My Body Is My Temple

My body is my temple. I don't mean this metaphorically - for me, this is reality. My body is the temple of my own divinity, partaking in the divine and sacred nature of God Herself, who is as real as I am. It is through my body that I experience the wonder and dread of the Holy Mother in all of Her manifestations. We are embodied for a reason - to experience life on a physical level, to glory in the sensations of life, to revel in the pure joy of being alive. 

In Feri, one of our core practices is the daily prayer for alignment, in which we gather mana with our breath and then send this to our Godself, who then returns the energy to us and brings our three souls into better communication and communion with each other. However, this is only partially true. The prayer for alignment is also known as the Ha Prayer. Ha is the Hawaiian word for 'four'; we breathe in counts of four before sending up the mana. There are also four Qabalistic levels of reality; the physical realm and three non-physical. It seems to me that the true purpose of the daily prayer for alignment is to bring our three souls and our body into greater wholeness, into a more effective gestalt. 

Part of my practice is to engage my body as fully as possible. This is true on several levels: firstly, daily care of my body is of extreme importance to me. I run a few times a week and I do kickboxing. My diet is quite healthy and I drink plenty of water. I don't smoke, I don't take drugs, and my alcohol consumption is very moderate. Secondly, I involve the physical as much as possible during ritual and spellwork. I cringe when I hear other magic workers say that all magic can be done in the mind, that you only need your mind to work magic. Hmm...this is a half-truth. Yes, your mind is an extremely important part of magic but why would you only involve one of your souls (your Emi/Talker)? I'm sure some magic workers do only use their mind, but I don't agree with this from either a practical or theological standpoint. 

Magic (and life!) is much more powerful when it involves all three souls and your body. What most people identify as the mind is their conscious soul, their Talker or their Emi. If you bring in your Vivi, or your Fetch, by involving colour, herbs, oils, incenses, smells, fire and candles into a spell, so much the better. 

However, none of this means anything if it is not done with intention, or comes from an unhealthy attitude, or a place of 'I should'. That takes power away from me. Instead, I choose to do these things, or not, and I often send a prayer to the Goddess before doing exercise, so I make it a devotional act. 

How do you look after your temple?