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Serial Lesson 223
From Course XXI, Personal Alchemy, Chapter 8
Original Copyright 1949, Elbert Benjamine (a.k.a. C. C. Zain)
Copyright 2012, The Church of Light
Subheadings: The Pituitary Gland The Moon and the Back Pituitary Gland The Moon and the Thymus Gland Use Harmonious Mars Thoughts to Neutralize Discordant Moon Thought-Cell Activity The Sun and the Thyroid Gland The Sun and the Front Pituitary Gland Use More Harmonious Thoughts of Vitality and Power to Recondition Discordant Sun Thought-Cell Activity Pluto and Adrenal Cortex Activity Use Harmonious Mars Thoughts to Neutralize Discordant Pluto Thought-Cell Activity
Charts: Best Sources Vitamin B2 Chart Best Sources Manganese Chart
Chapter 8
What to Eat When Sun, Moon or Pluto is Afflicted
THE human body is an engine which is kept running by the burning of fuel. Yet other things besides fuel are necessary to keep it moving properly, just as an automobile requires lubricating oil, water for cooling, grease for the working parts, and an electrical ignition system. When the electrical ignition system (Uranus) goes wrong either in a human body or in an automobile the engine does not work properly. And oxygen (Mercury), both for the body and an auto is part of the fuel consumed. But in addition to oxygen and the three different types of fuel, the human body also requires water (Moon), the various vitamins (Sun) and the twelve minerals (Saturn): sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, chlorine, iodine, fluorine, phosphorus and sulphur.
Of the fuels there are three different types; the glucose of sugars and starches (Venus), the fatty acids of fat (Jupiter), simple and phosphorized, and the 20 amino acids of proteins (Mars).
Physical energy depends upon the ability to burn fuel. And this ability is governed by the Sun through not merely one gland but several. The speed with which fuel is burned, and hence the general speed of energy production, and of life itself, is controlled by the thyroid gland, which secretes the hormone known as thyroxin. But the maintenance of fuel ignition which gives endurance is largely controlled by the front pituitary gland.
Still other glands influence the mobilization of the fuels for burning, and stimulate or depress the thyroid and pituitary glands. Thus the adrenal glands produce the hormone which mobilizes fuel and electrical energy for emergency purposes. And in some way the disturbance of almost any of the other important endocrine glands reacts upon the pituitary and thyroid in such a way as to influence their regulation of fuel consumption.
The Pituitary Gland
The pituitary is about the size of a pea, located a little behind the nose in a small bony case at the base of the brain. It is not one gland, but two, the front pituitary and the back pituitary. And each of these two glands secretes more than one hormone having a different function. Consequently the influence of different planets finds a ready response from these hormones. The front pituitary gland often is called the “master gland” because it secretes twelve different hormones that are now known, and may secrete others.
Two of them find ready response from the Sun thought cells, one from the Saturn thought cells, one from the Mercury thought cells, one from the Uranus thought cells, and one from the Pluto thought cells.
The growth hormone of the front pituitary, which responds to Saturn, controls the development of the skeleton and supporting tissues. Its over activity gives rise to gigantism. Tadpoles and rats stimulated artificially by this hormone grow to huge size. In normal human beings this growth hormone which gives length to the long bones, decreases at puberty, and a gonad stimulating hormone—the pituitary hormone which responds to Pluto—increases in activity.
When this fails to take place in an adolescent boy he becomes excessively fat with folds of tissue around his girdle and with prominent breasts. His sexual organs remain infantile. But when treated with injections of this hormone made from the pituitary glands of cattle the fat quickly disappears, his voice deepens, and he soon has normal development of his sexual organs. Yet in females and males, as important as this sex (Pluto) stimulating hormone is, it is only effective in the presence of functioning ovaries (Venus) or testes (Mars).
Here we are interested in the pituitary hormones that respond to Sun, Moon and Pluto. In this respect the front pituitary bears the same relation to the back pituitary as the Sun bears to the Moon. The front pituitary is decidedly masculine in all the tendencies its secretions stimulate, and the back pituitary is as decidedly feminine in the influence of its secretions. The front pituitary secretions make for control, for aggressiveness, and for the use of reason. The back pituitary secretions make for emotion, for love of children, and for sympathy. Yet the pituitary secretions must have the hormones of the sex glands to support them.
