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The human body and the way of its regeneration is the theme of every book in both the Old and New Testaments. The Tabernacle in the Wilderness, the Temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel, the Holy City of Ezekiel, and of the Seer of Patmos, each has its parallel in the human organism. Christ Jesus Himself said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again," and the Disciples knew that He was referring to the body-temple.
The plan, structure, measurements and materials of the Tabernacle, which is the prototype for both the City and Temple of Jerusalem, all have significance in relation to the body and inner nature of man. So, too, do the objects contained within it. The Ark typifies the divine Spirit that dwells within the temple; the golden pot of Manna (the purified heart), with its white wafers made of honey, symbolizes the sacred life force in man which, when conserved and transmuted, elevates him to the status of the superman. Aaron's Rod that budded represents the life force lifted up through the spinal cord to the head and the unfolding therein of spiritual centers of perception. The Tables of the Law symbolize the positive and negative forces centered in the seed atom of the bodies of man. The Seven-branched Candlestick represents the seven principles in man which relate him to The seven planes of Being. The twelve loaves of Shrewbread have reference to the bread of life produced under the action of the twelve zodiacal signs, each of which governs that part of the body of man corresponding to their activity in the Solar Man. They also represent, anatomically, the twelve cranial nerves through the sensitization of which man awakens to the great work of Transmutation. The Altar of Burnt Offering symbolizes the sacrifice of fleshly desires; the Laver of Consecration, the processes of purification which result in the spiritualization of the mind and its consequent union with Spirit.
Paul declared, "Ye are the temple of the living God," and it is the dictum of Paracelsus that "there is only one anatomy worth studying and this is the kind in which occult science can assist." Writing in a similar vein, Henry Drummond (in the Lowell lectures) says:
"Those who know the Cathedral of St. Mark's will remember how this noblest of the stones of Venice owes its greatness to the patient hands of centuries of workers, how every quarter of the globe has been spoiled of its treasures to dignify this single shrine. But he who ponders over the more ancient Temple of the Human Body will find imagination fails him as he tries to think from what remote and mingled sources, from what lands, seas, climates, atmospheres, its various parts have been called together and by what innumerable contributory creatures, swimming, creeping, flying, climbing, each of its several members was wrought and perfected.
"What ancient chisel first sculptured the rounded columns of the limbs? What dead hands built the cupola of the brain and from what older ruins were the scattered pieces of its mosaic work brought?
"Who fixed the windows in its tipper walls? What winds and weathers wrought strength into its buttresses? What ocean beds and forest glades worked up its colorings? What love and terror and night called forth the music? And what life and death and pain and struggle put all together in the noiseless workshop of the past?"
The esotericist knows that the human organism in its entirety is a reflection of spirit. The greatest cathedral ever conceived by man falls far short of the symmetrical perfection demonstrated in the construction of that most wonderful of all temples, the temple of the human body.
Paracelsus states: "Every body consists of three ingredients, sulphur, mercury, and salt. These three compounds are called a body. If you look at a man and see only the bones, you see as a clown sees, but if you can separate his sulphur, his mercury, and his salt, then you see clearly what a bone is. The mere looking at externals is a matter for clowns, but the intuition of internals is a secret which belongs to the physician."
It is not enough merely to understand, even esoterically, the present condition of the human body. We must know something of its past as well as something of its structure as it existed embryonically in earlier evolutionary Periods, or Days of the first chapter of Genesis. The following is a brief recapitulation of the Western Wisdom Teachings on this point.
In the First Great Creative Day (Polarian) that substance which formed the embryonic body was entirely spiritual. In the Second Day (Hyperborean) it was etheric and luminous, appearing somewhat like the Sun shining through a mist. In the Third Day (Lemurian) it became predominantly liquid. Only in the Fourth Day (Atlantean) did it become sufficiently material to assume its present physical likeness.
In the early spiritual stages of evolution, the work of body building was under the guidance of the Leo Hierarchy (Lords of Flame). Man then lived in Paradise. Later, as the skeleton began to form under the crystallizing influences of the Moon and Earth, the work came under the Scorpio Hierarchy (Lords of Form) and the Capricorn Hierarchy (Archangels) with the Saturnian forces which tend toward precipitation and restriction. Thus, in a sense, we may say that the bones constitute a barrier or an opaque veil that shuts the Ego away from the higher realms. The intricate bony structure marks the peak of our physical evolution thus far. But it belongs only to the Earth plane. Future evolutionary work will dissolve excessive crystallization in the bony structure and it will become again etherealized, while remaining the support of the whole form.
Life means sensitization. The less awakened the life, the less sensitive it is. The oyster within its protective shell (skeleton) is almost impervious to sensation. Man, the highest form of life, has built the nervous system on the outside and the bony structure within. Thus he is more easily hurt than the oyster, but through these hurts he is developing a still more highly sensitized nervous system which will open the way for further spiritual attainment.
Before death can be overcome by man he must gain complete control of the bony skeleton. (This is the profoundest meaning of the Earth Initiation.) "Not a bone of his body was broken" was spoken of the Christ, with reference to the beginning of the process of spiritualizing the skeleton.
With the formation of bones, death (that is, loss of contact with the inner worlds) came to man. As he learns to assume control of the bony structure by infusing into it the power of spirit he will gain mastery over death and know the life immortal.
The bony structure marks the development of a species. In its early stages man's body bore but little resemblance to its present form. What is now bone was then cartilage. The hardened frame appeared in the late Atlantean Period. The appearance of the backbone or vertebral structure marks a major step in the progressive development of the body. Wherever there is a backbone there is also the beginning of the third optic nerve, and as the vertebral structure heralds the appearance of man, so the emergence of the optic nerve signals the appearance of superman. As the axis of the body changed in the course of evolution from the horizontal to the perpendicular, it became necessary to effect a change in every bone and muscle of the body.
The pelvic girdle is a broad shallow basin which supports the viscera. The keystone of the girdle is the sacrum. It supports the backbone and locks the arch behind. The sacrum at birth varies from the fourth to the seventh vertebrae; these unite into one bone. Above the sacrum is the vertebral column composed of seven neck vertebrae which are cervical, twelve thoracic, and five lumbar, making twenty-four in all. At birth it is usual to find twelve pairs of ribs, but some infants have eleven while others have thirteen. Seven pairs of ribs join the breast bone or sternum, although sometimes there are six or eight, the first pair being mere rudiments.
No architect has ever duplicated the spine in a column so slender, well adjusted and well-balanced. Its graceful paired curves give elasticity and grace to the body and save the brain from jar and shock. The backbone ends in five rounded bones about the size of peas, called the coccyx or tail bones.
In the case of the bones of the skull, the brain can grow as long as the three big sutures of the skull remain open. These close earlier in animals than in man. Premature closing results in idiocy in the human being. The back suture closes first while the front brain continues to grow. A boat-shaped head results from the premature closing of the parietal suture. The frontal bone begins as two. Shortly after birth the suture disappears and the two become one.
Bone growth is one of the miracles of body-building. The infant skeleton is composed of cartilage sufficiently firm for limbs to hold their shape, but elastic and flexible so that falls are not necessarily dangerous. These cartilages divide, lengthen, and thicken. Soon after birth spots of true bony material begin to appear. This marvellous transformation is carried on by certain living cells whose work is that of architects and masons to the bony structure. They deposit the material atom by atom inside the flexible cartilage and gradually change the soft skeleton of infancy into the hard, bony framework which is to become the support of the adult body. Shortly after birth two or three million of these minute bone builders begin their activities inside the ends of the larger bones.
When bones are broken these tiny masons begin at once to construct a bridge between the two separated parts. Under microscopic examination this work is fascinating to behold.
