The Caduceus
Elephantine Island is named for the huge boulders that encircle its southern end, hard gray granite boulders sculpted and rounded by the rise and fall of the Nile through the millennia. When I take my groups to Egypt, we sail to the island by felucca, small sailing boats manned by smiling Nubians who sing and drum while ferrying us across the river from Aswan, the southernmost and most picturesque city in Egypt. Aswan is nestled at the foot of what used to be the cataracts that separated ancient Egypt from the lands to the south, before the building of the old Aswan dam and the more recent High dam. The ancient Egyptians of the north thought that these cataracts were the source of the Nile, and that the god Khnum determined the inundation, the yearly flood that brought new life to the parched lands of Egypt
Temples were erected on Elephantine many thousands of years ago, dedicated to the god Khnum and his consort Satet. It is believed that the Ark of the Covenant spent time here, possibly in an ancient synagogue that has been located in the midst of recent excavations. Of all the sites we visit in Egypt, Elephantine shows most clearly that Egyptian temples are layered, one on top of another. The late 1990s saw the opening of an area of the excavation that allows us to enter a newly opened temple beneath a more recent one, heightening the sense of walking back through time.
I prefer to do ritual at the top, in the courtyard of what used to be the ancient temple dedicated to Khnum, a ram-headed god who creates the physical form of humans out of clay on his potter's wheel. Although the temple has been reduced to rubble, with only an entryway left standing, it is the perfect place to work on grounding—grounding ourselves in Egypt, connecting with the land and her energies, and opening and clearing the circuits in our bodies. It is here that Thoth confers the caduceus, his staff of power and balance.
The caduceus is an example of an Egyptian symbol that lives prominently in our Western mainstream culture, primarily as a logo representing medical practitioners and companies involved in healthcare. The American Medical Association is the most well-known group to use it. Each part of the image has a meaning that, when it comes alive in a person, creates enduring changes.
The principle power comes from the two snakes that wind their way up the central staff, the spinal column. The two snakes represent the kundalini energies that move up the two etheric channels which, in Eastern (Sanskrit) lore, are called the ida and pingala. These are the conduits that carry the energies of the earth up through the body so that they can unite with the energies brought down from above, bringing the physical and spiritual realms together. Serpent energy rising in a person's body is the same as the kundalini energy seen in the Eastern imagery. The snakes of the caduceus are associated with the elements Water and Fire, with female and male, yin and yang.
The central staff is the spinal column, the shushumna canal, the primary channel for our energy. To the ancient Egyptians it would have been the djed pillar, the backbone of Osiris. The staff appears to be made of metal, perhaps gold, and represents the element Earth. The wings of the caduceus represent Air, the element that we associate with our higher self, that aspect of our self that connects us with spirit. These wings unite us with the entire cosmos and give us the freedom to explore it. The round ball at the top of the staff symbolizes both the prima materia, (the first matter) and the pure diamond body, the essence of spirit. It is superimposed over the pineal gland, in the center of the brain, and is pictured as a glowing crystal or diamond orb. Occasionally it appears as a pinecone, for which the pineal gland was named, perhaps because of the similarity in shape. This may well be the stone, the first matter which, when infused with spirit, is transformed into the diamond body, the universal medicine, the philosophers’ stone.
Together these symbols express optimum balance and the connection we all have to higher cosmic intelligence. When you meditate on the caduceus, it ignites currents of energy in your body, giving a boost of energy not to only the physical body, but to whatever activity, healing state, or visualization you are working on. As a practice, meditating on this symbol will confer balance, inspiration, healing, and the ability to accomplish your goals. It will also serve to maintain clear and vibrant channels through which source energy can flow through your body and out your hands and fingers for healing, if you so wish to direct it.
People need access to energy beyond their personal stores if they wish to heal others: they need the electromagnetic field that source energy provides. When one receives the opening to the life energy that the caduceus empowerment provides, the life energy carries with it an electromagnetic field. When the energy increases, the electromagnetic field increases. At this time on Earth, people need more energy and require a stronger electromagnetic field. The earth's magnetic field is currently decreasing. Without intervention, our individual fields will also decrease. When greater volumes of energy become present in people, the energy itself eventually teaches people, at its own pace. It brings healing, at its own pace.
The following caduceus empowerment provides the foundation for any serious practitioner of Alchemical Healing. This process includes the basic elements of preparation for any healing practice: gaining access to the infinite source of the Universal Life Force, activating of the third eye, and connecting with Cobra, one of the most powerful healing allies. It is recommended that you enter into this journey as a meditation practice on a daily basis. Obviously, working the caduceus empowerment prior to healing practice will prove greatly beneficial. Refreshing this empowerment will become quick and smooth and will continue to teach and transform with each new experience. Eventually, it is hoped that practitioners will maintain a level of balance and clarity that is sustainable.
