“Man is exactly as immortal as his ideal and exactly as real as the energy with which he serves it.” – Count Hermann von Keyserling
As we enter into the “Season of Light” it is important to remember that this period of the year offers us the opportunity to experience the deepest and most profound of spiritual experiences.
In his essay, Prana and Kundalini: Secret Fire of the Alchemists, Jean Dubuis states:
“If one manages to first weaken, and then momentarily remove the currents of Vital Energy, the spiritual currents are released and, with tremendous force, they wrap the body for a moment, and this body is perceived in an instant as a bright unlimited light.
This experience occurs when the vital currents cease with death, but it can also be produced by various methods. It is obviously easier during the Winter solstice, around Christmas, when the Vital Energy is at a minimum in nature. It can present various ways:
– The bright light may, for the person concerned, take on the appearance of an angel or a “self” or a spiritual teacher.
– It can cause astral projection with the corresponding perception of the surrounding environment.
– It can cause operation at the second state of the intellect without relation to the normal nature of logic.
– It can also cause uncontrolled physical movements: tremor, rapid breathing, spinning, swinging or hieratic position.”
Related to this is what is refered to as “Contact on the Point” or “Contact with Eternity.”
“The Experience of eternity leaves an indelible mark in us. By contrast, perceptions prove highly volatile. The interpretation by our Earth consciousness of the phenomena of a very different level should be written down (as we recommend for dreams). Memories produced by reading notes or through meditation are not a new Experience of Eternity, but a “re-surface” of the interpretation of these phenomena. A topic of particular interest in this area concerns states of consciousness of mineral and plant kingdoms, which may then resurface. Recollection of these states of consciousness, when self-consciousness was not yet been reached, shows the immense length of the path already trodden.”
And finally, there is with it the suggestion that we meditate on the following image or idea, particularly during the period from two to three weeks before and after the Winter Solstice:
The famous “Eye in the Triangle” with its light rays going forth and stimulating, awakening, illuminating the sphere of Chesed, Geburah, and Tipareth – or the Jupitarian, Martial, and Solar enegies. These spheres or loci of consciousness, dominate the areas of experience often considered essential for stabilizing what awakening and insights we may have. Together the represent what is often referred to as the ‘Solar Body.’
And yet, this awakening is not automatic or guaranteed. We must prepare ourselves for it, and this preparation is nothing more than a cleansing – to various degrees of course – of our foundational layers of consciousness. This we call the Subconscious, and it the base container, organizer, and filter that creates or synthesizes our sense of self. It is in reality, the basis for all of our ignorance and suffering as it is in the subconscious that ALL experiences subtle or gross are recorded and synthesized into a final image, construct, or concept of self in all its spheres of action.
How do we clear away the psychic debris or false knowledge and erroneous conceptions? Through what the alchemists call “Ora et Labora” or Prayer and Work. This is not to be simply construed as personal prayer and private laboratory effort – as many do these days – but is a wider more encompassing field of labor. In the Gospels we hear of the notion of salvation, or healing (salve) through Faith and Works, but not by works alone. That is Faith in Christ, or the message of Christ AND effort in this world to incarnate that ideal.
From an esoteric perspective we can consider Faith to be faith in our teachers, our guides, then in the system or process presented, and finally and most importantly in the Path, as best understood as ‘karma’ or cause and effect. It is karma that allows all things to unfold as they do and nothing more or less. This then opens the pathway for Divine Grace, or blessing, the expression or realization of our potential – our Inner Power or potentia. Everytime we perform the Qabalistic Cross we are reminding ourselves of this fact and seeking to bring it to realization. Ultimately this faith is faith or confidence in our very Self, our innate Beingness and our Omnicient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent capacity.
This is where many fail, including some of the best known to us: as this is the Minor Work, the Inner Work, that prepares us for Illumination, and that Illumination prepares us for psychic action in various domains of existence including the physical world – or the creation of the alchemical products or which the White and Red Stone are the most powerful.
In Buddhist schools (and some Vedic, Tantric, and Taoist) we are told that one must have Wisdom and Merit to realize meditative success.
Wisdom is the desire for awakening and removal of our ignorance, but that can only be achieved and stabilized if we have sufficient Merit. Merit is a particular aspect of karma or ’cause and effect.’ Merit is the energy of inner awakening that propels us forward. It is present in our attitudes and actions, and thereby fruit, that results from them. Think of it as a form of devotional practice and service rolled into one – or bhakti and karma yogas combined in a single practice
To generate Merit or energy of Illumination, we must overcome our limited sense of self and develop our virtues. These virtues we have mentioned to you often, and each one is in its own way is an expression of our trust and confidence in the Path, or ‘system’ if you will. The first virtue that is to be developed, as all others rest on it, is Generosity. Only through generosity do we overcome selfishness, narrowness, and the fears that come with it. This is the first step to both reducing our sense of “I-ness’ or ego, as well as refining it, reorienting it towards an interior identification rather than a predominantly or exclusively material one.
When I give I help others, I help create, and that is beneficial to both them and myself. That is something good, it is healthy, it brings repair to my life and the lives of others. That makes the Path easier for myself and for them. From this, other virtues, or inner strengths can be developed and expressed as my fears, anxieties, and neurotic tensions are reduced and over time eliminated completely. When this reduction is dominant, or even complete, that is when the energies of the Solar Domain are able to most powerful shine forth – and with little effort on our part – as they happen naturally.
Therefore, if you wish to experience the Great Awakening, or even a little one, then get out of your own way. Stop thinking, obsessing, and focusing on yourself, and ask yourself what it is that you can best do that will be beneficial to yourself and others, both in Time and as well as on the journey to Eternity? Or make it simple: don’t overthink it because if you have been part of our classes you already know what to do, so do it. Otherwise even your efforts to develop virtue become a means of staying stuck and becoming more neurotic.
As you do this your Merit, or energy of awakening will develop, your inner energies more clear and focussed, and your interior Light, Life, and Love will naturally shine forth as light is reflected off a mirror or sun through an opening in the clouds.
When this happens, the cycle is complete and repeats itself with ever broader and more encompassing fields of action and realms of insight acting as two sides of the same coin.
If you do not have the merit, the energy that comes from focused desire and action for illumination, then it will not happen. But if you have the Merit, the energy, it will happen and Wisdom in one form or another will come with it.
This Illumination is as we have pointed out many times before, only the beginning of a new phase of life. It must be strengthened, or rather stabilized, and expanded. We see this clearly stated in reference to the Philosopher’s Stone when it is said that even after proof of its attainment through demonstrated power of transmutation, the Stone must be multiplied twice more. This is often described as the Initiations or influences of Geburah and Chesed for those interested in qabala.
To multiply this Red Stone we must first achieve the White, and more will be said on that later. However, reading is easy, meditation is difficult, but enhancing our Virtues – that is hard, that is the reality of the Great Work without which little that is lasting can be achieved.
Remember, Work and Worship, Ora et Labora, Faith and Works, and finally, Wisdom and Merit are the two keys to the Kingdom. All you have to do is turn them, and the inner doors will open.
Where Have All the Adepts Gone?
https://voxhermes.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/where-have-all-the-adepts-gone/
The Qabalistic Cross – Unfolding Your Desires
https://voxhermes.wordpress.com/2023/07/06/the-qabalistic-cross-unfolding-your-desires/
