It’s been an interesting few weeks experiencing death, saying goodbye to my grandma, and the excitement of new life springing up all around me. Part 1 – Death, you can read further down the page. But now we have arrived at Part 2 – Life, and where better to start than conception.
All humans carry something inside of them that is essentially immortal, passed on from generation to generation, from the past and into the future. No, you say? We definitely do die, this thing we experience as life is not forever and can pass in a fleeting moment. Our bodies age and deteriorate throughout life, cells constantly face annihilation, we experience death and the cycle of life billions of times a day!
Human life begins when one single sperm cell out of MILLIONS penetrates and fertilises a single ovum. This is a perfect example of Yin over Yang, it takes millions of sperm to fertilise one egg… That single egg is essential for conception but over 99.99% of the sperm cells are entirely expendable. In a microcosm of the ‘law of the jungle’, only the fittest sperm cell wins the race to fertilise the egg, while all of the others live and die in vain.
The meeting of sperm and ovum sparks the energy of life and springs it into action by establishing the polarity of Yin and Yang energies within the new fertilised cell, which is now called a ‘zygote’. This polarity of energy within the zygote is what triggers cellular division.
The fertilised cell divides from 1 to form 2, and the 2 divides to form 4 identical cells. At this point a crucial parting of the ways occurs among the 4 fundamental cells of the little egg (zygote). 3 branch off and start multiplying very rapidly to form specific tissues. One gives birth to the body’s skin and nervous system (ectoderm). One develops the skeleton, muscles and circulatory system (mesoderm). The third cell forms the vital organs and the glands (endoderm).
But what about the forth cell? Basically it goes into hibernation, reproducing itself very slowly and identically. This single little magical cell stores the entire genetic code of the organism for transferral to future generations. When the body’s limbs and organs are fully formed and mature, the descendants of this forth cell wake up and activate the process of puberty, forming the secondary sexual characteristics of male and female. While the trillions of cells of the first three cells of the zygote are inevitably destined for annihilation in death throughout our life, a few descendants of the forth cell – the sexual cell – escape ultimate extinction by contributing sperm or ovum to a new zygote during sexual intercourse. In a very real sense, this forth cell achieves a sort of immortality by perpetually passing itself from generation to generation through sexual reproduction.
This is one reason in Oriental philosophies that the sex cells are regarded as sacred. In Western civilisation, the sacred nature of sex was once similarly acknowledged by the name given to the region of the body that governs sexual reproduction, the sacrum… isn’t that fucking amazing?? We carry around these little immortality cells in us that will live on forever and ever as long as we procreate and do it.
So here is to life, death, love, mortality and immortality. All parts to this amazing thing that we are graced to have an awareness of – being a human for a blip in the radar of infinity.
Here is also to menstrual cycles, because without them, life would not exist!
“Life is eternal. You are immortal. You never do die. You simply change form” – Neale Donald Walsch
(Some info adapted from The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity by Daniel Reid)
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