Equinox: Meditating on Balance ll By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards, MA.

The March Equinox recently drifted over us, known as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun hovered over that imaginary line we call the equator, and for a brief time, brought nearly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night all over the Earth.

Our body’s encircling low-level energy—an aura?

In Indonesia I worked as a copyeditor at an English daily print newspaper, The Jakarta Post (1). The editor of the Post’s Weekender Magazine came to me, “Mary, do you want your aura read?” 

At the time I was reading Valerie Hunt’s book, Infinite Mind: Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness. Dr. Hunt was a professor of Physiological Science at the University of California, LA. Her book introduced me to the science behind how we measure energy coming off our bodies, including that of EKGs and EEGs. She spoke of how NASA, in monitoring its astronauts out in space, had discovered a low level of energy emanating from and encircling our bodies, essentially an aura. 

I jumped at the chance. Four of us agreed: two Indonesians, an Australian, and I. Each of us would then write of his/her aura reading experience for the Weekender Magazine. I prepared a small tome before I knew there was a 250-word limit (2). 

The day finally arrived, and bubbling with near uncontrollable energy, I made my way up a nonfunctioning escalator with my small group to a tiny two-room office on the third floor of an aging mall. I expected a scientific readout of my entire body with squiggles representing various colors and their intensities—like something from a hospital heart monitor. Disappointment engulfed me; there would be no full-body energy scan. 

We are “human beings” not “human doings”

Instead, the owner directed me to sit in a large chair—similar to Captain Kirk’s command seat in Star Trek—in a darkened room with my fingertips resting lightly on the designated finger pads on the arm rests. Determined to make the most of it, I chose to sit calmly and meditatively while the Kodak camera snapped a 30-second photo of my aura read from the energy leaking out of my hands (3). After a few minutes, we were presented with our photo and a five-page, dot matrix computer printout explaining and analyzing our personalities around our chakras and the colors revealed in the photo. 

I decided to make the most of it and brought my critical realist “as-if” perspective to it: this photo acts “as if” it’s reading my energy. Not all my energy, of course, and not with exactitude, but I stayed open to the idea that maybe there’s something to this. 

I wanted my scan to show brilliant blue and purples flowing out from everywhere around me—symbols of super spirituality. But no—that floated around Indonesian Karen. While I had aquamarine and greens emanating from my left side and from the top of my head, my right side was bright yellow with some red in it. My accompanying computer readout said I needed to find balance between the two—between my rational, let’s-get-this-done NOW yellow side, and my calmer, more receptive blue and green side. The summary, translated from Indonesian to English, read, “Your health will always base on your conflict and unpeace mind.” That defined my spiritual journey long before Kodak exposed it in vibrant colors: how to balance my inner conflict as a “human being” versus a “human doing.” I fall on the doing side.

Other balancing acts (4)

• Are you quick to judge another’s way as “wrong,” while yours is the “right” way, bringing anger upon yourself?  
• Is your automatic response to your experiences by your feelings, in the process projecting those feelings onto others, believing you know their truth, instead of bringing facts into the experience? And vice-versa? 
• Do you run from ordinary life, always wanting the next new fun and exciting event? 
• Are you fearful of people wanting your time or energy, and thus avoid much human contact? 
• Do you run from conflict, bottling up that energy, which manifests itself as frustration, a low-level anger?
• Do you neglect your physical and emotional health to nurture others, putting their well-being before yours? You can’t help others if you’re a physical wreck.

System collapse

Nature teaches us that we are designed to live in balance; without it, we face system collapse, and not only in our bodies. 

• Overfishing, in particular of juveniles, causes ocean ecosystem collapse. 
• In Afghanistan, when herders brought their sheep up the mountains to graze too early in the spring because they’d run out of fodder at lower elevations, the sheep nibbled those fresh green shoots down to the soil before the grass had a chance to establish itself after a winter hibernation, resulting in overgrazing and loss of grassland—ecosystem collapse. 
• Too many pollutants from fertilizer runoff flowing into our freshwater streams, rivers, and lakes contributes to algae growth. Decomposing algae consumes oxygen, creating dead zones and starving out riverine ecosystems—ecosystem collapse.

Did COVID-19 usher in a form of balance? Maybe; humanity’s pride certainly took a hit. 

As our seasons change, mediate on the sun resting on that pivotal equator, even as our days lengthen and move from winter’s demise of life to spring’s increase in life—an additional contour of balance for contemplation. 
And practice mindfulness, paying attention to the stress signals going off in your body, making the unconscious conscious, a cornerstone of People House spirituality as I wrote in my last blog.

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Notes & Sources

1. At the time, The Jakarta Post was the only international, English daily print newspaper, now joined by the Jakarta Globe.
2. Tiojakin, Maggie. (2008). ‘The Camera Never Lies?’ The Jakarta Post, Weekender Magazine. October, page 44-45.
3. For sample photos, see https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-colorful-clairvoyant-history-aura-photography
4. The Enneagram explains these balancing acts in more detail. Contact me for more information or go to People House’s website https://peoplehouse.org/ for other qualified Enneagram counselors. 
5. Warnock, Terryl. The Miracle du jour, MoonLit Press, LLC; 2017; pages 193-195. https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-du-jour-Terryl-Warnock/dp/0989469859
6. Kabat-Zinn, Jon. He defines mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”. For more information, refer to his many published works.

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About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working, and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.