Primordial Future

"Life is eternal, whether in a biological form, or in a spirit form, or in being form. Life is the name of Existence.

It is the living Presence perpetuating itself forever and ever! And if we really examine the ego of humanity, the core of the ego... One of the deepest layers in the Ego Structure is what I call the Ring of Terror, and the annihilation space. Deep, deep, deep inside in this Ego Structure there is fear of dying.

And so much of the fear of dying is not about biological dying.

So much of this fear amazingly is about psychological dying, about Essential dying. And what I mean by that is that when we were children we were so full of life qualities, of essence circulating in our system and enhancing our presence and activities with so much aliveness.... little by little, through conflicts through repressions, through all kind of issues, we lose one quality of essence after another.

Each quality when we lose it is experienced as a form of death.

We died. And that is why in psychology they say there are death layers. You go through a death layer.

The death layer is a layer in which one quality of Essence is not flowing and there are issues about it ...fear, anger ,rage, hurt, sadness, grief. And when those issues are released, this layer in the fascias or in the bones or the organs or in the muscles begin to come to life and Essence comes to life, so we resurrect.

We resurrect more and more, we come to life. So we have so much fear of dying due to those experiences of psychological and essential dying that we had in childhood. Because we really don't know exactly what dying is! There is another fear...and it is in the body itself. There is a program for survival. You see it in the animal kingdom and the animal soul of the human. We are oriented towards living. But it is not all just oriented towards living. At a certain age, and a certain stage, it is as if there is also programs in the body to let go, to die, to surrender.

And the elements of the body which are made of earthly elements, it is as if there is in them, an inherent longing to join the earth. My calcium is going to go to the calcium of the earth, my magnesium is going to go to the magnesium of the earth, my water wants to go.... there is a longing we do not feel as we are so terrified to feel a longing to be in the grave....and to have my body disintegrate. If I remove the psychological....which I had experience of.... when I moved those psychological... I felt my body loved it to be mud, to be air... every element in me became more alive because it was enhanced by the earth elements, the magnesium of the earth enhances my magnesium, my calcium! I was surprised that the system is created differently from what we think! This is one.

. . .

1976... I went to a retreat with my teacher, my guru, Tarthang Tulku Rimpoche, to whom I bow and send blessings and long wishes for long life and much gratitude! I received many gifts and one of them was this guiding in meditation.... and that weekend there were many people, and many were also ill and elderly had cancers or other diseases and they came to learn how to die.

And I was fortunate to come at a time when he was giving this... At that time I was living in Kuwait and I came that summer when he was giving that weekend. This retreat I went to, the Tibetan call it Phowa, the art of dying. It is a very sophisticated exercise of how to exit, and how to die. His holiness for example, the Dalai Lama practices it every day for half an hour. Every day in the morning he sits from 3 30 till eight in the morning every day. Does all kind of exercises and one of them is "death and dying". Like chartering the passage how to exit, how to die, releasing any obstacles that might come. Releasing fears, attachments, all of those things. So there is culture, there is richness, there is guidance, there is spirituality that can help us go through this passage...So this exercise I received from my teacher.

And he did it with modification, and I did it with more modification, to make it simpler on the western people, and on humanity of this time.

. . .lean against something comfortable and the body in a most comfortable position.... And as I guide guide you through the different stages of it... if one stage you do not complete, it's okay. You do not have to complete it. Just go beyond it, follow the other steps till you complete the whole exercise. Then when you do this exercise again and again and again, you might be able to go through this passage."

Faisal Muqaddam

“I always experienced myself as engaging an intelligence, a Consciousness that was directing my sessions. I mean, I never did not control what was unfolding in my sessions. I was always yielding and following a lead that came from deeper levels of consciousness, and as the journey continued that the levels of consciousness that I was entering deep in several times, multiple times

And so, what do we call this infinite Consciousness, that's been called many things in the world’s mystical Traditions -I hesitate to call it God, though-, I do refer to it as the Divine because God has so many layers of historical overlay, which I wouldn’t want to affirm, so, just to give them some sense of the approximation of the vast scale and scope of this Consciousness, I call it the Mind of the Universe. Now, just as the universe has a body, it has a mind.

. . .when we sink deeply into our consciousness, we come out into a vast Consciousness which you can think of as the Divine Consciousness, or you can think of it as the Mind of the Universe.

. . .

