The Floral Brain
Moments in the Flow: Are We Ready To Evolve?
Hello again,
Last week I read (for the fifth time) my favorite of the seven novels written by literary genius Tom Robbins: Jitterbug Perfume. Not everyone agrees with my description of his status as a writer, but I will present my case after I tell you what just one section of Jitterbug Perfume conveyed to his readers in 1984.
Yes, that’s over 40 years ago. But I think it is important for us to know and think about now.
One reason is that there is a contest for your mind going on. It’s really nothing new but it seems to have accelerated greatly with the electronic age. We can tell by the multitude of news stations and online media with some spouting faux news or taking sides and promoting their side as the only truth.
But most of all, it is accelerating with the idea that we’d all be so clever and far healthier if we had a chip implanted in our brains.
Some of us realize, having owned a computer and other such devices, that this chip would only have what they put into it. It doesn’t connect you to the Galactic Center where all information resides and is beamed to those who have the right antenna.
What’s worse is that there could be some programming on it that wouldn’t be desirable…we get programmed enough without the chip which is unique because it bypasses our ability to choose and even reason things out if we so desire.
Uranus in Gemini and Our Choice of Direction
Another reason is that Uranus went into Gemini (and you can read more about it in my post The Intuitive, Uranian Mind). With this transit we arrive at a crossroads and are presented with a choice of direction. Gemini is a dual air sign that conveys the pairs of opposites, airy Libra will weigh and measure the information and come up with a decision, but fixed air Aquarius instinctively knows through intuition what is true and the right way to go.
Mercury rules Gemini, Venus rules Libra and Uranus rules Aquarius and all three planets met last week in Gemini. Coincidence?
Have you made the choice to expand your consciousness, which will include the evolution of the human brain? (Yes, I said ‘brain’.)
I mentioned the importance of the sense of smell and the power of fragrance in my post, Magic, Mischief and Mystery about Neptune’s retrograde which includes a return from Aries to Pisces.
Neptune and Pisces rule the realm of perfume and the effects of aromas. In that post I focused on the way commercial fragrances have interfered with aroma’s intent. I mentioned Tom and the book Jitterbug Perfume, which I always say is about “immortality and the sense of smell”. And I mentioned Eckhart Tolle and his idea that the first flower was a shift in consciousness that also brought the end of the Reptilian Era.
In Jitterbug Perfume, Tom presents the idea of the flower as an influence on the evolving states of consciousness in human beings. This can bring acceleration of the natural evolution of the brain itself.
Uranus in Gemini Baby Boomers
The paperback version I purchased in 1990 has 342 (now yellowed) pages and you must get to page 320 before you find the information about our brain and what we can evolve into (if unchipped and willing).
I come from a generation of babies born in the last transit of Uranus in Gemini (1941-49). One thing about this generation and those on either side of it was participating in an era when individuals in a certain group were called a “Flower Child” (which was usually followed by “Hippie.”) The name evolved because of the women wearing flowing skirts, no bras, and flower garlands like our ancient maternal ancestors. They were returning to the land, creating communities, and even attempting to give flowers to soldiers and armed policeman as a gesture of peace.
They expanded their consciousness through use of drugs, like marijuana and LSD and exploring the philosophies of the East. But the time for a lasting societal shift was not yet upon us. The flower children were bombarded with cocaine, prescription drugs and even heroine. “Hippies” split into two groups; “Yippies” who maintained a counter-cultural activism; and the more conservative “Yuppies” full of desire for money and what it brings.
Eventually, the Yuppies prevailed, and both the Hippie and Yippie movement were, for the most part, over. But there were still people pushing for expanding human consciousness. And among those that lingered is one of the characters in Jitterbug Perfume: Wiggs Dannyboy* who created the Last Laugh Foundation, an exclusive group focused on the pursuit of immortality.
His theory of consciousness and brain evolution is information-packed and four pages long. Though I highly recommend buying the novel for all it contains, I will pull some of Dannyboy’s theory to share here. There is a lot of real scientific information in this, just as there is a lot of true information in the segments about aromatherapy and making perfume.
The Wiggs Dannyboy Theory
As the Wiggs Dannyboy Theory states, “all humans have the remains of a reptilian consciousness which we might label sociopathic. Cold, aggressive, self-preserving, angry, greedy, and paranoid are some descriptions. And neuro-physicist Paul McLean says part of the reptilian brain is functional and intact and anatomically real. He suggests it is deep within the forebrain consisting of the limbic lobe, the hypothalamus and possibly other organs of the diencephalon. “When we are in a cold sweat, a blind rage, or simply feeling smugly dispassionate we may be sure that, for the moment, our reptile brain is in control of our consciousness.”
Then came the first flowers and the first mammals appeared. When the dinosaurs were gone our human ancestors had already evolved into having mammalian and flower brains. The mammalian mid-brain (mesencephalon) held sway. Mammalian consciousness includes “warmth, generosity, love (romantic, platonic, and familial), joy, grief, humor, pride, competition, intellectual curiosity and appreciation of art and music.”
In the late mammalian period, humans evolved a third brain; the telencephalon, part of the neocortex, is a dense rind of nerve fibers molded over the top of the existing mammal brain. But what is its purpose?....
Robert Bly suggested it was about Light. The neocortex is thought to be an expanded memory bank. “If the reptile brain equates with cold and the mammal brain with warmth, then the neocortex equates with light….the third brain is a floral brain and flowers extract energy from light. ….
