Birth of Osteopathy
In preparation for the anniversary of the birth of osteopathy, June 22, 1874, I wanted to write a word of gratitude for this exceptional being who is the founder of osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still.
Since I entered the world of osteopathy in 1997, I have always had this aspiration to understand more deeply the functioning of being not only in its physical reality but also emotional, mental and spiritual.
I had the chance to do most of my training in Canada, in a school particularly sensitive to the osteopathic tradition, the C.E.O. I was able to meet many experienced osteopaths, including Ms. Viola Frymann DO and other contemporary pioneers of osteopathy, such as François Amigues DO
The most unforgettable moment of this journey was the discovery of John Lewis' book, AT Still: From the Dry Bone to the Living Man and the visit to Kirsville, summer 2018. It was on these occasions that I perceived the spiritual breadth of osteopathy and the experience Still had on June 22, 1874.
I am immensely grateful to John Lewis for the unique work he has done working for several years in Kirsville in the Still museum. His book incorporates numerous extracts from unpublished documents, including the "collected papers", original texts by Still which express the depth of Still's thought and philosophy so well.
Being also an astrologer, and having the date of the creation of osteopathy, it became possible to build the astrological chart of osteopathy and understand the energy streams that would participate in the growth of this extraordinary medicine in the world. Astrology is the science that explains the phenomena of materialization of events from the energetic to the physical plane. It is the science that studies the weather of the energies that are necessary for the appearance of phenomena.
I take this moment to give some interesting dates for osteopathy in the world. The past two years have been particularly good times to receive a new spiritual understanding of osteopathy and its true mission. It is also a period, in particular the year 2019 and 2020 which requires confidence and conviction because the circumstances require extraordinary efforts.
May 8, 2018: transit of Uranus on house IX and on native Neptune
May 20, 2019: transit of Uranus on the native North Node, first pass
March 10, 2020: transit of Uranus on the native North Node, second pass
Here are some excerpts from John Lewis' exceptional book to give you some inspiration and investigation:
I was shot in the dome of reason by an arrow charged with the principles of philosophy. Since that eventful day I have sacredly remembered and kept its anniversary… Sometimes withdrawing from the presence of man to meditate upon the event of that day when I saw that the word 'God' signified perfection in all things and in all places. Page 80
“For 20 years or more I was content to be governed by the opinions and customs of older and more experienced physicians, he wrote, I gave the disease it's proper name. I gave the medicine has taught and practiced, but was not satisfied that the line of procedure was philosophically correct. ” Materialism had profound limitations when applied to the living being. Science cannot deal with fundamental questions only philosophy can do this. Science is only a tool or a key, it can unlock only certain material problems. It cannot appraise itself. It is not a judge but a witness. Problems of mind, of character, moral, aesthetic, literary, artistic problems are not its sphere. Page 81
With the iron hand of will I barred the gate of memory, Shut out the past with all its old ideas. My soul took on receptive attitude, my ear was tuned to Nature's Rhythmic harmony ... my spirit where is overwhelmed with the unmeasurable magnitude of the divine plan on which the universe is constructed. Page 83
Echoing Lincoln, who had rallied The American people to “Stand by the flag” in defense of liberty, Still determined to raise his own flag, the “Emblem of truth,“ in defense of nature's work, and to “stand by that flag as long as the life cycle last. “It was this vow that made 22 June 1870 for the“ birthday ”of osteopathy. Page 84
“Listen, Arthur,“ Still concluded enigmatically, “Years ago I was promised no matter how dark conditions seemed to be, and no matter how hard the storms of internal strife or outward opposition seemed to rage, that all the rubbish would be wiped from our pathway as if but chaff, And in the end osteopathy would reign triumphant. ” Page 180
The following year, 1904, The ASO commencement program was organized to mark the thirtieth anniversary of osteopathy's discovery. At the precisely ten in the morning, Tuesday, June 22, Still stepped onto the platform in Memorial Hall garbed in a threadbare suit, high boots and a black alpaca coast worn at the elbows, to address the graduating class immaculately turned out in black gowns and starched white collars. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Students of the ASO," he spoke:
“Thirty years ago today at this hour I got my first idea of Osteopathy. It is proper that we appear at any gathering, be it religious or social or scientific, in appropriate dress. Today you see me in this torn coat. I appear as well dressed today as I did thirty years ago. Thirty years ago today I was in discussion with a brother asking the extent of the laws of God, of which man, a miniature representation of the universe, was the result. Man has matter organized. He has motion. And he has mind to control that work of architecture.