If we want to move into deeper intimacy with the consciousness of the universe, we’re moving into states of consciousness which are large, which are vast, and operate a much higher level of, a much higher frequency, much higher energy level, and our egoic consciousness, the consciousness which surrounds our body in a sense, and which is the consciousness that we are operationalizing as egoic consciousness, is just too small. We have to let go of that consciousness and some people find that easier, and [some] more difficult, but letting go of that consciousness and dying at the egoic level and entering into spiritual reality, I found is actually the first of many cycles of death and rebirth, because the universe has many levels in many dimensions to it.

In order to enter each successive, deeper level, we have to go through a deeper level of surrender, and that often involves very intense purification, confrontations, and every step deeper into the universe is a step into a higher bandwidth of energy, if you will.

. . .eventually I came to understand that the many deaths that one endures in this process [of spiritual awakening] are actually, that death is actually a symptom of purification. Once you've died several times and been reborn on the other side of that process, you realize you can't die, it’s impossible to die, the form that you are can die, the structures of your life can be shattered, but the Inner Essence of your being cannot die, so that death itself begins to lose its category, it becomes to be a non-functional category, and I began to realize that death -what we experience as death- is actually a deep form of purification, which is letting go of the small in order to welcome and be welcomed by that which is larger. . .

. . . in my work even though I began this work with the thought of an awakening -a spiritual awakening agenda- it became much more than that, it became an adventure of exploring the deep structure of the Universe itself, and so, death changes as one goes, as one pivots from spiritual awakening as a project to cosmological exploration as a project, but what I learned, if I were to try to summarize it in some way:

First, I have no fear of death whatsoever.

I have no fear of dying.

I feel like I’ve died many times in that process, and in that process of “dying before you die”, physically there is a great relaxation that settles in, an abiding communion with the Universe or with the Divine, which begins to saturate one’s physical existence, so that the boundary line between here and there, between being physically alive and spiritually alive and cosmologically Alive it gets very thin in the process.

So I guess I've learned to trust life more, to recognize that anything that’s coming at me which is challenging and difficult is to be embraced head on, straightforward, to not back away from anything, to see everything to its root… if you run from the hard stuff it only gets worse, but if you embrace the challenges and let the Universe take you where it wants to take you, then eventually you will come to a breaking point, and when you go through that eye of that needle, you will open up into a magnificent landscape, a different level of being…”

Christopher Bache

"When the SELF experiences the fine flavors of the flow of Intelligence within itself, the universal reality of the individual personality is revealed. All aspects of the apparent individual personality are perceived, as they really are, in their cosmic unbounded status. Your own body/mind/personality, when experienced with refined clarity, is revealed to be universal and divine. The human being is an infinite Being at its core, and a Divine Being in its constitution. The more clearly Consciousness experiences the finer flows of its own pure Light, the more the body and its perceptions are bathed in that flow of light." . . .

"Flowing to a point within itself to experience its own infinity, universal Consciousness appears as individual consciousness. The individual mind/body appearance is the means for Consciousness to experience the details of the infinity of itself in the appearance of the world and the universe. This subtle action of perceiving and experiencing that you experience every waking moment, is the individualized experience of the flow of the universal Intelligence of Consciousness being conscious of itself. . . . It is perpetually referring back to itself at every point in its process of being conscious of itself and instantaneously expanding to its infinity. It is this lively impulse of pure intelligence, inherent everywhere in the nature of infinite Consciousness, that generates the flow of creative intelligence that creates the appearance of the form and phenomena of experience, including that of your own mind and body. You are that flow. You are the appearance. Everything is SELF."

