We Are What We Eat: An Esoteric Definition
“We are what we eat” is a beautiful axiom which saved my life and I hope can enrich the lives of all people.
The above phrase has often been taken as a universal truth by many people, but seldom if ever practiced. Unfortunately without understanding the layered symbolic depth of this phrase it will forever remain a cliché to a mass that subsists on the barest of minimums. Hippocrates (Ἱπποκράτης) is often credited (though this is historically disputed) with the more elaborate version of this phrase, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food." The weight of these sayings present the idea that the type of food we consume is the key to health or illnesses depending on food choices. Defining healthy food choices can start simply at what not to consume ( if at all possible, but if you cannot help it try not to consume in excess), which includes heavily processed food products. If something has an excess amount of chemicals, preservatives and is sealed in plastic, odds are you are ingesting endocrine disrupting micro-plastics which mimic female hormones and other carcinogens which can wreak havoc on your body.
The next step would be to define healthy foods and to well verse yourself on as many types of food and styles of cuisine as you can. We live in a time where one can have access to cookbooks, nutritionist articles and medical journals for free; one just has to make the time to research. Next, you must evaluate your palette. The depth of your palette also shows the depth and liberal capacity of your mind and soul. Then, learn as much about your body as you can so you can learn what foods are best for it. Learn things like your blood type, allergies, intolerances, body types, family health history, genetics, your basic likes and dislikes and why they are such. It is important to determine if your likes and dislikes are a result of immaturity, imposed familial tastes, lack of multifaceted exposure or something else.
If possible, buy local and eat with the seasons because if you eat with your environment theoretically you will be more in tune with it. For example you may love tropical fruit but it might benefit your body more to consume it in the summer rather than the winter, depending on your location and local winter weather. Also spiritually, when you eat local it is easier to plant roots and be in tune with a place. This does not mean avoid foreign foods altogether just study the similarities and differences in climate from which the cuisine comes from compared to where you live and how often and when you ingest it.
Another way to pursue a balanced diet and body is to eat with all the colours of the rainbow. If we follow the systems stemming from balancing the chakras, chi meridians, and other spiritual systems and philosophies surrounding the body from all over the world, then we may better understand what is going on with us spiritually and how that reflects in our corporeal shells. For example, one may eat too many foods for the heart chakra and not enough for the root chakra so they may be too giving from the heart and disconnected from their primal identities and ungrounded in their personalities. Same being said if someone eats too many root chakra foods and not enough foods for the 6th and 7th chakras. This person may be too foundational, aggressive, and rigid rather than liberal in the mind. Foods that open the gallbladder chi meridians may help someone who does not know how to properly express their will in the world. Spicy food may make someone more passionate and vivacious, whereas bland food may make someone calm and compliant. An excess of anything can be problematic, but balance makes a person objective and multi-faceted in thought.
Understanding the symbolism of nutrition in tandem with the symbolism of the spiritual body is where we really begin to understand how the nuance of food affects us. An easy place to start is to match the colour of foods with the chakra, classical element, vedic element, and eastern element (TCM), then study your dietary habits and see what you eat in excess or what you are lacking in. The results may surprise you! Your cravings may be a result of a spiritual need or a spiritual crutch. Read up on the symbolism of all foods, drinks, herbs and spices (for you Green and Kitchen Witches this is where your prowess will shine) and what they give in physical nutrients as well as what they give metaphysically. Meat is of blood and what our body is made of so it is for the root chakra, but in excess promotes aggression. For the men who suffer with sperm count issues seeds have been shown to help promote testicular health (the direct symbol here is seeds of the earth will help you make your seeds). Those who drink varieties of tea often end up with phlegmatic and go with the flow personalities; this is shown statistically in the cultures of Asia where Buddhism and Taoism are a strong influence on the society (to be as the Dao one must be as water and the stream). If you read the Tao Te Ching you find quotes like, "But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard". These ideas heavily influenced Chinese and Japanese culture in martial arts (tai Chi, Qi Gong, etc,), poetry, the tea ceremony, and more. The mutable influence of tea can also be found in the English culture whose people have been known to be phlegmatic, as well as India whose rich traditions have shown a flexible yet firm disposition which is like no other in this world.
The symbolism does not stop in simply literal food. What we consume in all mediums can determine the health of our mind, body, and soul. Other things we consume can include music, art, games, products, environments, media, novelties and more. Whatever we choose to put our money and efforts toward is a type of consumption however conscious or subconscious it may be. This shapes us first then subsequently shapes culture and thus the lives of others around us. So your diet is more of a collective responsibility than it may seem at face value.
If what I say interests you and you wish to learn more about this topic feel free to check out our podcast episodes on the subject on Spellcast Podcast, our classes on Herbalism and The Magick of Food, and our Symposium and Colloquium events which debate and elaborate further on the subject. Blessed Be!
Written by: Aondreiel
