The Awakening Of The Soul

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Escape from the Aeons of Nature

The subject to which we now turn relates to such new aspects in the development of the pupil that we think a short summary is needed.

We discussed the meaning of the 72nd verse of Hermes' Pymander, in which, among other things, is written: "The sleep of the body had become the soberness of the Soul, the closing of the eyes the real Seeing, the silence had become for me as a pregnancy of the Good and the proclaiming of the Word resulted in fruitful Works of salvation".

We asked ourselves: "Where does the tenuous part of the personality stay during sleep and what happens to it?" We saw that the nocturnal man, if we may so express it, resides in the astral sphere of duality during the nightly hours and we examined its nature.

The astral sphere has a strong imaginative faculty. Thoughts, desires, feelings and objects of the will project themselves in it. It is clear that the astral sphere of duality has become polluted and complicated to a high degree because of the reflection-sphere life and the general conduct of mankind. It i all delusion and fatal to any gnostic life, as the astral material is extraordinarily magnetic. Everything that does not agree with its nature is removed from the tenuous personality entering the astral sphere. That is why we read in the Pistis Sophia that she was continually deprived of her light-force.

The astral sphere of normal life is full of unholy forces, the aeons, which can be defined as natural forces.

The word 'aeon' means not only an immeasurably long period of time, but is also used to indicate formations of unholy forces of nature. With the help of this conception it becomes clear what aeons are with respect to the astral sphere. Aeons are astral forces, astral activities which have been formed throughout long periods of time and which have become very powerful; for instance, projections of human desires and thoughts which were fed to such an extent that finally they were propelled to life in the astral sphere.

Suppose we form a certain image. We agree to maintain this image throughout the years, to impress it on our children and on all those who are willing to come along with us; that our artists will draw, paint or carve it and that our poets will chant it. So you can imagine how aeons are formed in the astral sphere.  They are projections of constant currents of human desires and thoughts, which are finally vivified to such an extent that they begin to dominate mankind. These aeons, which increase in force because they are continually fed by mankind, deprive each gnostic-directed person who enters the astral sphere, of his or her light-force. Normally, this happens to every candidate as soon as he or she falls asleep.

Important consequences result for all those who take their pupilship seriously. Among other thing, there is a logical and compelling demand that they withdraw from the astral sphere of the nature-of-death. If one ascertains that he experiences the disastrous influence of this sphere every time he enters it during the nocturnal hours, the following question is obvious: "how can I protect  myself against these influences and in what way can I become free of them?" This is the first consequence.

The second is that he directs the subtle part of the personality to another astral field in which those pollutions and dangers do not occur. You will no doubt agree that these are elementary demands from which no one can escape. Without their fulfillment each gnostic pupilship is an illusion.

Once cannot force oneself into this; should we try for one or more days we would not be able to sustain it. It would be a struggle with the prospect of certain defeat. In the first place, it is necessary to draw the nucleus-principle of the I-being out of the liver-spleen system and up into the heart. This can happen only when one is ready for it, when at last the course of life causes one to reach a dead-end in matter, in the nature-of-death; when you discover that for a man who moves on the horizontal plane there is no prospect of Deliverance.

The man in the liver-spleen system, in the solar plexus, is the stone-hard, I-central man who clings to matter and consequently expects everything from it. However, the moment will come, sometimes after many lives in the microcosm, that he reaches a dead-end in the nature-of-death and finds that his existence is a circle without end. However, as long as he lives out of the liver-spleen system and, consequently, in self-maintenance and I-centrality, pupilship in a Spiritual School is completely useless. Only he who is able to draw the consciousness up into the heart will surmount his natural instincts. Only then does one begin to see the world as it really is.

A new desire, a yearning for true, essential liberation, which in the holy language is called yearning for salvation, then emanates from the astral self. Only this desire opens the heart of man for the Gnosis, for the light of the Holy Grail, the consequence being that the Rose is touched. Because of this yearning for salvation, the pupil will stand before the Gate of an entirely new state of Life.

From "The Awakening of the Soul (II) - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. 1 - Jan van Rijckenborgh

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You have to want it.

The forces arrayed against those who wish to walk the Path are formidable and considerable. This blog refers to aeons over and over and over because it is important for the reader to realize that we are being victimized and controlled by invisible forces that are difficult to detect or escape. These forces must be unmasked so that man can gain much-needed insight into the true nature of his imprisonment and begin to want to do something about it.

To effect this attempt at liberation, it is imperative that one must be completely through with duality, even the so-called "good" parts of it. If we do not detach from everything that duality dangles in front of us, we will inevitably stumble and fall due to weaknesses brought about by our lingering attachments.

After gaining insight into the true nature of the human condition, the candidate must yearn for salvation with his or her entire being in order to continue attracting the forces of the Gnosis to him or her. There can be no compromise. We cannot have a foot in both worlds. This is the gnostic meaning behind the statement made by the Christ that "no man can serve two masters". Either we serve the aeons of this nature and bathe in the polluted astral sphere of this nature-order or we reach out for the safety of the Thirteenth Aeon, the Great Mixing Vessel sent for the salvation of all those who will choose Liberation during this Time of the End.

~ g
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