Tristan Yoder

Professor Hoffmann

Honors 2109

1 Feb. 2018

The Spirit Cycle

Dawn breaks. Sunlight falls on emerald verdure. Reeds, lilies, elders, nettles, rushes,

cattails, willows all drink in the nectar pouring from the inundate fountain peering over horizon.

Within each cell of every plant infinite cosmos are catalyzed, then in a blink of an eye,

reconstructed in a new image. Mice, ants, rabbits, grasshoppers join in communion to indulge in

transformed ambrosia. Now in each cell of every consumer the trapped light is set free and

transferred from one host into the next. Birds, canines, felines recognize that their opportunity to

receive has come. The borrowed lifeforce undergoes another conversion. The light within the

prey is extinguished in order to rekindle the fire within the predator. But—in time, all flames run

their course. By the hand of earthly agents even light that graces the peaks of mountains cascades

to its base. In the same spirit, the energy lent to the fiercest predators is returned to the most

innocuous blades of grass. It is exchanged, cycled as ecological currency. It governs interactions

between life. It motivates behavior of the conscious and unconscious mind. For, without energy,

all of nature would cease.

A model that illustrates an invisible force driving the interactions of a massive,

interconnected network is motif in the narrative of our universe. It is especially prevalent in the

chapter granted to Earth. Both inorganic and organic substances alike move through cycles

propelled by energy. These interactions occur on a concrete plane. One where movement is
empirical and quantifiable. Perhaps the same concept can be applied to abstract planes, where

observational data is obsolete and qualitative emotions offer the most insight. Is there a form of

emotional currency that drives human interaction? Is there a spiritual force establishing a cyclical

interconnectedness between all people?

To explore this idea, I mediated on human connection. I looked for what binds two

individuals together on a spiritual plane. I was immediately taken to memories of my chosen

family, my friends. I concluded that friendship pervades all the strongest and most intimate

bonds in my life. The conscious decision to label someone as a comrade in life must reflect a

type of spiritual symbiosis. This sentiment is even expressed in the first century of common era

by German saint Aurelius Ambrosius: “Your friend is the companion of your soul to whose spirit

you join and attach yours, and so associate yourself with that you wish to become one instead of

two” (qtd. in Zeikowitz 33). Across nearly 2,000 years of history, nothing has altered this type of

connection. If the dynamic and significance of friendship has not been altered it can be assumed

that the underlying motivational force has remained unchanged as well. Conceivably, the force

exchanged between Ambrosius and his friends is the very same flowing through me and my

friends.

Entertaining the notion that the spiritual force is cycled similarly to matter, this spirit

matter is bound by the same laws. It is neither created nor destroyed. Instead it is simply altered

in form. Roman lawyer Marcus Tullius Cicero describes the phenomena: “friendship springs

rather from nature than from need, and from a feeling of love rather than from calculations of

how much profit the friendship can afford” (qtd. in Zeikowitz 29). He notes that sentiments of

friendship arise from natural order. Friendship sprouts from kindred love. It is not fashioned out

of nothing. Instead it seemingly flows, transformed from one individual into the next. Perhaps
this unquantifiable sensation is a result of exchanged spiritual currency. Could it possibly be the

cycling of an unseen energy that is responsible for the development of such special, sacred

bonds?

On a physical plane, when energy is passed from one organism to the next, it strengthens

the recipient. Similarly, on a spiritual plane in the proposed model, the beneficiary of the cycle is

empowered. Emotional and spiritual strength is shared from one host into another. Again, Cicero

illustrates this concept: “virtue cannot attain her highest aims unattended, but only in union and

fellowship with another…such a partnership as this should be considered the best and happiest

comradeship along the road to nature’s highest good” (qtd. in Zeikwoitz 30). He describes the

blatant necessity of friendship. Just as plants require sunlight to perform photosynthesis and

animals need nutrients for respiration, humans require something abstract in order to prosper

spiritually and emotionally. This something is passed continually from one individual to another,

reinvigorating each recipient as it cycles. For this, “love causes a rough and uncouth man to be

distinguished for his handsomeness; it can endow a man even of the humblest birth with nobility

of character; it blesses the proud with humility; and the man in love becomes accustomed to

performing man y great services gracefully for everyone” (Capellanus 31). It revives an internal

battery that increases ones’ spiritual health. People may be reliant on each other to sustain their

performance on the spiritual plane, just like cells are dependent on the nutrient cycling for

respiration. In order to function at the highest caliber, people require spiritual stimulation from

each other. Potentially without such a cycling of spiritual energy, most would not be able to

attain spiritual satiation.