Dr. Policard, an investigator in the subject, in a report to the French Academy stated that for purposes of study he used cells from a bone fracture which he grew in culture solutions of chemicals as nearly like those of the physical body as possible. During the first part of the healing process the cells grew in one way and in the later stage of repair in another way, their nature changing completely as their work neared completion. Fractured bones do not merely adhere together. The repair of bone injury introduces a vast army of infinitesimal living cells, or workmen. Immediately after injury, cells from the inner or soft, spongy part of the bone migrate into the break and build themselves into a living bridge across the gap. These minute repair men gradually transform their surroundings into the hard compound of lime of which true bone consists.
As we have noted from time. to time all temples of spiritual worship have three divisions: An Inner and Outer Court, and a Holy of Holies. We find a similar three-fold division in the bony formations of the human body temple.
Observe first the box-shaped area consisting of hip bones, sacrum, and pelvis. This contains the organs of generation and corresponds to the Outer Court of the temple.
A second boxlike structure is formed by the ribs on either side of the backbone and the diaphragm. Here is contained the heart and lungs, organs of life and vitality. This segment constitutes the Inner Court or Holy Place in Solomon's Temple.
The third box, or casket is formed of the bones of the skull which enclose and. protect the brain and the spiritual organs of perception known as the Pineal and Pituitary Glands, a veritable Holy of Holies. Through these three "courts" or enclosures, the great fire centers of the universe pour their influences. Aries, the initial fire force, plays through the head. Leo, the love light, centers in the heart. Sagittarius, the life fire, burns in the generative area. These three centers and their corresponding spiritual development equate with the esoteric Masonic work of the Blue Lodge degrees, Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master, the keynote of which is expressed in the adjuration, " Offer yourselves a living sacrifice upon the altar of life."
"Unto Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothed them. " (Genesis 3:2). Physiology declares that "There is a skin without and a skin within, a covering skin and a lining skin: but the skin within is the skin without doubled inward, and carried completely throughout. "
The embryonic dense body cell consists of three layers: ectoderm (outside), mesoderm (middle) and endoderm (inside). Of these three primary cell substances the entire physical body is composed.
The outer skin layer, the ectoderm, is allied to the masculine or Father principle and correlates with the work of the First Creative Day (Saturn Period). From the ectoderm is formed a highly differentiated epithelial tissue which composes the lining of all sense organs and all glands opening into the mouth and nasal passages.
The inner skin layer, the endoderm, is allied to the feminine or the Mother principle and correlates to the Second Creative Day (Sun Period). It forms the lining of the alimentary canal from the back of the mouth to the end of the large intestine; also of the glands which open into this part of the tube.
The middle layer or mesoderm, made up of both the ectoderm and endoderm, is allied to the third or offspring principle. It correlates to the Third Creative Day (Noon Period) and the building of the connective body tissues.
The skin covers the external body and forms the lining for all internal cavities. Its renewal is effected by processes from within the body. The outer layer, the epidermis or cuticle, is thickest in the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Between the epidermis and the derma, or cutis vera (true skin), the inner layer, are little papillae containing nerves and blood vessels. The epidermis has three parts: the outer, the soft, moist middle cells, and the inner cells which contain the skin pigmentation.
The derma is thicker and tougher than the epidermis. It is semitransparent. The derma varies in thickness from one-fiftieth to about one-sixtieth of an inch, being thickest in the small of the back. It contains the sweat and oil glands, fat cells, nerves and absorbent vessels and blood vessels. Sweat glands are most numerous in forehead, palms of hands, and soles of the feet. They number some 2,500,000. United in length they would stretch out about two and one-half miles.
The elementary sensations of the skin are touch, warmth, cold, and pain. The sense of touch is most delicate at the tips of the fingers and tip of the tongue and least sensitive at thighs and buttocks.
Maintaining proper temperature rests with sweat glands of the skin and its blood vessels. The feeling of hot or cold is not due to a drop in temperature of the body, but to the tiny organs in the skin that feel hot and cold. Whenever there is less warm blood in them they send a "cold" report to the brain. This report is skin temperature only. The brain receives few other temperature reports except from the lining of the mouth and digestive tract (skin also). When the body is making too little beat, the blood vessels in the skin contract until their tubes are very small and let only a little blood through the skin. This checks the beat outlet and keeps it within the body.
Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Rosicrucian Initiate, writes: "The soul of the light is stopped by the human skin." and already there is some evidence to show why and how the skin is sensitive to light. The skin is evolving an optic nerve. The following quotation is from Eyeless Sight by Jules Romains: "There is a rapid skin evolution. A new group of microscopic organs are developing in the epidermis, called ocelli. Each ocellus is constituted of (1) a nerve ending; (2) a coarse oval cell of granular protoplasm clearer than the protoplasm of the neighboring cells and equipped with a voluminous nucleus of remarkable refractive powers, and is called the sensory cell; (3) a nerve fibre linking it with the system of ocelli, termed the optic body. When the luminous rays have crossed the upper layers or the epidermis, whose transparence is sufficient for this, they undergo three successive refractions and form on the ocellary retina a more or less crude image. "
Consequent upon this discovery, the author relates how be taught blind people to see through the skin, which is more sensitive over some areas of the body than others due to the larger number of ocelli in such areas. The forehead, the chest, and the palms of the hands are among the sensitive areas enumerated. Dr. Romains offers evidence to show that the ocelli are true embryonic eyes, already sufficiently well organized to serve as organs of vision if properly educated. Here again we have a hint of what the future holds in store for the body of the human race.
Apropos of this we may say that previous to material existence, humanity was a "living soul clothed in raiment of light." It was when man entered Earth conditions that he was given the name Adam, which means "red earth," and the words were spoken to him, "Dust thou art, unto dust thou shalt return." The dust body is of course the physical body acquired through evolution on the Earth plane. It received an erratic impulse from the "fallen" angels, the Luciferian Hierarchy who were stragglers from the Angelic Life wave, half-way between man and the Angels in development. The primordial body of light was moulded along harmonious lines with the aid of the Angels and under the supervision of the Lords of Form; the Lucifers introduced a new element, self-will, which caused a deviation from the original divine pattern. Form always implies limitation, but not in the sense of actual suffering such as resulted from the Luciferian error. Part of the great sacrificial act of the Christ was His voluntary submission to the limitation of a human body, as prepared for Him by Jesus of Nazareth.
Note that Scorpio governs both higher and lower aspects of man. The scorpion carries the Luciferic impress; the eagle, symbolic of the higher self, represents the winged golden garment of the New Adam, whose prototype is the Christ. Such also is the golden eagle, the simurgh of Persian mythology.
With the disappearance of the "coats of skin," the memory of fallen man and the lower aspects of Scorpio will pass. "For the old heaven and earth are passed away, and there shall be no more sea." The Bible begins with the story of man taking on coats of skin. It closes with a picture of the new heaven and new earth wherein he will again assume a body of light.
The functions of the skin as at present constituted will then be translated into spiritual terms. The skin now possesses both a positive and a negative function: namely, absorption and excretion These reflect the activities of the polarities of the human Spirit, positive and negative, masculine and feminine. Spiritual absorption and excretion relate to the spiritual activities of Truth and Love.
There are three ways of disposing of surplus body heat: first, by sending the blood rapidly to the skin; second, by cold air drawn into the lungs; third, by sweat glands. A person perspiring freely could remain for considerable time in a hot oven-hot enough to cook meat. Ordinarily the body produces more heat than it needs; by means of perspiration alone it is able to rid itself of three times as much heat as it requires. If it were not for the sweat glands a person could not work during hot weather. A certain amount of respiration also goes on through the skin, absorbing oxygen and giving off carbonic gas. The lungs also help to dispose of heat.