The truly feminine women are those in whom the back pituitary is more active than the front pituitary, and in whom the gonads are active enough to sustain proper gonad-pituitary balance. If, instead, the front pituitary is more active than the back pituitary, and there is proper gonad-pituitary balance, the woman is of the masculine type. Instead of finding her great pleasure in domestic responsibilities, she desires to go out into the world and compete for leadership.
The truly masculine men are those in whom the front pituitary is more active than the back pituitary, and in whom the gonads are active enough to sustain the proper gonad-pituitary balance. If, instead, the back pituitary is more active than the front pituitary, and there is proper gonad-pituitary balance, the man is feminine. He is not merely more delicate in physique, but he is decidedly emotional and lacking in aggression. Certain poets and musicians represent this combination. But for creative work in any line there must be good support from the hormones of the gonads, that is, from Venus and Mars.
Now a birth chart affliction involving the Sun indicates some disturbance of the front pituitary gland, and a progressed affliction involving the Sun gives additional and more discordant activity to the thought cells affecting the front pituitary gland. Probably all the secretions of this “master gland” are to some extent influenced by a progressed aspect involving the Sun, but two of them in particular respond to such a progressed aspect with alacrity; one which stimulates the secretion of thyroxin by the thyroid gland and also more directly contributes to sustaining energy and giving endurance, and one which stimulates the secretion of cortin by the adrenal cortex and also more directly contributes to courage. These two front pituitary hormones respond to the activity of the Power thought cells within the soul.
The Moon and the Back Pituitary Gland
One back pituitary hormone regulates woman’s periodic functions. When a woman becomes pregnant this hormone is no longer needed, and lack of its presence, according to the Aschheim-Zondek test, is supposed to be 98% or 99% accurate as a test for pregnancy. But the back pituitary hormone about which more is known, called pituitrin, is the one with which we here are chiefly concerned; for with cortin it exercises control over the water-salt balance which is so necessary for health.
Pituitrin, which responds with alacrity to the activity of the Domestic thought cells mapped in the birth chart by the Moon, controls imagination, sympathy, tenderness and the maternal instincts. Its excessive secretion leads to delusion. It also controls the tone of the intestines and causes contraction of all the arteries except those of the kidneys. It causes the contraction of the plain muscles of the bowels, the bladder, the womb and other organs. It is sometimes used in childbirth to contract the womb. It also has something to do with the metabolism of the carbohydrates, ruled by Venus, and its deficiency leads to obesity.
Its responsiveness to the Moon is indicated by the readiness with which people with an unstable back pituitary take on and lose weight through variation in water retention. It is also believed that the type of mental restlessness and inability to sleep which is experienced by many people near full moon is due to the stimulating effect of water on the brain cells, more water being retained at the time of such mental activity due to more pituitrin being secreted by the back pituitary gland.
Lack of water gives rise to a craving called thirst, which if prolonged leads to delirium. But, because thirst is a sensation arising from imbalance between water and salt, when there is too much salt in the system thirst develops quite as readily as when there is too little water. What is really required by the body is salt water.
Pituitrin, the hormone of the back pituitary, causes water to be retained in the body. An overactive back pituitary means a water-bloated individual; and a back pituitary which fluctuates in activity tends to rapid weight variation due to water content. Such activity is chiefly influenced by the thought cells mapped by the Moon.
Astrologers often speak of the Moon as having a magnetic influence. And the salt in the body dissolved in water or protoplasm does break up into positively charged sodium and negatively charged chlorine. That is, salt taken into the system as a mineral is decomposed into elements which possess electric or magnetic fields, and these electric or magnetic molecules travel through the blood and cells to be finally excreted through the kidneys as sodium and chlorine. And while the cells themselves generate electrical energy and high-frequency radiations, the magnetic tone of the body is profoundly influenced by the water-salt balance of the body.
But water retention is also influenced by cortin and thyroxin, both of which respond with alacrity to hormones of the front pituitary stimulated by activity of the thought cells mapped by the Sun. That is, the thyroxin and cortin responding to activity of the thought cells ruled by the Sun, have exactly the opposite effect on the amount of water retained in the body from that of the hormone stimulated by the Moon. It should be here noted also that under emergency the thought cells ruled by Mars also have a similar and more violent effect, and that Pluto thought-cell activity also may affect the water-salt balance. For cortin responds somewhat to Pluto and quite directly to Mars, and adrenaline, which Mars thought cells release in emergency, stimulates the flow of thyroxin. And a desiccated body, lacking power to retain water, may develop either from a weak back pituitary or an overactive thyroid. It is the balance between them; the balance of the Sun to dry, and some influence of Pluto in the same direction, Mars being quite violent in this respect in emergencies, and the Moon to retain moisture, so to speak, that determines the water content of the body.
