AJNA WORKING BULGARIA PART II:

 

DAY 4 - 22nd June 2012 at the Womb-Cave (Rhodopes Mountains):

Early afternoon we did some work together at our base camp. In addition to our usual chakra tones and drum-breath, we were taught an energising sequence of exercises from Kouk Sun Do by Tristram, then a series of Magical Passes to help develop the Sorceror's double from Zhoro. Both of these were potent, and it was wonderful how we could share and learn from each others' practises.

We headed off to the womb-cave, perhaps the most magical site of our five-day ritual. When the car dropped us off in the wilderness, I looked at some pinecones by the side of the road. They had hardly any 'pupil'-like circles in the centre of the eye-likes shapes of the spiral matrix underneath, appearing rather like closed eyes.

Wanting to avoid the worst of the day's heat for the climb, we ascended the small winding path up the mountain for over an hour in the still-hot late afternoon and arrived at the place where you can see the cave from just before dusk. In this crack between the day and the night, we stared up at the rocky formations above us, seeing the narrow crevice of the cave in its contours. I played my panpipes (recently acquired in Plovdiv) and how they echoed through the valleys below, spinning my head and opening me further to the energies of the place. We climbed up the final (and most rocky and arduous) section and then went up the rickety wooden ladder to the cave in single file.

The wombcave is spectacular. Whether it already existed naturally in some form is unknown, but the ancient Thracians had carved it in a way to increase its resemblance to a vagina. The entrance appears labial, and the long narrow passageway with arced ceiling ends with a cervix-like stone ledge altar at the back.

The surprise in the spectacle is when turning to look back from within, the labial entrance as seen from inside appears in the shape of a giant phallus. It is during the mid-winter that the reborn sun -representing to the Thracians the power of Dionysos in His daytime form of Sabazius- shining through this shaped aperture casts a phallus of light upon the floor of the womb-cave, which gradually elongates into the channel until at the peak of the December solstice it reaches the back wall.

Two of us present for this sequence of workings were not yet officially members of the HermAphroditic ChAOrder of the Silver Dusk, and we had decided to initiate them as a part of the night's rituals. This was to happen right away (after casting with my AZOTh circle-casting) while it still was dusk... It was interesting re-orientating the initiation ritual to the long narrow space. I won't write at length about it here as this site is for the public, but a particular vision Zhoro had in the Silver Dusk's astral temple is of significance in relation to the Global Chakra Workings:

'...vision of Baphomet in the astral temple: S/He was standing between a whirlpool of fire below and an eightfold starry helix above - this whirlpool of fire below was in fact our star the sun while the starry helix above was the galaxy. As if Baphomet was the virus of life who chose to abide the earth standing ,between the solar whirlpool of fire and the galaxy, as if ready to stay or to travel through the space in search of new conditions to develop. Life being a virus spread by sexual way by dividing itself when appropriate conditions are found near the stars...'

This gives a new perspective on the alignment of our Earth and its Sun with the Centre of the Milky Way Galaxy (Hunab Ku or The Womb of the Great Mother to the Mayans) on the December solstice 2012, which will be the time of the Sahasrara (crown) Chakra Working, the final culmination of this series of Global Chakra Workings; so it is significant that a related vision would be received at this polarising June solstice in a site where the sun(phallus) aligns with the earth(womb) in such a particular way on every December solstice.

We chanted the chakra tones, the collective sound having now built in charge over the four days (so far) of our working now echoing through this magical space. Rather than just the usual run up spine and octave for this, I guided a meditation through each chakra, visualising its colour and focusing on its attributes, while breathing deep through each one progressively before adding in the sound.
The energy's passage up the spine was propitiated by the contracting of the perineum (muscle between anus and genitals) on each long exhalation and its release on the inhalations. On each inhalation we took the energy with the breath back down to our base chakra, moving it progressively in the growing chain of chakras up on the exhalations. Some participants had visions during this process.