The protective functions of the skin, as in disposing of heat, is a type of spiritual function by which the Ego knows intuitively what is right and best and so is forever enveloped in God's protecting Love.
The temperature of the body falls about one degree during sleep. The skin protects, excretes, purifies, absorbs, and provides the principal seat of external sensation. It also regulates the temperature of the body, which is normally 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit while the skin temperature is 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature of the body itself gets above 107 degrees even for a short time, death nearly always takes place. Even 105 degrees is dangerous.
Skin has likewise the property of absorbing various substances applied to it. Absorption takes place most readily on parts where the epidermis is thinnest. Thirst is considerably relieved by bathing. Medicines produce effects on the internal system when rubbed into the skin. Children exhausted by disease and unable to eat, or whose stomachs refuse to retain food, have been saved from starvation by rubbing nourishing substances on the surface of the body, by means of which particles are absorbed into the blood.
The mystic nine, the number of man that plays such an important role in relation to his physical and spiritual evolution, is present also in the nine layers into which the skin may be divided: (1) hairy or outer layer; (2) true skin; (3) layer containing small blood vessels; (4) layer containing sweat glands; (5) fatty tissue; (6) layer containing hair bulbs; (7) layer containing hair shafts; (8) layer containing oily glands; (9) layer containing nerves, seat of touch and sensitiveness.
In the first chapter of this book, The Archetype, it was noted how the archetype or celestial pattern of the human body was given to man by the Lords of Mind in the First Day of evolution (Saturn Period). Then also the sense organs were evolved germinally, with the assistance of the Lords of Flame (Leo). In the Second Day (Sun Period) the construction of the alimentary canal and glandular system began. In the Third Day (Moon Period) the muscular system had its beginnings; also the skeleton and liver. The Lords of Individuality (Libra) assisted in this work. In the Fourth Day (present Earth Period) the intricate mechanism of the cerebellum (feminine in polarity) was begun. The Lords of Form (Scorpio) and the Angels (Aquarius) helped with this work.
When correlating the evolutionary Days with the Epochs of the Earth Period (Epochs are the subdivisions of a Period), the Third is found to correspond to the Lemurian, the Fourth to the Atlantean, and the Fifth to the present post-Atlantean Epoch. It is in this Fifth Day that the cerebro-spinal nervous system and the cerebrum (upper brain, masculine in polarity) began under the Lords of Form and the Archangels (Scorpio and Capricorn, respectively.
The Powers of Light and Darkness contend for mastery on every plane of manifestation. The vital body is under the control of the angelic kingdom and the desire body is under the Lucifers. Their combat ground is within man. Each Hierarchy endeavors to invade the kingdom of the other. Man lends his assistance to these contenders, one way or the other, by yielding supremacy to his higher or lower nature.
The glands are the particular field of activity of the etheric beings who work through the vital body. However, the desire body has gained a center in the spleen and there forms the white blood corpuscles which, are so inimical to health, even fatal if they are allowed to become too numerous. Being a distinct desire body product, the serious ills which they engender proclaim the karmic effect of unleashed desires and emotional excesses in this or in past lives.
The muscular system is the especial evolutionary work of the desire body, having its beginnings, as above noted, in the Third Creative Day (Moon Period) wherein the principal work under the jurisdiction of desire had its origins.
Muscles are, therefore, particularly amenable to the force of desire. The flesh is controlled by Mars. Any excitement or tension in the desire body produces a direct reaction in the muscular system. This is why meditation is important in spiritual work, for by it the mind quiets desires and holds them in control. With the muscles relaxed, the Ego is free to rise from the state of Meditation into that of Contemplation. Max Heindel writes concerning this: "Relaxation does not mean simply a comfortable position; it is possible to have every muscle tense with expectation and that of itself frustrates the object, for in that condition the desire body is gripping the muscles. It cannot do otherwise till we calm the mind."
There are two kinds of muscles: the voluntary, which are under the conscious control of the will; the involuntary, which are not under direct conscious control. The voluntary system bears the evolutionary insignia of a superior order, its muscles being striped both lengthwise and crosswise, whereas the involuntary muscles are striped crosswise only.
One organ only belonging to the involuntary system possesses the cross stripes of the voluntary system. It is the heart, the most important muscle in the body, and is destined for the highest development. It has already been taken over by the Spirit from the control of desire and has become the seat of angelic influences which flow in through the etheric body. This means that when wholly freed from the domination of desire, it will be a center of individualized and controllable life-force and therefore a voluntary muscle.
A physiological study of the muscular system challenges the intelligence by its intricacy of structure. There are three hundred and ten muscles on each side of the body. Testut, the famous French anatomist, required nine hundred pages to describe them. One-fourth of all muscles are in the neck and face. Facial muscles show progressive variation and are among the most recent acquisitions of the muscular structure. The facial muscles in animals are more simple. We look for intelligence in their eyes instead of the face. Skin muscles of animals are more active than those of man, for, having served their purpose in human evolution, they tend to disappear. As the skin is evolving eyes through sensitiveness to light, so will the muscles of the body become amenable to the impulses of beauty flowing in from spirit. This is foreshown in the arts of the dance and in histrionics, for the best dancers and actors express intelligence in every muscle of their bodies.
The tremendous evolution ahead for the desire body will have its natural reaction upon the muscular and nervous system, which are the principal avenues for the expression of human desires on the Earth plane. Transmuted desire-stuff is destined to become a luminous translucent spirit-force, already known popularly as Vril from the novel by Sir Bulwer-Lytton. By means of this force the new heaven and new earth which John speaks of will literally appear. This will take place coincident with revolutionary changes in the structure of the human body, chief of which will be the change in the position of the heart. It will find its rightful place in the center of the body instead of being on the left, or Luciferic side, as at present. Then the Sacred Heart of Light will be the universal possession of the human race.
The liver is the largest gland in the body and possesses many millions of cells. Each liver cell is an organ containing two hundred and twenty-five million water molecules, two thousand nine hundred million crystalloid molecules, and one hundred and sixty-six million fat molecules and fifty-three million protein molecules.
The liver is one of the most important organs of the human body both from the physiological and the occult viewpoint. It works with and transmutes materials brought by the venous blood from the stomach, pancreas, spleen, and intestines. It manufactures bile, converts glucose into glycogen, and changes other by-products into urea.
The liver is a fascinating study in connection with karmic or past-life causations. Mme. Blavatsky states that "the liver and stomach are correspondences of Karma in the trunk of the body."
Rudolf Steiner writes in his Egyptian Mysteries:
When we understand occultly the functions of the liver we know why the seed atom of the desire body is centered in this organ. As most ills are of karmic origin, it becomes quite understandable why the Grecian myth of Prometheus presented this character as chained to the rock of materiality, his vitals gnawed at daily by vultures causing him the greatest suffering. At night the parts eaten away were replaced so that the punishment was never ending. Such suffering is humanity's, and this will continue until, through regeneration, man liquidates the wrong-doing of many life cycles past.
In ancient times the priest was physician of both body and soul. His was the office of caring for the ills of individuals and nations. Exorcism, driving out evil forces from bodies, homes and nations, was the principal method of healing. Divination might properly be termed the preventive medicine of the ancients. Both their religious and healing systems were founded upon and regulated by astrological knowledge.
The most common method of divination was by inspection of the entrails of a sacrificial animal, liver divination being held in special esteem. The origin of this practice is lost in remotest antiquity. In Borneo, a pig was generally used; in Burma, a fowl. Some countries used goats or sheep. Such divination was a prominent part of the religious observances of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, and was also used extensively among the early Greeks and Romans..Later this custom was carried over into the rites of the early Hebrews. Ezekiel says, "For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked into the liver."
