I shall tell you of the mountain called Meru
The Shri Mountain, Kailasha
I shall spin the tale of He that entered it, climbed it
And now resides upon it with me!
Pashu, the beast-man, awoke one day and suddenly saw the mountain
rising in the distance, at dawn. Forgetting for a moment his usual
routine, something stirred within him at the sight and he knew that he
must travel there.
Why this was so, he could not say.
After a long, dangerous, arduous journey, Pashu came to the foot of Mt.
Meru where two mighty rivers met. There he cast his animal skins into
the turbulent waters and, naked, fasted and sat in meditation for
thirteen moons.
Transformed, he yet again felt the urge come upon him and knew it was
time to begin climbing the mountain, though it seemed impossible. Under
a full moon, leaving the scented jungle below, he began to follow a
faint animal trail up the mountain for many leagues until at dawn, it
ran straight into a sheer face of the mountain. All rock, there seemed
no way around, so he again sat and meditated.
Closing out the world, he became calm d found this new center. Soon the
sun set and, as twilight covered the mountain, he opened his eyes.
Before him was a cave mouth where before there had been nothing but
gray rock face.
Smiling, he entered the cave. Deep within the Earth he crawled and
climbed, over stalagmites and crystals, boulders and burrows, through
cracks and wide bat-filled caverns, on he went in darkness. Alternately
dry and moist, the path always led slightly upward and deeper into the
heart of the mountain. As he scrambled through the mud and the
darkness, he began to lose all memories of his past existence, previous
attachments and all concerns he held in that past life.
Suddenly, with a final push and spray of mud and a yell that released
all his fears, he emerged into a dry cavern filled in the center with
flames.
The glowing cavern was huge and bright with the flames of the inner
earth and molten rivers of magma. Rubies and garnets glittered from the
hot, rough rock walls and a huge monolith of multicolored, shimmering,
glowing stones rose from the ever-changing pool of fire in the center
of the angular cavern. Pashu approached this and faintly saw through
the shimmering heat a symbol carved upon the pillar-like stone
surrounded by smoke and flame. It filled him with a strange fiery
power, it was this;
The heat of the cavern burnt into his body, caused his blood to boil
and set his loins afire. Great and hard his lingum grew, pulsing and
swollen in the firelight as he writhed and danced, all muscles
straining, skin covered in reddish sweat. Suddenly he felt tremendous
ecstasy, climaxing and yelling as the fire rose and billowed and then
he heard the Soundless Voice speak, and obeying this, in his blind
ecstasy, he leapt into the pit of fire. Suddenly, as his seed had done,
he merged with the glowing pillar, the Ling of Flame and so he knew the
Limitless Measure of the Earth and the Cosmos above. At the moment of
pure, fiery illumination he was propelled by all the force of his
actions and he found himself falling through the flames and landing on
the other side of the pool of fire, once again somehow in the form of a
man, but somehow very different, for his skin was now a reddish hue and
he howled like a storm wind.
Recovering his balance, he continued into another nearby cavern that
was also alit with dancing light. There lurked my guardian tiger. With
skill, cunning and ferocity he fought this tiger for one full moon
cycle, sometimes winning, sometimes losing and being scored with tooth
and claw, until he finally won the battle, slew the tiger and took for
his covering its cleaned and fire-dried skin.
From where I sat I wept, yet I was secretly glad.
He confidently continued through the cavern until it suddenly
ended in a massive wall that had a narrow slit in it from which pilled
a brilliant light. With great difficulty, he pushed through this
crevice and suddenly emerged onto a small plateau, on an arm of the
mountain. The bulk of Meru loomed above him, jagged cliffs spread below
him, all the world, distant and unreachable, lay about him as far-flung
blankets of green and brown and gray. The sunlit shelf he was on was
covered with grasses, herbs and mountain flowers about which birds and
insects flew. The sky was azure; the hot sun shone upon the small
fields and, in the center, sat a deep crystal blue pool of glacial
water with a large glittering stone rising from the center of it. The
pool was fed by a spring gushing from the top of the pillar-like stone.
With great wonder and a growing sense of peace, Pashu strode into the
pool where he drank, washed, rested and played. Soon he noticed that
this giant stone Ling also had a symbol carved upon it. He had not at
first noticed because the glittering stone was covered in flecks and
veins of gold so the reflected sunlight almost blinded him. Wading
closer, he studied it, the symbol began to fill him with great peace
and he began to deeply meditate upon it and again return to the primal
center of his being. The symbol was:
Thus he sat, meditating in peace and joy, in that beautiful place, for
twelve full months, as the rising and setting sun wove a tapestry of
gold about him. Finally the day came when the sun had reached the
height of its cycle. It had been exactly one year since he had emerged.
At that moment, again guided by a deep and powerful Inner Voice, he
laughed and leaped into the pool. As he entered the water, his heart
opened and all his emotions, Love, Hate, Joy and Pain, were made one
within the limitless expanse of his heart as he flew forward and merged
with the glittering stone Lingum in the center of the pool. And so he
became the Heart of the World, he absorbed all the feelings and all the
poisons of the world out of his infinite compassion and he flooded the
world with peace as a spring of water flowing forth from a stone fills
a pool. With the strength of Will he flew from this cosmic
merging out past the pool and landed upon the grass, laughing and
holding in his hand a seed. He had changed greatly, and his skin,
and especially his throat, now shone a dusky blue.
