The Heart
(this text accompanies the diagram “The Heart--Left Side of the Grid”)
The Heart describes the dynamics of the vibrational patterns on the left side of the grid. These vibrational patterns involve Ideas--both Group Ideas (Orange) and Individual Ideas (Green).
Goup and individual ideas divide further into Old and New: Old Plays or Old Group Core Beliefs (Old Orange) and New Plays and New Group Core Beliefs (New Orange); Old Roles or Scripts (Old Green) and New Ideas and Scripts (New Green).
General Themes
The Heart dynamic deals with a Group and Individual Idea Re-Newal Process: Old Plays and Old Roles implode or are re-turned In, and New Plays and New Ideas explode or emerge Out.
This Heart Re-Newal process is associated with the fourth Chakra, unconditional Love, compassion and the color green.
Paired Implosion: the Re-turn of the Old
Old Plays/Group Core Beliefs (Old Orange) Trickster energy. In the Grid:
- Zodiac sign Aries (archive of Old Plays);
-window 26/Kali (re-lease/re-loosen old plays);
- window 25 (old play/old group core belief; conventional thinking);
- window 16/Trickster; into zodiac sign Sagittarius.
The mechanism is that spinning Trickster energy of window 16spins or slices through the attachment of a group to an Old Play or Old Group Core Belief in window 25. This spinning Trickster energy moves through a cleft or gap called “Trickster Lane.” This can be done as a group Trickster ritual that can involve humor, satire, or being outrageous.
Gathering Old Roles (Old Green) at a Low Hill - Compassion; re-turning old roles to Holes-in-the-flow in the Heart. In the Grid:
-Window 14 (archive of all prior roles);
- window 18 (re-lease/re-loosen);
- window 7 (prior roles);
- window 27 (non-attachment to prior roles) into the heart;
The mechanism is that window 27 re-turns old prior roles -- the 7's -- to Holes-in-the-flow in the Heart. This re-turn of old prior roles is part of a seasonal fall ritual of At-One-Ment, and is akin to the leaves coming off the trees. (See seasonality section below.)
Paired Explosion: the Emergence of the New
Feminine Dominant Heart /Arrow of Truth (New Orange); Rising Kundalini/Serpent energy. on the diagonal. In the Grid:
- Window 1 (re-linking to the Arrow of Truth from the Heart);
- window 10 (productive heart/truth energy);
- window 9 (the re-ceptor {re-taking} flame of truth in a place)
Create New Scripts (New Green) In the Grid: the Goddess as:
- Muse/7th chakra (Zodiac sign-Virgo/window 12)
-Visionary/6th chakra (Zodiac sign-Taurus/window 22)
-Manifestor/5th chakra (Zodiac sign-Capricorn/window 11 and window 3).
The New Vision and New Scripts create:
-A New Culture (window 8), and
-New Group Experiences (window 29).
Some Characteristics of a Heart Place
-Physical Characteristics: the Heart/Drain is at the base of the Low Hill; (1) The
Old Green Prior Roles come down the Low Hill on the left; (2) the Old Orange Old Plays come across on the level from the right along “Trickster Lane”; (3) The New Orange Feminine Dominant Kundalini/Serpent Arrow of Truth emerges on the diagonal.
A Clogged Drain - If the Heart Ritual is not done -the drain is not opened- then Old Plays and Prior Roles gather near the Heart/drain. People can act out the prior roles as friction or violence in relationships or put the prior roles on their bodies as, for example, cancer.
The prior roles and prior renditions can be thought of as stagnant dirty water that would accumulate at a drain of a bathtub that was plugged or clogged.
The Beat of the Heart--Pulse--and Drumming
The dynamic of the Heart -Implode/In and Explode/Out creates a pulse or a beat that reflects the particular characteristics of a particular Heart place.
The specific pulse or beat of a Heart place ripples out from the Heart up the low hill on the left and across Trickster Lane on the right.
