Soul & Philosophy
“You exist in time, but you belong to eternity. You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time. You are deathless, living in a body of death. Your consciousness (soul) knows no death, no birth – It is only your body that is born and dies” -Osho
There is much confusion about souls leaving bodies or entities taking over souls and so on. We are being drawn to clear up much of this confusion and distortion within these ideas. Before we clear up this confusion, lets us discuss how the soul is perceived by philosophy. Let’s start our presentation of the soul by going back to Ancient Egypt.
The Veil of Ignorance
Sebai Dr. Muata Ashby in his book Egyptian Yoga: The Philosophy of Enlightenment, stated in the ancient Egyptian text, “The Book of Coming Forth by Day“, the eternal soul comes to earth to learn certain lessons and to become purified. In the process of evolution, virtues as well as vices are experienced by us based on our own mental disposition. Our purity of heart determines the situations and outcomes of those situations.
Through repeated embodiments (reincarnation), we are lead by our own soul to experience that act of living, attempting all the time to find that Ultimate-Absolute Bliss which will eliminate all pain.
It is because of the veil of ignorance as to the true nature of the soul and of God that we interact with the universe as if it “really exists”, as if we were interacting with an entity other than ourselves. If we knew the truth, we would become enlightened Sages and Saints, thereby achieving ultimate freedom.
When the spirit, our innermost self, is ready to make the final “journey home”, back to its source, God, it begins to inquire about the nature of its existence and thereby causes pressure on the mind, namely the ego-personality. Our Ba, our individual God consciousness, begins to apply subtle pressure on our waking consciousness in the form of subtle suggestions.
We begin to recognize the wisdom of ancient scriptures and develop an interest in books. Becoming in tune with the pressure of spirit is allowing ourselves to be guided by our intuition and the letting go of ideas and thoughts which we know to be untrue and fruitless.
Mental purification requires the utmost patience with ourselves. Interest in the world as an Absolute reality (the notion there is nothing else beyond “this” physical reality) is left behind gradually and new psychological impressions and experiences are introduced until we become established in this “other” reality.
At this point, we wake up from the consciousness we have been used to as if waking up from a dream. This is attaining “Horusgood”, “Christhood”, or becoming “Buddha” or “Krishna.”
“That which is the Fundamental Truth, the Substantial Reality, is beyond true naming, but the Wise men call it The All.” – Egyptian Proverb
There are many paths of Liberation. They all lead to the same destination, the “One”, the “All” that is within us and all other things. This world of “apparent multiplicity” with many different objects and people is really a manifestation of one true reality.
Complete understanding of this most important point leads to the “Realization” of Truth. This is self-mastery, cosmic consciousness, liberation, enlightenment, salvation, etc.
Dispassion detachment are indispensable sciences to be practiced once an understanding of the teachings has begun to take root in our hearts. Neither loving nor hating, neither wanting nor not wanting.
All actions should be based on and guided by MAAT (truth, justice, righteousness, balance). No longer is there an action – reaction mentality of doing something to someone because someone did something to you, etc.
One is more and more able to control one’s emotions and behavior. No longer will it be necessary to act as an animal. Or to indulge in one’s ego when one is ridiculed or praised. One will live above these ignorant concepts (praise or ridicule).
One will live with one’s divine essence and truth. One will recognize the ignorance of others and will be strong enough to exercise compassion and understanding for them. From this position, it will be possible to do the greatest good for others.
Thus, a true transformation occurs. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the scarab is the symbol of transformation, from mortal to spiritual consciousness. This is the nurturing of baby Horus (the divine soul). By mother ISIS (life giving force, love, foundation, nourishing support). In secret hiding until he was old enough to do battle with his Uncle Set (greed, ignorance).
As a baby tree is fenced off to protect it. So too we must protect ourselves during the process of spiritual growth. By limiting contact with negative people or circumstances and keeping company with people of raised consciousness (enlightened Sages preferably).
“Salvation is accomplished through the efforts of the individual. There is no mediator between man and his/her salvation.” – Egyptian Proverb
The Fundamental Principles of Ancient Egyptian Religion
Sebai Dr. Muata Ashby, states that the term “Neterianism” is derived from the name “Shetaut Neter.” Shetaut Neter means the “Hidden Divinity.” It is the ancient philosophy and mythic spiritual culture that gave rise to the Ancient Egyptian civilization. Those who follow the spiritual path of Shetaut Neter are therefore refereed to as “Neterians.”
The fundamental principles common to all denominations of Ancient Egyptian Religion. May be summed up in four “Great Truths” that are common to all the traditions of Ancient Egyptian Religion.
The highest forms of Joy, Peace, and Contentment are obtained when the meaning of life is discovered. When the human being is in harmony with life. Then it is possible to reflect and meditate upon the human condition and realize the limitations of worldly pursuits.
When there is peace and harmony in life. A human being can practice any varied disciplines designated as Shetaut Neter. To promote his/her evolution towards the ultimate goal of life, which is spiritual enlightenment.
Spiritual enlightenment is the awakening of a human being to the awareness of the transcendental essence. Which binds the universe and which is eternal and immutable. In this discovery is also the sobering and ecstatic realization that the human being is one with that transcendental essence.
With this realization comes great joy, peace and power to experience the fullness of life and to realize the purpose of life during the time on Earth. The lotus is a symbol of Shetaut Neter, meaning the turning towards the light of truth, peace and transcendental harmony.
The ancient Egyptians were African peoples who lived in the north-eastern quadrant of the continent of Africa. They were descendants of the Nubians, who had themselves originated from farther south. Into the heart of Africa at the Great Lakes region, the sources of the Nile River. They created a vast civilization and culture earlier than any other society in known history and organized a nation that was based on the concepts of balance and order as well as spiritual enlightenment.
These ancient African people called their land Kamit. Soon after developing a well-ordered society. They began to realize that the world is full of wonders. Also that life is fleeting, and that there must be something more to human existence. They developed spiritual systems that were designed to allow human beings to understand the nature of this secret being who is the essence of all creation. They called this spiritual system “Shtaut Ntr (Shetaut Neter).”
“Men and women are to become God-like through a life of virtue and the cultivation of the spirit through scientific knowledge, practice and bodily discipline” – Ancient Egyptian Proverb
The term Ntr, or Ntjr, states Dr. Ashby, comes from the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic language which did not record its vowels. However, the term survives in the Coptic language as “Nutar.”
The same coptic meaning (divine force or sustaining power) applies in the present as it did in ancient times. It is a symbol composed of a wooden staff that was wrapped with strips of fabric, like a mummy. The strips alternate in color with yellow, green and blue.
The mummy in Kamitan spirituality is understood to be the dead but resurrected Divinity. So the Nutar (Ntr) is actually every human being who does not really die. But goes to live on in a different form.
Further, the resurrected spirit of every human being is that same Divinity. Phonetically, the term Nutar is related to other terms having the same meaning. Such as the Latin “Natura,” the Spanish Naturalesa, the English “Nature” and “Nutriment”, etc.
In a real essence, Natur means power manifesting as Neteru and the Neteru are the objects of creation, i.e. “nature.” The concept of Neter and Neteru binds and ties all of the varied forms of kamitan spirituality. Into one vision of the gods and goddess all emerging from the same supreme Being.
Therefore, ultimately, Kamitan spirituality is not polytheistic, nor monotheistic. For it holds that the Supreme Being is more than a God or Goddess. The Supreme Being is an all-encompassing Absolute Divinity.
The term “Neteru” means “gods and goddess.” This means that from the ultimate and transcendental Supreme Being, “Neter,” come the Neteru. There are countless Neteru. So from the one come the many. These Neteru are cosmic forces that pervade the universe. They are the means by which Neter sustains Creation and manifests through it.
So Neterianism is a monotheistic polytheism. The one Supreme Being expresses as many gods and goddesses. At the end of time, after their work of sustaining Creation is finished. These gods and goddesses are again absorbed back into the Supreme Being.
All of the spiritual systems of Ancient Egypt (Kamit) have one essential aspect that is common to all. They all hold that there is a Supreme Being (Neter) who manifests in a multiplicity of ways through nature, the Neteru. Life sunrays, the Neteru emanate from the Divine; they are its manifestations.
So by studying the Neteru we learn about and are led to discover their source, the Neter. And with this discovery we are enlightened. The Neteru may be depicted anthropomorphically or zoomorphically. In accordance with the teaching about Neter that is being conveyed through them.
“Self knowledge is the basis of true knowledge.” “Soul to heaven, body to earth.” – Ancient Egyptian Proverb
Ancient Mystical Philosophy
Dr. Ashby states, Ancient Mystical Philosophy states that “Creation” has not been “Created”. That “Creation” is in fact a mental manifestation, and that all mental manifestations are emanations of the Supreme Being.
Further, he states that we (our souls) are not manifestations of the “Creator”. But that we are the “Creator” —as the Creator alone exits. Our soul has experiences through the prism of mind. Our bodies are manifestations of our mind. Further, a purified mind can attain the vision of “reality” as it really is.
In studying Ancient Mystical Philosophy, we will see that we are “one” with the Creator. That we are taking a journey through the world of time and space with a veil of ignorance so that we “feel” the journey as if it is real.
In short, anything that can have a name or form is an illusory representation of the true reality which is the spirit, God. Further, the experiences of the “world” do not affect the soul or divine nature in any way.
Therefore, nothing is really happening except in the mentations of each of us. In a war for example, no one is killing and no one is being killed. It may be stated that God is interacting with God.
This can be more easily understood by imagining that all objects in creation including us, are like actors on a movie screen. Though someone may seemingly be born or die, the screen as well as the actors are unaffected in “real life.”
Similarly, we are appearing on the screen of pure consciousness, which is in fact what we call God. The idea that we are “really” doing something, that something is really occurring, constitutes “wrong thinking.”
Wrong thinking continues one’s involvement and belief that this physical world is the only “reality”; this is egoism. Right thinking implies living in the world. Seeing everything as part of God. One’s very own Self, therefore, living in peace and harmony with all things.
There is no need to wage war. This is the state of highest mental sanity and purity achieved by those who are spiritually advanced. The intellect required to grasp the above stated points is said to be that of advanced souls. These souls are nearing the end of their journey through the world process of illusion.
