8. Body Feeling
This eighth sector of the Wheel is Body Feeling. In the language of the Wheel Body means physical; solid; matter; mass; space; particle; cerebellum, brain stem, reptilian brain; conditioned learning. Feeling means love; emotions; affects; drives; fun; intensity; enthusiasm; exhilaration; moods; imagination; force; power; passion; sentiment; strength; laughter; joy; humor; playfulness; right brain; metabolism; impulses; and dreams.
In the body this part of the Wheel corresponds to the Sex Organs, Buttocks and Muscles. In our personal life it pertains to Death and Detachment, and in civilization to Business and the Military. In the ancient wisdom traditions of the West, and in the Zodiac, it is symbolized by Scorpio, the Scorpion.
In grammarical categories it pertains to the Pronoun which has seven parts:
- Demonstrative
- Determinative
- Indeterminative
- Relative
- Possessive
- Personal
- Question: Who or What?
This eighth sector of the Wheel contains position 7 on the Enneagram. The archetypal symbol or myth for this drive/ impulse is Mars. It is initiative, the visceral drive to get up and go, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the fighting spirit. The complementary impulse is the second sector of the Wheel, Body Sensing and Venus, to complete something by creativity, the finishing touches of creative embellishment.
In life this is the age span of from 49 to 56 years. This time of life is primarily concerned with "opening oneself to opportunities and transforming possessions into energy." At this stage of life social initiative now becomes the primary preoccupation, and other attachments and physical and economic dependencies are eliminated as dead weight.
In geography this sector of the Wheel corresponds to the one twelfth of the Earth from 110 to 80 degrees longitude West. This includes Middle America including Florida, Mexico, Central America. Death, effort, and the wonder of existence are the starting points for this area of the globe. Here it is important to accept dreams as a gate, like the Mexican infatuation with Quetzocotal, the feathered serpent, or like the northern Native American tradition of opening a new and unexpected reality, as shown by Castenada's Don Juan. The ideal for cultures grown in this sector of the globe is beauty (Body Sensing).