Drumming enhances the rising of the Feminine Kundalini Sepent energy. It’s as if the drumming causes the Snake of the Place to emerge, the way the cobra rises to the sound of the flute.
Seasonality, At-One-Ment, the Mary Holidays and the Classic seven Path Labyrinth
The Heart dynamic is part of the Fall ritual of At-One-Ment. (Hyphenated another way, the word is also a-tone-ment, which speaks to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur that is pegged to the fall equinox.)
The closing of Old Plays and the re-turn of Old Roles is akin the fall process of the leaves coming off the trees. (In the biology section, see the relation between serotonin and the plant hormone, auxin.)
This fall ritual is also associated with the rising of Feminine Mary energy: the Assumption of Mary holiday c. August 15, the Mary holidays in September, and that October is dedicated to Mary for making manifest the Rosary.
This fall period also corresponds to the 3-2-1-4-7-6-5 sequence of the classic seven path Labyrinth (and what I have called the “Mary Labyrinth.”)
The 3-2-1 sequence occurs after the summer solstice and culminates with the Celtic cross quarter day of Lammas, c. August 8. In terms of 140 days, which puts the 365 day solar year in the phi proportion, Lammas is c140 days after the spring equinox (and Aries).
Path 4 and the Heart chakra occur in early September, and path 7 just before the Fall equinox, which corresponds to the 7/6 turn. Path 6 and the visionary 6th chakra occur after the Fall equinox, and path 5 and the 5th chakra of making manifest correspond to the month October. As noted above, October is dedicated to Mary for making manifest the Rosary. The spiritual year ends with All Saint’s Day (Halloween) on October 31st.
Thus, the Heart dynamic is part of a Fall ritual of At-One-Ment. This would be particularly true for window 27 and the re-turn of old prior roles -the 7's- to the holes-in-the-flow in the Heart -akin to the leaves coming off the trees.
Other Spiritual and Mythological Themes
The Buddhist Notion of Tonglen
The Heart dynamic is also an example of the Buddhist notion of Tonglen - the purification practice of breathing in and purifying through one’s heart.
The Heart dynamic in a heart Place connects this purification process to a particular place, perhaps to specific ancestors and specific karma, suggests both individual and group rituals to facilitate the process, and views this purification process of compassion in a larger and seasonal context.
Thinking with your Head and not your Heart As Category II thought forms, the Old Prior Roles can also be thought of as “snowfences” that catch the wind of spirit and precipitate Prior Renditions that come from the prior roles. In the Grid, prior renditions are in Old Blue as window 17.
Having experiences that are based on Prior Roles is called, for example, by Native Americans as “thinking with your head.” This is thinking that is based on applied knowledge, social convention or past karma that is brought into the present. That is, Old Green and Old Orange in the Grid.
Thinking with your heart is based on new scripts (New Green) that are created in the moment by re-turning Old Plays and Old Roles and opening your Heart.
The Hero’s Journey
The classic Hero’s Journey is an example of thinking with your heart. A brief summary by Joseph Campbell is:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won. The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow men.”
The Heart dynamic is an example of the Hero’s Journey. In the Grid, the Hero rejects conventional thinking and prior roles (Old Orange and Old Green) and, as a Trickster leaps, so to speak, into Sagittarius and opens his heart.
With a passion for Feminine dominant Kundalini/serpent energy rising within him, he ventures forth and contacts the Goddess as Muse on the 7th chakra (Virgo/window 12). If he is rewarded, he re-ceives (re-takes) a Vision on the 6th chakra (Taurus/window 22) that he brings backs and manifests (Capricorn/window 11) and that creates a new culture (window 8) and new group experiences (window 29).
Run Amok - the myth of unprovoked violence.
Having studied the grids of events of unprovoked violence such as the Zantop murders at Dartmouth and the Woodward shooting in Brattleboro, VT, we believe that Run Amok can be associated with Old Green in the Grid, and that the gathering of old roles - the implosion - need not be dis-charged by unprovoked violence.
Individuals with planet metaphors in Old Green could be at risk for variations on the theme of “Running Amok.”