They are ready to attain “Salvation.” With a purified mind attained through the disciplines of meditation. Hekau (mantra) repetition and correct thinking, it is possible to transcend the “physical reality” and attain the higher vision while still alive.
As the teachings become “intuition” understood. The unconscious is cleansed of the “wrong” thinking to such a degree that a “new” vision is experienced. Those who attain this higher vision will live on in it after the death of the body because they live within their “real” identity.
Those who at the time of death persist in believing that they are a particular person, born in a particular place, to particular parents, loyal to a particular country or a particular race, will die with these ideas because these are perishable ideas that never existed: Illusions.
The world and everything in it (including our bodies) as we see it with ordinary eyes is only a reflection of the true reality. “True reality” is mental, energy and spirit: Pure Consciousness.
Therefore, the correct attitude toward physical life should be one which encompasses surrendering one’s ego consciousness. And accepting one’s true identity, loving all impersonally, relinquishing possessiveness and accepting the true underlying reality: God. This is the highest teaching of the Yoga of Wisdom.
Once it is understood, even in part. Feelings of “detachment” and “dispassion” for objects of the world begin in to occur in the individual. One experiences a feeling of “participating” in the world but understanding that it is not the “Absolute” reality.
The concept of the Absolute reality is embodied in the NETER (NTR) of Egypt. Ntu of the Yorubas, Amma of the Dogon, Brahman of Hinduism, the Tao of Taoism, the Darmakaya of Buddhism, Kingdom of Heaven of Christianity, Kether of the Kabbalah, the Great Spirit and Quetzalcoatle of Native Americans, and Allah of the Muslims.
One who understands the teaching will not be susceptible to sorrow at the loss of a “loved one”. Since he or she will realize that the loved one has only passed on in the journey. Or rather, that they have gone nowhere except to a different plane of “reality” to which all things belong.
Detachment from small individual things allows one to perceive one’s connection to everything. At this stage, various levels of peace are attained. The understanding of the teachings allow the mind to be free from “craving” worldly things. To love all things and people equally, since they are understood to be manifestations of the “Creator”, the Absolute reality, one’s very self: Pure Consciousness.
THE TEACHINGS are the writings of Masters. They were able to control their minds and bodies in a such a way as to ascend to great psychological and psychic heights.
They attained communion with the Cosmic Intelligence, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Upon doing so, they realized the nature of their own existence. And the fact that they, along with the rest of humanity, are one with that ultimate reality.
The Sages realized that even though there are many names and forms in creation. All that can be seen is not only part of God, the all encompassing being, but in effect are God.
The Sages said that the heights they attained were attainable by all humans with desire, will, and fearlessness to accept the truth. This truth is not in books, but in the innermost heart.
The teachings are not for everyone. However, since not all humans are spiritually and psychologically ready to control their lower nature (body and ego-mind).
Many prefer to believe what they are told at face value and wallow in the ups and downs of their mortal existence. Thinking: “this is all there is to life and when I die, that will be that.”
Those who abide by that form of ignorance will reap the fruits of what they have sown. Due to existence being essentially a mental process.
They who can control the mind will have a greater opportunity to attain immortality,. Not of the body, but of the true essence, the ultimate reality which is God: Pure Consciousness.
“Under and in back of the Universe of Time and Space and Change is ever to be found The Substantial Reality: the Fundamental Truth” – Egyptian Proverb
DJEHUTI: GNOSIS or THOUGHT
Dr. Ashby states having information and having knowledge are not necessarily the same thing. There are two forms of knowledge: direct and indirect. Indirect knowledge is something you learn and are convinced of intellectually.
Direct knowledge on the other hand, is something you experience. It is something which requires no thinking. One may learn about a flower by reading but one does not become the flower.
To know something intuitionally is in effect, to become it within one’s consciousness. In order for Gnosis to occur, it is necessary to become “identified” with the object of study.
One may accomplish this through concentrated thought and meditation, however, there are millions of individual objects in the universe. To become one with each of them would take at the very least, millions of lifetimes.
The simpler way is to achieve supreme wisdom (Dejehuti) be identifying (becoming one in the consciousness) with NETER, God, who is the source of all objects in existence.
Becoming one with or merging with NETER is therefore, the same as becoming one with all existence, having all knowledge, all power – omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Much in the “World” is information we have been told; much is information gathered buy our senses which are specially made to gather information from the physical realm, to the extent that they can.
This forms the basis of what we believe to be “real” and “true.” This process constitutes our “psychological conditioning” into certain modes of behavior and certain beliefs.
This is the formation of a limited intellect. However, if our senses were designed differently, for example, if we had eyes of an owl, the canine sense of smell, the hearing of a bat, our perceptions of the “World” would be different.
Our perceptions would lead to different belief’s about what the “World” is and therefore, our experiences would be quite different.
Similarly, if we could see things (matter) the way a particle accelerator or an electron microscope sees it, we would live in a world of pure energy held together by that which is unseen: consciousness. Due to their limitations, the human senses miss a whole other reality which lies beyond ordinary sense perception.
The “Absolute Truth” (God) which underlies all things in the “physical” realm cannot be sensed with the ordinary senses, designed only for the world of duality.
Therefore, in order to know, that is, to have Gnosis or experiential knowledge of the transcendent and divine essence of anything, we must be able to connect with its divine essence to perceive “its connection with its creator.” In order to perceive Absolute, non-changing Truth, we must become one with that Absolute Truth.
This is the essence of our journey home. The Absolute experience of our divine nature will provide us a state of supreme peace (Hetep). We will have completed a circuit (come full circle) from Amen which is the “hidden” reality from where all human souls come to Geb, the “manifest” physical reality and then back to Amen.
To do this is to become Godlike, even while still alive. The true way to know God is by lookin within and not out, because our deepest self is God, regardless of sex, race, creed, or religion.
Therefore, in order to “know” God, it is necessary to “Be” God. In the Egyptian “Story of Sinuhe”, the King (who is a symbol of a perfected human being, a Heru), is said to have: “flown to heaven and united with the Sundisk, the divine body (of the King) merging with its maker.”
In the Egyptian system, the faculty of wisdom is symbolized by the Ibis bird. The faculty of truth is symbolized by the feather (Maat) of the Ibis.
In the Indian system, the Goddess of wisdom, Sarawati, is often shown seated on a white swan. The Ibis of Egypt and the Swan of India are both white in plumage, signifying the purity of conscious thought permeated with wisdom, truth and righteousness.
“Ancient Egyptian Teachings are about the nature of “knowledge.” A Devotee of ASET is: “One who ponders over sacred matters and seeks for hidden truth.” “While ALL is in THE ALL, it is also true that THE ALL is in ALL. To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge.”
“Salvation is the feeing of the soul from its bodily fetters; becoming a God through knowledge and wisdom; controlling the forces of the cosmos instead of being a slave to them; subduing the lower nature and through awakening the higher self, ending the cycle of rebirth and dwelling with the Neters who direct and control the Great Plan.” – Ancient Egyptian Teachings
PARTS OF THE SPIRIT
THE BA
Dr. Ashby states the Ba is heart-soul which dwells in the Ka with the power of metamorphosis. Sometimes described as the “SOUL” and “Higher Self” and it is seen as a spark from the Universal Ba (God).
The Ba may be dialogued with and can be a spiritual guide to the developing individual. The equivalent of the Hindu “Atman,” it is the indestructible, eternal and immortal spark of life. It is not affected by anything that may happen to the senses, body, mind or intellect (higher mind).
Through the mind, the BA (soul-consciousness) “projects” and keeps together an aggregate of physical elements (earth, air, water, fire) into a conglomerate that is called the “physical body.”
When the soul has no more use for the physical body, it discards it and returns to the Universal Ba if it is enlightened, or it may seek experience in one of the other bodies (spiritual, astral) where it may exist in heaven (“The Realm of Light”). If it is not enlightened, it will tune into another aggregate of elements to make another body (reincarnation).
THE KA
The abstract personality, ego, spirit-twin subconscious desires, concept of self, ethereal body possessing the power of locomotion and survives the death of the physical body.
It is ethereal double containing the other parts. The concept of the Ka was known in India and the word was also known. The Indian God Brahma had a Ka (soul-twin).
THE KHAT
The concrete personality, the physical body.
THE AB
The AB or conscience is the source of Meskhenet (Karma) and the mother of reincarnation. The AB represents the heart. It is the symbol of the mind, the conscience and also the repository of subconscious desires which cause the mind to be in a perpetual state of motion and change (restlessness).
As these desires can never be fulfilled by experiences or from objects in the world of time and space, at death, the ignorant soul will harbor unfulfilled desires which will lead to further incarnations in search of this fulfillment.
This point is described in Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day: “My heart, the mother of my coming into being The Ab undergoes examination by Thoth (Djehuti, one’s own wisdom faculty) and one’s own heart will fashion (mother) one’s own fate (come into being) according to one’s will, and desires, which are based on one’s understanding (wisdom) about one’s true self.
Thus, the new is fashioned in accordance with what he or she has done during previous lives.
THE KHAIBIT
The Khaibit or Shadow is associated with the BA from which it receives nourishment. It has the power of locomotion and omnipresence.
THE KHU
The Khu is the spiritual soul which is immortal; it is associated with the BA and is an Ethereal Being.
THE SAHU
The “glorious” spiritual body in which the KHU and Ba dwells. When integrated (enlightened), the spiritual and mental attributes of the natural body are united to the new powers of its own nature.
The Sahu is the goal of all aspiration. It is the reason for human existence — to become Godlike while still alive (see GOD and Creation).
THE SEKHEM
Power, spiritual personification of the vital Life Force in man and woman. Its dwelling place is in the heavens with the KHUS.
Sekhem also denotes the potency, erectile power or force used in fashioning one’s own glorious new body for resurrection.
THE REN
The name, essential attribute to the personification of a being. The name is sometimes found encircled by a rope of light called a cartouche which is associated with the Shen, the top part of the Ankh Symbol.
The cartouche represents a rope of sunlight or Life Force harnessed into the form of a circle. It is the most impregnable structure to protect one’s name against attack.
THE HEART (AB)
The AB (conscience) is the part of our consciousness which registers our feelings, intent and desires. Since the universe is mental, one’s thoughts are of great importance to one’s evolution.
