Rebirth Of the Soul

[QUOTING]

We would now like to consider the Ninth Book of Hermes in which it is explained that none of what truly exists can be lost and that, with respect to what is essential, death is a chimera and can be assigned to the realm of fable.

Let us first turn to the problem of the soul and the body and discuss the metabolic processes of the body, the circulation of atoms and forces. We will take as our basis the hermetic axiom that fundamentally and in principle the soul is immortal, and that the state of the soul determines its nature and inherent disposition of the body, its metabolic rate and all related phenomena. There is no death in the relationship between soul and body, in the ideal, faultless cooperation between soul and body. Hermes says that death is a fiction. The concept of death and what is thought to be connected with it is an error.

The Ninth Book is one of forceful argument against the idea of death and it is rather difficult for Hermes to imagine that a serious seeker who has been introduced to gnostic teachings, can continue to approach the problem from the wrong side, from the outside.

If you want to unveil this mystery for yourself, you will have to take the point-of-view of the soul and look at the various problems from there. Anyone who does so will understand the words of the Bible: 'The soul that sins must die".

The soul that sins, lives and acts against the Fundamental Divine Laws. Such a soul causes a disturbance in the metabolic processes of the body and its own sphere of action. Or, in the terminology of hermetic philosophy: such a soul causes a disturbance in the process of dissolution -- that is, in the process of Transfiguration. Such a disturbance has nothing at all to do with death. It is only an incident which restores the continuation of the Process of Eternity.

Anyone who wants to gain adequate understanding of this will have to come to terms with two totally incorrect conceptions of death, namely, the theological conception and that of historical materialism.

The theological conception expounds, with various modulations, that the phenomena usually called death is a change and that the process of life will be continued in heaven or in the land on yonder side. This opinion is shared by countless groups, with many variations on the same theme.

Historical materialism states that death is the absolute end, the definite and complete discontinuance of human existence. If one is able to abandon these two attitudes, the truth of gnostic philosophy will become clear. Hermes intended to say that death is the total discontinuance of the crystallized or diseased, wrongly living personality. What remains is a microcosm, liberated from this personality, containing a flaming, living nucleus: the Rose, the True Soul. The incident in the process of dissolution, as a consequence of which the soul is freed again from its petrified garment is, after all, a great blessing. It allows the soul to continue the course of eternity, provided it begins where the incident was caused.

For this purpose, the emptied microcosm must seek re-vivification by means of a new personality and try, by living on the basis of Divine laws and forces, to enter transfiguration. This is a harmonious metabolic process without incident which takes place by itself, a change of the garment of the soul ,continuing from power to power and from glory to glory. It is an ideally proceeding duality of the seventh aspect, of the mantle of the soul, while the soul itself, linked with its Pymander, exists autonomously in the sixth aspect of the Divine Manifestation.

From a philosophical point-of-view, death is nonsense. Death, as Hermes rightly said, is "annihilation, but nothing that exists in the world is annihilated". In the world, manifested by the four elements of air, earth, fire and water, that which has assumed shape but cannot be used is again dissolved and returned to its origin, while the soul is freed from a highly undesirable crystallization.

There have always been those who had to contend with a troublesome or grievous life, and therefore said: "Let us lend the liberation of the soul a helping hand by committing suicide. If the petrified mantle around the soul proves to serve no useful purpose at all, let us put an end to it". This is a very serious misunderstanding, because a self-murderer cannot himself break down his crystallized personality. For, even if he destroys his physical body, the other three vehicles of the personality, the etheric, astral and mental vehicles, will continue to exist until the vibration of the original image has entirely died away. The boundless distress of the self-murderer during this period is beyond any description. Moreover, we should understand that the one key to the life of Liberation lies exactly in the birth-of-nature. If one does not seize his Liberation in this nature, if one does not force open the Doors of the Mysteries now, one will have to try again, as a microcosm, the next time.

The way of Liberation leads through the birth in this nature to the birth of the soul. In the Beginning, when the soul still existed in the World of the Living soul, it was the Spirit which expressed itself in the body via the soul. Now the way back must be walked; nature-born man must again awaken the soul to Life, must become its obedient servant and strive for the restoration of the binding with the Spirit, with Pymander, under the guidance of the soul. Anyone who does not go this way will have to - as a microcosm - begin again via the earthly birth process.

End Part I

From "The Rebirth of the Soul" - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol II - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

We are installed as personalities into our microcosm in order to liberate it from the nature-of-death. Everything needed to accomplish this task is contained within the four vehicles of the personality (physical, etheric, astral an mental). If, during physical life, we seek and find The Golden Thread and begin the fivefold gnostic process of Liberation, we will avoid the crystallization that leads to the usual death-of-this-nature. The "person" who enables the microcosm to begin its liberating walk, will participate in that process step-for-step right up through its Glorious Consummation.

On the other hand, those who endeavor to cling tightly to this temporary, transient world in an attempt to make it something permanent and 'real', will obstruct the Divine Process of Transfiguration for which we were born to fulfill. At that point, the personality is no longer of use to the microcosm, and the process of natural death, which is nothing more than a dissolution of a certain combination of atoms, will run its course. The microcosm will be emptied, the "person" who was, will be no more.

One can accept the foregoing as a horrible, frightening proposition or as a joyous, uplifting revelation of salvation. The point-of-view taken will say much about the state-of-consciousness of that individual.

~ g
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