Thus it is that even as sugar cannot be retained in the system without insulin, and as calcium cannot be retained without parathyrin, so water cannot be retained without pituitrin. The disease resulting from this inability to retain water for use is called diabetes insipidus, that resulting from inability to store sugar for use is called diabetes mellitus. Water depends upon the balance between pituitrin and thyroxin (and cortin), and when this balance tips in the direction of pituitrin there is need of less water, but when it tips in the direction of thyroxin (and cortin) there is need of more water. Thus it is that the individual requirements for water are as different as are the prominence of Sun and Moon in various birth charts; and in the life of the same individual they are much different during those periods when the Sun is powerfully afflicted by progressed aspect than they are when the Moon is powerfully afflicted by progressed aspect. It is easily possible to drink either too much water, or too little.
Of course, other things (especially the glandular secretions) being equal, the more water taken into the system the more salt is needed to keep the solution approximately that of sea water.
The ancestors of all land animals originally came out of the sea. Sea creatures are bathed in water containing various salts, and incorporate this solution in their bodies. Their blood stream, as it developed, had the general composition of the sea water in which they lived. And the animals which moved out of the sea onto the land and continued their development there, brought with them their sea water blood stream. So even today, among the higher animals, including man, health is impossible unless the cells of the body are bathed in fluids having about the same composition as the sea had when our ancestors left the ocean for dry land.
The percentage of sodium, chlorine, potassium, calcium and iodine in the human blood stream is that of the present-day seawater. But the magnesium of the human blood is less than that of present-day seawater; from which it is logical to infer that the magnesium of the ocean has undergone a considerable increase since that early day when man’s first land ancestors moved out of it. Shortly I will indicate the importance of preventing the iodine content of the blood stream from getting much lower than that of sea water, but at the moment let us consider not merely the amount of salt, but also its relation to the amount of potassium in the diet.
There is normally a small amount of potassium in the blood, but any excess enters into a compound with sodium chloride (salt), and the new compound thus formed is promptly carried out of the body. Thus it is that the higher the diet in potassium in proportion to sodium, the more salt is required to keep the proper amount of salt in the system. There must be additional salt to neutralize the potassium. Now flesh foods have about the same proportion of sodium and potassium in them that are present in the human system. Carnivorous beasts, therefore, need no additional salt with their food. But nearly all edible plants, tubers, fruits and vegetables (with the exception of rice) have an excess of potassium. Horses, cows and sheep must be given salt to neutralize this excess of potassium, and wild herbivorous animals risk great dangers to reach saltlicks to restore the salt depletion of their bodies. And among primitive tribes, especially where a vegetable diet is the mainstay of life, salt is bartered for even at great sacrifice.
There can be either too much salt or too little in the food. Meat eaters do not need to acquire so much salt as vegetarians; for the latter must have an extra supply to replenish the depletion due to combination with potassium. A reasonable amount of common table salt will thus often be found advantageous to them. Excessive salting of foods, and thus too much salt in the blood stream, tends to harden the tissues and prevent the nutrient fluids reaching the cells as they should. The amount of salt actually needed, and salt should not be present in excess of this, is enough to neutralize the potassium present and to bring the blood stream to a salinity about that of sea water. The less water and the less potassium present the less salt is needed; the more water and the more potassium present, the more salt is needed.
In general, heavy progressed aspects involving the Sun or Mars (for Mars increases the flow of cortin directly, and of thyroxin through the additional adrenaline hormone), and to a less degree Pluto, tend to drive the water from the body, and thus more water is needed, with sufficient extra salt to hold the water-salt balance. And in general, heavy progressed aspects involving the Moon tend to retention of the water in the body, and thus less water is needed and less salt to hold the water-salt balance.