Thoughts are controlled by one’s conscience, one’s perception of reality which is dictated by one’s level of wisdom, one’s knowledge of reality, and by one’s subconscious understanding of reality.
If one understands oneself to be a mortal individual, one will live in such a manner and will develop mental concepts (conscious and subconscious) which will be reinforced by one’s life experiences.
One’s level of consciousness can be raised by a “conscious” effort to grow in wisdom through the practice of virtue, self discipline (control over the mind) and the study of nature (through science and/or spiritual teachings).
If one reaches the understanding that one is immortal and eternal, one with all other beings, then one will live within that reality. In the judgment of the heart from the Book of Coming Forth By Day, it is the heart, one’s deepest thoughts and ideas of oneself and reality, which is judged.
If one commits crimes knowing they are evil deeds, then one will suffer according to one’s own assessment of one’s own guilt (heavy heart).
On the other hand, if one lived spiritually and virtuously in the knowledge that one is a spirit, acting honestly, trying to do one’s best at all times while relinquishing any desire for the fruits (results) of the actions, be they negative or positive outcomes, then one will not “suffer” the consequences of those actions.
One should strive to maintain an equally light heart whether a project succeeds or not because one did one’s best and that is all that any one could ask, but most importantly, one should strive to maintain such equanimity because ultimately, neither actions nor their fruits (results) can provide true and lasting happiness.
They can neither add nor detract from one’s essence except in an illusory manner when the mind believes in them. This illusion however, will only lead to mental agitation in the short run and dis- appointment in the long run.
This is the path of ignorance; seeking fulfillment in the world of cause and effect.
Thus, one should pursue detachment, then one’s conscience will be clear and therefore one’s mental involvement in matter (physical body and the world) will not hold one’s soul to experience hell (suffering in one’s mind by tormenting oneself with one’s own fears, unfulfilled desires and remorse which could lead to another incarnation).
“A guide in my affairs…the Conscience or Heart of a Human is his and her own God” – King Thutmost III
Other wise, the soul reincarnates in pursuit of the fulfillment of its desires but in the process, suffers the pains and toils of a physical existence. This concept, called KARMA in India, was encompassed in the mythology and philosophy of the Egyptian Goddess Meskhenet (5,500 B.C.E.).
The cosmos therefore, provides a mechanism in which one’s own conscience dispenses exact justice to itself in accordance with its own actions better than any judicial system on earth.
The heart, seen as the seat of the soul, is therefore the most important factor deciding the experiences of the spirit. Only through a purified heart is it possible to ascend to the heights of wisdom and intuitive understanding about the nature of one’s own existence.
The living of truth and righteousness, which is MAAT (as symbolized by the feather), should be done while still alive. After death if there are few sins, the HEART will be lighter than MAAT, and the owner is fit for eternal life.
However, if the HEART is heavy with sin, anger, fear, ignorance, egoism or if it is too elated or full of desires for worldly pleasures, then it will be heavier than MAAT. It will not be fit for life eternal yet. This HEART did not practice the VIRTUES well enough.
The AB, (conscience), can also be an excellent “GUIDE” or inner “ORACLE” for those who wish to live a life of TRUTH. Those who put aside their pride and egoism can use the higher intelligence within them to find the truth that does not come through thinking.
The AB (higher self, subconscious mind) may be accessed by quieting the thoughts and then asking a question followed by silence once again. The answer will come, seemingly out of nowhere, when the mind is clear.
The mind is not the soul. The mind is limited and subject to ignorance, primarily ignorance about the BA (soul).
Those who devote themselves to “the religion of the mind” (those who indulge in sensory pleasures, or those who think themselves to be exalted due to their intellectual prowess, thinking that their mental thoughts and body are all there is to life) will undergo a “death” of the illusory ego at the time when the physical death comes.
On the other hand, they who use the mind as a tool and develop the higher, intuitive aspects of it will transcend it (the mind). They will not die. They will have attained immortality.
Developing the power of INTUITION is essential on the spiritual path. This is the only way to become ONE with GOD. INTUITION is PERFECTION while the thinking mind is related to the egotistical vision of one’s self as an individual.
Individuals are mortals and mortals die; however, INTUITION is the spirit which is eternal and immortal. The goal is to develop our INTUITIONAL capability and to leave the ego-mind (lower mind) behind. We must train, through wisdom, developing the higher mind, (intellect) to understand it is a spirit and not a physical body or impure mind.
AB and BA
It is interesting to note that AB spelled backwards is BA. These two words, however, are more integrally related than just in their spellings. Our ignorance causes us to be fearful to the point that we perform negative “deeds” which we later regret after listening to our conscience.
In order for us to connect with the BA (our real self), we must purify the AB. We must strive to grow in peace and purity of heart by listening to the inner voice of the soul.
“Strive to see with the inner eye, the heart. It sees the reality not subject to emotional or personal error; it sees the essence. Intuition then is the most important quality to develop” – Egyptian Proverb
It is interesting to note that recent documented experiments at top medical research institutes and hospitals in the United States show that the major cause of heart attacks in modern society is not related to dietary problems, but to HEARTACHE.
This heartache is caused by feelings of emptiness inside, a lack of meaning in one’s life due to a lack of purpose, job dissatisfaction, a feeling of unhappiness and a feeling of mistrust of others.
These are all ego based ailments that are caused by living in a manner that is against one’s “grain.” One is unable to perceive the universality of all people and believes that one is separate from everything and every- one.
One becomes caught up in the idea “it’s me against the world.” This comes from our identification of our self with the ego-mind-personality and the body which are mortal and subject to error instead of with the immortal, higher part of ourselves which is eternal, and one with all other beings.
THE SACRED TASK
Most human beings “identify” with their ego personality, the Khaibit and Ren. The task is to explore and consciously discover our other seven “parts”.
Even before death, we must have the other seven of these remembered and permanently integrated into one so that at the time we leave the earth and leave the body and name behind, we are ready to fly in our spiritual body to join Asar (our divine self: GOD) and merge with that ultimate reality from which we not only come, but who is our innermost essence: “Asar (our individual soul) joins Asar (Supreme Soul)”.
Thus when we join God, we are really joining our higher selves. We are God as are all people and objects in the seen and unseen universe. It is our sacred task to “know” this to be true.
This may be done through the practice of virtues and meditation. If the KA part of our spirit identifies itself with the physical body and its erroneous subconscious ideas about reality, it will not operate correctly in the spiritual realm.
Through wisdom, inner-experience and a meditative, peaceful mind, the Ka and the other bodies may be experienced, developed and integrated.
BKA
The Ba (soul) is connected to the Ka (body of emotions and desires), through the Ab (conscience). From here the Ba controls the Khaibit (shadow-dense subtle body) and the Khat (physical body). In Egypt, the process of impregnating the female is called BKA.
This is the process that must also occur in spiritual evolution. Our KA must be impregnated with the words of wisdom and intuition from the BA. This is the virgin birth of our spiritual life which leads to the birth of ourselves as transformed beings — as Gods.
If we identify with our BA as being one with the Universal BA instead of our ego, the actions prescribed by our individual BA (soul) will be in harmony with the spirit world and nature.
Therefore, following one’s intuition is taking advice from one’s BA. Through quiet contemplation and meditation, one’s own BA offers insight into the truth and will lead one to prosperity and fulfillment. Our true self is the consciousness DEEP WITHIN.
Our physical nature is only a manifestation of our spirit. It is our spirit which gives life to the body, senses, mind processes, etc., and therefore, our body, intellect, mind and senses are a reflection of the degree of ignorance or wisdom, of the SELF, which we possess in our consciousness.
In this light, all mental illnesses with the resultant physical illnesses, are due to one cause, which is “Ignorance of our divine and spiritual nature, our true SELF.”
In order to find the ultimate truth, we must go beyond our mind, senses and body. We must go beyond all mental images of names and forms to which we are accustomed by developing our INTUITION.
Through intuition only will we discover who we really are and our purpose of existence. This is the message above the Temples. To in effect:
“KNOW OURSELVES”
The spirit is distinct from the body. If the Individual BA “identifies” with the other parts of the Spirit, it will forget it is connected to the Universal BA. If it forgets (overcome by worldly desires and ignorance), it will live a life of mortality, thinking it will die when the body dies.
Heruhood is being connected to all parts of the spirit all the time by remembering that you are not only connected to the Universal BA (GOD, Cosmic Consciousness, Universal Soul), but that you ARE the Universal Soul deep inside.
To attain this state of mind is to achieve: Christhood, Heruhood, Cosmic Consciousness, The Kingdom of Heaven, Moksha, Kaivalya, Nirvana, Enlightenment, etc. The Universal BA and the Individual BA form a circuit, where energy is given and then returned to the source in an endless cycle.
To be consciously connected with this, our true essence, is the coveted goal, the epitome of our existence and the reason for it. Humans partake of both qualities of the spirit and those of matter. To master both is termed: The HIGHEST GOOD.
THE MACROCOSOM AND THE MICROCOSM
Finally, Dr. Ashby stated that God, the universal BA (spirit) gives humans their individual BA so they may experience and grow in consciousness (wisdom) and achieve immortality. Just as the human being has “parts” so too the universe has parts.
Thus, there is a Universal BA, Universal SAHU, Universal KHAIBIT, Universal KHU, Universal KA, Universal SEKHEM, Universal AB, Universal KHAT and a Universal REN. The universal is the macrocosm and the individual is a reflection of the universal, the microcosm. So the human being is a reflection of the Supreme Being in every way.
“The Scarab is the symbol of Transformation from mortal consciousness to eternal consciousness, from animal to spirit” – Dr. Ashby
The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries
Moving on to Ancient Greek philosophy regarding the soul. A.W. stated in the introduction to Thomas Taylor’s book The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, the first initiations of the Eleusinia were called Teleta or terminations, as denoting that the imperfect and rudimentary period of generated life was ended and purged off; and the candidate was denominated a mysta, a vailed or liberated person.
Let us first define the ancient mysteries according to the Theosophical Glossary before continuing with Thomas Taylor.
“Mysteries. Greek teletai, or finishings, celebrations of initiation or the Mysteries. They were observances, generally kept secret from the profane and uninitiated, in which were taught by dramatic representation and other methods, the origin of things, the nature of the human spirit, its relation to the body, and the method of its purification and restoration to higher life.