. . . "All life is vibrantly alive Consciousness. Consciousness is Life. Everything everywhere is your own body, your own heart, your own soul, your own Self. Knowing, feeling and experiencing your SELF as all objects and phenomena is so completely intimate that even the world "love" is not an adequate description. The flow of the SELF recognizing itself in the appearance of form is Being knowing and feeling itself. It is pure Feeling, the flow of pure Love. Love gets its feeling of love from the flow of Consciousness experiencing itself in the appearance of creation. This flow is the ultimate essence of the process of creation." . . . "People around the world are awakening to being Awareness itself. As there is only one field of Consciousness, when one person awakens to being that universal field of unbounded Awareness, it directly influences and uplifts the consciousness of everyone. Nothing affects society more positively than Awakening to being Consciousness itself. It creates a thrill throughout the omnipresent field of Consciousness, heightening the entire world consciousness. And, as it is the fundamental source of everything, it enlivens the innermost core of the pure sense of Being in everyone. The whole field of universal life is uplifted all at once, in one stroke." . . ."The perpetual pull and push of its collapse to a point within itself and its simultaneous expansion to its infinity creates a dynamic churning motion in the boundless ocean of Consciousness. This constant churning motion produces a superfluid nectar of vibrant potentiality and possibility. A fine flow of effervescent pure Life, effulgent with divine light and alive bliss. . . . The constant churning motion of the infinite ocean of Consciousness, flowing in waves of infinite possibility, is the cause of the appearance of life on all levels of creation. Like the nourishment from the mother providing energy and nutrition to the fetus, this superfluid flow of pure divine energy, invigorates, enlivens, and nourishes all the levels of cosmic Intelligence responsible for creating and sustaining the appearance of the universe. This divine nutriment is the primal bond of creation, binding together the absolute non-changing pure Being and the ever-changing appearance of life into one wholeness." . . .

(Poem from Kundalini Wonder:The god/goddess in your body, Dorothy Walters)

"Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image."

- Alan Watts

*

Indra's Net symbolizes the universe as a web of connections and interdependences [...] I seek to revive it as the foundation for Vedic cosmology and show how it went on to become the central principle of Buddhism, and from there spread into mainstream Western discourse across several disciplines.

The Avatamsaka Sutra (which means 'Flower Garland') of Mahayana Buddhism uses the metaphor of Indra's Net to explain cosmic interpenetration. This sutra explains everything as both a mirror reflecting all ana an image reflected by all. Everything is simultaneously cause and effect, support and supported. This important sutra was translated from Sanskrit, and its logic further developed in China under the name of Hua-yen Buddhism.

The Hua-yen tradition was developed by a series of thinkers, most notably Fa-tsang (CE 643-712). Through him, it passed on to Korea and other East Asian countries, becoming known as 'Kegon' in Japan. Hua-yen is praised as the highest development of Chinese Buddhist thought. D.T. Suzuki called Hua-yen the philosophy of Zen, and Zen the meditation practice of Hua-yen. Francis Cook explains the core philosophy of Hua-yen as follows:

'Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.'

Rajiv Malhotra, Indra's Net

*

My Divine Mother

is the primordial Divine Energy.

She is omnipresent.

She is both the outside

and the inside of visible phenomena.

She is the parent of the world,

and the world carries Her in its heart.

She is the Spider

and the world is the web

She has spun.

The Spider draws the thread

out of Herself

and then winds it round Herself.

My Mother is at the same time

the container and the contained.

She is the shell,

but She is also the kernel

~ Sri Ramakrishna

*

My feelings of grief had become unbearable, and I attempted to pull off the road. But as suddenly as the wailing began, it ceased, and everything was transformed. Looking at the landscape around me through the window of my parked car, I wondered at first if I might be dreaming. Every rock, every sagebrush, every lofty pine and blazing aspen, as well as the mountain itself, was bathed in a yellowish-gold light connected to luminous threads. I felt as if I were enveloped in soft down.

"This is not a vision," I said to myself. "I am seeing the world as it really is!"

...The mysterious glow surrounding everything seemed to emanate from within all things...more accurately, perhaps, from within the earth, herself. The threads of light were even more extraordinary. Unlike the visible spectrum of light, these felt alive. It seemed that each strand of this "living light" was self-aware and also aware of the whole. I felt that I perceived, on an energetic level, the very essence of the earth - perhaps the nature of Creation itself. I also felt that for a brief, timeless moment, I perceived the "flow" of things, for these luminous threads of light seemed fluid, shimmering, and eternal. These threads of light were connected to all things, thus forming the impression of a vast living web. There were also strands, which extended upward as if connecting this web to some greater whole. Perhaps they reached into Infinity itself. My heartwrenching anguish had been transformed into utter bliss. It was then that I heard an inner voice telling me that one must know the sufferings of the world before bliss is possible... ...When my perception returned to normal, I thought of the Navaho deity, Spider Woman, who wove the web of the Universe. I remembered the opening verse to an ancient East Indian account of Creation, "Father, Mother, spin a web, whose web is the Universe".

