There are many people who, under an apparent display of humility,harbor the most immoderate pride. Every day we mix with them, and every day they speak emphatically about humility. Without truly realizing it, they struggle against their own nature, concealing with their words and deeds a thirst for honors, a desire for power, and a conviction of being superior to others. But as soon as their guard is let down, as soon as their desire to noticed weaken, as soon as their true personality is revealed by unexpected circumstances, they then shed their mask, and the pride it conceals comes to light in all their world and actions. But prouder yet is the person who blames or judge them, for many who see wrong in others are among those who commit it, have committed it, or will commit. In this matter more than any other, may each of you remember that we will be judge to the same degree as we judge others.
To be humble in spirit and practice does not involve pointing a finger at those who show pride, for that is useless. Rather, as children of the greater light we should shun the temptation to yield to the most negative impulse of our own ego. In the final analysis, people who do not feign humility are the ones who take the time to analyse themselves and to recognize, before the mirror of their conscience, that there is still a lot to do and to learn to avoid resembling the very individuals they would be tempted to condemn. Recognizing their own imperfections, they understand and accept the fact that others are also imperfect. People who assume the right to judge others give evidence of their own pride because in so doing, they consider themselves superior to the individual they judge and invest themselves with the power to think so and to say so. Only the wise ones have the right to impart a permanent character to their judgement, for they themselves live in permanence and have acquired true humility. Yet, the wise ones, far removed from the folly of simple mortals, forgot long ago what the term "judgement' means. They observe, listen, feel, and have compassion for the suffering that human beings impose upon themselves because of their ignorance and their need to dominate.
The ego is a distinctive feature of human individuality, and as long as Soul manifests through the physical body, it can only act through the soul personality which it forms with the body. It is therefore useless to fight the ego in the hope of gaining and manifesting humility of heart. We must instead love the ego as it is and learn to master and sublimate it, so that it may become the purest reflection of the spark which animates our being and without which we cannot evolve on the earthly plane. We humans must not act against our own nature, because if we do, we will lose our life in the attempt of running counter to our nature. Rather, let us reflect on the cause of our weakness, and without ever becoming discourage, let us try to gain the strength which we lack and whose source is found in the deepest recesses of the soul personality. Let us also realize that the ego is neither inherently good or bad. It is only what we allow it to become. Each of us is therefore responsible for what happens to us. Who would blame the bowl for being badly made? Only the potter is to blame, for it is he who worked the clay and shaped it as he pleased .
If pride is the negative expression of the ego,ambition can be considered its positive counterpart, for ambition, when made to serve the purest ideals, is the driving force of positive action and the medium of evolution itself. It is natural and proper for us to be happy in what we do, and especially in what we do well. If this were not the case, we would have no pleasure in doing things and would yield to extreme passivity, the source of vices, trials, and suffering. Those, therefore, who feel no joy when contemplating the fruits of their labor are indeed deeply mistaken, since it is the joy of the work accomplished or of the service rendered which motivate us to perform good deeds and to perform them well. Natural, joyous ambition is therefore an ally of choice in human life. Yet it is difficult to mast, since people who do not understand these laws irresistibly slip from ambition to pride, thus causing their won downfall and falling prey to all the weaknesses inherent to the ego.
Jealousy is the companion of pride, or more exactly, its child; for people who are imbued with self look upon their brothers and sisters with contempt, while feigning an interest in their problems and circumstances. People who entertain the conviction of being superior to others cannot accept being their inferior or letting others think so. Proud individuals seek the light that will best emphasize the physical, moral, intellectual, or spiritual superiority which they, and only they, imagine themselves to have. That is why any individual who comes between this light and those who are supposed to contemplate it is seen as a rival or, worse still, as an enemy. People who revel in pride, wanting to be the best known, the most appreciated, and often for qualities they do not possess, cannot tolerate the virtues of others. Consequently, they become jealous of the success and happiness of all who cross their path. And this jealousy makes them even more proud, because their desire to be known is fed by the most extreme bad faith and make them conceited before those who are much better than they are. When this happens, other people discover them for what they truly are.
We the children of the light must beware of selfishness, for it destroys the Light. Human beings, by their nature, want to relate everything to themselves and tend to behave as though they are the center of the world, whereas they are only one of the countless points which constitute the circle of the world. The non-mastery of negative aspect of the ego is the source of egoism; and egoism, when it ignores the desires and needs of others, manifests itself in the most destructive selfishness. The only way to avoid the trappings of pride and selfishness is to realize once and for all that what makes the greatness of human beings is not the greatness which they claim before their brothers and sisters. Let them think of themselves rather as but one of billions of grains of sand making up the most beautiful beach. The infinite understands that each of these grains plays an identical role. It does not measure their value according to the size, for even the largest grain of sand could be swept from the beach and really, what difference would it make to the beach? Therefore, let each of us learn to regularly lift our gaze towards the infinite and try to understand that the more we make ourselves small in the eyes of human beings, the more the Very High will grant us the blessings reserved for Greatest .
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
KARMA: THE LAW OF COMPENSATION
We do not need to ask whether or not Karma exists in our life any more than we need to know if life itself exists.Whether or not we are consciously aware of Karma, it is a part of life and is within us. Karma is the term used by Rosicrucians and mystics of many traditions to mean the operation of the law of compensation. The word karma comes from the Sanskrit root "krm" and literally translated means "action". We act, either physical or through our thoughts, and receive in return the results of our actions.Our acts so to speak "press" against the collective consciousness of the universe, and this consciousness presses back" upon the reality of our life experience. On the physical plane, the law of compensation is expressed in the form of Isaac Newton's third law of motion: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. "And on the mental, emotional and psychic plane we can express it in the words of the master Jesus: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."
In any form of energy utilization we see a good example of this principle. If i move the switch on the wall at the entrance to my office, the overhead lights come on immediately. This id because the cause, namely, the moving of the switch, brought about the closing of an electrical circuit and thereby mandate the manifestation of electricity in the form light. If the electrical circuit were connected to a motor, the motor would move. When petrol of diesel is placed in the tank of a car, the energy is the fuel is combusted and thereby converted into rotary energy which eventually manifests as the movement of the car. Unfortunately we do not fully understand the principle of physics that lie behind or manifest in the functioning of the law or laws of cause and effect, and even under primitive conditions, people have recognized to some extent the fact that such laws exist. Primitive people's interpretation was not always correct, but the realization of the law was nevertheless still present to a degree.
Almost every superstition that exists in the world is due to human misinterpretation of the laws of cause and effect.Probably every superstition with which we may be familiar and which we, as a modern society,do not accept as fact any more, is based upon this principle. For example, it is considered unlucky to walk under a ladder leaning against a building. Maybe someone walked under a ladder at some time in the past and had an unfortunate experience immediately afterwards. Actually, there was no relationship between walking under the ladder and the event that followed, but the sequence of events was misinterpreted by the individual as a manifestation of the law of cause and effect. In other word,the found disagreeable, was interpreted as being the result of a cause that appeared to the individual to be walking under the ladder. All superstitions are based upon this same principle .
The universal law that every condition that exists has something that start it to exist or causes it to manifest is misinterpreted. People do not know or have not yet attained a degree of intelligence and experience where they can take every isolated event and relate it to its true cause. Not long ago i was sitting at my desk when i suddenly developed the symptoms of an ordinary head cold or allergy. I had never had such symptoms developed so suddenly and so quickly. Now, obviously, that change in my physical condition was due to some circumstance or substance with which i had been in contact and resulted in the allergy symptoms that developed suddenly while i was least expecting them. I tried to relate the symptoms to the cause by a reviewing my behavior and experience of the past hours and days. Had i been exposed to a viral infection from someone? Was there something in the air, perhaps pollen, dust or some other foreign substance to which i was allergic or to which i was not accustomed? Was it due to a malfunctioning of the heating system that caused a radical change in temperature to which i was sensitive? I thought about all the possibilities but could arrive at no satisfactory answer.
Now, if i had performed some act immediately before, such as looking over my right shoulder, breaking a mirror, or dropping some object, i might have gone the way of superstition and said that the allergy was caused by one of those acts. Thereby relating my physical condition to the breaking of a mirror or looking out of the window over my left shoulder, or dropping an object. If i made such an interpretation, it would be pure superstition. Sometimes we resort to superstition as an excuse, although we do not like to call it by such terminology. It is our acknowledgement of our inability to expand the cause of circumstances that we would like to explain, coupled with our desire to find and immediate cause-effed relationship so that we will have an understanding of every situation that exists in our experience.
Defining Karma as "the law of compensation in action", throughout our lives events are occurring , and for some of them, we know what their causes are, i.e. we know what precipitated them. For example, if i picked up a razor blade without being careful, i would cut my finger. The fact that i picked up the razor blade carelessly and the razor blase was sharp would be the cause of the cut. There is no mystery is such a circumstance.The cause-effect relationship is very clear. But when we have a sudden influx or "good luck" and gain something that we might want, good health, or on the other hand, suffers poor health, an accident or other disaster, usually we cannot immediately relate such events to the cause. The cause is buried deeply in the background of either our present life or a past one. But we can be sure of one thing, the operation of the law of cause and effect, is an immutable law of the cosmic, and cannot be by passed. Therefore, we can be certain that for every one of our experiences there is a cause, or more likely, a series or many causes. To accept our experience as result of causes, some of which we know and some of which we do not know, is to help us in our general evolution. When events occur that are outstanding in their seriousness and impact upon our consciousness and environment, and we cannot relate them to a cause, we are naturally perplexed and confused, particularly if these experience are unfortunate, unfavorable or uncomfortable. We have a tendency to exaggerate the experiences that are not favorable and sometimes we pass by, without proper thanks or realization, the good things in life. We realize that every event in our lives to a cause, we know through logical reasoning, that such causes must exist. Manifestations of Karma in our lives are always due to cause that have their roots in past experience either of this life or another .
Karma is neither good nor bad. All karma is a part of experience. We should constantly be thankful for the existence of karma though, and through the understanding that we have of the law of compensation, we should acknowledge with thanks every experience, whether that experience comfortable, uncomfortable, pleasant or unpleasant, whatever the experience is, it is part of the overall evolvement of our own selves;the rounding out of our experience through the fact that we are experiencing karma and reaping the results or the effects of the cause previously shown.
Pleasant experience should be accepted with gratitude and the realization that the positive forces of the cosmic are expressing through us .Unpleasant experiences should also be accepted with gratitude and with the realization that as we experience them, despite being unpleasant to us, we are compensating for cause that are deep within us and that eventually must have an expression which, when over, proves the debt has been paid. At the same time, we should let every experience in life cause us to pause and think: Are we living at this moment in such a way as to lay the groundwork that will be causes of effects that will be of maximum benefit and, we hope, of pleasant experience to us in the future ?
In any form of energy utilization we see a good example of this principle. If i move the switch on the wall at the entrance to my office, the overhead lights come on immediately. This id because the cause, namely, the moving of the switch, brought about the closing of an electrical circuit and thereby mandate the manifestation of electricity in the form light. If the electrical circuit were connected to a motor, the motor would move. When petrol of diesel is placed in the tank of a car, the energy is the fuel is combusted and thereby converted into rotary energy which eventually manifests as the movement of the car. Unfortunately we do not fully understand the principle of physics that lie behind or manifest in the functioning of the law or laws of cause and effect, and even under primitive conditions, people have recognized to some extent the fact that such laws exist. Primitive people's interpretation was not always correct, but the realization of the law was nevertheless still present to a degree.
Almost every superstition that exists in the world is due to human misinterpretation of the laws of cause and effect.Probably every superstition with which we may be familiar and which we, as a modern society,do not accept as fact any more, is based upon this principle. For example, it is considered unlucky to walk under a ladder leaning against a building. Maybe someone walked under a ladder at some time in the past and had an unfortunate experience immediately afterwards. Actually, there was no relationship between walking under the ladder and the event that followed, but the sequence of events was misinterpreted by the individual as a manifestation of the law of cause and effect. In other word,the found disagreeable, was interpreted as being the result of a cause that appeared to the individual to be walking under the ladder. All superstitions are based upon this same principle .
