, if we look at our physiology, each nerve looks like a snake.  Also, in regard to reproduction, sperm looks like a snake.  Even when the sperm attaches to the ovum, it still looks like a small snake for the first month.  This is why Karthikeya is the one to worship for fertility and family.