Caduceus Empowerment
The first time you do this journey, you should be standing if possible. Prepare as you would for any major initiation in this book, making your space sacred and smudging yourself.
Close your eyes, relax, and take some deep breaths. Ground and center…Do the alchemy that brings you into the presence of Thoth…
You are standing on the stone foundation of an ancient island temple, surrounded by the flowing waters of the Nile. Thoth, stands before you, carrying his staff of power, the caduceus. Two cobras entwine around a central rod, with a crystal or diamond orb at the top and wings that extend to the sides. It is a powerful and graceful symbol of balance, and he holds it toward you so that you can see it clearly…Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the elements of this staff….
He touches it to your body, and you feel the central staff enter and merge with your spinal column. Notice how your back naturally straightens….
Direct your attention downward, into the earth beneath your feet. First become aware of the layers and layers of sacred space, where temples were built upon temples, each giving renewed consecration to this powerful vortex…Now you become aware of two snakes coming up from the heart of the earth…They hiss as they approach the soles of your feet, and you can begin to feel the energy of the snakes, two cobras rising up from beneath the stones of the temple…Their hoods gently push open the eyes in the soles of your feet as they enter into your body…
Allow yourself to feel as well as see, imagine, or simply know their presence as they slither their way up through the central meridians in your feet and legs. Notice the sensual way in which they move up through your body, cleansing and clearing, coming together and crossing at the first chakra center at the base of your spine, igniting and spinning the glowing center at the root of your being…
Take a deep breath and as you inhale, be aware of the cobras as they continue winding upward around the staff of your spine to the second chakra. As they slide upward, awakening every cell, they are followed by a flood of golden light energy, purifying all in its path as it pours through you…Exhale, as the cobras intersect at the second chakra…
There is an opening and clearing as each chakra and channel fills with liquid light energy as the cobras course upward. All blockages melt as the energy increases in intensity. Inhale again as the cobras wind their way up toward the third chakra, then exhale as they intersect through the third center at your solar plexus…You may feel a pulsing as the third center ignites…Take another breath, as though you are inhaling the snakes upward…As you exhale, the snakes move into your heart center, where they stop for a moment to bask in the radiance created when the liquid fire they carry mingles with your radiant heart fire…Another breath and they move upward, their scales vibrating against your chest as they wind toward your throat…
Once they have opened your throat chakra, they enter your head and now move, carefully, up through the inside of your head to behind your eyes. They pause, the energy pulsing…Allow them to look through your eyes…What do they see when they look through your eyes?
Now they will let you look through their eyes…Stay with your new vision for a moment, until you have retrieved the perspective they wished to show you….
The cobras move up through your crown and turn their faces upward toward the sky…They hiss, and their hiss is like a call…
From a far distant source, from deep within the center of the universe, the response comes as a rain of grace, the pouring down of a fine spiritual energy…It enters your body through your crown and also pours down around you, making everything it touches tingle, every cell and molecule, until it is as though you are standing within a shower of shimmering energy…
The cobras move back into your head and take their place on either side of your pineal gland…
Now place your attention on your shoulder blades, and you will feel your wings begin to sprout and fill with this refined spiritual light. You have beautiful feathers of light, rippling with the subtlest of movements, filling with energy. This light comes pouring down your arms and hands…
Your arms lift and extend as you feel your wings stretch out from your sides.
Take a moment to scan your body and feel what it is like to be in the balance of the caduceus, the energies of Earth and sky united within. Notice how the power moves through you…
Put your attention once more on Thoth. He now holds a crystal or diamond sphere, which he shows to you before he places it in your third eye…It enters and goes to the top of the staff, surrounding the pineal gland. As the energies raining down from above and coursing up along the staff from below intersect in the orb, there is a dazzling explosion of light…Gradually your inner sight clarifies. (To an observer it would appear as though your heart flame has been refined through the lens of the sphere, and a lavender glow is rising out of the top of your head.)
Hold your attention in the fullness of this experience, as the essence of joy and the power of love permeate the whole of your being….
Become aware of how grounded you are, and center yourself in the balance that this initiation has conferred…Before opening your eyes, stay with the feelings that have been aroused in you for some time in order to integrate your experience…
The Caduceus Empowerment is complete for the moment. There is much more evolution that will come from practice. The balance and power conferred will strengthen and become more consistent as you integrate and retrain your body and spirit through practice over time. The more you do it, the more naturally it lives in you.