The universal law that every condition that exists has something that start it to exist or causes it to manifest is misinterpreted. People do not know or have not yet attained a degree of intelligence and experience where they can take every isolated event and relate it to its true cause. Not long ago i was sitting at my desk when i suddenly developed the symptoms of an ordinary head cold or allergy. I had never had such symptoms developed so suddenly and so quickly. Now, obviously, that change in my physical condition was due to some circumstance or substance with which i had been in contact and resulted in the allergy symptoms that developed suddenly while i was least expecting them. I tried to relate the symptoms to the cause by a reviewing my behavior and experience of the past hours and days. Had i been exposed to a viral infection from someone? Was there something in the air, perhaps pollen, dust or some other foreign substance to which i was allergic or to which i was not accustomed? Was it due to a malfunctioning of the heating system that caused a radical change in temperature to which i was sensitive? I thought about all the possibilities but could arrive at no satisfactory answer.
Now, if i had performed some act immediately before, such as looking over my right shoulder, breaking a mirror, or dropping some object, i might have gone the way of superstition and said that the allergy was caused by one of those acts. Thereby relating my physical condition to the breaking of a mirror or looking out of the window over my left shoulder, or dropping an object. If i made such an interpretation, it would be pure superstition. Sometimes we resort to superstition as an excuse, although we do not like to call it by such terminology. It is our acknowledgement of our inability to expand the cause of circumstances that we would like to explain, coupled with our desire to find and immediate cause-effed relationship so that we will have an understanding of every situation that exists in our experience.
Defining Karma as "the law of compensation in action", throughout our lives events are occurring , and for some of them, we know what their causes are, i.e. we know what precipitated them. For example, if i picked up a razor blade without being careful, i would cut my finger. The fact that i picked up the razor blade carelessly and the razor blase was sharp would be the cause of the cut. There is no mystery is such a circumstance.The cause-effect relationship is very clear. But when we have a sudden influx or "good luck" and gain something that we might want, good health, or on the other hand, suffers poor health, an accident or other disaster, usually we cannot immediately relate such events to the cause. The cause is buried deeply in the background of either our present life or a past one. But we can be sure of one thing, the operation of the law of cause and effect, is an immutable law of the cosmic, and cannot be by passed. Therefore, we can be certain that for every one of our experiences there is a cause, or more likely, a series or many causes. To accept our experience as result of causes, some of which we know and some of which we do not know, is to help us in our general evolution. When events occur that are outstanding in their seriousness and impact upon our consciousness and environment, and we cannot relate them to a cause, we are naturally perplexed and confused, particularly if these experience are unfortunate, unfavorable or uncomfortable. We have a tendency to exaggerate the experiences that are not favorable and sometimes we pass by, without proper thanks or realization, the good things in life. We realize that every event in our lives to a cause, we know through logical reasoning, that such causes must exist. Manifestations of Karma in our lives are always due to cause that have their roots in past experience either of this life or another .
Karma is neither good nor bad. All karma is a part of experience. We should constantly be thankful for the existence of karma though, and through the understanding that we have of the law of compensation, we should acknowledge with thanks every experience, whether that experience comfortable, uncomfortable, pleasant or unpleasant, whatever the experience is, it is part of the overall evolvement of our own selves;the rounding out of our experience through the fact that we are experiencing karma and reaping the results or the effects of the cause previously shown.
Pleasant experience should be accepted with gratitude and the realization that the positive forces of the cosmic are expressing through us .Unpleasant experiences should also be accepted with gratitude and with the realization that as we experience them, despite being unpleasant to us, we are compensating for cause that are deep within us and that eventually must have an expression which, when over, proves the debt has been paid. At the same time, we should let every experience in life cause us to pause and think: Are we living at this moment in such a way as to lay the groundwork that will be causes of effects that will be of maximum benefit and, we hope, of pleasant experience to us in the future ?
Friday, July 19, 2013
Reincarnation
Reincarnation is one topic which has been covered in many books by many authors over and over again. For me to bring it up again , there is a reason for it, for within some mystic groups resides a corpus of teachings which crucially depends on the validity or otherwise of this theory. I deliberately call it a theory as we cannot prove in scientific terms that we have lived in the past ans will,some time in the future, live in environments similar to what is available in our material world. In the western world, the concept of reincarnation has for decades, been an extremely controversial topic,particularly within the spheres of religion, philosophy and mysticism. There are extreme and very strongly held view, and it is this reason mystical orders, despite its official position on the matter, never pushers its opinion too far.
Thirty or forty year ago, the mere mention of the word reincarnation was bound to raise a great deal of animosity, particularly from people within the great Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. But,times certainly have changed,and even with this great family of religions, there is now an increasing awareness of the sheer logic and justice involved in a theory such as that of reincarnation, that one finds clerics here and there, openly breaking with the office dogma, and supporting thoughts what would once have regarded as heresy, and which in past centuries brought many devout mystic to be burned at the stake.
Certainly this is subject of much speculation at present but there is still a great deal of confusion about the true nature of reincarnation, even amongst members of mystical orders.This is primarily due to the sometimes very crude version of the theory as expounded in many popular books. Whereas they serve the purpose of popularizing the concept of reincarnation, they certainly do not do much for enhancing its reputation as a solid and verifiable fact, rather than a mere intellectual theory.
Mystics of all ages have accepted reincarnation not merely as a religious doctrine, but as an immutable Cosmic law, a matter of fact rather than mere theory,and this acceptance has been and still is bases on the confidence brought about through direct experience and intimate recall of events from past lives. Although the concept of reincarnation has its roots firmly embedded in the great religions of the east, it is nevertheless, not a purely Eastern doctrine.
For centuries,and possibly many millennia, many in the western world have accepted that we do live repeatedly in different physical bodies in circumstance not too different from one another from one life to the next. This philosophy of life after life in human form on this earth has been experience as a fact rather than a fanciful theory by many past and present day mystics. Without a doubt though, with most people reincarnation is still a belief rather than an inner experience, something that they have intimately experienced as being fact rather than fiction. This has always been the case, for a recall of events from past live is an extremely difficult thing to trigger.
It is also not necessary the most desirable of things to re-experience events from past lives.To be sure, the first events that anyone experience are almost always something which left a strong emotional and psychic imprint upon ourselves, and invariably such experience were not particularly pleasant at the time and without great spiritual maturity, and would even today be very difficult to deal with, even just as memories.
Nevertheless, a confident acceptance of reincarnation as at least the most logical of alternative concerning life and what follows it, is the one thing which could break down barriers to what would otherwise be very superfical and purely material lives for millions upon millions of people throughout the world. Nothing reveals to us more of the fallacy of the deeply material from of thinking we are brought up with nowadays than the doctrine of reincarnation. Nothing fits in as well with out innate sense of justice than the notion that we will return to this or some other world similar to it, to answer for absolutely everything that we have thought, said and done, every second of every life we have ever had.
If we believe in universal justice, then surely we must believe that we will have to compensate for both the good and the bad we have done;and what other way could such compensation be accepted other than through the material realm, and in circumstances much as we know them today. Reincarnation and the law of karma upon which it is based are absolutely fundamental to any true mystical knowledge and development. It is fitting then that we spend some time analyzing a few of the more important points of this belief.
Reincarnation can be defined as the 'cycle of birth ans rebirth in material reality of the soul personality'. in a sense, it is the process of purification of the ego part of humanity's consciousness, an ongoing transforming of the ego into the essence of Cosmic consciousness. Through the experience of life, the ego evolves into the elevated thoughts of the consciousness of God. This process of transmutation occurs of necessity right here on earth as it is here in the lower realms of awareness that ego has it's greatest expression and hence it's greatest opportunities for change.
By incarnating into this material environment and by passing through countless series of experience, the ego of the soul personality gradually change, gradually attaining a higher and higher state of awareness which for want of better words we can best describe as God or cosmic consciousness.
Who knows what the real purpose of the existence of material reality is ? Indeed, purpose can only apply to consciousness, that is, an awareness of a goal to be attained. And what consciousness are we speaking of ? why, none other than our own, very imperfect awareness of the universe about us. So, if there is a purpose, then it must be one which we can perceive, and that immediately implies that the "purpose of existence" that so many yearn to find, is relative to the mind that conceives it. There are no two identical purpose of existence.Whereas the ultimate and deepest reason for our existence in material reality no doubt will forever remain a mystery to humanity, the effects of our repeated incarnations on earth enable our soul personalities to reach a state whereby in the cosmic realms, in the realms beyond our material reality, we can eventually exist harmoniously with multiple levels of the consciousness of the Creator, and not merely on the level of material reality.Real life begins in the Cosmic realm; kindergarten in here on earth.
It is through our own effort that we advance in our realization and attunement with Cosmic Consciousness. We can voluntarily speed up or slow down our personal evolution; this is purely a voluntary action. Through ignorance and a simple lack of understanding, by far the majority of people on earth progress extremely slowly.Without doubt we all progress, whether or not we try. The law of Karma ensures that we learn from our successes and from our failures. Gently and ever so slowly and thoroughly, the law guides us to a final inner realization that we are ultimately the creators pf our future. When at last we consciously take full responsibility for our lives and our thoughts and actions, we move immediately into the fast track of inner evolution.
We can only refine our baser nature here on earth in the environment in which it was born.However, as spiritual beings of profound mystery we go through aeons of experience on the Cosmic plane in realms quite incomprehensible to humanity. Amongst other things, these experiences help us to realise our shortcomings on earth and eventually highlight and place in clear perspective, the problems which impede our progress. Upon realizing this, the soul personality is driven to the only real alternative it has, to return to material reality, to incarnate again on earth.
We gravitate to this earth much as rain falls to the ground. Life on Earth is truly sacred, for it is the greatest opportunity that we and all species of life on earth can have to evolve. Clearly then, we must make the most of it, and take every opportunity to enhance life wherever we find it; not only our personal lives but even the lives of our feathered and furry fellow travelers in this wonderful world. Every idle and thoughtless moment is a waste of precious life. We have a duty to all creatures on this planet, our temporary home, to make the utmost of the very short span of time we have on earth. Who knows long we stood in the queue for incarnation into material reality? Who knows what great personal sacrifices we had to undergo in order to gain the privilege of incarnation in human form?
This planet is the world we know intimately; we know it so well, for it is the world that we have incarnated into countless times in the past, the world we love more than any other material reality there is . In this world are creatures, animals and humans we have interacted with in the past, creatures we have loved and have hated with passion,creatures we will interact with again and again till we master our destinies and finally, reach the stage where we are ready to leave material reality for all time. As mystics, many of us have found a path to greater light and are keenly aware of our duty to pass on some of the knowledge we have received. At the end of each sanctum period let us truly feel what great responsibility lies with us ever to be aware of the sacred light with which we are entrusted . Let us also never forget that not only is the light entrusted to us, we have a duty to retransmit it wherever darkness exists.
We have the ability of truly assisting countless desperately seeking souls to find the way to a more highly developed consciousness. Once the desire for inner evolution has been kindle, everything that the aspiring adept needs is right here within our beloved order. I do not advertise the Order merely to increase membership. I have no wish to dilute the aims and high ideals of the Order by admitting sundry and all simply in order to expand our numbers. I spread the knowledge of the Order's existence and what it has to offer purely to attract those sincerely seeking souls who are at the threshold of realizing their true potential. This is why i have pride in our order and seek at every opportunity to let people know what we are about. Life changes so profoundly, so totally and dramatically for the searching soul who finds a path to illumination. Within the Order we have such a path, a well trodden path which has existed since antiquity and has proven its worth time and time again.
