Stillness 9-8: How we place our feet on the ground reveals pretty much everything about how we relate to life. How we move, and exist, and feel, and even think. Each time we take a step, placing the sole of our foot on the ground, we are—whether consciously or unconsciously—reminded of our essential connection with Mother Earth. This is where we live. This is where we exist.
Our feet remind us of the security of our real or symbolic roots—the past. They settle us on earth. They plant us where we exist—the present. And our feet take us where we want to go. If you want to be a seer, pay attention to your feet. They reveal the future.
A balanced and healthy foot is essential for our well-being and for feeling at home on the planet. The energy of the Earth flows in and out of our lives through our feet more than through any other part of our body. Pay attention to your feet! Be grateful for them. Even more importantly, learn to trust them.
Those who know about the intricacies of feet—through foot reflexology or foot chakra work, for example—know how connected with every part of our body every part of our foot is. And psychologists can tell us their insights into someone’s personality that can be gleaned from how someone walks (dreamers tend to walk more on their toes. Walking heavily on your heels, you feel the weight of gravity. When you dig in your heels, you’re immovable). Reiki masters know that within your feet resides your energetic blueprint. Ancient mystery schools related the feet to Pisces, the 12th zodiac sign or the 12th (and final) initiation. And some shamans believe that an energy center known as the auric chrysalis is in the soles of our feet, through which we receive nourishment and energy from the earth. I imagine these are our spiritual roots, perhaps an energetic holdover from when we were still plant forms and needed sustenance from our Mother Earth. We still need that sustenance, on an energetic level if not a physical one.
Sometimes I look at rocky soil and imagine how it supports and is perhaps amazed by the movement of growing plants. And does a tree gaze with wonder at a cow that can lift its legs away from the earth and actually cross a field? And does a cow ponder how a human can come into view, purposeful and steady on two feet, and then pass out of view, as though by magic? I imagine that our experience of angels is similar: how can their pure, positive, loving energy move freely about, without the constraint of physicality and gravity? That seems amazing too.