I felt that my eyes had been opened. For the first time I understood what these ancient people must have known through direct experience. For the next half hour while standing on that mountain pass, I continued observing the glow of our world with its luminous threads. I knew that the goddess of our world had shared with me both her anguish and her bliss. Through a spontaneous shift in awareness, I had perceived her energetic configurations, while experiencing a joyous and ecstatic union with this great being - the Earth Mother - in her Gaia, or planetary, form.

- Peter Calhoun, "Soul On Fire: From Priest To Shaman"

***

"Space can be experienced in this body, in these chakras, in these channels, and particularly in our heart. So we draw our attention to our own body, our physical body. . . .If we engage the experience of being, nakedly and directly, we will discover the sacred body.

. . .

Our true being and energy abide in the sacred space within the heart. So this is where we go for refuge. That is where we focus our searching mind and allow our doubts and questions to exhaust themselves. Just simply draw your attention within, become still and feel the deep stillness that is always there. you can never lose it, because you are it.

. . .

Throughout the history of humankind, people have been revering and bowing before sacred mountains, images of goddess and goddesses, and shrines. We have made offerings with great respect and awe and have prayed for guidance. This is the attitude you want to have for the space within at this very moment. Whether the entrance to this moment of experience is chaotic and noisy or serene and sublime makes no difference. What is important is your attitude of respect and your ability to draw unwavering attention inward and become conscious of stillness. Having trust and respect is a conventional sense of refuge. Bowing, making offerings, and feeling joy and inspiration toward the refuge of your being is another conventional sense of refuge. BEING that stillness, BEING that space, is the ultimate sense of refuge. Both the conventional and ultimate aspects of refuge are important to have in order to awaken the luminous mind.

. . .

...rest in that union, that openness and awareness, feeling completely boundless, feeling this vast, infinite space around and within you...

. . .

Resting continuously in that nondual state, gradually experience a sense of warmth, a sense of joy in your heart. Just feel it. Allow it. It is there. . . .That very natural and deep sense of joy is the joy of being, the joy of who you are..

. . .

As you feel it allow it to expand through your heart and through the rest of your body, through your flesh, bones, blood, skin, through your face, your eyes - through every cell of your body.

. . .

Once you have recognized, connected with, and felt that warmth, try to express it. . . .Connect with the warm that becomes available, and let the warmth be reflected in your voice. Not only will the words that come from that inner source be kinder and more creative, but you will be able to see this reflected in the other person as warmth comes back toward you.

Again and again, remember to bring awareness to the inner refuge and connect with the awareness of openness directly - the place of union - until it pervades all of your experiences. Actively intend to do this five times daily, particularly when you are challenged or irritated in any way. Particularly at those times, connect with the place of union and express warmth in your speech or actions, or simply host warmth thoughts and feelings."

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Awakening the Luminous Mind

"El espacio se puede experimentar en este cuerpo, en estos chakras, en estos canales energéticos, y particularmente en nuestro corazón. Entonces llamamos nuestra atención a nuestro propio cuerpo, nuestro cuerpo físico... Si nos involucramos en la experiencia de ser, desnuda y directamente, descubriremos el cuerpo sagrado. . . . Nuestro verdadero ser y energía residen en el espacio sagrado dentro del corazón. Así que aquí es donde vamos a refugiarnos. Ahí es donde enfocamos nuestra mente en busca y permitimos que nuestras dudas y preguntas se agoten. Simplemente llama tu atención hacia adentro, quédate quieto y siente la profunda quietud que siempre está ahí. nunca puedes perderlo, porque tú lo eres. . . . A lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, la gente ha reverenciado e inclinado ante montañas sagradas, imágenes de diosas y diosas y santuarios. Hemos hecho ofrendas con gran respeto y asombro y hemos orado pidiendo orientación. Esta es la actitud que quieres tener para el espacio interior en este mismo momento. No importa si la entrada a este momento de experiencia es caótica y ruidosa o serena y sublime. Lo importante es tu actitud de respeto y tu habilidad para atraer una atención inquebrantable hacia adentro y volverte consciente de la quietud. Tener confianza y respeto es un sentido convencional de refugio. Hacer reverencias, hacer ofrendas y sentir alegría e inspiración hacia el refugio de tu ser es otro sentido convencional de refugio. SER esa quietud, SER ese espacio, es el último sentido de refugio. Tanto los aspectos convencionales como los últimos del refugio son importantes para despertar la mente luminosa.

. . .

... descansa en esa unión, esa apertura y conciencia, sintiéndote completamente ilimitado, sintiendo este vasto e infinito espacio a tu alrededor y dentro de ti...