The liver was regarded as the principal vital organ in the body of the animal and as the seat of mental and emotional activity in man. The heart later was accorded the place of honor as the seat of the soul, earlier accorded to the liver. In Hebrew poetry the word for soul and liver are often used interchangeably. This place of distinction was accorded the liver in Babylonia and Assyria for three thousand years. Thus we may say that the study of anatomy began in Babylon 3000 B. C.
Parts of the liver especially observed in divination were the lobes; gall-bladder (considered as part of the liver); portal vein or gate of the liver; the two appendages to the upper lobe; and markings on the liver lobes, traceable to subsidiary gall ducts that gather gall from the liver into the gall bladder, and to the subsidiary vein ducts distributing blood from the large portal vein through the liver.
The Babylonian priests prepared clay models of sheep's liver for temple neophytes to study. One of these models, now in the British Museum, belonged probably to a temple school of Marduk in Babylon in the time of Hammurabi, 2000 B.C. It shows the parts of the liver to be examined. There have been discovered a great number of omen texts, or liver divination texts, proving how general was this practice. The large appendix was called the finger of the liver. The gall bladder was the bitter part. The depression on the surface was called the crucible and the great portal vein the river. The crucible is, in modern terms, that depression or transverse flssure above the left lobe, and the liver gate is the porte hepatis, in which the hepatic duct and portal vein partly lie.
Questions usually dealt with battles, journeys, armies, and the election of public officials. A gall bladder enlarged on the right side was interpreted as indicating the success of the king's army; enlarged on the left side, success of the enemy. If tightly embedded in the gall bladder groove, the king's army in the firm grasp of the enemy; if to the left, enemy prisoner. A prolonged biliary duct indicated a long life; if short, early death. The hepatic duct not enclosed in the gate of the liver meant a position exposed to attack by the enemy; well enclosed, success in battle. If broad the finger-shaped appendix indicated joy. If the small appendix was large it meant that the servant prevailed over the master, son over father, lesser over greater.
The same system was followed by the Etruscans. A sheep's liver in bronze from the third century B. C. was discovered in Italy in 1677 with the same parts marked as in the Babylonian model. Again, Aeschylus, in his Prometheus, when recounting the benefits which humanity owed to Prometheus, mentions divination by means of sacrificial animals; and in the Electra of Euripides the gate of the liver is noted.
As anatomical study became independent of religion, the heart superseded the liver as the organ of the Spirit. The heart was considered not only the seat of emotion but of the intellect as well. Heart and soul are synonyms in the Old Testament. In Greece and Rome, the soothsayers sometimes added heart to liver for divination purposes.
The Anatomy of Hippocrates (460-431 B.C.) led to the recognition of the brain's importance. The liver, according to Hippocrates, is the seat of the blood.
Aristotle indicated the heart as the seat of both emotion and intellect. Plato in his Timaeus states that man has two souls, immortal in the brain and mortal in the breast. The seat of all lower emotion he places below the diaphragm or in the liver. Further in this same work, Plato says that diseases are chained down like a wild beast between the midriff and the navel; for the gods, knowing emotion would not listen to reason and was liable to be led away by ghosts and phantoms of the day and night, formed the liver to connect with the lower nature and to dwell there. They contrived that it should be compact, smooth, and bright, and both sweet and bitter, in order that in it the energy of the thoughts proceeding from the mind might be received like figures in a mirror and projected as images. Thus, in order that the lower nature might obtain a measure of truth, the gods placed their oracle in the liver.
Cicero and Livy refer to liver divination cults, and in the Pentateuchal codes mention of liver and caul (that which hangs over the liver) occurs frequently, as for example, in Exodus 29:13-22 and Leviticus 3:4-10.
The liver comes rightfully under the control of the expansive and beneficent Jupiter. However, as this organ is an important center of the desire body, in the undeveloped person the liver is largely influenced by Mars and Saturn. Mars works actively in the liver, freeing iron from the waste materials of the blood and producing gall. This material force centers here in the seed atom of the desire body and if the temper and emotional nature are not under control, results in various serious liver ills. The forces of Mars are violent; those of Saturn are repressive. Martial emotions call for self-control; Saturnian emotions for transmutation. The gall bladder is a direct expression of the desire body. Gallstones are a result of repressed strong emotions such as long-held thoughts of hatred, fear, or revenge.
"Disease," says Paracelsus, "is of nature, nature alone understands and knows disease and nature also is the medicine of disease. Man contains within himself all knowledge and wisdom required in healing." He adds further: "The Sun and Moon which I see above me influence me neither for good nor bad, but the Sun, Moon, and planets with which God's providence has adorned the heavens in me, these have the power to rule and reform me according to their course ordained by God."
As life becomes spiritualized the liver comes increasingly under Jupiter. As the transmutation of the desire body progresses the liver gradually changes shape and assumes the form of a flower, somewhat like those of the bulbous lily family, its central vortex becoming tinged with colors of a soft Jupiterian blue.
Astrologically, the kidneys come under the airy sign Libra and are governed by Venus, the planet of love. they are excretory organs. This is true both physically and occultly. Together with the liver, the kidneys expel physical waste; if the Ego be sufficiently advanced, they also serve to throw off corresponding substance from the desire body.
Libra is the sign of balance in the zodiac and the kidneys under the sign of Libra are the organs of balance in the body. As body purification continues, the love ray of Venus becomes increasingly manifest in harmonious activity on the part of the adrenals, those minute ductless glands whose role it is to stabilize or balance the entire human organism.
The kidneys and liver are closely interrelated in function. The kidneys are organs of elimination for the physical body, while their astral counterparts perform a corresponding service for the desire body and the mental vehicle. From this fact it is apparent that the purificatory work of the organs of elimination have a much wider range than is ordinarily ascribed to them.
The liver, as we know, secretes inwardly, being the largest of the glands of internal secretion. The kidneys secrete outwardly. Both kidneys and liver are important foci of the activities of the desire body which is the seat of all personal desire. It is because of this fact that these organs react so quickly upon physical health. In the unregenerate they reflect with sensitive precision the inharmony rampant in the emotional field. As mentioned before, suppressed rage, prolonged bitterness, and feelings of revenge are all reflected in the diseases which characterize imperfect functioning of the kidneys and liver, such as gallstones, renal calculi and cirrhosis of the liver. Sometimes the state of mind which causes these painful diseases has sunk below the sufferer's threshold of consciousness, for few indeed know and recognize their own secret failings. To learn to see clearly our most deeply hidden faults and to evaluate them is the first work of Initiation, typified in meeting with the "phantom" called the Dweller on the Threshold. It is no objective terror which confronts us on the Threshold, but the personified image of our own lower self which, though it has been consciously sublimated, more or less, frequently continues to act subconsciously and so is the cause of much sickness, organic as well as functional.
In regeneration the kidneys and liver become powerful centers of spiritual force; then the body is strengthened, purified, and eventually spiritualized.
In the sacramental formula the statement that we partake of the body of Christ is literally true though not, indeed, by transubstantiation according to some orthodox conceptions, but by the mystic fact that the Word was made flesh under the likeness of the created universe, so there is no particle of it which is not Christ's "body." Speaking of the spiritual universe (which means the universe as it really exists in spiritual consciousness), Mary Baker Eddy observed, "We tread on forces." The Earth from which, in the ultimate analysis, our sustenance comes, is made up of spiritual forces typified under the image of Bread and Wine. Hence to the mystic every meal is a holy observance attended by prayer, thanksgiving, and praise. Never is it desecrated with flesh food obtained by the slaughter of our younger brothers of the animal kingdom whose evolution is so close to our own. Every meal served and partaken of in love, beauty, harmony, and reverence becomes, in deed and in truth, a Holy Supper.