Physical science, medicine, the laws of music, divination, were all taught in the same manner. The Hippocratic oath was but a mystic obligation. Hippocrates was a priest of Asklepios, some of whose writings chanced to become public.
But the Asklepiades were initiates of the Aesculpain serpent worship, as the Bacchantes were of the Dionysia; and both rites were eventually incorporated with the Eleusinia.
The Sacred Mysteries were enacted in the ancient Temples by the initiated Hierophants for the benefit and instruction of the candidates. The most solemn and occult Mysteries were certainly those which were performed in Egypt by “the band of secret-keepers,” as Mr. Bonwick calls the Hierophants. Maurice describes their nature very graphically in a few lines.
Speaking of the Mysteries performed in Philae (the Nile-island), he says that “it was in these gloomy caverns that the grand and mystic arcana of the goddess (Isis) were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn hymn of initiation resounded through the long extent of these stony recesses.”
The word “mysteries” is derived from the Greek muo, “to close the mouth,” and every symbol connected with them had a hidden meaning.
As Plato and many other sages of antiquity affirm, the Mysteries were highly religious, moral and beneficent as a school of ethics.
The Grecian mysteries, those of Ceres and Bacchus, were only imitations of the Egyptian; and the author of Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, informs us that our own “word chapel or capella is said to be the Caph-El or college of El, the Solar divinity.”
The well-known Kabiri are associated with the Mysteries.
In short, the Mysteries were in every country a series of dramatic performances, in which the mysteries of cosmogony and nature, in general, were personified by the priests and neophytes, who enacted the part of various gods and goddesses, repeating supposed scenes (allegories) from their respective lives.
These were explained in their hidden meaning to the candidates for initiation, and incorporated into philosophical doctrines.” (Theosophical Glossary, p219, 220)
The Greater Mysteries completed the work; the candidate was more fully instructed and disciplined, becoming an epopta or seer. He was now regraded as having received the arcane principles of life.
This was also the end sought by philosophy. The soul believed to be of composite nature, linked on the one side to the eternal world, emanating from God, and so partaking of Divinity.
On the other hand, it was also allied to the phenomenal or external world, and so liable to be subjected to passion, lust, and bondage of evils. This condition is denominated generation; and is supposed to be a kind of death to the higher form of life. Evil is inherent in this condition; and the soul dwells in the body as in a prison or grave.
In this state, and previous to the discipline of education and the mystical initiation, the rational or intellectual element, which Paul denominates the spiritual, is asleep. The earth-life is a dream rather than a reality. Yet it has longings for a higher and nobler form of life and its affinities are on high. “All men yearn after God,” says Homer.
The object of Plato is to present to us the fact that there are in the soul certain ideas or principles, innate and connatural, which are not derived from without, but are anterior to all experiences, and are developed and brought to view, but not produced by experience.
These ideas are most vital of all truths, and the purpose of instruction and discipline is to make the individual conscious of them and willing to be led and inspired by them.
The soul is purified or separated from evils by knowledge, truth expiations, sufferings, and prayers. Our life is a discipline and preparation for another state of being; and resemblance to God is the highest motive of action.
Thomas Taylor in his book The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries stated that having premised thus much, I now proceed to prove that the dramatic spectacles of the Lesser Mysteries were designed by the ancient theologists, their founders to signify occulty the condition of the unpurified soul invested with an earthly body, and enveloped in a material and physical nature;
or, in other words, to signify that such a soul in the present life might be said to die, as far as it is possible for a soul to die; and that on the dissolution of the present body, while in this state of impurity, it would experience a death still more permanent and profound.
That the soul, indeed, till purified by philosophy (philosophy here relates to discipline of the life), suffers death through union with the body, was obvious to the philologist Macrobius, who, not penetrating the secret meaning of the ancients, concluded from hence that they signified nothing more than the present body, by their descriptions of infernal abodes.
But this is manifestly absurd; since it is universally agreed, that all the ancient theological poets and philosophers inculcated the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments in the most full and decisive terms; at the same time occulty intimating that the death of the soul was nothing more than a profound union with the ruinous bonds of the body.
Indeed, if these wise men believed in a future state of retribution, and at the same time considered a connection with the body as death of the soul’s punishment and existence hereafter are nothing more than a continuation of its state at present, and a transmigration, as it were, from sleep to sleep, and from dream to dream.
“Nor can the souls of men here on the earth, swathed as they are in bodies and enwrapped in passions, commune with God, except so far as they can reach some dun sort of a dream of Him with the perception of a mind trained in philosophy ” – Plutarch
But let us attend to the assertions of these divine men concerning the soul’s union with a material nature. Heraclitus, speaking of souls unembodied: “We live their death, and we die their life.” And Empedocles, deprecating the condition termed “generation,” beautifully says of her: “The aspect changing with destruction dread, She makes the living pass into the dead.” And again, lamenting his connection with this corporeal world, he pathetically exclaims: “For this I weep, for this indulge my woe, That e’er my soul such novel realms should know.”
Plato, too, it is well known, considered the body as the sepulchre of the soul, and in the Cratylus concurs with the doctrine of Orpheus, that the soul is punished through its union with body. The ancient theologists and priests also testify, that the soul is united with the body as if for the sake of punishment; and so is buried in body as in a sepulchre.”
And lastly, Pythagoras himself confirms the above sentiments, when he beautiful observes, according to Clemens in the same book, “that whatever we see when awake, is death; and when asleep a dream.
But that the mysteries occultly signified this sublime truth, that the soul by being merged in matter resides among the dead both here and hereafter, though it follows by a necessary sequence from the preceding observations, yet it is indisputably confirmed, by the testimony of the great and truly divine Plotinus, in Ennead I., book viii.
When the soul,” says he, “has descended into generation (from its first divine condition) she partakes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state of opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged in which, is nothing more than to fall into dark mire.” And again, soon after: “The soul therefore dies as much as it is possible for the soul to die: and the death to her is, while baptized or immersed in the present body, to descend into matter, and be wholly subjected by it; and after departing thence to lie there till it shall arise and turn its face away from the abhorrent filth, this is what is meant by the falling asleep in Hades, of those who have come there.”***
***(This passage doubtless alludes to the ancient and beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche is said to fall asleep in Hades; and this through rashly attempting to behold corporeal beauty: and the observation of Plotinus will enable the profound and contemplative reader to unfold the greater part of the mysteries contained in this elegant fable.
But, prior to Plotinus, Plato, in the seventh book of his Republic, asserts, that such as are unable in the present life to apprehend the idea of the good, will descend to Hades after death, and fall asleep in its dark abodes. “He who is not able, by exercise of his reason, to define the idea of the good, separating it from all other objects, and piercing, as in a battle, through every kind of argument; endeavoring to confute, not according to opinion, but according to essence, and proceeding through all these dialectical energies with an unshaken reason;
he who can not accomplish this, would you not say, that he neither knows the good itself, nor anything which is properly denominated good? And would you not assert, that such a one, when he apprehends any certain image of reality, apprehends it rather through the medium of opinion than of science; that in the present life he is sunk in sleep, and conversant with the delusions of dreams; and that before he is roused to vigilant state, he will descend to Hades, and be overwhelmed with a sleep perfectly profound.”
Henry Davis translates this passage more critically: “Is not the case the same with reference to the good? Whoever can not logically define it, abstracting the idea of the good from all others, and taking, as in a fight, one opposing argument after another, and can not proceed with unfailing proofs, eager to rest his case, not on the ground of opinion, but of true being,-such a one knows nothing of the good itself, nor of any good whatever; and should be attained to any knowledge of the good, we must say that he has attained it by opinion, not by science; that he is sleeping and dreaming away his present life; and before he is roused, will descend to Hades, and there be profoundly and perfectly laid asleep.”)***
Here the reader may observe that the obscure doctrine of the Mysteries mentioned by Plato in the Phaedo states Thomas Taylor, that the unpurified soul in a future state lies immerged in mire, is beautifully explained; at the same time that our assertion concerning their secret meaning is not less substantially confirmed.
In a similar manner the same divine philosopher, in his book on the beautiful, Ennead. I. book vi., explains the fable of Narcissus as an emblem of one who rushes to the contemplation of sensible (phenomenal) forms as if they were perfect realities, when at the same time they are nothing more than like beautiful images appearing in water, fallacious and vain.
“Hence,” says he, “as Narcissus, by catching at the shadow, plunged himself in the stream and disappeared, so he who is captivated by beautiful bodies, and does not depart from their embrace, is precipitated, not with his body, but with his soul, into a darkness profound and repugnant to intellect (the higher soul), (Intellect, Greek, is the higher faculty of mind), through which, remaining blind both here and in Hades, he associates with shadows.”
And what still farther confirms our exposition is, that matter was considered by the Egyptians as a certain mire or mud. “The Egyptians,” says Simplicius, “called matter, which they symbolically denominated water, the dregs or sediment of the first life; matter being, as it were, a certain mire or mud. So that from all that has been said we may safely conclude with Ficinus, whose words are as express to our purpose as possible.
“Lastly,” says he, “that I may comprehend the opinion of the ancient theologists, on the state of the soul after death, in a few words: they considered, things divine as the only realities, and that all others were only the images and shadows of truth. Hence they asserted that prudent men, who earnestly employed themselves in divine concerns, were above all others in a vigilant state.
But that imprudent [without foresight] men, who pursued objects of a different nature, being laid asleep, as it were, were only engaged in the delusions of dreams; and that if they were roused, they would be afflicted with similar and still more dazzling visions in a future state.
And that as he who in this life pursued realities, would, after death, enjoy the highest truth, so he who pursued deceptions would hereafter be tormented with fallacies and delusions in the extreme: as the one would delighted with true objects of enjoyment, so the other would be tormented with delusive semblances of reality.”
But notwithstanding this important truth obscurely hinted by the Lesser Mysteries, we must not suppose that it was generally known even to the initiated persons themselves: for as individuals of almost all descriptions were admitted to these rites, it would have been a ridiculous prostitution to disclose to the multitude a theory so abstracted and sublime.
It was sufficient to instruct these in the doctrine for a future state of rewards and punishments, and in the means of returning to the principles from which they originally fell: for this last piece of information was according to Plato in the Phaedo, the ultimate design of the Mysteries; and the former is necessarily inferred from the present discourse.