However, no blanket rule in this respect can apply, not only because the body chemistries of people vary according to their birth charts, but because, according to this birth chart chemistry and previous progressed aspects, the point at which a given glandular secretion becomes exhausted when placed under the strain of a heavy progressed affliction involving the planet to which it readily responds, varies. So long as the back pituitary gland can respond to the thought-cell activity mapped by the Moon by secreting additional pituitrin, water will tend to be retained, and less water and less salt will be required. But when due to strain, insufficient pituitrin is secreted, the action of thyroxin will tend to overbalance this tendency, and water will be driven from the body. And as water which thus is excreted either by the kidneys or the perspiration glands is salt, not only more water is then required, but more salt.
This we can say with much confidence; that afflictions involving the Moon in the birth chart, and progressed afflictions involving the Moon during the time they are within one degree of perfect, tend to upset the water-salt balance, and thus this factor should then be given careful attention. If the individual under such aspects tends to take on weight, and especially if tendencies to water bloat are indicated, it shows an oversupply of pituitrin, and that less water and salt are needed. But if the individual under such aspects loses weight, especially if there are signs of drying out, it indicates that the pituitrin supply has become so depleted under the strain that more water, and sufficient salt to give it the proper salinity, are needed.
The Moon and the Thymus Gland
But the back pituitary is not the only gland which readily responds to thought cells made active by aspects involving the Moon. The thymus gland is situated in the chest astride the windpipe and covering the upper portion of the heart. It prevents too early maturity in children, and when overly active the adult continues childish in his attitude toward life, seeking the line of least resistance, and resorting to daydreams instead of facing the hard realities. Its dominance also affects the differentiation of sex, tending to produce feminine expressions in the male and masculine expressions in the female. The individual thus has a fixation at the emotional level of development commonly just preceding puberty, finding greater pleasure in those of the same sex than in the company of the opposite sex.
Such retardation of emotional development, of course, is due to a marked imbalance of the hormones of this gland in relation to the hormones of the gonads. And the thymus does have an important function in adult life. There is a close relation between it and nutrition and growth, for it has a direct action upon the lymphatic cells.
Lymph cells take part in the absorption of food, particularly of fat, from the intestines. These cells are migratory, moving throughout the body, some of them, the phagocytes, being called the police cells, because they protect the body from infection. These attack and devour bacteria and other invading forms of life. They are not confined to the blood and lymph, but make their way by their own movement through most of the soft tissues of the body. In the blood stream lymph cells become the white corpuscles.
The thymus gland is composed of a network of reticular cells, supporting lymph cells; and these lymph cells are quickly depleted by malnutrition or starvation. Together with the fat of the body, they serve as a reserve supply of food. And not only does the thymus quickly shrink in size when there is lack of food, but the lymph cells also disappear from the blood stream. But in addition to food, there must be present the internal secretion of the thymus if the lymph cells are to remain in normal quantity and do their appointed work.
Yet in spite of other foods, and in spite of any kind of thinking, the thymus cannot continue active without vitamin B-2. It has been experimentally shown that vitamin B-2 deprivation, both in animals and in man, produces a shrinkage of the thymus with a corresponding depletion of lymphatic cells and a lowering of the nutrition.
Use Harmonious Mars Thoughts to Neutralize Discordant Moon Thought-Cell Activity
When the Moon is afflicted care should be exercised that the food contains plenty of vitamin B-2, and care should be exercised to provide for a proper water-salt balance. But such care can only give the thought cells of the soul optimum facilities for maintaining health; and if the thought cells themselves remain sufficiently active and discordant they will not permit the production of proper chemical balance in spite of these facilities.
With an overstimulation of the back pituitary, due to such discords, the feeling for others in distress may become overmastering, and thus result in inability to afford practical help. And with an undeveloped back pituitary, there is a tendency to be cruel and to brook no interference from sentiment of any kind.
In addition to care with the water-salt balance, and furnishing abundant vitamin B-2, there is need to provide for beneficial Moon thought-cell activity. And because they act as natural antidotes, there is nothing better for this purpose than harmonious Mars thoughts. Mars expresses discordantly as anger, belligerency, harshness, destructiveness, undue haste and over expenditure of energy. Such Mars expressions offer little help to discordant Moon thought cells. Anger and irritation bring responses from the emergency hormone, adrenaline.
But Mars expresses harmoniously as courage, constructive activity, and in protecting the weak and helpless. These Mars expressions bring a response from cortin, which tends to counteract pituitrin secretion. And—especially aggressive yet harmonious thoughts relative to protecting the weak and helpless and providing for those unable to care for themselves—these harmonious Mars thoughts added to the discordant Moon thought cells result in a thought-element combination which gives thought-cell activity of a kind which helps establish proper water-salt balance, emotional stability, food digestion and assimilation, and the proper development of lymphatic cells.