The Masters of the race have acquired the art of body building to an extent which has enabled them to conquer death and illness of every kind. They sustain their body-temples in a state of perfection. They eliminate disease and old age by mastery over the life principle contained in various food elements, regulating its activity in harmony with their own individual keynote. Thus their bodies are perpetuated indefinitely. The widespread interest in food and dietetic problems shows us how humanity as a whole is awakening to this secret wisdom, learning to purify food according to the needs of a more refined and spiritual civilization. The time will come in the far-distant future when, as in the long-distant past, man will again receive his necessary sustenance direct from sunlight and air without any intermediary agent.
The digestive processes were begun in the Second Creative Day (Sun Period) and are thus attuned primarily to the Sun. We see a likeness of this condition in the life cycle of Earth vegetation. When we learn to attune ourselves consciously to what is known as the Spiritual Sun, the Light of the inner world, when our minds and
souls turn and live with that Sun as plants do with the material Sun, then we shall know what Paul meant when he said, " Whether ye eat or whether ye drink, do all to the glory of God."
The central germ of every seed is, metaphysically, the breath of God. Every living thing has its seed within by which it is reproduced (Genesis 1:11). The ideal image of the flower in its most minute detail is contained within the seed, which is the focus of the celestial archetypal pattern.
The polarity upon which the universe is built is thus manifest in the seed, with the vital principle representing the positive polarity (masculine), and the soil which provides it with mineral salts, etc., for its growth representing the negative polarity (feminine). This operation in nature has given rise to the mystic formula:
Both "Fire" and "Water" in Nature are visible to the eye of the seer: Fire as the life which burns in all vegetation, as Moses saw it in the "burning bush." Water as a sustaining power drawn from the Earth principle, the Living Water of the alchemists, or Living Silver (Aqua Viva and Argentum. Vivum, respectively). There are Fire and Water above the Firmament, and Fire and Water below the Firmament also. The polarity above the Firmament is macrocosmic; the polarity below the Firmament is microcosmic. "As it is above, so it is below. "
The dual masculine-feminine forces which we have studied in their operations throughout the body are equally evident in digestive processes. Broadly speaking, assimilative processes represent the positive action, eliminative processes the negative. Lymph, representing the desire body, is masculine; the more active an individual is the stronger are its manifestations. Chyle is negative and belongs to the etheric processes. Venusian influences are operative in the chyle and Martian influences through the lymph, Venus and Mars constituting a polarity. Through metabolic processes, sacred to the universal Life Principle, spiritual forces transform food substances into animating life essences, which revivify the cells of blood and brain. This mysterious metamorphosis is accomplished only through the workings of spirit and can be investigated adequately only through the organs of spirit, which are metaphysical in nature. Mystics prefer food derived from the vegetable kingdom not only because these are richer in life force than animal food, but because animals are highly individualized and so the use of their flesh as food verges closely on cannibalism. The evolutionary gap between man and animal is sometimes very slight indeed, and we not infrequently meet human beings who have little more soul than the animals they feed upon.
It is rightly said that every part of the body is a symbol of a spiritual faculty. This is the key to a great alchemical secret, whereby base substances are put into a crucible (the mind) over the alchemical fire (ardor and inspiration) until they "go over" into Spirit. The body has been planned for us by great Angels. In a sense, it is a loan from them to us. Only so much of it belongs to us, as individuals, as we make our own through conscious mental activity. By learning the primary functions and forms of the body, together with their spiritual correspondence, we acquire knowledge with which to gain control over our bodies, to recreate them "nearer to the heart's desire."
In the digestive processes we observe the workings of Cosmic Wisdom in assimilation whereby Cosmic Good is appropriated by the Ego, and in excretion whereby all that is not of immediate use is eliminated. This activity corresponds to the mental faculty of discrimination.
From the mouth food enters the cone-shaped pharynx which is suspended from the skull. In the natural process of swallowing the esophagus must be opened and the passage to mouth, nose, and wind-pipe closed; otherwise the food goes toward the lungs instead of the stomach. Processes of swallowing are so efficient that a " swallowing center" in the brain has been hypothecated.
The stomach has three layers of muscles: lengthwise, oblique, and circular. They vary in thickness in various regions according to the work required of them. Carbohydrates receive different treatment from proteins and fats.
The act of swallowing sends food to the upper or sphincter end of the stomach in one-tenth of a second. Contractions of stomach muscles begin shortly after the food enters the stomach, mixing it with gastric juices. As a result of mixture and contractions chyme is forced toward the pyloric or lower end of the stomach. When the chyme has reached a certain degree of acidity the pylorus opens and the chime enters the twenty-foot-long small intestine, one of the greatest marvels of the body, as it is the main center of digestion and absorption. Astrologically it is governed by Virgo and is the physical reflection of the mental quality of discrimination, by which the good is appropriated for use by the Ego.
Into the small intestine are poured juices secreted by millions of minute glands. The lining or coat of the intestine is a marvel of construction, formed by many irregular folds which increase the surface of the mucous coat and slows up the passage of foods to permit thorough digestion. This surface is composed of four million minute projections or villae. Each villus is connected with a lymph vessel, an arteriole and a vein; it is enclosed in a layer of epithelium and contains a muscle. Under the microscope every villus is seen to move about and to pump up and down.
Beyond the small intestine is the large colon which is from five to six feet long and from two and one-half to one-half inch in diameter. Absorptive and digestive processes are concluded here. The cecum. (blind) begins as a pouch, the small intestine opening into it on the side. At the blind end is also the opening of the vermiform appendix.
Both small and large intestines have two muscle coats: the inner which is circular and the outer which is longitudinal. They produce two kinds of movements: peristaltic, or waves of constriction which push food onward: rhythmic, which masses the food in certain areas and then breaks up the masses. Science has determined such segregation to occur about every two seconds. Here again we see that perpetual motion and harmonious rhythm underlie the life functions of the body.
According to the Arabians, the Sun rules the heart, brain, thigh, marrow, right eye, spirit, tongue, mouth, organs of sense (internal and external), bands, feet, legs, and the power of imagination. Mercury rules the spleen, stomach, bladder, womb, and the faculty of common sense. Saturn rules the liver and fleshy part of the stomach. Jupiter rules abdomen and navel. (It is said by ancient authorities that an effigy of the navel was laid up in the Temple of Jupiter-Ammon.) Some also attribute the ribs, breast, bowels, and blood to Jupiter. Mars rules the blood, gall veins, back, motion of sperm veins, kidneys, seed, secrets, breasts, sacrum, backbone, and loins. The Moon, while governing generally the whole body, rules more specifically the cerebellum, lungs, marrow of backbone, menstrual and excretory processes, and power of increase.
Hermes saith: "There are seven holes in the head distributed to the seven planets. Right ear to Saturn, left ear to Jupiter; right nostril to Mars, left to Venus; right eye to Sun, left to Moon; mouth to Mercury."
The ear, like the nose, is partly inside and partly outside the head. The internal ear is deep within the head and within it is the end of the nerve of hearing. The inner ear is filled with liquid which is vibrated by sound. When this liquid vibrates its waves strike the nerve of hearing and the impression of the sound is carried to the brain. It is the brain that hears; the ear is only the instrument. Clairaudience manifests through the inner ear alone, under the impact of subtle etheric waves of force as yet unknown to science.