Hence the reason why it was obvious to none but the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophers, who derived their theology from Orpheus himself, the original founder of these scared institutions; and why we meet with no information in this particular in any writer prior to Plotinus; as he was the first who, having penetrated the profound interior wisdom of antiquity, delivered it to posterity without the concealments of mystic symbols and fabulous narratives.
“The Mysteries were organized for the purpose of assisting the struggling human creature to reawaken the spiritual powers which, surrounded by the flaming ring of lust and degeneracy, lay asleep within his soul. In other words, man was offered a way by which he could regain his lost estate. – Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
In his book from Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest, T.Z. Lavine illustrates Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave from Book VII of Plato’s Republic. Now then says Socrates, as he introduces the allegory, imagine mankind as living in an underground cave which has a wide entrance open to the light. Deep inside are human beings facing the inside of wall of the cave, with their necks and legs chained so that they cannot move.
They have never seen the light of day or the sun outside the cave. Behind the prisoners a fire burns, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way on which a low wall has been built, such as is used in puppet shows as a screen to conceal the people working the puppets. Along the raised way people walk carrying all sorts of things which they hold so that they project above the wall – statues of men, animals, trees.
The prisoners, facing the inside wall, cannot see one another, or the wall behind them on which the objects cast on the wall of the cave. The prisoners live all their lives seeing only shadows of reality, and the voices they hear are only echoes from the wall.
But the prisoners cling to the familiar shadows and to their passions and prejudices, and if they were freed and able to turn around and see the realities which produce the shadows, they would be blinded by the light of the fire. And they would become angry and would prefer to regain their shadow-world.
But if one of the prisoners were freed and turned around to see, in the light of the fire, the cave and his fellow prisoners and the roadway, and if he were then dragged up and out of the cave into the light of the sun, he would see the things of the world as they truly are and finally he would see the sun itself.
What would this person think now of the life in the cave and what people there know of reality and of morality? And if he were to descend back into the cave, would he not have great difficulty in accustoming himself to the darkness, so that he could not compete with those who had never left cave? Would he not be subject to their ridicule, scorn, even their physical attack? Of the many allegories in the history of Western thought, the Allegory of the Cave is the one most cited. But what is an Allegory?
An allegory is a kind of story in which what is talked about is being compared to something else which is similar, but what that something else is, is left unstated. An allegory is accordingly defined as an incomplete simile – the reader must supply what is similar to the events described. What, then, is the Allegory of the Cave compared with?
The people in the cave are living out their lives in semidarkness, chained by their necks and legs, unable to turn around, never knowing that what they see before them on the wall of the cave are only shadows. They are in bondage, but unaware of it. They remain ignorant of themselves and reality. With whom may they be compared?
Each historical generation since Plato’s time has been tantalized by the question, how does the Allegory of the Cave apply to our time, to our society? To what may the cave be compared in our lives? The question tantalizes us too: What is the relevance of the Allegory of the Cave to our present world? With what in our lives may it be compared?
The following broad and general interpretations of the allegory have been made for generations and remain relevant and moving for many people in our own time: It is an allegory of sleep and waking, of our time as asleep in the dark of the cave needing to awake to a clear vison of the world.
It is an allegory of our time as needing to be born again, to emerge from the darkness of corruption into the light of truth and morality. It is an educational allegory of our time as needing to ascend through states of education from the darkness of intellectual and moral confusion in its everyday beliefs, to the light of true knowledge and values.
It is a religious allegory of Christian conversion from the cave of self-love and self-gratification to the love of God and devotion to truth. Lavine states that there are also interpretations of the allegory which are specifically relevant to our own society and to the present time.
(1) The Allegory of the Cave may be viewed as a devastating criticism of our everyday lives as being in bondage to superficialities, to shadow rather than substance. Truth is taken to be whatever is known by the senses. A good life is taken to be one in which we satisfy desires. We are unaware that we are living with illusion, superficial knowledge, and false and conflicting ideals.
Our lives are dominated by the shadow-play on the walls of our cave made by newspaper headlines, by radio broadcasts, by endlessly moving shadows on the television screen, by the echoing voices of opinion makers.
(2) The Allegory of Cave may be taken as an equally devastating criticism of much of the science of our times, with its emphasis upon that which is known by the senses. Science, too, is chained so that it can see only shadows. Its basis is in sensory observation, its conclusions are only in the form of correlations of observations. It does not venture into true causes or into long-range consequences.
(3) It is of course a political allegory. The life in the cave is the life of politics. Both the so-called leaders and the public are ignorant and corrupt, without true knowledge of themselves or of the world, motivated by greed, power, and self-gratification.
They are chained in bondage to ignorance and passions, to mob hysteria for or against fleeting issues, believing in current ideologies which are the illusions, the shadows of the moment on the walls of the cave.
(4) It is an allegory of the philosopher-king. The liberated one, having made the ascent to know the truth and the good, has a mission: to return to the cave, to bring enlightenment, to bring the good news, even though he may be killed for his/her services.
(5) Finally, for us as for Plato, the Allegory of the cave is an allegory of despair and hope. Like Plato, we live in a time of loss of meaning and commitment, of crumbling standards of truth and morality, of corruption in political life and decline in personal integrity.
Comparing the allegory of the cave to our present society, we are in agreement with Lavine’s five points presented above. The political allegory goes deeper which includes both human and non-human control over humanity since ancient times. We may in our weekly blog articles descend deeper into the black sorcery that has saturated the planet. We believe one needs to know self above all but also know the enemy.
The Serpent’s Way, is the way to exit the matrix. In terms of everything we are presenting on this blog, adding to Lavine’s five points above. It is an allegory of the soul. From a multidimensional aspect, we hold the position of the ancient philosophers and the mystery schools. Soul, consumed by desires and passions of the body is trapped in the lower nature and to the ego.
Self mastery, and the knowledge we are presenting on this blog will lead to the awakening of the Kundalini/Serpent. This awakening is multidimensional, an awakening of the true self. With no control over proper diet, lust, mind, and the desires of the body, humanity remains chained in the dark cave. The Serpent’s Way is the way out of the cave, into the light of pure consciousness.
“Exiled from the true home of spirit, imprisoned in the body, disordered by passion and beclouded by sense, the SOUL has yet longings after that state of perfect knowledge, and purity, and bliss, in which it was first created. Its affinities are still on high. It yearns for a higher and nobler form of life. It essays to rise, but its EYE is darkened by sense, its wings are besmeared by passion and lust; it is ‘borne downward until it falls upon and attaches itself to that which is material and sensual,’ and it flounders and grovels still amid the objects of sense.” – Plato
A Philosophic Consideration of Man
In his book Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, Manly P. Hall stated that the first philosophers declared the rational soul to be the spirit’s most precious attribute; that is should be reverenced as a god and its dictates never consciously transgressed by will or deed. There is a god within the soul of man; a god which blesses by its approach and curses by its departure.
This most exalted spirit quickens the life and renders real the whole purpose of existence. When man serves this inner power it is strengthened, and through the soul, its mediator, approaches the inferior man and lends its glory to terrestrial achievements. Conversely, if the life be ill, the spirit withdraws to the point of greatest isolation, whereupon the soul, overcome by the noxious fumes of materiality is said to “die.”
Thus a man may actually be dead in his inner nature while still alive in his outer. After the disintegration of his own soul he becomes a slave to the daemons or spirits residing in the astral light.
These agitate his internal parts, causing them to assume the appearance of normal functioning. Such a person, however, is severed from all relations with his divine part. Sorcerers, souls, being but outer shells from which the inner life has fled or – more correctly – decayed.
Materiality hardens the nature and we frequently hear the expression that this or that person has no soul. This does not mean philosophically, that the soul is necessarily dead, but that the eyes of the soul have been blinded by the concerns of the body.
It is not sufficient that man should live physically and exist in the divine sphere as a vortex of reality; it is also necessary that his soul, composed of the astral light, should be caused to verge toward reality and thus impregnate the entire organism with those virtues which are resident in the Seven Spheres.
Here a most vital question is introduced, namely: Why should a man be virtuous? According to the materialist, a certain measure of personal integrity is necessary for the success of the physical community life of the race. From the theological outlook, a little virtue coupled with a plentitude of belief is sufficient to preserve the immortal spirit from the pits of hell.
Considered from the philosophical point of view, virtues, being resident in the soul, must serve as the bridge across which human consciousness passes to be united with is spiritual cause. When we elevate the concerns of the body above those of the inner nature we threaten the integrity of our soul-life and thereby endanger our rationality.
The second death of theology is the death of the soul, at which time the individual’s astral-light body is disintegrated back into the anima mundi, which is the soul of God. These then, are the major elements in the occult constitution of man: (1) The spirit, which is the eternal foundation and the abiding reality, by virtue of which man is immortal, superior to both beginnings and ends, and eternal in his own heavenly nature;
(2) the soul, which is the intermediary by which the life in each is mingled with the starry life in all, and the qualities of the sidereal bodies are communicated to each individual, who thus manifests through vices and virtues the states of excess and temperance existent in the sidereal nature; (3) the body which, being of the earth, is the outer framework wherein the higher nature is imprisoned as within a cage during the period of its exile in the material universe.
Before we leave the conversation of the soul from an ancient philosophical perspective, one may ask, what does philosophy have to do with the Serpent’s Way? We believe that philosophy is the igniter of the soul. It is the firm belief of the creators of this blog that one can’t fully embark of path of self-mastery without philosophy.
One can’t ‘Know Thyself’ without philosophy as a guide. One can’t awaken the inner serpent without an understanding of the ancient philosophies. Philosophy is the foundation of the Serpent’s Way. Let us turn to the companion of The Lectures on Ancient Philosophy; The Secret Teachings of All Ages, we will see what Manly P. Hall said on philosophy and lack of it.
PHILIP, King of Macedon, ambitious to obtain the teacher who would be most capable of imparting the higher branches of learning to his fourteen-year-old son, Alexander, and wishing the prince to have for his mentor the most famous and learned of the great philosophers, decided to communicate with Aristotle.
He dispatched the following letter to the Greek sage: “PHILIP TO ARISTOTLE, HEALTH: Know that I have a son. I render the gods many thanks; not so much for his birth, as that he was born in your time, for I hope that being educated and instructed by you, he will become worthy of us both and the kingdom which he shall inherit.” Accepting Philip’s invitation, Aristotle journeyed to Macedon in the fourth year of the 108th Olympiad, and remained for eight years as the tutor of Alexander.