He planted the seed he held in the rich dirt of the field, watered it
with water from the pool and watched. Suddenly there was a stirring and
a sprout soon rose from the earth which soon become a sapling and then
became a mighty tree. The tree quickly matured and came to fruition. As
Pashu laughed and danced about the tree with abandon, a mighty wind
howled and the seeds fell from the tree and rained upon him in his joy.
Following his Will, he drew gold from the pool, gathered up the seeds
and fashioned a necklace of power. He used 108 seeds within this
necklace, for at night he had seen in his yearlong meditation that the
earth was encircled with 108 Supreme Stars. From this time on he wore
this necklace, for he had encompassed the earth with his heart as the
stars did nightly. Though he longed to linger in this paradise, the
urge within him again bade him GO and resume his journey.
He set out to climb the steep almost trackless face of Meru that rose
above him, and as he climbed higher, the landscape became more
treacherous and the path more dangerous. Fewer and fewer shrunken
plants dotted the wind-swept jagged mountainside and the stones became
sharper. The air began to thin and the heat of the days more oppressive
as the nights became colder and colder. Without rest, without stopping,
he climbed and climbed. He knew that if he once stopped, he would never
move again. This was the worst trial.
One night he climbed and entered the realm of ice and snow and bitter
cold. Though the area was bleak and lifeless, the stars were shining
through the snow flurries and he was surrounded by great beauty. Soon
he climbed above the clouds, the silver light glittering from the ice
and snow all around him. Suddenly he scrambled around a large
outcropping and before him lay an almost lunar-looking hollow where
stood 16 pillars of ice in a circle. The crescent moon rose above this
magick circle and, as Pashu entered it, his shadow fell across a large
black stone monolith in the center and the winds suddenly died down to
silence. This huge stone Ling was taller than he and was covered in a
layer of glistening ice. Intense cold emanated from it. Following the
Inner Voice, he reached out and stuck fast to it. Letting go of all
consciousness, he merged with this imposing cold and it froze him to
the depths of his being and all feeling and awareness disappeared. As
he lost consciousness, the last thing he saw was a symbol inset in
silver in the stone before him. This permeated his mind and he froze in
pure void of meditation fixating on this symbol as he became one with
the stone:
Turning his mind’s eye within, deeper, deeper, he traced every thought
and concept he had ever had back to its source in the void. Eventually
all thinking ceased and TRUE understanding began. All that Was, Is and
Will Be lay before his inner eye and it was void. Thus he stood as a
pillar of ice and stone for 108 years and from that moment he was
released from Time, he was changeless and timeless, he had become one
with the source of all.
At the end of 108 years, suddenly the cosmos became brilliant with his
explosive awareness and the ice of his imprisonment shattered as the
stars swirled about him.
With the Beingness of his Knowledge, he strode forth, yet always
remained still. He was Nothing, yet aware. With newly opened eyes he
left the circle of broken ice pillars in the pre-dawn glow and began
the final climb to the peak of Mt. Meru. With him was the crescent of
silver he had taken from the black stone Ling, it was now bound into
his long flowing hair.
Higher and higher he climbed far above everything he had ever seen or
known, yet feeling no discomfort for he truly was pure existence.
Smiling, he climbed above the very atmosphere until he was surrounded
by the unblinking infinity of stars and space. Comets circled him and
planets danced about him and still he climbed with a smile upon his
lips and I too was secretly glad.
Suddenly, with a last effort, he was at the top!
He stood and paused and rested for the first time in 1008 years,
staring in awe at the sight of my radiant form and of the multi-colored
glowing stone Yantra upon which I sat, awake,. yet dreaming. At that
moment he was filled with the force of the centered cosmos, his Third
Eye opened and he let loose a howl, the force of which destroyed the
universe in a tearing storm of air, earth, fire and water intertwined
and filled with lightening! In this whirling chaos only two things
remained the wild dancing Pashu and I, slowly awakening. As the
vibrating roar peaked, I joined the sound and, ever so slowly, I joined
the dance with this new mad god. As we danced together, as our energies
wove together, the forces changed and the howl became a song. Together,
as we danced and sang a new song, we brought form from chaos, a world
from our glittering dreams. We came together and he entered me in
ecstasy and delight. In a final orgasmic union of light, life, love and
laughter a new and vibrant Mt. Meru came into existence and with it, a
new universe, a New World.
We basked within the aura of our blissful union, filling the new
universe with life in waves of bliss-energy embodied in our creation
and so we together spoke the first Word to permeate this new cosmos
formed from the endless hum of our co-creation: OM.
So it is formed and always will be embodied in our divine creation. It
was then that I pulled from my stone Yantra-throne my gift for him, my
love & God. It was a trident I had fashioned from a star and it
honored his conquest of the three realms he had braved to reach me. I
kissed him and together we planted this symbol of the Three Ways:
Knowledge, Will and Action, upon the very peak of Mt. Meru where
it shall always remain. Thus our home came into being and within this
home the Sun and Moon unite in the Fire or our cosmic passion for all
time.
He gave me a new name: SHAKTI, Power & Life
I gave him a new name: SHIVA, Most Blessed One
And even today we are one to such an extent that I cannot tell if he is
I or if I am he.
And thus SHAKTI ended her tale with a smile.
So it was told to me by the Silent Voice and so do I repeat it here.
Hermeticusnath
Upon Mt. Baker
1984-5
Note: This Tantra was the result of a
vision/experience that occurred when I was the lone caretaker of a
lodge in the upper Cascade Mountains at Mt. Baker. Though it was
presumptuous of me to write it, I felt compelled to do so. It lay in my
papers and now, almost 20 years later, I offer it to Shiva and Shakti
as a lotus of electrons. OM
