Your Body is Your Temple
By Chris Burns

Temple – the place people go to pray.

Prayer – the willingness for something we desire to manifest into reality.

Most people associate going to a temple and praying with religion and because most people these days don’t necessarily believe in a God they don’t follow a religious practice. Religious temples aside, each person has one true temple, the real place you perform your prayer and that is your own body. Your body, and more importantly the thought processes and feelings you experience and manifest within your body is the only true thing you can ever fully understand; yet it is the thing we generally understand the least.

Thousands of times everyday we all go to our temple and pray. For every time you think or will something to happen that is exactly what you are doing. Understanding this principle and learning to be able to use it to better should become a life long goal, something we continue to learn and experience fully. Yet it is something we often take for granted and as such misuse. Understand that your body is your temple and that by understanding the union between it and thought allows the world to become your oyster if this knowledge is harnessed correctly. It is a principle that has been known by a select few for millennia and is a principle that deserves to be explored further.

Ancient texts (Hermetic and others) include the now famous Emerald Tablet, which describes the principle of being able to transform base metals into gold – alchemy. To the uninitiated this was always taken literally and generally scoffed at, yet to the few that researched it further they discovered that the true principle it is talking about is being able to transform the lead of self into the gold of spirit. By understanding this principle an alchemist could turn thought into reality and thus create the environment in which they chose to live.  Now this article of course will not go too much further into alchemy than this (as it is wildly presumptuous that the author knows what he is describing) but it will look at how this principle is the keystone to what is needed to succeed in your chosen endeavor.

Alchemy talks about three elements, Sulfur, Mercury and Salt. They are the three raw ingredients needed for the alchemical process. Sulfur represents the masculine principles or willpower and driving passions, Mercury the more feminine principles of imagination and ever-changing thoughts. Salt is the middle ground, the neutral source that represents perfect intuition incorporated in the body. So when we talk of Body, Spirit and Soul, alchemists are talking of Salt, Mercury, Sulfur. Without a perfect union of all none can exist. They hold each other together and thus when properly used can create whatever you desire. You see to manifest anything these three things must blend as you will see from the following excerpt revealed by a nineteenth century Golden Dawn alchemist and cited from The Emerald Tablet Alchemy for Personal Transformation by Dennis William Hauck.

Both the Imagination [Mercury] and the Will [Sulfur] must be called into action; they are co-equal in the Work. Nay more, the Imagination must precede the Will in order to produce the greatest possible effect. The Will unaided can send forth a current, and that current cannot be wholly inoperative; yet its effect is vague and indefinite, because the Will unaided sends forth nothing but the current of force. The Imagination unaided can create an image, and this image must have an existence of varying duration; yet it can do nothing of importance, unless vitalized and directed by the Will. When however, the two are conjoined – when the Imagination creates an image and the Will directs and uses that image – marvelous magical effects can be obtained.

The process describes above is what western religions call prayer and is the process that we all go through but not necessarily correctly. There is still one important ingredient left out though and that is the temple that you produce this alchemical formula in (the Salt). For a Christian going to an amazing church to pray is uplifting and as such makes their religious experience seem truer, obviously the more uplifting the environment the easier it is to feel spiritual. It is paramount that you keep your temple as pure as possible in order for the alchemical formula to work properly. A sick or stressed body leaves to a decrepit temple. A decrepit temple is not an appropriate environment to work in, thus the process of alchemy will be a lot harder to manifest. It is through the balance of understanding the formula but equally so preparing it in the right cauldron that allows your desires to manifest. When your desires manifest the world is at your feet.

There is no better exponent of the above in world sport than that of Tiger Woods. Here is a man that seems to transcend golf. Whether it be hitting miraculous putts as on the 15th hole in The Masters in 2005 or winning the 2008 US Open with a torn ligament in his knee, Tiger Woods exemplifies what is to both have the imagination to see what you want but also the willpower and drive to make it happen. Furthermore he keeps his body in pristine condition unlike most other golfers out there. He always seems relaxed, never stressed by the occasion. He always seems healthy; his face always has a glow to it. He is strong; he makes a point of keeping his fitness and strength up. To further drive this point home I’ll leave you with a quote from Tiger that he said whilst his father was sick, dying of cancer. “I’ve lost my ability to will what I want to happen.” During this period of his life Tiger’s temple was unfortunately not up to standard, he freely admitted to being over stressed and tired due to the worry for his father. As such he couldn’t find the shots no matter how he willed them to happen. There’s something to ponder from one of today’s great alchemists, and leaves no doubt whatsoever to the point that your body is you temple!