The Crying Gland

pineal
adj.
1. resembling a pine cone in shape.
2. of or pertaining to the pineal gland.
[1675-85; < NL pinealis = L pine(a) pine cone, n. use of fem. of pineus of a pine tree (pin(us)PINE[1] + -eus -EOUS) + -alis -AL[1]]

-AL[1]
a suffix with the general sense “of the kind of, pertaining to, having the form or character of” that named by the stem, occurring in loanwords from Latin (autumnal; natural; pastoral), and productive in English on the Latin model, usu. with bases of Latin origin (accidental; seasonal; tribal). Compare -ICAL,

-al[3]
a suffix used in the names of chemical compounds that contain an aldehyde group: acetal; furfural.
[prob. extracted from CHLORAL]

pineal body
n. PINEAL GLAND [1830-40]

pineal gland
n. a small, cone-shaped endocrine organ in the posterior forebrain, secreting melatonin and involved in biorhythms and gonadal development. Also called epiphysis.

pine[2]

1. to yearn deeply; long painfully: to pine for one’s family.
2. to fail gradually in health or vitality from grief, regret, or longing (often fol. by away).
v.t.
3. Archaic. to suffer grief or regret over.
n.
4. Archaic. painful longing.
[bef. 900; ME: to torment, be in pain; OE pinian to torture, der. of pin torture (ME pine) << L poena punishment. See PAIN]
Syn. See YEARN.

yearn
v.i.,
1. to have an earnest or strong desire; long.
2. to feel tenderness; be moved.
[bef. 900; ME yernen, OE giernan, der. of georn eager, c. OS, OHG gern, Go -gairns desirous; akin to Gk chaírein to rejoice, Skt háryati (he) desires]
Syn. YEARN, LONG, HANKER, PINE all mean to feel a strong desire for something. YEARN stresses the depth and power of the desire: to yearn to begin a new life. LONG implies a wholehearted desire for something that seems unattainable: to long to relive one’s childhood. HANKER suggests a restless craving: to hanker after fame and fortune. PINE adds the notion of physical or emotional suffering due to the real or apparent hopelessness of one’s desire: to pine for a lost love.

I was listening to American Empire Restored w/ Dr. Yaffa Bey and the mentioned the pineal gland. I’m familiar with a plethora of material concerning this gland. So I decided to look up the terms again and see if anything new pops out. I was looking up Pineal, which sent me to look up the suffix -al and the word pine. When I got to yearn, some wheels turned.

Once when I was doing a cleansing bath, I was laying with my head submerged and I remember feeling two senses. Comfort and Intense Longing. I’ve often dealt with unrequited desire so I’m no stranger to broken hearts and feeling let down or lost, nor to losing something you admire. But this feeling was for lack of a better word, intense. My heart beat took on a soft low tone in the water, almost like the wings of birds flapping. Almost like the sonogram sounds but with more air to it.

Pine-al Gland: The gland of the kind of, pertaining to, and having the form or character of painful longing experienced via physical or emotional suffering due to the real or apparent hopelessness of one’s desire, reminded me of some Gnostic and Greek theories and mythologies.

Sophia and Ialdabaoth:
In some Gnostic traditions the force of the universe expands and it’s final manifestation is Sophia or Wisdom. Out of a yearning to know the original Creator she gives birth to a demi-God, Ialdabaoth who in turn creates the material world. He becomes conceited and arrogant, and his creation (matter) becomes fallen and trapped within his dominion. In this legend the God of the Old testament is seen as evil and Christ is the only emissary of the light world.
Gnostic Theurgy P.16 (pdf)

The importance of Sophia can be best understood when we understand the primal myth behind
her nature. Throughout many cultures there has been the legend of the Goddess who is stolen
from the world of life and is taken to the underworld. There she is kept captive pinning for her
lover who is still in the other world. She waits and pines until at last some salvation is achieved
by her hero coming into the underworld to save her.
The Gnostic Handbook P.31 (pdf)

