According to the seer, Orudu is a king within the realms of fire. He governs those fire which confront mankind with fear and dread such as volcanoes exploding. The name Orudu translates:
The letters in Orudu's name are magical and have these meanings:
The "O": He senses and knows the mass, the weight,
and the balance of mountains and continents as they move.
The "R": He is autonomous--authorized to act on his own
initiative according to his own insight. He builds according to
his own designs. He strives to perfect his work and to accomplish
all that he plans.
The "U": He perceives the web of forces, no matter how
obscure, which shape mountains and continents.
The "D": There is a Jovian element in his nature--Orudu is
expansive. His perspective is global. His work encompasses the
planet and he has a great number of servants. He is coordinator,
mediator, and the architect of shifting continents.
The "U": There is no fire on the surface of the earth or
under the earth which can not be influenced by Orudu's will. And
though his plans are his own, he is neither arbitrary nor
capricious. He has a profound and intricate understanding of how
his actions influence the rest of the planet.
Orudu added this about himself: "A blacksmith heats metal, hammers it on an anvil, and shapes it according to his needs. A master fashions a sword intricately weaving the metal into a more perfect form. A steel mill blasts molten iron with oxygen to burn up the carbon so the metal can be hard and endure. Even so I lay hold of the world, bending mountains and moving continents to comply with my will.
"I take into account the erosion of winds and rains. I consider the cooling effect of water as my volcanoes rise from the seas. I take into account gravity, ice ages, and the shifting poles.
"I study the resiliency of rocks, their cracks, and fault lines. I foresee and initiate earthquakes with my mind. Vegetation, rivers, water tables, and deserts--these too I overview. I am a craftsman and my work encompasses both the depths and the surface of this planet." When it comes to engineering and the preservation of the biosphere, Orudu's skill and knowledge is surely centuries ahead of mankind. And yet, we might also learn something from Orudu in the area of love. Surely, as an individual or a race grows wise, there comes a time when it is essential, if we are to be at home on earth, to draw power and love into one embrace.
This is a brief exercise for learning to see the world as Orudu sees it. First, consider the ways the human body absorbs energy and maintains equilibrium. Recall how your body temperature is regulated, e.g., capillaries dilate to change blood flow to the extremities and skin temperature alters due to perspiration.
Note other aspects of metabolism. The kidneys regulate the concentration of salt and ions and purify the blood. The pancreas insures an appropriate level of blood sugar. The adrenal glands enable us to respond quickly in an emergency. The lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide as we breathe. The heart governs the strength and speed of blood flow. And the digestive system breaks down cabrohydrates into simple sugars.
Consider also these mechanisms which regulate the temperature of the planet--the currents and tides within the oceans, circulating winds and clouds, day and night, the axis of the planet in relation to the sun producing the seasons. Ice ages come and go; ocean levels rise and fall. Volcanic ashe hurled into the jet stream cools the earth for years at a time as do asteroids hitting the planet every few thousand years.
Imagine some of the extremes of temperature and weather. For example, picture yourself on the top of Mt. Everest. The wind chill factor this evening as the sun sets is ninety degrees below zero. Notice the colors, the wind, the ice and snow.
Now imagine walking through Death Valley in California. The temperature today is a hundred thirty degrees above zero. Notice the colors--reds, browns, ash, grays of chalky flaked and baked clay as tiles of dirt bend and are shaped by the sun's fierce heat. Notice the low level of moisture in the air. Notice the air like a blast of heat on your face as when you open a hot oven.
Consider too different kinds of lava. There is the fast flowing lava which is more viscous than water. Lava tubes form as rivers of lava race underground. Slower moving lava creaks and crackles as it moves--a small hillside thirty feet high ambling along at two miles an hour. Though slow, it is massive and inexorable as it comes toward you. Houses built in ill-fated suburbs burst into flames before fingers of fire even reach out to touch the painted wood.
Travel with me to visit an active cinder cone. See vermilion flames like gas storms hurled into the air and driven by waves from lakes beneath the ground. As the lava cools, black rocks form a ragged sea spreading out to the horizon.