The Sun and the Thyroid Gland
United by a connecting strip, the thyroid gland consists of two masses of glandular tissue close to the larynx, lying either side of the neck above the windpipe. Its enlargement is known as goiter. Its glandular principal, thyroxin, which controls the rate of metabolism and energy production, is about 60% iodine. Iodine is one of the minerals present in sea water, and lack of this element in the bloodstream prevents the manufacture of thyroxin. The thyroid gland responds not merely to the thought-cell activities mapped by the Sun, but also to those mapped by Venus. Thus too much emotional excitement, or too great a proportion of proteins and fats in the food places a strain on thyroxin production. But in spite of regulating those other foods, and in spite of any amount of right thinking, the absence of iodine in the foods will result in serious thyroid disturbances.
Some soils, especially those formed from sea deposits, contain iodine. Water filtering through such ground contains iodine, which is acquired by drinking the water, and vegetables and fruits grown on such soils contain iodine. Even milk from cows drinking the water and eating the vegetation from such ground contains iodine. But other soils made from igneous rocks where there has been no sea deposit, lack iodine, and people living in these regions commonly develop goiter.
For instance, in Yellowstone River Valley millions of dollars’ worth of calves, colts, lambs and pigs were lost each year due to thyroid deficiency because of lack of iodine in the soil. Thyroid strain is readily handed on from mother to unborn offspring. And in this region the loss of young animals due to this cause has been overcome by giving small doses of iodized salt to the mother while carrying the young.
In the United States certain areas are goiter regions, due to iodine deficiency, especially in the states about the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, Colorado, Utah and the Pacific Northwest. The region of the Alps in Europe, embracing Switzerland, parts of the Balkan States, Italy, France and Germany are also thus affected. And in Asia we find the Himalayan Mountains of Mongolia to be iodine deficient, with goiter prevalent.
This relation of maintaining a blood stream with a mineral content similar to seawater is not confined to land animals; for fish hatcheries were faced with the same problem, especially when the young, as was customary, were fed on liver, a food which requires more iodine for proper handling. Both salmon and trout thus raised developed goiter; but the goiter disappeared when a trace of iodine was added to the fresh water in which they were being raised.
Children with thyroid deficiency fail to grow. Except the skull, the bones and cartilage fail to develop; the temperature is low, the hair thin, the nose flattened, and the hands and feet are broad and clumsy. Such dwarfish children are known as cretins. They are always mentally deficient. Many such a moron has been made into an intelligent citizen by building up his supply of thyroxin, the hormone of the thyroid gland.
While goiter is a definite indication of a disturbance of the thyroid gland, all thyroid disturbances do not manifest as goiter. But as might be expected from the knowledge that the thyroid controls the speed of energy production—the rate of fuel combustion—an overactive thyroid tends to too great a consumption of fuel, with a corresponding restlessness and increased activity, while a deficient thyroid activity tends to low consumption of fuel, subnormal temperature, and mental and physical sluggishness.
The individual with an overactive thyroid is the live wire high-pressure individual who works early and late, who sleeps unsoundly because he is anxious to do something the next day, and who never takes on weight no matter how much he eats. Such an individual tends to a fair or ruddy complexion. Aspects of Mars to the Sun, in particular, tend in this direction; the increased flow of adrenaline from the adrenal medulla assisting in the mobilizing of fuel.
Unless the front pituitary secretions that respond to the Sun are at the same time strong, to give endurance, such an individual tends periodically to break under the strain. If, however, the other glands are active enough to support the thyroid intensity, especially the adrenals, the pituitary and the parathyroids, he becomes the type of individual who drives himself and controls others through possessing more endurance, initiative, energy and mental activity than his fellow man. Leaders in industry and politics who, commencing at the bottom, by their own efforts work to the top, have such a glandular combination as this.
In contrast to these are the people who, permanently as shown by heavy afflictions involving Sun and Venus in the birth chart, or temporarily while there are heavy progressed afflictions involving afflicted birth chart Sun or Venus, have subnormal thyroid activity. There is a tendency to dry hair, to sallow complexion, to irregular teeth, to dry rough skin, to cold bluish extremities, to chilblains, to obesity, and either to dullness of intellect or, if the pituitary is active, to a good intellect but with not enough energy to enable it to do much work. This particular type, because the fuel of the food cannot be burned, becomes clumsy in action and tends to take on weight in spite of careful dieting.
