Europa and the Bull: chakras of Europe (1)

Europa and the Bull: chakras of Europe (2)

Europa and the Bull: chakras of Greater Europe

Europa: The Three Lands and Chakra System

Europe takes its name from the myth of Europa and the Bull, the story of which is written in the heavens in the hieroglyph of the constellation of Taurus.

According to a particular tradition and geomantic viewpoint that sees the myth as describing the spiritual purpose, archetype and geomantic nature of Europe, Europa (the goddess) is a symbolic name for the three countries known historically as Scotland, Ireland and Britain (i.e. England and Wales), whilst the Bull is signified by mainland Europe.

As in the myth, the Bull rises out of the Black Sea with Europa on his mighty neck and shoulders, his head down, back arched. In the good version of the myth, the Bull flies, for the cherubic or loving Bull is winged. Scandinavia is believed to signify the wings of the European Bull.

The major chakras of the European Bull stretch from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, from Bucharest (the root) to Santiago de Compostella (the crown). Constance marks his heart, Madrid his brow (the Bull’s Eye), Bourges his throat, Vienna his solar plexus, and Belgrade his sacral chakra.

This is one perception, in which the Danube conducts the spinal flow of energy from heart down through the lower body of the Bull. However, if one follows the ancient pilgrimage route to Asia Minor rather than the river, then the Rila-Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria, home of the Dionysian and Orphic Mysteries, form a natural sacral chakra, with Istanbul, the bridge between Europe and Asia, being the root chakra.

Then, in what might be called ‘Greater Europe’, which includes Asia Minor (the Near East), the root chakra is located in Turkey. This arrangement, in which the chakras of the Bull arch across Europe like a bow (and in which the brow and solar plexus chakras are displaced from the pilgrimage version), seems to be one known to the early Christians. This bow is significant, linking as it does with the symbolism of Eros (Cupid) and forming part of the Heart Cross of Europe.

Ephesus, the great centre of the goddess Artemis (Diana), where St John and the Virgin Mary went to live and where he died and his body was buried, is the focus of the root chakra of Greater Europe. Its opposite polarity, the crown chakra, is centred on Santiago de Compostela, where St James, the brother of St John, went to preach and where, after James’ execution in Jerusalem, his disciples interred his body in a marble tomb after painstakingly transporting it across the Mediterranean Sea. Both places became premier places of pilgrimage in the centuries following. The line between them strings the bow, thereby making, as it were, a musical instrument.

Europa has her own set of chakras. She is composed of three ancient lands—Scotland, Ireland and Britain—each of which has its own landscape temple complete with chakra system and zodiac.

© Peter Dawkins