In Physics there is an experiment that demonstrates how light is halved, then dimmed, then restored as we intercept light with polaroid lenses aligned in different directions. Going through the first lens the light is halved. Adding a second with the polaroid lines perpendicular to the first, light is entirely blocked. Inserting a third lens between the two and diagonal to both, light is allowed through again.

We are Beings of Light

Our Light Body operates on the same principle. It is comprised of four light centers and three light filters. Our purpose as we heal our parts to attain to our full light within is to learn to balance those filters in a way that allows light to flow through us. This turns us from opaque to enlightened beings. As such we can raise our vibration from beta to alpha to theta waves. In Beta we operate our daily lives, in Alpha we enter a meditative state that heals our emotional pain, in Theta we enable energy healing. Delta is attained by a handful of masters and allows one to be a healer also at the physical level.

I refer to these levels from 1 to 7. They align to our body as also to our seven chakras. Our four light centers align to the odd numbered chakras (1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and 7^th), and to the parts of our body that exist as multiples (like hair) or singletons:

• 7^th         hair, 3^rd eye, pineal, hypothalamus, pituitary glands, crown of our head.
• 5^th         mouth, tongue, throat, larynx, thyroid gland.
• 3^rd         organs of digestion (stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, gall bladder).
• 1^st         organs of birth and elimination (penis, vagina, uterus, urinary bladder, anus).

Our light filters or balancers align to our even numbered chakras (2^nd, 4^th and 6^th) and the parts of our body that exist in pairs:

• 6^th         facial symmetry, eyes, ears, teeth, left and right brain lobes.
• 4^th         heart & thymus chambers, lungs, arms.
• 2^nd        genitals, ovaries, kidneys, adrenals, legs, feet.

The light centers and balancers depicted here constitute what I term our First Presence. To enter this presence, one must first recognize that we exist in spirit. Without this recognition we live in a state of separation from the divine as depicted in the Kabbalah.

To exit the Kabbalah man must become the master of his actions.

We move from

• Gamma to Beta when we awaken to our spirit or divine essence
• Beta to Alpha when we harness the 2^nd or lower balancer.
• Alpha to Theta when we harness the 6^th or upper balancer.
• Theta to Delta when we harness the 4^th or middle balancer.

The concept of understanding our body across seven levels is not limited to the chakra system, it pervades across civilizations and disciplines. Notice how Latin tradition named the sections of our spine:

The spinal sections align to the lower 5 chakras, with the cranium (not shown) aligning to the 6^th.

Our Three Balancers

The three balancers are recognized in Qi Gong and Tradition Chinese Medicine as the three dan tian. Internal martial arts is the discipline that teaches one to find harmony amid chaos by aligning these balancers in a way that optimizes our ability to draw energy from our light source. This practice focusses the mind to drive energy. “Where the mind flows qi flows” we are reminded by the masters.

In each of the three dan tian we balance our relationship to:

• Source                the upper dan tian
  Here we relink to our divine source through the mind.
• Community       the middle dan tian
  Here we reach out to serve our fellow beings through the heart.
• Self                      the lower dan tian
  Here we harness self through the discipline that keeps our body healthy,
  our deeds responsible and our self authentic.
  This presupposes the ability to forgive the self and others.

Work on the lower dan tian is key. Unless we forgive our self, unless we can look upon our adversaries as teachers, we cannot free our heart and mind to achieve their higher purpose. You know you have forgiven yourself when you comply to Don Miquel Ruiz’s Four Agreements:

1. Make no assumptions.
2. Take nothing personally.
3. Always keep your word.
4. Always do your best.

This lower balancer involves our ability to control our desires and indulge in them keeping in mind the higher good. Desire springs from the front of this balancer, as represented by the genitals and ovaries. Ability to forgive springs from the back and is centered in the adrenals and kidneys responsible to cleanse our blood. Thus, we can view this as a balancer between front and back.

The upper balancer, colloquially at least, spans from right to left, right being our wholistic or cosmic mind, left being our analytical and calculating brain. Learning to operate the two in tandem is quite a difficult task, but imperative to our ability to gain synergy.

