The human body, just like every other kind of Earthly biota, develops based upon a specific fractal programing defined by the genes of our parent species. Most of these fractal programs, despite their obvious differences from critter to critter, are actually astoundingly similar at the most fundamental stages of development. This programming is quite akin to what most people would associate with a very complex computer program, except rather than being electronically-based, the infinite vastness of consciousness itself is that which performs the operational functions. Humanity is based upon the same flavor of fractal patterning as the star-fish, the great ape, the wolf, the falcon, the salamander, most finned fishes and an uncountable number of other species of life out there. There are indeed other fractal patterns here on Earth, but I feel it is most beneficial to specifically discuss ours. What is this fractal pattern, you ask?
The Pentacle
We are a series of five-pointed stars connected using the proportion of 1.618:1 in a variety of cleverly-adapted facets. Allow me to explain:
The proportion of each sub-pentagram is proportional to the original, only slightly smaller; 1.618 to 1. This ratio, deemed “The Golden Ratio”, is very common, though not necessarily ubiquitous in nature. There are other proportions that have been developed by various species of life around the globe, but with regards to our particular fractal patterning it is the primary governing ratio observed.
Now, I’m sure many of you have heard of the “Golden Ratio” by now. If you haven’t, I recommend looking it up; the mathematics behind it are quite uncanny and even kinda fun to play around with. The funny thing about this ratio, however, is that in biology it is observed in the reverse of how humans normally conceptualize it. We most often think of this ratio as beginning at zero and growing in value towards infinity. The age-old pattern of the Golden Ratio goes something like this:
0 + 0 = 0
0 + 1 = 1
1 + 1 = 2
2 + 1 = 3
3 + 2 = 5
5 + 3 = 8
8 + 5 = 13
13 + 8 = 21
21 + 13 = 34
34 + 21 = 55
55 + 34 = 89
89 + 55 = 144
144 + 89 = 233
233 + 144 = 377
377 + 233 = 610
610 + 377 = 987 . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This pattern goes on and on to infinity and beyond, each time approaching a closer approximation to the perfect proportional ratio known in various circles as the Fibonacci Sequence, Phi, and the Golden Section, depending on the way the ratio is being discussed.
Now, doesn’t it seem wrong for me to say that most biology grows according to this ratio? Think about it: If this was the case, then nothing would ever stop growing! Your torso would be a tiny little thing in the dead center of your body, and all of your appendages would be increasing in size by 1.618 at each junction point! If this were the case, every tree in the world would be standing on a tiny little stem that’s trying to support thousands of massive trunk-sized “twigs” at the top. Clearly this isn’t the case, but it’s actually not all that far off the mark, as odd as it might seem to say so.
It’s impossible to adequately conceptualize infinity with our conscious minds, because as soon as you attempt to place a number on it, the in-finite suddenly becomes the finite. However, simply because our minds have a hard time grasping the concept does not negate the reality of it. For the sake of discussion, and to reiterate what I think is happening with the growth of biology, simply think of 222232244629420445529739893461909967206666939096499764990979600 (a really freakin large Golden Number) being reduced, using the same Golden Ratio proportion we’re discussing, backwards all the way down to “1”. This, as odd as it may seem, is how we and all other Earthly critters grow. We, and all those other critters out there, are all arranged based upon a “backwards” Golden Ratio proportionality. In other words, based entirely upon the proportional manner with which we grow, it can be said that we’re the result of Infinity descending to One. It appears that all life sprouts from the Infinite, that all life it still actually a cohesive component of All That Is, and that all life, when traced back far enough in its fractal progression, is in fact the exact same "Word" said in an infinite number of different "languages".
One doesn’t observe a traditional Golden Ratio growth pattern (“1" ascending to infinity) until we zoom-out enough to behold the overall tree of life here on Earth, which contains a continuously growing number of biological offshoots. This forward-ratio-based pattern is hinged upon the backwards-ratio-based growth of billions and billions of creatures slightly altering the expression of their programs based on their individual experience over time.
Paradox, from what I can tell, is indeed the nature of what goes on around here. Life appears to be an odd superposition of ascending and descending proportions that balance each other perfectly; the double torus of a black hole comes to mind.
But it’s not only about proportionality. It can’t be; that’s just a variable; that’s just the manner that the code develops in an ordered fashion. It's the rest of the program that defines the ways such proportions are actually employed.
The human form is based upon a pentacle patterning; five appendages. This has been discussed at length in the writings of many historical scholars. Your body is a five-pointed star. Now, zoom in on one of those points, let’s say the bottom-right point, and what do we find? Another five-pointed segment, perfectly in proportion to the whole. Your hands have five fingers; your feet have five toes; your face has five holes. I hypothesize this is the result of a fractal program that has reached out from the infinite down to individual finite singularities; the “Fall Of Man” into individuality. Each individual fractal offshoot of the larger segment contains the exact same program that manifested what it sprouted from in the first place. It’s literally the same program expressed slightly differently, over and over again.