The Biology of the Heart Dynamic
The Biology of Prior Roles (Old Green)
1. Heart Dis-ease, Diabetes and Type A Blood type. A data base of grids accumulated over several years indicate that Old Green is associated with heart dis-ease and diabetes- both Type I insulin dependent and adult onset. Both heart dis-ease and diabetes are associated with Type A blood type, and a data base of 30 individuals of Type A blood type shows a cluster of planet metaphors in the Old Green portion of the grid.
2. Dopamine Synapse Old Green is also associated with dysfunction of the dopamine synapse in the limbic (emotional) part of the brain that can produce depression, alcoholism, schizophrenia, phobias, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The neurotransmitters dopamine and nor-epinephrine are derived from the amino acid tyrosine. Nor-epinephrine problems such as ADD appear to associate with window 27 in Old Green.
The fibromyalgia symptom complex that can also manifest with sleep and nervous system symptoms appears also associated with Old Green and the theme of the persistence of prior roles.
3. Genes on DNA are examples of Old Prior Roles (The protein that is made from transcribing a gene would be the prior rendition in Old Blue.)
We believe that the transcription of some DNA genes particularly those that have a TA-TA box in the promoter region relate to Old Green. (The TA-TA box refers to repeats of the thymine-adenine -TA pairing that contain two and not three hydrogen bonds.)
In this connection, a small group of women with non-Her2/neu breast cancer showed a cluster of planet metaphors in the Old Green portion of the grid. Those women with Her2/neu breast cancer showed a cluster of planet metaphors in the New Green portion of the grid.
This grid finding, which requires further study, is consistent with the biological mechanisms of those forms of breast cancer: non-Her2/neu would relate to transcription - the theme of Old Green, whereas, Her2/neu would relate to multiple genes copies and the creation of New Scripts - the theme of New Green.
These provocative findings suggest that the Grid can be a useful evaluation tool in breast and other cancers, and that the Heart dynamic and connecting to a Heart Place might be a safe, noninvasive, cost effective modality for specific kinds of breast and other cancers.
The Biology of Old Plays (Old Orange)
1. The Serotonin Synapse We believe that Old Orange and Trickster energy and closing old plays asociates with the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. In trees, the abscission of leaves in the fall relates to the plant hormone auxin, which has a chemical structure similar to serotonin and is also derived from the amino acid tryptophan. Thus, under the rubric of closing old plays, we include the amino acid tryptophan, serotonin, the plant hormone auxin and the abscission of leaves.
2. Chemical substances that promote or sustain Old Plays would be associated with window 25 and Old plays or group core beliefs. Included here would be the plant hormone auxin that sustains the leaves on trees, and, for example, estrogen, that sustains the growth phase of the uterus. Estrogen is also a growth factor that can promote the expression of genes on DNA, as in the Estrogen Induced Sequence on DNA on chromosome 21 that can be involved in breast cancer.
We propose that an Old Play category II metaphysical form in window 25 can function as metaphysical version of a chemical growth factor such as estrogen with the same biological functions as the physical estrogen. Thus, like estrogen the Group Core Belief could, for example, turn on genes on DNA. This would be Old Orange - an Old Play - inducing or turning on Old Green - Prior Roles.
Category II metaphysical forms in window 25 could also function as an antigen and produce allergy or an auto-immune dis-ease such as Type I diabetes, lupus or auto-immune thyroid dis-ease. In other words, the immune system is reacting appropriately to an metaphysical Old Play that does not belong in a person’s life.
3. In a few cases of Down syndrome, metaphors in Old Orange suggest the persistence of an Old Play that could be blocking the movement of chromosome 21 that results in the trisome of Down syndrome.
In a larger context, chromosome 21 -the smallest chromosome but the one associated with Alzheimer’s dis-ease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s dis-ease), one form of breast cancer and Down syndrome, all of which have environmental causes - might be a part of our bodies that is responding to Old Plays and old group core beliefs (Old Orange). This would be the elusive environmental factor in these dis-eases that are plaguing our society.