. . . Descansando continuamente en ese estado no dual, experimente gradualmente una sensación de calidez, una sensación de alegría en su corazón. Sólo siéntelo. Permitelo. Está ahí. . . .Ese sentido muy natural y profundo de alegría es la alegría de ser, la alegría de quién eres.

. . . .

Mientras lo sientas, permite que se expanda a través de tu corazón y del resto de tu cuerpo, a través de tu carne, huesos, sangre, piel, a través de tu rostro, tus ojos, a través de cada célula de tu cuerpo. . . . Una vez que hayas reconocido, conectado y sentido ese calor, trata de expresarlo. . . .

Conéctate con la calidez que se vuelve disponible y deja que la calidez se refleje en tu voz. No solo las palabras que provienen de esa fuente interna serán más amables y creativas, sino que podrás ver esto reflejado en la otra persona a medida que el calor regresa hacia ti. Una y otra vez, recuerda llevar la conciencia al refugio interior y conectarte directamente con la conciencia de la apertura, el lugar de la unión, hasta que impregne todas tus experiencias. Ten la intención activa de hacer esto cinco veces al día, especialmente cuando te sientas algún problema o o te sientas irritado de alguna manera. Particularmente en esos momentos, conéctate con el lugar de unión y expra esa calidez entus palabras o acciones, o simplemente alberga pensamientos y sentimientos cálidos".

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, El Despertar de la Mente Luminosa

***

"My physical environment appears to see me as much as I see it. It is almost as if the daily space around me has somehow acquired my transcendental, fully functioning eyes and ears. All of it is experiencing me in a directionless familiar relationship. I am the liveliness of the bliss consciousness around who I am and thus everything that I see is naturally rendered blissful.

Of course, it is not just one object or scene that is being experienced. It is every object, every person and every scene that is alive in the expanded value of this unified knowing-sight of connectedness. Even the differences, while obviously remaining practical, daily differences, have gained the status of the unity and range of my entire awareness.

The vast depth of the ocean of consciousness has entered every wave allowing my senses to cascade far beyond the boundaries of my immediate physical space. These inside-to-outside waves of Self-awareness are the elements of nature that comprise water, fire, earth, air and space, throughout personal and cosmic creation."

Harri Aalto

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

*

"Sophia is a spontaneous image produced by the individual or collective psyche when the soul, longing for understanding and clarity, is awakened from the dull slumber of consumer consciousness and obedience to social and institutional conditioning. When the longing of the soul responds to the call of aliveness of the soul of the world, the process of personal initiation and cultural change is triggered.

This "dull slumber" has been described countless times through the ages by sages, poets, visionary philosophers, and seers as a kind of death, sleep, hell (Dante), a cave (Plato), Ialdabaoth (gnosticism), or as the sublunary realm of images. This condition is depicted in cultures around the world as a dragon who guards a jewel; sometimes as a crocodile, Typhon (Egypt), or other reptile. The jewel is the place where we connect to the power of wisdom: when we speak from this condition of conscience and consciousness, it rouses the dragon.

To reclaim the jewel of our own conscious aliveness is to encounter the dragon and engage in a life-death struggle. To prevent being overcome by isolation, scapegoating, exclusion, and ridicule requires us to activate wisdom: the faculty of clear perception or discernment. We must free our intelligence from its slavery to gathering and manipulating information and disengage it from the presuppositions of the cultural myths which keep it bound to unexamined habits. This consists of the entirety of what has gone before in the form of language, beliefs, dogma, and all of the social conditioning that we obey without questioning.

The encounter is accomplished through the form of inquiry that seeks to understand what lies underneath and outside the parameters of marketplace/ consumer consciousness, that looks at the underbelly, questions the presuppositions of the current myths, be they religious or scientific and strives to free itself from slavery to social and institutional norms. This path pits the individual against the mass mind--the emotional glue that binds large numbers of people to prejudice, to past tropes, to the habits of conditioning and past behavior--good and evil--that I call the dragon. This struggle has also been variously named and described in the literature as purgatory (Dante), the rational realm on the divided line of Plato, the "Great Work" of alchemy.

