The True Lost City - Beng Melea - Kipling left yesterday
18 February 2011
Yesterday I have experienced my dream of the Lost City - the
magnificent Beng Melea. I partook of a powerful shamanic
ritual....with the intent to leave behind any fears and limiting
patterns in relation to love and the masculine. I ascended the
"zikkurat" - the highest spot of the Temple - a singular pillar of
stone....like an altar to the sun. It was there that I took the
journey.
Witnessing the Jungle making love to the man-made structure in a slow, powerful amalgam....turned me on. It is how the primal dual powers play with each other - the hard, structured masculine and the unstoppable wild, flowing of the feminine that has the power of all the Earth behind it. I recognized myself as a part of the Jungle. That is what Divine Feminine is....it is that fertile, omnipresent, growing, ever-changing power that can hold or break apart any structure.....as some roots hold together entire pillars of ancient stone....while others pry at the very heart of the gopuras, disassembling them piece by piece. Enormous butterflies soared over me, as though I was just another piece of rock or root....as I lay
motionless with the lichen-clad ancient magnificence under me and the new life devouring it all around me....I smiled silently as the tourists on their safe railed walkways took photos of a life form that is me - just a natural part of the scenery.
Then the time came to dance. By way of an ancient root staircase, I
glided down into a courtyard, whose doorways have been barricaded off
by an avalanche of rocks broken off by the trees....in the middle of it were remnants of a fire - still warm. I danced around an imaginary fire like a pagan that I am....with roots and pillared walls greened by the patina of lichens standing as witness. It was the power of the ancient Gods celebrated in this temple and the spirits of the forest dancing through my body. I was an emerald silk figure in the Land of Kipling celebrating the spirit of the Lost City embraced forever by the Jungle. It was in that moment that my heart sang that I was in the thick of my life-long dream. If that day was my last, I would have gone out of this illusion in peace.
Then and there the clarity returned that there is no greater risk than NOT living one's heart dream..... Me thinks, given his 2005 Stanford Graduation speech, Steve Jobs would agree.
When my dance has exhausted itself, I felt like I wanted to leave
something in this decaying sanctuary....something that symbolized the daemons and prison of the mind - especially, when it comes to love. Naturally, I saw a silver dragon latched onto a wave of my necklace....a spontaneous gift from a teacher-friend, for whom this reptile symbolized the optional grip of the ego. For a few days already this piece has tried to "jump off" my body - it tried to get lost here and there....so, I figured, it may have found its home.
Just then I noticed a miniature cavern within a wall behind one of the ancient bricks. I let the dragon enter head-first, and it has fit to a T - only it's silver claw has shown itself slightly. With a few twigs and leaves, the lair of a piece of my Shadow has become almost invisible. I climbed the portal above it and sang a Sanskrit mantra to complete the circle. In that moment, I felt myself become a priestess of this Sanctuary of Gods and it felt right.
The next morning, I looked at my necklace and with relief noticed the absence of the dragon on it. It was a void that had presence.
On top...
Looking down from the "zikkurat"
The courtyard I climbed into to dance......
The Zikkurat of Ishtar
"The churning of the sea of milk" - one of the central myths depicted on the Khmer temples - it is the 1000 year battle between the gods and daemons that tug on a giant cerpent.....as Vishnu provides a pivot for the game as a giant tortoise. Apsaras [nordic analogy: valkyrie, greek analogy: muse] are created as a result of the churning. They are the celestial dancers and shape-shifters....they are also the only live link to the Khmer tradition - the court dancers in the Khmer times represented Apsaras, and their movements have become the foundation for the modern-day classical Thai dance.
If there is one temple you visit here - I hope, it is this one. It has been left as the early explorers found it. I wish, the other ones have been too. And on the 2 hour ride back to Siem Reap, after sunset, I got immersed in the village life, though, en-passant, as the fires were made by the road, as people sat around them eating or singing, or both......