“Even prior to the mysterious appearance of the neocortex, our brains had strong floral characteristics. The whole brain is described as a bulb. The neurons of which it is composed have dendrites: roots and branches. The cerebellum consists of a large mass of closely packed folia, which are bundles of nerve cells described in the literature as leaflike. …the brain has a stem and a crown that unfolds, in embryonic growth, much in the manner of a petaled rose.”
Leaving out a great deal we get to some of Dannyboy’s conclusions. In it you will see the connection to the Air Element and particularly Uranus/Aquarius. Light is part of the invisible realm of Air…which carries light and information.
“We live now in an information technology. Flowers gather information all day. At night, they process it, this is called photosynthesis.
As our neocortex comes into full use, we, too, will practice a kind of photosynthesis. …we already do, but compared to the flowers, our kind is primitive and limited. …
Since all matter is condensed light, light is the source, the cause of life. Therefore, light is divine. .….
As floral consciousness matures, telepathy will no doubt become a common medium of communication. …
· With reptile consciousness we had hostile confrontations.
· With mammalian consciousness, we had civilized debate.
· With floral consciousness, we’ll have empathetic telepathy.
A floral consciousness and a pacifist internationalism are ideally suited for one another. A floral consciousness and an easy, colorful sensuality are ideally suited for one another. ….
The good versus evil plot has always been bogus. The drama unfolding in the universe—in our psyches---is not good against evil but new against old, or more precisely, destined against obsolete. …..
When Western artists wished to demonstrate that a person was holy, they painted a ring of light around the divine one’s head. Eastern artists painted a more diffused aura. The message was the same, the aura or the halo signified that the light was on in the subject’s brain. The neocortex was fully operative. …”
The Planetary Opportunity
Uranus and Aquarius are the carriers of light…that unending substance that pours on all things is light which carries information, prana/chi life force. Whether our aim is immortality or not, if we recognize the power of this 6-year transit of Uranus in Gemini, we can significantly alter our own brain to receive and process light in our meditations and create expanded characteristics of the Floral Brain; increasing our own intuition and lowering our dependency on outer information.
We can gain more recognition of being “one within the unified field of many.” We can use aromas to uplift and calm the reptilian mind and flower remedies to return our mammalian mind to peace. In the end, we accept and apply our personal power to achieve human evolution.
Are you ready for this?
And about the Author
February 9th of this year was a sad day for me, but one I had been expecting for a while. My favorite American novelist, Tom Robbins, passed away at the age of 92.
In a live interview at a festival long ago, Tom gave an answer to the ‘how you got the topics for your novels’ question. He spun a short tale about a trip to Graceland, ending with the answer: a dwarf knocked on the door of his hotel room, deposited a large box and left. In it were seven manuscripts.
And he delivered the 7th – Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates—in 2000. This was eventually followed by two novellas and something approximating an autobiography. Then all had gone silent and knowing he had to be at least in his 80’s I began to wait for the bad news.
In one article I read, he revealed he was a muse-driven writer who wrote in longhand on legal pads. That means he did receive the manuscripts, not from a dwarf, but from the Cauldron of Inspiration, which is always way ahead of human thinking.
Most reviews in mainstream media did not share my opinion that he was the most brilliant novelist of his time. And they would go on and never once look back and notice the profound topics he brought us via engaging, funny, and infinitely memorable fiction had become major topics in years to come.
Yes, Tom was way ahead of the curve.
Ironically, Readers Digest called him one of the “100 Best Writers of the 20th Century” and he won a literary prize, The Golden Door, in 1997, not long before the last of the 7 manuscripts was published.
Although he leaves out his meticulous search for the right word, what has been called an encyclopedic range of knowledge, and those incredible metaphors and statements that one reviewer said can ‘stop you dead in your tracks’, I find I completely agree with his description of his writing:
"What I try to do," he explained, "is to mix fantasy and spirituality, sexuality, humor and poetry in combinations that have never quite been seen before in literature. And I guess when a reader finishes one of my books … I would like him or her to be in the state that they would be in after a Fellini film or a Grateful Dead concert. Which is to say that they've encountered the life force in a large, irrepressible and unpredictable way and … their sense of wonder has been awakened, and all of their possibilities have been expanded."
I know the Divine Feminine was smiling on Tom, too. He wrote loving and amazingly accurate portrayals of women. Each book includes strong and talented female characters who are often the first you meet.
That Tom left us on a wave that included Jimmy Carter, Pope Francis, and Bill Moyers seems appropriate. In one of his books, they would all be together laughing and drinking margaritas in the best room in the Afterlife.
See you next time!
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*A Tom Robbins version of Timothy Leary, a Harvard Professor who became a proponent of LSD. ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out.’
Fascinating Shellie… I’ve always loved fragrances albeit, in this lifetime, the commercial ones which I faithfully wear every single day…with very few exceptions.
I know, for a fact that all the photographs of flowers I’ve taken over the past 15 years have had a profound effect on multiple areas in this life.
The connection with telepathy is an interesting one as, for the first time in this lifetime at least, I experienced very clear to telepathy with ‘that man.’
Your post had me wistful about never having read Robbins… but I was never much of a reader until these hands got a hold of spiritual texts.
-Leslie
I absolutely love this!!! It resonated so with me, especially not good vs evil but perhaps new vs old and destined vs obsolete!! Wow! Lightbulb reframe for me. And I will add “any book by Tom Robbins” to my reading list. Thank you for sharing!