Breathwork in Ancient Civilizations.
Back in August I wrote a blog titled The Art of Breathing. If you haven't read it yet, please check it out on the website. In this blog I wrote about how we can take breathing for granted and discussed some breathing techniques. I also covered the origin of the definition of the word breath from ancient civilizations. But what did our ancestors think of breathwork? Let's take a look at the art of breathing in ancient civilizations.
In many ancient languages the word for breath also is used for spirit, soul, energy and life force. They were all considered the same. These civilizations believed that they are all connected.
Many ancient civilizations used breathwork to alter consciousness for different religious, spiritual and ceremonial purposes. It also served as a healing technique in many Shamanic civilizations.
Each technique would vary among civilizations but had one universal theme in all of them, to foster an altered state of consciousness to help with self-discovery, healing, transformation and much more.
The understanding of breath in ancient India came from the Sanskrit word prana which translates to “ the sacred essence of life”. Breathing has become a very important part of yoga and pranayama or the art of breath control. The Yogis of India since ancient times, have mastered the science of breathwork and have discovered there are 49 types of breath with each type corresponding to a state of mind.
Chinese philosophy denotes Chi as the cosmic or vital essence related to our physical, emotional, and spiritual beings. In Ancient Japan breath played an important role in spiritual disciplines and martial arts.
The Ancient Greeks understood the close relationship between breath and the psyche. The Greek word pneuma refers to air, breath, spirit and life essence. They understood that imbalances or disturbances in the breath were the cause of both physical and emotional illness.
The indigenous people in parts of the America's were found to have very little sickness, deformities or chronic health problems. They attributed this to the greatest secret of life. Breathing. Specifically inhaling and exhaling only through the nose. They felt that breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength, deformed the face, and caused stress and disease and breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong, made the face beautiful and prevented disease.
This is just a small sample of breathing in ancient civilizations. We can learn more about these techniques in future blogs. The highlight here is that they all share the same common belief that breathwork plays a vital role in our lives.
The universe is designed to work as one. Together. Everything has a role, and importance in the proper functioning of the universe. But we are nowhere close to understanding how the universe operates or what role we play in that operation.
Our bodies are the same. We may think we know our bodies, and the functions of every part and system. But do we? Do we only know what Western Science wants to teach us? Just like the mysteries of the universe, there are mysteries of our bodies and how they are truly supposed to function as one.
Breathing is just one part of that. And I think that our ancestors were tuned in to its importance in the functioning of this Earthly shell.
Maybe we need to start studying the ways of our Ancestors and not the ways of western science.
Let's journey to the fire together and discover what our ancestors knew about breathing. Let's journey to the fire to discover breathwork in Ancient Civilizations.
Blessings!
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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