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    The Vital Force: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4The Humours

    Symbols for the Elements
    Figure 1:  The Cosmology of the Elements

    Astrology and Health
    vitalism and humours [part 2]

    As can be seen in Figure 1, the two masculine Elements (Fire and Air) have their apexes pointing upwards, while the feminine Elements (Water and Earth) have their apexes pointing downwards. The direction of the tips reflects, in the former case, the combustion of Fire and Air, in which the generated heat rises upwards. In the latter case, it implies the precipitation of Earth through Water, whereby it sinks downwards.

    When all four of these shapes are superimposed on top of one another, they form the six-pointed star of Solomon's Seal, which represents Ether. Its shape is a synthesis of the masculine and feminine Elements, the joining of heaven and earth – As above, so below.

    Without any one of the four gross Elements, life would simply not be able to exist upon the planet. When the four Elements are in a state of balance, then the vital force flourishes. Conversely, if they are in a state of imbalance, then the life force is repressed. Ether, representing the vital force, is a paradoxical Element. It is described as being beyond physical manifestation – yet it embodies all creation; it has no form yet contains all forms; it has no quality and yet embodies all qualities.

    The four gross Elements are directly experienced through the physical senses of the body: Earth through the sense of touch; Water through the sense of taste; Gross Air through the sense of smell; Subtle Air through the sense of hearing. Lastly Fire, or light, is perceived through the sense of vision. Ether connects with the consciousness of the person that experiences all the sensory impressions. As Plato described it, Ether is the sensus communis – the common sense that unites all the separate sensory impressions into one whole.

    The Symbolism of the Elements

    Using the cosmology of the Elements symbolically, a relationship between mind and body is described: the solidness of Earth is used to describe the structure of body, the fluidity of Water is used to describe the changeability of the emotions, invisibility of Air is used to describe the nature of mental experience and the dynamism of Fire is used to describe the energy and motivation.

    Ether represents the consciousness that unites all these aspects together in human experience. Heath is synonymous with the balance of the Elements within a person, while disease, their imbalance.

    Within the cosmology of the five Elements, mind and emotions are seen to interface directly with the physical or material world. In other words, to put it into a more scientific context, matter is not considered separately from the person observing it. Though Ether evades definition, by knowing that life depends upon the balance of the four gross Elements, what more powerful tools can be found for describing the nature of life? Accordingly, philosophers using this symbolic language over centuries have evolved a very intricate way of describing life, the flows of vital force and the interconnection of mental, emotional and physical experience. This is the true cultural importance of this knowledge. It is important to note when considering the word Culture in relation to Elemental knowledge that its root comes from the Latin culturae meaning to grow or cultivate!

    Ether and the Vital Force

    Scientific historians dismiss Ether as a hypothetical substance, that has no reality! This simply is totally untrue. Without what is symbolically represented by Ether, we would all be dead. The mind of a scientist simply would not exist, let alone be able to theorize! Yet it is interesting to understand how scientists have arrived at such an attitude; this will be discussed a little later.

    Though the nature of Ether is beyond detection by the physical sense and definition of the intellect, the vital force has been perceived intuitively as being simultaneously able to flow like a liquid while pervading space like a gaseous vapour. It is this perception of the vital force that gave it the name Aqua Vitae or the Water of Life. The alchemists in their investigation into the nature of metals saw the liquid metal, quicksilver, as being analogous to the vital force. Light shining on the flowing metal has a very characteristic lustre, while on gentle heating it readily evaporates to form a thick heavy vapour. Since the planet Mercury rules this metal, so too the planet was perceived as ruling the vital force. Accordingly, philosophers and physicians referred to the vital force as the philosophical Mercury. It is this correspondence that explains why traditionally Mercury is the god of medicine and healing, for he rules the vital force in the body.

    This symbolic link between Mercury and the vital force led to the widespread practice in the 18th and 19th centuries of giving liquid metal mercury as a universal panacea. Despite the alchemists proclaiming that their Mercury was not the poisonous liquid metal, the literal interpretation of this symbolic knowledge had tragic consequences. The term quack was originally applied to those doctors who used quicksilver as a medicine, for in so doing not only were they poisoning their patients, but also displaying their medical ignorance. When the term quack is seen symbolically, it properly implies someone who practices medicine without an understanding of the vital force.

    Read part 3 of the Vital Force
    Back to Health by the Stars

    The Vital Force: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

    Astrology and Health:
    A Beginner's Guide by Dylan Warren-Davis.
    Published by Headway: Hodder & Stoughton
    ISBN 034070518 3   84 pages
    To order your copy click here!


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