The middle dan tian is the least understood by our culture. It involves a lower heart where we harbor our passions and preferences and an upper heart that invites compassion and acceptance. This line is diagonal and spans from the front of the sternum where we house our Thymus gland, up to the back between the shoulder blades where angels grow their wings.

So now you see how our three light filters resemble the polaroid lenses mentioned earlier. According to Rudolf Steiner, our soul’s ability to work with these filters opened at different phases in our evolution.

Phases in our Evolution of Consciousness

According to Rudolf Steiner 2800 BC signals the crossing from atavistic to individual consciousness. While in atavistic soul consciousness, man sees himself belonging to a family, tribe, nation, or race. Its history is marked by the deeds of the patriarch chief and administrator high priest of the tribe. Little is known about individual followers as they primarily seek for safety and protection through obedience and service and harbor no desire to carve a mark in history.

Starting with the Age of Taurus in 2800 BC man begins to develop individual consciousness Individuality is at first experienced in the 2^nd chakra as a sentient soul consciousness which seeks to build social responsibility through the practice of individuation that exercises restraint in the face of fear and desire. Among the masses, this consciousness seeks to obey clearly defined rules of social behavior. This is the time of the Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments, with an equivalent set probably practiced under the guidance of Horus in Egypt.

For a few select individuals in a tribe, this is the time of initiation into manhood which occurs during the adolescent years. This is the rite of passage that gives a boy his individual name, by which he may now differentiate from his family root name. In ancient Greece, this rite of passage is celebrated in elaborate detail in the demigod-hero’s journey.

Starting with the Age of Aries in 700 BC man begins to develop intellectual soul consciousness which seeks to ignite freedom of individual thought. This is primarily experienced in the 6^th chakra that harbors our physical brain. This marks the time when oral tradition begins to be recorded in alphabetic writing. It also marks the gradual transition from song and poetry to prose as well as the introduction of libraries, academia, and science.

This age is best observed in classical Greece, when man still maintained a balance between cosmic inspiration and individual thought. As the practice of thinking in our physical brain progresses, humanity dives deeper and deeper into the material world and loses touch with the cosmic mind. Since the physical brain can by no means grasp the spirit, this age is laden with the creation of religions, each aiming to preserve the ancient concept of the divine and the rituals needed to relink to our spirit essence. Yet spirit can only be experienced from within and religions may not survive the scrutiny of the brain.

Starting with the Age of Pisces in 1400 AD man begins to develop consciousness soul proper, which seeks to reintroduce man to the knowledge of spirit from within. Consciousness soul is harnessed as we attune and realign our 4^th chakra that harbors our heart’s mind. Here man learns to replace hatred with love, and his need for equity and justice with forgiveness. This is where the teaching of Christ comes into play. For the man who attains its sublime balance, all light shines through. According to Rudolf Steiner, we have another 1,500 years in which to accomplish this level of consciousness.

Individuation is attained as we process our experience of the external world within our being. We will call this process imperience, which in contrast to experience, means to view events through the lens of our inner wisdom. This is also the word used by the Greeks, Empeiria. By the time of Rome, the external world was predominant, and the inner was replaced by the attention and measurement of the outer, therefore the shift to experience.

What appears negative at first in the outer world, may well be there as the obstacle that exercises our ability to overcome its resistance. So, war for example, initiated by some leaders’ thirst for power, awakens our understanding of individual freedom and raises our impulse to fight for this precious freedom. External adversity makes us strong in character. Our inner stance is the one thing we truly own that cannot be taken from us. This stance is what allows us to honor our authentic self and the truth that resides in our core.

Character in Greek stems from the verb Charazo, which means to carve. This carving is what we are here to accomplish, each in our own inner being. Mars, the god of War is also the god of ego definition and individuality. The two go hand in hand. War operates on us to carve us from the outside, our awakening to the value of individual freedom operates on our consciousness from within.

We labor daily to balance our inner filters. Every thought, every deed has its impact. To know oneself is to know how to keep improving in this inner journey so as not to be thrown off balance by outer interference. This too is a martial art, of the highest kind.

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Marina Mataraga