The Symbolism of the Foot by Daniel Meurois
The study of our feet can nourish our reflection on this subject because it also highlights the extraordinary vibrational architecture which links the human being to the Invisible.
What appears, as soon as we turn in this direction, is that we approach the feet in two rather contradictory ways due to the beings of duality that we are. Indeed, either we see them as one of the most humble parts of our body—the one which reflects our smallness, and which is low to the ground in all senses of the word—or we perceive them as the witness zone of the beauty of incarnation. In this last context, the feet then become the noble earth socket of the Spirit which takes shape for the redemption to manifest.
Petrified by the Judeo-Christian culture, our West often clings to the first vision of things. The conflictual relationship that the Western world maintains with Spirit and Matter between the "Top" and the "Bottom" makes it despise the human body as something only to be in contact with the earth.
A few classic expressions reflect the haughty look that we put on our feet.
When we want to "degrade" someone in a professional environment, we say that we “shake the dust off his feet.” Of a person who humbles herself by lowering in front of another, we say that she is “licking his feet” or that she is “at his boot.” We could multiply the idioms of this style which give the feet a negative connotation while also implying the fact that they are there to crush, to kick, and to express contempt. What about “starting off on the wrong foot,” or “to put your foot in your mouth?” These expressions are confirming the depreciative aspect of our culture towards this part of our body. There are also expressions which would like to be more "happy" or "validating," like “to put your feet up.” But then we go in a direction that leads us to the fetishistic aspect of the question. This is not what interests us here but additionally confirms that the foot is never insignificant.
Above all these general considerations, and to return to Judeo-Christianism from which we began our reflection, there is the famous washing of the feet offered to Christ by his disciples before the Last Supper. This is a gesture we have kept as a teaching of an ultimate humility and a starter of Consciousness—a gesture which also leads us to the second glance, a somewhat different viewpoint of the human feet.
As we know, the washing of the feet was classic in many ancient civilizations. We always washed our feet before entering a temple, and we could also honor a guest by washing their feet when welcoming them into our home. In Judaism, for example, a ceremony of the washing of the feet—later called "podonipsiae" throughout Christianity—is celebrated in September. However, when a planned Jewish marriage is announced, the washing of the feet is in the spring. In such a context, the one who washes the feet honors the other. He cleanses him of "something" heavy or suffering, he thus offers him the "service of the heart" to ease his walk—hence the symbol of the "remission of sins" which the famous gesture of Christ immortalizes for Christians. The humility conveyed by the feet generates an ennobling force for the soul. Thus, whoever considers his relationship to the earth, can be found “in a leading foot” of his own metamorphosis, by understanding that the part of himself, which is covered with dust, and which can sometimes walk among the rubbish, can and should play the role of a propellant for his consciousness. The horizontal nature of his feet can therefore solicit an internal questioning of the rest of his vertical being. Therefore, in the Western Initiation Tradition, the feet refer to the zodiac sign of Pisces, a double sign, just like the Cross. Let us recall if we repute Above to call Below, and reciprocal. Knowing the nadis of the feet can help us better understand this sacred relationship, similar to the meridians of Chinese acupuncture. By exploring this area at all, one realizes the feet maintain close connections with the entire body.
Therefore, touching the soles of the feet can be equivalent to intervening on specific areas of the organism or on some of its functions, and many therapists experience it through behavioral reflexes, emotions, or even " spaces "of consciousness.
In this area, we understand a lot of things better in relation to the energetic knowledge of the human body and its psyche. For example, through the analysis of the aura or other studies, we know that the big toe connects to the laryngeal chakra (fifth chakra) and to the expression of the embodied personality. We also know that its neighbor, the second toe, has a relationship with digestion, with the cardiac chakra (fourth chakra), and that it "speaks" of ambition. We have also observed the connection between the third toe, the solar chakra (third chakra), and creative capacity and feelings of aggressiveness. As for the fourth toe, it refers us to the hepatic function and the notion of attachment, while the fifth is in relation to the elimination of liquids, fears, and ancestral memories. This is just an overview, as the field of investigation is vast.
On the Asian side, the Buddhist Tradition is very enlightening. There are countless representations of the soles of the Buddha's feet, most of the time loaded with many symbols such as squares, wheels, flowers, and interlacing. They affirm that the complete imprint of his foot, which appears engraved in the rock of certain sacred places, serves to translate the impact of his teaching in the world.
As we now look at Hinduism, we discover the foot as the point of contact of a "divine missioner” with Planet Earth. The feet of the spiritual guide—of the guru in the noble sense of the term—are still the object of ritual cleansing and flower ornaments today. We perceive the soles of his feet as sacred since it celebrates the marriage of Earth and Heaven. For example, the reason for tracing signs loaded with meaning under the feet of the goddess Lakshmi during the feast of the Indian New Year—Divali—is to ask for abundance and good fortune.
Muslims themselves, who did not accept any representation of the Prophet, also attach some importance to the feet. There are, in fact, at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, two footprints believed to have been those of Muhammad.
THE SEAL OF THE FOOT
In a good number of cultures, the imprint of the feet—this sort of seal that our Western Tradition calls "vestigium pedis"—thus ends up taking the value, or being the reminder, of a divine sowing proposed to the Earth. If we turn again to the Christian side, we see that the city of Milan flatters itself to have a stone imprint of Christ’s foot, while in Rome we can meditate in front of two foot imprints, also attributed to Christ at the entrance to the Church of Santa Maria in Palmis—the place of the famous vision of the apostle Peter asking, "Quo Vadis Domine?". Meanwhile, in northern Egypt, the Copts show a footprint attributed to Jesus as a child, during his stay in the land of the pharaohs. It is also impossible to ignore the famous tomb of Roza Bal, near to Srinagar, in Kashmir. This tomb, which certain oral traditions and the Akashic Records say to be that of Jesus, also shows in the stone a double imprint of feet on which we can distinguish scars which make one think of crucifixion marks. So, wherever we look, the feet seem to occupy as important a place as the hands in the deep collective culture of our humanity. They mix the human with the Divine and vice versa, then speak to us of the incarnation, not only as a "space" of hardships to go through, but as that of a proposal for interior resurrection.
Our Greco-Latin heritage itself points this out to us through the injured foot of Oedipus, the fragile Achilles heel, or even with the limp of Hephaistos—so ugly that he was thrown from the heights of the Olympus. This heritage depicts, in its own way, the drama of our earthly humanity at odds with its divine origin. Even our symbolic ancestor, Eve, is stung in her heel by the Serpent of Separation. In this archetypal context, Hermes reminds us of the point of reconciliation represented by the feet—he whose winged ankles roam the Heavens—but let's stop a reflection that could never end.
©Daniel Meurois