Walk with me now through a tropical rain forest on the Big Island of Hawaii. Pause as we stop to pick guava, bananas, and mangoes. The landscape is rich and full of the sounds of birds. The blue ocean sparkles in the distance. Yet all of this land was formed from the fiery molten breath of volcanoes raging with terrible pressure from beneath the earth. The magma here raises mountains thirty thousand feet above the ocean floor.
The land itself contracts and expands rising three feet as the magma builds in fiery chambers not very far beneath our feet. Heat is an intricate part of the earth. It is the force moving continents and causing teutonic plates to slide. Pause for a moment to consider the larger view--all the land masses of the earth are in motion. Like our bodies, the earth has its own energy systems and points of equilibrium.
Let me now introduce Orudu, one of the eight kings of the fire element on earth. I create with my imagination a circle of flames, intense, condensed, and dynamic. This circle is a pillar of fire carefully contained. There is also a feeling in the air reminiscent of tectonic pressures, volcanoes exploding, and massive fires. In other words, I contemplate the fires of the earth--gathering and distilling their essence into my room.
I suggest to Orudu that he and I meet in this place of intense heat. Orudu is not as far away as you might imagine. He never distant from a purpose which originates from spiritual will and which concerns itself with the fire element.
Actually, I have spent months attuning my mind to Orudu's. Consequently, I do not check off each component in a long list of ritual procedures. When you know something well, working with it becomes second nature.
Ah, here he is now. Orudu appears. He is seven feet tall and of massive build. Look at him. Red colors radiate about him like lakes of fire alongside a lava flow.
Orudu has a very strong forehead and a square chin. His back contains incredible power. There is a sea of fire within his strength. It might be easy to become disoriented if I were not familiar with his personality. There is a terrible and fierce will present, a will that both destroys and creates.
When Orudu speaks, his voice echoes in loud and thunderous words. I imagine I could hear him easily twenty miles away. His very breath carries a force like magma under great pressure breaking free.
His eyes are a cross between a blow torch and a welding torch. They are dazzling and their power is a great reminder, as if you needed any, that this is a being from another realm--looking into his eyes is like looking into the mind and heart of a volcano.
It is difficult in the presence of this being to not begin to see and feel whirlwinds of flame, exploding volcanoes, and massive earthquakes as if you are standing in the midst of them. Yet Orudu has a purpose, a commission, and a work. By his will, magma moves from deep in the earth to form a volcanic mountain fifteen thousand feet above sea level. There is little that can oppose him.
Take a moment to contemplate Orudu's nature. Allow your heart and mind to become a vast, open, and luminous space like the sky. Enter into a stillness great enough so that you can imagine a being such as Orudu safely drawing near.
It is easy enough to imagine that if someone, in a dream or vision, ran into Orudu, he might be afraid. He might feel he was facing the mouth of chaos opening to reveal an abyss of flames. But there is no need for us to overreact or to be melodramatic. Orudu renders a service to the Earth. He is one of Her assistants. He is responsible for a small part of the biosphere.
Of course, when we witness a Mount St. Helens or a Mount Ruapehu hurling ash, steam, and dust into the atmosphere we might feel overwhelmed by the sight of such raw power. An entire forest of trees may be destroyed in moments. Lightning storms thunder. Shock waves rage over the surface of the world like the eye of a titan awakening and blinking after millions of years of hybernation. Red, angry, burning clouds of pulverized rock travel downwind for hundreds of miles.
Indigenous tribal leaders point out that this or that volcano is fulfilling a role. They say, for example, that the volcano is asserting its mana or authority over the land. In other words, it is acting with intel- ligence. What for us is but natural phenomena is for them a drama enacted in a mythical landscape. Its signi- ficance and bearing affects our collective psyche.
We, however, belong to a modern world. We have put aside mythology. We no longer see ourselves participat- ing in a cosmic pageantry of self-discovery and renewal. We no longer seek visions nor undertake quests to re- create ourselves as we gaze into the magic mirror of nature. We assume we have a monopoly when it comes to intelligence and exercising will.
Yet even now in this very moment as I write, scien- tists are risking their lives daily to probe and reveal the mysteries of volcanoes. They fly in flimsy, paper- thin helicopters into the very jaws of the volcano to take samples of lava and gasses. They take up residence in old, wooden hotels not far from the slopes leading up to the caldera.
