

Your Body is a Temple.
Caring for a Temple takes Discipline.
This suggests a variety of things, including that your body is a sacred place which we are to take care of and use to glorify ourselves and God.
Each individual Temple is a microcosm of the greater Temple.
Keeping your body clean and healthy.
Regulating your body through routines or rituals.
Taking in the right food and water.
Learning to master your body through training, work and other practices.
Even knowing how to defend your temple if the need arises.
Truly treating your body as if it were a shrine, a Holy place from which you conduct sacred acts, has far-reaching ramifications the more and more you consider and live out this concept.
Self-love is a powerful healing process and opens the door to a number of new possibilities.
It is true that our bodies are mere vessels for our spirit.
Yet even your body has powerful capacities as well.
It is designed to be an interface for your spirit to act upon the world.
Your body creates and utilizes energy.
Sometimes it helps to think of our bodies as electrochemical machines. Complete with sensors, transceivers, motors that take fuel, organs that can generate energy, battery cells that store energy, etc.
It is also interesting to consider how very little electricity is needed for simple machines to work. A handheld radio for instance only needs anywhere from 1/2 a Watt to 5 whole Watts.
Our bodies generate about 100 Watts at rest.
It can generate 2,000 or more Watts however when being utilized.
Even when it appears a person is at rest, there are techniques that maximize the energy being coursed through the body learned through meditation, martial arts, yoga and more.
This is not mystical theory, it is a studied physiological fact.
This is where the mind and body meet.
They need to be strongly connected.
Although they are naturally interlinked, consider that you can increase this attachment. A detached mind commonly occurs when we learn it as a self-defense mechanism.
Avoiding physical and emotional pain, disappointment and stress, we become naturally tired and autonomous.
Most of us learn to become like robots, getting through the work day while on co-pilot just to rush home to get our screen-time in so we can rest.
We rarely take the time even to just self-reflect.
Let alone truly focus on our Body-Mind connection.
Artificial compulsions like unfortunate physical and emotional circumstances cause pain that we learn to avoid. We learn how to simply escape the pain by detaching ourselves from situations, retreating into mindless scrolling or distracting ourselves by staying busy with the outer world.
If we learn to expand our mind and use our minds to explore our body, it strengthens our body and mind bonds, our awareness. Including the awareness of our emotions, thoughts, surroundings, and bodily energies.
Are you meditating yet? Have you set aside at least 15 minutes a day to explore?
Not only is this a great time to manage your emotions and hardships at the end of the day, but meditating gets better and better, leading to higher states of mind that will be needed.

The heart is at the center of it all. It is the first sign of life when we are conceived, beginning to pulse with energy and creating our own magnetosphere similar to the Sun of our Solar System.
Oftentimes, when the subject of bodily energy like chi, chakras, and aura come up there comes with it a lot of pseudospiritual mumbo-jumbo.
We have a dislike for this kind of 'New Age' rhetoric, but rather like to focus on the explicitly scientific and provable electrical systems of the body.
Once we have this understanding established, we can move on to explaining what insight the ancients had and the words they used for this energy such as chi.
Symbolism is used to initially give you a useful image that can help with memorization and may shed light on additional interrelations that are going on.
For instance, the body and mind connection.
You may think of the Body as akin to Earth whereas the Mind is more comparable to Heaven.
This leads into understanding that the Body is Ying and of a Negative charge and Mind is Yang and positively charged.
Your body literally grounds the energy, especially when your bare feet make contact with the Earth.
Let's look into grounding.
Grounding is another practice you will want to adopt along with meditation. It is easily incorporated into your meditation time you have set aside for the day. Spending at least 15 minutes a day both meditating and grounding can be of a great benefit to you. It is also the perfect way to form that bond between Mind and Body as you are feeding both by doing this.
Emotions are chemical. Once again, the old Arcane connections were way ahead of their time. The element of water has long been connected to emotions and for each emotion, there is a chemical, or a cocktail of chemicals, that rush through our body.
These electrochemical processes are highly intricate and complex.