A deep and sudden realization of oneness with the Cosmic is a most profound and moving experience. Nothing in this beautiful world can even remotely compare with the spiritualised awareness of God within, our master and dearest Friend. Our soul personalities are purges and purified by the trials and tribulations of earthly experiences. It is therefore in our deepest interests to attempt to gain some understanding of the reason for the major events in our present and past circumstance. A clearer understanding of this enables us to cooperate with the law of Karma in gaining that knowledge and experience which each of us needs most to transmute the baser element of our awareness into a higher, more beautiful expression of Divine Consciousness.
We cannot accomplish the perfecting of our soul personality in one or two short lifetimes on earth. Rather, several varied lives are needed to round out the character and personality. We need the varied experience of life on earth to assist us in purifying ourselves of all hindrance to further evolution. Emotional harmony is acquired by passing through disturbing events, whether pleasant or unpleasant,events which through the subtle and constant application of the law of karma in our lives, help us to understand the countless lessons we have learnt and still need to learn.
Being aware of past incarnation reveals traits of characters which do not always seem consistent with our life and training in the present incarnation. Quite often, deep within the innermost recesses of our Being, are character traits which reveal aspect of ourselves of which we were never aware. The revelation can be stunning and pleasant, but also sometimes very painful. By perceiving event from past incarnations we can bring these traits back to life where we will again be presented with the opportunities of further developing and eventually perfection our past abilities.
For, example, you have been a master carpenter, trader, sculptor or tailor in the past, or you may have been something less savoury, lets us say perhaps a buccaneer or a professional thief. Whatever you were, you learned from your experience than and would benefit greatly to have the hindsight of those experience now;provided of course that you have the maturity to accept without undue harshness that you may not have been as good as you previously may have thought. upon deep reflection, these tendencies from past lives will reappear, whether they are good or bad for you and you will need to be ready to deal with them, firmly , unemotionally, and justly.
If we take a new interest in matters from a past incarnation, and if we do so as mystics filled with compassion and understanding for the faults of all humans, including ourselves, we are presented with golden opportunities to re-develop those hidden abilities which are beneficial to our inner evolution. With maturity and understanding, a mystic can then either accept and further develop such traits,or discard to the garbage heap of history, trait which have hindered our development in the past and are likely to continue doing so in the future. Few mystics upon experiencing events from past incarnation are anything short of deeply grateful and humbled by the privilege of re-experiencing such events, no matter how unpleasant they may be. It is nothing short of astounding at what lies in our past, what depth of being we have in fact already experienced. Fortunately, we have the freedom and the ability to develop our psychic consciousness to the extend necessary to pierce the veil and re-experience events from past incarnations. What tremendous power we have with such knowledge!
Experiencing past incarnations should, however, never become an obsession. We are, after all, primarily concerned with the problems of this incarnation. Our present incarnation should be the one that interests us most. A careful analysis of our inner tendencies greatly assists us in setting the scene, so to speak, for a successful foray into the past. It is always best to rely on our own inner resource when dealing with past incarnations ans we should never blindly accept what others say in merely a quick fix, an indication of laziness on the part of the believer. We must experience the matter firsthand and nothing else but firsthand experience will do. Our past is in the realm of recall to a certain degree depending upon our inner awareness and psychic development. Let us use it, and use it well to amp our future.
As already mentioned, we soon realize why the strong impressions left in some of our past incarnations are so disturbing and have such a strong effect on our present lives when we consider that the strongest memories are usually those which were deeply impressed upon us because of the traumatic experience associated with them. When we regress in time, these traumatic experience are likely to be the first that come to the fore. We have to rocognise that most of us were not high potentates, royalty or well-known historical figures. The majority of us probably lived pretty mediocre lives perhaps interspersed with the occasional highlight, but on the whole we might be very disappointed to learn who we were. There is nothing to be disappointed about; that person was after all you, the very same you reading these words, the very same person who has traveled this far on the path to perfection .
Indeed why, for other than egoistical reasons, should anyone wish to believe that they were some important personage. After all, people who, for one reason or another, were well known,have been very few in number compared to the billions of soul personalities that have existed on earth. Is it not odd, that so many popular authors detailing their experiences in previous lives, were not ordinary people, but almost always people of great worldly importance: pharaohs, emperors, religious leaders, war lords, scientists, literary geniuses, etc.., the list goes on and on. To be sure, virtually none of these authors speak of genuine experiences and their primary purpose for sharing their thoughts, is no higher than to make money through sales of their books .
Reincarnation is indeed a deeply fascinating subject, but it is only in fairly recent times that the general public has become interested in it on a wide scale. Few of course, are willing to engage in a deep study or investigation of reincarnation as their interest lies only on the surface, only with the dramatic and ego-boosting possibility of having been someone great in the past. Today however, more than ever before, people are sincerely becoming aware that there is more to life than a few mortal years. There is a general trend towards greater acceptance that there is much more to life than what we see on the surface. This will be very helpful to them when the light of a greater life, a much longer and more noble series of lives, is brought to their attention. The personality and character as we now express them, are very much determined by our past lives. although parts of our personality are hidden from view, we can, through inner reflection, become aware of what that past has to reveal to us. Our main concern though,should always be the depth of cosmic awareness that we have thus far attained.
We are constantly evolving and adding to our attainments. Although we may not be aware of what we have attained at times, we can be sure that it is never lost; forgotten maybe, but always dormant, just waiting for our application and use. We should ask spiritual development in everyday life. The answer is always that we must use our attainments in the most natural way possible, for this is as nature works. When we are faced with a problem, we should endeavour always to meditate briefly upon it first and before we take any definite action. By raising our awareness to a level where we can get knowledge of what is best for us to do, we find that our thoughts are greatly cleared up. The problem diminishes in size and is placed in a broader perspective, one where the true worth of the problem and nay associated action is revealed. At the same time, we raise our consciousness above the often disturbing emotions associated with problems in life.
Our experience of life on earth is truly a great preparation for what follows. It is here that all cosmic laws and principles are fulfiled and demonstrated.If we can apply ourselves to the teaching of mystical orders . we will surely find that cosmic mind and it host of manifestation in the form of intelligent life both in material reality and out of it, are eager to do our bidding and indeed to assist us to eventually command all nature.Above all, let us remember that our thoughts and actions day to day determine what out future brings. Let us therefore raise our thoughts daily and firmly establish only the very highest ideals in our heart, so that our future lives may reflect the peace, love and harmony of the Cosmic .
Thirty or forty year ago, the mere mention of the word reincarnation was bound to raise a great deal of animosity, particularly from people within the great Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. But,times certainly have changed,and even with this great family of religions, there is now an increasing awareness of the sheer logic and justice involved in a theory such as that of reincarnation, that one finds clerics here and there, openly breaking with the office dogma, and supporting thoughts what would once have regarded as heresy, and which in past centuries brought many devout mystic to be burned at the stake.
Certainly this is subject of much speculation at present but there is still a great deal of confusion about the true nature of reincarnation, even amongst members of mystical orders.This is primarily due to the sometimes very crude version of the theory as expounded in many popular books. Whereas they serve the purpose of popularizing the concept of reincarnation, they certainly do not do much for enhancing its reputation as a solid and verifiable fact, rather than a mere intellectual theory.
Mystics of all ages have accepted reincarnation not merely as a religious doctrine, but as an immutable Cosmic law, a matter of fact rather than mere theory,and this acceptance has been and still is bases on the confidence brought about through direct experience and intimate recall of events from past lives. Although the concept of reincarnation has its roots firmly embedded in the great religions of the east, it is nevertheless, not a purely Eastern doctrine.
For centuries,and possibly many millennia, many in the western world have accepted that we do live repeatedly in different physical bodies in circumstance not too different from one another from one life to the next. This philosophy of life after life in human form on this earth has been experience as a fact rather than a fanciful theory by many past and present day mystics. Without a doubt though, with most people reincarnation is still a belief rather than an inner experience, something that they have intimately experienced as being fact rather than fiction. This has always been the case, for a recall of events from past live is an extremely difficult thing to trigger.
It is also not necessary the most desirable of things to re-experience events from past lives.To be sure, the first events that anyone experience are almost always something which left a strong emotional and psychic imprint upon ourselves, and invariably such experience were not particularly pleasant at the time and without great spiritual maturity, and would even today be very difficult to deal with, even just as memories.
Nevertheless, a confident acceptance of reincarnation as at least the most logical of alternative concerning life and what follows it, is the one thing which could break down barriers to what would otherwise be very superfical and purely material lives for millions upon millions of people throughout the world. Nothing reveals to us more of the fallacy of the deeply material from of thinking we are brought up with nowadays than the doctrine of reincarnation. Nothing fits in as well with out innate sense of justice than the notion that we will return to this or some other world similar to it, to answer for absolutely everything that we have thought, said and done, every second of every life we have ever had.
If we believe in universal justice, then surely we must believe that we will have to compensate for both the good and the bad we have done;and what other way could such compensation be accepted other than through the material realm, and in circumstances much as we know them today. Reincarnation and the law of karma upon which it is based are absolutely fundamental to any true mystical knowledge and development. It is fitting then that we spend some time analyzing a few of the more important points of this belief.
Reincarnation can be defined as the 'cycle of birth ans rebirth in material reality of the soul personality'. in a sense, it is the process of purification of the ego part of humanity's consciousness, an ongoing transforming of the ego into the essence of Cosmic consciousness. Through the experience of life, the ego evolves into the elevated thoughts of the consciousness of God. This process of transmutation occurs of necessity right here on earth as it is here in the lower realms of awareness that ego has it's greatest expression and hence it's greatest opportunities for change.
By incarnating into this material environment and by passing through countless series of experience, the ego of the soul personality gradually change, gradually attaining a higher and higher state of awareness which for want of better words we can best describe as God or cosmic consciousness.
Who knows what the real purpose of the existence of material reality is ? Indeed, purpose can only apply to consciousness, that is, an awareness of a goal to be attained. And what consciousness are we speaking of ? why, none other than our own, very imperfect awareness of the universe about us. So, if there is a purpose, then it must be one which we can perceive, and that immediately implies that the "purpose of existence" that so many yearn to find, is relative to the mind that conceives it. There are no two identical purpose of existence.Whereas the ultimate and deepest reason for our existence in material reality no doubt will forever remain a mystery to humanity, the effects of our repeated incarnations on earth enable our soul personalities to reach a state whereby in the cosmic realms, in the realms beyond our material reality, we can eventually exist harmoniously with multiple levels of the consciousness of the Creator, and not merely on the level of material reality.Real life begins in the Cosmic realm; kindergarten in here on earth.
It is through our own effort that we advance in our realization and attunement with Cosmic Consciousness. We can voluntarily speed up or slow down our personal evolution; this is purely a voluntary action. Through ignorance and a simple lack of understanding, by far the majority of people on earth progress extremely slowly.Without doubt we all progress, whether or not we try. The law of Karma ensures that we learn from our successes and from our failures. Gently and ever so slowly and thoroughly, the law guides us to a final inner realization that we are ultimately the creators pf our future. When at last we consciously take full responsibility for our lives and our thoughts and actions, we move immediately into the fast track of inner evolution.
We can only refine our baser nature here on earth in the environment in which it was born.However, as spiritual beings of profound mystery we go through aeons of experience on the Cosmic plane in realms quite incomprehensible to humanity. Amongst other things, these experiences help us to realise our shortcomings on earth and eventually highlight and place in clear perspective, the problems which impede our progress. Upon realizing this, the soul personality is driven to the only real alternative it has, to return to material reality, to incarnate again on earth.
We gravitate to this earth much as rain falls to the ground. Life on Earth is truly sacred, for it is the greatest opportunity that we and all species of life on earth can have to evolve. Clearly then, we must make the most of it, and take every opportunity to enhance life wherever we find it; not only our personal lives but even the lives of our feathered and furry fellow travelers in this wonderful world. Every idle and thoughtless moment is a waste of precious life. We have a duty to all creatures on this planet, our temporary home, to make the utmost of the very short span of time we have on earth. Who knows long we stood in the queue for incarnation into material reality? Who knows what great personal sacrifices we had to undergo in order to gain the privilege of incarnation in human form?