They sit out on their lanai's at dusk watching the volcano
knowing that if it explodes they will only have a few moments to
live. These scientists venture beyond the boundaries of reason.
Does the scientific method require them to risk their lives in
order to comprehend the powers of fire?
Of course, scientists are not bards and poets. They
do not construct metaphors to decipher the mysteries of
nature. They use formulas. They analyze. They test hypo-
theses. They hold symposiums and they apply for research
grants.
They teach. They do field research, but their resumes do not read: "Possesses high levels of empathy." Rather, they study each other's published research and strengthen their theories in response to criticism. But they do not master dreamlike states of awareness which attune their hearts to the subject they are mastering. Evocations are not part of their curriculum. And it would it never occur to them to engage in conversations with the energy which underlies natural phenomena.
But my point is still well-taken. If you observe the behavior of many volcanologists, you will see that they act like men possessed. Like a magician who has fallen under the sway of a diabolically beautiful undine, these scientists are held spellbound by the enchantments of fire. They risk their lives, but they have no mytho- logy. For them, volcanoes are neither sacred nor alive.
They will never think or say that a volcano symbol- izes the uninhibited passion of the earth rising up from out of the depths. But they are enthralled because the fire they scrutinize commands unknown passions within their souls--it evokes a source of life they have never known.
There are scientists in all fields of endeavor whose dedication rivals that of the greatest magicians. They make immense sacrifices for the sake of their work. They ask little or nothing for themselves--only that their sense of wonder be quenched as they take possession of a sliver of knowledge which has never before been known.
But whereas they deny their adoration for fire, insisting they are objective, impartial observers, and utterly neutral, I am more honest then they. Fire is not just a power in the physical world. Fire is where we forge our spiritual will--spiritual power is an actual substance we can learn to control.
I am not writing about Orudu because I am obsessed with fire. I am not driven to master occult or archane techniques of hermetics because I am fascinated by the forbidden. My motivation derives from this: if we would master the barriers separating human beings from each other, we would do well to remember that we are not separate from nature. The fog rolling across the meadows and the dawn light breaking through, the trees drinking in the sunlight--we can feel these too. The devouring hunger, the seemingly inhuman throbbing and pulse within fire-- there is nothing within nature that does not reveal something hidden within ourselves.
Orudu, for all his immense power, is but a passion burning within our own souls. He represents a respon- sibility for the earth we have yet to assume. He is a power and a might lying dormant within our own wills.
Of course, others will argue that a salamander such as Orudu only belongs to fairy tales or, at best, to a supernatural order of the world--to a spiritual dimen- sion. They would insist that the kind of empathy I employ is best left in the hands of God.
Science, on the other hand, is legitimate. It deals with truth because, in the end, all of its claims are established on an empirical basis. What we think as individuals, our own beliefs and spiritual awareness, is not a part of that verification process.
However, my position is that it is too late for leaving the knowledge of our souls in the hands of God alone. We, and not God, have invented and built nuclear arsenals armed with the powers of fission and fusion. We are the ones who use the heat generated by radiation to produce electricity. It is our own human will which has already unlocked three of the four basic, primordial powers which sustain the order of the universe.
Still, it is a great leap of imagination to envision how intelligence can interact with matter. Our world culture is focused on the external world. It seems perfectly ordinary, for example, that a team of scien- tists and technicians would spend fourteen thousand man hours in planning and launching the Voyager space probe.
And yet, in another culture, a single individual in one lifetime, such as Kalu Rinpoche, will spend fourteen thousand man hours in exploring the powers of his own mind. Rather than using scientists, engineers, and industrialists, he visualizes holographic mandalas to study the workings of the inner and outer world. Rather than using computers to correlate, calculate, and run simulations, he evokes within himself the forces active within the human psyche.
As we gaze into the fiery caldera of an erupting volcano, it is another part of our mind and imagination which responds than that which science commands. It is not so strange to imagine a being who stands behind this force of nature--a being whose apprenticeship spans a billion years, a being whose commission is to watch over the movement of continents and the equilibrium of the planet earth.