Many of the most important developments are driven by the endocrine system, which in the ancient sciences has been called the Chakra system.
But we will go into further detail on this when we get to the Chakra lesson.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is of course important for you to preserve your own life, but it is also necessary in keeping your Mind sharp and your bodily energy from being blocked or depleted.
Remember that what has been called "spirit", your energy, the subtle electricity of your body, is also called chi. Both meant air, breath and life force (the word spirit comes from Latin spiritus). Energy that needs to be cultivated and understood in order to perform anything.
Fat is an insulator.
Lipids and regular necessary fat cells store energy like batteries and are beneficial.
Excess fat on the other hand is detrimental.
The electricity produced by your own body is inhibited by excess fat.
Excess fat cells are created when the body thinks it needs to encapsulate or insulate something.
Whether that thing is excess energy or even toxins entering the body.
Similarly, fat in the brain slows your processing speed down as well as blocks pathways that would normally be opened up to you. The neurons can no longer fire like they would in a natural condition.
Stagnation in electrical signal firing leads to low energy and low energy translates to low spirit.
Negligence of either Body or Mind heavily and negatively impacts the other.
Both your mind and body rely on the intake of energy in the form of natural calories, sugars and fats.
It can be kind of fun to think of calorie intake like charging a futuristic battery that stores away excess energy.
To make that battery most efficient, tracking how much of the energy you expend, or calories you burn, every day.
Counting calories is one way to get the body and mind in shape.
The rarity of real food these days is a real concern.
Food as it exists in nature is meant for your body.
The other stuff is not.
Concoctions made in factories that take more money to process are for some reason cheaper.
Simple starches, byproducts and additives are typically what we are left with when it comes to processed foods that are affordable.
It is hard to be healthy if you struggle with money.
But in the meantime, doing your best to balance the intake and expenditure of the calories taken in everyday is key.
Exercise is so important. Getting back to our natural state is what it boils down to. You don't have to be a muscle-bound Olympian. In fact, you may prefer techniques like calisthenics, light aerobic exercise, martial arts or yoga.
It also cultivates self-discipline.
For those who are overweight, expending the energy (and stored up fat cells) will prove difficult at first.
Try 'A Mile in your Shoes'.
You basically do what you can for a mile.
Jog for 1 minute if you can, then walk for as long as you need to.
Time yourself.
Then race yourself every day, trying to beat your previous time.
That's it.
You don't need a treadmill or anything else. Just an approximation of a mile and a timer, even if you just jog/run/walk in place and count the seconds in your head.
Motivation comes after action rather than before action most of the time.
This means that you have to start doing something, then the energy to do it will follow.
You're likely familiar with this process every morning you roll out of bed.
The hardest part is just getting started. Then everything else actually comes easier.
Motivation, confidence, and energy all culminate into what is collectively called the Will. Strong motivation and willpower equals powerful energy and spirit.
An extremely important over-arching principle to everything taught here is self-discipline.
If you don't even yield to your own will, how do you expect your will to be strong enough to influence anything else?
This whole program is fully reliant on you practicing self-discipline.
You can learn every concept in the world, but not putting anything into practice will never yield true results or a true understanding of any of it.
Actually investigating what is claimed here, practicing the journaling, meditation, a divination technique and grounding is a great way to start.
It will begin to get the body and mind used to what they're supposed to be used for.
Because we genuinely care about our members, we want to offer more than just information, but rather the full package of a healthy lifestyle complete with a connection to true spirituality.
Becoming healthy is something we want for everyone.
But none of it is entirely necessary to join and follow along.
Just encouraged out of love.
The pinnacle expression of the Body/Mind link and the practice thereof is quite possibly yoga.
While there are many different practices of Yoga, perhaps the most appropriate to what we teach is Kundalini Yoga. We will adopt techniques that also blend in elements of Kung Fu, Tai chi and other disciplines.
This will be taught more in the Red Focus of the Pentacle Classes when you reach Level 1.
The point is to choose a discipline.
A martial art or yoga along with the I Ching is suggested.
