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| Goddess on the Bluff Overlooking the New Golf Course by the River |
After dinner Peter dashed over to Justin’s apartment, wanting to know more about the Tree of Life.
"I have a blog that I publish under a nom de plume which I think you might find helpful. You can just click on this link."
"Why don't you just tell me about it? Please," Peter implored.
“Okay, here goes. Deities surround us, but Western cultures have all but lost the ability to know them, especially since the vast majority of people no longer have regular contact with nature. Because comparatively few people have had the opportunity to experience the conscious, subtle forces behind manifestation, and because science has no devices to detect them, the Gods are treated as the phantasms of primitive, superstitious minds. To a few, the archetypal figures of the Gods shed some light on the mind set of ancient cultures, but the Gods typically remain oddities for the modern, rational individual, who has never mused over their bones nor gawked at them like so many giraffes and elephants in the zoo. The spiritual significance of the Gods eludes the average person, who often only encounters them in brief retellings of myths.
“Science has never adequately explained consciousness, let alone created a device that measures all aspects of the psyche. Science, on the other hand, has revealed that the five senses can only perceive a small fraction of the measurable frequencies of energy in the known universe. Mounting evidence also suggests that human beings have a ‘sixth sense’ that is sensitive to subtle currents of energy beyond our physical senses, resulting in phenomena that cannot be explained nor explained away: clairvoyance, telepathy, retro-cognition, precognition, and other types of extra sensory perception. These are experienced by the senses of the soul--our subtle bodies have a kind of ‘soul sense.' And there has always throughout history been faith in a spiritual dimension, a faith which develops after repeated experiences that cannot be measured but which have an immeasurable effect. All of this is not proof, of course, that deities exist; however, the most advanced cultures in the history of civilization have had their pantheons of Gods or Angels, the great Shining Ones who influence human evolution. Were those cultures simply primitive, or is modern, monotheistic humanity missing something?"
Peter shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
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| Paradise Regained |
“Based on its needs in different times and places, the human mind has created the forms of deities as a way to connect with the invisible natural forces. Spiritual traditions have operated from time immemorial as if these natural forces are intelligent and willing to ensoul the symbolic forms, channeling their energy into the human mind. To those with the powers of sympathetic imagination, the Gods aid circumstances and stimulate evolution. If one is reverent enough, sensitive enough, and fervent enough, the Gods return, the form a symbolic fabrication of appropriate correspondences, the force real. If one successfully invokes a God, one can feel that humans are like amoebas in comparison; humans notice the Gods only because we are made of the same soul stuff, only much less developed. Fashioning symbolic human and animal figures simply makes the invisible forces more accessible to the human imagination.
“The mystic glyph of The Tree of Life factors out these forces, revealing the correspondences between the cosmos and the individual. Nobody knows the origin of the fantastic symbol system known as the Tree of Life, but legend has it that a Shining One gave it to humanity. Based on my experiences, I cannot imagine that any human being could have created it. On the surface, the basic structure appears simple. As many have pointed out, the Tree on one level is like a filing system that enables one to classify the various energies within the cosmos and the human being--the macrocosm and the microcosm. Because the human being contains the energies of the macrocosm, energetic correspondences exist at subtle levels.
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| Path to Tiphareth |
“The Tree of Life is a map, not the terrain itself, and ultimately, every true experience of a path on the Tree is deeply personal. In order to follow the map, however, one needs to have at least a basic summary of the most important aspects of the Tree, which can be structured several ways. The conventional (and perhaps most helpful) way presents the sephiroth, or objective states of being, as spheres in three columns. The right column, known as the Pillar of Mercy, represents types of expansive force, and the left column, known as the Pillar of Severity, represents types of restricting energy. The central column, known as the Pillar of Mildness or Middle Pillar, balances the energies of the right and left columns. In the process of involution creative energy flows from spirit to matter in a zigzag from the first sphere in a lightning flash, known as the Way of the Lightning, from the heavens to the earth, from sphere one to ten in order down the Tree, each sphere, or ‘sephira,' emanating the next, until creation reaches its culmination in Malkuth, the Kingdom."
“So are these spheres represented by the jewels on the Tree of Life?" Peter asked.
“Yes, and that is where the magic comes in. Each jewel contains the energy of its respective sephiroth, the energy also represented by the symbolic forms of the Gods."
“The jewels hold great powers, then?" Peter asked.
“Great powers at all levels of the psyche. If you handle the forces well, you can be totally reborn into higher states of awareness. But the life-force flows in spate from its various states into the mind, and the individual must remain balanced or the forces lead inevitably to destruction."
“Does the life-force when it is unbalanced become evil?"
“It has the potential to become destructive or 'evil,' and therefore, when you deal with the Tree, you can encounter great dangers if you are not careful. The life-force stimulates whatever sphere you’re focusing on. I mentioned this before, but I should emphasize it again. Each sphere contains a virtue--its ideal, balanced state--and a vice--its unbalanced state. A person, after the influx of energy, usually has to re-establish balance within him or her self, which takes discipline and experience. If not, the energy leads to vice, not virtue. You need to take great care always when dealing with the forces of the Tree."
“Don't you worry," Peter replied, fondling the amethyst, which made him feel incredibly psychic. Justin looked on with concerned amusement.
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