The external ear is like a trumpet, and its office is to collect sound and carry it to the hearing nerve located in the internal ear. The ear is man's oldest and most perfectly developed sense organ. Its beginnings go back to the First great Creative Day of manifestation, the Saturn Period. In the embryo the ear makes an early appearance, and hearing is the last of the senses lost in death. A careful study of the fibres of Corti, of which there are about three thousand in the human ear, each capable of interpreting approximately twenty-five gradations of tone, will suggest the tremendous evolution man is yet to experience in the auditory sense.
As previously stated, the sense of smell is the first to fail in the death process; followed by the sense of taste, then sight and lastly hearing. Hearing, next to feeling, is the oldest and most perfect of the physical senses. Because hearing seems perhaps the most passive of the senses, people do not as a rule think of controlling it; as a consequence it becomes the channel for much that is negative to reach the brain consciousness. Much can be done toward control by impressing upon the subconscious mind in meditation the fact that hearing is a sacred function. This is indicated in certain early Christian paintings of the Virgin Mary which portray her as conceiving the Holy Child by means of a ray of light from heaven entering her ear. It is representative of her receptiveness to divine wisdom. Thus with the celestial pattern held continually in mind, its mortal replica will be maintained in undiminished strength; not only will physical hearing be maintained intact but inner plane contacts will be established.
"Let there be Light," was the Divine Fiat which caused the formation of the eye. Earliest man had no eyes, but possessed two sensitive spots in his head which were affected by the Sun's rays. The Earth was once a part of the Sun. Man then literally lived in the light, his body was luminous and his sense perception wholly internal or spiritual. When the Earth separated from the Sun, man needed external organs with which to- perceive the light that was without. Consequently be set about building eyes, under angelic guidance. The eye thus came into being in response to the Ego's need to cognize the external light. In that sense it might be said that light formed the eye and maintains it. Remove the light, the eye ceases to function and blindness follows. The eye is developed fairly early in the embryo, thus indicating its evolutionary age as a tool for the Spirit.
The cavities in the skull which contain the eyes are orbits shaped like pyramids, one and one-half inches deep. At the bottom of these pyramidal orbits are holes through which the optic nerves enter. Six muscles are attached to the eyeball, one up, one down, one in, one out, and two are axes passing from before backward.
All of the senses face a great future development, for our present mode of cognizing the world is scarcely more than peering through a peephole as compared with the superb powers one day to be ours. We do not ordinarily think of the fourth-dimensional consciousness as being sense perception; but occultists know that every sense organ in the body has, as it were, a fourth-dimensional extension which will raise its power to an incalculable degree when we know how to make use of it. At present man sees only the reflection of external objects as they are mirrored upon the retina of his eye. With the development of fourth dimensional vision, he will see through objects, inside and out simultaneously; and in addition, he will, by the turning of his imagination, discern the entire history of that object from the time when it first came into being.
All sense organs are the result of the activity of etheric forces. In the case of the eye, it is the Light Ether which is of primary importance. The Light Ether (as also is the case with the other three (Chemical, Life, and Reflecting) is both positive and negative. The forces active in the positive pole of the Light Ether generate blood heat, while those working along the negative pole produce the passive functions of sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling; also, they build the eye itself. Color, in all kingdoms of light, is an activity of forces resident in the negative pole of the Light Ether, while the heat-forces in the positive pole cause the circulation of the juices in plants.
Although all the senses are worked upon by forces in the negative pole of the Light Ether, the eye is most affected. Therefore the closer one attunes himself with the etheric forces, the more he feels the rhythms of inner planes and the more he is conscious of inner beauties of form and color, Poets, artists and others of the sensitive type unconsciously learn to work with these ethers to a greater or lesser extent. Beauty is literally in the eye of the beholder, as the poet has stated. It is the difference in individual sensitiveness to etheric impacts that causes objects to appear so differently to different persons. Thus the artist actually sees colors which are unrecognized by the average person. Shadows, for example, that appear grey, brown, or black to the ordinary eye have in them blue, violet, and purple tints discernible to the more sensitive eye of the artist. Similarly, the surface of the sea also reveals a multitude of evanescent tints and shades which to average vision is merely grey, blue, or blue-green. Art students find that their eyes gradually become more and more sensitive to color as they work, proving that the range of the etheric sight can be extended even without occult training. On the other hand, occult students frequently discover that they have acquired this greater degree of color vision without art training.
Sight, like feeling, will eventually extend throughout the entire body. Grecian sages symbolized extended vision in the sacred peacock, venerated in the worship of Juno, Queen of Heaven, whose starry eyes are figured in the peacock fan. "The night has a thousand eyes, " sings a modern bard, "and the day but one. " Mythology shows that Grecian poets have made similar observations.
Already human sight is changing rapidly due to the electric influence of Aquarius, now close to the Vernal Equinox. This accounts for the wide prevalence of weak eyesight, especially among many children; it also explains why metaphysicians who have otherwise demonstrated so much of health, continue to have trouble with their eyes. Eye "trouble" is really the efforts of the eye to adjust itself to a new spectrum. Metaphysicians will continue to fail in healing their eyesight until they approach the whole subject from this new viewpoint, working not to "correct" what seems to be a weakness, but to encourage the changing vision in accordance with the divine plan.
The sense of taste developed earlier than the sense of smell which belongs to the Third Day of evolution. A child is born with feeling and taste already in evidence; also the brain areas governing hearing and sight. In general, the sense of taste is governed by Taurus. Sweets are perceptible by the tip of the tongue, sours by the edge, bitters by the root and salts by tip and edge.
In common with the other senses taste has a mental function. With the sense of smell, it represents the faculty of discrimination, the ability to distinguish between the real and the unreal, and to segregate and amalgamate both objectively and subjectively. Psychologists have proved that an inordinate desire for sweets often indicates a craving for affection both in children and adults. Children with a strong blood lust have been known to heartily enjoy rare meats which they chew savagely.
The nose consists of two parts, a projection from the face and cavities called nasal fossae. These latter connect with the throat, upper jaw bones, and eyes. The nerves of smell are situated at the top of the nasal cavities. In the act of smelling, air laden with odorous particles is drawn up to the top of the nasal cavities and there impinges upon the nerves of smell. These nerves are the only exposed nerves in the body and they lead directly into the brain, hence the power of breathing exercises and incense or perfumes to affect brain consciousness. It has been suggested by some scientists that the blood circulation of the brain is regulated by the breath, and not primarily by the heartbeat as in the rest of the body. This again suggests a reason for the efficacy of breath control in mental and spiritual development.
The interior of each nostril or "breath-gate" is composed of cartilaginous substances. These gates are avenues for the dual breath force and are under control of a vital center located at the root of the nose. This is one of the most highly sensitive points in the whole body. The two great nerve currents, the Ida and Pingala as they are known in oriental occultism, unite and blend their masculine and feminine forces in this center. The breath carries forces that stimulate these vital nerve currents. The masculine or positive nerve force has its origin in the right nostril at the root of the nose, passes through the cerebellum and the medulla oblongata, down,the right side of the spine and terminates in the coccyx. The Ida, the feminine or negative nerve current, originates in the left nostril at the root of the nose, following the same course down the left side of the spine and terminating in the coccyx.
The forces of the Pingala, mingling with the essence of breath in the right nostril, strengthen objective manifestations. 'The forces of the Ida and breath essences of the left nostril strengthen subjective manifestations.
Deep and sustained breathing through the right nostril, together with a mental effort to picture desired outer conditions, is an effective exercise in the demonstration of health, success and plenty in the physical world. Deep and sustained breathing through the left nostril, together with the imaging of desired inner plane manifestations, is potent to produce demonstrations of power in the subjective world.