The young prince’s affection for his instructor became as great as that which he felt for his father. He said that his father had given him being, but that Aristotle had given him well-being. The basic principles of the Ancient Wisdom were imparted to Alexander the Great by Aristotle, and at the philosopher’s feet the Macedonian youth came to realize the transcendency of Greek learning as it was personified in Plato’s immortal disciple.
Elevated by his illumined teacher to the threshold of the philosophic sphere, he beheld the world of the sages–the world that fate and the limitations of his own soul decreed he should not conquer.
Aristotle in his leisure hours edited and annotated the Iliad of Horner and presented the finished volume to Alexander. This book the young conqueror so highly prized that he carried it with him on all his campaigns.
At the time of his triumph over Darius, discovering among the spoils a magnificent, gem-studded casket of unguents, he dumped its contents upon the ground, declaring that at last he had found a case worthy of Aristotle’s edition of the Iliad!
While on his Asiatic campaign, Alexander learned that Aristotle had published one of his most prized discourses, an occurrence which deeply grieved the young king. So to Aristotle, Conqueror of the Unknown, Alexander, Conqueror of the Known, sent this reproachful and pathetic and admission of the insufficiency of worldly pomp and power:
“ALEXANDER TO ARISTOTLE, HEALTH: You were wrong in publishing those branches of science hitherto not to be acquired except from oral instruction. In what shall I excel others if the more profound knowledge I gained from you be communicated to all? For my part I had rather surpass the majority of mankind in the sublimer branches of learning, than in extent of power and dominion. Farewell.”
The receipt of this amazing letter caused no ripple in the placid life of Aristotle, who replied that although the discourse had been communicated to the multitudes, none who had not heard him deliver the lecture (who lacked spiritual comprehension) could understand its true import. A few short years and Alexander the Great went the way of all flesh, and with his body crumbled the structure of empire erected upon his personality.
One year later Aristotle also passed into that greater world concerning whose mysteries he had so often discoursed with his disciples in the Lyceum. But, as Aristotle excelled Alexander in life, so he excelled him in death; for though his body moldered in an obscure tomb, the great philosopher continued to live in his intellectual achievements.
Philosophy bestows life in that it reveals the dignity and purpose of living. Materiality bestows death in that it benumbs or clouds those faculties of the human soul which should be responsive to the enlivening impulses of creative thought and ennobling virtue. – Manly P. Hall
Age after age paid him grateful tribute, generation after generation pondered over his theorems until by the sheer transcendency of his rational faculties Aristotle–“the master of those who know,” as Dante has called him–became the actual conqueror of the very world which Alexander had sought to subdue with the sword.
Thus it is demonstrated that to capture a man it is not sufficient to enslave his body–it is necessary to enlist his reason; that to free a man it is not enough to strike the shackles from his limbs–his mind must be liberated from bondage to his own ignorance.
Physical conquest must ever fail, for, generating hatred and dissension, it spurs the mind to the avenging of an outraged body; but all men are bound whether willingly or unwillingly to obey that intellect in which they recognize qualities and virtues superior to their own.
That the philosophic culture of ancient Greece, Egypt, and India excelled that of the modern, world must be admitted by all, even by the most confirmed of modernists. The golden era of Greek æsthetics, intellectualism, and ethics has never since been equaled.
The true philosopher belongs to the most noble order of men: the nation or race which is blessed by possession of illumined thinkers is fortunate indeed, and its name shall be remembered for their sake.
In the famous Pythagorean school at Crotona, philosophy was regarded as indispensable to the life of man. He who did not comprehend the dignity of the reasoning power could not properly be said to live.
Therefore, when through innate perverseness a member either voluntarily withdrew or was forcibly ejected from the philosophic fraternity, a headstone was set up for him in the community graveyard; for he who had forsaken intellectual and ethical pursuits to reenter the material sphere with its illusions of sense and false ambition was regarded as one dead to the sphere of Reality.
The life represented by the thraldom of the senses the Pythagoreans conceived to be spiritual death, while they regarded death to the sense-world as spiritual life.
How inferior to these standards of remote days are the laws by which men live in the twentieth century!
Today man, a sublime creature with infinite capacity for self-improvement, in an effort to be true to false standards, turns from his birthright of understanding–without realizing the consequences–and plunges into the maelstrom of material illusion. The precious span of his earthly years he devotes to the pathetically futile effort to establish himself as an enduring power in a realm of unenduring things.
Gradually the memory of his life as a spiritual being vanishes from his objective mind and he focuses all his partly awakened faculties upon the seething beehive of industry which he has come to consider the sole actuality. From the lofty heights of his Selfhood he slowly sinks into the gloomy depths of ephemerality.
He falls to the level of the beast, and in brutish fashion mumbles the problems arising from his all too insufficient knowledge of the Divine Plan. Here in the lurid turmoil of a great industrial, political, commercial inferno, men writhe in self-inflicted agony and, reaching out into the swirling mists, strive to clutch and hold the grotesque phantoms of success and power.
Ignorant of the cause of life, ignorant of the purpose of life, ignorant of what lies beyond the mystery of death, yet possessing within himself the answer to it all, man is willing to sacrifice the beautiful, the true, and the good within and without upon the blood-stained altar of worldly ambition. The world of philosophy–that beautiful garden of thought wherein the sages dwell in the bond of fraternity–fades from view.
In its place rises an empire of stone, steel, smoke, and hate-a world in which millions of creatures potentially human scurry to and from in the desperate effort to exist and at the same time maintain the vast institution which they have erected and which, like some mighty, juggernaut, is rumbling inevitably towards an unknown end.
In this physical empire, which man erects in the vain belief that he can outshine the kingdom of the celestials, everything is changed to stone, Fascinated by the glitter of gain, man gazes at the Medusa-like face of greed and stands petrified.
In this commercial age science is concerned solely with the classification of physical knowledge and investigation of the temporal and illusionary parts of Nature. Its so-called practical discoveries bind man but more tightly with the bonds of physical limitation, Religion, too, has become materialistic: the beauty and dignity of faith is measured by huge piles of masonry, by tracts of real estate, or by the balance sheet.
Philosophy which connects heaven and earth like a mighty ladder, up the rungs of which the illumined of all ages have climbed into the living presence of Reality–even philosophy has become a prosaic and heterogeneous mass of conflicting notions. Its beauty, its dignity, its transcendency are no more.
Like other branches of human thought, it has been made materialistic–“practical”–and its activities so directionalized that they may also contribute their part to the erection of this modern world of stone and steel.
The great philosophic institutions of the past must rise again, for these alone can tend the veil which divides the world of causes from that of effects. Only the Mysteries–those sacred Colleges of Wisdom–can reveal to struggling humanity that greater and more glorious universe which is the true home of the spiritual being called man.
Modern philosophy has failed in that it has come to regard thinking as simply an intellectual process.
Materialistic thought is as hopeless a code of life as commercialism itself. The power to think true is the savior of humanity. The mythological and historical Redeemers of every age were all personifications of that power.
He who has a little more rationality than his neighbor is a little better than his neighbor. He who functions on a higher plane of rationality than the rest of the world is termed the greatest thinker. He who functions on a lower plane is regarded as a barbarian. Thus comparative rational development is the true gauge of the individual’s evolutionary status.
Briefly stated, the true purpose of ancient philosophy was to discover a method whereby development of the rational nature could be accelerated instead of awaiting the slower processes of Nature, This supreme source of power, this attainment of knowledge, this unfolding of the god within, is concealed under the epigrammatic statement of the philosophic life.
This was the key to the Great Work, the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone, for it meant that alchemical transmutation had been accomplished. Thus ancient philosophy was primarily the living of a life; secondarily, an intellectual method. He alone can become a philosopher in the highest sense who lives the philosophic life.
What man lives he comes to know. Consequently, a great philosopher is one whose threefold life–physical, mental, and spiritual–is wholly devoted to and completely permeated by his rationality.
Man’s physical, emotional, and mental natures provide environments of reciprocal benefit or detriment to each other. Since the physical nature is the immediate environment of the mental, only that mind is capable of rational thinking which is enthroned in a harmonious and highly refined material constitution.
Hence right action, right feeling, and right thinking are prerequisites of right knowing, and the attainment of philosophic power is possible only to such as have harmonized their thinking with their living.
The wise have therefore declared that none can attain to the highest in the science of knowing until first he has attained to the highest in the science of living. Philosophic power is the natural outgrowth of the philosophic life.
Just as an intense physical existence emphasizes the importance of physical things, or just as the monastic metaphysical asceticism establishes the desirability of the ecstatic state, so complete philosophic absorption ushers the consciousness of the thinker into the most elevated and noble of all spheres–the pure philosophic, or rational, world.
In a civilization primarily concerned with the accomplishment of the extremes of temporal activity, the philosopher represents an equilibrating intellect capable of estimating and guiding the cultural growth. The establishment of the philosophic rhythm in the nature of an individual ordinarily requires from fifteen to twenty years.
During that entire period the disciples of old were constantly subjected to the most severe discipline. Every activity of life was gradually disengaged from other interests and focalized upon the reasoning part. In the ancient world there was another and most vital factor which entered into the production of rational intellects and which is entirely beyond the comprehension of modern thinkers: namely, initiation into the philosophic Mysteries.
A man who had demonstrated his peculiar mental and spiritual fitness was accepted into the body of the learned and to him was revealed that priceless heritage of arcane lore preserved from generation to generation. This heritage of philosophic truth is the matchless treasure of all ages, and each disciple admitted into these brotherhoods of the wise made, in turn, his individual contribution to this store of classified knowledge.
“The purification of the Soul is simply to allow it to be alone; it is pure when it keeps no company.”
― Plotinus, The Enneads
The one hope of the world is philosophy, for all the sorrows of modern life result from the lack of a proper philosophic code. Those who sense even in part the dignity of life cannot but realize the shallowness apparent in the activities of this age. Well has it been said that no individual can succeed until he has developed his philosophy of life.
Neither can a race or nation attain true greatness until it has formulated an adequate philosophy and has dedicated its existence to a policy consistent with that philosophy. During the World War, when so-called civilization hurled one half of itself against the other in a frenzy of hate, men ruthlessly destroyed something more precious even than human life: they obliterated those records of human thought by which life can be intelligently directionalized.
