Gravitas, Part IV : Wild Electricity

 

 “The body obeys the attraction of the earth, from which it draws its energy. The subtle force, a finer energy in me, obeys another attraction. When the body conforms to the attraction of the earth, the subtle force is freer, as if the two movements complement each other. This is what allows man to hold himself upright. 

Always and in all circumstances, I must accept this law from which my equilibrium comes, and let these forces act freely in me. When I obey the earth's attraction in a conscious way, the subtle force is liberated and my ordinary "I," my ego, finds its place, its purpose. The poles are related. I obey this law and find my place in a world of forces that has made me what I am.

But thinking it does not help. I must live it.”

Jeanne de Salzmann, The Reality of Being, p. 64

The ordinary forces of life are almost exclusively magnetic. Their attractions are powerful, their accumulations of force and the consequent thunderstorms of energy they release in us are compelling. Everything, from elimination to sex is governed by these forces, and in fact even sex and elimination merely represent the attractive and repulsive forces of magnetism. In this sense, ordinary matter is ruled, if you will, by shitting and fucking. All of the outward activity we engage in falls into one if these two categories to the extent that we live only through an understanding of magnetism and its consequences.

That isn’t, as it happens, enough to be a true Human Being. Humans and other three-brained beings were designed to receive the force of gravity within Being as an inner assistant which grounds the electrical forces that act in us. 

Without this grounding wire, we’re merely the unwitting agents of “wild electricity;” that is to say, we’re governed by random and accidental, unmindful and inattentive accumulations and discharges of energy. Because these are natural, ordinary, entirely normal and necessary functions, being slaves to them discharges a mechanical service to the planet, the solar system, and the cosmos. 

A human being can discharge their role throughout a whole lifetime with apparently impressive external results; but if this is all that’s done, one’s inner potential remains unrealized. And, for the discriminating mind (and by mind I mean the entirety of the psyche and the soul, functioning together as separate entities of equal value) the realization of potential as a human being, a conscious agent rather than a slave, is the matter of greater interest.

If we live through an understanding that begins in gravity, it realigns everything takes place in us. Gravity, which we take for granted and acts all around us, is an intelligent regulating force that gives rise to existence as we understand it. When Jeanne de Salzmann advises us to “obey the attraction of the earth,” she’s calling us to become physically aware, within the molecules of our Being, of that force. 

This force emanates from a place so alien to us that it does not submit to the reductive forces of the intellect. And perhaps that is its chief merit and the whole point of coming into relationship with it: it quiets the mind and its slavery to magnetism.

If we silence our slavery to magnetism and step aside from it — which is what self observation is for — the force of gravity can begin to increase, emerge from within Being, and exert its natural properties. This is what Jeanne de Salzmann means when she says that I must “let these forces act freely in me.” The slave is not free. For as long as I’m under the influence of magnetism first, I’m always enslaved. And because I’ve become accustomed to slavery as a natural condition, I don’t question it. I just follow its prompts, wherever they lead me. The force which has authority in me is polarized.

If I acknowledge gravity as the authority in me, Being isn’t just polarized, but also grounded. It draws experience into itself through its molecular properties, deeper and deeper into Being, and deposits itself in the interstices between the molecules, creating more mass within Being. 

That mass slowly attracts more material unto itself. This is not an action that takes place quickly; and efforts to undertake it with acceleration must be treated with great care, because that which is deposited cannot so easily be withdrawn. Because the deposit of the elements of impression and experience is a gradual and accretive process, the layers which it builds are sedimentary. Each layer relies on the layer beneath it for its own integrity. 

The organism has an innate intelligence that knows how to supervise this process, as long as the initial functions of attention, sensation, and gravity are in proper relationship with one another; but the moment I begin to interfere, the potential for malign metamorphosis and a disturbing, inappropriate mixing of layers arises. 

May our inner gravity be sufficiently grounded today,

Be well.

Warmly,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.