“So what we eat is a killed deity. What you eat is God – Jesus, who gave his life that we might live. That’s the sense of all these mysteries; our life lives on life. The goal of the mystery is not to withhold the food that you are from the mouths that are waiting to consume you, but to welcome the consummation.” Joseph Campbell, Goddesses
Now that we have a baseline of understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the endocrine system, we will explore how this works in context with Sophia. The best place to start regarding this topic is Manly Palmer Hall, one of the most beloved and recognized spiritual teachers of Western occultism. His encyclopedic breadth of knowledge made him the friend of all true seekers in the West.
The following is an excerpt from Manly P. Hall’s Astrology and the Ductless Glands. It is a classic description of what ancient clairvoyants have repeatedly reported throughout time as the “effects” of spiritual development on the glands of the human body.
These descriptions are very consistent among even varying traditions. Hall’s information is commonly known and accepted in the field. Even the author, when being clairvoyant, can see the very streams and colors described flowing in others’ bodies. It was quite similar to this depiction of the spiritualization of the blood that flows between the heart and head.
According to the Rosicrucian teachings, the blood is a gas and not a liquid as affirmed by science. When the spinal column is observed by one with the spiritual sight developed, the spinal gas appears like a thin stream of light, the color of which differs according to the temperament and morals of the man. In the sensual man this spinal fire is a dull brick red, intermingled with a slight coloring of blue. As his aspirations rise and his love for others is awakened, this color becomes clearer, and the blue light with a slight coloring of pink is drawn upward. When one observes the spinal gas of the spiritually awakened man, who has purified his mind and body by high ideals and by a life of service, especially if observed while he is in meditation or prayer, there is seen a most wonderful sight. The spinal fire is of a most ethereal blue, which is difficult to describe; the nearest color to it would be that of a blue gas flame with the softest tint of pink and yellow playing through it. From the lower part of the sacral to the upper part of the lumbar region the colors are still slightly clouded with red, but as the spinal gas rises upward, it becomes purer and more transparent. This spinal fire during meditation and prayer becomes more active, coursing more swiftly through the spine, and as it touches the spinal nerves, it emits a tiny spark at the beginning of each until it reaches the medulla oblongata, which seems to act as a transformer or separating station, where the color makes a change, the darker or murky colors again descending while the lighter and purified gas is drawn upward.
There is a sieve-like enclosure at the lower end of the fourth ventricle, which is connected with the medulla oblongata. In the latter this gas seemingly goes through a purifying process; thence it passes through the fourth ventricle into the third, where it passes through a golden furnace-like glow. It is then absorbed by the pineal gland.
Let us observe this subject, a woman in spiritual meditation, one who has been living a pure and chaste life with high aspirations, and whose food for years has consisted of fruit, vegetables, and cereals. The pituitary body, through which these aspirations are first registered, is much enlarged. The posterior lobe is turned backward with its funnel shaped neck enlarged with a mouth opening at the end. From this open mouth exudes gas of a soft rose color, slightly intermingled with yellow and blue of the pale shades. The spinal column is filled with a pale blue ether, intermingled with soft pink and yellow. After this gas leaves the medulla oblongata and enters the pineal gland, it is of a wonderful blue color such as one sees clinging to the mountains after sundown. The pineal gland is enlarged with the point of the cone leaning forward toward the pituitary body. The tiny appendage of skin at the end of the former is elongated and emits a small flame similar to the blue flame of a gas jet. These two organs vibrate at a most rapid rate and lean toward each other over the third ventricle. This ventricle is an oblong cavity lying between the optic thalami. When the life of the aspirant has been pure, the ventricle appears to the occultist like a tiny furnace with a golden glow. From this the vitality of the body is drawn.
There is but one fountain of youth, one elixir of life, and that is our food and our thoughts. If we live a pure and simple life of unselfishness, eating lightly of vegetables and fruit, keeping close watch over our desires, then we need not sacrifice the life of the animal to replenish our wasted energy. Ponce de Leon sought the fountain of perpetual youth in far-off lands, while he had two tiny cups within his own brain which, if he had only paid the price of making an exchange of the worldly life of the senses for a spiritual life of purity, would have given him the elixir of life.
Astrology and the Ductless Glands, Manly P. Hall
Manly P. Hall did not claim to be clairvoyant; he was a scholar and a researcher, not a seer. Dr. Rudolf Steiner, on the other hand, was born clairvoyant and consciously developed those capacities through rigorous scientific training until his knowledge could be turned into wisdom for humanity, AnthropoSophia. Therefore, Dr. Steiner’s clairvoyant reading of the Akashic Records provides a view beyond the limits of space and time, one that spans far back into the past and far into the future. This cosmology orders the universe and places the right emphasis at the right time. To know the timeline of human development from the beginning to the end, after all, gives one great insight into the timing of right actions.
SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT HAS AN EFFECT ON THE GLANDS OF YOUR BODY.
Some of Dr. Steiner’s views of the past and the future are almost impossible to believe. Fortunately, many other clairvoyants have weighed in on these matters and found Steiner to be on the mark. Great scholars like Manly P. Hall frequently refer to Rudolf Steiner as an authority on all such matters. Many teachers from the past and some of the most creative thinkers of the present agree with Steiner’s research.
As science advances, so do new findings that support many of the unbelievable things that Dr. Steiner has pointed out in his teachings. It is hard to find a good spiritual book today that does not quote Steiner at least a few times.
The fantastic quotes of Rudolf Steiner that you are about to read are truly difficult to understand without a background in Anthroposophy, the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. But we can still see the intent and direction of Dr. Steiner’s remarks and create a picture of the processes described. Manly P. Hall’s descriptions were similar in that a certain amount of faith or “willingness to suspend disbelief” is necessary to not discard these descriptions as fantasy.
Our Spirit 