For the Bindu Chakra on the back of the head -which is included in the chanting to make it a full octave of tones- we took the breath and energy up the back of the head. After deep breathing into this point for a while we chanted the 'nnnggg' tone with tongues on the roof of our mouths, then returned to the base chakra and brought the energy up to the Ajna centre on the forehead and focused the energy there for many deep breaths. After extensively chanting the Ajna 'Mmmm' tone, we then slid our tongues into the backs of our throats, brought the golden solar energy in through the forehead and the silvery lunar energy in through the Bindu on the back of the head, mixing and blending them in the pineal gland in the very centre of the head. This seemed an apt reflection of the physical space we were in, the Bindu being an 'upper sexual chakra' and the penetration and intermingling of these energies being akin to the cosmic union of cave and solar light high atop this mountain. From the mingling in the centre of the head the energy went upwards, fountaining from our crown chakras and cascading down over our bodies. We chanted the exultant high 'Ohhh' tone of the Sahasrara. Central spinal channel fully open, we felt the connection twixt sky and earth through our bodies as conduits. We finished the powerful meditation and breath/sound activation with a grounding back into the base chakra, intoning the low 'Ohhh' of the Muladhara with palms on the earth.

 

We found the fine dust in the cave interfered with our breath-work and chanting somewhat, (nevertheless by all accounts it was still effective); so we moved to the cave's mouth (also a wider area to sit more comfortably) for the drum-breath. This really thumped in the cave, the forceful HUM throbbing off the walls. You can hear an MP3 extract from my field recording HERE

Hekate Triformis drawing (c)2012 Orryelle From 'Solve' (publ. Fulgur Limited 2012)

We then performed an evocation of Hekate, Dark Goddess of the Ancient Thracians. We had worked so far mostly with the God Dionysos, and it seemed here -of all the sites we worked at- particularly pertinent to honour a Goddess of the land's most ancient known culture, particularly one who is Chthonic. We chanted nine times the Hekate Charm composed by Catamara Rosarium from names of the Goddess: Hekate Propylaia Hekate Brimo Hekate Enodia Hekate Antaia Hekate

The sound resonated powerfully through the cave, our five voices rising and falling with the fluctuating energies of the evocation. If the automatic sound-start of this page is functioning on your particular system and browser you can probably already hear this. If not, please Click HERE for mp3.

We also chanted to Shiva, the Hindu God whose primal sound 'Om' (pronounced 'Augnmn') is seen in symbolic form between the two petals of the Ajna in many Tantric diagrams- with the simple mantra 'Om Namah Shivaya' 108 times, especially apt as we sat in the mouth of the cave with its shape of a great Lingam (phallus), His primary symbol and one of the many correlations with Dionysos worship in the ancient world.

Following this it seemed only natural to acknowledge the Yoni (kites) in which we sat within the same pantheon, so we moved further in towards the candle-lit cervix altar and chanted 'Om Hrim Shrim Krim Parameshvari Svaha' to His consort Parvati (Goddess of the Mountain!) 108 times.

 

Zhoro had his own ritual ideas inspired by the place, which he asked for our energetic support with. He had in a previous ritual (which had synchronised geomantically with the recent Bulgarian earthquake) experienced a feeling (not just a vision but also a painful physical sensation) of serpents knotted and writhing in his belly. So now he wished us to focus on the the Galactic/stellar Ajna as he performed his ritual, as somewhere for the energy to rise to.

He crafted a sigil of his intentions -which concerned his homeland of Bulgaria and the evolution of its culture as the place where we were earthing the Ajna Working and executed it in blood drawn from his nipple with his athame, while chanting beautiful in the throes of his pain gnosis. During this the rest of us were awed to hear a bat (presumably) making very strange screeching sounds somewhere in the cave. In a smokey quartz crystal wand he captured the reflection of the constellation Capricorn -associated geomantically with the land of Bulgaria- which was central in the mouth of the cave at the time, and carried it with the sigil to the back of the womb-cave, where he thrust it into the smallest and deepest point of the yoni-tunnel, above the altar.

 

I also performed my own short individual ritual in the cave, when the others left to find places to rest below. I further earthed the work with consecrational offerings to Dionysos and the Earth-Mother. When I emerged from the cave dawn was already encroaching.

