Lightning as the archetype of pathfinding

Lightning in archetypal traditions is often associated with very fearsome deities who have the power to create cataclysmic events that can affect the whole cosmos. In Indian tradition, there is a deity called Indra whose weapon is the thunderbolt, and he is feared for his powers to create huge weather events and bring about great change. Lightning also has an association with archetypal dance, which is very interesting.

Apsaras, the archetypal dancers were also described as lightning. They were often said to appear in the sky like bolts of lightning, or their movement is compared to the swiftness and the power and the transience of lightning. Apsaras are also associated with the court of Indra. So what is this relationship between dance and lightning? And what does it say about light dance itself? If we consider lightning, it is something that happens suddenly. And there is this momentary and transient illumination. Let me share another story with you, which I think will help me to explain to you this relationship between dance and lightning better.

I don't know where the story comes from. I read it a while ago, and I can't remember where it comes from. Now, if any of you listening to this, remember the source of the story, please share it in the comments below. So in this particular parable, or story, a philosopher and mystic were walking in a forest at night, and there is this sudden bolt of lightning, the philosopher looks at the sky, the mystic looks down. And for the mystic, the lightning illuminates the path through this forest. This is exactly what dance does. With our usual ways of analyzing and describing, we take a very objective view. So we when we see the lightning, like the philosopher, we look up at the lightning and we ponder about what it is, why is it there? The science of it. And I'm not saying any of that is not valuable. I'm just speaking about the different role that dance as an intelligence play. For the mystic what the what the lightning does, it momentarily illuminates the path. So there is that very humble, simple movement, what is this movement that is possible, right here. And now that simplicity of that, and of course, it's very common that mystics were dancers in traditions across the world, there is this confluence of the mystic-dancer-poet. Dance is what illumines the path the way in the moment. It doesn't give us a roadmap. It doesn't give us a rationale. It doesn't solve something solve reality, but it gives us that immediate movement. It's not saying here is the all the parts in the forest, and this is what you can do. But it's saying where you are now in this darkness, here's this illumination for this movement. And what the lightning holds is transience. It acknowledges reality as something that is an unfolding movement. And the question is, is a roadmap really an effective way of navigating reality? If reality is an incessantly unfolding intelligence, then is it that I'm talking about the whole movement of reality here, then, is it adequate to want to have a roadmap does it really serve us well? Or does it serve us better to be able to have the intelligence and I'm to, to be able to allow the lightning to illuminate is where are we attending to? And this was the offering of dance as a teaching.