The Principle of Polarity

Principle of Polarity

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Transcript:

Welcome everyone to another edition of the Esoteric Wellness Blog. I am your host, Coach Kyle, and I'm looking forward to today's edition because this is going to allow us to get more into the esoteric side of things a little bit, but also be able to very strongly, clearly connect it to the wellness side of things.

So, I had a session earlier this morning with a client and we started talking about politics and polarization of the political environment today and that kind of led me to this idea of polarity, which is an esoteric principle. It's one of the seven Hermetic principles of polarity. So, I thought we could have a conversation about that today and discuss what that is, what our goal with polarity is, how can we work with this in a helpful way, and how does it get in our way of achieving wellness and happiness?

So, polarity, what is it? Well, it's the idea that everything is dual. Everything has poles or opposites. Like and unlike are the same. Opposites are identical but different in degree. Extremes all eventually meet. All truths are but half-truths, and all paradoxes can be reconciled. What does all that gobbledygook mean?

So, in aspects of life, everyday life, we see this all the time and don't even really realize it. So hot and cold, tall and short, hard and soft, love and hate, fear and courage. So hot and cold, for example, are both a measure of temperature. They're the same thing. Temperature. They're just simply different degrees of temperature, different extremes, different poles, polarity. And all those other examples I mentioned are again the same thing, just different in degree.

So, hate and love. Hate and love are often called opposites, but again, they're the measure of the same thing, the relationship to another person or another thing. I either hate that thing, I love that thing, or it's somewhere in the middle. So, hate is not different from love. They're the same thing, just indifference in degree or extreme or measure, however you want to word that.

Now, in esoteric teachings, this principle of polarity shows us that spirit and matter are, again, opposite poles of the same thing. Being merely different rates of vibration, which is another hermetic principle that we're not going to dive into today. I want to avoid getting in the weeds there. And this leads us to the understanding that this process of spiritual alchemy, this alchemical process is really understanding this principle of polarity and leads us to the understanding of how transmutation works.

So, alchemy is often seen or described as being able to turn lead into gold. Well, this principle of polarity shows us that lead and gold are the same thing, they're just different in degree. So, by turning lead into gold, or turning hate into love, or fear into courage, we're not creating something new, we're not changing fundamentally what that thing is, we're just shifting the degree of how it's existing.

So, when through this alchemical process, we're able to understand and use this principle of polarity, we can understand our own mental state, our own spiritual state, our own physical state. And this understanding allows us to view these states as a matter of degree. And then we can be able to raise and lower that degree, that vibration, whatever you want to refer to it as. And essentially it allows us to become the master of ourselves, of our own existence, and become free from the control of others, their vibrations, their ideals, their emotions, their thoughts, their behaviors. And this is how we ultimately arrive at that ultimate level of freedom. We are the master of our own reality, and we can, as we wish, as we want, change whatever we want to change about ourselves, about our world.

So, what does all this mean to us here in the everyday, here in the real world? So, I think looking at polarity a little differently, I think the best kind of analogy I've heard out there is the example of a seesaw. So, you have a seesaw, it's just a straight board with a fulcrum in the middle and you sit at either end, and it just moves up and down. So, in this analogy, the poles are the ends of the seesaw where you would sit, and poles can act like almost like gravity wells. You can get stuck in them. And when you're out on that edge, that extreme, things seem very chaotic, very much out of control sometimes, and you kind of lose sight of the other side, the other extreme. And all you can really see is that it's very different from you where you are currently. And that when it moves, you move. When it affects itself in some way, it's also affecting you in big ways. So, it kind of traps you there in that sense, you lose sight of the big picture. You can't see the issue for what it really is. You only have this extreme perspective that you can view the entire system from.

And the goal of working with this polarity principle is being able to walk that middle path. So, while the ends of the seesaw are very chaotic and hard to get out of, that center, that middle path of the seesaw, no matter how chaotic the movement out of the ends is, in the middle, things are relatively stable. There's not much movement happening. And you can freely, from that perspective, see both sides for what they are. You see the chaos without being wrapped up in it. And you can decide for yourself with that big picture perspective, able to understand all the parts. Is any of this of use to me? Do I want to move myself, shift myself in either direction? Is that beneficial, or is it not? Do I need just to stay in the center here and not allow any of this to affect me in any way? Or do I shift to one side? This side serves me better, so I'll move in that way without going to the extreme end so that I can come back to the middle if and when I need.

So, this kind of demonstrates this idea of polarity and what we want to be able to achieve with it. Now, politics is how I arrived at this, and it's a great demonstration of this, that, you know, politics here in the United States, there's two political parties. So you got that seesaw, right? At both ends is kind of those folks that are so entrenched in their political view that they can't see any other view. They can't see the other side as anything other than the enemy. Evil. They're right or I'm right. They're wrong. And that's the perspective they have and that's the only thing they can see. And we see this so much today. We see this so often. We all know somebody like that if it's not ourselves.

But here again, ideally, we could walk that middle path. We could stand in the middle and see both these extremes at either side of the seesaw and see all the chaos. And we can see the details and the nuance and the parts of each side that are useful, the parts of each side that are nonsense. And we can allow this chaos to go on and not affect us to a great degree. But in the state of things today, you have so many people scared to death, so many people very fearful of what's going on. Because they're out there at the end of the seesaw, they're in the chaos, they're affected a great deal by all that chaos, and they're stuck. Getting out of that's challenging. It's really hard and we'll talk about why that is in a moment.