We decided to sleep along the cave's passage -strange dreams guaranteed!- for a few hours as there would be no shade outside from the relentless sun upon its imminent rising. We awoke probably only a few hours later to some other pilgrims approaching, and chanted one more round of the chakra tones together before giving our thanks and beginning the descent of the mountain to the waiting water below

On the way back I picked up some pinecones. They all had large circles in every 'eye' of the pine-al matrices -wide awake!

Day 5 -23nd June at Starosel

For the final night of our Working we left our base camp near Khurdzhali and went to Starosel near the old city of Plovdiv.
The traditional Thracian magic group Threskeia had arranged with the town council to do their solstice ritual at the Ancient Thracian Orphic temple there and opened their ceremony to the public, as they had been doing for several years.
There were about 40 people -who mostly seemed into magic to varying degrees- gathering there for the dusk ritual.
Having traveled for several hours, we found the land was quite different from the area we had been. A hilly (but not mountainous) area with lots of long grass, wildflowers and light forest, it had an uplifting atmosphere. The weather was also much changed and not so hot and dry, it even felt like it could maybe rain later.

Unfortunately we weren't able to participate much in Threskeia's ritual, only give offerings (ours were red wine and local cherries) unto the sacrificial fire at its culmination. However it was certainly a fantastic spectacle to observe, and our energetic participation felt like it brought all our work in the preceding days into a more public arena on a subtle level - a convergence which felt appropriately culminative.

Threskeia's ritual was very colourful and rich, with them parading around the site in traditional robes of white and red, wreathed and some bearing long Thyrsus (pine-cone-tipped) staves for Dionysos. This regalia continued into the ritual tools, with a long flaming torches and a large cauldron full of fire on the hilltop where they brought everyone together at the end of the procession. The words of the ritual being in Bulgarian I could not understand except via Zhoro's whispered rough impromptu translations of some of them to the other members of our group. Of course some of the poetry and detail was thus lost, but it was basically a devotional ritual, offerings and thanks to Hekate, Hermes and Dionysos and asking for their blessings upon the land. With the sky darkening behind them and the raised torches and cauldron blazing in late dusk's cobalt hues, it was a very beautiful scene with a charged atmosphere atop the hill by a mound of ancient stones.

I found the ceremony a bit austere, this seemed strange for Dionysos especially given His followers' usual passion for play, intoxication and drama. The words were unfortunately read (from an ornate book) rather than learnt or simply spoken directly from the heart, which probably added to this feeling.
However their ritual splendour, and the obvious devotion and dedication of this group to their land's ancient traditions is most admirable and I was so glad to see what they are doing to uphold this, and felt blessed to be present there. I am also very much looking forward to the imminent book Thracian Magic by Threskeia's founder Georgi Mishiev, as he seems a most sincere scholar and knowledgeable practitioner of these traditions, which I feel need to experience a revival in our reconnection with the earth via earth-based and body-conscious spiritualities from ancient cultures.

 

We took a few hours' break between Threskeia's ritual and our own private ritual (some members of Threskeia had been invited to participate but they only do purely traditional thracian rituals within their group), eating and setting up some tents. We hadn't needed to use these so far, but with the sky darkening and moistening quite threateningly, it now seemed we could be in very cramped conditions as there were only 2 small tents between the five of us.
Although Threskeia were leading a forage for traditional solstice herbs at dawn, most people in the campsite who had set up to stay now packed their tents up again and drove off, as lightning flashed on the horizon and brooding storm-clouds loomed. Besides wanting to finish our working there, we didn't have the option of departing as we had no possible means of transport til morning. The situation looked bleak and several of us were very tired after little sleep over the last few days. I remained positive and determined to complete our work, feeling a rest at this point would just make us lose our momentum.

We found a ritual site under an old oak tree on a nearby hill. We chanted the Chakra tones together, lingering on the hummming Ajna 'mmmm' for a long while. Immediately we felt recharged and focused. As we planned out the sequence of the rest of our final ritual it became ever more evident that some of it would need to be adjusted to the encroaching conditions.
There were huge black storm-clouds now quite close, interestingly they seemed to be coming in great rolling banks from the area where the womb-cave was, lightning flashing dramatically around the vicinity of our previous night's intensive working in the distance. Now there were great storm-clouds gathering also on the opposite side of the sky. So it seemed vital not to invoke Zagreus, as one of His attributes as a wild and ecstatic spirit is God of the storm. Indeed, perhaps our work so far had already had some influence on the weather?