Truly did Mohammed declare the ink of philosophers to be more precious than the blood of martyrs. Priceless documents, invaluable records of achievement, knowledge founded on ages of patient observation and experimentation by the elect of the earth–all were destroyed with scarcely a qualm of regret.
What was knowledge, what was truth, beauty, love, idealism, philosophy, or religion when compared to man’s desire to control an infinitesimal spot in the fields of Cosmos for an inestimably minute fragment of time? Merely to satisfy some whim or urge of ambition man would uproot the universe, though well he knows that in a few short years he must depart, leaving all that he has seized to posterity as an old cause for fresh contention.
War–the irrefutable evidence of irrationality–still smolders in the hearts of men; it cannot die until human selfishness is overcome. Armed with multifarious inventions and destructive agencies, civilization will continue its fratricidal strife through future ages, But upon the mind of man there is dawning a great fear–the fear that eventually civilization will destroy itself in one great cataclysmic struggle.
Then must be reenacted the eternal drama of reconstruction. Out of the ruins of the civilization which died when its idealism died, some primitive people yet in the womb of destiny must build a new world. Foreseeing the needs of that day, the philosophers of the ages have desired that into the structure of this new world shall be incorporated the truest and finest of all that has gone before.
It is a divine law that the sum of previous accomplishment shall be the foundation of each new order of things. The great philosophic treasures of humanity must be preserved. That which is superficial may he allowed to perish; that which is fundamental and essential must remain, regardless of cost.
Two fundamental forms of ignorance were recognized by the Platonists: simple ignorance and complex ignorance. Simple ignorance is merely lack of knowledge and is common to all creatures existing posterior to the First Cause, which alone has perfection of knowledge. Simple ignorance is an ever-active agent, urging the soul onward to the acquisition of knowledge.
From this virginal state of unawareness grows the desire to become aware with its resultant improvement in the mental condition. The human intellect is ever surrounded by forms of existence beyond the estimation of its partly developed faculties. In this realm of objects not understood is a never-failing source of mental stimuli. Thus wisdom eventually results from the effort to cope rationally with the problem of the unknown.
In the last analysis, the Ultimate Cause alone can be denominated wise; in simpler words, only God is good. Socrates declared knowledge, virtue, and utility to be one with the innate nature of good. Knowledge is a condition of knowing; virtue a condition of being; utility a condition of doing.
Considering wisdom as synonymous with mental completeness, it is evident that such a state can exist only in the Whole, for that which is less than the Whole cannot possess the fullness of the All. No part of creation is complete; hence each part is imperfect to the extent that it falls short of entirety.
Where incompleteness is, it also follows that ignorance must be coexistent; for every part, while capable of knowing its own Self, cannot become aware of the Self in the other parts.
Philosophically considered, growth from the standpoint of human evolution is a process proceeding from heterogeneity to homogeneity. In time, therefore, the isolated consciousness of the individual fragments is reunited to become the complete consciousness of the Whole. Then, and then only, is the condition of all-knowing an absolute reality.
Thus all creatures are relatively ignorant yet relatively wise; comparatively nothing yet comparatively all. The microscope reveals to man his significance; the telescope, his insignificance.
Through the eternities of existence man is gradually increasing in both wisdom and understanding; his ever-expanding consciousness is including more of the external within the area of itself.
Even in man’s present state of imperfection it is dawning upon his realization that he can never be truly happy until he is perfect, and that of all the faculties contributing to his self-perfection none is equal in importance to the rational intellect. Through the labyrinth of diversity only the illumined mind can, and must, lead the soul into the perfect light of unity.
“Let no young man delay the study of philosophy, and let no old man become weary of it; for it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul” – Epicurus
In addition to the simple ignorance which is the most potent factor in mental growth there exists another, which is of a far more dangerous and subtle type. This second form, called twofold or complex ignorance, may be briefly defined as ignorance of ignorance.
Worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, and offering sacrifices to the winds, the primitive savage sought with crude fetishes to propitiate his unknown gods. He dwelt in a world filled with wonders which he did not understand.
Now great cities stand where once roamed the Crookboned men. Humanity no longer regards itself as primitive or aboriginal. The spirit of wonder and awe has been succeeded by one of sophistication.
Today man worships his own accomplishments, and either relegates the immensities of time and space to the background of his consciousness or disregards them entirely.
The twentieth century makes a fetish of civilization and is overwhelmed by its own fabrications; its gods are of its own fashioning. Humanity has forgotten how infinitesimal, how impermanent and how ignorant it actually is.
Ptolemy has been ridiculed for conceiving the earth to be the center of the universe, yet modern civilization is seemingly founded upon the hypothesis that the planet earth is the most permanent and important of all the heavenly spheres, and that the gods from their starry thrones are fascinated by the monumental and epochal events taking place upon this spherical ant-hill in Chaos.
From age to age men ceaselessly toil to build cities that they may rule over them with pomp and power–as though a fillet of gold or ten million vassals could elevate man above the dignity of his own thoughts and make the glitter of his scepter visible to the distant stars.
As this tiny planet rolls along its orbit in space, it carries with it some two billion human beings who live and die oblivious to that immeasurable existence lying beyond the lump on which they dwell.
Measured by the infinities of time and space, what are the captains of industry or the lords of finance? If one of these plutocrats should rise until he ruled the earth itself, what would he be but a petty despot seated on a grain of Cosmic dust?
Philosophy reveals to man his kinship with the All. It shows him that he is a brother to the suns which dot the firmament; it lifts him from a taxpayer on a whirling atom to a citizen of Cosmos. It teaches him that while physically bound to earth (of which his blood and bones are part), there is nevertheless within him a spiritual power, a diviner Self, through which he is one with the symphony of the Whole.
Ignorance of ignorance, then, is that self-satisfied state of unawareness in which man, knowing nothing outside the limited area of his physical senses, bumptiously declares there is nothing more to know! He who knows no life save the physical is merely ignorant; but he who declares physical life to be all-important and elevates it to the position of supreme reality–such a one is ignorant of his own ignorance.
If the Infinite had not desired man to become wise, He would not have bestowed upon him the faculty of knowing. If He had not intended man to become virtuous, He would not have sown within the human heart the seeds of virtue.
If He had predestined man to be limited to his narrow physical life, He would not have equipped him with perceptions and sensibilities capable of grasping, in part at least, the immensity of the outer universe. The criers of philosophy call all men to a comradeship of the spirit: to a fraternity of thought: to a convocation of Selves.
Philosophy invites man out of the vainness of selfishness; out of the sorrow of ignorance and the despair of worldliness; out of the travesty of ambition and the cruel clutches of greed; out of the red hell of hate and the cold tomb of dead idealism.
Philosophy would lead all men into the broad, calm vistas of truth, for the world of philosophy is a land of peace where those finer qualities pent up within each human soul are given opportunity for expression.
Here men are taught the wonders of the blades of grass; each stick and stone is endowed with speech and tells the secret of its being. All life, bathed in the radiance of understanding, becomes a wonderful and beautiful reality.
From the four corners of creation swells a mighty anthem of rejoicing, for here in the light of philosophy is revealed the purpose of existence; the wisdom and goodness permeating the Whole become evident to even man’s imperfect intellect.
Here the yearning heart of humanity finds that companionship which draws forth from the innermost recesses of the soul that great store of good which lies there like precious metal in some deep hidden vein.
Following the path pointed out by the wise, the seeker after truth ultimately attains to the summit of wisdom’s mount, and gazing down, beholds the panorama of life spread out before him.
The cities of the plains are but tiny specks and the horizon on every hand is obscured by the gray haze of the Unknown. Then the soul realizes that wisdom lies in breadth of vision; that it increases in comparison to the vista.
Then as man’s thoughts lift him heavenward, streets are lost in cities, cities in nations, nations in continents, continents in the earth, the earth in space, and space in an infinite eternity, until at last but two things remain: the Self and the goodness of God.
While man’s physical body resides with him and mingles with the heedless throng, it is difficult to conceive of man as actually inhabiting a world of his own-a world which he has discovered by lifting himself into communion with the profundities of his own internal nature.
Man may live two lives. One is a struggle from the womb to the tomb. Its span is measured by man’s own creation–time. Well may it be called the unheeding life. The other life is from realization to infinity. It begins with understanding, its duration is forever, and upon the plane of eternity it is consummated.
This is called the philosophic life. Philosophers are nor born nor do they die; for once having achieved the realization of immortality, they are immortal. Having once communed with Self, they realize that within there is an immortal foundation that will not pass away.
Upon this living, vibrant base–Self–they erect a civilization which will endure after the sun, the moon, and the stars have ceased to be. The fool lives but for today; the philosopher lives forever.
When once the rational consciousness of man rolls away the stone and comes forth from its sepulcher, it dies no more; for to this second or philosophic birth there is no dissolution. By this should not be inferred physical immortality, but rather that the philosopher has learned that his physical body is no more his true Self than the physical earth is his true world.
In the realization that he and his body are dissimilar–that though the form must perish the life will not fail–he achieves conscious immortality. This was the immortality to which Socrates referred when he said: “Anytus and Melitus may indeed put me to death, but they cannot injure me.”
To the wise, physical existence is but the outer room of the hall of life. Swinging open the doors of this antechamber, the illumined pass into the greater and more perfect existence. The ignorant dwell in a world bounded by time and space.
To those, however, who grasp the import and dignity of Being, these are but phantom shapes, illusions of the senses-arbitrary limits imposed by man’s ignorance upon the duration of Deity. The philosopher lives and thrills with the realization of this duration, for to him this infinite period has been designed by the All-Wise Cause as the time of all accomplishment.
Man is not the insignificant creature that he appears to be; his physical body is not the true measure of his real self. The invisible nature of man is as vast as his comprehension and as measureless as his thoughts.
The fingers of his mind reach out and grasp the stars; his spirit mingles with the throbbing life of Cosmos itself. He who has attained to the state of understanding thereby has so increased his capacity to know that he gradually incorporates within himself the various elements of the universe.
The unknown is merely that which is yet to be included within the consciousness of the seeker. Philosophy assists man to develop the sense of appreciation; for as it reveals the glory and the sufficiency of knowledge, it also unfolds those latent powers and faculties whereby man is enabled to master the secrets of the seven spheres.
