Tis true without lying, certain and most true.

That which is below is like that which is above
and that which is above is like that which is below

Hermes Trismegist

The above is a quote very dear to my heart. And something that was proven right again and again in my journey.

It is funny, but when you start to investigate the reality “behind the Veil” it can be tempting to somewhat leave the body behind. When you think about it, it is endemic. We are taught from a very early age that the body is shameful, its basic functions are to be done but never ever flaunted and, quite possibly, better kept hidden (and never, ever celebrated or enjoyed!). We can hear that we are spiritual beings, and so it must be that our bodies are almost like a prison. A form that burdens us, a punishment that will, eventually, finish so that we will be able to rise pure and unencumbered in our “true” form.

It does not surprise me if, with all of this, we grow with a far from ideal relationship with our body. When we approach spirituality, or a spiritual quest, or we are looking for meaning, we can’t leave this mind structure behind. It is not a surprise then, if so many of us find ourselves on a path that tries to ignore the body. In a quest for “enlightenment” we tend to forget that we are here, now and that the body is part of our experience. We start seeking to See, to understand, to know. We read about past lives, about our own energetic bodies, about our link to the Universe, about the power of the mind and we forget that our bodies are our carriers – that, without a body, we would not experience any of this material reality.

It happened to me as well. I thought the body was inconsequential, something I could forget and ignore, something that I could transcend. My body, however, did not want to be forgotten, did not want to be ignored; its voice was thunderous and high pitched at the same time; it demanded to be honoured and celebrated and, yes, enjoyed; it demanded its role in my life and I found myself eager for a change. My body’s voice was, to be honest, rather impossible to ignore. And so it dawned on me: the body is a central part of our experience, because our experience happens VIA the body.
Yes, we are really quite more than the physical reality leads us to believe, our minds hold enormous power, we are linked to quite literally everything; yet we could not even speak about any of this had we not a body.

This is another reason why I decided to delve a bit in the body and its mysteries and to learn more about it, how it functions, what it needs. The body is part of us, it represents what we manifest, it is our energy vibrating so that we can be seen. I like to say that the body is the garden of our soul – and as such should be treated. It IS US.

This is why I try to avoid the word levels when speaking about our energetic bodies. In our mind “level” carries importance – so that the physical level sounds less important than the etheric one, the emotional one less important than the mental one. But how we think it is not more important than what we feel. What we feel is not more important than what we eat. Our bodies are sacred. I found that I prefer strata – strata does not carry importance in it, does not evoke something “higher” as more important as something “lower”; it just means, literally, layers. Like in a cake: the cake is one, even if it has a vanilla layer, a strawberry one and then a chocolate one. And damn’ it, isn’t it delicious?

We ARE one. And so, indeed, as above so below.
Healing can be achieved by both ways: energetically and physically – and, quite possibly faster, simultaneously. Never forget you have a body: take care of it, enjoy it, celebrate it. It is an excellent way to find yourself.

In the words of Jeff Brown in Ascending with both feet on the ground:

I am not interested in enlightenment if it means detachment from the emotional body, the earth plane, the challenges of being human. I am interested in enrealment, because it means that my most spiritual moments are inclusive, arising right in the heart of all that is human: joy and sorrow, shopping list and unity consciousness, fresh mangoes and stale bread. Enrealment is about living in all aspects of reality simultaneously rather than only those realms that feel the most comfortable. We are not just the light, or the mind, or the emptiness, or perpetual positivity. We are the everything. It’s ALL God, even the dust that falls off my awakening heart.