To think of this differently, and to better understand how a constant proportion within an equation can remain while the output of the equation can change, ponder for a moment the standard equation of a 2-D parabola, being y = x^2:
In this example, the proportion with which these parabolas extend outwards and upwards across their points of symmetry is remaining constant, but where it is located on the coordinate plane varies. The curve is the same thing each time, but the curves each have unique starting points. It’s in fact the same program, over and over again, just being expressed slightly differently.
When you look at your two hands, you are seeing a direct microcosm of your body. When the soles of the feet are analyzed, the entire body is being analyzed. When the face is studied, the body as a whole is being studied. Each appendage offshoot observed in our body contains the same fractal programming as the former, just proportionally smaller and epigenetically adapted for specific purposes. I suspect that this is a contributing factor for why human beings, as a species, appear to be the most capable of higher intelligence, because all-in-all our specific proportions utilize the program of this perfect proportionality, and repetitive symmetrical geometry, more than any other creature I can think of. By being contained in a vessel with symmetrical outgrowths that mimmic the whole, a much more cohesive energy grid can be employed and sustained. I believe this can help explain why we are capable of the level of consciousness that we wield; we are the most adequately-formed vessels for the Infinite to inhabit on this planet.
But, what’s that mean for the body as a whole? If this geometric proportionality is indeed moving backwards from infinity down and down to form your fingertips and toes, this means that your body, as a whole, would then have to be a singular point of an even grander geometrical form. I suspect that this larger point coalesces directly in the center of your torso; at your heart, exactly the way we discussed the tip of the star from earlier forming the center point of its sub-stars, because it is the heart that generates the torus-shaped electromagnetic field around your body. Your electromagnetic field could then be described as being one “appendage" of an even larger You, and that larger “You" is a point in a “YOU" so large that I probably couldn't do it justice with words. In fact, if you follow this pattern on and on and on, you can begin to better understand what it means to say “Infinity”. In the same way that our appendages are not as complex as the whole they are attached to, the person as a whole is not as complex as the whole they are attached to. In this light the larger, more-complex whole could conceivably be employing the individual, as in you and I, in the same manner that the individual employs a part of their own body. From this perspective, your entire life could be thought of as your Higher Self dipping its finger in a pool of water to assess how it feels.
There is an electrical conduit system that links all of these parts through the Central Nervous System. These conduits have been referred to in various cultures as “meridians” or “nadis”, but at the end of the day its all the same shit said a multitude of different ways (a common pattern here, as I hope you’ve noticed). The most potent of all the medicinal systems out there recognized this energetically-connected outgrowth of the body thousands of years ago, and adapted their practices accordingly. There is a place on your feet that is electronically connected with your heart. There is a segment of your palm that uses electrical current to directly communicate with your thyroid. These parts of your body are connected because the exact same encoded frequency governed the expression of the cells under development in both areas. In ancient Ayurvedic texts, it is written that the best shortcut to a full-body message is a hand-foot-face message. I think that this is why, because to effect the location of a sub-fractal pentacle is to directly effect the same location in its governing form; they’re energetically equivalent.
But, why a five-pointed star? Why only four limbs and a head? Why not six limbs, such as with insects, or eights limbs, such as with arachnids? Why the number five? This is a question I cannot answer, and I don’t think anyone truly can answer it beyond a shallow explanation of evolution and adaptation based upon stratified fossils that nobody has ever seen alive before. We make assumptions; we say to ourselves, “Well, this was more efficient, so that’s what happened,” but it appears to me that there's conceivably something grander at work than such simplistic mechanistic explanations of evolution.
Let’s analyze the Pentacle of our bodies from a more esoteric light. I enjoy doing this, because unlike my scientific peers I hold a tremendous amount of respect for the wisdom of ancient civilizations, and when they discuss the body in terms of the five points, I pay attention. I honestly believe that the “Dark Ages” of mankind actually began 12,000 years ago when the polar ice caps melted causing a global Deluge, and that we as a species are just now, thousands of years later, beginning to light up the world again. These cultures evidently harnessed energies and technologies that nothing currently available on Earth can come close to matching, so it seems logical to me that there may indeed be a more fundamental truth to our bodies discoverable through the analysis of their jargon rather than our reductionistic terminology.
The Five Pillars of Life
So, what is out there to be found with regards to the Pentacle structure of humanity? It appears that each one of five points corresponds to what are known as “Elements”. This term is in no way connected to the chemical Periodic Table of the Elements, and has been a fairly stand-alone concept for all of recorded history until just recently with the progression of modern chemistry in lieu of the traditional alchemy that was once widely employed. These Elements are entirely conceptual in nature. According to this older way of analyzing the Elements, there is five of them that compose everything: Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and the Ether. How convenient for us to be formed entirely based upon a symmetry of pentacles.