From the world of physical pursuits the initiates of old called their disciples into the life of the mind and the spirit. Throughout the ages, the Mysteries have stood at the threshold of Reality–that hypothetical spot between noumenon and phenomenon, the Substance and the shadow.
The gates of the Mysteries stand ever ajar and those who will may pass through into the spacious domicile of spirit. The world of philosophy lies neither to the right nor to the left, neither above nor below. Like a subtle essence permeating all space and all substance, it is everywhere; it penetrates the innermost and the outermost parts of all being.
In every man and woman these two spheres are connected by a gate which leads from the not-self and its concerns to the Self and its realizations. In the mystic this gate is the heart, and through spiritualization of his emotions he contacts that more elevated plane which, once felt and known, becomes the sum of the worth-while.
In the philosopher, reason is the gate between the outer and the inner worlds, the illumined mind bridging the chasm between the corporeal and the incorporeal. Thus godhood is born within the one who sees, and from the concerns of men he rises to the concerns of gods.
In this era of “practical” things men ridicule even the existence of God. They scoff at goodness while they ponder with befuddled minds the phantasmagoria of materiality. They have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars.
The great mystical institutions of antiquity which invited man to enter into his divine inheritance have crumbled, and institutions of human scheming now stand where once the ancient houses of learning rose a mystery of fluted columns and polished marble.
The white-robed sages who gave to the world its ideals of culture and beauty have gathered their robes about them and departed from the sight of men. Nevertheless, this little earth is bathed as of old in the sunlight of its Providential Generator.
Wide-eyed babes still face the mysteries of physical existence. Men continue to laugh and cry, to love and hate; Some still dream of a nobler world, a fuller life, a more perfect realization. In both the heart and mind of man the gates which lead from mortality to immortality are still ajar.
Virtue, love, and idealism are yet the regenerators of humanity. God continues to love and guide the destinies of His creation. The path still winds upward to accomplishment. The soul of man has not been deprived of its wings; they are merely folded under its garment of flesh.
“Philosophy is ever that magic power which, sundering the vessel of clay, releases the soul from its bondage to habit and perversion. Still as of old, the soul released can spread its wings and soar to the very source of itself” – Manly P. Hall
Souls Leaving Bodies / Entities Taking Over Souls
Your soul cannot live completely in the body because it would die (the body). What happened to you and many others is in the head. The mind is extremely complicated for us to innerstand. It all happens in the mind, as in the Universal Mind with all of the countless dimensions.
Our physical brain is just a tool so God/Universal Mind can experience and expand itself. Your physical brain is the cd player and the mind(quantum field/ether) is the cd/software. There is much confusion about souls leaving bodies or entities taking over souls and so on. I am being drawn to clear up much of this confusion and distortion within these ideas.
First and foremost we must innerstand our (physical body) is a mere pattern of energy/frequency. (Physical reality) is contained within a Spirit, a projection of a Spirit, in a sense, not the other way around. We do not have bodies or souls, we ARE soul/spirit.
The body is a smaller physical projection and a representation of the Greater soul-matrix to a degree. The body cannot exist without a soul because “THE” spirit is what creates matter. Consciousness is what creates reality. Your soul cannot leave or detach from your body or be taken over by another entity etc.
All of these experiences are created by our mind and our ‘belief systems’ as a means to cope and ‘make sense’ of what is going on within our mind/body/spirit complex. This can most definitely make things ‘appear’ and ‘feel’ as if those things mentioned above are what is occurring but mechanically speaking, this is not what is actually happening.
The truth is that it is the Spirit that creates/co-creates the body/reality/experience. And I know this can be a challenging concept to grasp for some but it’s simply how reality works, the physics of it, the mechanics of it.
How Light filters through us, is how we ‘perceive’ the reality, that will make the most sense to ‘us’, because very rarely we see it for what it truly is and what is actually occurring on a fundamental level which only really occurs when all our filters are removed/dissolved. Many would call this “Enlightenment” or Buddhahood.
Fundamentally, you cannot be touched but you can buy into the ‘beliefs’ to create an ‘experience’ for yourself that makes it ‘seem’ as if you can for whatever reason it may really serve you. Based on our reality, it is not really what is actually, mechanically happening.
The only thing that can happen to make people ‘think’ they are an entirely new soul or persona is that the mind/ego and ‘false sense of selves’ experience their own illusion and/or death. We surrender and merge with the greater self/soul so to speak. We now embody a greater degree of our entire soul-matrix (i.e., walk-ins/awakenings etc.) but you can never lose or leave your soul/body etc.
These (the explanation of the above paragraph) are all illusions of this immensely powerful creative tool we call (The Mind) that many of us have not been trained to use properly and allow to run amuck and become the master of our reality when it was never designed to be the master but rather the skillful servant. In your sleep, you are sometimes connected with spiritual guides or teachers from other realms. Also, while awake, your inner being is your true teacher.
We also must innerstand that what we hold onto and identify ourselves with like our ‘thoughts, feelings and beliefs’ is what most directly reflects into the reality we experience. And in a sense, traps us in the illusion of time, mind and space and keeps us slightly in the past/future because we are still holding onto things rather than being truly present. Learning to let go births the inner standing that we are a new greater being, still you, but more you, each and every moment. It is much easier said than done.
These words don’t come out of thin air. I AM reminding you so maybe someday you can may remind me or our future generations or vice versa. This is how we walk each other home by cutting through the New-Age ‘Spiritual Fluff’ with basic and fundamental/universal laws & principles. The Microcosm reflects the Macrocosm. What is occurring within you also reflects on the external reality/experience because Inner = Outer. As Above So below. As within so without. As the universe so the soul.
You are an eternal soul dressed up in matter (flesh, skin, bones etc.). When you die, you will change different clothes the higher you go, to the point that dressing up will not be required anymore. You will be naked as in “energy”. Anytime you have difficulty inner standing or accepting a concept that is far beyond your grasp, compare it with lesser forms.
By lesser, I don’t mean in an egotistical/condescending way that you are better. They are considered lesser from our point of view. They are just as important as we are. And those things are for example Elementals.
Do the elementals innerstand the rocks? Do the rocks innerstand the plants? Do the plants innerstand the animals? Do animals innerstand humans ? Do humans innerstand souls ? Do souls innerstand the Prime creator/cosmic intelligence?
The answer is yes to all these questions. One of the questions can be answered with “NO” by many of us because we have lost the ability to know by default our soul, collective consciousness and everything that exists physically or metaphysically. At one point in time, we were united with all life forms.
I could have very well skipped all the metaphysical subjects in this book but then the book would be half complete and showing you only one side of the coin. You will never have a clear mind and peace of heart unless you innerstand the metaphysical part of yourself.
The metaphysical doesn’t only mean after death or in your dream while unconscious or while deep meditating. You cannot see your thoughts or your feelings therefore these are also metaphysical. It is very important to take your existence seriously and work on your emotions and thoughts also.
We live our everyday life by paying attention to only what we physically see and we ignore the importance of our thoughts and emotions. Our emotions and thoughts become physical in the sense that our everyday actions and behavior happen as a result of our thoughts and emotions which are both metaphysical aspects of our body. And we have power over them while conscious. You (most people) have been trained to think that you are useless, a mistake and that you are not intelligently designed.
You and hundreds of generations before you have been trained to believe that, so that the schemers can keep controlling and living off your fear, anxiety, worry, lack of abundance etc. It is all a lie. There is an abundance of everything. Your DNA is the universal alchemist. Talk to it.
Everything begins and ends in the GREAT MIND. Your soul (you are a soul, you don’t have one) cane be either free or trapped within the confines of your mind. All the treasures are in your body (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual) and not anywhere else.
That is why it is said that you receive nothing; your possess them from the beginning. If you want to attain the Tao, you must train and discipline yourself. You must be steadfast like stone and iron, and you must not waiver. Do not crave riches. Do not crave sexual pleasure. Do not be daunted by threats and fear. Your will must be centered, or you will abandon the path along the way. You must isolate your body from fame, fortune, possessive love, liquor, sexual pleasure, and emotions. You must cut them off with a sharp knife. You must cultivate yourself from within. Otherwise your soul (which is YOU) will continue to be trapped. You have the power to let your soul become free by letting go of all the weight (all that which is described in the bolded sentences above). – Eva Wong
You have spent lifetimes caught up in a place of powerlessness through the illusion of the third-dimensional world, keeping your SELF (soul) separated from the rest of the Universe. You have played a passive role by meditating and waiting to be given information or shown the answers. This state of waiting must now end, the veils of illusion are lifting.
You can instantly access information/intelligence straight from the source, the great MIND/SPIRIT. Your place within the Collective Consciousness is so much more than the limited version you have of your SELF. When your thoughts are aligned to this truth (that you are created in the image of the GREAT SPIRIT/Creator), a doorway opens for you. Your are the door, the lock and the key at the same time. Your soul/DNA is unlocking all 100% of its potential.
You are the ultimate library, you are the biological screen. All the knowledge of the universe is within yourself. All books are physical manifestations of your soul’s knowledge and wisdom. You are here at this time to remember who you truly are which is, a spirit dressed in a physical body. You are here to undo what you did in your past lives. You are here to be in charge of your destiny. You are here to be the REAL YOU. You are the cure, the remedy. You are the here to resolve the mystery. The mystery is that you are the key that opens all doors.
Your DNA is like a genie in a bottle except they are genes in your body. Connected to the unified field of the universe, they react to your thoughts to make your wishes a reality by attracting people, things and experiences which you desire and think about most. Your DNA is your soul roadmap for where you have been energetic wise.
– Sources –
THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES – https://amzn.to/48Mpwit
THE ELEUSIAN AND BACCHIC MYSTERIES – https://amzn.to/4a3c4Ip
LECTURES ON ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY – https://amzn.to/3TnSQYs
I AM THE KEY THAT OPENS ALL DOORS – https://amzn.to/3ULq8lj
PLEIADIAN PRINCIPLES FOR LIVING – https://amzn.to/4bQP1ly
EGYPTIAN YOGA THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENLIGHTENMENT – https://amzn.to/49Cg2b6
FROM SOCRATES TO SARTRE – https://amzn.to/3V8i1zl
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