spiritual bodies

On Gender and Sexuality

April 17, 2014 By Amelia Leave a Comment

I have always thought that LGBTQ folks just identify more with their etheric body than with their physical, compared to the average human in incarnation now. For me, there is no judgment about it. Humanity is going through a natural progression, and as we know, human etheric bodies are loosening more and more from the physical bodies. Along with this loosening comes a greater freedom regarding the physical sexuality one chooses to unite with love. I do believe that there is a progression towards androgyny…over long stretches of time. Eventually, reproduction will be sexless. To me (granted I live in a very LGBTQ friendly place) there is a real need arising in humanity to not be held back by traditional sexual gender roles. Each individual can choose to develop those masculine and feminine aspects which they find fitting for themselves. This is not to say that there is not also true value in the traditional male and female virtues and roles, and indeed, nature presents us with the fact that only female sex bodies can grow a new human being within them. The entire spectrum should be able to find accepted expression. (Thanks to feminism for some things, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater!)

I do have to say that in my experience with homosexuals, they do have an etheric which is less tied to their physical bodies, and has more movement outside the body than typical. I experience this as a freeing feeling rather than as an incarnation problem. There is a connection with the life forces around them that is perhaps more immediate or important than for others. For some, the etheric body is less organized than others, but I think we can say the same of anthroposophists! It is our business now to begin to develop the etheric body into a constitution which can serve to receive the results of conscious spiritual sight. Our real goal now is to embody noble habits that will strengthen new energetic frameworks in our etheric body. There is a whole realm of experience, of etheric give and take, that awaits further charting.

Artwork by Alex Grey

On Digestion

April 12, 2014 By Amelia Leave a Comment

I recently had an online discussion with Adriana Koulias regarding digestion, and thought I would share some of it here.

First, some Steiner excerpts on digestive organs:

“Here are two important tasks for the future that we as Anthroposophists should be thinking about now! To care for the dying by helping them to learn how to cross the threshold in a more natural and healthy way. This is done through exercises of the will. Such exercises can transform thinking into an organ that can perceive the threshold while a person is still alive, taking away the fear and dread of death. Helping the dying to see death for what it is, a joyous experience of reconnection with our spiritual home. To care for the living, to connect the living with their dead loved ones through exercises in thinking that can bring consciousness to the will of the living. Such a consciousness can enable a conversation to develop between those who have crossed the threshold and those who are alive. Much of the nervousness and digestive trouble people are experiencing today would be resolved as most of it arises out of an unconscious experience of the spiritual world in which the dead live. ”

“The region in the neighbourhood of the digestive organs shares the same time-scale as the dead after death. …

“When a person suffers from a gastric disorder, the symptoms can be diagnosed physically; but as a result of his gastric condition he is more able to share in the life of the dead immediately after their death. … From the spiritual standpoint we would say that such a person feels impelled to preserve, after their death, his spiritual link with the souls he has known on Earth. … Gastric disorders arise because one is too much attached to the dead. Under such conditions one is dominated by the dead. …”

“Thus, if the consciousness below the heart is too active, the consciousness in the region of the larynx must be diminished; the heart lies between, it acts as a regulator and it is the knife edge on which the beam of the balance oscillates. Equilibrium is restored by administering copper. I have already pointed out that man’s body today is constituted in such a way that the larynx reacts to copper. … `The metabolic and laryngeal systems are as closely related as the two sides of the balance. One may be adjusted by means of the other. If suitable doses of copper are administered, the patient is inclined to withdraw somewhat from the realm of the dead and thereby benefits in health, whereas otherwise he is increasingly identified with it. That is the spiritual aspect of healing.”

Amelia asks Adriana:

Do you experience what Steiner refers to here… That a balancing of the larynx activity with the abdominal activity brings about both the absence of digestive disturbances and the warmth of the voice? (That bit later & earlier in the lecture.)

… And I wish I knew more about the “time-scale” Steiner refers to as being connected with varied processes in the human body. What is the physiology of our time body? We are present in the center of our heart? We live in the past in our head? We live in the future in our metabolic body?