Of course, this is what you might expect someone to say whose interest is not just in philisophical understanding. I am interested in the wisdom which underlies all scientific knowledge and all power which human beings may attain. Concerning Orudu, I am not someone taking others into an unknown world and revealing its mysterious treasures. I am not crossing over spiritual boundaries at the peril of my soul. We, the human race, are already learning to see through the eyes of stars and to utilize subatomic particles in our industries and technologies. We already scrutinize, experiment with, and apply the powers of creation.
Perhaps, then, we have much in common with Orudu. His scope of activity encompasses the entire earth. When our scientists study volcanoes and try to predict their eruptions, we have already invaded Orudu's own thoughts and dreams. After all, Orudu himself would smile in agreement when scientists say, "Like individuals, each volcano has its own unique behavior pattern."
You see, linkage between minds becomes inevitable. Our thoughts are not so different from his. He senses and studies magnetism, electrical conductivity, and hypo- thermic fields within volcanoes as do we. In fact, issues concerning the ozone layer, global warming, the level of the ocean, and the next ice age--which is already overdue--are concerns of his as well.
Perhaps it is time we added another academic discipline to our universities along with environmental and ecological studies. For a billion years, Orudu has been doing biosphere planning, architecture, and engineering. Perhaps this is something we should do as well if we wish live in peace on the earth.
It is difficult to find a place to sit among these vol- canic rocks. Even though I am standing where the sea washes the shore during high tide, the rocks are still jagged. The tides and surf have not yet worn smooth their sharp edges.
I am below the cliffs of Makapu'u on the island of Oahu. This area is deserted. Even fishermen rarely come here to sit the night and fish from the shore. I find a rock to sit on and settle down listening to the splashing waves and the howl of the wind. I reach out with my mind and begin contemplating the islands of Hawaii.
I feel the entire island of Oahu around me. I feel the waves breaking on its beaches. I feel a number of small pools which gather the water of the Ko'olau moun- tains. I see them. I hear their sounds. I taste the water. I feel the sensations of the water flowing around my body.
I gaze into the small valleys hidden away at the crests of the mountains. I gaze also at the bays and sense the fish swimming within them. I feel the island mass as it descends down to the ocean floor.
As I contemplate all of this, Orudu and his consort appear nearby. Both are in human form and are sitting five feet from me. We are next to a tide pool which is about thirty feet long. Orudu is virtually beaming with happiness and joy. He has that radiance which can still be seen in some Hawaiian men as they walk upon the land which is satur- ated with the energy of their ancestors.
Orudu turns to me and says, "Greetings. I am not surprised you have found us. This is a place of sacred power. And there is a story to be found here which has never been told. Gaze upon us, why don't you, with your clairvoyant vision. See if you can feel as we do the beauty of this place. Use your voice which searches for all that is hidden and fashion for us a poem.
The energy in the air is full of a wine fermented in a world where love and power are joined. I compose this poem for Orudu and the beautiful lady who sits by his side. I take the liberty of speaking with Orudu's voice:
Three to six feet deep, ten feet From the razorsharp, rocky volcanic shore The crests of the sea's pounding waves Nourish these pools This is where I come to worship Memories of what has been and what shall be Cuping your head in my hands You float naked Ripples running from your body Across the mirrorlike surface Returning again From the edges of the pool Striving to reach across your hips To swirl in the crease To circle and curve As they embrace your breasts Set like a diamond in an emerald sea Your body lit In each drop of water Raging and sparkling with solar flame upon your skin, The bottom of the pool Blue-green over saffron and rust sands, Manini, aholehole, humuhumu lei and a-pua'a also Linger in the crevices Cast here upon the surge at high tide, Your arms float by your sides A pod of whales, two adults, two calves Frolic off shore Breaching and spouting Your legs slide beneath the surface Following the moon diving beneath the horizon The high tide lets go its hold upon the shore. The water is thick in these pools Yet here the moist tongue's tip-- The taste of salt On your skin The taste of desire Light dipping into water The glow of fire Water yielding Rippling shadows The dancing heat stroking The sun caressing your skin Once each century I journey to these pools in mortal form Just beneath Makapu'u's cliffs But older than this island of Oahu I have risen from beneath the waves Exploding, unfolding, flowing From beneath the mantel of the earth Yielding to my hunger To build new islands To expand from fiery depths Concealed in mammoth lakes of fire Who am I? No bite, sting, tear, nor puncture Can match the devouring hunger Flaring and imploding within my mouth, When I cast off The garments concealing my shoulders My strength appears: I am the one Who rivets the land masses To the continental shelves, I am the one Who twists in his palm The folds and valleys in the oceans' depths Every last one of them They surrender before my power: The tidal waves The titanic force rippling through the earth When but for an instant I touch them in their sensitive place As this woman Who, in freedom, returns to me again and again Yielding her love to me Once each century we appear again In mortal form to celebrate The beauty of these islands where we first met I, a god of fire, one of eight elemental kings, And she, once a mortal woman, She floats again in this pool Held steady by my soft touch. The fire in our love for each other Is unmatched by any other lovers on earth.