Complementary to spiritual currency’s benefits are the observable detriments of its

absence. If the model of a spiritual energy cycle is plausible then humans will be adversely
affected by a lack of the aforementioned energy. Perhaps loneliness presents a glimpse at the

damage caused by spiritual deprivation. Loneliness can be described as, “the exceedingly

unpleasant and driving experience connected to the inadequate discharge of human intimacy.” It

seems to symptom associated with, “the absence of some particular needed relationship (as well

as what the relationship provides)” (Brown 9). An individual suffers without the spiritual

nourishment provided by the cycling of energy driven by human interactions. A plant wilts

without the energy passed from the sunlight. An animal fatigues and withers into death without

the sustenance of energy cycled up through trophic levels. Similarly, people suffer and

experience great pain when their spiritual needs are not met. Reasonably within the proposed

paradigm, a lack of spiritual energy causes an individual’s spirit distress.

The loopy, circular, cycling nature of the whole world propels my theoretical model even

further into reason. Essentially every known system functions as a cycle. All abiotic systems that

are crucial to species survival work in circles: the sulfur cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the carbon

cycle, phosphorous cycle, the water cycle. Even the biotic realm of trophic web cycles energy

between producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumer and

decomposers. In a “living systems” model biologist Humberto Maturano asserts that, “all living

systems are circularly organized and can be considered closed and autonomous.” It is also

important to note that, “closed does not mean static or unchanging,” rather they still possess

qualities of, “plasticity or malleability” (Brown 20). Maturano expands his theory:

The relationship between a structurally determined system and its environment has been

called structural coupling. This is the building block of all human and animal

interactional systems. Structural coupling is synonymous with existence or “knowing how

to exist,” and comes from the fit of living systems with each other and with the
 environment. As long as a structurally plastic system survives, it will automatically be

become coupled to its environment. If an environment consists of other structurally

plastic living systems, these systems will become richly coupled together (Brown 20).

His explanation supports the possibility of a spiritual plane in which an unidentified energy is

cycled through the organisms with empathetic capacities. Human social interactional systems are

directly tied to their environment. Consequently, social systems are linked to essentially every

other system with longevity. Observing direct parallels between historic emotional bonds and

present-day emotional bonds, it is rational to assume that there is a relatively plastic system

controlling their prevalence. Therefore, if both interactional systems exist they are deeply

intertwined. A spiritual plane responsible for cycling its type of currency may be irreversibly

connected to the physical plane, where humans engage in day-to-day, mundane activities.

Perhaps it is even more than merely connected to our physical plane. Maybe it motivates

and provides purpose for everyday existence. Aelred, abbot of Rievaulx, shares a similar

sentiment as myself: “It is in fact a great consolation in this life to have someone whom you can

be united in the intimate embrace of the most sacred love…who weeps with you in sorrow,

rejoices with you in joy, and wonders with you in doubt…with whom you can rest just the two of

you, in the sleep of piece away from the noise of the world, in the embrace of love, in the kiss of

unity, with the sweetness of the Holy Spirit flowing over you; to whom you so join and unite

yourself that you mix soul with soul, and the two become one” (qtd. in Zeikowitz 42). Our world

is built of systems. It cycles energy through one host and into the next. It sparks new life and

uplifts the old. It wonders and shocks our empirical senses. The beauty and mystique of the

physical world are refreshed and maintained through the miracle of interaction. Quite possibly,

the spiritual and abstract wonders of the world are held in balance by the very same principle.
 Works Cited

Brown, Philip M. Death of Intimacy: Barriers to Meaningful Interpersonal Relationships. Diane

Pub Co, 1995.

Capellanus, Andreas, and John Jay Parry. The Art of Courtly Love. Columbia University Press,
1990.

Zeikowitz, R, et al. Homoeroticism and Chivalry: Discourses of Male Same-Sex Desire in the
14th Century. Palgrave, Macmillan, 30 May 2003.