Orpheus (which is also where we get the word orphan) and Eurydice:
Orpheus became united to a lovely nymph named Eurydice, the daughter of the sea-god Nereus, whom he fondly loved. She was no less attached to him, and their married life was full of joy and happiness. But it was only short-lived; for Aristæus, the half-brother of Orpheus, having fallen in love with the beautiful Eurydice, forcibly endeavoured to take her from her husband, and as she fled across some fields to elude his pursuit, she was bitten in the foot by a venomous snake, which lay concealed in the long grass. Eurydice died of the wound, and her sorrowing husband filled the groves and valleys with his piteous and unceasing lamentations. Finally he determined to brave the horrors of the underworld, in order to entreat Hades to restore to him his beloved wife. Hades consented to release Eurydice on condition that he should not look upon her until they reached the upper world. Orpheus gladly promised to comply with this injunction, and, followed by Eurydice, ascended the steep and gloomy path which led to the realms of life and light. All went well until he was just about to pass the extreme limits of Hades, when, forgetting for the moment the hard condition, he turned to convince himself that his beloved wife was really behind him. The glance was fatal, and destroyed all his hopes of happiness; for, as he yearningly stretched out his arms to embrace her, she was caught back, and vanished from his sight for ever. At last he happened to cross the path of some Thracian women, who were performing the wild rites of Dionysus, and in their mad fury at his refusing to join them, they tore him in pieces. His head was thrown into the river Hebrus, and as it floated down the stream, the lips still continued to murmur the beloved name of Eurydice.
An Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology By James Hampton Belton P. 96 (pdf)

This lover waiting and pining for the loved one is a theme seen all over the world. Some that come to mind are: The Little Mermaid, Can’t Hardly Wait, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Fisherman’s Woman By Emiliana Torrini

There is a concept that within all people there is a spark of divine energy, and that this place is where the true “self” is located. Gnostic theory says you can never know the “true self”. Some segments of philosophy and psychology believe it is a long process to achieve it. This is the sheath concept seen everywhere. The Russian Matryoshka dolls are a good example. But so is Carl Jung’s personality layers, Auras, Levels of Knowledge, Economic Hierarchies, The Solar System. It’s hard to pin point when these concentric circles, Microcosm & Microcosm, and this fractal within fractal concept started.

The process of Transfiguration is to break beyond the Endura (the world of the Archons) and retrieve the Gnosis coded within us, bursting forth with the power of divine Will and formulating an identity of Light substance. In the tradition of the Barbelo Gnostics, Sophia herself, feeling guilty after giving birth to the false creator, hid within his very own creation the keys to man’s liberation and the Demiurge’s downfall.
Gnostic Theurgy P.58 (pdf)

People have been trying to find the location of this “divine spark”. Some say the heart. Back in high school I was a part of a christian youth group, a common meme was that “everyone has a god-shaped hole in their heart”. The god particle of CERN fame is suggested to be found inside, what? Yeah a circle within a circle, inside a sphere… That is, the scientists will find the particle in the LHC which is a large circle underground. Being underground it is within a sphere call the Earth, which is in a suggested circular solar system in a possibly torus shaped universe.

Haha round things are nice.

Some say this spark is in the “ethereal body”. One level of “energy” surrounding the body that is part of the “Aura”. And being in the ethereal body we can’t use the 5 physical senses to locate it.

Some say it is in the brain or more accurately the mind. I’m often quite astounded by the way mind and brain are used interchangeably. In my conspiratorial and business professional mind I understand words and context play and important part in comprehension. Brain is the physical fatty matter sitting in our skulls and the Mind is this thing we use to talk to ourselves and tell us we are we or at least allow us the possibility to believe there is a we. And I don’t believe science has found the mind, perhaps the mind is the divine spark. “I think therefore I am.”

But it’s this search for this divine spark that has led many people to the pineal gland.