When I am done, they smile at each other. Their faces shine with dark passion and power. I wonder if it might not be safer for me if I was not here--the air is suddenly thick with static electricity. But the woman stands up and embraces me.
She says, "We have met before in your dreams. I see your heart has been healed of the wound it once had. And I see you have grown to love these islands. They shine in your aura."
I ask them, "Will you tell me the story of how the two of you met and fell in love?"
Orudu says as he glances at his consort, "Why yes, I think we can do that."
And then laughing he says, "And furthermore, I think you would keep pestering me forever until I finally gave in. But another time would be better to tell you this tale. Just now I am under the spell of the light in my lover's eyes. I do not care to venture beyond the boundaries of this moment."
Several weeks later I was camping alone in Haleakala Crater. It was just after dawn. The night winds were bitter, bitter cold. I got up before dawn and did a little jig outside my tent in a feeble attempt to get warm. Just then the sun began to rise above the clouds to the East. Over to my right, I saw Orudu walking toward me. I felt his warm aura bathe my skin.
Orudu sat down near to me. We talked for a while about the crater and the island of Maui. Orudu then spoke, "I promised you a story. This is a good time and place to begin." And then turning his gaze inward for a moment as if looking back through time, he said, "This is how it was. I was surveying these islands. The actual process is not easily translated into human language.
"Put simply, I was feeling the land with my soul. Even though these islands have taken shape by the power of my will, any act of creation is always charged with wonder--and the art inspired by wonder is independent and shines with its own life. My soul and the soul of the Earth blend and speak with each other through the energy flowing within the land.
"I felt a pulse in my right arm. My muscles suddenly felt weaker, my strength being siphoned off--something was distracting me from attending to my task. There was another spirit here who was disturbing my concentration. Of course, it did not take but a moment to locate the source.
"I rose up from out of the earth to the surface. There was a woman, a member of your race, sitting on newly formed volcanic rocks not very far from the ocean.
"I drew near to where she sat. The ocean waves were breaking nearby, the tide was in. Occasionally, sulfuric fumes, white and wind driven, drifted through the air. Paler and coarser than clouds or mist, they floated over the black landscape as if being nourished by the heart of the rocks.
"I turned my full attention on this woman whose presence seemed to undermine my will. She, like me, was sensing the land with her mind. She was meditating on my craft and the works of my design. She asked herself, What spirit shapes the land with his hands breathing his soul life into its forms and calling it with a voice of power to rise from the sea floor?
"Even as she was asking herself these questions, her mind, with the ease of a spider weaving a web, was cleverly constructing an image of me. Through some mysterious art, she had begun to create my face in her heart. I was almost certain that if I waited a little while longer, she would begin singing an incantation or weaving an enchantment to call me forth.
"This moment was like no other I have ever known. I began to feel her hands caressing my body, her heart seeking mine, her mind a clear crystal inviting the light of my spirit to enter it and shine within its radiant purity.
"And so, in this first impression, I was shaken to the depths. As an earthquake cracks the rocks, its fingers searching into every crevice and secret place, this woman's heart slipped inside my soul.
