Thoughts
Secreting is a two step process. We must sort and we must discharge. Both require a level of conscious will and willed consciousness. Most importantly, it is through this intention that we claim our freedom to be ourselves.
In our physical life, our process of nourishing requires us to kill the life of what we take in and resurrect it as our own being, our own life. For this to be successful we must sort through all that we have killed seeking that which can resurrect as our own and discern, and then discharge, all that, for numerous reasons, will not or should not become our own being.
In our physical life, we do this most obviously through the endocrine system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_system which secretes the hormones that regulate our lives. We create a regulated life by paying attention to our needs and providing or releasing anything and everything that is/is not required, appropriate or adequate to our unique configuration and purpose. We stimulate and we inhibit all biological activity. This is almost an artistic gesture as we design our inner balanced reality.
We make the secreting decisions in recognition of our individuality. We become aware of who we are rather than remaining merely aware of what is coming into us as breath, what we warm and what we kill to provide nourishment for ourselves. With this self-awareness of our bodily needs we take charge of our aliveness and reject and rid ourselves of all that would interfere with it.
Secreting is a intention of independence. Each of the three previous intentions were about degrees of dependence. Now independent, we intend our own possibility for freedom, the freedom of self-regulation.
In our soul life, the intention to secrete, to regulate our soul juices, requires us to develop a self-understanding of our needs for stimulation and inhibition. We need to know what gets our soul juices flowing freely and how to slow down the juices when our soul starts to flood with too many thoughts, feelings or intentions.
We also rely the informing metaphors of rhythm (breathing), temperature (warming), and quantity and quality (nourishing) when we look at regulating our soul life. These metaphors help us diagnose our regulatory needs around the flow of our soul juices/hormones.
Thoughts flow into other thoughts, into feelings and into our will. Feelings flow into other feelings, into thoughts and into our will. Will flows into our intentions, into our thoughts and into our feelings. The force of the flow can be comforting or challenging. The force can be too intense or too weak.
What about our time flow? Too much past, too much future, to much in the moment?
What about our flow between spirit and matter. Too much or too little stimulation of one aspect of our humanity and not the other can cause challenges to our moral life. The degree of too much or attention we give to either our material concerns or our spiritual concerns can leave us vulnerable to serious imbalances.
Now here is another challenge for regulation: self-awareness. Actually, this requires the regulation of our egotism. Do we need more objectivity flowing or more compassion? Do we need to be more aware of “not-self” and less aware of “self?”
The kernel of the Divine, our Selfhood, steps in and regulates these flows through soul secretion. This function of the Divine Self is the source of our inner freedom.
1
What stimulates your inner life?
2
What inhibits your inner life?
3
4
With the intention to secrete we find self-knowledge through artistic exercise: draw, paint, speak, sing, dance your sense of self-stimulation or self-inhibition. Do not feel this is about control. It is about self-regulation and sustaining an inner balance.
5
This is the fourth message and you may feel you are over-stimulated by the messages. I suggest you release some of the stimulation by going back to the wisdom of the breathing intention. Do a light reading of the messages - a gentle inhale. Then exhale, release your soul breath. If you are up to warming the messages, do so. Impress yourself on the message, which may come through sharing them with another or writing down a few thoughts or feelings about them (leave a comment!). I’ve already encouraged you to kill the message and nourish yourself with the remains. Now with secretion you can find your free relationship to each of the messages as they have become your own.
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These first seven messages are inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s Seven Life Processes. I first read about these life processes about 15 years ago. I immediately exhaled them as strongly as I could - a real reluctance to pay any attention to them. It was just a few months ago that I realized that it was time to work with each of the seven processes. I knew the deepest work would come through the Holy Nights this year. Fifteen years! it took me engage with the Seven Life Processes.
As with every year’s Inner Christmas messages, these thoughts on the seven life processes are gifts for you to engage through your process. I am just putting out a soul buffet, a soul landscape, enjoy whatever tastes or perspectives you desire.