Spark By Tori Amos

First for the cynical side:
The pineal gland was the buzz word for 2011, at least in my view. How many youtube clips are there about it? books? lectures? Pineal this pineal that, gateway to the soul, unleash your true power, yadda yadda yadda. Some days I think, “Shit I’m supergirl! Fuck your calcified pineal! I got this!”, then I consider the need to be so boastful. haha But People seem to see this pineal gland as the end all be all to grand enlightened achievement. The Captains’ chair for the good ship Merkaba. I’ll be the first to say that is a probable fact. I just get pretty jaded about the pineal gland and it’s superpowers, but I don’t deny them.

So now many people are all about this pineal gland. I use to have quite a few pine trees in my yard growing up. In school we put peanut butter in them and covered it with birdseed. I may take for granted that everyone has seen and held a pine cone but let’s assume you have. When you break off one of the little limb thingies (that’s the scientific term), they have a little pointy tip at the end that is similar to a frozen drop of water on the underside of a spoon. The bottom of a pine cone is fun for all sacred geometry gogetters. I’m sure there’s a pentagram and a star of David and blah blah blah, you’ll see it. They make a fun sound when you step on them. They make a festive table decorations for a delightful Christmas dinner.

But why say this gland is similar to a pine cone? Common theory says, because it has the shape of a pine cone. Oh! well that makes perfect sense case closed!

…Eggs have a similar shape, as do Eyes when seen as a complete structure, including eyeball and face and the Sacred Pineal Teachers say that the pineal gland has rods and cones like the eye.

Well we can say cones in the eyes are like pine cones, because they both have the word cone.

cone
n.
1. -
a. a solid whose surface is generated by a line passing through a fixed point and a fixed plane curve not containing the point, consisting of two equal sections joined at a vertex.
b. a plane surface resembling the cross section of a solid cone.
2. anything shaped like a cone: the cone of a volcano.
3. ICE-CREAM CONE.
4. -
a. the reproductive structure of certain nonflowering trees and shrubs, as the pine, consisting of hard or papery scales bearing naked seeds and arranged in an overlapping whorl around an axis. Compare CONIFER.
b. a similar structure, as in cycads or club mosses.
5. one of the cone-shaped cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to bright light and color. Compare ROD (def. 11).
v.t.
6. to shape like a cone or a segment of a cone.
[1480-90; < L conus < Gk kônos pine cone, cone-shaped figure; akin to HONE[1]]

Maybe it’s a pineal because it resembles the reproductive structure of certain nonflowering trees and shrubs and gonadal development in humans? In that case it’s called a pineal because of some reproductive bullshit. It all comes back to sex eh? What a sexually repressed people we are. To have and to hold. And the cones in the eyes are sensitive to bright lights and colors. Like the fireworks of KY Lubricant?

Firework by Katy Perry

Another definition given under Pineal Gland:
n. a small, cone-shaped endocrine organ in the posterior forebrain, secreting melatonin and involved in biorhythms and gonadal development. Also called epiphysis

epiphysis
adj.
1. either of the ends of a long bone separated from the shaft by cartilage but later ossifying with it.
2. PINEAL GLAND.
[1625-35; < NL < Gk epíphysis a growth upon < epi- EPI - + phýsis growth (phy(ein) to make grow, bring forth]

So we have… The Pineal Gland, The gland of the kind of, pertaining to, and having the form or character of painful longing experienced via physical or emotional suffering due to the real or apparent hopelessness of one’s desire. Seen physically as either of the ends of a long bone separated from the shaft by cartilage but later ossifying with it, and reproductively consisting of hard or papery scales bearing naked seeds and arranged in an overlapping whorl around an axis that is characterized by a sensitivity to bright lights and colors. Sounds like a thousand petaled lotus to me.

Teardrop By Massive Attack

Let’s note that in this image the highest Chakra is given the sun symbol of a dot within a circle. Below it is the highest of the 7 main Chakras, the Crown Chakra. It is connected to Keter in Kabbalah and is known as Sahasrara or the thousandfold lotus. Also in the image is the term “Wisdom” which in Gnostic theory is also called Sophia. Who creates and in some cases is the divine spark inside all men.

Is the pineal gland the divine spark? Or do people just want to believe that?