Let us take a hands-on exercise today in language mysticism. What, from Spirit’s point of view, is the F? WTF?
Pronounce the sound of the letter F — /f/, the voiceless labiodental fricative consonant — and feel the position of your body.
Feel into the rising jaw, the tightening front of the mouth, the friction of your upper teeth against your inner lower lip.
Feel into the turbulence of air pushed through your throat through your mouth.
Feel into the lack of vibration in your vocal chords (you may need to switch to pronouncing a V to become aware of their stillness.
Feel into the lack of vibration in your nasal cavity (you may need to pronounce a /?/ — as in the first syllable of the Spanish word influencia to become aware of the difference).
Experience the letter F with beginner’s mind. Feel what is happening, be the air pushed through the mouth.
Feel it all, be the sound waves spraying warmth into the cooler air outside.
Wheel of Spirit, "Fire." (Compare to "Fire" in the I Ching)
Is not the sound /f/ the energy of Yang, the energy of beginnings and frontness, pronounced as it is at the opening of the mouth? It is, I think, of the essence of Yang.
Is not /f/ also the energy of Yin, the energy of bringing together the teeth and lips slightly into the inner of the mouth, but not so far forward in the mouth as the labial consonants such as /b/ and /p/ Is not /f/ also inherently about connection, bringing the tongue, lip, and teeth together in harmony to produce a noise? Is it not like rubbing two sticks together to produce Fire?
Yes, F is Yang, but it is also Yin.
It is, I think, more Yang than Yin, when one considers the properties of the other consonants, and looks at the location of the speech organs relative to the entire mouth. That is, when you picture the mouth as a giant Sounding Cave of Spirit, the throat is in the direction of the back and center and the lips are at the outside edge and front.
If F is of a Yang essence and a Yin direction, can we not also add that /f/ may also be described as being in a Yang diposition? Along with /v/, /f/ is the only other common sound in English which is labio-dental, a mode of speech which takes the lips and teeth into war.
To summarize, we may say that:
- /f/ is of a Yang essence
- /f/ is of a Yin direction, and
- /f/ is of a Yang disposition.
Of course, this isn’t the only way of describing the subtle energetics of the letter F. But at the least it is a reasonable and plausible model, I think.
By analogy, you might say that F is like how you start to tell a Fable to a child: you speak out loud, but in a kind way to a younger person, and with an intent to instruct.
By analogy, you might say that F is like how you start to have Faith: you reach out beyond yourself, transcending your limits; you reach out in a hostile, doubting way, but one which embraces; and you begin with a prideful, arrogant, stance. With faith there are always two things in tension (friction) with each other: the belief and the doubt.
By analogy, you might say that F is like how you end up, after many difficult trials, at last Safe: you have penetrated stillness into a new state, finding comfort and calm, and ultimately feeling capable of action. Although capable of action, your vocal chords and your nasal cavities are at rest, so you are still a bit excited but overall returning to a solid place.
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