This planet is the world we know intimately; we know it so well, for it is the world that we have incarnated into countless times in the past, the world we love more than any other material reality there is . In this world are creatures, animals and humans we have interacted with in the past, creatures we have loved and have hated with passion,creatures we will interact with again and again till we master our destinies and finally, reach the stage where we are ready to leave material reality for all time. As mystics, many of us have found a path to greater light and are keenly aware of our duty to pass on some of the knowledge we have received. At the end of each sanctum period let us truly feel what great responsibility lies with us ever to be aware of the sacred light with which we are entrusted . Let us also never forget that not only is the light entrusted to us, we have a duty to retransmit it wherever darkness exists.
We have the ability of truly assisting countless desperately seeking souls to find the way to a more highly developed consciousness. Once the desire for inner evolution has been kindle, everything that the aspiring adept needs is right here within our beloved order. I do not advertise the Order merely to increase membership. I have no wish to dilute the aims and high ideals of the Order by admitting sundry and all simply in order to expand our numbers. I spread the knowledge of the Order's existence and what it has to offer purely to attract those sincerely seeking souls who are at the threshold of realizing their true potential. This is why i have pride in our order and seek at every opportunity to let people know what we are about. Life changes so profoundly, so totally and dramatically for the searching soul who finds a path to illumination. Within the Order we have such a path, a well trodden path which has existed since antiquity and has proven its worth time and time again.
A deep and sudden realization of oneness with the Cosmic is a most profound and moving experience. Nothing in this beautiful world can even remotely compare with the spiritualised awareness of God within, our master and dearest Friend. Our soul personalities are purges and purified by the trials and tribulations of earthly experiences. It is therefore in our deepest interests to attempt to gain some understanding of the reason for the major events in our present and past circumstance. A clearer understanding of this enables us to cooperate with the law of Karma in gaining that knowledge and experience which each of us needs most to transmute the baser element of our awareness into a higher, more beautiful expression of Divine Consciousness.
We cannot accomplish the perfecting of our soul personality in one or two short lifetimes on earth. Rather, several varied lives are needed to round out the character and personality. We need the varied experience of life on earth to assist us in purifying ourselves of all hindrance to further evolution. Emotional harmony is acquired by passing through disturbing events, whether pleasant or unpleasant,events which through the subtle and constant application of the law of karma in our lives, help us to understand the countless lessons we have learnt and still need to learn.
Being aware of past incarnation reveals traits of characters which do not always seem consistent with our life and training in the present incarnation. Quite often, deep within the innermost recesses of our Being, are character traits which reveal aspect of ourselves of which we were never aware. The revelation can be stunning and pleasant, but also sometimes very painful. By perceiving event from past incarnations we can bring these traits back to life where we will again be presented with the opportunities of further developing and eventually perfection our past abilities.
For, example, you have been a master carpenter, trader, sculptor or tailor in the past, or you may have been something less savoury, lets us say perhaps a buccaneer or a professional thief. Whatever you were, you learned from your experience than and would benefit greatly to have the hindsight of those experience now;provided of course that you have the maturity to accept without undue harshness that you may not have been as good as you previously may have thought. upon deep reflection, these tendencies from past lives will reappear, whether they are good or bad for you and you will need to be ready to deal with them, firmly , unemotionally, and justly.
If we take a new interest in matters from a past incarnation, and if we do so as mystics filled with compassion and understanding for the faults of all humans, including ourselves, we are presented with golden opportunities to re-develop those hidden abilities which are beneficial to our inner evolution. With maturity and understanding, a mystic can then either accept and further develop such traits,or discard to the garbage heap of history, trait which have hindered our development in the past and are likely to continue doing so in the future. Few mystics upon experiencing events from past incarnation are anything short of deeply grateful and humbled by the privilege of re-experiencing such events, no matter how unpleasant they may be. It is nothing short of astounding at what lies in our past, what depth of being we have in fact already experienced. Fortunately, we have the freedom and the ability to develop our psychic consciousness to the extend necessary to pierce the veil and re-experience events from past incarnations. What tremendous power we have with such knowledge!
Experiencing past incarnations should, however, never become an obsession. We are, after all, primarily concerned with the problems of this incarnation. Our present incarnation should be the one that interests us most. A careful analysis of our inner tendencies greatly assists us in setting the scene, so to speak, for a successful foray into the past. It is always best to rely on our own inner resource when dealing with past incarnations ans we should never blindly accept what others say in merely a quick fix, an indication of laziness on the part of the believer. We must experience the matter firsthand and nothing else but firsthand experience will do. Our past is in the realm of recall to a certain degree depending upon our inner awareness and psychic development. Let us use it, and use it well to amp our future.
As already mentioned, we soon realize why the strong impressions left in some of our past incarnations are so disturbing and have such a strong effect on our present lives when we consider that the strongest memories are usually those which were deeply impressed upon us because of the traumatic experience associated with them. When we regress in time, these traumatic experience are likely to be the first that come to the fore. We have to rocognise that most of us were not high potentates, royalty or well-known historical figures. The majority of us probably lived pretty mediocre lives perhaps interspersed with the occasional highlight, but on the whole we might be very disappointed to learn who we were. There is nothing to be disappointed about; that person was after all you, the very same you reading these words, the very same person who has traveled this far on the path to perfection .
Indeed why, for other than egoistical reasons, should anyone wish to believe that they were some important personage. After all, people who, for one reason or another, were well known,have been very few in number compared to the billions of soul personalities that have existed on earth. Is it not odd, that so many popular authors detailing their experiences in previous lives, were not ordinary people, but almost always people of great worldly importance: pharaohs, emperors, religious leaders, war lords, scientists, literary geniuses, etc.., the list goes on and on. To be sure, virtually none of these authors speak of genuine experiences and their primary purpose for sharing their thoughts, is no higher than to make money through sales of their books .
Reincarnation is indeed a deeply fascinating subject, but it is only in fairly recent times that the general public has become interested in it on a wide scale. Few of course, are willing to engage in a deep study or investigation of reincarnation as their interest lies only on the surface, only with the dramatic and ego-boosting possibility of having been someone great in the past. Today however, more than ever before, people are sincerely becoming aware that there is more to life than a few mortal years. There is a general trend towards greater acceptance that there is much more to life than what we see on the surface. This will be very helpful to them when the light of a greater life, a much longer and more noble series of lives, is brought to their attention. The personality and character as we now express them, are very much determined by our past lives. although parts of our personality are hidden from view, we can, through inner reflection, become aware of what that past has to reveal to us. Our main concern though,should always be the depth of cosmic awareness that we have thus far attained.
We are constantly evolving and adding to our attainments. Although we may not be aware of what we have attained at times, we can be sure that it is never lost; forgotten maybe, but always dormant, just waiting for our application and use. We should ask spiritual development in everyday life. The answer is always that we must use our attainments in the most natural way possible, for this is as nature works. When we are faced with a problem, we should endeavour always to meditate briefly upon it first and before we take any definite action. By raising our awareness to a level where we can get knowledge of what is best for us to do, we find that our thoughts are greatly cleared up. The problem diminishes in size and is placed in a broader perspective, one where the true worth of the problem and nay associated action is revealed. At the same time, we raise our consciousness above the often disturbing emotions associated with problems in life.
Our experience of life on earth is truly a great preparation for what follows. It is here that all cosmic laws and principles are fulfiled and demonstrated.If we can apply ourselves to the teaching of mystical orders . we will surely find that cosmic mind and it host of manifestation in the form of intelligent life both in material reality and out of it, are eager to do our bidding and indeed to assist us to eventually command all nature.Above all, let us remember that our thoughts and actions day to day determine what out future brings. Let us therefore raise our thoughts daily and firmly establish only the very highest ideals in our heart, so that our future lives may reflect the peace, love and harmony of the Cosmic .
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The Initiatory Process in Ancient Egypt
The Human journey begins as soon as the child receives a name at birth. The bestowing of a name marks the advent of a new existence. Ancient peoples believed that one who had no name was not truly born.
And here is the first main obstacle: the advent of puberty is accompanied by physical as well as psychological metamorphoses of such a nature that a new being seems to emerge from the protective shell of childhood.
Marriage also heralds a new phase of existence. Does not the life of the couple required the creating of a subtle and permanent harmony between bodies and souls, a mutual metamorphosis?
As for the slow process of aging, this also present new problems. Faculties become impaired.From then on life demand less room. In order for it to exist without a feeling of despair, it must have wisdom. And finally death comes. The human being must face death without fear and without regret when giving life up.
Thus birth, puberty, marriage, aging and death are unavoidable trials. Whether we face them happily or despairingly, whether we celebrate them or let them pass unnoticed, they map humanity's path. With each test overcome, a new phase of existence begins. At the end of each season of life, the outline of a new being emerges.
THE ROLE OF INITIATION
It is true that nowadays human beings tend not to celebrate the various stages of life we must each pass through. We no longer feel, with the same acuity, how we change with each trial we overcome.
Little by little, we become unconscious of our metamorphosis. By smoothing out the path of our life, by removing all obstacles from our itinerary, we deny a truth;we lie to ourselves. Lost in a fallacious fog of the soul, we fall out of step with the indispensable vital cadence. Nowadays, the distressing questions concerning the meaning of life stem mostly from the loss of this existential rhythm.
Ancient peoples and civilization felt strongly about how important it was to celebrate each phase of life. Their"transitional rites" were feasts to commemorate accession to a new stage of existence .And by performing them, the whole community induced a victorious entry into a new phase of life through a series of power-generating acts. To enter a new stage of life with the help of the community and particularly through the power of rituals, meant to become initiated.
There existed one of the most important of rituals: initiation into the death experience.Death, the great transition, is the ultimate initiation. Many culture of the world demand that the neophyte undergo the trial of death and experience its pangs in order to be reborn.
Such was the purpose of the secret doctrines and practices called the mysteries which were a common feature of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially in ancient Greece,Rome and Egypt.
THE MYSTERIES
Rituals was introduced to change the quality of the quality of the novice's soul, to raise the novice's consciousness to a superhuman level, and to turn the novice into eternal being. Thus the rituals of Adonis or Tammuz in the Near East, of Osiris in Egypt, of Orpheus and Dionysus in Greece, all depict death and resurrection so that one may symbolically experience a superhuman state and eternal life.
Psychologically, these practices resulted in the true victory of human beings over their fear of death. Through initiatory death, the human being is absolutely convinced that he will be spared the pangs of death, which is the lot of the average person. In fact, he is saved because he has been initiated.
THE NECROPOLIS AT ABYDOS
We must first go to Abydos in order to meet the initiates of ancient Egypt. A very holy city from pre-dynastic times, Abydos was situated between Asyut and Luxor (thebes), and sheltered an ancient necropolis, a place for the burial of the dead. Here the first Egyptian pharaohs were entombed beginning around 3200 BCE. A constant religious piety added to the Abydos cemeteries of every period, despite the fall of dynasties and empires. It is no wonder, then, that nine-tenths of the funerary stelae of the Middle Kingdom (c 2052-1778 BCE) exhibited in the museums of Europe come from Abydos.
How can we explain this three thousand year entanglement of necropoleis and this prodigious depository of documents? The fact is that the city was doubly venerable. Originally the final resting place of the earliest pharaohs, it became , at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the guardian of the head of Osiris the saviour who led mankind to immortality .
The most precious part of the divine body dismembered by the god Set, his brother, lay in this holy place, sheltered in a shrine surmounted by two feathers. The holy sepulchre was built in a place called Peker, in the south of the city, while at the north stood the great sanctuary of Osiris. Erected at the dawn of history, beginning with the first Dynasty, and remodeled , destroyed and rebuilt several times, all that is left of it today is an outline, hardly visible, on the site of its successive ages.