The successful outcome of this struggle has been the focus of spiritual philosophy and yogic practices around the world and is the fulfillment of the soul's longing. This is the heavenly Sophia, the anima mundi or soul of the world, Perfect Nature, the paradise where Beatrice awaits Dante, the celestial form of the zodiac, the inerratic or realm of fixed stars of Plato. The vital soul has reclaimed itself from the past and no longer alone and fixated and bound to its conditioning is instead situated between the dragon on one side and Sophia on the other. The vital soul no longer is in danger of being swallowed and used by the dragon. Instead, that Old Master of the Sublunary realm--the dragon--now serves the soul who has freed itself from slavery. The sage is one who has gained control of the power of life, who uses the dragon in service to the soul of the world. Sophia and her companion of power, the dragon, are reunited in service to the unfolding intelligence of the universe through the agency of the human psyche.

Kathleen Damiani,Sophia and the Dragon: A Modern Alchemy of Personal and Collective Initiation

***

This universal, organizational chart of creation is etched on the canvas of our consciousness as the dynamics of Self-aware

universality. I see pure consciousness—pure love and unmoving

unboundedness— silently humming, appearing to separate into wonderful, glittering light, reverberating loops, spirals, heavens and universal existence, and all the while coming and going as the movements of the unbounded, never-moving

oneness of my—and everyone’s—life.

I know this process—this cosmic ballet—from within its own essence within myself. It spontaneously reveals its own

knowledge-configurations and divine expressions. We cannot

separate Self-awareness from its processes and expressions.

This Self-validating, eternal movement of silence is how Self-awareness stirs itself as my daily experience. I am really just

describing how the cosmic elements of nature function and are

related to our consciousness.

Harri Aalto

I walk, talk, drive and thrive in this bustle of divine activity,

which is not limited by physical space. There is no limitation

to the sphere of this activity; I see it filling up immeasurable

space. It is the same universal environment that is the very fullness

of the relationship of the Creator to His/Her creation.

Heaven is not in a heaven somewhere in the far distant sky.

It is right here, right there, wherever we might look or be. The

divine beings that reside in these regions are personified, Selfluminous, universal consciousness. They have been perceived

and described by ancient cultures and spiritual teachers of the

world through religious teachings, myths, fables and in artistic

expressions. These beings are very beautiful. Their beauty does

not lie in how they look or are attired, though they are of great

splendor, but rather in the perfection of their existence and

divine purpose. Their existence is the source of our lives and

we are the source of theirs.

Heaven has a very practical function; it is the home and

source of the universal activities of nature and from where they

are administered for the benefit of all creation. Similarly, on

a more personal level, the mother and father in a family look

after and love their children and get great fulfillment in return.

We love our own families most, and when we finally see how

closely our daily lives are aligned with our sublimely cosmic

family the expansion and happiness of our love naturally

extends to universal proportions.

Harri Aalto

"Untitled", Biren De

"As part of my ritual, I address the worlds above and the worlds below, the fifth and sixth directions… and here is where it gets interesting. In acknowledging the worlds below, I extend my conscious awareness to connect with the World Soul—with the great being whose physical body is our planet Earth. Her spirit enlivens our Earth, streaming her energy upward to empower all those elemental forces with the universal Life Force. In my moments of vision, I perceive this force in the planet’s core as a star, as a green star. . . In turning my focused concentration toward this star within our world, the green light streams upward and into me… and then, with my blood hissing in my ears, I turn my attention to the golden star above from which all of us are sourced—our Sun, at whose core all of the carbon in our bodies was forged. I always do this as a way of honoring and connecting with these two god-like beings (in a mythic sense) that fill us and our world with the Life Force. In response, several years ago, a vision occurred. It happened while I was opening a workshop at the Esalen Institute on the Big Sur coast of California… As my attention turned toward the golden radiance of our star and I rattled its power into our circle, my vision of the sun was suddenly disrupted as something emerged from its surface like a projectile and headed right for me. As I continued to rattle and hold my focus, the projectile appeared to me as a bird, flying on golden wings, and then suddenly it was within me, inside me. As the contact was made, I was filled with the most amazing feeling. Perhaps the only word that can describe it is ‘grace.’ I was filled with grace… and I stood entranced as my whole body was imbued by it until even my fingertips glowed in response." - Hank Wesselman PhD., Message from the Stone Clan *** "I found myself immersed in verdant life, surrounded with varying shades of green. It was like being in the middle of a green fog and in the midst not of living creatures but of the power and vitality of life itself. I had a sense of an immense presence, a bit like being at the base of a mountain, only more so. I felt a multitude of impressions and images pressing in on me, more than I could process or interpret. Then the fog parted, and I gained a different perspective. Things began to fall into place, or at least, my mind began to fashion an image it could comprehend and use to organize what I was experiencing. I was seeing the world from a distance, but it did not at all resemble the images of the planet from space. Everything remained green, and there was no differentiation between oceans or continents. It was like looking at the biomass of the earth presented as a collage of images of various life-forms, from microbes to moose, from protozoa to pinewoods, with fish, birds, animals, humans, plants all represented. This was very impressionistic, with a few sharp details, including landscapes such as forests and mountains. And underneath the green light was a deeper core of light that to my sight was a reddish gold, conveying a sense of love. Quite beyond the imagery, however, was a sense of presence. It felt vast, but at the same time it felt intimate. I did not feel diminished by its vastness. I felt that whatever this was, I was part of it, and it was part of me. 'This,' John said, 'is the World Soul. It is the life and consciousness that infuse the world, giving of itself to support all the other lives that are evolving on this planet. Humanity is helping it to incarnate, but its gift back is to enable you to develop a planetary consciousness. This is an essential part of your destiny as a species, a destiny which you are confronting at this time in history.' " - David Spangler, “Apprenticed to Spirit: The Education of a Soul

