THE ALCHEMYCAL PAGES

DISEASE, HEALING & ILLNESS.

It has been a number of years since I first wrote the "Introduction" pages of The Alchemycal Pages and I have in the meantime come to some significant insights as a result of studying more of Rudolf Steiner's work.

The result is that I now make a distinction between disease and illness. The reason is due to the constitution of the human being. As I describe in the pages The Human Being , the human being is constituted of physical body, etheric body, astral body and "ego". It must also be clearly understood that ALL FOUR are entirely spiritual. That is, the physical body we see with our physical eyes is NOT the actual physical body itself, it is but the outer configuration of the spiritual physical body as "a gesture of the mineral kingdom that we are in the presence of another human being", in the beautiful phrase of Rudolf Steiner.

With regard to disease and health, all beings that have a physical body are subject to the forces of disease as a result of having a digestive-metabolic system. All beings that have an etheric body are subject to the forces of healing due to having a rhythmic system, that is, the heart-lung circulation of the blood and breathing processes.

In the pages "The Order of The Universe" I describe the spiritual creation of the human being. This process began with what is called the "Saturn" incarnation, during which the spiritual germ of the physical body was laid down. Then we had the appearance of the "Sun" incarnation during which, after a recapitulation of "Saturn", the germ of the etheric body was added to the spiritual germ of the physical body. Then we had the appearance of the "Moon" incarnation, during which we have the recapitulation of "Saturn" and "Sun" incarnations and the laying down of the astral body in addition to the physical and etheric bodies. Then the "Earth" incarnation makes its appearance, in which we have a recapitulation of "Saturn", "Sun" and "Moon" and in addition to physical, etheric and astral bodies, we have the addition of the Ego.

We are now in the "Earth" incarnation, and it was only toward the middle of the Atlantean Epoch that the physical body as it is now began to appear. In understanding the human organism as such, we need to understand that the first beginnings of the system of nerves and senses began on "Saturn", that of the beginnings of the rhythmical breathing and blood circulation were introduced during "Sun" and the digestive-metabolic system during "Moon".

So it is that, in terms of "Saturn", "Sun" and "Moon" evolution, in Steiner's words, "we may say: in the first place the human being is born out of the cosmos as spirit("Saturn" stage), who then develops the "healer" within("Sun" stage), who is the able to take in the cosmic 'patient'("Moon" stage). All these work together to produce the human being who lives on earth and is capable of voluntary movement ("Earth" stage)."

1. Digestive-Metabolic System/Nutrition - Disease - "Moon" - Astral Body

2. Circulatory System - Healing - "Sun" - Etheric Body

3. System of Nerves and Senses - Spiritual Evolution - "Saturn" - Physical Body.

Thus, our body is continually involved in the interplay of disease-inducing and health-restoring activities.

Now, we are in the Post-Atlantean Epoch, and in the fifth post-Atlantean Culture, having been preceded by the Ancient Indian, Ancient Persian, Hebrew-Chaldean-Babylonian-Egyptian and Greco-Roman Cultures. In this culture, the fifth post-Atlantean Culture, also called the Anglo-Germanic Culture, it is incumbent upon us as individuals to become conscious of all the spiritual processes going on in ourselves, down to the very last detail.

On surveying the world today it is evident that in regard of illnesses, in the widest sense, humanity is experiencing symptoms which indicate an imbalance between the disease-inducing forces and the healing forces in our bodies. This imbalance is revealed in, among other indications, the increasing world-wide development over the past 75 years of increasing numbers of people undergoing both degenerative and infectious illnesses (the number of symptomologies is now over 2,700), and this process is accelerating.

The distinction I wish to make is that we must not confuse illnesses with disease. What I mean is that as human beings we are necessarily subject to the forces of disease as a result of the processes of the digestive-metabolic organization of our body. Now, since we need the digestive-metabolic organization to exist at all, we will, as long as we do have a digestive-metabolic organization, always and and at all times, be subject to the forces of disease.

We also, due to the foresight and wisdom of the "wise guidance of the Cosmos", have at our disposal, health-restoring activities by means of the breathing activity of the lungs and the circulation of the blood. And we will always have these working in us as long as we have lungs-heart organization.

Now, it ought be that these two forces, those of disease and those of healing, are automatically in balance. Obviously none of us, or few of us, can control our breathing and circulation of the blood, and our digestive functions, for these are largely unconscious activities. However, if they were always and at all times in balance, we would never experience illness. And we do experience illness!

Therefore we have to say we create our own illnesses by upsetting the balance between the forces of disease residing in the digestive-metabolic organization and the forces of healing expressed through the rhythms of breathing and the circulation of the blood.

The fact we are upsetting the balance between the forces of healing and the forces of disease is the result of our lack of understanding and consciousness of how those forces interplay. And we upset the balance primarily through upsetting our digestive functions.

I direct you here to the pages on The Five Transformation Theory (Healing with The Seasons). From a study of the Five Transformation Theory we know that the lungs are the complementary paired organ of the large intestine and the heart is the complementary paired organ of the small intestine. Therefore, any disturbances created in the large and small intestines will necessarily create disturbances in the lungs and heart. Conversely, correcting the disturbances in the small and large intestines will necessarily lead to correcting the concomitant disturbances in the heart and lungs.

To quote Rudolf Steiner, from his lecture series entitled "Man As Symphony of The Creative Word" (Rudolph Steiner Press, 1991 - as an aside here, this latest translation makes a tremendous error in subsuming the phrase "digestive-metabolic" in the word "metabolic" If you can find an earlier addition, translated in 1945, I suggest you obtain it. If you cannot, then it is paramount that whenever you see the word "metabolic" in the latest translation, you change it to the phrase "digestive-metabolic"). These lectures were given in 1923.

"Let us suppose that someone wishes to found a system of medicine, a truly rational system of medicine. What would it have to contain? In the first place, naturally, the healing processes. But where will these have to have their origin? They will have to have their origin in the digestive-metabolic processes; the rest can at most be a precondition". (My emphasis).

This is what I have attempted to do in my books "The End of Medicine" and "Laughing with Doomsday", found a truly comprehensive,individualized system of medicine that is free to all people who wish to be determined. I invite you to check out these books by going to the Alchemycal Emporium for more information. ALCHEMYCAL EMPORIUM

We need to understand that being healthy necessarily means we are also ill. The all-important question is to what degree are we ill. This we see from looking at the stages of illness that I describe in the Introduction and you can see that being truly healthy, from a physical standpoint, is Stage 1 of the process of illness.

A great deal more can be gleaned from what I have said here and this is contemplative homework for you.

Comments or questions can be sent to the address below as I check this address every few weeks. Please mention Alchemycal Pages in the subject line. Thank you. Patricia

kaareb@mac.com