Secrets of the Solar Cycle, Part I

Detail of Christ, surmounted by astrological symbols and harvest activities

Tympanum at Vezelay Abbey, France

Photograph by the author

Gurdjieff made a wide range of comments about the nature of breathing, and how air has finer substances in it which can be concentrated by an individual whose inner state is such that they’re able to absorb such substances. 

The remark goes someway towards explaining the yoga interest in breathing; but perhaps it remains, in some senses, mysterious. 

I have explained before that air and the way it is absorbed has a direct impact on sensation. Yet it doesn't always have this impact, even for those who are able to concentrate the finer particles it contains. One wonders why; and I can explain this, although the subject is esoteric enough that I wonder who will understand it, or care.

Finer substances in the atmosphere of planets are not always present. In the case of the earth, the finer substances in air that feed sensation — and thus, a much deeper experience of Being —arise as a result of the solar cycle and solar emanations, particularly in the form of flares, but also streams of solar wind from coronal holes. (Each produces decidedly different effects.) Gurdjieff had an umbrella word for the sun’s influence on humanity, solioonensius. 

The sun’s emanations have a direct effect on the esoteric nature of earth’s air—what it contains, its quality. When the energy from solar flares enters the atmosphere of earth, it electrically charges not just the upper stratosphere, but the entire air column all the way down to where we breathe in and out. 

The reaction between air and the higher substances of the sun is what creates Gurdjieff’s “finer substances.” This cycle is identical in its nature to the cycle whereby plants, for example, grow and create food. It is both cyclical and seasonal; but the cycles and seasons are not ruled by earthly cycles and seasons, but solar ones. Ancient civilizations knew well of this, which is why solar worship featured so prominently in their religious practices, most particularly visible in the art and iconography of ancient Egypt. The overall underlying principle, if not the details, were also well known to esotericists as late as the Middle Ages, where we see astronomical symbols and activities of the harvest combined in the tympanums of so many Gothic cathedrals. In these depictions, Christ always plays the role of the sun. From this we know that conceptually speaking, Medieval esoteric schools definitely believed in a heliocentric model of the universe from a spiritual point of view. Stars and planets were trivial accessories to the force of God.

That is in itself the subject for a much broader discussion. What I want to point out right now is that when we engage in inner work, particularly in the formation of the astral body, this cyclical nature of the sun’s influence, along with the food that it creates for those who can eat it, we need to understand how it arises and why it is not always available.

It’s well known in the most esoteric circles of the Gurdjieff work that the arising of a permanent sensation of Being is associated with the formation of the astral body. This aspect of Gurdjieff's work is rarely discussed outside esoteric circles and the inner core of the teaching. The information is relatively useless for those who don't understand the experience. The fear is that the uninitiated and outsiders will assume anyone who thinks of these things in such a way is a lunatic.

However, because it constitutes part of the objective science of the Gurdjieff practice, I believe it needs to be recorded so that those who are able to work in this way understand the nature of the process in more exact technical detail. I won’t explain everything; but what I do explain will, I think, prove to be of significance to those who understand it.  

In summary, one can take in more finer substances only when the air is charged with them. 

Even then, the nature of the charge and the availability of various levels of these finer substances differs. In a general sense, however, these particles are available for ingestion and concentration (Gurdjieff called it "coating”) within the molecular organization of the body according to the attractive force within Being. These processes relate to what Gurdjieff would call conscious processes, but they are not conscious in the sense that our mind thinks about them or our intention can invoke them. They are conscious in the sense that they belong to the consciousness of a higher level than our own. We can participate in the manifestation of that consciousness, beginning on the molecular level of Being, and this can have a powerful influence on our own psyche and spirit. (Remember here that our intellect and our emotion are fractional states of psyche and spirit, not capable of an understanding at the same level.) We do not, however, run the show.

Go. and sense, and be well.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.