Purification Of The Thought-Life: The Retrograde Movement

The One Goal of Humanity is to recognize that we are lacking in Spirit, to re-link with Spirit and thus liberate ourselves from Matter. This cannot be done with the physical body. The dense physical body and the more subtle etheric, astral and mental bodies are but temporary instruments whose purpose is to assist in the process of transformation.

Spirit is Divine, it is of God, and as such cannot bear to come into direct full contact with the defiled mortal soul that we carry while incarnate on earth. For its part, the mortal soul cannot bear so great a Divinity as Spirit, from whose Fire it would surely be burned.

Therefore a new Soul must be built within the microcosm of the personality. This New Soul must be constructed of pure ethers in order to create a Soul-body that can provide a suitable abode for the descending Divine Spirit. Hermes calls this New Soul the Spirit-Soul. Only the Spirit-Soul is capable of cloaking Spirit.

For this reason, the candidate is bound to the task of purification. In order to attract the pure ethers necessary to build the New Soul, a certain level of purification must be reached, maintained and increased. This is accomplished by what is termed the retrograde movement.

The retrograde movement begins in the head sanctuary, where our thoughts are aroused. As soon as a thought is birthed, a sparking occurs in the mental body that is in tune with the vibration and nature of the thought. Because of the proximity of the astral body to the mental body, the astral body picks up the vibration being thrown off by the mental body and thus conditions its own vibration to match that of the thought-vibration. From the astral body, ethers are extracted which are used to nourish and build the etheric body. Thus, the vibration sent forth by the original thought now becomes part of the etheric double. As the etheric double is the mold for the physical body, it inevitably must transfer this vibration to all the cells and organs of the physical body. This include the blood. The blood, infused with this thought-vibration, then circulates it throughout the physical body and back to the head sanctuary, where the movement begins again.

Here then is the movement: Thinking, astral body, etheric double, physical body, the blood and then, via the blood back to the thinking faculty. The proverbial "closed loop". If a person's thoughts are of a low nature, focused only upon selfish desires and/or material goals, then the person quite naturally will create a prison for himself via this movement, as his low-grade thinking will reinforce itself ad infinitum. If, however, one resolves to purify one's thinking, the retrograde movement will serve to progressively cleanse and purify all of one's vehicles and the blood, as well. Pursued with steadfastness, this movement will eventually result in a purified mental body, a purified astral body, a purified etheric/physical body and purified soul-fluids, beginning with the blood.

This lays the groundwork for the descent of the Spirit. This creates a welcoming atmosphere within our "temple" for the Great Homecoming, the Alchemical Wedding, the reunion of the Spirit-Soul with the Spirit. This illuminates the symbolism behind the story of Jesus evicting the money-changers from the Temple. In Biblical symbolism, the "Temple" always represents the human body. Jesus represents the Soul-born man who is striving to re-unite the Spirit-Soul with Spirit. Before this unification can occur, the "Temple" must be cleansed. I daresay we would do the same if we were expecting the arrival of any distinguished visitor to our homes.

So it is that we have established the reason behind the need for purification of the Thought-life. Purification is a prerequisite for attracting the Divine Spirit to take up residence in our microcosm. It is our job to prepare the banquet hall for the coming feast.

If we build it...Spirit will come.

~ g
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