My fascination for the unicorn began when I met my teacher, Mang Mike. On one off-guarded moment, I asked him if unicorns really existed. He smiled and said yes. When I asked him where I could find one, he just smiled. It was his sweet smile, which meant that I had to look and find one for myself. Thus my quest to find the unicorn began.
My starting point was Mang Mike’s version of the legend of the unicorn.
There lived a wild beast in the forest that the village people feared and dreaded. The beast was black and appeared to look like a menacing steed. To put an end to this terror, the village offered a handsome reward to capture and tame the beast. No one dared to accept the offer, until a young virtuous maiden stepped forward to take the challenge. She entered the forest and followed the tracks that led to her goal. The beast stood still as the maiden drew her hand and touched its brow. The steed turned white and assumed a noble bearing. On its brow, an alicorn appeared. From that day onwards, the beast was known as the noble Unicorn.
Mang Mike explained that the beast is the symbol of the savage man, and the virtuous maiden is the symbol of the soul, the higher self. Unless man is touched by the soul, he will never be awakened to his true Divine nature. The Unicorn is the symbol of the awakened man. With this in mind, my search for the unicorn led me to places where he had a significant presence – London, Paris and New York City.
You will find the unicorn practically everywhere in London specially where the government offices are located. This is because the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom contains a Unicorn on the right and a Lion on the left supporting the shield between them. Historically at odds with each other, the English Lion and the Scottish Unicorn finally found themselves united under a single monarch King James VI of Scotland in 1603. The unicorn has been a part of the official seal of Scotland since the late 1300s under King Robert III. The Scottish Unicorn is in an upright position with a crown worn around its neck and a broken chain loosely floating around its body. The crown symbolizes the Scot nobility and the broken chain as the Scot’s spirit to be free preferring death over subjugation. What I found interesting is the position of the alicorn. It originates from the crown of the unicorn. This position was more prominently depicted in a wooden relief of the Scottish Unicorn I found in Westminster Abbey. I wondered if there was any significance to this.
The Musée de Cluny in Paris houses one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages, six fifteenth century tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn. The Lion again appeared juxtaposed to the Unicorn. Five tapestries were interpreted to symbolize the five senses, and the center tapestry, the most beautiful of them all, was the synthesis of the five. This particular centerpiece was entitled A mon seoul Desir or "My own sole desire" after the words inscribed on the panel itself. It was interpreted as the lady's desire to be free of the passions provoked by ill-controlled senses to ensure right behavior. In all the tapestries, the Lion was on the left and the Unicorn was on the right displaying similar if not opposing attitudes towards the Lady's behavior. This led me to interpret the Lion as the symbol of the dark forces and the Unicorn as the symbol of the light. The Lady represented mankind performing a balancing act between the two while being subject to the taunting of the senses. Ultimately, she chooses to stay at the center; detaching herself from earthly possessions as a means to spiritual liberation. Oddly, the unicorn’s alicorn was again on its crown.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has quite a collection of Medieval Art housed at The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. Among these are the famous Unicorn Tapestries, a series of seven tapestries depicting the Hunt of the Unicorn. The theme of the tapestries runs parallel to my own quest and may perhaps contain the clues I have been looking for. The story begins with a party of men commencing their hunt. They find the unicorn and a chase begins. A struggle ensues but the unicorn escapes. Unable to capture the unicorn, the hunters prepare a trap using maidens from the court to ensnare the beast. He finally succumbs to the charms of the maidens and is rendered defenseless. The unicorn is killed, resurrects on the third day and is held in captivity in the garden. The Unicorn Tapestries draw much of its symbolism from Christian beliefs with allusions to the unicorn as the symbolic Christ. Since the soul is the Christ within, could we possibly be unicorns?
The insights drawn from the preceding unicorn encounters only began to make sense as I advanced in my spiritual practices. One day after performing certain practices as a group, we were told by our teacher to look at each others' brows. We were shocked to see a thin stream of light projecting from our foreheads. We began to scan each others' alicorns comparing lengths and thickness and validating that what we were seeing was not an illusion. It was only then I realized that man had the capacity to become unicorns. But what did it take to reach this stage.
Like the Hunt for the Unicorn tapestries, it begins with the search. Beset with an inner dissatisfaction with his life, a seeker looks for answers to existential questions. He begins a journey of self-discovery to satisfy an inner longing to find meaning in his life. In this journey, he is confronted with the world of duality and, like in the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, he confronts the world of senses and works towards balance and right behavior. While undergoing purification, he finally experiences glimpses of the spiritual reality around him like sporadic sightings of the unicorn and searches for other means and practices to hasten his development. But his quest continues to be frustrated until he is finally touched by the virtuous maiden - a resurrection process of dying to one’s lower self and being reborn as an awakened soul, your true self. He resurrects and achieves the alicorn of enlightenment but ironically, however, remains captive in the garden of earthly life.
But according to Highland myths, the unicorn, like a true Scotsman, would rather die than lose his freedom. How can the unicorn be held captive? The answer came to me in a dream. I dreamed that I was riding a satiny black stallion when suddenly it turned white and began to fly. I asked Mang Mike if unicorns could fly. He answered that winged unicorns exist. It is the symbol of a liberated soul, a Buddha, one that is no longer subject to the wheel of death and rebirth. And so the Scottish Unicorn finally made sense to me, the broken chain around it is another symbol of the liberated soul. The royal crown around its neck and the alicorn above it, are fitting symbols of a winged unicorn’s uninterrupted link to the cosmic consciousness.
So do unicorns exist? Take a good look at the person sitting next to you. If he or she has a noble demeanor, and exhibits a peculiar stream of light from the forehead, you have more likely encountered a unicorn.