And yet, together with the holy Sepulchre, this temple was the crucible of the Osirian faith. The inestimable relic, the head of Osiris, conferred upon it an unequalled aura of holy power.
Has the mind of the masses really changed so much ? For example, London has protected its unknown hero in west minister Abbey, Paris under the Arc de Triomphe, while in Moscow the remains of Lenin are preserved in his mausoleum in Red Square. It seems that each city draws strength from the legacies of its great dead. But wasn't Osiris, whose resurrection promised eternal life to every pious man and woman, the greatest of them all?
INITIATION OF ABYDOS
But how do we know whether or not secret initiation were conducted in Egypt, especially in Abydos? An ancient text that was recently discovered and dating back to c.2000 BCE seems to give an affirmative answer: Fellow the god to his abode. In his tomb Anubis sanctifies the hidden mystery of Osiris.In the sacred valley of the master of life(Osiris), it is the mysterious initiation of the master of Abydos!
What could be plainer? the god Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the necropoleis, participated in the unfolding of a 'mysterious initiation" conducted by Osiris, the master of Abydos.
Anubis welcome the postulant at the threshold of the sacred domain. He is a "dreadful-looking god," writes the Roman author Apuleius following his initiation in the 2nd century CE, "a god that server as a messenger between the world above and the infernal world below, with a face half-black and half-gold, his head held high and proudly stretching his dog's neck".
So, Egyptians wished to die in Abydos. To die near the god, to rest in the peace emanating from the holy Sepulchre; to experience the miracle of resurrection in its shadow was the dream of an entire population, from century to century.
It is then toward this holy place that er must journey in order to conceive, with the help of Egyptian text of various dates and sources, how the initiatory process unfolded in the era of the pharaohs, and up untill the time of the 2nd century CE.
Unfortunately, there is little left of Abydos today except ruins and a single bastion: the sanctuary of Seti I and the strange edifice adjacent to it called the Osireion .
THE OSIREION OF ABYDOS
This structure is without doubt the most mysterious in the valley of the Nile. Its construction began during the reign of the 19th dynasty pharaoh, Set I (c.1300 BCE), and was entirely underground when originally built. It comprise a long dark corridor leading into a hall half filled with water. From the centre of this basin rise a rectangular esplande, a kind of island surrounded by heavy pillars of pink granite, to which toe staircases lead.
What could be the purpose of this extraordinary architectural complex ? Could it be a cenotapy; a monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lay elsewhere, perhaps of Seti I, whose name is inscribed in the entrance corridor and he central hall ? This is possible, as the walls of the corridor are covered with funerary inscriptions, such as in the tombs of the valley of the kings. In addition, a spacious empty room, reminiscent of the those in the pyramids of Sakkara and laid out on the east side of the Osireion, conjures up images of a huge sarcophagus.
But, three or four centuries after its construction, this edifice was looked upon as a place dedicated to the worship of Osiris. And there are many archaeological clues to support this hypothesis. First, the esplanade raising out of the water-filled central hall and provided with two staircases was undoubtedly thought to be the primordial mound itself, where death was vanquished at the dawn of time. There, according to tradition, Osiris lay in his sepulchre. Second, the two cavities hewn in the pavement of the esplanade undoubtedly had the purpose of housing the sarcophagus of the god and the holy shrine containing his viscera, perhaps even his head. Finally, circular pits, unearthed around the central hall are still filled with fertile soil, used to shelter verdant tress,symbols of the eternity of the resuscitated Osiris.
We can now see the purpose of the Osireion: Seti I wanted sacred rites to be performed in Abydos, in order to ensure his immortality near Osiris and, at the same time, to perpetuate the worship of the great god. Therefore, the royal cenotapy was an Osirian tomb as well.
Replica of the Sanctuary of Osiris?
We must not confuse this sanctuary with the main sanctuary in Abydos north, whose ruins are still scattered in the place know today as Kom es-Sultan, and where the annual festival of Osiris took place.
Very few documents mention this illustrious site. Those that do however, reveal a surprising fact. There is in France, in the Museum of Archaeology in Marseille, a sarcophagus that has depicted on it a rounded knoll crowned with four tree guarded by two ram-headed gods.
Without any doubt, Osiris lies under this knoll. His name is inscribed there,and the beginning of the inscription above the picture clearly ready: this is the knoll that hides within the (body) decayed; it is the holy place of Osiris who dwells in the west. The knoll and the four trees therefore allude to the famous sepulchre of Osiris.But right away, the esplanade of the osireion comes to mind, symbolizing also the primordial mound and lifting above the waters the sarcophagus of the god, as well as the trees of eternal regeneration that framed the central hall.
Would the Osireion of Seti I be an imitation of the large ruined temple of Abydos? it ever confirmed, such a fact would be of decisive important, because all initiatory progression in the famous lost sanctuary could, in such a case, be conceived as well in the architectural complex of the still- standing Osireion. Thus the latter would preserve intact the exact reproduction of the decor where the most secret practices of the pharaonic era took place; making it unique in ancient Egypt and even in the history of ancient civilizations.
We can now conclude that on the sacred domain of Abydos the great temple of Osiris is almost completely destroyed. However, several ancient papyri preserve its main characteristics. Under a mound surrounded by tress was a basin filled with water where pillars supporting the roof of the sanctuary stood; and from the centre of this basin emerged a terrace with two staircase of which lay the mummy of Osiris. This description, no matter how brief it may be, immediately arouse a comparison with the Osireion built by Seti I, which seems to be a replica of the lost temple. We can still find today the basin, the pillars, the esplanade with its double staircase, the two cavities arranged to house the sarcophagus and the shrine containing the viscera; and finally, the pits where verdant tress used to frame the whole sanctuary buried underneath the sand.
All this archaeological data points to the fact that Seti I intended to reproduce he architectural complex of the great temple of Osiris at Abydos. Hence the conclusion that since the Osireion seems to be a copy of the destroyed temple, all the details of the test pertaining to this temple can be transferred, without risking too much error, to the architectural complex of the the still-standing Osireion of Seti I.
And here is the first main obstacle: the advent of puberty is accompanied by physical as well as psychological metamorphoses of such a nature that a new being seems to emerge from the protective shell of childhood.
Marriage also heralds a new phase of existence. Does not the life of the couple required the creating of a subtle and permanent harmony between bodies and souls, a mutual metamorphosis?
As for the slow process of aging, this also present new problems. Faculties become impaired.From then on life demand less room. In order for it to exist without a feeling of despair, it must have wisdom. And finally death comes. The human being must face death without fear and without regret when giving life up.
Thus birth, puberty, marriage, aging and death are unavoidable trials. Whether we face them happily or despairingly, whether we celebrate them or let them pass unnoticed, they map humanity's path. With each test overcome, a new phase of existence begins. At the end of each season of life, the outline of a new being emerges.
THE ROLE OF INITIATION
It is true that nowadays human beings tend not to celebrate the various stages of life we must each pass through. We no longer feel, with the same acuity, how we change with each trial we overcome.
Little by little, we become unconscious of our metamorphosis. By smoothing out the path of our life, by removing all obstacles from our itinerary, we deny a truth;we lie to ourselves. Lost in a fallacious fog of the soul, we fall out of step with the indispensable vital cadence. Nowadays, the distressing questions concerning the meaning of life stem mostly from the loss of this existential rhythm.
Ancient peoples and civilization felt strongly about how important it was to celebrate each phase of life. Their"transitional rites" were feasts to commemorate accession to a new stage of existence .And by performing them, the whole community induced a victorious entry into a new phase of life through a series of power-generating acts. To enter a new stage of life with the help of the community and particularly through the power of rituals, meant to become initiated.
There existed one of the most important of rituals: initiation into the death experience.Death, the great transition, is the ultimate initiation. Many culture of the world demand that the neophyte undergo the trial of death and experience its pangs in order to be reborn.
Such was the purpose of the secret doctrines and practices called the mysteries which were a common feature of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially in ancient Greece,Rome and Egypt.
THE MYSTERIES
Rituals was introduced to change the quality of the quality of the novice's soul, to raise the novice's consciousness to a superhuman level, and to turn the novice into eternal being. Thus the rituals of Adonis or Tammuz in the Near East, of Osiris in Egypt, of Orpheus and Dionysus in Greece, all depict death and resurrection so that one may symbolically experience a superhuman state and eternal life.
Psychologically, these practices resulted in the true victory of human beings over their fear of death. Through initiatory death, the human being is absolutely convinced that he will be spared the pangs of death, which is the lot of the average person. In fact, he is saved because he has been initiated.
THE NECROPOLIS AT ABYDOS
We must first go to Abydos in order to meet the initiates of ancient Egypt. A very holy city from pre-dynastic times, Abydos was situated between Asyut and Luxor (thebes), and sheltered an ancient necropolis, a place for the burial of the dead. Here the first Egyptian pharaohs were entombed beginning around 3200 BCE. A constant religious piety added to the Abydos cemeteries of every period, despite the fall of dynasties and empires. It is no wonder, then, that nine-tenths of the funerary stelae of the Middle Kingdom (c 2052-1778 BCE) exhibited in the museums of Europe come from Abydos.
How can we explain this three thousand year entanglement of necropoleis and this prodigious depository of documents? The fact is that the city was doubly venerable. Originally the final resting place of the earliest pharaohs, it became , at the beginning of the second millennium BCE, the guardian of the head of Osiris the saviour who led mankind to immortality .
The most precious part of the divine body dismembered by the god Set, his brother, lay in this holy place, sheltered in a shrine surmounted by two feathers. The holy sepulchre was built in a place called Peker, in the south of the city, while at the north stood the great sanctuary of Osiris. Erected at the dawn of history, beginning with the first Dynasty, and remodeled , destroyed and rebuilt several times, all that is left of it today is an outline, hardly visible, on the site of its successive ages.
And yet, together with the holy Sepulchre, this temple was the crucible of the Osirian faith. The inestimable relic, the head of Osiris, conferred upon it an unequalled aura of holy power.
Has the mind of the masses really changed so much ? For example, London has protected its unknown hero in west minister Abbey, Paris under the Arc de Triomphe, while in Moscow the remains of Lenin are preserved in his mausoleum in Red Square. It seems that each city draws strength from the legacies of its great dead. But wasn't Osiris, whose resurrection promised eternal life to every pious man and woman, the greatest of them all?
INITIATION OF ABYDOS
But how do we know whether or not secret initiation were conducted in Egypt, especially in Abydos? An ancient text that was recently discovered and dating back to c.2000 BCE seems to give an affirmative answer: Fellow the god to his abode. In his tomb Anubis sanctifies the hidden mystery of Osiris.In the sacred valley of the master of life(Osiris), it is the mysterious initiation of the master of Abydos!
What could be plainer? the god Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the necropoleis, participated in the unfolding of a 'mysterious initiation" conducted by Osiris, the master of Abydos.
Anubis welcome the postulant at the threshold of the sacred domain. He is a "dreadful-looking god," writes the Roman author Apuleius following his initiation in the 2nd century CE, "a god that server as a messenger between the world above and the infernal world below, with a face half-black and half-gold, his head held high and proudly stretching his dog's neck".
So, Egyptians wished to die in Abydos. To die near the god, to rest in the peace emanating from the holy Sepulchre; to experience the miracle of resurrection in its shadow was the dream of an entire population, from century to century.
It is then toward this holy place that er must journey in order to conceive, with the help of Egyptian text of various dates and sources, how the initiatory process unfolded in the era of the pharaohs, and up untill the time of the 2nd century CE.
Unfortunately, there is little left of Abydos today except ruins and a single bastion: the sanctuary of Seti I and the strange edifice adjacent to it called the Osireion .
THE OSIREION OF ABYDOS
This structure is without doubt the most mysterious in the valley of the Nile. Its construction began during the reign of the 19th dynasty pharaoh, Set I (c.1300 BCE), and was entirely underground when originally built. It comprise a long dark corridor leading into a hall half filled with water. From the centre of this basin rise a rectangular esplande, a kind of island surrounded by heavy pillars of pink granite, to which toe staircases lead.