"I stepped back for a moment and pondered on this. The mind that forms tools is goaded on by pressing need. The mind that fashions crafts to sail the seas is drawn by longing and curiosity. The mind that seeks the herbs to heal disease desires to link the body and soul in harmony. The minds of humans flash bright and brilliant or carry darkness and sorrow. But rarely do humans ever journey past the boundaries of their own mortality. Their thoughts and lives, whether preoccupied with the practical or the theoretical, are chained to their own desires and destiny.
"The eye receives light into a dark place, shapes images, and then cloaks its visions in form and substance. The ear captures sound in a net of silence, tracks harmony into the innermost lair where it hides to fashion new songs.
"The faintest touch and the nervous system is saturated with life in the form of these opposites: The sun is dazzling with all the potentials of life; the moon barren, cold, and yet her silvery light guides all passions to places of delight; and the earth is a womb where time and space put aside their war for supremacy--they make a truce and build a home so that life can flourish in countless forms.
"These three, I declare it: the sun, moon, and earth are one system of energy, one field of life. The sun's boundless source of power is easily captured, contained, and toned down by its opposite--serene lunar mansions which sing in the tides and the seasons of the earth. And the earth nurses from her breasts all life, all seeds take root within her and find a place of birth.
"These three are not incompatible nor disjunct as your religions on earth imagine. Oh, I have watched the human race and considered its search for ideals. Some religions make the moon the mother of life, worshiping her outside at night, reverencing her lunar light.
"Others raise high steeples in praise of the solar Logos which shines by day and orders the world with reason. Such would build and dominate the earth without a thought of how to nourish or to heal.
"Some attune themselves to plant and tree, animal, mineral, and the seasons. And also, there are religions which seek to master pure awareness without any reference to the external world or to nature--as if the Mystery could be discovered without studying its manifestations. You can imagine what I think of that!
"Yet none of these read gravity waves nor sense the tides which move the continents. Each tries to deny the truth the others see. Their hearts are not big enough to embrace the world.
"The sun has its seasons and tides flow upon his surface and currents through its depths. The moon, a magic mirror, reflects the future and all that exists. Her soul unfolds cycles of time in ways the sun can not imagine.
"And the two together, their gravity waves pulse in the land, the mountains, the seas. Electro-magnetic currents, solar winds, the North Lights, the North and South poles, the aligning of ions and energy fields in rocks and trees, these intermingle and taste each other's breath.
"I have watched this for countless eons: power exploding from the source, flowing back upon itself, and then flowing forth into the receptive. The gentle waves and the absorbing seas drink in this heat inviting the raging hunger in solar winds to offer even more. The land and seas respond with passion to every desire within fire and yet never surrender their own depths of tranquility and peace.
"Why then, I asked myself, if this is the order of the universe, why should I exist without a compliment? Is there no opposite of myself, no one whose passion matches my own? Is there not a soul that shines with such light that I can find rest within her arms? Is there no mate whom I may seek whose needs I satisfy in a way which is unique and complete? These questions were born within my mind like heat lightning in an empty sky when I gazed upon her face."
"As I watched this woman, I realized she did not make me
feel weak. Rather, I just felt young again. As she contemplated
the origins of these islands, I recalled my own birth billions of
years before--
"When I awoke, the world was volcanic, fiery, and wild. I
knew that my task was to bring meaning to chaos--to provide order
and harmony. I was to watch over the forces separating the lands
and seas. I was to shape and arrange the continental land
masses. By my will, mountains arose or crumbled back into the
seas.
"It is I who uncorked volcanoes and left them raging for a million years. It is I who spoke to them with my voice and bid them sleep again. Such is my power--it is I who designed, laid the foundations, and then compartmentalized time so it took on the form of geologic ages. The rays of the sun shining clear or shaded, the ice poles and ice ages, the jet stream and the trade winds, the climate of the world obeyed my will.
"I recalled my youth. I was free to explore the world and to discover who I was and the nature of my powers. It was a time of unbridled passion and delight. The exhilaration was immense when I closed my hand into a fist and watched a land mass buckle and twist. How exhalted I felt in fanning magma with my breath, pressing it up through the faults and cracks until a mountain exploded when I shouted `Now.' I felt all of this as I watched her sitting there, as I watched the workings of her spirit."
(Note: for the rest of this story, see my forthcoming book on elemental beings.)