"With It" Magic

A few years back I was a presenter at a conference on the Western Magical Tradition held at the Findhorn Foundation Community in northern Scotland. Both practitioners and scholars of various forms of magic came from all over Europe and North America to attend. Like so many conferences in which there are more speakers than anyone knows quite what to do with, the afternoons were taken up with panels in which five or six presenters are jammed together and given a few nanoseconds each to present the breadth and depth of their knowledge before being exposed to questions. As you can tell, though I've both been on and seen some very good panels, I'm not fond of the form.

At this conference, one afternoon panel provided a bit of unexpected drama, though I imagine not in a way the organizers appreciated. It was a panel for which the theme was "What is magic?". As I recall, there were four or five panelists, and the first speaker was a man who had written a beginner's book on magic and spirituality. His definition was that magic was very simple, a kind of "playing with energies" that everyone could do. This went uncontested until the last panelist had his turn to speak. He was a well-known and respected author of many books on magic, as well as a competent practitioner. He had been quite visibly restraining himself from saying something until his turn came, but then he practically leaped out of his chair in agitation and said, "Magic most certainly is NOT playing with energies!". Then, shaking his finger at the first panelist, he proceeded to verbally demolish him, stating that magic was anything but simple, and that it was a deep and profound discipline that was not for everyone. He let it be known in no uncertain terms that his fellow panelist had no business speaking in this conference if he was going to spout drivel. This in turn led to a shouting match between the two which eventually led to the organizers' coming on stage and shutting the whole thing down.

I hadn't realized till then how much fun a conference of magicians could be!

I have to admit, though, that even after that, the definition of magic remains elusive to me. The word magic is used loosely in a number of different ways and contexts, from the excitement and wonder of a romantic evening to stage illusions to the profound spiritual disciplines of alchemy and hermeticism. If I say I'm a magician, then just exactly how am I describing myself? What really is magic? Perhaps behind the disciplines and the rituals, the techniques and procedures, it does come down to a play of energies innate in all of us, though now I might think twice before saying so on a panel!

I once had a conversation with a non-physical being to whom I asked this question of the nature of magic. He seemed puzzled and asked me what I was talking about. So I explained to him what I had in mind and he said, "Oh, you mean life!". Another being was more helpful, but only just. "When you pick up a glass of water," he said, "for you it's simply an act of will. You wish the water and your body responds by picking up the glass. It seems instantaneous to you. But at the level of your cells, a great deal more goes on in the form of energy exchanges and molecular alterations, all of which you don't experience. What you call magic, with your rituals and correspondences, is to us equivalent to these molecular activities at a cellular level whereas what we call magic--the magic of the soul, if you wish--is like the direct experience of will and its consequences. We will and it is done."

Nice trick when you can do it.

At the heart of what this being was saying was relationship between two states for which will was a bridge. In his case, the bridge was direct, but in our case, the relationship or connections needed to be built up between ourselves and the object of the magic, hence the use of ritual or correspondences. The image was like the difference between teleporting directly between San Francisco and New York on the one hand and traveling from one city to the other through a series of connecting railway links. His point was that as we were able to form deeper and better connections or relationships, our magic would change. It was a matter of the wholeness in us matching the wholeness of the cosmos.