What could be the purpose of this extraordinary architectural complex ? Could it be a cenotapy; a monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lay elsewhere, perhaps of Seti I, whose name is inscribed in the entrance corridor and he central hall ? This is possible, as the walls of the corridor are covered with funerary inscriptions, such as in the tombs of the valley of the kings. In addition, a spacious empty room, reminiscent of the those in the pyramids of Sakkara and laid out on the east side of the Osireion, conjures up images of a huge sarcophagus.
But, three or four centuries after its construction, this edifice was looked upon as a place dedicated to the worship of Osiris. And there are many archaeological clues to support this hypothesis. First, the esplanade raising out of the water-filled central hall and provided with two staircases was undoubtedly thought to be the primordial mound itself, where death was vanquished at the dawn of time. There, according to tradition, Osiris lay in his sepulchre. Second, the two cavities hewn in the pavement of the esplanade undoubtedly had the purpose of housing the sarcophagus of the god and the holy shrine containing his viscera, perhaps even his head. Finally, circular pits, unearthed around the central hall are still filled with fertile soil, used to shelter verdant tress,symbols of the eternity of the resuscitated Osiris.
We can now see the purpose of the Osireion: Seti I wanted sacred rites to be performed in Abydos, in order to ensure his immortality near Osiris and, at the same time, to perpetuate the worship of the great god. Therefore, the royal cenotapy was an Osirian tomb as well.
Replica of the Sanctuary of Osiris?
We must not confuse this sanctuary with the main sanctuary in Abydos north, whose ruins are still scattered in the place know today as Kom es-Sultan, and where the annual festival of Osiris took place.
Very few documents mention this illustrious site. Those that do however, reveal a surprising fact. There is in France, in the Museum of Archaeology in Marseille, a sarcophagus that has depicted on it a rounded knoll crowned with four tree guarded by two ram-headed gods.
Without any doubt, Osiris lies under this knoll. His name is inscribed there,and the beginning of the inscription above the picture clearly ready: this is the knoll that hides within the (body) decayed; it is the holy place of Osiris who dwells in the west. The knoll and the four trees therefore allude to the famous sepulchre of Osiris.But right away, the esplanade of the osireion comes to mind, symbolizing also the primordial mound and lifting above the waters the sarcophagus of the god, as well as the trees of eternal regeneration that framed the central hall.
Would the Osireion of Seti I be an imitation of the large ruined temple of Abydos? it ever confirmed, such a fact would be of decisive important, because all initiatory progression in the famous lost sanctuary could, in such a case, be conceived as well in the architectural complex of the still- standing Osireion. Thus the latter would preserve intact the exact reproduction of the decor where the most secret practices of the pharaonic era took place; making it unique in ancient Egypt and even in the history of ancient civilizations.
We can now conclude that on the sacred domain of Abydos the great temple of Osiris is almost completely destroyed. However, several ancient papyri preserve its main characteristics. Under a mound surrounded by tress was a basin filled with water where pillars supporting the roof of the sanctuary stood; and from the centre of this basin emerged a terrace with two staircase of which lay the mummy of Osiris. This description, no matter how brief it may be, immediately arouse a comparison with the Osireion built by Seti I, which seems to be a replica of the lost temple. We can still find today the basin, the pillars, the esplanade with its double staircase, the two cavities arranged to house the sarcophagus and the shrine containing the viscera; and finally, the pits where verdant tress used to frame the whole sanctuary buried underneath the sand.
All this archaeological data points to the fact that Seti I intended to reproduce he architectural complex of the great temple of Osiris at Abydos. Hence the conclusion that since the Osireion seems to be a copy of the destroyed temple, all the details of the test pertaining to this temple can be transferred, without risking too much error, to the architectural complex of the the still-standing Osireion of Seti I.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Ancient Egypt and Modern Esotericism
On an inner level, the ritual sailing of the king occurs in the heavens. Just as in the coronation text of Thutmose III,the king flies up to the sky in order to worship Ra and be filed with his akh-power,so the context of the ritual sailing is cosmic. The ancient Egyptians understood that to become enlightened one must become aware of that which is cosmic in one's own nature. One must realize that there is something deep within human nature that is essentially not of this earth, but is a cosmic principle.
The cosmic being who presided over Ra's diurnal voyage across the sky was the heavenly goddess Nut. It was she who gave birth to Ra each morning and who received him into herself again in the evening. When Ra entered her interior realm each evening, he entered the secret and wholly invisible world that the Egyptians called the Dwat.
The Dwat was conceived as being on the other side of the star that we see when we look up at the night sky. The stars were imagined as being on the flesh of the goddess Nut, and the Dwat was in some sense behind or within the world of which the stars demarcated the outermost boundary.
It was not just the sun god however that entered the Dwat at the end of the day. All creatures were believed to return to the Dwat at the end of their lives, pass into its dark interior, and were born from it again, just as the sun god was born from the Dwat each morning. There was therefore the outwardly visible cosmos, the star of Nut's body, and what exist invisibly in her interior. It is a threshold we all come to when we die, when everything becomes concentrated at a single point, and then disappears from view.
Knowledge of this interior world of the Dwat was considered by the Egyptians to be the most important, most profound knowledge, for people living on earth to acquire. The Dwat was not only the realm of the dead, but also the realm of the gods and spirits and furthermore, the realm from which all living things emerge. All life issues from the Dwat. To know this mysterious interior world was to become truly wise, for then one knew both sides of existence, the invisible along with the visible.
It is interesting that Thutmose III had the complete text and illustration of the most comprehensive guide to the Dwat(the book of what is in the underworld) painted on the inner walls of his tomb in the valley of the kings. As his coronation text remind us, this was a king who was "instructed in the wisdom of the gods". Unlike Napoleon, Thutmose III was initiated into a deep spiritual knowledge. It is not without significance that the name Thutmose means "born of Thoth," the god whom the Greek identified with Hermes, and form who one of the most important of the Western esoteric traditions , the Hermetic Tradition, derives its name.
THE THREE TASKS
I have tried to show that the Egyptians lived with an awareness of a dimension of reality that is best described by the term "imaginal," a non-physical yet objective reality that we become aware of through the human faculty of imagination. For the Egyptians, the agencies and powers that can be reached through contact with the imaginal world are far more potent than anything merely physical, because through them physical reality can be transformed.
Thus we have seen how Thtmose III called upon Seth and Neith to infuse him with a superhuman martial energy that enable him to go to war with an irresistible ferocity . In battle after battle, he and his accompanying priest could also magically invoke the imaginal reality of the defeat of the powers opposed to the sun god and ma'at, both of whom the pharaoh represented, indeed embodied, on earth. It was this, according to his own account, that brought Thutmose his victories.
I have also tried to show that the Egyptians lived with an understanding that we are not just terrestrial beings; we are also cosmic. As such, our spiritual fulfilment is only possible is a cosmic setting. This understanding is to be found from the earliest sacred literature( the pyramid Texts), to the coronation text of Thutmose III and the book of the Dead, where, for example, such mystical episodes as flying up to the sky, seeing the image of the sun god, boarding the sun-boat and / or becoming inwardly "solarised," are all recorded.
Finally, i have suggested that the Egyptians had an orientation towards the world of the dead(the Dwat) that saw it as being the source of the most profound wisdom concerning the nature of reality. There is a remarkably rich metaphysical literature concerning the Dwat, knowledge of which was evidently regarded as relevant not only to the the dead but also to the living. All of this was "mainstream" ancient Egyptian religious consciousness.
THE EGYPTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS GOES UNDERGROUND
At the end of the Egyptian era it went "underground," moving from the temple to the private household, and then to the small group meeting in secret, from whence it would pass into various esoteric traditions. Thus in the Alchemical tradition, there is a particular focus on the imaginal realm of archetypes and the path of inner transformation. In the Hermetic tradition there is a concentration on the realization of our cosmic nature, while in Gnosticism we find a particular emphasis on the invisible hierarchies of the spirit world. These three western esoteric streams could be understood as each preserving in their different ways the ancient Egyptian wisdom into the next cultural era.
Meanwhile the emerging mainstream culture with its Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman basis increasingly rejected the old consciousness. The world became more and more impermeable to the divine, archetypal and imaginla presences. In Judaism the notion of idolatry, which would have been incomprehensible to the ancient Egyptians came to dominate the religious consciousness; while the Greeks and Romans saw the gods slowly fade away and become less and less easy to communicate with. The new consciousness meant that people experienced the world going through a kind of solidification, so that is was no longer able to transmit the radiant energies of the divine.
At the same time there emerged an increasing sense that human beings were simply terrestrial beings and consequently, our happiness was conceived less in cosmic terms and more in terms of satisfying our physical needs, desire and comforts. The material world had to be mastered to this end and this, in time, became the great project of science and technology, which involved an almost complete forgetfulness of our cosmic origins.
It also involved a forgetfulness of that part of human existence that belongs between death and rebirth. There was a growing identification of the human being solely with the life that we lead between birth and death. Already, both the Greek and Judaic conceptions of life after death expressed the conviction that the soul survived as pale and ghostly reflection of its formal self. As the ghost of Achilles says in Homer's Odyssey," the senseless dead are mere shadows of men outworn. This view, so very different from that of the Egyptians, culminated in the modern idea that there is simply no existence at all after death. Modern scientific materialism is founded upon a total ignorance of the spirit world .
I proposed that ancient Egypt exposes to tension in our own culture and that is so doing we can see it karmic role today. The reason why it may be helpful to see Egypt in these terms is because we are now coming to the end of the Greco-Roman/Judeo-Christian era. It has achieved its purpose, which was to make us more individuated, more self (rather than god) centred in our soul-life, and thus more free.
Becoming Aware Again of Inner Spiritual Realities
Now there is a need to become aware again of inner, spiritual realities bit to become aware of them grounded in our own sense of self, and which we can once more turn toward them. So i would suggest that it is here that the profound karmic relationship is working between ancient Egypt and the new era that is beginning to unfold before us.
While our relationship to ancient Egypt is certainly based upon our acquiring a deeper and more accurate knowledge of its culture and religion, the relationship is by no means simply in the direction of the present to the past. It is also about how the past can support us in forging our own future by helping us to re-engage with the spiritual dimensions which were so intrinsic to people's experience in the times of old.
What ancient Egypt can do today is to provide both the impetus and the anchorage for a modern esotericism. By esotericism i mean knowledge of inner realities. There is no question of " going back" to ancient Egypt. It is rather the case that by wrestling with ancient Egyptian sacred text, we are drawn down to a deeper level of awareness that we need to make more conscious. And feeling this need, we are driven to find our own new relationship to the spiritual dimension.
As i see it, there are three tasks ahead for contemporary esotericism. The first is to grow into a fully felt and participative relationship with the imaginal worlds that stand behind the physical. We need constantly to work at dissolving the density of the physical and literal world. We need to loosen its solidity in order to see through to the luminous world of spirits, gods and archetypes that are its invisible matrix. They are, in a sense, the "dream" of the world that our modern, all too wide-awake to return our waking consciousness to this dream, by bringing it once more into a living relationship with the imaginal dimensions of the world.
Along with this comes the second task, which is to expand our conception of ourselves beyond the confines of the earth by developing a sense that the cosmos that surrounds us is not just dead matter, but full of soul. To do this we need not so much to work against as to work through the materialistic conceptions that permeate modern cosmological thinking. We can develop once again a feeling for the soul-qualities of the planets and constellations, for the whole world of the stars. And the more we are able todo this, the more we are able to connect with the "world soul" or anima mundi as it used to be called, the more will be able to reconnect again with our own cosmic nature.
