Crossroads
The horizontal line at the crossroads represents the earthly world and the vertical line represents the supernatural. A powerful symbol, it is at the crossroads where we find the center of a circle, or the center of any space.
Cross
The symbol of the Cross is much older than Christianity. In ancient Egypt it was called the Ankh and it symbolized life. Its top was looped and its said to represent the rising sun on the horizon. Others say the loop is the symbol of the vulva and the stem the penis; container and shaft. The lines represent opposites, inevitably linked. Life!
Core / Pole
Imagine a line from straight overhead that moves through the crown of your head and through the core of your body-vessel between the position of your balanced feet and into the ground all the way to the center of the earth. Like the magnetic pole inside the earth this line is at the core of your body.
Center Point / Core Point
Imagine a line coming straight toward your womb/hip level parallel to the ground. It passes through you, intersects with t
he core/pole line, and continues out behind you. Imagine another line coming from the left and passing through you, intersecting the first two lines and passing out your right. This point of intersection at your core is your center point or core point. it's a POINT that lies along the (core) axis.It is the crossroads. It is the the axis of your body.
Go ahead and imagine the lines of the horizontal plane, front and side coming at you at other levels of your body; ground, belly, sternum, and head. At any level in your body you can identify the center point, the crossroads. The center point of any circle takes us to a place beyond our own perception.
Labyrinth; Palace of the Intestines
The cross is the beginning of a universal symbol of the labyrinth. Found on every continent on earth, dating back to at least 4,000 BC, the labyrinth is an ancient symbol. It shows up on all kinds of artifacts and at the entrances to caves, graves and tombs. The labyrinth represents the doorway into the uterine underworld of the goddess. The ancient symbol or life, death and rebirth. It was the most sacred symbol of the pre-Indo European. Its been used by the Celts, Chinese, Christians, Native Americans, Aborigines and modern day churches and Jungian therapists. Large ancient walkable labyrinths are found in old cathedrals and as man-made earth works all over the world.They appeared later in certain religion-based construction, like cathedrals - Chartes Cathedral in France being the most famous, and Grace Cathedral, a modern day replica in San Francisco.
At first glance, the design looks to be too complicated to be universal, but once the key is known, the mystery simplifies. Once we understand its simplicity, its math, its endless natural symbology and its mirror imagery, we see a universal truth revealed. (This is a similar experience to what women feel when they start to understand intuitively the lost language of belly dance.) The labyrinth is like a key hole in a door between two worlds, and it is our conscious awareness that unlocks the door.
The convolutions of the coils of the labyrinth look like fingerprints, labia tissue, entrails, and brain tissue. The coil patterns range from a simple 3 coils to the most common of 7 coils the universal symbol of personal growth and wisdom and as many as 15 and beyond . Labyrinths are powerful meditative symbols for the mind. With our belly dance skills we can translate it into the body very easily by tracing the pattern with our hips or womb level, once we know the key to drawing the labyrinth *.
The belly dance in a body language, and what better place to keep the dictionary of the dance than in the body, the guts, the belly and, actually, the womb. It was once believed we, while in the womb, were nourished by the bowels of our Mothers. In ancient times, and still to this day, diviners, shamans and oracles seek enlightenment and prophecy from the probing of entails. Their location is even called the "Palace of the Intestines". Modern pathologists can attest to divining much evidence from the past whereabouts of a casualty by this practice.
Indeed, the Kundalini dwells coiled in the pelvis
Serpent Wisdom
In belly dance, I call it reptilinear locomotion. It is the way a snake slides and moves with grace and intention. It is hypnotic to watch. It will easily slide your mind from the left brain to the right brain, just by observation. Mankind has most likely always recognized this quality in women.To embody the movement is sexy and intriguing; a bit scary and powerful at the same time. The phallus is seen as a serpent that is tamed by the female. Thus, her power. The serpentine quality of movement in a body takes you to the depths of your bodily awareness.
In the book The Descent of Woman, Elaine Morgan says men have an involuntary pupil reaction in there eye to strengthen their focus when they see three things: 1) snakes, 2) spiders and 3) a naked woman. She said this has evolved over time as a survival mechanism. It would seem that nothing scares men more than the sight of a snake and a naked woman. She claimed the naked woman reaction was a procreative survival mechanism, but said women did not have the same reaction when they sighted a naked man. (Hmmmm? Curious.) A womans naked body commands power. Who of us would not look? Salomes veiled strip tease was all about power. Remember, for her dance King Herod offered half of his kingdom (more on that story another day).
Here that we use the map of the ancient universal labyrinth. Man has physically used it as a walking meditation as well as a meditation for the mind. But we will use the labyrinth as a belly dance meditation.
Focus your energy through the core point of your hip level. We shall draw the pattern using our reptilinear consciousness and trace the pattern parallel to the ground, except for the two places where we must take our pencil off the imaginary paper plane. At these two points we will make an arch parallel to the front wall and jump to the new position to continue our labyrinth design.
Dance Puzzle
Belly Dancing the Classical Seven Ring Labyrinth (piece B)
Set up