Monday, February 14, 2011
The Opening of the Heart by Parker Stafford
The heart is often thought of as the symbol of love and connection. We speak of an open heart, a warm heart, a generous heart. Recent research has discovered that the heart actually has its own intelligence, and can react to stimuli more swiftly than the brain itself.
What many may not realize is that the "opening of the heart" is a felt reality as well as a metaphor. Someone versed in energy work told me once that the opening of the heart chakra is the most ecstatic experience of all. And, when my own heart chakra opened many years ago, that proved to be the case. It seemed incredible that so much ecstasy could flood the chest in this prime moment of transcendence.
Teresa of Avila is the best known example of ecstatic opening of the heart. For her, the experience came through the visitation of an angel, who "lanced" her heart with a spear he held in his hand. The Bernini statue in Rome depicts this moment of glorious exaltation.
Such deeply felt heart openings, though not typical, continue to this day. Here is a recent account by Parker Stafford who describes his own intimate experience of opening. Like Teresa, he was visited by an other worldly being, who placed his hand inside Parker's body during the process:
Oh my goodness yes! It stands as one of those singular experiences.
When this being put his hand into my heart he explained that what I was
feeling was the love that in me which was also the Universe. It was the single most
powerful moment of my life (and revealed I think that I share some kind of dual soul
or being with another). I can remember in the midst of the experience
thinking "how on earth can I hold onto this feeling?" I had never experienced
anything so incredible before. He explained in this brief moment that what I was feeling
was my soul love and was also the universe. The way he said that he made no attempt
to divide the experience or to differentiate. It is us, it is the universe as well. When he pulled
his hand out of my heart center, he also pulled out what felt like my insides.
When I read Theresa's account of the angel piercing her heart with
an arrow while drawing out her insides with it each time (which corresponded with the sweetest
of ecstasies) I realized that her description was spot on.
I suspect that my kundalini was awakened as a result of a divestment
of a heavy weight that lifted. When it lifted, I began to feel a kinship with a larger family of being
that I could not quite explain....and odd synchronistic events began to happen....and over a 6 month
period I had all kinds of high strangeness. My awakening was very different from a typical
kundalini awakening. Its one reason why I am writing a book about it because I think we need to
understand this a little better - it feels like we are the forward edge of something
that will only get bigger. Will it get easier? Will we learn enough about the physiology of this
enough to come up with some things that work across the board? Perhaps it will be as much struggle in
proportion to our own inability to let go or surrender.
That opening has fueled an inner alchemy whereby I have sought to feel into my higher self
which is where this bliss resides. I am learning to let go....and all the while I try to call up
the state where my higher self enters by writing this poetry......its like an incantation I do
and it just spills out of me.....this juicy sensual spiritual sexuality that does not seek to divide
but bring all parts of the self together into one wild cacophonous thing as the brain of the
human seeks to anchor all three vibrations together.....no parts tossed or
destroyed.....not even burned away....no no because they will fit....they will fit even if they seem profane.....
by Parker Stafford
May all of us on this day of days enjoy the deepest possible opening of the heart--to love of self and of divine presence and of one another. Only love can save us as we move forward together in this momentous experiment of universal transformation.
Valentine's Blessings to All