The Biology of New Scripts (New Green)
1. The major association here is to mood instability, mania and hypomania - the 7-6-5 chakra sequence having too much creative energy and producing the symptom of mania of racing thoughts.
2. As noted above, the New Green portion of the grid might also be associated with Her2/neu breast cancer -the manifesting of multiple copies of that gene.
Examples of Heart Places
Jamaica Vermont (in southeastern Vermont, about 25 miles northwest of Brattleboro along
Route 30 and Route 100.)
Background The energy of Jamaica was considered intense by the Native Americans. More recently, the place gathered creativity and people of ideas: Pearl Buck, Robert Penn Warren, Norman Mailer and Scott Nearing. Daniel Webster once came (nearby) as did the Millerite cult who went up on a low hill waiting for the world to end -the closing of an Old Play. When it did not, they were left with no firewood for the coming winter.
The Old Green Prior Roles come down the Low Hill of Route 30 and Main Street to the “Heart of Town” -the Church/Town Hall/Library/Inn/Main Street Studio area.
The Old Orange Old Plays are released in the Worden Hill area. The closing of Old Plays occurs along Depot Street -“Trickster Lane” to the Heart of Town.
The Feminine Dominant Kundalini/Serpent Arrow of Truth emerges along the diagonal to, for example, Water Street and the “Watershed” area.
The Jamaica Healing Project is now underway to test these Heart ideas of MASH.
Windber, Pennsylvania -(Somerset County in southwestern PA , seven miles SE of Johnstown) The “Healing Hillside” of the Windber Medical Center and the Windber Research Institute.
Background Starting in the early 20th century, Windber was a model company coal mining town, owned by the Berwind Coal Company. “Wind-ber” is “Ber-wind” reversed. The Berwinds came from Bavaria Germany and attracted thousands of east European immigrants to work the mines.
The Windber Medical Center and Windber Research Institute - a new state-of-the-art DNA, protein and breast cancer facility - is located on a low hill, and the buildings preserve the feng shui properties of the hillside. The hospital and research complex are surrounded by Catholic churches and cemeteries at the bottom and top of the hill.
I have called the low hill, the “Healing Hillside.”
In the past three years, this area of Somerset Country, Pennsylvania has repeatedly drawn national attention: the 9/11 plane crash in Shanksville; the nine trapped miners in Sipesville; the whistle blower of the Iraq prison abuse came from nearby Boswell. Most recently in August 2004, an image of Jesus appeared on the steps of the Admissions building of the Medical Center on the left side of the Healing Hillside.
In terms of Windber’s Healing Hillside and the Heart:
The Old Green Prior Roles would come down the left side of the Healing Hillside to the “Heart” -the lower left of the hospital grounds along Somerset Street.
In terms of Old Green and heart dis-ease, the Medical Center’s Ornish heart dis-ease treatment and prevention program is located on this left side -the Old Green part of the Healing Hillside.
The Old Orange Old Plays would come across Somerset Street -“Trickster Lane” from the right to the Heart. Lining this part of Somerset Street are the old sycamore trees, which form the logo of the Planetree Hospital organization of the WMC; that logo refers to Hippocrates.
The Feminine Dominant Kundalini/Serpent Arrow of Truth would emerge along the diagonal to the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center on the upper right of the Healing Hillside.
In terms of pulse and drumming, spiritual drumming is already occurring as part of the WMC’s alternative approach. Very soon, the WMC will be designated a spiritual drumming center in a more formal way.
A classic seven path labyrinth is also on the hospital grounds.
Hopefully, Windber’s Healing Hillside will be another place to test the Heart idea of MASH.
Brattleboro, Vermont
We suspect that the low hill area of the West Village Meeting House on Western Avenue that houses both the All Soul’s Church and the local Jewish congregation is also a Heart Place. The shooting of Robert Woodward - a bizarre “run amok” event - occurred there on December 2, 2001.