Helen Martineau's Blog

3 x 7 - the Soul Cycles    We have looked at the first third of life, which is the building phase. Now, by age 21 the fullness of the physical person is available, and a new level of development begins. Just as physical development takes three cycles this will also take three cycles. These three stages are about the development of the soul or consciousness. It’s the time of working from the inside out, where ideally consciousness emerges in line with the spiritual blueprint. While radical physical changes are not observable, from now on steps in the unfolding of our soul life continue in their sevenfold rhythm that brings us to age 42. The Sun as the centre The sun is the physical centre and powerhouse of our solar system, and metaphysically it represents our centre, that is our individuality, our ‘I’. Ideally, we have integrated our soul with our ‘I’ by the end of these three sun cycles. In esoteric teachings the soul is threefold, and it’s connected with but not the same as ...

Puberty   Fourteen is the archetypal year marking puberty and the shift from child to adolescent. The age when this takes place is quite varied. There are both physical and emotional changes and these may not happen together. Already in the couple of years prior to puberty, great changes commence in the body and become a strong drive in the boy or girl. Girls prior to puberty experience a dramatic growth spurt in their physical body. Their energies are all directed to this so they can have a lack of energy and lethargy. Prior to puberty boys tend to become gangling and awkward, ‘all elbows’. This is matched by lots of assertive ‘conquering’ energy. The moon remains a strong influence as a young person moves into the early stage of adolescence. This is what brings about the rapid growth and bodily changes as well as the ebb and flow of emotions. The astral Puberty signals the third birth, and it introduces the astral cycle. We have looked at the physical stage when the body is ...

When someone says, ‘I love you’, that potent word ‘love’ can lead to embarrassing misunderstandings. This is because in English it has a range of interpretations and we need to ask, ‘What do you mean by love? Other languages are more efficient. In Greek, there are at least eight different words. Four words in particular mark the evolution of love into its purest expression, with each earlier stage enfolded and enriched within the ‘DNA’ of what follows. These are eros, storge, philia and agapé . Ancient Greek philosophers so revered love in its highest form, they compared the way love transforms and evolves to a fat caterpillar metamorphosing and taking flight as a beautiful butterfly. Eros The first budding of love emerges in passionate infant desire for the one who nurtures it and appeases its hunger. That’s eros – it’s a desire-filled hunger, and it is experienced in all the myriad ways where pleasure is sought, including food and sex . Eros is a life force. We couldn’t...