Dance of the Seven Veils

For some time now I have repeatedly come across severed heads, not literally you understand, but in reading about mythology and even occasionally in the news.

There has been a severed head found in Arbroath, Scotland link here

and more recently another in Edinburgh, Scotland link here

and also the Virginia Tech beheading in January link here

In Mythology



My interest and love of Hindu mythology is where I started asking about the reoccuring theme of decapitation.

Shiva cuts off the head of Brahma, Ganesh and Prajapati. The goddess Chinnamasta decapitates herself and Rama severes the 10 heads of Ravana. Kali devotees have often had their heads removed in honour of her too. In the next post I plan to explore the beheading of Ganesh, the god with the elephant head.



In Christian mythology the beheading of John the Baptist is what interests me, and even more is the Dance of the Seven Veils which was performed by Salome for Herod Antipas which led to the beheading.



I recently watched a video of the Dance of the Seven Veils and I came to the conclusion that this is a representation of the Kundalini energy. The belly-dancing female represents the Kundalini snake wriggling and writhing through the seven chakras with each (coloured) veil discarded representing the opening of each chakra.

From Babylon/Assyrian mythology the story of the goddess Ishtar visiting her sister Ereshkigal in the underworld also resonates with the seven chakras/veils as Ishtar has to travel through 7 gates to reach the underworld, discarding a piece of clothing as she goes, by the time she enters through the final gate she is naked. While Ishtar is in the underworld all sexual activity is stopped on earth (relating to the Svadisthana/sex chakra being closed?), later Ishtar leaves the underworld and returns through the 7 gates regaining her clothing at each gate. This story seems to me to be refering to the Kundalini energy descending through the chakras and then once again rising to be united with the crown chakra/Shiva.

I am not sure of the meaning of all this yet but just throwing out a few things that are going through my mind.

UPDATE: In the Rudyard Kipling story, The Man Who Would Be King, Danny (the God-King) has his severed head carried by his friend Peachy back from Kafiristan.

an excerpt from the book:-

He fumbled in the mass of rags round his
bent waist; brought out a black horsehair
bag embroidered with silver thread; and
shook therefrom on to my table—the dried,
withered head of Daniel Dravot! The morning
sun that had long been paling the lamps
struck the red beard and blind sunken eyes;
struck, too, a heavy circlet of gold studded
with raw turquoises, that Carnehan placed
tenderly on the battered temples.

“You behold now,” said Carnehan, “the
Emperor in his habit as he lived—the King
of Kafiristan with his crown upon his
head. Poor old Daniel that was a monarch
once!”



This book which was made into a film in 1975 starring Sean Connery as Danny and Micheal Caine as Peachy Carnehan has been linked to the story of the fallen angels in this excellent you tube video, Hollywood Insiders: Fallen Angels.