The Veil

By Diane Wing, M.A.

Consider the everyday uses of the veil:  some cultures use it to hide the faces of women, some use it to tantalize, thinly draping the body so that only an outline can be seen The veil is a transition, as when a groom lifts the veil of the bride to take her from a single woman into a new life as a wife, or between one room and another.

These mundane representations serve to symbolize the implications of the mystical and occult, where the veil stands for limitations of awareness that prevent human beings from directly perceiving divine realities.  Exemplifying this concept is the famous veil from ancient Israel, the Veil of the Sanctuary, said to separate the room where the Ark of the Covenant, a vessel of God, was kept from the rest of King Solomon’s temple.

According to the Book of Exodus, it was purple, scarlet, and blue.  These colors are symbolic of the crown chakra, allowing divine connection to Spirit (purple), the root chakra, the base of the source or Kundalini energy (scarlet), and the throat chakra, the center of communication (blue).

The Books of Mark and Luke indicate that the Veil of the Sanctuary tore when Jesus was crucified.   The barrier between the physical and the spirit planes which separated God from humanity had been broken, the boundary had been transcended, and so the Veil tore.

In mythology, the goddess Ishtar is allowed to pass from the world of the living to the underworld, but must remove an article of clothing at each of the seven gates, this being one possible origin of the story for the Dance of the Seven Veils.  The gradual peeling away is symbolic of the necessary steps to reveal one’s true nature, a shedding of external layers to uncover the essence of the individual to have a clear understanding of the self and to be closer to Spirit.

The Veil as the filmy barrier between the world of the physical and that of the spirit varies in density depending on the time of year and the individual’s ability to see the spirit world.  For those with psychic ability, the view is still shrouded in fog, yet accessible a good amount of the time.  For those without the gift of second sight, the Veil is thick and impenetrable.  The spirit world is not available to one such as this.  During certain times of the year – autumn and Halloween in particular – the Veil is thinnest and is the best time for divination.  Those who are able to access the Veil have experienced it as a place of silence, calm, and peace.  All that is outside of the Veil is motion, noise, and desire.  To be in the Veil is to be both separate from the physical world and a part of the oneness of Spirit.

OM Times Magazine » syndicated