The goal is to practice adhering to a code of your choosing.
Adhering to your own will and cultivating self-discipline.
While we offer useful and reliable examples such as yoga, any martial art, the I Ching, or Stoicism, it is really a process of finding your own flavor.
A system or code of living that you fully agree with.
The creed to your temple.
This will give you the tools necessary later on in reawakening the power within.
Just about every city has at least one martial arts/yoga academy.
While joining one would be hugely beneficial, it is not necessary.
If you look into the Red Focus in the Pentacle on Tuesdays, we will have a light regimen to follow that blends many of these elements.
The definition of Kung Fu is basically 'To Do'.
It is the mastery of doing things.
And it is all about discipline, personal power and achieving mastery over something.
When you incorporate yoga/martial arts, often without knowing it you are incorporating chi cultivation into your life habits.
This process is surprisingly important and practicing the Arcane without energy simply doesn't work.
That's why so many fail.
When you sharpen this vessel, your body, it becomes more and more like a shrine of your willpower.
The willpower/power of intent is the ultimate skill we are trying to refine through this process of tempering your mind, body and character.
If the martial art or yoga practice have specific tenets to live by, do your best to follow them.
Living a disciplined life even for a short time has great benefits.
The I-Ching (Book of Changes) is an excellent source of Higher Self cultivation.
Some of this stuff may sound mystical or fluffed up but we are trying to see these things from a practical point of view.
Whatever practice you choose, you can look at it kind of like a game or a quest.
It can feel like becoming a different person.
When challenges come along, you have a set of skills laid out by the discipline you chose.
Tenets to go by that are attuned to higher thought than just reactionary responses.
You may feel elevated after just one day of practicing higher principles than you are used to. They can be almost like cheat codes to life and the obstacles we come across every day.
If you actually pick these tools up it will change your advantage significantly in learning the spiritual affairs.
Exercise (especially a martial art discipline) and a code of behavior will forge your own assertion and power.
The choices you make no longer have to be your own decision but rather the code of ethics you live by, making you blameless.
When you no longer tolerate foolish behavior, others' egos will get involved, but you will now have additional authority just by simply saying 'I follow Stoicism' or 'Sorry, I live by the Bible' or any other such code of living. They can't argue this.
It is kind of like having some sort of moral armor.
As you develop this armor, temper and sharpen your Will, you will find that your intents are manifestable. Your will is able to transfer forward, becoming not only contagious to other people, but also bending other aspects of reality to the strength of your willpower.
Before you know it, you will have an 'Aura' about you. People will feel it and mention it.
And you will be able to feel it building up within yourself.
This will bother others who have overactive egos, especially those who are used to you bending to their wills.
The I-Ching covers these things extensively.

The sensors, or receptors, of our body are what allow us to gather all of the information of the outside world.
The more you consider the true nature of our senses and the interactions between energy and the structures of our body, the more mysterious it seems.
There is a classification of four different types of receptors in your body.
Both taste and touch involve chemical reactions in your body that take place.
They form neural connections that create memories and even instinctively tell us whether something is good or bad.
This is achieved through chemoreceptors.
Touch is electrical. Even something as slight as wind is felt through our nerve endings.
Mechanoreceptors and thermoreceptors are at play with touch.
Photoreceptors capture light.
Light itself is still fairly mysterious.
Sound is vibration and the frequency thereof. Our ears are tuned to capture certain frequencies that are important to us. But things all around us make sound constantly.
It just may be out of pitch, out of range of our hearing capacities, or inaudible to us like the sun.
All of this is a very basic introduction to the ideas of energy in relation to your body.
We only sense a small portion of the energy all around us and within us.
However, it all affects us.
We can choose to sharpen every aspect of our body, including our senses.
To push the boundaries.
Some of the things we tackle in the Red Focus cover the Active Self.
Sharpening your power and authority in all forms, we cover things like willpower, strategy, personal politics and more.
But practicing a martial art of some sort is the beginning of using your self's amazing and beautiful capacities, practicing self-defense and building self-confidence, but also cultivating chi.
