 | What is this awesome mystery By Symeon the New Theologian
(949 - 1032) English version by John Anthony McGuckin What is this awesome mystery
that is taking place within me?
I can find no words to express it;
my poor hand is unable to capture it
in describing the praise and glory that belong
to the One who is above all praise,
and who transcends every word...
My intellect sees what has happened,
but it cannot explain it.
It can see, and wishes to explain,
but can find no word that will suffice;
for what it sees is invisible and entirely formless,
simple, completely uncompounded,
unbounded in its awesome greatness.
What I have seen is the totality recapitulated as one,
received not in essence but by participation.
Just as if you lit a flame from a flame,
it is the whole flame you receive.
This lovely poem was written by an early Christian mystic, yet in many ways it could be describing the experience of Kundalini awakening today. We know Kundalini (divine flow within) not by thinking or reading about it, but by "participation." The hand cannot write out an adequate description, the mind can know what is happening, yet cannot accurately convey its nature and power to others. It is indeed an "awesome mystery" taking place within us.
Symeon the Theologian is one my favorite early writers--I have often wondered if indeed he did not experience Kundalini in his own life, but used a different vocabulary to express it. |