Notwithstanding my poverty I was satisfied with my life. I had been taught to pray, 'That thy angels watch over me while I sleep'. Should I make a mockery of that teaching? I told my brother I believed in angels returned as of old. My brother said, 'None but the wicked return.' I replied, 'Why, if Go dis no respect of persons should the wicked only return?' Just then came a shock as if I was going into paralysis. Whether it was an angel or a devil, I know not, and this language came to me as an impression, “Will you carry our flag if we place it in your hands?” Then I took an obligation: I, AT Still, will stand by that flag as long as life shall last ”. page 301
To a selected few Still revealed his own experience of that memorable June morning. "He pointed out to me the exact spot in which it suddenly came over him what it all meant" Ernest Tucker wrote, "What it was its entirety, this thing that had been coming to him piecemeal and growing up in him by degrees; and he said it was like a terrible blow on the back, a blow that sent him staggering and reeling. His 'spirits' has been revealing to him one item at a time, as is wise for the merely human kind, and by graduated stages, this vast insight into the conditions of human efficiency and disease; but when he all of a sudden saw the completed edifice ('suns and systems of planets ordered and wheeling in space where I never saw a star'). It was overwhelming in its suddenness and power and it affected him like a physical blow. He indeed described it as a blow from the hand of some powerful spirit, ordering him ahead. »Page 304
Addison Brewer added further detail. He wrote of Still's grief over his dead children, his disillusionment with materia medica and of being 'alone in a moody state of mind pondering over this subject' when, "he had the sensation of being struck by a fist between the shoulders. Straightening up he was made aware of the presence of three men from the unseen. They gave their names as Traliape, Trenagore and Lahemphanen. They stated that they were Egyptian philosophers and healers; that they had come to give him a new system of therapeutics. Of he would fight the medical doctors, they would 'clear the drift wood' out of his way. »Page 305
An unsigned 1902 composition typed on ASO notepaper, apparently the record of a session, mentions two of the Egyptian spirits, albeit spelled differently. The piece bears Still's unmistakable style: “On the 22nd day of June 1874, in the city of Eudora, Kansas, at 10 o'clock in the morning, we entrusted you with a commission which you promised to honor and obey. We, as your spirit friends, on ours ide did then and there promise to hold up your arm and guide your head to a victorious charge on all the lines of the then existing medical theories of all schools. At the end of 28 years, we are proud to say that you have faithfully and honestly honored your obligation to us, during those long and wearisome years, and crowed the cause which you championed with a glorious victory in each and every engagement. We wish you to receive our thanks, Abram Still, Lea Hemphanum, Twalaape, and many, many thousands of our best and wised angelic hosts. We then promised to hold up your arms and guide all moves in this combat to victory, and we will no abandon you or allow you to fall in the days of your declining of physical life. We will stand by you in the future as in the past. In order to leave something of a textbook as a guide for future generations, we have dictated a system of five divisions of the human body, beginning with the head, as follows, Head, Neck, Thorax, Abdomen and Pelvis. ” page 305
He (Still) got his way. The 1913 convention was held in Kirksville, organized to coincide with his 85 birthday. An enormous marquee was erected near the school, citizens opened their homes to delegates, and churches assisted restaurants in serving meals. (…) Still, enfeebled by illness and a fall, had been judged too weak to appear at the event and it was understood he would not mingle with the crowd. But on the second day, as Hildreth delivered a speech in the tent, an unmistakable figure was seen marching towards the lecture platform leaning on a long staff. “Will on accord the immense crowd rose it its feet in reverence and good will,” one delegate wrote, “with cheer after cheer.” Still proceed to the lectern to give an impromptu speech. “39 years ago I raised the flag and swore by the eternal that I would stand for the works of the Divine Architect of the Universe,” he proclaimed. “God is an architect. He is a builder. He is an engineer, and all nature comes under the orders of that architect. page 346