All keys to the Red Focus.
At the very least, follow along with the video below at least once.
These types of movements are conducive to the flow of energy whether or not you can actually feel it.
Tai Chi is a martial art that is more about the energy movement within than actual self-defense.
If you would like, you can memorize these movements or create your own set and begin to feel the chi within and try to push the air while you perform these movements.
Protection and preservation of our rights is an important aspect to the Red Focus.
And exercising power in general is the result of focusing on this aspect of reality.
The primary barrier to us achieving all of this -discipline, authority, energy, etc.- are the addictions and habits we form throughout life.
Substance abuse is a leading cause of death among adults.
Habits in general hold us back from achieving all sorts of potential that lay at our disposal.
Laziness can be an addiction.
People can be addicted to work, having problems, complaining or self-sabotage.
These things can be rooted out just by beginning to practice self-discipline.
When we know something is the wrong choice for us, simply not choosing it is the answer.
As simple as it is, it is THE common problem, and it is easier said than done.
We often choose the wrong thing despite knowing better.
The drive has to come from deep within.
It has to be a power greater than ourselves.
A spiritual awakening, finding our higher selves, or through an epiphany of our conscience.
True motivation ought to bring about excitement, a natural energy that courses through you to begin progressing.
Then it takes persistence and determination.
This is a start to embracing and cultivating the energy. Loving the miracle of life that is you. Taking care of your self.
Having control over your body and its functions takes mind over matter.
The body as a temple is not just a poetic metaphor, but a living Axis Mundi, particularly when viewed through the lens of the Middle Pillar and the archetypal wand.
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In mystical traditions—from the Kabbalah to Hermeticism, Tantric Yoga to Christian mysticism—the body is the temple of the divine spark, the Shekinah, the Atman, the Christ within. It is not merely flesh and blood, but an architecture of ascent, based on the same blueprint as the Temple of the Arcane is.
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Your body-temple contains altars (chakras, sefirot), corridors of energy (nadis, paths), and a central shrine—the axis, the verticality of spirit moving through matter.
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The Axis Mundi is the World Tree, the bridge between worlds, connecting Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. It is the spinal column, the central channel (Sushumna in yogic terms), the middle pillar of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
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Through this sacred center, divine energy descends and ascends, in what is sometimes called the Lightning Flash or the Serpent of Return.
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The body, upright and vertical, mirrors this cosmic axis. The crown of the head opens to the supernal realms, the feet root into the elemental world, and the heart is the turning point—the sacred center of balance-- You.
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The Middle Pillar: Breath and the Wand of Power
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In the Hermetic-Qabalistic tradition, the Middle Pillar Exercise activates this vertical current. It calls upon the five central Energy Centers found within you:
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Kether (Crown)
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Da’at (Throat/Knowledge – hidden)
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Tiphareth (Heart – Beauty)
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Yesod (Genitals – Foundation)
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Malkuth (Feet – Kingdom)
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When invoked through vibration, visualization, and breath, these centers become luminaries along the axis—the wand of initiation, the staff of Hermes, the pillar of light.
The Middle Pillar is not merely a map—it is the archetypal wand, the perfected will directed vertically, harmonizing divine and earthly forces within the self.
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The wand—in magical tradition—is the symbol of will, intention, and vertical alignment. It is carved, consecrated, and held upright. But in deeper work, you realize:
You are the wand.
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Your body, aligned in stillness or movement, becomes the instrument through which divine will is enacted. When you stand in the center of your own being, you become the axis, and the cosmos orients around you.
When the microcosm (you) aligns with the macrocosm (universe), the Word (of God, the Universe) is spoken through you, as you.
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So when mystics say the body is a temple, they mean:
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It is the structure through which divinity is realized.
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It is raised by ritual and alignment.
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It is the Axis Mundi, the spinal flame upon which the mysteries spiral upward and inward.
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And in the still center of the Middle Pillar, the initiate discovers:
There is no separation between heaven and earth, only you standing in-between, and degrees of realization.