from contraction to expansion
t r a n s f o r m a t i o n
By Natalia Rose,
New Earth Wellness: Vision Keeper
Have you ever noticed that the words
typically used to describe curmudgeonly
old codgers—such as calcified, stiff, inflexible—also happen to be the words that
describe the intermediate stages of the
death and decay cycle? On the trajectory to death and decay there are various
stages of rigidity. In fact, we can actually
reduce the whole death and decay cycle
down to the one premonitory symptom that
precedes all others: contraction.
Contraction comes from the Latin root contrahere, which means “shrink” or “shorten.”
Notice that in contraction we also have
the term contract, as in those agreements
entered into, knowingly or not, that we
at New Earth Nation are disbanding with.
Contraction also breaks down into contraaction—suggesting “going against” (contra) our natural, desirable action.
Contraction, as I am referring to it here, is
a defensive reaction to some alien threat.
It is a kind of recoiling. We recoil when
something is offensive to us. For example,
when the body is instinctually repelled by
a substance, it is effectively saying, “No,
that’s not life-generating or viable for me.
I do not wish to be exposed to that.” We
contract around negative emotions, acidic
substances, and ideologies that offend our
nature, to start. By becoming conscious of
the contraction reaction in all aspects of our
lives—emotional, physical, mental—we
may root out that first stroke of the decay