But also broadening this out into a general, how do we tie this back to wellness? Health and wellness, generally speaking, is like almost all of the mental health concerns, issues, challenges that people face are a result of polarity. They're stuck in some extreme pole as far as, you know, a pattern of thought, a pattern of emotion, a pattern of behavior, an idea, a belief, whatever it might be. They're stuck in some extreme form of this, and they can't get out. You're stuck there and getting out of that is hard. Again, we'll talk about why. And this is why walking that middle path is so important and allowing us to be truly free and to create the reality we want. Because that allows us to freely choose and unchoose and make changes and decide, does this serve me? Does it not? And react or not react accordingly.

And I think there's a big key too, is like that gives us the choice not to react. When you're at that pole, you're at that extreme. You don't have the choice not to react because you're in a reactive state. You don't have the luxury of thinking things through. You don't have the luxury of stepping back and looking at the big picture and deciding what to do. Do I need to do anything? You don't have that option when you're out at the pole. You're just reactive.

And our physical health as well is greatly affected by this principle of polarity. I mean, what is our physical health but a culmination of how we think, how we feel, and how we act? All that adds up to our physical health. So, if we're stuck in a pole somewhere, chances are it's gonna affect our physical health as well.

Now, why does this seem to be worse suddenly today than it was in the past? Well, I think it's part of human nature and technology that's been developed that enables that. So, we as humans like validation. We like our ideas, our beliefs, our opinions to be validated. And this is kind of the slippery slope that leads us into these poles, leads us into these extremes is when we get consistent validation of our beliefs, our ideas, of our opinions, we go further in that direction, and we've created this thing called the Internet.

You've created things like social media, which have built-in algorithms to show us that validation, to show us the things that we agree with over and over and over, and then just leads us further and further in these directions towards these poles. So, what's happened is we created all this technology that allows this polarity to happen much easier, much faster. Because in the past, before we had this level of connectivity to each other, this level of communication, you had to seek these people out that had validating views, that validated your own. You had to go find them physically or read it in a newspaper or something like that or read it in a book. These ideas didn't spread as fast or nearly as easily as they do today. So that's part of the problem. Not that the Internet or social media is evil or somehow has this idea in mind. I think there are people involved that do, but it's a tool and like any tool, it can be used for good or bad. And that's a whole other discussion. But that does bring us to what? How do we get to that middle path? How do we get out of these poles? And that's by seeking the opposite of validation. We need to challenge our own beliefs, our own ideas, our own perspective. Is the way I'm seeing the world right now true? Is it accurate? Is there a better perspective?

And these are things that don't come naturally. These are things that are uncomfortable until we become used to it, accustomed to it. And this is a path that we are very resistant to, especially when we find ourselves in one of these poles, one of these extremes. Any challenge to that extreme perspective is initially felt like a threat because we're wrapped up in that chaos. We're wrapped up in that we are reactive. But only by consistently challenging your own beliefs, your own perspective on the world, can you reach this middle path. And I know that might sound crazy to some of you, and that's OK. But that's the only way you get to step back and take in the big picture. You've got to see the other side. You've got to see your own side. You've got to see everything and be able to step back and say, OK, is any of this of use to me? If not, can I walk away from it? Can I stay in the middle, so I'm not affected by it? Or is it of use to me and what can I use out of this? How can I use it?

And I think a critical pathway that we're losing today that in the past allowed us to do that so, so well was having conversations with people who are not of like mind. We're losing this skill today. When's the last time you sat down and had a conversation about issues and concepts with someone who doesn't agree with you on them? I mean, a lot of times today that turns into an argument, that turns into a fight. Maybe that even turns violent. We're losing that ability, and we only communicate, we only meet, we only really engage in that way with people we've already verified they agree with us. We've already vetted them. We looked them up on Facebook. We looked them up on the Internet to see what their views are. We've already screened them, right? And oh, they have the opposing political party's sign in their yard. I can't associate with them.

So again, this ability we have to streamline seeking validation of our own perspective is really such a big part of this issue. And again, challenging that is how you reach that middle path. And it's not fun, it's not pleasant, it's not comfortable, but the potential rewards are so, so worth it. I think of my own kind of journey and understanding health and wellness and how I approach it as a coach is a great demonstration of this. I've started out very rigid on things like diet, lifestyle. This is the best diet. This is the best lifestyle approach and that's what everybody should be doing. And I now see the error in that way of thinking because everybody's different. Everybody lives in a different set of circumstances. Everybody's body works slightly differently. Everybody has a different set of genetics. So, as I've learned more, as I've gained more experience, I've challenged those beliefs I had. I challenged that perspective, and I stepped back from it, moved more toward the middle. And I overcorrected for a while. I thought, OK, none of that mattered at all. It's all about what's going on in the mind. The mind creates our physical health. And again, I learned through experience, through learned, continued learning, through challenging my own perspectives. OK, that's not entirely true either. I overcorrected. Let's move back towards the middle. And I'm now realizing both matter. They might matter to different degrees, different amounts, person to person. And it's horribly complex and there's no one answer in any direction. But I had to reach that middle path to have that level of understanding, to be able to see the big picture.

So yeah, that's kind of how I've arrived in my approach to health and wellness at this point. As kind of a middle road between a lot of different approaches, a lot of different beliefs and ideologies when it comes to health. And still to this day, recognizing I could be wrong, maybe some new information might come to light and totally change my mind. And that's OK. I welcome that now. I seek that out. And while it's hard at first, especially when you're stuck in those extremes, those poles, you can learn to really enjoy that process, to enjoy challenging your perspective. And I'm no saint. There are areas of my life where I still really struggle to challenge my own perspective. So, it's continuous work in that way.

So anyway, that's enough rambling about polarity. I think you get the idea. It's a simple concept, but extremely complex and difficult to work through and to really figure out at all levels of your life. We might be really killing it in one area, but really falling on our face in another. And that's normal. That's just the process. So, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening again and just know, you are beautiful. You are loved. Until next time.