Two of these Elements are known as “Masculine” energies, being Fire and Air. The term “Masculine” has nothing at all to do with gender in this instance, but is simply those aspects of the self that are projective in nature. Two of these elements are known as “Feminine” energies, and again this terminology has nothing at all to do with men and women as we think of them; it’s just a way to communicate the receptive nature of Earth and Water. The remaining Element, being the Ether or Spirit, is the unifying medium that allows the other four Elements to coalesce into a singular form. These five fundamental elements have been represented and symbolized in Euclidian Geometry using the five corresponding geometrical shapes known as The Platonic Solids. A Platonic Solid is a polyhedron all of whose faces are congruent regular polygons, and where the same number of faces meet at every vertex. There are only five polyhedrons that meet this criteria, and they are each named after the number of faces they have. Fire is represented by the Tetrahedron, Earth is represented by the Hexahedron, Air is represented by the Octahedron, Water is represented by the Icosahedron, and the Ether is represented by the Dodecahedron.
On all levels, and in all forms, these five Elements must be balanced to achieve the highest state of overall energetic efficiency for the individual organism. The passion of the Fire and the spontaneity of the Air within you have to be adequately grounded to the Earth and trained to be as fluid as water when obstacles are encountered in your path. All the while the overarching medium of Spirit must be trained to hover in the highest frequencies of Unconditional Love and Ecstatic Joy in order to properly facilitate the operations of the other four flesh-puppet-based Elements.
I've spent years of my life completely wrapped up in the bullshit of modern medicine, nutrition, and exercise physiology. It makes me feel really hypocritical to say that because I am still quite infatuated with the study of it all, but when I’m wrong I’m wrong, and I’m on the to next thing to try and find out what’s really right. Why isn’t it right? Well, I suppose it’s not that it’s all technically incorrect, cuz its not, more just that the majority of it really just doesn’t matter in the big-picture. . . like at all, actually.
For instance, if a man presents with cardiovascular and heart issues, the immediate response of the western doctor he sees would be to prescribe drugs to moderate blood pressure and the like, and little more. I would say that this is in error, mostly because I absolutely despise the toxic dependent nature of pharmaceuticals in general, but also because the root cause of the heart disorder isn’t being addressed. I would then say that on top of the pharmaceuticals a dietary and exercise regimen must also be prescribed to eliminate this root cause and any dependency on drugs, but then again I’d likely still be in error. Why? Because even though a good deal of the root cause would then be being addressed, it is highly unlikely that there isn’t another contributing factor for the disorder. This other cause, more often than not, is emotional in nature; anger and stress. An angry stressed-out man will attract a heart attack regardless of how healthy his diet and lifestyle is; I’ve read about it quite a few times. This would be an example of how a dysfunctional Ether element of a person can override all of the others that may or may not be operating properly.
As another example, a woman presents with Hypothyroidism. Once again the immediate response of a western drug-dealer would be to sell her drugs, and likely nothing more. Obviously, this is a ridiculous, stupid, and dependent-based protocol just like my other case, I just needed to point it out again. Now, let’s say that this woman heavily despises the thought of eating deep-green vegetation. In fact, the only vegetables this woman finds appealing are sweet veggies like corn, peppers, carrots and the like. She hates the thought of eating deep-green veggies so much that she will adamantly avoid them, even though it is only through the ingestion of deep-green vegetation that she will receive enough iodine to combat her thyroid dysfunction. Now, what do you think will happen when you tell this woman that she has to start incorporating a more vegetation-rich diet into her lifestyle? You might think, “Well, it seems like her Hypothyroidism should start to get better,” but eight times out of ten you’d be wrong. Why? Because she hates what she's doing, that’s why. By viewing her healing process as a chore that she resents, she efficiently shuts down her body’s ability to properly assimilate the medicine within the food due to the stress of forcing herself into an obligatory relationship with her diet. By not recognizing that this woman clearly values the state of her health far less than her desire to experience pleasure with every bite, you have reduced your protocol to the same level of failure that the Western medicine we all know absolutely sucks, achieves. The only way to fix this woman would be to find a way to make her to value her own vibrancy more than she currently does and then begin dietary alterations as she is ready, not to condemn her to another restrictive mindset where she can continue on in her agony and self-loathing. In cases like this, “going on a diet” can in fact turn out to the be most destructive path to take in the long run, because eventually the subconscious mind will win-out and she will revert back to her old unhealthy ways that don’t stress her out so bad.