I see the third task as being once more to become aware of the realm of death as the other half of life, as much a part of our existence as sleep is a part of our life between birth and death. It requires that we see this realm of death not so much as a place that we go after we die, as a realm that we inhabit,or one might say inhabit us, alongside the world of the living. The world of death can be understood as a completely interior world, and yet despite the fact that it has no dimensions, it is not necessarily inaccessible to consciousness.For its interiority ultimately coincides with our own. The more we become aware of the source of what arise in our own consciousness, the more do we extend our consciousness towards this deeply interior realm of death. And in extending our consciousness towards it, we extend our consciousness towards that other half of existence without which we cannot fully participate in life .
The cosmic being who presided over Ra's diurnal voyage across the sky was the heavenly goddess Nut. It was she who gave birth to Ra each morning and who received him into herself again in the evening. When Ra entered her interior realm each evening, he entered the secret and wholly invisible world that the Egyptians called the Dwat.
The Dwat was conceived as being on the other side of the star that we see when we look up at the night sky. The stars were imagined as being on the flesh of the goddess Nut, and the Dwat was in some sense behind or within the world of which the stars demarcated the outermost boundary.
It was not just the sun god however that entered the Dwat at the end of the day. All creatures were believed to return to the Dwat at the end of their lives, pass into its dark interior, and were born from it again, just as the sun god was born from the Dwat each morning. There was therefore the outwardly visible cosmos, the star of Nut's body, and what exist invisibly in her interior. It is a threshold we all come to when we die, when everything becomes concentrated at a single point, and then disappears from view.
Knowledge of this interior world of the Dwat was considered by the Egyptians to be the most important, most profound knowledge, for people living on earth to acquire. The Dwat was not only the realm of the dead, but also the realm of the gods and spirits and furthermore, the realm from which all living things emerge. All life issues from the Dwat. To know this mysterious interior world was to become truly wise, for then one knew both sides of existence, the invisible along with the visible.
It is interesting that Thutmose III had the complete text and illustration of the most comprehensive guide to the Dwat(the book of what is in the underworld) painted on the inner walls of his tomb in the valley of the kings. As his coronation text remind us, this was a king who was "instructed in the wisdom of the gods". Unlike Napoleon, Thutmose III was initiated into a deep spiritual knowledge. It is not without significance that the name Thutmose means "born of Thoth," the god whom the Greek identified with Hermes, and form who one of the most important of the Western esoteric traditions , the Hermetic Tradition, derives its name.
THE THREE TASKS
I have tried to show that the Egyptians lived with an awareness of a dimension of reality that is best described by the term "imaginal," a non-physical yet objective reality that we become aware of through the human faculty of imagination. For the Egyptians, the agencies and powers that can be reached through contact with the imaginal world are far more potent than anything merely physical, because through them physical reality can be transformed.
Thus we have seen how Thtmose III called upon Seth and Neith to infuse him with a superhuman martial energy that enable him to go to war with an irresistible ferocity . In battle after battle, he and his accompanying priest could also magically invoke the imaginal reality of the defeat of the powers opposed to the sun god and ma'at, both of whom the pharaoh represented, indeed embodied, on earth. It was this, according to his own account, that brought Thutmose his victories.
I have also tried to show that the Egyptians lived with an understanding that we are not just terrestrial beings; we are also cosmic. As such, our spiritual fulfilment is only possible is a cosmic setting. This understanding is to be found from the earliest sacred literature( the pyramid Texts), to the coronation text of Thutmose III and the book of the Dead, where, for example, such mystical episodes as flying up to the sky, seeing the image of the sun god, boarding the sun-boat and / or becoming inwardly "solarised," are all recorded.
Finally, i have suggested that the Egyptians had an orientation towards the world of the dead(the Dwat) that saw it as being the source of the most profound wisdom concerning the nature of reality. There is a remarkably rich metaphysical literature concerning the Dwat, knowledge of which was evidently regarded as relevant not only to the the dead but also to the living. All of this was "mainstream" ancient Egyptian religious consciousness.
THE EGYPTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS GOES UNDERGROUND
At the end of the Egyptian era it went "underground," moving from the temple to the private household, and then to the small group meeting in secret, from whence it would pass into various esoteric traditions. Thus in the Alchemical tradition, there is a particular focus on the imaginal realm of archetypes and the path of inner transformation. In the Hermetic tradition there is a concentration on the realization of our cosmic nature, while in Gnosticism we find a particular emphasis on the invisible hierarchies of the spirit world. These three western esoteric streams could be understood as each preserving in their different ways the ancient Egyptian wisdom into the next cultural era.
Meanwhile the emerging mainstream culture with its Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman basis increasingly rejected the old consciousness. The world became more and more impermeable to the divine, archetypal and imaginla presences. In Judaism the notion of idolatry, which would have been incomprehensible to the ancient Egyptians came to dominate the religious consciousness; while the Greeks and Romans saw the gods slowly fade away and become less and less easy to communicate with. The new consciousness meant that people experienced the world going through a kind of solidification, so that is was no longer able to transmit the radiant energies of the divine.
At the same time there emerged an increasing sense that human beings were simply terrestrial beings and consequently, our happiness was conceived less in cosmic terms and more in terms of satisfying our physical needs, desire and comforts. The material world had to be mastered to this end and this, in time, became the great project of science and technology, which involved an almost complete forgetfulness of our cosmic origins.
It also involved a forgetfulness of that part of human existence that belongs between death and rebirth. There was a growing identification of the human being solely with the life that we lead between birth and death. Already, both the Greek and Judaic conceptions of life after death expressed the conviction that the soul survived as pale and ghostly reflection of its formal self. As the ghost of Achilles says in Homer's Odyssey," the senseless dead are mere shadows of men outworn. This view, so very different from that of the Egyptians, culminated in the modern idea that there is simply no existence at all after death. Modern scientific materialism is founded upon a total ignorance of the spirit world .
I proposed that ancient Egypt exposes to tension in our own culture and that is so doing we can see it karmic role today. The reason why it may be helpful to see Egypt in these terms is because we are now coming to the end of the Greco-Roman/Judeo-Christian era. It has achieved its purpose, which was to make us more individuated, more self (rather than god) centred in our soul-life, and thus more free.
Becoming Aware Again of Inner Spiritual Realities
Now there is a need to become aware again of inner, spiritual realities bit to become aware of them grounded in our own sense of self, and which we can once more turn toward them. So i would suggest that it is here that the profound karmic relationship is working between ancient Egypt and the new era that is beginning to unfold before us.
While our relationship to ancient Egypt is certainly based upon our acquiring a deeper and more accurate knowledge of its culture and religion, the relationship is by no means simply in the direction of the present to the past. It is also about how the past can support us in forging our own future by helping us to re-engage with the spiritual dimensions which were so intrinsic to people's experience in the times of old.
What ancient Egypt can do today is to provide both the impetus and the anchorage for a modern esotericism. By esotericism i mean knowledge of inner realities. There is no question of " going back" to ancient Egypt. It is rather the case that by wrestling with ancient Egyptian sacred text, we are drawn down to a deeper level of awareness that we need to make more conscious. And feeling this need, we are driven to find our own new relationship to the spiritual dimension.
As i see it, there are three tasks ahead for contemporary esotericism. The first is to grow into a fully felt and participative relationship with the imaginal worlds that stand behind the physical. We need constantly to work at dissolving the density of the physical and literal world. We need to loosen its solidity in order to see through to the luminous world of spirits, gods and archetypes that are its invisible matrix. They are, in a sense, the "dream" of the world that our modern, all too wide-awake to return our waking consciousness to this dream, by bringing it once more into a living relationship with the imaginal dimensions of the world.
Along with this comes the second task, which is to expand our conception of ourselves beyond the confines of the earth by developing a sense that the cosmos that surrounds us is not just dead matter, but full of soul. To do this we need not so much to work against as to work through the materialistic conceptions that permeate modern cosmological thinking. We can develop once again a feeling for the soul-qualities of the planets and constellations, for the whole world of the stars. And the more we are able todo this, the more we are able to connect with the "world soul" or anima mundi as it used to be called, the more will be able to reconnect again with our own cosmic nature.
I see the third task as being once more to become aware of the realm of death as the other half of life, as much a part of our existence as sleep is a part of our life between birth and death. It requires that we see this realm of death not so much as a place that we go after we die, as a realm that we inhabit,or one might say inhabit us, alongside the world of the living. The world of death can be understood as a completely interior world, and yet despite the fact that it has no dimensions, it is not necessarily inaccessible to consciousness.For its interiority ultimately coincides with our own. The more we become aware of the source of what arise in our own consciousness, the more do we extend our consciousness towards this deeply interior realm of death. And in extending our consciousness towards it, we extend our consciousness towards that other half of existence without which we cannot fully participate in life .
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Ma'at , The Gift of Egypt
In june, in the desert of the valley of the kings, on the western bank of the river Nile, the temperature will reach 49'c before noon. To avoid the heat, we rose early, dressed and ate breakfast in dark, and boarded a ferry bound for Thebes as the sun was rising. If only once in life, you must see the sun rise at Luxor. In one moment all time contracts, then expands. The past and present lie together. As rocks and hills fill with color,the palm fronds seem to stretch visibly to catch the first light of the day. You feel as if you have witnessed the dawn of creation. A certain peace descends .
Otherwise, the valley of the kings is a desolate place-all yellow rock, dust and sand, and a maze of tomb shafts dug deep into the bedrock. Here lie the pharaohs of ancient egypt's new kingdom; here is the final resting place of gods on earth beneath a high peaked hill, which resembles a natural pyramid thrust up against the depthless, blue sky. Myths tell us that this primeval hill rose from the watery abyss when the creator god, Atum (or ptah), spoke the word. Here being came from nothingness; and here the dead returned, waiting to turn again from death to life .
Along the walls of the valley of the kings, multitudinous tomb shaft plunge downward, passageway after passageway, corridor after corridor. Their stuccoed walls and ceilings are painted in brilliant green, reds, blues, and yellows. The eye feasts upon the faces of men and women, gods and goddess . Hieroglyphs proclaim spells for living and dying, prescriptions for transformation, maps of the underworld, texts for the dead.
To the right and lift of the entrance to the tomb of Rames iii kneel two angels with outstretched wings. They are Ma'at, the double goddess of the scales, a reminder that death is the moment of Truth. They hold their arms, spread wide their wings, as if waiting for the entombed soul to embrace her.
Halfway down the enormous tomb with its 27 passageways, rooms, and chambers, i see Ma'at again.. and i stand transfixed. Small, luminous, and birdlike, she sits in the cupped hand of the pharaoh. In her hair she wears a single, white ostrich feather-the balance which is placed on the scales during the weighing of the heart in the underworld.
GIFT OF THE GODS
I am witnessing the most poignant art in the world-delicate brushwork and color never meant for mortal eyes, but rather for the eyes of gods and spirits. Though nearly 3000 year old, the work seems freash from the painter's palette. Here is eternal Ma'at the greatest treasure anyone might own - goddess of the scales and ostrich feather, cosmic law and Truth.
She is not sprung from the thighs of another goddess. She is among the few eternal,divine beings who never are born, age, or die. Ma'at,in heaven, witnessed the dawn of creation. She balance the scales and created order from chaos. She regulated ebb and flow. Even the path of the might sun god Ra was determined by the divine, unalterable law of Ma'at. She nourished the gods as their food and drink. Once the primeval hill rose from the deep, she descended from heaven to earth, embodying the gods'gift to humankind: balance, harmony, equilibrium, and order. In many representations, the platform on which Ma'at stands is a hieroglyph which may represent either the primeval hill or the craftsman's level. The glypy alone indicate "that which is measured, steadfast, straight, upright , and true."
In the hand of a pharaoh, Ma'at represents the supreme mortal offering - the return of Ma'at to the gods. Lambs may be slaughtered; moly, saffron, and frankincense burned; gold, beer, and bread placed upon the alter. These are mere token, transitory sacrifices. The gods need little but human love and gratitude. They ask only to be experienced in the hearts of humans, for humans and gods to live in harmony, with Ma'at. Created by gods, dispensed by gods, and returned to gods, Ma'at is the essential ingredient for all life, whether human or divine.