The endocrine glands constitute an interlocking system, and anything affecting the secreting of hormones by one gland in some measure affects all the other glands, and the thyroid is thus especially sensitive to the action of the hormones of the other glands, as might be expected from the fact that the aspects of any planet to the Sun are so significant in affecting the vitality. And, as its responsiveness to Venus would suggest, the thyroid is also sensitive to the slightest change in the emotions.
After all, the amount of energy needed at a particular time, and the amount of heart (Sun) action are indicated by the emotions (Venus). Some emotions slow down the bodily activity, some accelerate it, some give it harmonious tone and some place it in a condition to meet disagreeable situations. Invasion of the body by bacteria or viruses and the disposition of their products is also a problem to be met. And it is common knowledge that when the vitality is high there is little danger of infection. Thyroxin from the thyroid glands is an antidote to toxins and poisons, and resists infection of any kind.
Fuel combustion and vitality are closely related. It is not strange, therefore, that the gland which regulates the speed of fuel consumption should respond with facility to the planet ruling the most readily available fuel, the carbohydrates (Venus), and to the planet controlling (Sun) and regulating the fuel combustion. This control over the activity of the thyroid gland exercised by the Sun is chiefly carried out by means of one of the hormones of the front pituitary gland.
The Sun and the Front Pituitary Gland
The endocrine system as a whole, including the various hormones of the front pituitary gland, is ruled by the Sun. And of the foods, the vitamins are ruled by the Sun. These chemical substances, some manufactured in the human body, and some taken into the body in the form of food, are minute in quantity, but they exercise profound control over the general chemistry and functions of the human organism.
The Sun is the ruler of the vitality. The thought cells mapped by it in the chart of birth determine the amount of ability the individual has to recover from disease or injury; and the physical agents of such ability are largely the endocrine secretions and the vitamins. To maintain vitality, therefore, when the Sun is heavily afflicted, especial attention should be paid to providing the system with all the vitamins and, through the thoughts and emotions, to keeping proper endocrine balance.
In addition to its general rule over the endocrine glands and the vitamins, however, not only the thyroid gland, but two hormones of the front pituitary gland respond with alacrity to the thought-cell activity mapped by the Sun. And it has now become known that three things in particular are needed in the food if these front pituitary hormones are to be manufactured in normal quantity. One of these is a supply of manganese. Just as there must be sufficient copper and iron for the blood, and sufficient calcium for the parathyroid glands to keep the nerves steady, so it is now found that a deficiency of manganese prevents the proper regulation of fuel by the front pituitary. The table on page indicates the best food sources of this mineral.
The other two known essentials for proper functioning of the front pituitary gland are vitamin A and vitamin B Complex. The fat-soluble pigment called carotene, because it gives the yellow color to carrots, is converted into vitamin A in the liver. Certain fish liver oils contains it in a high state of concentration, and it is abundantly present in dairy products and green leaf vegetables. A table showing the best food sources is given on page of Chapter 10 (Serial Lesson 225). An afflicted Mars or an afflicted Venus, as well as an afflicted Sun, calls for abundant vitamin A.
Vitamin B Complex, which is so essential in the food if the front pituitary gland is to function normally, was the first vitamin to be described and experimentally demonstrated. It was originally called simply vitamin B. Later it was found to be two vitamins, one of which retained the name vitamin B and the other was called vitamin G, using the initial letter of the name of Goldberger, who did considerable work isolating it. Still later the original vitamin B was found to comprise many different vitamins, twelve of which have now been positively identified, with other factors evident which have not as yet been isolated. With the discovery of various vitamins in what was originally called vitamin B, the various components have been renamed. They are discussed in Chapter 6 (Serial Lesson 221).
In 1884 beriberi, which is denoted by swelling, inflammation of the nerves, loss of coordination between the muscles and a gradual paralysis of the limbs, was epidemic in the Japanese Navy. Admiral Takaki had come to the conclusion that this condition was due to the diet of the sailors, which consisted chiefly of rice and other starch foods, and very little protein. By way of experiment, on a nine-month cruise, one training ship of 276 men was given the usual rice diet. One hundred sixty nine came down with beriberi, and of these 25 died.
