The five prana vayus are the five vital winds or currents that govern the movement of life-force within the human being.
Prana vayu governs intake — breath, inspiration, perception — drawing energy into the system, primarily moving inward and upward around the heart and lungs.
Apana vayu governs elimination — release, excretion, death — moving downward and outward, governing what leaves the body and psyche.
Samana vayu governs assimilation — digestion, discernment, and the metabolising of experience — drawing energy to the centre, located in the gut.
Udana vayu governs expression and ascent — speech, will, growth, and the upward movement of consciousness — operating around the throat and head.
Vyana vayu governs circulation and expansion — distributing life-force evenly through the whole body — pervading all spaces, unifying the system.
These five together describe the whole ecology of living: arrival, departure, integration, expression, and interconnection.
The Star is a Portal. Whatever Star your follow, determines the Fate you determine for yourself. There are always many. Following your own releases you, following another, changes you, diminishing you.
Where the five rivers of Hades represent the trials of the soul in descent and ordeal —
The five prana vayus represent the functions of the soul in embodiment and possible return.
This mirroring is not accidental but reflects a perennial architecture:
• Five streams — structuring life, breath, motion, and return.
• The sixth — the pond or the still source — is Being itself.
Astraea pouring five streams corresponds naturally to these five movements:
• Some flow outward — sustaining life, ordeal, incarnation.
• One returns — integrating or ascending — corresponding to Udana Vayu (ascent, liberation) or Samana Vayu (integration).
The five prana vayus are the five vital winds or currents that govern the movement of life-force within the human being.
Prana vayu governs intake — breath, inspiration, perception — drawing energy into the system, primarily moving inward and upward around the heart and lungs.
Apana vayu governs elimination — release, excretion, death — moving downward and outward, governing what leaves the body and psyche.
Samana vayu governs assimilation — digestion, discernment, and the metabolising of experience — drawing energy to the centre, located in the gut.
Udana vayu governs expression and ascent — speech, will, growth, and the upward movement of consciousness — operating around the throat and head.
Vyana vayu governs circulation and expansion — distributing life-force evenly through the whole body — pervading all spaces, unifying the system.
These five together describe the whole ecology of living: arrival, departure, integration, expression, and interconnection.
The 5 streams depict the five rivers of Tartarus. Each of these rivers has an archetypal function and character:
1. Styx — Oath, binding, the inviolable boundary.
2. Acheron — Pain, sorrow, grief, passage of the dead.
3. Cocytus — Lamentation, wailing.
4. Phlegethon — Fire, purification, burning torment.
5. Lethe — Forgetting, oblivion, release from memory.
The Star is a Portal. Whatever Star your follow, determines the Fate you determine for yourself. There are always many. Following your own releases you, following another, changes you, diminishing you.