I find the relationship our modern culture has with health and human vibrancy rather disturbing in this aspect. I can’t even count how many people out there I see spouting off some crazy nonsense about “Advocare’s 24-Day Challenge", or some other crazy money scam designed to take advantage of the average-man’s insecurities. Every other commercial I see on the television begins with, “Are you overweight? Wanna NOT be overweight?” or something along those lines. Can't you see how destructive all this bullshit is to the psyche? Why do people have such low respect for the awesome power of their divine vessel that they place all of their potential outside of themselves, and then pay good money to get that potential back? I’m sorry if anyone finds this offensive, because I know a great deal of people who actively push such pyramid-scheme supplementation and seem to be in love with it all, but seriously dude. . . how powerless do you believe we are? The majority of these supplements are not only just entirely worthless and ineffective beyond placebo effects, but in many cases are even toxic to the body as well. Are you so desperate for the loss of a few pounds that you’re willing to poison your kidneys to achieve it, for example? Yea? Well, I pity you and your lack of confidence in your body’s ability to heal and progress.
Coorporations rooted in preying upon the self-conscious that have no legitimate form of regulation whatsoever? Really? You’re telling me that you actually need to pay some bullshit company money for some dead-ass powders and mercury/arsenic-contaminated “herbal supplements” in order to feel motivated enough to do a damn 3-week cleanse? Grab your balls, man up, and just eat fruits and veggies for a few weeks. Why is that so hard? Why is it that people can’t make themselves act in a healthy manner unless they have already purchased a shitload of expensive supplements in order to generate the obligatory financial motivation to see it through? I mean, if ya paid for it all, you need to use it, right? Why the hell is financial obligation what it takes to get most people to respect their body?
Pitiful.
The psychology behind such people’s mindsets is very frustrating to me. I’ve heard, numerous times before, “Damnit man I can’t work-out cuz I’m all outa pre-workout/protein powder.” Really. You can't? Or another common sentiment, “I haven’t exercised all summer because my gym membership ended three months ago.” Why does it have to be a financial obligation in order to motivate people to pick their asses up and move around a little here and there? Why the holy-hell do people, en-masse, feel like they're only capable of reaping the benefits of exercise if they first pay a monthly club fee at a gym?
Marketing. Marketing is the answer to my last two questions in case you were wondering.
EXERCISE IS FREE MOTHERFUCKERS, and going to a gym (believe it or not) isn’t the only way to exercise. For God’s sake there’s people out there who simply show up to the gym, take a flattering selfie for Instagram, then sit on a damn stationary bike watching tv for a half-hour just to make themselves and all the rest of the internet feel like they actually did something of value. I suspect that the majority of people who own gym memberships don’t regularly attend anyway, but when they do they feel like they’re actually accomplishing something when in reality the only way to truly observe any lasting benefit from exercise is to make it a lifelong habit and practice. Our culture has taken health and human vibrancy and reduced them both to little more than endless monthly bills and expenses without ever truly offering people the end-state of actually being healthy and vibrant. We, as a country anyway, are a bunch of phonies with regards to actual health-care. I mean, where are the profits in actually helping people empower themselves, hmm? Far better to keep the average man wanting and chasing after better health by charging for memberships, supplements, and programs, than it is to just teach them to stop being so irresponsible with the way they treat themselves.
Wanna know the real secrets to your health? Me too, and I’ve arrived at a model for observing health that is a bit different than much of what I’ve learned elsewhere in my attempts to find out the best way to approach this goal. I propose that the The Five Pillars of your fractal geometrical form govern it all. Allow me to explain, from the “ground" up:
The Element of Earth
At the root of just about every major disease out there in the civilized world is inflammation. Inflammation is caused by an excess of "free radicals", which as I have discussed in the past is just a fancy way of saying “not enough electrons”. When there isn’t enough electrons in the body, shit hits the fan and the splatter of the shit on the walls takes a wide variety of forms from person to person. Due to the diseases caused by this lack, it has been written ubiquitously that the "root cause" of most of these diseases is a diet lacking in “antioxidants”, which are molecules that replace the missing electrons in the body. We, as a society and for the longest time myself included, have been rather stuck on this concept of improving this inflammatory problem through the ingestion of higher voltage foods, and the idea that these inflammatory disease are, at their inception, caused by poor dietary choices.
But, this is still false, or at the very least not entirely true. Poor diet is not the leading contributor to diseases of electron deficiency, and a healthy diet, despite being extremely helpful, can only do so much to improve upon this lack. Lifestyle is far more important.
