In outer space the most common heavy metal is iron. The most solid cosmic substance, properly speaking, is iron. It lies scattered throughout the universe. The smaller meteorites are rock, reaching the surface of the Earth as a veritable, unceasing cloud of meteor dust; the better part of them, however, is metallic: iron, nickel and a host of alloys.
The human body is embedded in the material medium of the universe in an astonishingly organic way. In a thousand ways we meet our own likenesses among the objects of nature, too. How often we discover a human figure in the shape of a cloud, or find a sculpted human face in a piece of stone. The five outstretched arms of the starfish form a human shape, and the proportion of solid to watery parts in our body parallels the proportion of land to sea on the Earth. The salt composition of the blood resembles that of the seas. And in our veins biological iron forms the core of the blood's haemoglobin, which is to say that haemoglobin recalls the most common heavy metal of the universe, iron. Stardust circulates in our blood vessels… This fact, too, points to the parallel between microcosm and macrocosm.
Blood has been held by every mystical school to be of exceptional significance. Blood is the carrier of consciousness – wherever it reaches in the body, consciousness is present, sensation flows, the phenomena of life are at work. Where blood does not reach, the organ grows numb, and may even die. And all our life the bloodstream sweeps cosmic matter along through our veins. Written indelibly into our bodies is the memory of this universe.
Our body was taken from matter, this we all know, and this embedding determines, with elemental force, the possibilities open to our consciousness. As long as we think only in terms of the body, materiality is inescapable. Beyond dispute, man's spiritual part often wraps itself wholly in matter, as though man were merely a body: this is mimicry of the highest order.
Besides all this, biological, family, national, cultural and a million other forms of embeddedness are at work as well. Most of these we can see clearly enough, and in most cases we even try to conform to them. Identities are hard to break free of, though man is granted some room to manoeuvre. True, the past, the old conditioning, now and then greets us again, but perseverance and keeping clear of wrong practice lead to success sooner or later.
Material embeddedness not only limits us but also binds us organically to the world, and marks out its own room to manoeuvre. The universe is our own medium, and it is not against us but for us and with us. As long as we are shut inside a body, this world is our home.
But the wise add that the body is from matter, yet the soul is from the Soul. Consciousness is from Awareness, spirit from the Spirit, happiness from the Blissful One. So if we think not merely in terms of the body but in terms of the soul as well, then beyond our cosmic embeddedness we can also revive the memory of our spiritual origin. The original home of our spiritual being is the higher world. Reaching it, however, requires a spiritual escape velocity that is available to only a few. Spiritual escape velocity is one of the results of the path of the spirit.
If the blood's haemoglobin is connected at the macrocosmic level with the totality of matter, and at the microcosmic level with consciousness, then it seems logical that the consciousness borne by blood-iron may be the key to knowing the material world, but also to transcending it. Man lives for what he is willing to give his blood for – that is, for what he devotes his consciousness to.
Consciousness, moreover, is said to possess a singular property, and that is self-radiance. The brightness of consciousness casts light on objects – that is, on the world of matter – but also on the subject itself, on man. That is why in the light of consciousness there is a chance of knowing the world existing around us, but also ourselves. And so one of the first steps towards enlightenment is conscious self-reflection. First one must take possession of the conscious self, and then place it in the service of Providence. Matter to matter, soul to Soul…