Pharynx

Published on Breathing system, Digestive system.

The pharynx makes up the second segment of the digestive tube and of the respiratory system. It is a common access route for food and air. It carries food to the stomach and air to the larynx. The split takes place when the epiglottis (small valve) closes as we swallow, keeping the food from going into the larynx. Thus, the pharynx is a crossroads between the air that goes in and comes out, and the food that goes in and, occasionally, comes out, too.

The pharynx has a vital connotation with survival. It is the so-called “primitive mouth” (between the mouth and the oesophagus). It is a funnel and a precipice. The person who experiences a problem in the pharynx, namely pharyngitis, is someone who feels tension associated with greed. “I’d better swallow before someone takes my food; it’s not enough for all.” This condition is characteristic of someone with a sense of shortage. In the pharynx, the body shows that the person desires to ‘take property’, both in a material and in a more abstract sense. The greedy need to ‘take property’ reveals a feeling of scarcity and also a lack of discernment to discriminate what must go into the body from what should not, as well as what goes into the body from what comes out of it.

If you have any problem with the Pharyngeal tonsils, or the also called Nasopharyngeal tonsils, please see Adenoids.

© Copyright by Luís Martins Simões, developed by RUPEAL