I had been surprised to hear Hermes evoked that eve by Threskeia, and upon enquiry to Zhoro found that indeed He was also part of the ancient Thracian pantheon in pre-Hellenic times. So it seemed a good idea to call the aid of this Patron God of Travellers, in His aspect as the wind who blows away the storm-clouds -presented in Greek mythological metaphor as the infant Hermes stealing the sheep of Zeus (also a thunderer) and hiding them in a cave.

Performing the drum-breath also seemed inadvisable, as drums and bass sounds bring the rain. The driving rhythmic thump of the drumbreath would certainly not help keep the storms at bay. We wanted to do some kind of energising breath-work together though, so came up with an alternate version which worked perfectly with the Hermes evocation preceding.
Adapt to be adept!

As we began the Hermes evocation there were now storm-clouds on every side of us. Lightning flashed sporadically in an almost spiralling sequence -we were surrounded! We called Hermes by several names and epithets. As the messenger between realms of Gods and mortals He had relevance to the Ajna, and to the raising of kundalini in general through which we attain divinity embodied. His Caduceus Staff with two snakes entwined echoes the cosmography of the Hindu Ida and Pingala serpents entwining the spine. I also entreated him to blow away the clouds, to keep us safe to finish our work. We then performed our adjusted 'drum-breath' which began with the usual breathing sequence but instead of the thumping 'Hum' of the drum-like bija-mantra ended instead with a forceful but mostly soundless exhalation of breath, literally 'blowing away' the clouds. On each of these we would tip our heads backwards to blow up towards the sky. After a while this constant arching of our necks became a strain, so for the second and third rounds we lay on our backs, each facing outwards in a different direction from our circle, and thus blew up and out while still keeping spines and heads aligned. This proved almost as effective for raising energy as the regular drum-breath, and seemed to work in keeping the clouds at bay, with some help no doubt from Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Thrice-Greatest Hermes!

As we finished the exercise and were invigorated by it, we sat up noting that while thunder boomed and lightning flashed still all around us, the sky remained clear above. I was reminded of a similar occurrence -though even more concentrated and less intentional- during our Anahata Chakra Working on Glastonbury Tor in 2003. A freak storm had come out of nowhere during that 13th-Tribe ritual on the Summer Solstice. It had been blazingly hot earlier in the day as we prepared and begun, then when it came to the part where we were to be woven together with thread through piercings in our chests into a 13-point mandala, it began to rain torrentially. Overcoming a moment of doubt we had proceeded anyway, and were warmed somewhat by our chanting of the chakra tones. By the Manipura (solar) tone it was no longer raining. Everyone was in deep trance but I opened my eyes and looked up and was compelled to stop chanting long enough to excitedly suggest others do too -for above us was a small hole of clear sky directly above our circle, while still it rained all around us!

Collage by Zhoro

We proceeded with the rest of our final Ajna ritual under the oak -primarily a long meditative visualisation.
First we performed outer trataka using the central candle-flame as a point of focus. Then we again turned this within to the bright point of pineal light in the centres of our heads. We focused on bringing, feeling and seeing with this mind's-eye the serpents of our kundalini rising up our spines -beginning as the single serpent coiled at the base of the spine, which splits into lunar Ida and solar Pingala while rising up and entwining this caduceus-like staff of our bodies. The serpent/s became one again in the centre of our heads, with the mixing of the golden and silver elixirs there. Then we released this serpent from our Ajna Chakras, as the Uraeus Serpent (as in Ancient Egyptian iconography of the third-eye cobra) leaping forth from our brows. Still these writhed upwards though now externalised, and entwined with the other serpents of the circle above its centre, winding around and up the ancient oak tree and forming a greater, brighter serpent above it.

We then visualised other circles and individuals across the planet performing their Ajna rituals over this and the preceding days of the working; and the Uraeus serpents leaping forth from their brows and ascending skywards. These now shot across time and space and entwined with out own circles' collective serpent above. The smaller vision-serpents coalesced into a greater one. The individual forms within could still be seen, writhing and splitting then merging together again as they entwined. The entity had a coruscating stellar quality, bright and fleshed with iridescent turquoise feathers as well as shining scales; yet also it was telluric and Dionysian, interwoven with vines of grape and ivy, serpents becoming gnarled and twisting roots then shimmering serpents again.