Adriana Koulias answers:

Yes and yet the paradox is that although our physical head is the oldest part of us and connects us to the past, the spiritual organs contained in it take us towards the future, that is, towards experiencing the spirit – pineal and pituitary glands, while the will that lives in the metabolic system and which walks us towards the future in the physical sense spiritually connects us to our karma which is our past. The heart is our experience of the present, it keeps physical time and through it we experience physical space and yet it is the organ that helps us to reach the timeless and spaceless. I was trained in operative singing for many years and so I was a good candidate for being connected to the dead unconsciously as I had woken up my larynx but not my consciousness which led to many gastrointestinal disturbances. The more I became interested in fiction writing the worse the gastric disturbances became because in writing I am totally connected to the dead who are wishing to impart something through me. By working through knowledge of higher worlds and developing a faculty of imagination and inspiration I was able to bring consciousness to my larynx experiences and as soon as I did that the gastric disturbances subsided without a need for copper.

Amelia continues:

Ah, so perhaps my desire to write fiction is somehow connected to the upswing in gastric disturbances? And my interest in karma…

The balancing consciousness of the larynx has been in abeyance for some years now for me. Three steps backward for every step forward (a conscious choice). It is time, now, for me to renew my practice. May I flourish on the spiritual nutrition that surrounds me!

Adriana:

Yes Amelia!!!! And you will find, that when we acquire consciousness of the etheric world by way of the ‘eyes’ or the two petalled chakra any nervousness also subsides, in time when the experience of the 16 petalled chakra is added – that is when colour is added to light outwardly, the larynx becomes an inward ‘listening’ device for hearing the intentions of the dead or their inspirations. When the heart experiences are added we grow into understanding what we are seeing and ‘hearing’. The words of the dead rise up to the larynx and it resonates their words into our souls.

Amelia:

Some of us have real food intolerances resulting from childhood conditions and very weak organic and etheric forces. I have experienced this myself, and felt some greater health when I avoided foods that I could not properly digest. However, I am very well aware of the isolation this creates; I have experienced it! I am ever trying to strengthen my digestion so that I can eat what others eat. (Remarkably, this was easiest during pregnancy!) At this point in my life, I eat whatever is served when I am not cooking for myself, and allow my body the challenge of digesting the food. It is funny how so many of us feel so passionate about our food preferences. I do like my millet, but I will try to eat your wheat. I have always felt that it is a bit “profound” that I am allergic to milk and the “staff of life” (gluten-containing grains). It is symbolic of difficulties in incarnation, and of difficulties in effective working through of the various bodies in nutrition. Ah, how nice it would/will be, to sit with others, eat whatever is offered, and manage to digest it in a healthy way! Indeed, I feel it is a time that the inner/outer balance is off for so many of us. It is a symptom of our times, and I agree that it is something we should work against. Spiritual nutrition also is important!

Torture

April 11, 2014 By Amelia Leave a Comment

Is it possible to be more precise about what happens to the sheaths due to torture, ending in death or not? Is the ego more bound to the physical body? Is the astral body too deeply impressing on the etheric? Is the etheric cut off from its own life forces?

Many sufferers of torture and abuse dissociate to cope with their unbearable situation. What happens to the sheaths during this dissociation? Does the ego withdraw so that the unbearable pain is not felt? If so, “who” digests the pain instead of the ego? What being holds the “experiencing” of the torture? What are the further implications of this dissociation for the remaining life of the individual involved? What can bring about a reunification of the individual with their complete life narrative? What does it mean for the “I” to have lost continuity of its incarnational experience?

Is torture and severe abuse, in this sense, an attack on the ”I,” –an asuric assault?

Human actions that are evil and are also freely carried out–these are deeds of evil that require quick transformation, and also social healing. In the face of pure evil, a man cannot fight alone; he must have helpers both incarnate and disincarnate at his side. When two or more gather in His name, much can be redeemed. We are our brother’s keeper. May we bring both compassion and clarity to those who suffer! May we be willing to take up the karma of another! May we cultivate the selflessness that allows the better good for the community to arise! And may we commit to the deeds and processes through time that are required to bring about true social healing!