SWEET HELICOIDAL EXPIATION

Will it ever be possible to reconcile physical pain with mystical ecstasy? With elevation and penetration into another dimension of the spirit? Some great mystics have done so, either by free choice with self-flagellation, or by coercion under torture at the moment of martyrdom.
I would leave these extremes to the mystics, the saints, the “exceptional” people. For us “normal” beings I think that the suffering-bliss association is possible by imagining it as the solution to an unconscious guilt complex to resolve which only a punishment satisfies us, absolves us, makes us atone for our guilt!
In fact, for those who think they have committed an “original sin”, perpetual atonement is the rule. However, this transforms life into hell, postponing paradise to an afterlife, but only on the condition that we atone for our sins during this life.
I hope instead that all of us, even if sometimes afflicted by some sense of guilt, do not self-flagellate too much; we gently atone for our negative karma. Gently following the helical structure of the Palazzo Farnese staircase we enter the spiral that, copying the structure of DNA, symbolizes life, reminding us of the movement of vital energy through Pingala and Ida, the channels that connect the chakras; echoing the Caduceus of Hermes, a symbol by which healers and doctors have worn since ancient times. S.B.