You see, humans are not designed to intake all of our electrons through our food; we generate too many free radicals in our everyday metabolism for diet alone to reasonably combat without excessive attention paid to the diet itself. To attempt to combat severe chronic inflammation with diet alone is quite akin to attempting to put out a house fire with a dixey-cup; it can be done, just much more inefficiently. We are electronic battery-like organisms, and we need to be grounded in order for the networks within our body to operate properly. In all reality, based upon my best logic, humanity invented the majority of the diseases it currently experiences the day we decided it was a good idea to strap a thick layer of rubber to the bottoms of our feet, insulating ourselves from the electron-powerhouse of the planet we evolved in direct contact with for millions of years. With this in mind, the leading cause of inflammatory disease and therefore the bulk of the diseases you’ve encountered in yourself and the people around you is your own shoes, and an overall lack of direct skin contact with the Earth.
Does your TV not need to be grounded in order to function properly? Doesn’t your fridge need to be grounded to avoid surges? As an electrical conduit far more complex than either of these modern inventions, it is absolutely imperative for us to be grounded to the planet. This means taking your shoes off, and actually touching the earth with your bare skin. What a crazy concept, right? When this is performed for even 15 minutes a day for a period of a week or two, significant reductions in inflammation will be observed without any dietary alteration whatsoever. How? Because nature has equipped our feet with tons of little electro-conductors who’s entire purpose is to suck-up electrons directly from the ground they’re standing on. In fact, the rest of the external organ we call our “skin" is also equipped with these same electron-transfer components, just not in as much abundance as is found on the soles of our feet, so feel free to lay-out in an open field of grass if you prefer to do that instead of walking around. I prefer to just bring a chair out back and sit with my bare feet in the dirt while I read a book, but that’s just me. Your feet are so efficient at intaking “antioxidants” from the Earth that just thirty minutes of walking around outside barefoot delivers the body more electrons than you’d expect to find in a whole jug of blended kale leaves. All those “superfruit” powders people have been buying? Not that effective. Standing outside on some grass that’s wet with the morning dew? Really effective. Standing with your feet buried in the sand of a beach located on the ocean while the conductive brine immerses you up to your knees? Most effective.
This is the Element of Earth, and it is entirely vital for maintaining your health. Added antioxidants that are ingested through diet are still helpful and everything, but to assume that dietary sources of electrons are in any way solely adequate for a critter that has evolved grounded to a planet-sized ball of available electrons is erroneous. We, as a species, need to reintroduce ourselves to the feeling of dirt and grass on our bare feet. Like really bad.
The Element of Fire
There are three physical sources of the Element of Fire. Well, at least three sources that have been around throughout the entirety of our evolution. The first of these sources is of course the Sun, our parent star. The Sun emits a unique array of electromagnetic frequencies that 99% of all the life that has ever evolved on Earth is dependent on. The Sun’s nuclear fire emits this light nonstop, and our species, like all other species, developed all along bathed in its signature rays. We're dependent on these rays in order to produce a variety of required components for the body such as Vitamin D, Dopamine, Melanin, and a fairly long list of other crucial building blocks for vibrant function. This light is filtered through an atmosphere that then gives it the appearance of being blueish-white. Blue and white light, correspondingly, have been documented extensively to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which is the system governing all the processes within us that motivate the “get up and go” activities. When a person gets out of a long day at work, they may be feeling kinda tired, but if they encounter a blue sky with the Sun shining when they walk outside from the office there will most likely be some form of a “second wind” experienced. The Sun’s rays offer crucial components that expedite the healing processes of the body as a whole, and play a pretty big role in the maintenance of the eyes. It is far too normal these days for people to go days, even weeks or months, without providing their bodies with a proper dosage of sunlight, and this has contributed to a great deal of disorders involving cognitive impairment, depression, and nutrient deficiency.
But there is another type of Fire required by our bodies that is an equally ignored aspect of human life, and that’s just plain ol’ firelight. Take a moment and think about this: At a minimum, the Homo genus of Earthly critters has held domesticated control over fire for 1.9 Million years. This is significant, because that's more than enough time for the epigenetic stimulus of regular firelight exposure to take hold and have a significant influence on human genetic evolution. Contrary to the stimulatory effects of being exposed to white and blue light on the sympathetic nervous system discussed earlier, the red light of a burning flame has a calming effect on the body. This calming effect is the result of the red light stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), which is the half of your nervous system that governs the “chillin out” processes of the body like tissue repair, and digestion. Other than the sheer usefulness of harnessing the power of chemical combustion in day-to-day life, the effects of fire stretched much further into the human psyche. The dangers of the prehistoric night were kept at bay so long as someone was up tending to the fire. The day’s toils were brought to completion when the family or tribe sat down around the fire to eat, drink, and have fellowship. There is a comfort we experience when we gaze into the depths of a dancing flame, and I think it most logical that this is due to the fact that our species in particular developed quite depended upon this frequency of light in order to feel safe and at home. During the day, our bodies reacted to the burning fires of our Sun’s light that stimulated us into the activities we needed to perform to ensure our survival, but during the night our skin, eyes, and noses drank in the soothing, calming, and warming frequencies of burning plant matter that brought us the reassurance that we were safe and sound.
