The Magic of Breathing, as a Possible Aide for an Individual with the “Flu”.

The Magic of Breathing, as a Possible Aide for an Individual with the “Flu”.

The Hermetic Science of the ancient Egyptians was also called “magic”[1]. Up until the Incarnation of Love – 2000 years ago – magic was the greatest source of “power” in the world. Then He came, and a far far greater Power was available. This did not change the effects of this magic-science, so much as change the nature of the human being, who was from then on traveling the road/path to becoming a self-activated representative of the Divine Mystery themselves.

Valentin Tomberg, in his Meditation on the Eleventh Arcanum of the Tarot, aka Force or Strength (the symbol of that aspect of reality shows a woman apparently holding open the jaws of a lion), pointed out that this force is two-fold, a more heavenly aspect: Zoe, and a more earthly aspect: Bios.

Zoe could also be seen as transcendent elemental fire (electricity of a sorts), which is known of in the Emerald Tablet, as that which “penetrates”, and is more generally connected to the Presence – in Every aspect of the Creation – of the Holy Mother. Bios – terrestrial electricity – is structural, kind of a set of laws that are part of the human being’s true nature.

This has very little to do with the electricity that powers modern civilization. Transcendent elemental Fire is the will of higher beings. Terrestrial elemental fire is the unfree will of the elemental kingdoms. This Bios then is dominated by order (the Father), while the transcendental elemental fire is the free will connected to the primeval Chaos, which is born in the uncreated and yet-to-be-formed imaginations – inspirations – and intuitions of the Mother.

Some magic systems call this the Akasha, and we ourselves contain/are this aspect of reality instinctively in our ability to “choose” – to be free to originate course changes in our lives. From this primeval Chaos then descends the elemental aspects of: Fire/Will; Air/Intellect; Water/Feeling; and, Earth/Consciousness.

What we call “electricity” is the near absolute order of matter, its cohesive nature, due to the presence of the Father at rest, after His labors in the Creation. We now take this primeval elemental order, and via actual magic operations (a tale for another day) separate from the material, this fiery-will-at-rest, and use/abuse it in ignorance of its true nature.

To do this we have to “kill” the material order, present by/via/from the existence of the elemental kingdoms, whose four primary names are salamanders, sylphs, undines, and gnomes. We apply death forces to matter, kill its living nature, and make out of the now lifeless pieces our technological world.

At the same time, the Mother/Maternal aspect is part of Everything, which then enables the unfree Elementals to maintain a “consciousness” connection to the whole. They are in-communion-with the Whole. There is no material stuff that is not filled with the conscious presence of Immortals.

Take material water, for example. It is made whole, and we apply death forces (electrical or chemical) to water, which then dies into a corpse made up of hydrogen and oxygen, the number relationship merely a kind of divine musical notation. At the same time, when we divide the water into parts out of which it was not created, we fail to take account of the light and heat that is also liberated from the material water. This means that elemental water (created in the atmosphere, by the way) is made up of its own four-fold nature, the more material aspects being the “gasses”, and the spiritual aspects being the light and warmth.

What does this jibber-jabber have to do with the flu? In as few words as possible then …

First, realize that consciousness is everywhere, although the corpses of our assaults on the material world are lifeless and inert, they still are/exist. Nature, as we know, takes stuff apart and re-purposes it all the time. The debris/mess of our experiments is up to us to clean up. To do that we need to form an intimate relationship with the elemental kingdom, and illness is a means by which we can be further initiated in the mysteries of our own nature. Life (between birth and death) is a kind of a school of hard knocks and shared pain, which being shared makes it possible for us to develop sympathy into empathy.

Breathing is an aspect of the middle of the threefold form organism of a material body. Along with the heart, the lungs mediate between the fire principle in the metabolic limb system, and the air principle in the nerve-sense organization. We feel there – the water principle. Thinking, Feeling, and Willing, in anthro-speak. The fourth principle – Earth/Consciousness – is the unity of the other three.

Flu is an inflammatory process, given the arising of fever. It is an instinctive uptick in the unconscious to us forces of the own will, or warmth (fire) body. The flu makes us need water, rest, and the odd social effect of needing to be alone when sick, and needing company when sick. Anthro-doctors tend to point out that a fever is a process which generally induces further incarnation, and over the courses of our lives we may notice this change via “illness” (forced water, and rest).

