The Belt Flow:
The Rakia of Energy
The belt flow balances the energies coming through the crown with those traveling up the body from the earth. It is a physical reflection of the mystical connection and longing between Heaven and Earth. Use it to help maintain the internal balance of body and soul and bring ideas into manifestation.
In the beginning, there was only the ONE. There were no boundaries or separations. An ancient Chinese creation story tells of a great creator named Pongu, who used his physical strength to force apart the upper and lower waters and hold them apart until they were stable as the sky and the seas. In contrast, the Torah and the Zohar account for this separation of the waters through the vibration of speech.
Kabbalah Background
On the second day of creation, as written in Genesis, Elohim, the Creator persona of YHVH, spoke boundaries into existence by creating the rakia, or firmament. The rakia separated the “waters above from the waters below.” Sky and ocean were divided from each other. Although no longer ONE, being water they could quickly blend into each other and, given a chance, could easily become ONE again. According to the symbolism of the Zohar, the rakia created a separation between YHVH as the divine masculine upper waters, and YHVH Eloheinu, as the divine feminine lower waters. According to the Zohar, the rakia and the waters above and below are symbolized by the letter aleph and its three components, yud, vav, and yud. We have looked at the aleph and the relationship of the components. The idea of the waters and the rakia adds an additional layer of symbolism.
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The upper yud = upper waters, the heavens, divine masculine K”BH. |
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Between the waters is the letter vav. Vav, the word “and,” creates balance by simultaneously separating and connecting the yuds. |
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The lower yud = lower waters, the divine presence, the Shechina, partner to the K”BH. |
The yuds, like the north and south poles of a magnet, are drawn to each other and try to reconnect. The boundary between them cannot be passive. It must continually allow for a dynamic reflection, tension, conflict, and balance between these forces.
Energy Background
Boundaries are reflected in our energy body in many ways. The belt flow is one of the radiant circuits, eight special energies of light. They are the first energies to emerge in the fertilized egg or zygote, and represent to some degree, the soul that enters the body at birth and departs from it at death. The belt flow runs around the belly like an equator. It corresponds to the position and function of the rakia in the creation story.
After conception, even before the fertilized egg divides, the first radiant circuits emerge, creating a continuous flow of life force potential around the zygote. Eventually, this circuit of life force develops into the main masculine (yang) and feminine (yin) energy channels of the body. The yin central meridian (item 51) is also called the conception vessel. It runs up the front of the body from the perineum over the soft and vulnerable belly to the mouth. There in the mouth, the central channel completes the circuit by connecting with its yang partner, the governing meridian (item 52). The governing meridian runs up the back, from the tailbone up along the spine over the top of the head where it connects to the central channel in the mouth. In an adult, this circuit becomes the microcosmic orbit, a powerful meditation channel Taoists have used for millennia.
The microcosmic orbit is a re-creation of the original united life force that exists in the zygote before it begins to differentiate and split into two cells. And as below so above … this energy orbit is a reflection of circular orbits as we find them throughout the universe. Symbolically it re-creates the pre-rakia universe of Genesis when everything was still united as ONE.
When the zygote splits into two cells, a radiant circuit called the belt flow creates a horizontal band, like an equator, around this original orbit. The one continuous orbit of the zygote then separates into the two connected channels that will become the central and governing vessels.
In her book Fabric of the Soul: 8 Extraordinary Vessels, Dr. Hubatch describes the belt flow:
The governing and conception vessels represent the front (yin) and back (yang). In addition, in general, the yang meridians enter through the head, above, and come down. The yin meridians enter through the feet (below) and flow up to meet them. The belt flow employs the balance and stability between the cosmic forces of heaven above and earth below to maintain yin/yang balance in the body. Heaven relates to the mind and earth to the physical and emotional bodies. The belt flow loosens and tightens to regulate the balance between these two life forces. In this way the belt flow supports the balance between “heaven and earth.” The Chinese symbol for this flow called dai, , represents a belt, separating and harmonizing “heaven and earth” (Quote marks are from Dr. Hubatch, 14).
The belt flow exercise is an Eden Energy practice that clears and activates the belt channel, allowing the mind to connect with the physical body. Without this connection, ideas remain unmanifested dreams. It takes the connection of ideas to the physical body, to earth energy, to manifest our dreams into reality.
These two ideas together, belt flow and rakia, become the rakia flow. Energy medicine and Kabbalah weave together, creating a physical exercise with a spiritual context. The belt flow is a physical reflection of the connection and longing between Heaven and Earth. It creates stability between them. The belt flow as rakia is a place of divine connection and balance between the Shechina representing Earth and the K”BH, symbolic of Heaven. It is reflected in our bodies as healing the relationship between yang and yin, masculine and feminine.
masculine/6 +
feminine/7 =
13 =
Love/Ahava and Oneness/Echad
Rakia Flow
The aleph visualization infuses the belt flow with love.
Imagine yourself as the letter aleph, , with its components: the upper and lower yuds and the vav separating and connecting them. The vav, as rakia, lies horizontally and separates the body above the waist, the upper yud, from that below the waist, the lower yud .
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Visualize the clearing of the vav channel around the belly so that the two yuds, though separated, can maintain their attraction to each other and their balance. Remember the gematria:
/aleph = 26
26 = 13 + 13 = 1. 13 = ahava/love.
Send love through the hands as you work with the rakia/belt flow.