Rather than maintaining this interplay between the frequencies of sunlight by day and the frequencies of firelight by night, the western world has seen fit to eliminate them both from our day-to-day lives in lieu of artificial lighting generated through conduction. This development, though being extremely useful and integral to the overall progression of human technology and culture, is yet another way that mankind has brought onto itself many forms of disease and physical malcontent. Rather than being stimulated to action in the day, then calmed to relaxation in the evening, we continuously expose ourselves to artificial lighting that stimulates the SNS while never providing the physical health benefits that the Sun’s rays provide, while completely avoiding the direct stimulation of the PSNS altogether by never being exposed to the red frequencies of firelight. This results in an overtaxation of the adrenals, and cognitive stress that can manifest in insomnia, mood swings, chronic anger, high blood pressure, and a laundry list of other nasty little effects that could otherwise be entirely avoided by simply focusing more on giving your body the cycles of light that it evolved dependent on. This can be accomplished by:
1) Making a point to get outside and expose as much of your body’s skin to the Sun’s light as you reasonably can (no, tanning beds are not a substitution and you should avoid using them altogether), as often as you reasonably can, all while avoiding the overexposure that we all know can result in skin irritation and burns to our now-fragile flesh WITHOUT the use of toxic UV-blocking “sunscreens". If the weather or your surroundings are not conducive to baring so much skin, there is still benefits to be gained from just looking at or towards the Sun. If it's during the day when the sun is high, simply look into the sky at a location where the Sun is visible in your peripherals. Do not look directly at the Sun after the first hour or two of sunrise or before the last hour of sunset. The amount of radiation that permeates the atmosphere at such high angles is destructive to the cornea. Just focus on a part of the sky as near to the sun as is comfortable, and stare off. If you are sun-gazing at sunrise or at sunset, looking directly into the sun is safe and therapeutic because of the diminishing effects of our atmosphere on solar radiation at such shallow angles. For the maximum benefit, both techniques should be employed. This is because having the light strike the side of your eye’s cones (such as when it is high in your peripherals), and having the light strike the back of your retina (such as when you gaze directly into it at sunset), grants therapeutic aid to all of your ocular capacities.
2) Incorporate firelight into your evening activities. You’d be surprised how much of a calming effect simply lighting a candle at the dinner table can have on you. If you have a fireplace, bravo, you’re all set. If you’re like me and don’t have one of those, candles and oil-lamps are your best bet. So long as you’re not a freakin idiot, the more candles you have lit the better off you’ll be. In fact, I challenge you to spend one full night using no other form of light but candle/oil-lamp flame light; no cell-phone light, no television or computer light, no lightbulbs. Just firelight. I don’t care how much of an insomniac you think you are, I’d bet a good amount of money you won’t be able to stay up very long under such conditions. After all, such would be the conditions that literally all of our ancestors up until about a century ago fell asleep with.
The third and final physical source of fire is in fact not actually associated with a burning flame, it is the fire of one’s metabolism. In our culture, it is common to think of our bodies as “burning off” things that we once ingested, and this is a critical component of our overall health. In Ayurveda, the inner fires of the body’s furnace within the gut is called “agni”, and it is the primary consideration of literally every diagnosis ever made in the practice. Nearly everything you physically experience with regards to your body begins and ends in the gut. Your immune system is your gut. Your energy-management system is your gut. The vibrancy of your skin, eyes, hair, and nails, are entirely hinged upon how efficient the fires of agni are burning. The stimulation of metabolic activity is brought on by intense physical exertion, meaning exactly what it sounds like: Homo sapiens is required by the laws of nature to be an extremely active critter. There is absolutely no way of fully realizing your body’s potential, and therefore realizing just how awesome you could actually look and feel, without regular bouts of high-intensity exertion. Regardless of how you go about doing it (I won’t beat the whole gym-memberships-are-a-scam point to death any more), you need to do it, and you need to do it often.
The Element of Water
I will leave this section brief, and refer you to my previous article, “Tree of Life: Watering Your Roots”.
Essentially, most people aren’t drinking nearly enough water, and how they go about ingesting the water they do drink is usually in error. Being one of the Five Pillars of human health, it’s crucial that these deficiencies be corrected. Whole diseases of the body can be treated with little more than an increased average water intake to aid in the flushing of unwanted toxins from the organs that clean the blood and lymphatic systems. The Element of Water is also a required facet to anyone’s personal training regime in the sense that fluidity and grace are key components to all forms of movement. To balance the physical stress of stimulating the metabolic fires of agni through intense exertion, one must remember to also dedicate just as much time (perhaps even more time depending on your constitution) to the practice of flexibility.
