While the archetype of "Earth" is ethereal and without substance, the experience of "Earth" is intense and compelling. Every iota of matter is tied to this Icon, every moment of your conscious identity as a body is rooted to it. Ironically, you live out most of your days as insulated from the actual earth as you can be. You perch upon cushions and floors. You tread upon concrete, pavement and quarried stones. You shelter your feet with leather and rubber and plastic. Even in your quietest moments, you seek to leave the ground in search of your SELF. How is this working for you so far?

You cannot succeed in cutting ties that you are not even aware exist. The cords that bind you to the physical are dense and strong. They grow out of you and you spend your life grabbing desperately onto more. You draw them into yourself to securely fasten you to your name, your body and your family. Even now in your twilight, as you seek freedom from the bonds of physicality, you still clutch onto them without conscious awareness of their existence or their nature. Let us begin to explore your ties to the Earth together so that you can know what you are letting go of and how to accomplish your release.

Establish a pattern of preceding your meditations with a short regime of physical motions that establish your connection with the centers of awareness that whirl outside of your physical body and connect you to the fields of physicality and the Earth. You have come to know these fields as Earth and Nature. They define the experience of matter and much of what you have thought of as Human. They are first ideas from the nebulous realm of icon, poured through the filters of conscious choice just as you have been. Your body is formed of their essence and pattern and cannot be extricated from them. The paradox is that SELF is not contained therein and is free to explore at will. Your body remains with Earth now and hereafter but you... But we digress!

Stand erect with eyes closed (as much as possible) in a space that allows freedom and safety of movement. Conjure an image of an environment, if you cannot stand on actual earth, that appeals to you, be it forest floor, sandy beach or icy puddle or pond. Kick off your shoes or slippers and feel your feet contact the floor. Soften your stance with knees and waist slightly bent and hands at your sides. Take a few slow and thorough breaths and open your consciousness to us.

1.) Brush away loose matter beneath your feet by kicking forward along the ground. One foot and then the other 3 times.
2.) Do the same by kicking backwards like a bull getting ready to charge. Use some actual force as your feet slide roughly upon the surface just as if you are brushing dead leaves and twigs from the forest floor or loose sand on the beach.
3.) Sweep the ground ahead of you away to the outside. Left and right 3 times.
4.) Sweep the ground behind you away to the outside. Alternate and repeat
5.) Sweep from left to right across the front of your body with your left foot. Alternate and repeat.
6.) Sweep from left to right across the back of your body with your left foot. Alternate and repeat.
7.) Sweep a half circle from front to back. Alternate and repeat.

Just like the detritus of leaves and twigs that covers the forest floor, your energies, your thoughts and your internal discards collect in places within your field of being. What you do not hold in your consciousness, through intentional refusal or habitual disregard, collects and begins to slow, gel and harden. They cover your perception and interfere with your functioning as human and as SELF. When you suppress feelings and fears, when you resist change or stand against the reality you face, parts of your energy field, the standing waves around which all life forms, sag and slow down. In so doing, they cover the free flow interchange between your identity and your life experience. Energies which could be in a liquid-like state, flowing easily and at your will, gel and fall and harden and insulate. They can add up to the point of trapping your feet and halting your movement in your life. And when you stop moving, they throw dirt on you.

Pay attention to any nuances in your meditation and any meaningful thoughts and feeling in the hours or days to follow. When you feel ready to continue forward add these movements to your regimen.

1.) Raise your left foot by lifting your knee to parallel to the ground and stomp down forcefully with a flat foot. Imagine the ground shaking a bit with each stomp. Alternate feet and repeat 3 times.
2.) Reach out with your left foot and dig toward you with the back of your heel from a spot in front of your body. Alternate and repeat.
3.) Raise your foot behind you by bending at the knee and dig with a pounding motion with your toe. (A & R 3 times)
4.) Lift your left knee to parallel with the floor and step down and forward to the floor with a forceful motion as you dig with the front of your heel. Alternate and repeat
5.) Lift your knee to parallel and step backward to dig with the ball of your feet. Alternate and repeat
6.) Shift your weight forward and with the balls of your feet twist into the ground 5 times in a drilling motion. Repeat
7.) Shift your weight onto your heels and repeat the twisting and drilling. Repeat
8.) With feet flat to the ground, wriggle with your entire body and dig into the ground forcefully as you might in sand. Dig in with authority and imagine plugging into the Earth like an electrical plug into a wall socket. Breathe deep and slow, drawing from the core of the planet. With a deep inhale, clench every muscle of your body for a few seconds then release. Continue to breathe slowly and deeply and feel your connection to the core of the planet.

Take a moment to fully explore your full intention to connect, with all of your SELF, to your physical body. Own every bit of your life in a body and resolve powerfully to be aware of all of it, no exceptions. Now perch and meditate and bring all of this with you to "I AM".

Practice this daily, as you can. It only takes 5 minutes or so. In the meantime, let's review...

