When looking ahead to winter, we all know that this season is a reflection of the deepest part of ourselves – the most hidden information of our being, the Dark Night of the Soul.
I am grateful to Matias de Stefano[1] and Dr. Shunyu Li[2] who were both instrumental in my understanding of the following concepts and I hope it will benefit you as well.
In simplified terms each human being is made up of three components: the Spirit Being, the Soul Being and the Physical Body.
Our spirit being is eternal. And eternity means there is no time, no space, instead everything exists in the NOW. Our spirit is our essence.
Our Spirit expresses itself via the Soul and the Soul has an origin and a destiny and so it is taking a path through time to create a progression of experiences and realizations. And our body is the tool to record all the information that is gathered in this process of life. Every thought, feeling, word, action - all experiences are recorded onto our memory disc called: the body. The most ancient information and memories of ourselves are hidden within our cells.
And, of course, our memory disc comes with already pre-loaded information encoded in the cells, which is the information handed to us by our ancestors and in turn we pass our info to our descendants.
From the perspective of the universe there is only one body. ‘Uni –‘ means ‘one’ and ‘– verse’ comes from the Latin verb ‘vertere’, which means change or turn – so it means something like: ‘combined into one whole’ or ‘all is one’.
So, for the universe there is only one body and that means there is only one Soul. Using our own body as an analogy it is easier to understand this concept: our body is made up of trillions of cells, all of which have their own, very specific life, integrity and being, and yet, we refer to our body as ‘my (one) body’, as ‘I’ – as one being – not as a collective of entities.
Our Spirit is essence, and this means it is also only one. And the trillions of beings or bodies that originated from the essence are the ‘egos’ – the various beings. And all the egos are separated. Just like the individual cells in the body are separate and simultaneously are reaching for the whole, so are we as individual beings reaching for the Divine – for the All.
We are born with a set of cells creating us, however as we grow up our identity as adults has become a cultural product, not primarily a biological one as at birth. As adults our idea of who we are is created by ourselves and others through time and the experiences in our lives. This idea of who we are, is not truly who we are.
The real information of who we are is embedded in the registry of our cells not in the idea of who we are. The living memory of the divine in the universe is recorded in matter.
The neurons of our body send data in shape of light going all around the bodily system. Light is associated with spirit. Simultaneously, the other (non-neuron) body cells are sharing the received data from the neurons via bio-electrical impulses to our five senses. And in the same way as each cell is sharing information with the whole body, so are we sharing information with the whole universe via our senses – even though most of us are not conscious of it.
The sense that is particularly associated with accessing the information of the spirit is our sense of smell. Our olfactory organs are the tool that allow us to perceive spirit much more directly and intimately than in any other way. Why is spirit related with the sense of smell? If we look at the origin of the word spirit, we find that it relates to the concept of respiration. The Latin verb ‘spirare’ means to blow. And ‘respirare’ means to blow again, indicating breathing: inhalation and exhalation. Breathing is a spiritual act. Divinity is related with the divine inspiration (inhalation), the contemplation with the third eye - the one eye - (holding one’s breath), and the exhalation, - the out-blow or creation of life. Our whole universe is a being that breathes. And everything that is breathing within the universe connects itself with the spiritual world. Our world, Gaia, is breathing – you can find time-lapse youtube videos that show the earth breathing via all the seasons – one can literally see the breathing of earth in the changing of the seasons.
Our solar system does exactly the same: it expands over billions of years with the exhalation and with the inhalation everything contracts and all the planets move closer to the sun. As everything is a fractal, so we can understand that the whole universe is breathing. Breathing is spirit and breathing connects us with the spiritual world. And the sense of smell is most closely associated with breathing. And even if your sense of smell has deteriorated, as long as you can breathe your connection to spirit exists.
Losing one’s smell may mean that this person has somehow lost the memory of the unshakable, fundamental trust in its own Divine Nature. For example, the body may be fighting against a belief that is denying faith or hope or the person may be denying their inherent intuition coming from spirit. On the other side of the spectrum, we may have a hyper-sensitive person in terms of smell. Hyper-sensitivity may be an indication of a very critical person or it may simply be a very perceptive person.
When people have a problem with breathing, they are in a crisis of spiritual awakening. COVID-19 is a reflection that the whole world is afraid of not being able to breathe. All of humanity is now in an existential crisis asking ourselves: who are we? Who do we wish to be? What are we doing here? What is our purpose? Where do we come from and where do we go from here? In our current climate on earth, people have no idea why they are here on earth. Everything seems to be revolving around accumulation of material goods and consumerism because our whole system is based on competition, comparison, and survival of the fittest. There is no room for spirit.
If we wish to nourish and grow our spirit, we have to begin to breathe more consciously. The way in which we breathe and the way in which we live fully in our bodies allows us to feel the spirit and expand the universe.
Our sense of smell is obviously intricately connected with breathing. It is a specific tool that records all our experiences – in other words smell is associated with memories – even going back to the most ancient memories of our origin and spiritual heritage. Each smell is related to a memory of the spirit and our Divine Nature.
Cooking and eating are daily patterns that allow us to practice paying attention to the smells that we experience. Which scents and fragrances stand out most? How do the perceived smells make you feel? There is a lot of information we can access via our sense of smell. The best way is to practice and access our sense of smell with our eyes closed to perceive more intimately and with more clarity. Smells and scents are keys for specific moments in our life or history. These remembered moments are important occasions from the perspective of our Soul and Spirit.
Smells are clues that help us to connect with the information from our spirit: our intuition. In other words, our sense of smell perfects our intuition and allows us to discern the best life choices by guiding us through the circuitous labyrinth of reality.
Allow yourself to practice smelling consciously while cooking and become aware of the wide range of scents, fragrances and smells from subtle to strong. This is one way to begin to access the information hidden deepest in the memory of our cells and simultaneously to reach the light of Spirit. And for many of us living in a northern (or southern hemisphere), colder climate, in winter we spend more time cooking – so it is perfect for practicing our sense of smell and beginning to unlock our memories.
[1] Matias de Stephano has shared daily transmissions from Egypt for one whole year from August 2020 to August 2021 as a service to humanity: https://yosoy.red/ - https://yosoy.red/biografia/
[2] Dr. Shunyu Li, Beijing Acupuncture, is a Chinese Medical Doctor, Acupuncturist, Nutrition Consultation, Massage Therapist, Qigong, Tai-Chi and more.
