Kundalini Splendor

(Above image is "The Fire on Top", copyright Sibyl Archibald)

Recently, I discovered an amazing website from Sybil Archibald, a gifted artist/sculptor who understands the relationship of art and divine inspiration (literally, a breathing into), and the infusion of light into matter that occurs when art serves its highest spiritual purposes. Her many sculptures can be seen on her site, and she also has a Facebook page that contains more of her work as well as her moving interpretations of the creative process as guided by the Divine Artist.

Here is her blog site: http://www.sybilarchibald.com/blog/

In addition to her artwork, she includes poems from some of the major mystics and spiritual writers of various time periods, such as Rilke, Thomas Merton, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and others.

Here is her Artist Statement

The roots of creativity are shrouded in mystery. They run deep into an eternal well brimming with the generative nature of the Divine.

The source of creativity is the source of everything. Through sculpture, etching & painting, I seek a pathway deep into that sacred well. I keep kinship with ancient mystics. While they sought God in visions, I seek the Divine in the creative process. This process, captured within a finished piece, resonates with light. Through my art, the human form becomes a nexus, a pivoting point between matter & spirit.

All things in this world are mirrors which reflect, however imperfectly, the Divine. Every time I create art I polish that mirror within myself and my work.

-Sybil Archibald


Imagine my delight and surprise when I found some of my own poems included among her entries. In especial, I was impressed by her interpretations of these poems, for the ones she chose spoke to her deeply in terms of her own spiritual journey. It is seldom that a poet encounters someone who not only resonates with the poems on a deep level, but who is able to articulate that connection so effectively. Thank you, Sybil. I am extremely honored.

Here are some of these poems, followed by Sybil's interpretations:





Tasting the Light

It will arrive suddenly,
when you are unaware.

It will come over you swiftly,
lightning flash
across a large surface of stone.

After everything has melted,
there will be the taste
of bronze and honeyed fruit,
burnt cinnamon,
something blue and electric in the air.
Dorothy Walters (from "A Cloth of Fine Gold")

This poem is about the Annunciatory Light, that deep connection to the Divine that fills you in an instant and changes your whole life. With it comes untold sweetness and Light but through great pain and destruction, or perhaps deconstruction, of your life.

Take for instance this poem, which tells the story of my life:

A Cloth of Fine Gold

You may think
that first lit flame
was the ultimate blaze,
the holy fire revealed.

What do you know
of furnaces?
This is a sun that returns
again and again, refining, igniting,
pouring your spirit
through a cloth of delicate gold
until all dross is taken
and you are sweet as
clarified butter
in god/the goddess’ mouth.

Dorothy Walters(from "A Cloth of Fine Gold")

(And from Sybil again): This next poem pinpoints my experience of my own vision of the Virgin Mary,my Annunciation, and my ensuing illness:

Preparing to Meet the Goddess
Do not think of her
unless you are prepared
to be driven to your limits,
to rush forth from yourself
like a ritual bowl overflowing
with sacramental wine.

Do not summon her image
unless you are ready to be blinded,
to stand in the flash
of a center exploding,
yourself shattering into the landscape,
wavering bits of bark and water.

Do not speak her name
until you have said good-bye
to all your familiar trinkets –
your mirrors, your bracelets,
your childhood adorations –
From now on you are nothing,
a ghost sighing at the window,
a voice singing under water.

Dorothy Walters (from "Unmasking the Rose: A Record of a Kundalini Inititation)

(from Sybil again): These poems make clear the paradox of the terrible rending of life that is at the same time a beautiful gift, like the healing wounds of the stigmata.

Our job is, like alchemists, to heal and rarify matter. We are made for that nexus point where Creator & creator merge into One. Where Spirit infuses matter, where Light penetrates dark, and where we embrace our status as scared wombs born to give birth to the Divine.