The Element of Air
Likewise, I refer the reader to my previous article entitled, “Breath, and Awareness”.
Synopsis: Stop your shallow chest-breathing, and start utilizing the bulk of your lungs by slowing your breath and breathing with your belly. Proper breathing is the only way to ensure that the body is properly oxygenated, and therefore equipped to handle the stresses of the world it inhabits. Proper breathing is also the only voluntary action available to the individual to transition the body from operating with the SNS to the PSNS in times of anxiety or stress.
I saved this one for last, because it is the governing Element and leading contributor to the individual's overall health. This is your spirit. This is your cognitive frequency, and based upon the frequency you maintain all other actions of the body are directed. When a person is depressed, no amount of physical intervention will guarantee a lasting improvement, like we discussed in our previous examples of the angry cardiac patient or the self-loathing hypothyroid patient. The difficult aspect of this Pillar, however, is that it is never constant from person to person, because each person is master and commander of an entirely unique spirit and identity. It’s relatively easy to imagine how one might go about providing themselves ample amounts of the four physically-based pillars, but to describe how that same person can go about providing themselves with "more" spirit is a bit tricky, since the Ether is non-physical by definition.
I’d like to describe this fifth and most vital Element as such: Think of the four basal Elements, but rather than thinking of them in their physical facets as we just did, think of them in terms of their symbolic meanings. Of course there is the physical mechanism of electron transfer associated with being grounded to the Earth, but are you a “grounded” person in general? Have your friends or family ever mentioned to you that your head’s always in the clouds, and that you tend to be unrealistic in your thoughts, actions, or assumptions? People who are spiritually ungrounded fail to keep it real, and are prone to flights of fancy that, while healthy and fun to conjure up, are not preferable to constantly view the world through. An ungrounded person is prone to obsessing over thoughts like what they would do if they rich and famous, while never honestly evaluating their current position and taking the required steps to achieve it. Being an issue of overall energetic balance, there is also people who are prone to being too grounded in their cognitive outlook on life. Such people will appear to others as being pessimistic due to their overly acute sense of what actually is that holds them back from a nice healthy daydream or flight of fancy.
Fire is passion. Fire represents aggression, change, metamorphosis, and even destruction in some cases. This translates to the individual in how they enact change in the world around them, and how they go about their own personal self-expression. Your spiritual fire is the torch your soul provided you with to spread your light to the world around you. When we let this torch fade or die out, we are left in a depressed inner darkness from which we feel we cannot escape. The solution to this lack of inner fire is self-expression. Self-expression is of the highest and most potent forms of nutrients, subordinate only to the energies of unconditional love and understanding. Are you a passionate person? What are you passionate about? Have you learned to base your life around this passion yet? Well, for the sake of your overall health, I highly recommend that you do so. A person’s inner fire begins to wane if they are living a life that does not satisfy this personal passion. For, if you do not stoke the flames of the torch you were sent here to carry, how can you expect the light to shine as brightly as it should? Do you ever feel as if your voice isn’t being heard, or like you’re powerless to change a particular situation or set of circumstances? Likely, your inner fire is flickering, and it is only through turning your attention to what, exactly, this inner fire is composed of on a personal level that you can begin to nurse it back to the brilliant flame it once was. There is of course those who’s fire is overbearing. When this is allowed to happen the passionate expression of the inner flame is transformed in the anger of a blazing inferno. Just like the balance of between being grounded and being too grounded, there is a balance that must be achieved with one’s inner flame, otherwise, if left unchecked, the inner fire of the individual will consume everything in their life with the energies of anger, judgement, and even hatred in the most extreme of cases.
Water is fluidity. Our spiritual waters are our subconscious emotions and drives. Within your mind is a vast ocean of past experiences, and your physical existence represents the channeling lock from which these waters flow forth unto the world around you based upon the nature of the experiences and drives contained within your inner sea. This translates to the cognitive functions of the individual as the measure of just how good you are at “rolling with the punches”. When a gentle stream encounters an obstacle, it simply flows around it and continues in its travels onward. If, however, this stream is too weak in its composition, the obstacle will serve to completely divert the stream and the original destination will never be reached. To think of this a bit differently, conjure up in your mind the image of that person you know who is a complete pushover. This person doesn’t tend to have much of an opinion of their own, and usually looks to their friends or peers for indications of what they “should” think, feel, or do about a given scenario. This person is not unlike the weak stream of water that is easily diverted in its path from point to point, and will never realize where their actual end-point is if they do not learn to increase the flow of their Element of Water. Like all the others, this Element is always subject to a balancing act of sorts, because much like how a gentle fire can become a destructive inferno, a gentle stream may become too strong in its flow, causing an equally destructive flood that cannot be diverted in its current trajectory. This is demonstrated in our own day-to-day language with phrases such as, “She’s just a flood of emotion; I can’t stand to be around her.”