Immoderate use of breathing exercises, however, should be avoided, especially by Western neophytes. It has been found that the Western student, with his usual impetuosity, tends to overdo in this and in other matters, and thereby sometimes brings about nervous disorders, heart trouble, lung trouble and other reactions of an unpleasant nature. Oriental teachers in America now warn their occidental students of the dangers of Indian breathing exercises; and in India itself there have been considerable changes of method in recent centuries. The ancient exercises given by such teachers as Patanjali in the yoga Aphorisms are no longer wholly countenanced even in India among modern Indian neophytes, who are today coming under the materializing vibrations of the West.
Concerning the sense of feeling, science has never located its center in the brain — this for the reason that feeling is no longer localized but permeates the entire body. Being the earliest of the senses it has also attained the highest degree of perfection. In future Earth Days, neither sight nor hearing will manifest through localized brain areas, but will encompass the body as feeling does now.
On the First Day of our evolutionary career (the Polarian Epoch of the Earth Period), the Ego's mortal envelope — it could scarcely be termed a body — was a filmy structure of no symmetrical proportions. It was made of etheric substance which as yet bore no impression of, the intricate sense organs it was one day to develop. The only evidence of a sense organ was an organ of feeling, a cone-shaped object that protruded from the top of the head and was sensitive to gradations of heat. Later this organ became centered within the head and is now the pineal gland; but before the brain and nervous systems were evolved it was the localized organ of feeling or touch.
The five senses correlate with the five Root Races as follows: 1. Polarian, hearing. 2. Hyperborean, feeling. 3. Lemurian, sight. 4. Atlantean, taste. 5. post-Atlantean, smell. The expansion and amalgamation of the five senses into the "sixth sense, " the voice of the soul, is to be the special development of the Sixth Root Race. We now call this sixth sense. Intuition and it is sporadic in its appearance but will then be subject to full voluntary control.
Thus there will be two more senses developed by the Sixth and Seventh Root Races: the sixth sense of Intuition, or spiritual knowing, and the seventh, which is a space-sense that will endow man with the faculties and characteristics of a superman, fulfilling the prophecy of St. Paul, that man is (in the light of spiritual evolution) "An heir and a joint heir with Christ." The amalgamation of mind and soul will be the glorious consummation of the final or Seventh Root Race, thus ending the present Day of Earth manifestation.
Paracelsus says there is a star behind every process going on in the human body Mercury is the star behind the lungs; as Mercury works in the heavens so do the lungs work in the human body. As Mercury symbolizes polarity, so also do the lungs, being double. The perfection of Mercury in the body will be accomplished by the power of the breath.
The lungs are light spongy organs filling the cavity of the chest. An air-tight receptacle for the protection of the lungs is formed by the breast bone in front, cartilages of ribs on each side, the vertebral column in the back and the diaphragm below. The lungs are surrounded by a network of air cells. The air they contain is separated from the blood only by the thin walls of cells and capillaries. It is here that oxygen passes from the air into the blood and carbonic acid gas escapes from the blood into the air. It is here also that the etheric record of man's every thought, word and deed passes into the blood to be carried to the seed atom in the left ventricle of his heart. The lungs, in common with other bodily organs, bear their impress of wrong living in the past. They are governed by the Hierarchs of Air, which element correlates with the mind. A hardening or crystallization of the mind in the past tends toward the same effect upon the lungs in later lives; such diseases as tuberculosis and pneumonia are the result.
Polarity is manifest not only in the organ itself but in its function, which shows both a positive and a negative mode. This is true of breathing, one of the body's rhythmic processes. In-breathing is feminine or sustaining and image-building, whereas outbreathing is masculine or formative on the plane of materialization. God breathed the breath of life upon or within the body of man and the soul was born. Speech, a manifestation of breath, also exhibits dual qualities, the tone being feminine and the articulation masculine. In language, vowels are feminine and consonants are masculine.
While the larynx is the voice box, the lungs, bronchial tubes, trachea, throat, nose, and mouth are all instruments for the sacred power of the spoken word. This power, and its control by means of rhythmic breath, will be more fully understood and utilized in the New Age that is dawning.
"The breathing process is an inspiration made real." It is truly sacred when rightly understood, since it tends toward the transmutation of physical substance into spirit. Breath is the great body harmonizer. In deep and regular breathing there is a continuous flow of the sacred Fire Mist of the spinal canal into the cavities of the brain; this greatly accelerates the power of demonstration on both the mental and physical planes.
God breathed on form and a living soul was born. Christ Jesus breathed upon His Disciples and they were transformed into supermen. Poverty, disease and death, the world's greatest ills, will be overcome when man has learned to use aright the wonderful power which is latent in the breath.
A great sage has wisely said: "The soul's goal is spiritualization at the cost of the body. " The larynx is one of the most important and intricate of bodily organs, and one in which further spiritualization in the body will produce notable changes. It is a box-shaped apparatus composed of cartilage; it constitutes the upper part of the windpipe and contains the vocal cords, hence called the voice box. The power of speech is attained only when the larynx has developed to a vertical position. That of the animal kingdom is horizontal.
From the fish-like appendage of Atlantis to the intricate and finely attuned organ of speech of man today is a tremendous evolutionary step. The larynx is formed of the holy essences of creative substance, therefore its close interrelationship with the reproductive organs. To waste this substance either in idle words or in sensual living means a weakening of both mind and physical body. This is the reason for some systems of spiritual schooling requiring disciples in training to observe regular periods of silence.
The larynx is destined to become the wine cup of the New Age filled with the transmuted essences of life. This is the "new wine" to which the Master referred at the Last Supper and of which He promised to drink in the New Day. With the evolution of this new cup or Flower of Life in the throat, man will again be able to speak the words of power which are creative. It was by the use of this spoken word that Adam "named" or aided in the formation of the archetypal patterns for the animal world. It is also here that the Mason will learn to find the Lost Word of his esoteric rites.
The larynx, the heart, and the spinal cord form the path of the Fire Mist in the body of the Initiate as this force rises to the head.
"As the sun worketh in the planet so does the heart in the body." The heart is a hollow muscle situated in the throat between the lungs. It is about the size of an adult's closed fist. The heart is divided into four cavities, the two upper are termed auricles and the two lower ones are ventricles. Esoterically the right auricle and the left ventricle are most important.
The entire organ is continuously contracting and expanding about sixty-five to sixty-seven times a minute in the normal adult. When it contracts the blood is forced into the large blood vessels; when it expands the flow is from the blood vessels into the heart. The direction of the flow is determined by valves so constructed that blood goes only in one direction. Between auricles and ventricles are other valves which allow the blood to flow from the auricles into the ventricles.
The heart beats from the fourth prenatal month until the Ego leaves the body in death. It is a double pump, two streams flowing out with each contraction and. two streams flowing in with each relaxation. There are also two distinct cycles of blood from the heart through the body. The heart therefore bas two distinct sounds, the second being shorter and of a higher pitch than the first.
When studied clairvoyantly the heart is found to be truly the Sun of the body. As the Earth, which is outwardly dark, is composed of nine layers with a central light flaming always at its core, so the heart possesses nine etheric layers with a luminous rose or lotus blossom in their midst. When a life is set to the rhythms of universal consciousness this heart flower expands and its petals gleam and sparkle with lights of blue and gold. When, however, the love life of the individual is impure or selfish these flower petals tend to bend backwards and curl upon themselves. This stultification of the heart-flower reacts physically as heart trouble in this or later lives. Paracelsus well says that disease can be intelligently studied only in connection with Karma and the invisible bodies of man.
The heart is the doorway of spiritual illumination. Few persons qualify for higher spiritual work because the heart of the vast majority remains spiritually unawakened. The words of the Christ, "Behold I stand at the door and knock," is an ancient saying from the Mysteries referring to the illumination of the heart by powers of the Divinity within. Holman Hunt's painting of this subject reflects a similar image as it appears in the Akashic records where it may be seen by anyone qualified to observe these inner-world pictures.
