The neck: Back portion of the body lying between the head and shoulders. In Old English hnecca, German nacken, Old Norse hnakki nape, Old Gaelic cnocc hill, elevation.[1]
The beginning of Psalm I was known as a neck verse[2] and was recited by one claiming “benefit of clergy in order to save his neck”. Leonardo Da Vinci used the word Nucha to mean either the nape of the neck or the spinal cord. The word owes its double meaning to the fact that it is the Latinized version of early translators of two different Arabic words.[3]
In ancient Egypt Horus represented in the form of a falcon was the divine heart. On the statue of the pharaoh Chephren in the Cairo museum leans his body against the nape of the Pharoah offering protection and inspiration.[4] The sensitive spot the bird covers is known in neurology as the “Bridge of Varolius” and is in close contact with the cervical nerve ganglion named by some anatomists as “the tree of life”. The intelligence of the heart initiates creative thought, which the Ancient Egyptians named the action of the heart.
“Could it not be said that by means of this warm touch the divine bird, symbol of the deity, in some way fecundates Chephren’s spirit in the brain, in that hostelry where, according to the sages of that epoch, the thoughts conceived and born in the heart stay a while before they can be sent out into the world by the movement of the tongue and the utterance of the lips, in the utterance of Words?”[5]
It
takes considerable time before there is the beginning of proper sensing as to
where the neck may actually be and more importantly what it represents. It is
relatively easy to speak about the neck. Intellectually we can approach it from
a number of different viewpoints. We can examine it from the standpoint of anatomy, physiology, engineering,
architecture, etymology, anthropology, and from any of these
disciplines we can extract a certain amount of information. However information
is one thing but knowledge let alone understanding is entirely different and
can only be acquired through experience and by the gift of grace. To begin to
understand what it may mean “to have a free neck” and the consequences of that
state upon the body a good deal of knowledge is needed and can only be
collected through living in the experience of what it actually means to have
freedom in the neck.[6]
How often do I hear
myself say to students “you’re pushing with your legs.” One has to go ever
deeper in oneself to see that letting the neck be free does not require pushing
with the legs or contracting the knees. But what is required is so completely
outside the realm of habitual experience that it will always confound those who
are not prepared to risk initiation[7]
towards the unknown.
I was simply taught that should I explore allowing the neck to be free, the head will move forward and up and the back will lengthen and widen. Should I continue with the allowing and maintenance of the allowing, I will be taken up. But the mind that serves ego does not and will not accept this. It will speak about it and claim to state the truth of the matter but always, should you observe at the critical moment, we return to the old way of doing things. It appears safer that way.
All
material things including our body are drawn towards the centre of the earth. Should
we allow freedom in the neck there is a resultant effect upon the entire spine
which activates an upflow of force. This energy when blended correctly with the
down force produces yet another quality of energy. Indications for what this
finer energy can be used for is planted throughout the ages in all lands,
thus:-
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”[8]
[1] Oxford English Dictionary also Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.
[2] The neck verse was frequently related to the neck riddle which often required answers of a moral or religious kind. Noted sources of such riddles are the Rig Veda, the Old Testament and the Icelandic sagas. See Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj Riddles, Perspectives on the use, function and change in a folklore genre. Finnish literature Society (Helsinki) 2001, pps 11–14.
[3] The Arabic word nucha for the spinal cord was introduced by Constantinus Africanus in the 11th century. The term continued to be used until the 16th century when medulla dorsalis and later medulla spinalis were introduced. The Arabic nugrah for neck and specifically the nape of the neck was also drawn from nucha and continues in usage as the ligamentum nuchae and the nuchal lines of the occiptal bone. See Charles D. O’ Malley and J. B. de C. M. Saunders Leonardo Da Vinci On The Human Body, Henry Schuman, Inc. New York 1952, 2. the vertical column P.42
[4] There is a view that the statue of Chephren represents enlightened man.
[5] See Louis Charbonney-Lassay: The Bestiary Of Christ, translated and abridged by D.M.Dooling, Part I The Tetramorph, The Man. Page 43. Parabola Books 1991
[6] A rewarding way to explore freedom of the neck is to practice gently the ancient art of bowing. Josèphe Baringue described Bernarde-Marie Soubirous (St. Bernadette) while in prayer, “It was a delight to see her. It was as if she had done nothing else all her life but learn how to bow.” Abbé François Trochu Saint Bernadette Soubirous Tan Books Publishers Ltd., p 63, see also Jean-Baptiste Estrade’s description p.96.
[7] Initiation usually entails a descent into ‘the darkness’ before the ascent can commence. The light or Fire, encased in matter, resides in the darkness, it is the dragon of ancient China and Ptah of Egypt. In symbolic language the descent is spoken of as descending into Hell, entering the underworld, the cave or labyrinth. If the seeker is properly guided and accepts the descent there exists the possibility of death, rebirth and ascent of “light merging into light” Initiation does not imply any claim to teach through self-instituted authority “And you at that moment, Passing from this dream-life, With self discarded, Will be one with the beloved.” Sa‘D-D-ud-din Mahmud Shabistari The Secret Rose Garden, part IX. Rendered from the Persian by Florence Lederer. Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, Lahore, 1969.
The fire: “In the human body it shows itself as life in the organs of the blood, and as energy in the spinal marrow and nervous system. On a more subtle plane it is Ida and Pingala, the double current of life flowing on the right and left sides of the curved wall of the spine and which, if it functions correctly, stimulates the spiritual current of the Shushumna to rise from the centre of the marrow. This triple current is the “serpent-fire” of yoga, and it leads to the “coronal centre,” which is subtle and not physical…….
The two currents of vital Fire, Ida and Pingala, were called in Egypt the “soul of Ra” and the “soul of Osiris.”….
This fire is the one source of energy, and its two aspects are called in China yin and yang, referring in general to the complementary aspects of nature.” Isha Schwaller De Lubicz The Opening of the Way Inner Traditions International (Rochester, Vermont) 1981. P. 27. Mircea Eliade in his book Shamanism Routledge & Kegan Paul (London) 1964 relates how the tiger stripped with contraries carries the neophyte on its back into the jungle, the metaphorical region of the unknown, the darkness. The tiger he states was the master of initiation throughout much of Asia. In his book Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung wrote, “For thousands of years, rites of initiation have been teaching spiritual rebirth; yet, strangely enough, man forgets again and again the meaning of divine procreation. This is surely no evidence of a strong life of the spirit; and yet the penalty of misunderstanding is heavy, for it is nothing less than neurotic decay, embitterment, atrophy and sterility.” Routledge Classics p.126
[8] I Corinthians 16:44
Comments