A Stranger On Earth II

[QUOTING]

The Gnostic Astral Field

In previous discussions we explained that the fulfilment of pupilship makes the candidate fundamentally a 'stranger on earth'. You should thoroughly understand the meaning of this. We certainly do not mean that the pupil should develop an attitude of eccentricity towards everything the School designates as duality; nor that this alienation would mean a certain indifference towards all that lives and exists. Most certainly we do not mean a revolutionary attitude of life with regard to society.

No, the estrangement from the world is a fundamental state-of-being. It is a state-of-being which occurs because of the change of the personality. As soon as this change happens there is no longer a place to be found in the nature-of-death where it can rest. Because of this the candidate will feel like an outcast.

Every candidate who has drawn the astral consciousness up into the heart, supported by a consequent pupilship, a continuous purification of the heart and a self-negating, ministering life will arrive at this situation. Then he gets into that peculiar situation, sometimes fortunately of a very short duration, that when trying to sleep he is actually unable to enter the sleep-state. As soon as bodily fatigue would send him into sleep, the tenuous part of the personality stands, as it were, before a wail and is forced back into the body again as it cannot find a life-field, a respiration-field for the astral consciousness. This, in fact, proves that the personality is beginning to change. If the candidate does not know how to act in such a situation, physical difficulties could arise. That is why it is being discussed.

Many candidates already know this alienation and, thank God, an ever-increasing number will enter into the peculiar situation just described. They then must know how to act. They should then realize that there is a home for them, a gnostic astral field that has been prepared for them. Only then will the candidate fully realize what the School means for him or her. The Spiritual School, as a Living Body, as a gnostic group, maintains such a merciful place of rest for its pupils.

Just as there is an astral body around the physical body, so is there an astral body that surrounds the Body of the Spiritual School. The Living Body of the School also possesses an astral aspect; it is fed with the astral Bread of Life of the pure, gnostic Nature. This astral field breathes in the Universal Gnosis, in the Original Astral Substance. This is the soul-home for all those who, as a result of their growing soul-state, discover themselves strangers on earth.

We have tried to show that the soul possesses a clear, positive astral aspect. This is the most striking quality of the genesis of the Soul. It is wrapped from the beginning in a vesture of astral substance. If the candidate supports the growth of the soul by a very determined, positive attitude of life; when, at a given moment, he is unable to breathe, is unable to live any longer in the nature-of-death with its great dangers, then it is apparent that no vacuum must occur, but rather that a new home for the soul should take up the candidate.

It should be observed: to the extent that the New Astral Vesture is formed, the old astral vesture disappears. A pupil in the Spiritual School does not practices asceticism, nor any other kind of desire ethics, but perseveres in the process of astral transfiguration. In the pupil a transfiguration occurs, the transfiguration of his astral being, which precedes the development of the New Mentality.

Let us assume that you have drawn the astral consciousness up into the heart and that you are a serious and dynamic candidate, one who perseveres, who does not quake under compelling consequences -- one who does not seek to compromise. Then, the Soul has been born in your heart. When you steadfastly continue to purify the heart, permitting the new-born Soul room for expansion, the New Astral Vesture will unfold accordingly. Then, the quality of your personality can be readily distinguished from that of your fellow-man. As soon as you venture upon your pupilship, transfiguration begins and continues to that certain critical point which we have indicated as being a 'stranger on earth'. The structure of your body is then quite different from that of your dualistic fellow-man. Then your entire personality unmistakeably experiences new astral necessities of life.

If you understand all this, you can decide for yourself whether you are already living out of these new astral necessities of life, whether your entire being already longs for the New Life-Elixir. In proportion to the astral transfiguration taking place within the candidate, there is the ever-increasing need for gnostic sidereal (astral) food, of building materials for that growth. This can be fully furnished by the innate astral field of the young Gnosis.

That is why you should not only be with us during your day-consciousness but, in accordance with the development of the Work, it has now also become necessary that, as soon as you are ripe for it, you are with us in the consecrated holy halls of the young Gnosis during the sleep-state -- in the day-consciousness of the Soul.

From "The Awakening Of The Soul (I)" The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. 1 - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

There is a lot going on when we sleep. It is where we recharge our astral batteries, so to speak. Unfortunately, this recharging takes place in the astral-sphere of the nature-of-death. The candidate on the Path is in need of a different kind of astral nourishment. He or she requires a pure astral substance that is not-of-this-world. Such a Region of Peace does exist. The question now is, how can the candidate take refuge there during the sleep-life?

~ g
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