Air is sporadic. Air represents our own spontaneity, or our lack thereof. Our culture seems to have an odd relationship with the spiritual Element of Air, because despite all the romanticism surrounding stories of spontaneous life-changes and the like, our society doesn’t really reward people for living a random-ass existence very well either. Once again, a balance must be observed, otherwise self-destruction will assuredly result. A person who is lacking in the spiritual aspects of Air is a person who is too cowardly to take a chance; too scared to take a leap of faith, and too nervous to jump on an opportunity when it’s staring them in the face. These people find that their lives are lived in a rut, performing the exact same monotonous tasks day-in and day-out, when in reality they only need to open up their wings and soar on the winds of their own spontaneity. Ever been skydiving? Try it! Wallflower much? Get out there and dance! Too nervous to tell that special someone how you feel? Stop waiting for the “right moment” and tell them already! Raining on your day at the beach? Get out there and play in it anyway! The Element of Air challenges us to stop being so damn scared of failure, and to step outside our comfort zone enough experience something new. Of course, too much spontaneity can be just as destructive to our happiness as a lack of it. After all, how are you ever going to be able to foster lasting and meaningful relationships or practices if you keep on changing your mind all the time? Are you the type of person to start a book and never finish it, or make promises to yourself or others that you never see through? Perhaps you told yourself that you desire to start start eating better, but you can’t hold yourself to a particular regimen long enough to see results since you’re always changing your mind about what you actually want out of it all, or you promised yourself that you would begin taking classes towards a new career, but can’t seem to crack down enough to excel in them? If any of these concepts rang a bell to you, perhaps you should consider the idea that your spiritual constitution may have an excess of the spiritual Element of Air.
These is the overall Element of Ether; of Spirit, which is the combination and medium of the spiritual components of the four basal elements Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. When this overall component of Ether is properly balanced and harmonized between all the contributing aspects of its whole, the individual’s mindset and character is balanced. This, as I said, is the most crucial Pillar to the person’s overall health. All things originate in the mind of the individual. All things. If a person is experiencing significant physical distress or discomfort with any facet of dis-ease, and the person’s Element of Ether is not in harmony, then all attempts to cure the affliction using only physical treatment mechanisms cannot be trusted to infallibly work. Essentially, you have to get your mind right before you can ever come close to achieving full control over the workings of your body.
Wrapping Up
In this article we have first explored the proportional geometric programming that governs the development of our bodies. The pentacle geometry is employed using the Golden Ratio of 1.618:1 to shape a five-pointed star composed of five five-pointed stars. As we discussed, this ratio is observed in biology in the reverse of how we mathematically conceptualize it, leading to the conclusion that though man has “fallen” to the realms of finite individuality each person is in fact connected to a grander energetic grid built upon the fractal geometric proportionality of an infinite number of other patterns and sequences. Using our particular pentacle patterning as a basis of metaphoric explanation, I propose that the fundamental aspects of a vibrant human existence are the Five Pillars of Health, which each correlate to one of the five conceptual Elements Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Ether. By providing the physical body with ample amounts of each of these Elements, disease itself cannot reasonably exist within the physical vessel.
If you are not well or in any way dissatisfied with the state of your vessel, ponder for a moment just how strong each of your Five Pillars are. Do your naked feet kiss the soils of Earth on a regular basis? Is your skin adequately bathed in the glory of the Sun, and the intimacy of firelight? Have you made sure to water the roots of your current flesh-puppet properly? When was the last time you sat down for some therapeutic deep breathing, or pushed your physical limits to the point of exhaustion? Can you even touch your toes? Are you a happy person that loves, and feels loved? How, exactly, do you express yourself every day?
Let me reiterate: No, you do not have an anti-inflammatory drug deficiency. No, you do not have a statin drug deficiency. No, you do not have a "superfood" deficiency. No, you do not have a supplement deficiency. No, you do not have a gym-membership deficiency. No, you do not have "bad genes". What you have is a Homo sapiens deficiency; you are failing to provide your body with the lifestyle associated with the manner in which it evolved and developed. Every body is designed to be a vessel of greatness that spews out beauty, vitality, and strength from its every pore, but if you continue to ask it to behave in a manner that it is not designed to behave (such as with the robotic lifestyle our current culture encourages) then of course it will assuredly crumble back into the dust from whence it came.
Regardless of what your particular source of dis-ease is, be it physical mental or emotional, if you have not first addressed the imbalance with each and every one of these Five Pillars of Heath, then you are wasting your time and energy looking to the worlds of “healthy eating”, blind fanatical gym memberships, supplementation, or medicine.
live.in.freedom
Great article! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteA delightful reading for anyone who loves reading blogs.
ReplyDeleteresumeyard.com