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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The Longing That Leads To True Life

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If your astral consciousness is drawn up into the heart, you are, consequently, the subject of interference of two worlds. The old and the new one seize you; it is a situation more difficult to endure because of the tensions it provokes. Therefore, take your cross, your rosycross, and go the Path that leads from Bethlehem to Golgotha, so that you may walk in the New Light.

To this end, it is necessary that the astral consciousness, during the hours of sleep, is not found again in the astral sphere of the nature-of-death. This is the first task. Imagine that you could free yourself for several nights from this astral sphere; you would then experience what an enormous blessing results from it.

Therefore, apply your new possibilities by living out of them, by taking them into account every hour of the day and by drawing the necessary consequences. Do not allow yourself to be dragged along in common behaviour, either as an individual, or with others, but direct yourself to The Great Aim and bring your being in harmony with it. When one is young one strives after maturity and social success. In the promising youth of gnostic pupilship, standing before the gates of the New Life, you likewise need to prepare for this Life and become mature as to the Soul-man and arrive in the Soul-world.

Of course you will still have to carry out your social tasks. We all have our duties and responsibilities which demand fulfilment and which weigh heavily. Do not neglect your duties. However, when you realize the Eternal Importance propelling the Soul-man within you to Life, then everything social, everything dualistic, however necessary to occupy yourself with for some time, will become of secondary importance. We do not mean that it does not matter any longer, only that The Great Aim will predominate in you by day and by night.

All the rest becomes spontaneously subservient. While you are occupied with whatever it may be, the Voice of the Soul will be heard and you will be able to listen to its rejoicing. When the astral self, drawn up into the heart, sends out its Longing for a New Life, all the rest will recede into the background as a matter of course. This Longing needs to resound in you by day and by night as one continuous tone. Then you will go the Way of Self-Surrender, the logical Way of Transfiguration, directly and in practice.

You know what Longing is. What have you not longed for in your life? When you look back on all those multifarious desires you know that a certain desire can be so strong that it becomes completely dominant. Well, when your longing for the Liberating Life, for the Gnosis, has that kind of depth and intensity, the astral self will become devoted, in self-surrender, to 'It', to 'Tao' to the Rose of roses, to the Gnosis. In this way, you will sing your thirteen songs of repentance, oh Pistis Sophia.

If you stand in this Process without any force of (nature-born) will, your astral self will no longer thrive, no longer breathe in the astral sphere of the nature-of-death. Then the natural astral self will die and the astral sphere of the nature-of-death will have to let you go, as a matter-of-course, because it can no longer reach you. Then, with respect to the astral self, you will have died according to nature.

From "The Road To Alienation" The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. 1 - Jan van Rijckenborgh

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Shifting The Seat Of Desire

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The Spiritual School does not help with a 'come with us and everything will be alright'. Every pupil must begin by helping himself and to this end the School shows him the Path. Only when one really and truly goes this Path does one receive the power, the radiation and the help of the Gnosis. The key to the Path of Liberation lies in the possibility to give a different direction to the astral consciousness. No other key will fit the door of The Path.

The astral self will not change when you have been taken along to the Spiritual School by your father or mother, or by a friend or acquaintance, or because one makes an appeal to you or sympathizes with you. Your astral self must spontaneously, out of necessity, seek this Path and behave accordingly. We are not in need of people who simply seek but of people who, after having found, behave themselves accordingly.

The majority of people live from the liver-spleen system, from their ordinary needs and instincts. The astral self is established in this system, especially in the solar plexus. The functions of the heart and the head are entirely subjected to it.

The heart and the head can be extraordinarily well-cultivated; the heart, for example, as to fine taste and feeling, and the head with respect to intellectual understanding. Yet, as long as the astral self lies imprisoned in the solar plexus and man, as a result, is one mass of self-maintenance, of I-centrality and is completely earthly-inclined, the pupilship of the gnostic Spiritual School is useless. The School can only meet a person, can only give a helping hand when this person gives evidence of freeing the astral self from the solar plexus to draw it up into the heart.

When one is engaged in doing this -- one cannot will this, the time must be right for it -- he proves that he has reached a dead-end as far as nature is concerned; that he realizes that duality is without prospects. He then begins to rise above his instincts, which have made him so happy and which are so completely one with nature.

When one is engaged in drawing the astral self up into the heart, where it in fact belongs, he will make a strange discovery Now that he views the world, not from the solar plexus, but from the heart, he finds corroborated what he perhaps subconsciously suspected: the absolute lack of prospects of the nature-of-death. You can repeat this or hear somebody else say it, but you will discover it for yourself as soon as you begin to draw the astral consciousness up into the heart. Then you will not establish it on the basis of some faith or other, or on philosophical  reflection, no, then you will know it.

The consciousness can be deluded by the astral sphere and its almost unlimited faculty of projection as long as it lies anchored in the liver-spleen system. However, if the consciousness draws itself up into the heart, the delusion is over. Since the astral consciousness always desires, is always directed upon some form of attainment, a new desire will develop -- the yearning for salvation.

Yearning for salvation from the solar plexus is nonsense, it is always a label. In reality, it expresses the continual desire for gratification of the "I" at the expense of others. The true yearning for salvation awakens in the heart sanctuary; a desire, unknown until that moment, born on the basis of rejection of duality. Only then is a new direction given to the astral consciousness.

The astral sphere of duality can always answer a person and satisfy him as long as his desires do not rise above the level of the "I". However, if one frees oneself from that level, then deliverance is in sight, then the Gnosis comes to meet that one on The Path. Then, the very first task is to purify the heart.

However, as we said before, the heart sanctuary, and no less the head sanctuary, have been so much abused that when astral consciousness is drawn up into a sanctuary that is extremely damaged and decayed, it must be conscientiously restored and purified.

From "Escape From Astral Bondage - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. 1 - Jan van Rijckenborgh

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One must have reached a dead-end to nature, one must be through with what the natural world-order has to offer, before he can begin the process of drawing the astral self up into the heart sanctuary. Every part of duality must be unmasked, seen for what it is not and then rejected. If one attempts to hold on to anything of this dualistic nature-order -- even the so-called "good" aspects -- it will be difficult to undertake the journey back to the Original Nature-Order, the Divine Kingdom.

As Man cannot serve two masters, nor can the candidate on the Path of Return partake of two nature-orders. Those who seek Liberation are presented with an "either-or" choice. There is no middle-ground.

~ g
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