Then he sent another training ship over the same route with about the same number of men for ten months. On this occasion the rice was reduced and replaced by other types of food. During this trip only fourteen cases of beriberi were evident, and all of these had refused the new diet and continued with rice.
Some twelve years later Dr. Eijkman, a Dutch physician working in Java, observed an epidemic among his fowl which were fed on unused cooked rice. And by experimenting he found that he could induce beriberi in the fowl by a diet of polished rice, but that the disease could be prevented, or cured, by unmilled rice or rice polishings. He concluded that something contained in the brown, or unpolished rice, was absent in the white, or polished rice, and that it was essential to health.
The publication of his observations in 1897 led British and American workers in the Orient to give systematic attention to the nutritional aspect of beriberi; but it was not until after the turn of the century that the anneuritic constituent of foods, the absence of which gave rise to beriberi, was shown to be an organic substance more stable in acid than in alkaline solution, and was named vitamin B. Now that vitamin B has been divided into various constituents it has been found that beriberi is primarily due to an insufficient supply of thiamine, which is also called vitamin B-1. A table showing the best food sources of vitamin B-1 is given in Chapter 7 (Serial Lesson 222). A table giving the best food sources of riboflavin, which is also called vitamin ES-2, and used to be called vitamin G, is given on page . As the other factors of vitamin B Complex are so commonly associated with these two B vitamins, there is little likelihood that the person who includes vitamin B-1 and vitamin B-2 abundantly in his diet will lack in any of the other factors of the vitamin B Complex.
Use More Harmonious Thoughts of Vitality and Power to Recondition Discordant Sun Thought-Cell Activity
To facilitate the healthful work of the Sun thought cells when the Sun is afflicted, the diet should contain iodine, manganese, vitamin B Complex and vitamin A. But these foods can only supply the materials which make the work easy; of themselves they cannot do the work. And if the Sun thought-cell activity remains sufficiently discordant, the vitality will be lowered in spite of any foods which may be eaten. What happens in the body is not due to influences from but one plane, but from two. And to maintain vitality and health when the Sun is afflicted, particularly while there is a heavy progressed affliction involving it, requires that the thought cells it maps be given a more normal and harmonious activity.
It is not considered that the Power thoughts ruled by the Sun have, or need, any antidote. They combine readily with other thought elements. The compound so formed is beneficial or detrimental, not so much due to the other thought element entering into it as due to the harmony or discord accompanying the combination.
There cannot be too much of the Power thought elements in the soul; and a great deal of failure and lack of vitality in the lives of most people is due not so much to the discord in these thought cells mapped by the Sun as to their lack of energy Thoughts, efforts and other experiences relating to significance have been too few and lacking in intensity in the soul’s past to build up these thought cells and enable them to have activity enough for outstanding accomplishment.
Nevertheless, with such energy as they possess, these thought cells when given a new supply of discordant energy by a progressed affliction involving the Sun tend to upset the health and lower the vitality through their action on the thyroid and front pituitary glands. What they need is reconditioning through which the same thought elements are reorganized into a harmonious combination.
Either undue pride or shame should be perceived as the useless thing it is, inferiority complexes and superiority complexes should be dissolved in the knowledge that the individual is important in the cosmic scheme of things, neither more nor less so than others, and that he is warranted in a feeling of self-satisfaction whenever he does his best, be that little or much.
Joy should be cultivated in attaining significance through efforts that benefit others. Almost any person can find something to do which will secure the esteem of others, or at least, through benefiting others will heighten his own opinion of himself. Working to unselfish ends with joy in the accomplishment adds harmonious thought elements to the thought cells mapped by the Sun in such a manner that they tend to recondition these thought cells so that their activities are harmonious. Harmonious Sun thought cells, to the extent they have proper foods with which to work, give healthful activity to the thyroid and front pituitary glands and otherwise contribute to the vitality.
Pluto and Adrenal Cortex Activity
Pluto is a planet of opposites. It may be either as negative as the Moon or as positive as Mars. Its thought cells in the soul find ready response from four different endocrine glands, and hence the foods when Pluto is afflicted should be numerous enough to give these glands the materials in abundance which they must have if they are to keep in good working order.
