Metabolism V - Physiognomy (Pancreas)

Before we go on to discuss the pancreas and its role in the Metabolism of Time I would like to recap what we have established so far.

You as a being are in many ways a conscious spiral of DNA - as the embryo develops one of the ends becomes a 'head' end and one becomes a 'tail' end, one side becomes the 'front' and another the 'back' - therefore latent within the idea of DNA is a head, a tail, a front and a back.  Cells express only the information relevant to their position in the body, thus liver cells express liver information, retinal cells retinal information. 




FEELIX

FEELIX AS THE METABOLISM OF TIME

As spirals of 'consciousness' we are in the process of digesting time/experience and this metabolism of time can be overlaid on our spiral structure such that the 'head' is in the future (in that it is anticipating), and the genitals are in the past (in that they preserve history in the form of the genes they propagate).

Individuals are often concentrated, in terms of the type of consciousness they experience, on one area of this metabolism or another - in that some are future oriented, some are past oriented, some people experience their world through their belly, some through their eyes - although we as individuals contain all of these different faculties we typicaly focus on one (or the path between two).



THE PRISONER

The next character we will look at it is the physiognomical character of the pancreas - the one which relates to the inner mind in the Metabolism of Time and the one I call the Prisoner.  The character of the pancreas is all about energy storage (and release) and so obviously here the issue of fat storage in the abdomen comes up along with diabetes.  These characters have a tendency to store fat, and regardless of their personal quests to battle it their build will inevitably be stockier at best than the other characters. High carbohydrate intake and the subsequent storage as glycogen and fat is often a sleep inducing process and I have noted that these characters are often dreamers (day-dreamers) - linked directly as they are to the 'inner mind'*, they will easily sink into fanciful reverie and reflection - often they are fantasy prone.

There is a flip side though - insulin has its antithesis and partner in the form of glucagon, the hormone designed to release the energy that has been stored and often the prisoner has its flipside in the form of the anarchist whose sudden release of that stored energy can lead to a violent mood swing, flipped tables and armed revolt.

Qabalistically this character relates to Tifereth and therefore 'beauty' so why choose such an image as a fat pig on a toilet, an ugly image at best, to connect with this idea?  Appetite, greed, digestion and defecation - pigs being considered particularly taboo in Jewish diet - seem highly inappropriate associations for the 'messianic' Sefira, but a closer study reveals messiahs get themselves involved in breaking taboo all the time.  Looking past the superficial, as we must, energy storage in the liver as glycogen and subsequently in fat cells has seen our species and animal kind preserved for a long time - this activity is quite literally the Saviour.  And what is it saving exactly?

GLUCOSE!  The divine *hexagon* of our metabolism, the source of energy, *photosynthesised* by the plants in the beginning of its journey from the sun to our solar plexus.

One of the reasons I wanted to recap at the beginning is because we now have enough information to start considering 'the paths' and zooming in a little more on some characteristics.  Thus far we have examined, the Many Mannered Mind Man (genitals), the Prisoner (pancreas) and The Treefrog (thyroid) which relate to Yesod, Tifereth and Daat respectively and so map out part of a physiognomic 'middle pillar' path.  We can therefore have people with some of the traits of Prisoners blended with Mind Men, or alternately blend the characteristics of the Prisoner with the Treefrog - if we memorise those traits and learn to identify them, they can be very revealing about the resulting moods and behaviour of such an individual.

*enteric nervous system - the 'brain' of the stomach.