The heart as the center of the blood circulatory system is important as the seat of life. Tn the left ventricle is the seed atom of the physical body. This is man's book of destiny out of which he is judged by the Recording Angels at the end of an Earth Day. The Forces of the Cosmic Christ focus in the heart and there is a mysterious relationship existing between the great Angelic Heart of Leo and that of man. There is a profound significance in the. fact that Leo rules the heart. The heart as the life center pulsates in myriad colors during the life of ail individual. It is the last part of the body to die. To clairvoyant sight this last center of life appears just before death like a luminous spark of violet light after all life processes are stilled.
Heart consciousness is most active during hours of sleep. The important work of the aspirant is to impress this heart memory upon the brain mind. Man must learn to think with his heart. This will only be possible as love becomes the animating motive power of life. David, the poet-seer, understood these inner truths when he sang: "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."
Paracelsus writes: "As the Sun worketh in the planet, so does the heart in the body and the Moon in the brain." The mystic marriage is alchemically described as the uniting of the Sun and Moon. When complete regeneration is accomplished, a stream or nerve current of light will flow along the pneumogastric nerve, coordinating the powers of head and heart. This is the mystic highway traversed so often by Mary and Joseph between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. All the principal events in the Bible are also found within the body of man.
The heart had its origin when the group soul consciousness of humanity was under the tutelage of the Hierarchy of the Lion. It appears in the twelfth day of fetal development. We learn from embryology that the segmentation of the ovarian cell is cruciform, being bisected by both a direct and a transverse line. The mystic also knows that it is from the essences of this first cell that the heart is evolved. Thus the heart is born to bear the cross of the Spirit, which is formed out of its experiences and causations. The heart of the entire human race bears the signature: "If ye would be my disciple, you must take up your cross and follow me."
The heart is septenary, consisting of two auricles, two ventricles, and three higher divisions. In gill-breathing animals such as fish, the heart is a single pump with one auricle and one ventricle. In the embryo of higher vertebrates there is a recapitulation of this stage which remains permanent in amphibia and reptiles. In birds and mammals a partition forms that divides the original ventricular chamber into distinct right and left ventricles. The heart represents the spiritual triad or higher nature; the liver and spleen the lower quaternary. Hence these words of Paracelsus: "The secrets of all nature are in the four elements. For the Ternary with the magical Quaternary produces a perfect Septenary. When the Quaternary rests in the Ternary, then arises the Light of the World on the horizon of Eternity. "
It is only in the deep-sleep state, when the Ego slips away and goes beyond dream consciousness, that the Spirit is truly awake and the language of the heart may be impressed thereon. This is the state of consciousness described by George du Maurier in his novel, Peter Ibbetson; he calls it the art of "dreaming true." Some few have developed this consciousness during hours of sleep and have in this way been able to touch and remember occurrences belonging to past incarnations. It is to be remembered that this ability consists in reading heart records through the development of heart consciousness. In his eagerness to acquire the ability to read the records of the past, the average student of inner world Mysteries considers it a mind process and thinks that the preparatory work must be done upon his mental equipment. This is a mistake, accounting for the fact that so few realize this attainment. Work must be done primarily, not upon the mind but upon the heart. This truth throws added light upon the fact that the Supreme Wayshower stressed. always in His teachings the power of love, and reiterated the occult maxim that love is the fulfilling of the law.
Heart consciousness is Initiate-Consciousness. An ancient author quoted by Strabo thus describes the Mysteries: "The soul experiences at the period of death the same feeling that it does in Initiation. The very words answer to each other just as the reality does. In Greek 'to die' and 'to be Initiated' are expressed in almost the same words."
The esoteric student learns to center his aspirations for Initiation in the heart as the orthodox Christian does his hopes of conversion. The supreme spiritual work is an effort to center consciousness, both waking and sleeping, in the heart.
This organ is destined to become the generative center of the body, with the spiritual fires playing only between the organs of the head, the larynx, and the heart. Jacob Boehme portrays this attainment in his diagram of the Tree of Life, the roots of which are embedded in the heart while the fruit-laden branches spread out from the head.
Man in his finite state is a personality. In his progress toward infinity, his ultimate goal, he becomes, through the processes of spiritualization, an individual. Persona means a mask. It is the personality, functioning as the lower man, that hides the true light of the Spirit within.
The mass mind of humanity lives primarily in the personality, hence mankind has lost knowledge of the perfect body it could have. Disease and death have become man's portion. The ideal of human evolution is the Christ Man. In such a one perfection of function and harmony of bodily rhythms are firmly established. Radiant health and a vibrant, full, and free life are his portion.
"Man possesses the power both to comprehend and appropriate all things imagined possible with God," it has been said. In the practice of universal life the very atomic rhythms of the body are changed. So long as man is swayed by personality, low-vibrating atoms responding to hate, fear, sensuality, and the like intermingle promiscuously throughout his body and affect its various organs and functions in accordance with their nature. With the beginning of spiritual life, the atoms attracted into his body vibrate to key-thoughts and key-emotions of purity, love, courage, and reason; and his body is regenerated in the fusing of like with like.
As hatred is overcome by love in the consciousness, molecules of hate are ejected from the body and molecules of love take their place. As fear is overcome, dark and shadowed molecules are displaced by those of radiant light, for bravery and courage are accompanied always by a rare shining. So as man gradually learns to elevate himself closer to the Christ ideal in his daily life he is at the same time building a new body keenly responsive to soul impacts — a veritable body of Light, singing in every atom.
Apropos of this is the following inspiring paragraph by the late eminent Theosophist, Dr. G. de Purucker: "The old Welsh bards used to sing that to the initiate's ear there comes the audible song of the growing grass, and that the circling of the orbs in the sky was likewise heard as a great musical symphony; and verily it is so. Even our modern scientists today tell us that every smallest electron is in constant movement, and that every movement of a substantial particle is accompanied with a sound, a note, a musical note indeed, so that every smallest atom sings its own characteristic enduring hymn; and hence any combination of atoms forms a harmony, a symphony. Thus it is that even our physical bodies, had we the ears to hear it, would be heard by us as a wondrous symphonic orchestration of music, a marvelous symphonic melody of musical numbers. "
The principal organic systems of the body may be correlated with the mystic number nine.
The correlation is as follows:
Each of these organic systems has been preceded by aeonic cycles of evolutionary unfoldment, and a like process of expansion and perfecting lies ahead. "Man is as yet but little lower than the angels and it is not yet known what he shall be."
Writes Edward Thompson in The Youngest Disciples: "Thatch well this House of Nine Doors, close its entrances! See well to the roof before the tempest of old age assails it, cover the roof with the thatch of repentance. Make the rafters of pity for all living things so that they may be at peace with thee. Over it lay the palm leaf of meditation on the noble eightfold path ... with the tar of self-forgetfulness bind all things together . . . And as rain falling on a well-thatched roof falls to the earth outside so will passion fall from the roof of this mind and body. "
If we were to photograph a person's brain at the moment of birth and then photograph also the heavens lying exactly over the person's birthplace, the latter picture would be of exactly the same appearance as that of the human brain. As certain centers were arranged in the latter, so would the stars be in the photograph of the heavens. — Rudolf Steiner.
There is a star behind every process going on in man. All the forces of heaven have their corresponding activity in those parts of the body that are expressive of their powers. — Paracelsus.
If we were wise enough to understand occult anatomy we would see the signature of the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Zodiac upon every organ and its functions. — Alan Leo.
— Corinne Heline
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Contemporary Mystic Christianity |
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