I spoke the basis of this visualisation aloud, but only as I myself saw it unravel -it was a vision which flowed naturally, unprepared although there had been some intention to work with Quetzalcoatl that final night. Quetazlcoatl (Aztec name) or Kukulcan (Mayan name) is the 'Feathered Serpent' which they prophesied returns on the December solstice 2012, when our earth and Sun align with Hunab Ku, the dark rift at the centre of the Milky Way which the Mayans considered the 'Womb of the Great Mother' and birth-place of our galaxy. Much has been made of this date as the end of their Long Count calendar, but there is no evidence of the Mayans saying it was the 'end of the world' or the 'end of time'. What they did say is that Quetzalcoatl will return then, so this vision was most welcome considering that our next and final Global Chakra Working (the Global Sahasrara Chakra Working at Aoraki/Mt.Cook, New Zealand) will be upon this December Solstice 2012.

(Those wishing to participate locally in NZ (ie. at the sacred site itself) are requested to contact Orryelle by emailing [email protected].
Information about translocal participation with linked rituals from other places will go online late November.)

I'd had a similar- though less developed- vision of such a composite Quetzalcoatl just after the last circle I had done with members of the Silver Dusk in Australia, several months earlier, with no expectation or calling of such. Interestingly we had also evoked Hermes at this circle.
The connection, I feel, is the Caduceus, the winged and serpent-entwined staff of Hermes which has obvious correlations with both the Feathered Serpent of Mayan mythos and the dual serpents of kundalini in Hindu tantra.

So it seemed something was being born from our working, cracking out in the lightning from the womb-cave to slither and soar forth...

 

Threskeia had arranged an excursion to collect herbs at dawn, for this was a special day for this in Bulgarian folk traditions- three days after the solstice, at the end of the Night of the Witches (23rd July). There were many different wildflowers with magical properties abundant at this time, the primary ones being St Johns Wort and Gallium Verum. One collects bundles of these and others and after drying carries them for good fortune especially when traveling.
I managed to arise at first light but felt so weary after just a few hours sleep that I decided to skip the whole trip. Instead I just scouted around the vicinity by myself for about 20 minutes collecting enough of the main herbs for myself and my companions; then burrowed back into my sleeping-bag for a few more hours.

When I arose again Threskeia and their companions had returned from their herb-mission and people were preparing to depart. The five of us went to look at the Starosel Temple itself which was now open to the public. An ancient stone structure, its first chambers had a display of pictures and information on the walls -the various different Ancient Thracian deities and photographs of the corresponding herbs associated with them, most of which grew in the area. Threskeia had placed a giant wreath of flowers they had collected over the entrance of the circular inner shrine, so that visitors that day had to step through it to enter -wonderful! The energy inside was palpable.

The next day we were all in nearby Plovdiv together, enjoying wandering the cobbled streets of the beautiful old town, relaxing, feasting and grounding together. Zhoro took us to the ancient river Hebrus (now called the Maritsa river) where Orpheus' disembodied head had drifted away in Thracian myth, and Tristram and I played music on its grassy banks in a silvershod dusk.

I have noticed since this working a continued revival of interest in the Dionysian mysteries, and in pagan nature-based spiritualities in general which acknowledge the energies of the elements and interconnectivity of all life on and as this earth. Recent tomes reflecting this revival are Vayne and Wyrd's 'Book of Baphomet' (inc.deep ecology), Aion 131's 'Book of the Horned One' and Sean Fitton's 'The Dionysian Spirit' which explores not only ancient mythos but how the ecstatic spirit of Dionysos has been kept alive through history, including modern avatars.

Personally I have felt a greater awakening of my visionary capacities, lucid dreaming and generally phantasmagoric spaces, and increased ability to translate these through visual arts into manifest form. I will be creating some artwork soon inspired by visions during this Working...

An account of my and Tristram's further journey on from Bulgaria to Turkey,including results and reflections from the Ajna Working, can be found HERE