Symbolically, this shows that we are reaching up first with our thinking nature, because our awakening generally starts when we discover some great idea.

Movement 4
Ascending/Climbing

After we have opened to giving and it has really taken root in us, the joy of life really begins to bubble up within us. Life is too exciting and adventurous to stop at this point. We want to go further. So we develop discipline and begin to ascend the heights, because we want to make progress, to ascend.

When a mountaineer is climbing a steep ascent, his body, when he is really exerting himself, is inclined at an angle which is exactly half-way between the 45° angle and the vertical angle of 90°. That half-way point (between 45° and 90°) is 67½°. When a mountaineer is climbing a steep mountain, his body will be at this angle.

Research has been done on the angles of the body and how they express in different levels of activity. It was discovered that this angle of 67½° is exactly the angle at which the maximum energizing and awakening can take place in the human body. So in this movement, Ascending, we reach our arms up at an angle of 67½°. At first it may seem slightly awkward as a movement, because we are moving the right arm and right leg simultaneously, but we soon get into it. Symbolically, this shows that we are reaching up first with our thinking nature, because our awakening generally starts when we discover some great idea. Our thinking nature is stimulated, and we reach up after more. Then our feeling nature, our heart, wants to follow. In this way our Ascending progresses alternately with the right and left side of our being.

As always, the arms move in rhythm with the feet. The right arm swings forward and the hand reaches up as the right foot steps forward, and simultaneously the left arm swings down and slightly back, the left hand stretching down to the earth, palm facing back. This movement of the upper and lower limbs of the same side of the body together induces a stretching of each side of the body alternately, stimulating each side of the brain in turn. (They could be likened to sideways stretches in Hatha Yoga, except that, because they are done in a repetitive rhythm, we are hardly aware of the stretching effect.)

The effect of this dance is exhilarating, producing energy, vitality, and joy of body, mind, and soul.

Continued in Movement 5: Elevation/Soaring