The secretion of the pineal gland, which also responds with alacrity to the Neptune thought cells, together with parathyrin, induces a negative sensitiveness. This negative sensitiveness greatly facilitates Feeling Extrasensory Perception. The pineal secretion also depressed the manufacture of, and tends to neutralize, both cortin and adrenaline, the chief chemicals (thyroxin also in less degree does this) with which the body fights invasion and makes harmless the toxins left in the blood by invading organisms. Pineal secretion, while it has a useful function, makes the body more susceptible to infection and poisoning.
When under the activity of the Pluto thought cells the pineal secretion and the parathyroid secretion are more powerful than the front pituitary hormone ruled by Pluto, and cortin, which Pluto influences, the resulting condition is very similar to that produced by Neptune. And if the aspect giving rise to the Pluto thought-cell activity is discordant, the health suffers much as it would under an affliction involving Neptune.
On the other hand, if the cortin supply, due to its stimulation by Pluto, and the hormone of the front pituitary gland which responds to Pluto, are more powerful than the pineal hormone released, the electromagnetic condition produced is positive, and the extrasensory perception which is readily developed is of the inner-plane Intellectual type. And under these conditions—the balance seemingly being determined by the Pluto front pituitary hormone—if the aspect giving rise to the Pluto thought-cell activity is discordant, the health suffers more in the manner it would if under a Mars affliction.
As Scorpio rules the lower part of the kidneys, as well as the sexual organs, the kidneys may be affected by an aspect involving Pluto, as well as by an aspect involving Venus or Mars. And this Scorpio affinity is still further manifested by the power of the front pituitary hormone which responds to Pluto to stimulate the gonad glands, which respond more directly to the thought-cell activity of Venus or Mars.
The negativeness induced by afflictions involving Pluto, in addition to producing a feeling of sensitiveness similar to that influenced by Neptune, tends also to the purely mediumistic type which is associated with the Moon. And those who become controlled by some inner-plane entity against their wills, in contrast to those who sit for development and seek a controlling guide, seem always to have this Pluto type of negativeness which invites coercion.
While even in its positive expression Pluto when discordant can do much damage, one of the things that should be sought under an affliction of Pluto is to prevent a development of negativeness. As the parathyroid glands are influenced by Pluto thought-cell activity, calcium and vitamin D with which to handle it, are requisites. And to enable the front pituitary hormone which responds to it, and which stimulates cortin and the gonads, to be secreted in ample amounts, it is as essential that the food contain vitamin B Complex as if there were a progressed affliction involving the Sun. A table showing the best food sources of vitamin B-1 is given in Chapter 7 (Serial Lesson 222). And on page of this chapter is given a table of the best food sources of vitamin B-2.
For the adrenal cortex to perform its function normally it must be provided with those substances which are also required when Mars is afflicted; for cortin, the hormone which must be depended upon to keep positive when Pluto is afflicted, while it responds to Pluto, is more directly under the influence of Mars. These foods are low protein and variety of protein; iron, vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin B-1.
A table giving the best sources of iron is given on page of Chapter 10 (Serial Lesson 225), a table giving the best sources of vitamin A is given on page of Chapter 10, and a table showing the best sources of vitamin C is given on page of Chapter 9 (Serial Lesson 224).
Use Harmonious Mars Thoughts to Neutralize Discordant Pluto Thought-Cell Activity
On its positive side Pluto in many respects resembles Mars, and if this positive energy can be evoked and made to express harmoniously it is constructive and cooperative, and may be made highly spiritual. Yet Pluto also has many qualities resembling the Moon. And the best thought antidote for discordant Pluto thought-cell activity is the same as that for discordant Moon thought cells.
To add these Mars thought elements to the thought cells mapped by Pluto, not only should pleasure be cultivated in keeping positive and aggressive in the interest of Universal Welfare, but activities should be deliberately undertaken which call for initiative, courage and even combat, to defend the rights of people, to relieve oppression, and to further the cause of universal progress.
These activities should not be permitted to cause feelings of discord. They should be cultivated in a spirit of joy in being helpful. The thoughts thus added to the Pluto thought cells will cause these cells to conduct their activities more positively and more harmoniously. They will, if proper foods are provided, cause ample secretion of cortin to prevent negativeness, and normal secretions by the parathyroid glands, the front pituitary which responds to Pluto, and the pineal gland. And should the individual so desire, they will assist in generating those highest-frequency electromagnetic radiations of the nervous system which enable him to extend his consciousness on the inner plane.
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