7 Veils

Introduction Veils and Mystery Do you wish to be spellbound? I invite you to contemplate which of the seven veils currently wraps around you. Mystical secrets hide within veils. You are wrapped in ethereal layers of protection and insight. Once you unveil, wisdom enters in enigmatic ways. Natural veils, like mist, fog, and smoke, create a sense of the surreal, evoking a notion of what lies beyond. You intuit shape or shadow, a sound here or there, an element of danger, or maybe beauty. When light pierces, you are caught between worlds. You watch the mundane restructure. You see visual evidence of the "Great Mystery." This profound unveiling happened for me through the art of belly dancing. Of course, you do not have to dance in order to reveal secrets of the veil, but it certainly helps. The body has memory. Ancient secrets awaken as you dance. From inside your cells, ancestral memory and instinctual nature shed insight into the present moment. Belly Dance is a practice that unveils. Anthropologists suggest that Belly Dancing originated anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 years ago. Perhaps it was Eve’s first dance. It has always involved celebration of the Feminine. Paradigms of archetypical images of womanhood: maiden, goddess, mother, and crone are highlighted. Womanly curves articulate the round inclusive cycles of life. The dance movements express this: round as in pregnant, round as the shape of mother earth, round as in a sacred circle, where everyone can see everyone’s eyes; and round like the arc of a flowing veil. The origin of the dance involves fertility rites, harem choices, strengthening the body for childbirth, as well as seduction, to encourage a bride and groom to connect, the collection of coins for a dowry, sisterhood, and finally, for religious ecstasy. From art to entertainment, belly dance travels a wide artistic spectrum. It holds feminine elegance, self-control, and the freedom to embrace full womanhood. A natural feminine flowering, not always encouraged in our world, is a strong force that if not stopped or perverted, becomes a journey into the psyche connecting all things. It is a mistake to assume that the body is not spiritual. The split between natural and ephemeral, physical and spiritual, temporal and ultimate is actually a continuum. Ask any professional dance, the art of dance is transcendent. There is rapture in dance. The artist and the creation cannot be separated. An author can read her words, a painter can view his painting, and a musician can hear his instrument; yet a dancer must BE her dance. She cannot see it. It is like trying to look into your own eyes. She can however feel it, and therefore be one with it. “Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made..."-Ted Shawn This creative, healing, spiritual dance is an initiation. This dance is medicine. It is a path of ecstasy where other spheres of understanding emerge. Healing can manifest within the removal of the Seven Veils. It is easy to think of veils as a cover, more surprisingly as portals of insight, or thresholds. They hold imagination; the "make-believe" where you see truth in another form. You are persuaded then to see not only with the eyes, but with the soul. As you look into the veil, as well as looking into what is being revealed, layers of understanding emerge. Veils of diaphanous material have lightness of matter. They hold at once substance and emptiness. They carry flowing energy that continues a movement even after an initial impulse starts the flow. Thus, veils have a dance all their own. Moving like water or air, they flow, dip, turn, float and fall in graceful rhythm. They seem alive. If you throw a veil into the air and let it land on its own, it will never float down in the same way twice. The veil is seductive as a result of this unpredictability. Stories of veils and unveilings offer intrigue and insight. You want to see what happens next; you want to know what comes to pass. As each veil is met, in the Seven Veils of this book, wisdom will visit you. It appears when you are willing to receive. Each chapter invites you beyond a veil to reveal a Mystical Secret. These are furtive deeply feminine ways of knowing that I have learned through the art of Belly Dancing. The antediluvian wisdom of this dance belongs to all of us. As I share each chapter, each unveiling, comparisons with other perceptive traditions will correlate to each of the Seven Veils. ...As an artful dancer unwraps her gossamer veil revealing beauty, I wish your secrets to become unveiled. As you read on, may the genuine beauty of your true nature be revealed to you. It is my hope that you are inspired to deepen your path toward enlightenment. Let the pain and suffering life brings you be eased through change. Healing creates a dwelling place of knowing peace, loving-kindness, and joy. Even when we are not in that space, we hold the knowledge of it. That is what I wish for you. Dancing through the gifts of Belly Dancing, I have traveled from student to performer to teacher; from presenter, speaker-writer, to polarity therapist and spiritual healer. As mystagogue, a person whose teachings are founded on mystical revelation and one who initiates others into the sacred mysteries, I offer the gifts I have received along the way, and pass them forward. Open your mind and heart. Let the words dance around you until you feel their meaning. Let your inner wisdom flow with the muses. Awaken now and come dance with me. Dance with me through the veils! We are all on this journey together. See the veil? Please enter.