The mind~!~spirit (akasha) in this state of fever is dreamy to the point of out of body dreamy, and at the same time a participant. In bed we still make choices.

Here are some of the fundamental rules of life known to the science of magic: The Mystery of Breathing; the Conscious reception of food; and, the magic of water. All matter, which has consciousness via its elemental-being nature, can be (and is) influenced by our own “thought” life, where those elemental folk, and our existence, occupy the same space&time.

We only experience separation from the rest of the world as a kind of enchantment. This modern illusion was necessary, and has its own story. In any event it might be helpful, during illness, to contemplate the services offered by the elemental kingdoms. To ride the fever (even mild, or just being tired and otherwise under “stress” – increase taking naps) as a kind of surrender, can include the idea that we live in, are surrounded by, and our body is made up of elemental beings.

Our thoughts can be connected to these fundamental processes of breathing, food consumption, and the fact that we are – physically – watery. Meanwhile our consciousness – our akasha – is needing to participate.

Thus the magic of learning how, through conscious pore-breathing, to influence the course of the illness by the activity of cognition itself.

Before you are ill, rise in the morning and first thing brush the whole body with something soft, like a two inch wide camel hair paint brush. During the night, the pores have closed (mostly) and the processes – such as purification of substances that normally go on in the three layers of the skin – are shifted from the skin to the kidneys. The brushing may encourage urination.

Follow the brushing by washing with a damp clothe all over the skin. The night has left bits of matter on the skin, and it helps the skin to be freed from this debris. Yes, cold, but after washing take a not too soft towel and rub it everywhere. The cold wash has also drawn the blood to the skin organ, tickled awake the nerves, and this bodily awakening is all aided by this process of brushing, washing, drying.

Now lie down or sit in a comfortable posture. When sick we are already lying down, but if we have practiced before the illness/fever we have learned to do the conscious pore breathing of the light. Anthro-speak refers to this as the ethereal or life body, this “light”. {In It (the Word) was Life, and the Life was the Light of the world.}

While breathing, regularly – not forced at all, surrendering to the instinctive connection between the breath and the Life we feel there, use the own light-making power, the imagination, to imagine the light streaming in and out of the pores. We rest, we breathe, the skin is very awake, and we let our consciousness rest in those feelings, enhanced by our imagination/concentration-without-effort.

Play. While the mind rests&surrenders it can go to other places as play.

Our whole body participates, not just the intellectual mind. Over time, and it is only necessary to practice for a few minutes daily, our consciousness becomes more aware of its totality. Sure, the left toe itches, the bum and tummy ache, the eyes hurt – that’s elemental earth-consciousness.

If an apparent part, via “pain” (increased consciousness) draws the mind’s attention, attend to that part. Feel it. Let the light be breathed in and out of it, in harmony with the natural – surrendered to – rhythm.

Now add to this feeling-presence a specific thought/wish. Imagine the light/life being breathed in from the everywhere to our node of consciousness, having an intended quality, which we – as akasha – determine.

Any thought will do. In a like way we can add thought-forms to food before we ingest it, and to water whenever we apply or use it. Our freedom lets us choose any thought-form, which we have also created via the conceptualization potential of our akasha to act on the world of ideas, the ethereal world.

Personally I find that it is has been best to keep it (the wish, the meaning) simple. So I breathe in Life, and breathe out illness. The imagination is aided here by picturing the in-breathing as happening in the whole field of bodily consciousness, unless we want to focus on a particular locus of pain, or some other bodily “part” these energies.

In breathing out, I imagine this taking place in the elimination organs of the body. The skin breaths in the life and light, and some material aspects of the illness no longer belong, and the body itself knows what to do. In life, out disease, is then a means/prayer to act deeper into the course of illness … not in a heavy handed way, but a dreaming/spiritual way. Our will goes with and guides the life to where it is needed.

Yes, illness can weaken the will. In an acute case, the helpers can do the brushing, washing, and drying, and via being read to, or listening to music or natural nature sounds, the consciousness of the bodily ill individual can/will instinctively create the thoughts to be layered into the substances of air, water and solid foods. It doesn’t hurt to relate this to a kind of regular Eucharist, without getting hung up on theological foolishness. Remember, the ill person is an aspect of the divine mystery, as are all which has existence. “All Our Relations”

[1] https://thecollectiveimagination.com/wandering-in-wonder/