The Experience of the Body

[JustLikeYou]

Retrospectively, I am rather dissatisfied with my commentary on this Archetype. I do not think that I got it all wrong, but I do think that you bring out the point that I failed to address directly enough: there is an interplay between mind and body which is of the utmost importance in this Archetype. Ra says, for example, that when the mental catalyst of anger is not properly processed by the mind, it is "passed to the body" as cancer. This is significant. It suggests that the response to refusing to process catalyst for the mind is to necessarily potentiate the body. This makes sense. What happens when we do not process anger? We "act it out". Punching a wall or having a shouting match are one form of acting out, but when one chooses not to do this and decides to just "get over it", the question must be asked: where did the anger go? The only answer I can imagine is that it is sent into the systems of the body as a vibration of disorder. Potentiate the body enough with a vibration of disorder and viola, you have cancer.

The cancer itself is thus the catalyst yielded to the body. Now the question is this: how does the body process the cancer? It adapts. The body will dispatch compounds and cells which attempt to eliminate the cancer. The body will adjust its functioning in order to allow maximal operative ability despite being crippled with cancer: many people never know they even have cancer until they are nearly dead. The body will make amazing adjustments just to make sure that it can continue functioning as well as possible. But if the cancer is bad enough, the adaptation taken by the body may be downright crippling.

So in the case of cancer, where is the seed for further catalyst? Well people with cancer often feel sick because of it. I know that the treatments we give these people are usually more painful than the cancer itself, but the adaptation of the body changes your homeostasis. You no longer have as much energy, enthusiasm, strength, etc. This change in the homeostasis of the body is a direct message to the mind: something's gotta give!

Let us take another instance: suppose your mind has a bias toward misogyny but you refuse to admit it. You are at work and you unconsciously act out this bias by treating women differently from men. The Wheel of Fortune will spin your unwise actions back at you in the way that your coworkers treat you. Perhaps you are slapped, or a coworker takes you aside to talk to you about it. Perhaps people just avoid you in general. In tandem with every Catalyst for the Body comes further catalyst for the mind. In the physical world, you are getting what you gave, but in the mental world, you are being shown over and over what it is that you gave and why. The processing of this catalyst in the world place will be an ongoing change in the circumstances in which you find yourself. The matrix of your workplace will continue to adapt to a new homeostasis (one which is more and more restrictive) if you keep choosing not to process your misogyny in the mind rather than the body.

On the flip-side of this coin, one can choose to act wisely and thus create a less and less restrictive environment. Act with balance (as the enchantress does), and you will find yourself consistently rewarded. Either way, your environment will seek homeostasis.

In terms of "lust", I can get aboard that train. What you give is what you get. And those who do not know themselves do not know it, but they actually desire their environments. If you tell yourself over and over that you are stupid, you will experience an environment where people treat you as if you are stupid. You created it and obviously wanted it because you directly chose it. To take our misogynist for example, this man is creating a world where women hate him. If you lust for a world where people respect you, then it is important to make sure that you enchant your world with respect. The world is strangely small and manageable when the significance of this fact is realized.