Elsewhere throughout the tombs in the valley, she stands sometimes beside Ptah, the memphite creator god, receiving a seated representation of herself: Ma'at returned to Ma'at; order preserved, life cherished, creation returned to creation. At other times, she stands beside Osiris, god of death and resurrection, in her capacity as impartial judge of the human soul. Sometimes she stand alone, holding the ankh, as if it were a fragrant flower, to the dead pharaoh's nose, providing him with the breath of life, that in the other world as in this world he might breath truth and eternal life.
DUALITY OF MA'AT
Sometimes she appears as two goddesses, two feathers, two birds, or twin principle, the double Ma'aty. in her twin form, ma'at is represented by the magical, nurturing Isis and her sister in sorrow, Nephthys - the principle of light and dark, action and reception. Ma'at is the perfect balance of opposition, of positive and negative energies, of the law of cause and effect.
The duality of Ma'at remains at the core of Egyptian mysticism. Out of the ultimate one arises the principle of two, the first step towards the diversification of unity. Light is distinguished from darkness, man is distinguished from woman. Through the delicate dance of the two with each other, a multiplicity of forms arise. Creation begets creation. Life sustains itself, transforms, lives, dies, is born again .
TRUTH
One of the interesting linguistic principles behind the Egyptian hieroglyph for "truth," which is also ma'at, is that the word is always written in its plural form . The hieroglyph provides as one of its symbols that sign for multiple grains of sand, indicating that the truth is usually more than one thing.
With diversification comes the notion of discernment. If things can vary, then one may perceive their variety . Thus choice follows and, as a manifestation of choice, free will and morality. In turn, the unified, eternal soul is affected by these perceptions and judgments. Therefore,at death, the heart may be weighed in the balance.
Most often of the tomb walls and in the Books of the Dead, ma'at appears seated before the scales during the weighing of the heart. The heart, not the mind, is weighed,because the ancients believed it was the heart where moral judgments were made. Thoughts sometimes played trickery upon people, but one's feeling always represented the truth.
Led by the felcon god, Horus, and/or by the jackal, Anubis, the deceased witnesses the weighing of their own heart. What is being measured is the effect their life has had upon the balance of the cosmos, ma'at is unflinching and unwavering. Justice awaits those whose lives ever, after with the gods; but if their heart is impure, it is thrown to Ammit, the eater of hearts, a vile composite creature - part lion, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile. The souls devoured by Ammit exit no more .
ROLE OF THOTH
In the Greek tradition, ma'at is equated with Themis, the goddess of divine justice who hold the scales, amd with Metis, the goddess of prudence. In Egyptian terms, she is often perceived as the anima of thoth , the god of wisdom, intellect, and of scribes. To completely understand Ma'at, we must look at Thoth as the lord of Time, chronicler of the Aeons, keeper of the Akashic Records, and Administrator of Karma.
He was also a god of healing, magic, and medicine, bearing the emblem of the caduceus . Upon the caduceus two snake intertwine. Once again, we find the active and passive dual principle of life - opposing forces which balance each other to create stable and enduring life. The outstretched wings of the caduceus remind us of the outstretched wings of ma'at, offering divine protection and ultimate harmony. The snake, too, are awe-inspiring emblems of the power of change and transformation, of creation and destruction. Like ma'at. thoth presided over the world's creation; and although it is well known that Atum uttered the word from which the world sprang,it was believed that Thoth gave him the idea.
Thoth played a major role in the administration of divine justice. He oversaw the battle between Horus , the falcon god of day, and Set, the serpent of darkness. The divine eye of Ra was injured during this fight between animals and divine natures. Such equilibrium is difficult to maintain and must be the focus of daily attention.
Ma'at is a viable way to live in the world - to accept the gift of gods and to return that gift to the gods as the divine offering and honouring of life. Wherever she appears, ma'at represents the partnership of humanity and gods in the maintenance of a balanced world. In the cupped hand of a pharaoh, she represent an offering of the essential self, proof that we have taken care of that with which we were provided in the beginning . This is the moral precept of the return of the divine nature to the divine .
For ma'at to function, one must first accept completely the gift of life, learn to dance with the scales, to use the balance. Then ma'at must be integrated. Ma'at must appear in action and in love, whether we are working on the protection of the environment, raising children, planting gardens, writing laws, writing books, or managing others.
What i see in the cupped hand of the pharaoh is the cup of truth, the holy grail, from which we drink, and which sustains us,and which sustains even God.
Otherwise, the valley of the kings is a desolate place-all yellow rock, dust and sand, and a maze of tomb shafts dug deep into the bedrock. Here lie the pharaohs of ancient egypt's new kingdom; here is the final resting place of gods on earth beneath a high peaked hill, which resembles a natural pyramid thrust up against the depthless, blue sky. Myths tell us that this primeval hill rose from the watery abyss when the creator god, Atum (or ptah), spoke the word. Here being came from nothingness; and here the dead returned, waiting to turn again from death to life .
Along the walls of the valley of the kings, multitudinous tomb shaft plunge downward, passageway after passageway, corridor after corridor. Their stuccoed walls and ceilings are painted in brilliant green, reds, blues, and yellows. The eye feasts upon the faces of men and women, gods and goddess . Hieroglyphs proclaim spells for living and dying, prescriptions for transformation, maps of the underworld, texts for the dead.
To the right and lift of the entrance to the tomb of Rames iii kneel two angels with outstretched wings. They are Ma'at, the double goddess of the scales, a reminder that death is the moment of Truth. They hold their arms, spread wide their wings, as if waiting for the entombed soul to embrace her.
Halfway down the enormous tomb with its 27 passageways, rooms, and chambers, i see Ma'at again.. and i stand transfixed. Small, luminous, and birdlike, she sits in the cupped hand of the pharaoh. In her hair she wears a single, white ostrich feather-the balance which is placed on the scales during the weighing of the heart in the underworld.
GIFT OF THE GODS
I am witnessing the most poignant art in the world-delicate brushwork and color never meant for mortal eyes, but rather for the eyes of gods and spirits. Though nearly 3000 year old, the work seems freash from the painter's palette. Here is eternal Ma'at the greatest treasure anyone might own - goddess of the scales and ostrich feather, cosmic law and Truth.
She is not sprung from the thighs of another goddess. She is among the few eternal,divine beings who never are born, age, or die. Ma'at,in heaven, witnessed the dawn of creation. She balance the scales and created order from chaos. She regulated ebb and flow. Even the path of the might sun god Ra was determined by the divine, unalterable law of Ma'at. She nourished the gods as their food and drink. Once the primeval hill rose from the deep, she descended from heaven to earth, embodying the gods'gift to humankind: balance, harmony, equilibrium, and order. In many representations, the platform on which Ma'at stands is a hieroglyph which may represent either the primeval hill or the craftsman's level. The glypy alone indicate "that which is measured, steadfast, straight, upright , and true."
In the hand of a pharaoh, Ma'at represents the supreme mortal offering - the return of Ma'at to the gods. Lambs may be slaughtered; moly, saffron, and frankincense burned; gold, beer, and bread placed upon the alter. These are mere token, transitory sacrifices. The gods need little but human love and gratitude. They ask only to be experienced in the hearts of humans, for humans and gods to live in harmony, with Ma'at. Created by gods, dispensed by gods, and returned to gods, Ma'at is the essential ingredient for all life, whether human or divine.
Elsewhere throughout the tombs in the valley, she stands sometimes beside Ptah, the memphite creator god, receiving a seated representation of herself: Ma'at returned to Ma'at; order preserved, life cherished, creation returned to creation. At other times, she stands beside Osiris, god of death and resurrection, in her capacity as impartial judge of the human soul. Sometimes she stand alone, holding the ankh, as if it were a fragrant flower, to the dead pharaoh's nose, providing him with the breath of life, that in the other world as in this world he might breath truth and eternal life.
DUALITY OF MA'AT
Sometimes she appears as two goddesses, two feathers, two birds, or twin principle, the double Ma'aty. in her twin form, ma'at is represented by the magical, nurturing Isis and her sister in sorrow, Nephthys - the principle of light and dark, action and reception. Ma'at is the perfect balance of opposition, of positive and negative energies, of the law of cause and effect.
The duality of Ma'at remains at the core of Egyptian mysticism. Out of the ultimate one arises the principle of two, the first step towards the diversification of unity. Light is distinguished from darkness, man is distinguished from woman. Through the delicate dance of the two with each other, a multiplicity of forms arise. Creation begets creation. Life sustains itself, transforms, lives, dies, is born again .
TRUTH
One of the interesting linguistic principles behind the Egyptian hieroglyph for "truth," which is also ma'at, is that the word is always written in its plural form . The hieroglyph provides as one of its symbols that sign for multiple grains of sand, indicating that the truth is usually more than one thing.
With diversification comes the notion of discernment. If things can vary, then one may perceive their variety . Thus choice follows and, as a manifestation of choice, free will and morality. In turn, the unified, eternal soul is affected by these perceptions and judgments. Therefore,at death, the heart may be weighed in the balance.
Most often of the tomb walls and in the Books of the Dead, ma'at appears seated before the scales during the weighing of the heart. The heart, not the mind, is weighed,because the ancients believed it was the heart where moral judgments were made. Thoughts sometimes played trickery upon people, but one's feeling always represented the truth.
Led by the felcon god, Horus, and/or by the jackal, Anubis, the deceased witnesses the weighing of their own heart. What is being measured is the effect their life has had upon the balance of the cosmos, ma'at is unflinching and unwavering. Justice awaits those whose lives ever, after with the gods; but if their heart is impure, it is thrown to Ammit, the eater of hearts, a vile composite creature - part lion, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile. The souls devoured by Ammit exit no more .
ROLE OF THOTH
In the Greek tradition, ma'at is equated with Themis, the goddess of divine justice who hold the scales, amd with Metis, the goddess of prudence. In Egyptian terms, she is often perceived as the anima of thoth , the god of wisdom, intellect, and of scribes. To completely understand Ma'at, we must look at Thoth as the lord of Time, chronicler of the Aeons, keeper of the Akashic Records, and Administrator of Karma.
He was also a god of healing, magic, and medicine, bearing the emblem of the caduceus . Upon the caduceus two snake intertwine. Once again, we find the active and passive dual principle of life - opposing forces which balance each other to create stable and enduring life. The outstretched wings of the caduceus remind us of the outstretched wings of ma'at, offering divine protection and ultimate harmony. The snake, too, are awe-inspiring emblems of the power of change and transformation, of creation and destruction. Like ma'at. thoth presided over the world's creation; and although it is well known that Atum uttered the word from which the world sprang,it was believed that Thoth gave him the idea.
Thoth played a major role in the administration of divine justice. He oversaw the battle between Horus , the falcon god of day, and Set, the serpent of darkness. The divine eye of Ra was injured during this fight between animals and divine natures. Such equilibrium is difficult to maintain and must be the focus of daily attention.
Ma'at is a viable way to live in the world - to accept the gift of gods and to return that gift to the gods as the divine offering and honouring of life. Wherever she appears, ma'at represents the partnership of humanity and gods in the maintenance of a balanced world. In the cupped hand of a pharaoh, she represent an offering of the essential self, proof that we have taken care of that with which we were provided in the beginning . This is the moral precept of the return of the divine nature to the divine .
For ma'at to function, one must first accept completely the gift of life, learn to dance with the scales, to use the balance. Then ma'at must be integrated. Ma'at must appear in action and in love, whether we are working on the protection of the environment, raising children, planting gardens, writing laws, writing books, or managing others.
What i see in the cupped hand of the pharaoh is the cup of truth, the holy grail, from which we drink, and which sustains us,and which sustains even God.
Friday, July 5, 2013
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