Thinking of magic as relationship and connection has been helpful to me, more helpful than thinking of it as ritual or alchemical processes on the one hand or playing with energies on the other. More precisely, it gives me a starting point in thinking about magic and the making of magic. I can think of it, for instance, not simply as the use of the will to produce effects in the world but as the forming of relationships or connections co-creatively with the world that have consequences, hopefully desired ones.

Why is this important? Because I believe as human beings we need to move to a partnership model of our relationship with the rest of creation, not simply for moral or spiritual reasons but because it works better. It is closer to the truth of things. If I think of magic as the projection and imposition of my will upon the world, whether through the astral light or the etheric plane or some other intermediate dimension, I am acting as a separate agent. I am not really engaging the world. I am acting upon it but not with it. I am making links through corresondences and rituals, but I am not making wholeness. I am not participating. In the end, whatever the success of my magical operation, the world and I remain separate. We remain strangers to each other.

Whatever magic is or can become, I believe it calls us to be not just in the world, or even less to have power over the world, but to be with the world in spirit and in wholeness. It is a "with-it" magic.

David Spangler

(https://hermeticist.blogspot.com/2007/09/with-it-magic.html)

*

" I believe in three doctrines, which have, as I think, been handed down from early times, and been the foundations of nearly all magical practices. These doctrines are— (1) That the borders of our minds are ever shifting, and that many minds can flow into one another, as it were, and create or reveal a single mind, a single energy. (2) That the borders of our memories are as shifting, and that our memories are a part of one great memory, the memory of Nature herself. (3) That this great mind and great memory can be evoked by symbols. I often think I would put this belief in magic from me if I could, for I have come to see or to imagine, in men and women, in houses, in handicrafts, in nearly all sights and sounds, a certain evil, a certain ugliness, that comes from the slow perishing through the centuries of a quality of mind that made this belief and its evidences common over the world."

"Creo en tres doctrinas que, según creo, se han transmitido desde los primeros tiempos y han sido la base de casi todas las prácticas mágicas. Estas doctrinas son:

(1) Que los límites de nuestras mentes están en constante cambio, y que muchas mentes pueden fluir entre sí, por así decirlo, y crear o revelar una sola mente, una sola energía.

(2) Que los límites de nuestros recuerdos son igualmente cambiantes, y que nuestros recuerdos son parte de un gran recuerdo, el recuerdo de la Naturaleza misma.

"I experience myself as a soft, relaxed and ripened soul. I am an individual consciousness which I experience as presence. I am a living presence, free from contractions, identifications or mental elaborations. I am clear and transparent presence, but feel alive and dynamic. As this presence I experience myself as delicate and exquisitely fine. The sense of I or identity springs from within, as an innate self-recognition. It originates from the center of the presence, which I see now as a brilliant point of light. The point of light is alive and scintillating, beautiful and precious. Yet, as both the living delicate presence of the soul and the brilliant point of light, I am inseparable from the nothingness of the absolute, an expression of it that is it. I am the absolute mystery, a vastness that has manifested itself within itself as a transparent sphere of conscious presence, whose center is a radiant point of light. The felt experience is lightness and intimacy, preciousness and exquisiteness, and total personal vulnerability. This is the quintessence of being a real human person."

"Thou, my lord and prince, my most holy angel, my precious spiritual being, Thou are the Spirit who gave birth to me, and Thou art the Child to whom my spirit gives birth. . .Thou who art clothed in the most brillant of divine Lights. . .may Thou manifest thyself to me in the most beautiful. . .of epiphanies, show me the light of Thy dazzling face, be for me the mediator. . .lift the veils of darkness from my heart."

"To become human has always meant the same thing.

It's to become the dawn behind the dawn. But dawn can't be understood in our words or in our world - this world that's disintegrating so quickly. The only way to do that is by entering the realm of dawn.

. . .

“Henry Corbin's [inner] teacher, his sheikh, was Suhrawardi: A Persian Sufi from the twelfth century who'd been put to death while still in his thirties for the things he said and did. Suhrawardi claimed he was simply continuing a spiritual lineage which he referred to as the Dawning [ishrāq]. But towards the end of what would be a short life he ran into trouble with orthodox Muslims because he insisted on tracing his lineage a long way back—far beyond even the prophet Muhammed—to the Greeks, and specifically Empedocles.”

Peter Kingsley, A Book of Life

***