Harvest time

There is a time of year to become fully aware of what life offers us and to savour it! A time when we are no longer obliged to throw ourselves into the heart of the work because the die has been cast: we have done the best we could, the season is now slowly turning towards winter… we can only rejoice in what is there and let go… This is what we call harvest.

This is what is happening at the end of August and the beginning of September. The last fruits to be harvested are almost ripe, we now know what the reserves will be… that’s how things are… and with the days getting shorter we can take this little time to step back and embrace everything that is behind us…

Beyond the accounts and evaluations, it’s about tasting! It is a time when parties are held to celebrate this moment.

The upper jaw and the archetype of the Debonair

In the body, behind the teeth that crunch into the food material, there is the palate that collects the flavours. This high arch is in a way an internal cathedral that reminds us how sacred this sense is, how loss of taste is a profound violation that takes away a part of the flavour of life… on the edge of the profane and the sacred.

With taste, in the intimacy of our senses, the secrets of matter are revealed in a joyful way and only our relaxation, like this time of year, can allow us to truly appreciate them.

The Debonair is the archetype associated with this area of the body because he is the one who appreciates life, who delights in it… he belongs, along with the whole face, to the family of the Teacher, because with all our senses gathered there, we gain height on reality, we can awaken to what it is, perceptible, but also beyond. Of all this family, along with taste, the Debonair is the one that goes most in contact with reality, that mixes with it.

It is a part of our psyche that we often represent as a plump monk who likes to go to the tavern to drink and laugh with the people. He likes to mingle with people and get drunk. He finds a spiritual elevation, without losing any of his status as a sage.

The cycle of letting go, the opening to more

This wise joy is the joy of letting go, which this archetype opens the doors to. In the cycle of our alchemy, it is the very precise place of surrender to greater than oneself. The whole family of the instructor is connected to the sense organs, of course, but also to the space between these senses…. and thus, on a cosmic level, to the vast, unmanifested sidereal space that exists in the universe in the void, between each star as well as between each of the atoms that constitute us. A space of benevolence and infinite potentiality.

The central teaching of the Debonair

It is remarkable that this opening begins with taste, the most deeply rooted sense… which reminds us that we are earthlings and that our access to the spiritual is only valuable for our growth, for our integrity, when it is experienced from our body.

The Debonair constantly invites pleasure into our lives… even in our learning. And the cognitive sciences confirm the necessity of this: we integrate into our structures what is tasty, what has body.

Perhaps more than any other body archetype, the Debonair reminds us that it is our whole body that thinks and that thinking has texture, mass and taste!

Pathologies of the upper jaw

We can suffer all sorts of pathologies in this area of the body: fractures, inflammations, dental problems… and of course loss of taste.

We hypothesise here that behind these pathologies, depending on their polarity, lies a whole relationship to reality: do I embrace it sufficiently, with all my appetite? Or do I lack the necessary detachment to appreciate things without sinking into lust?

The message of the Debonair

« Do you honour my life and all that you taste as sacred things?

« Do you stop taking yourself so seriously that you can savour what is there in a relaxed way?

 

Nicolas BERNARD