In every ancient culture, the head held a special place of meaning. It has always been imagined as the place were something important resides. In the modern world, we imagine our Minds to be located in the head. For the ancient Greeks, it was the Psyche, or Soul, that lived in the head. For the Romans, it was the Genius (which is where we get our word genius). In ancient cultures all over the world, the head is the place of a deeply important part of who we are.
In the Timaeus, Plato says the rest of the body was formed in order to allow our heads to have the ability to move around in the world. To Plato, the head was a model of the cosmos, the perfect shape: a sphere, in which was housed the microcosm, or the little model of the universe that lives within each of us. No matter how you look at it, the head is an important part of the body.
In the ancient way of imagining the body, the head had a mind of its own. A sneeze was the head nodding "yes." The head could say "yes" for us even if we didn't want to say "yes." In some cultures it was even a binding oath if one were to sneeze during a transaction. It meant that one's soul was saying "yes," which carried more weight than anything else. One's head didn't lie.
Blushing was interpreted similarly. Blushing is something that we can't control. The head decides whether it will blush or not. The head betrays our emotions despite us. The word migraine comes to us through French from the ancient Greek meaning half a skull. A migraine headache was imagined as a splitting of one's head. Half one's soul was going one way, and half the other way.
All of this should give us a few more ways to imagine what might be happening when we have headaches or head pain. Any ancient person, and any ancient medical practitioner, would instantly recognize a headache as being connected to something deep inside the person. A headache was a message from one's soul. What that message might be is about as easy to decipher as one's dreams, but just recognizing that there may be more to a headache than the amorphous idea of "stress," or constriction of the arteries, or tension from neck muscles, or a joint dysfunction, can provide some meaning to a headache. Re-imagining pain so that it carries some meaning can go a long way toward alleviating the pain.
This month, spend three minutes each day gently massaging your scalp. When doing so, imagine that you are paying honor to your Genius, which the Romans imagined much as we might imagine a Guardian Angel, a power that walks with us through life and puts us on the right path. And when you find yourself talking about something important to you, do what the Romans did: touch your forehead in honor of your Genius. Or do what the ancient Greeks did: touch your chin in honor of your Psyche. Perhaps by honoring your head in this way, you may find that it has less reason to haunt you with headaches.
Postscript: I know how crazy this all sounds, but reflect for a moment that anyone not born in the modern world would think we moderns to be nuts for not recognizing the importance of the head in one's life, and everyone in their culture would recognize that the plague of headaches in our society is caused by the fact that we don't honor our Geniuses, or Psyches, or Souls, or whatever you want to call it. We may mock ancient ideas, but they would mock us for not knowing such basic things. From an historical perspective, we're the weird ones for thinking the ideas in this essay are weird.
In the Timaeus, Plato says the rest of the body was formed in order to allow our heads to have the ability to move around in the world. To Plato, the head was a model of the cosmos, the perfect shape: a sphere, in which was housed the microcosm, or the little model of the universe that lives within each of us. No matter how you look at it, the head is an important part of the body.
In the ancient way of imagining the body, the head had a mind of its own. A sneeze was the head nodding "yes." The head could say "yes" for us even if we didn't want to say "yes." In some cultures it was even a binding oath if one were to sneeze during a transaction. It meant that one's soul was saying "yes," which carried more weight than anything else. One's head didn't lie.
Blushing was interpreted similarly. Blushing is something that we can't control. The head decides whether it will blush or not. The head betrays our emotions despite us. The word migraine comes to us through French from the ancient Greek meaning half a skull. A migraine headache was imagined as a splitting of one's head. Half one's soul was going one way, and half the other way.
All of this should give us a few more ways to imagine what might be happening when we have headaches or head pain. Any ancient person, and any ancient medical practitioner, would instantly recognize a headache as being connected to something deep inside the person. A headache was a message from one's soul. What that message might be is about as easy to decipher as one's dreams, but just recognizing that there may be more to a headache than the amorphous idea of "stress," or constriction of the arteries, or tension from neck muscles, or a joint dysfunction, can provide some meaning to a headache. Re-imagining pain so that it carries some meaning can go a long way toward alleviating the pain.
This month, spend three minutes each day gently massaging your scalp. When doing so, imagine that you are paying honor to your Genius, which the Romans imagined much as we might imagine a Guardian Angel, a power that walks with us through life and puts us on the right path. And when you find yourself talking about something important to you, do what the Romans did: touch your forehead in honor of your Genius. Or do what the ancient Greeks did: touch your chin in honor of your Psyche. Perhaps by honoring your head in this way, you may find that it has less reason to haunt you with headaches.
Postscript: I know how crazy this all sounds, but reflect for a moment that anyone not born in the modern world would think we moderns to be nuts for not recognizing the importance of the head in one's life, and everyone in their culture would recognize that the plague of headaches in our society is caused by the fact that we don't honor our Geniuses, or Psyches, or Souls, or whatever you want to call it. We may mock ancient ideas, but they would mock us for not knowing such basic things. From an historical perspective, we're the weird ones for thinking the ideas in this essay are weird.
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