SELF aware consciousness, "I AM", becomes spirit as it interacts with itself in the infinite flow. Evolution is the result of repetition, spinning and turning inward gaining gravity, augmented by interaction with the infinite flow. Spirit gathers intent to become thought and thought, through repetition, coagulates into energy. The patterns formed by ever evolving energies gather into solidity and form. All these layers throw less dense bits back along this pathway to intersect and interact and get woven into the fabric of existence. However, the basic thrust is consciousness toward matter. Beware of any idea that looks like something recognizable as a thing; Gods, Angels, Authority, Nations, Religions etc. These are the result of feedback loops, projections of the human condition. Fear, as you know it, is often also a feedback loop and it muddles the creative flow of life.

Consider the three states of matter, solid, liquid and gaseous. All three are natural states for every bit of matter under certain conditions of excitement. The faster atoms move about the more they tend to move more freely. Basic physics! Solid matter is sedate, liquid flows but can be contained and directed. Gas is ebullient and expands merrily, making it hardest to control. Energy also manifests these states of being. The more solid states are resistant, hard to mould and less volatile. They function but more slowly. They are stodgy and interfere with growth and change. Just like physical life is a mostly liquid state, energy is most abundant and effective in its liquid states; flowing more freely and responsive to the direction of thought. As awareness interacts with energy, emotional experience takes place. Any emotional experience springing from the liquid state of energy is more enjoyable and manageable. When energy goes gaseous, things get "hairy". Wild and uncontrollable, the feeling experience is, like manic depression, a rollercoaster of emotion. Remember to shout "Wheeee!"

Feeling states that go unprocessed and willfully un-experienced gain density while losing motion and vitality. It does not matter why the energies go unused. They slow and sink lower in your energy field, drawn toward solidity by gravity at the core of Earth below you. All of your repressed feelings, all the thoughts you refuse to think or hear or express, indeed, every bit of life that you try to deny begins to die and as it does, it gathers below your Root chakra and starts to harden. It can actually cut off your access to the flow of life force that sustains you, although you would never know what oft-repeated habits of thought and feeling were leading to your death. Indeed, that is the result of leaving this process unaddressed. All of the life that you refuse to experience consciously, will not own or express will mount up to cut off the flow of life and you die!

This is what we address directly with these motions. The energy of emotional life left un-experienced sinks to the ground and hardens. What lays at your feet is the tip of the iceberg but very real. Using friction to soften, break up and sweep into motion these energies helps to re-establish your relationship with life and can, over time, become life force available to your activities inner and outer. The motions themselves are symbolic representations of intent that act upon the results of your lifetime of repression and refusal to accept your feelings and thoughts. After kicking away at the crust of your own vitality, you can gain greater knowledge of your connection to life itself in all of its forms. Of course the resulting influx of the repressed experience will demand to be embraced and integrated, not always consciously but...

In the foundation of physicality represented by Earth are some basic icons from the High Mental Body. We have mentioned that gravity begins early in the mad dash through infinity as the inward pull of "I AM" turning in on its SELF. Every experience of consciousness includes this force and is, indeed, the very meaning of experience. At coarse enough levels of being, you know this force as fear. It is far less personal than that, to be sure. The ultimate state of this force is solidity itself, the planet you stand upon. At the core of Earth is the consciousness of "I AM". How could it be otherwise? It is through this consciousness that physical existence takes place and physical life evolves. You participate in this consciousness with every breath, every movement as surely as you participate in the primal "I AM". You stand on the face of the Earth because you will it so. Earth sustains your existence, cradles your physicalness and provides you counterpoint that allows you to experience weight and density, solidity and much of what you call reality. Out of Earth you experience directionality and position which affords individuation of all things physical. Motion then engenders linearity of perception by which you perceive and measure time.

Each of these icons, gravity, solidity, directionality and motionality can occupy reams of pages. They are basic to the totality of many lives. They form the foundation of human existence and so deserve to be known and held in your awareness. The patterns of physical existence are expressed through these archetypes. To navigate infinity itself you use them at every turn. Know them well as you practice. Feel them in your bones. Measure your experiences against their pervasive influence. Then recall that they are from the same source as your SELF.

With your intention to transcend the physical reality, you are advised not to refuse the physical experience but to inject your abstract awareness into it. To this effort we offer the iconography upon which the physical is constructed, or more accurately, around which the physical world gathers. The more clearly you perceive the abstract awareness of the High Mental Body at the heart of your physical experiences, the less embedded you are in the physical world. You need not yank your roots out of the Earth to be free of its pull. Simply allow yourself to see the true creative force in action. As you become adept at this and it becomes habit you will :

1.) Know peace.
2.) Know your place in the moment and
3.) Be free to choose joy.

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Flight of the Eagle
P.O. Box 63, Station A
Fredericton NB Canada E3B 4Y2
info@flightoftheeagle.ca