THE MONAD, SOUL AND PERSONALITY

THE MONAD, SOUL AND PERSONALITY

MAY THE CHALICE OF THE CAUSAL BODY BE WELL PREPARED FOR THE WINE OF SPIRIT. MAY THE BREAD OF THE PERSONALITY BE BROKEN AND DIPPED INTO THE WINE OF EVERLASTING LIFE AND SO BE ABLED TO SERVE AT LAST THE PLAN OF THE ELOHIM are the words explaining the logo of my blog.

What the personalitY is we can know through the different psychologists and philosophers, but not all people are acquainted with the word "causal body" or" supracausal body".

Definitions:

The Monad is a spark of the Divine Fire, a light-beam of the Divine Light, a fragment of the Divine Life, a projection of the First Logos.

The Soul OR Supracausal body is a projection of the Monad. The relation of the Soul to the Monad is as the circle to the point of the circle. The soul consists of the so called higher triad: atman (Will), budhi (Activity) and Higher manas (wisdom).

The personality is a projection of the Soul. Its relation to the Soul is as a free electron to an atom. The personality consists of the so called lower triad: Lower Manas (intellect), Kama (desires) and Stula (material body).

The causal body owes its name to the fact that in it are residing the causes, which will manifest themselves in the lower planes. It is a vehicle, a chalice for the Soul and expresses all the soul qualities, which the personality has acquired. Only humans have a causal body.

We will reflect on the Macrocosmic process of and in creation and afterwards on the microcosmic process.


THE MACROCOSMIC PROCESS
The Monad
During every Day of Brahma (creation-period of millions of years) there are created Monads. These Monads project their radiance in the different spheres through the impulses of the First Logos and will be united again with the First Logos before the end of the Day of Brahma. Then follows a Night of Brahman (a non-creation period of millions of years) and in the next Day of Brahma the Monads will go through a higher cycle of development within matter.
The Monad as described in the Theosophical school is the Jivatma of the Indian philosophy, the Purusha of the Samkya philosophy, the Manifested Self of the Vedanta, as Kether in the Qaballistic doctrine.

The Monads come forth from the highest region of Consciousness, Adi (= the first), but reside as a manifestation thereof on a lower plane, the plane of Anudapaka (=without vesture). The Monad on the Anudapaka-plane does not have vehicles of expression yet. It’s important to note that the fields of Consciousness called Adi and Anudapaka exist before the forming of this Universe, of this solar system. There are 7 types of Monads, which correspond with the 7 Planetary Logoi.(The Planetary Logoi are emanations of the Solar Logos.)

Note:
Adi is synonym to the Qaballistic concept of “Ain Soph” and Anudapaka similar to “Ain Soph Aur”

Formation of the planes
Before the Monads are projected by the First Logos, the Third Logos (Other names of the Third Logos in different mystical philosophies are: the Holy Ghost, Shiva, Cosmic Architect of the Universe.) works on the primordial matter by throwing its three qualities tamas (inertia), rajas (mobility) and sattvas (rhythm) out of their stable equilibrium into different forms of equilibrium. And so are formed the atoms of the five planes of Atman, Buddhi, Manas, Kama and Stula..
Under the directive activity of the Third Logos the atoms of each of these planes are awakened to new powers and possibilities of attraction and thus are formed the different molecule-structures. This work of the Third Logos is usually spoken of as the First Life Wave or the First Outpouring.

Into the matter formed and vivified through the Third Logos descends then a second Life Wave coming forth from the Second Logos, the Son of the Father. The Second Logos is also called the Weaver for it weaves out of the matter formed by the Third Logos the different Kingdoms (the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral kingdom, the vegetative kingdom, the animal kingdom). The Second Outpouring brought a great differentiation on the different planes of Life. The Second Outpouring brings with it beings of previous stages of evolution to inhabit the three elemental Kingdoms.
The activity of the Second Logos in the field of Stuhla is known as Life Force and in the field of Buddhi as Christ Consciousness.

The attachment of the atoms of the Higher Triad.
After the forming of the five planes, the Monads, which were waiting on the Anudaka-plane, began their process of individualization through the Third Outpouring produced by the First Logos. Now they began to radiate out their energy and they appropriated to themselves atoms of the lower planes. A Monad has three aspects of consciousness- Will, Wisdom and Activity. After the planes of Atma, Budhi and Manas were brought forth by the Second Outpouring /the Second Life stream they sent out a vibratory wave from each of their aspects to the Atmic, Budhic and manasic plane by which the Atmic permanent atom, the Budhic permanent atom and the manasic permanent atom were formed..
These atoms form the Monadic ray, the Higher Triad, the Soul. The higher Triad, which is formed by only a fragment of the Monad, has the full power of the Monad, though lessened in force by the veils of matter round it.

Note:
The Monads dwell always beyond the five planes, they stay on the Anudapaka-plane. In that sense they are the silent spectators of the results of their radiation.

The Monad can and does affect the Higher Triad, but exerts only an indirect action on the permanent atoms of the Lower Triad.

The attachment of the atoms of the lower Triad.
The Higher Triad -Atma, Budhi, Manas - projected the Mental, Astral and Physical permanent atoms -the Lower Triad of Manas, Kama and Stuhla- so to be visible in the Physical Universe.
This visible manifestation goes through the different Kingdoms, the mineral kingdom, the vegetative kingdom, the animal kingdom and the human kingdom. As the human kingdom is approached, so the Monadic Essence is more noticeable.
When there is formed enough mental material, the unity with the Monad becomes greater. And through a spontaneous impregnation of the Monad and pulsated by the First Logos, the Causal Body will be formed as a focal point of the Monad. The appearance of the Causal body is at the same time the point of creation of the human soul, the individualization of the consciousness. This process of impregnation from the First Logos through the Monad is called the Third Life-stream.

NOTE
On the buddhic plane the Second Logos manifests as the Christ-principle in man, but on the astral and mental planes of man it appears in the higher part of the astral as higher emotion and on the lower astral as just life-force.


THE MICROCOSMIC PROCESS

Individualization, Soul and the forming of the Causal Body
The effort of reaching individualization -the first step on the way of Return- must be made from below i.e. by the animal.
When the process of individualization is taking place, the three aspects must all be called forth, nevertheless the first connection can be made as follows:
1. between the lower manas (intellect) and Manas (wisdom)
2. between the emotional body and buddhi
3. between the physical body and Atman
These various ways of making the connection is based on the character of the Master of the animal.
Sometimes there are examples of an abnormal process of individualization, This can happen through exposure to Great Beings and through pride (this happened with Beings in the Seventh Round of the Moon-chain), through fear or hatred (animals which have been treated cruelly by man), through desire for power over others (power such as is sometimes shown by the chief-bull of a herd)


The Causal Body, which is a vehicle of the Soul (the Triple spirit of Atma, Buddhi, Manas) and a storehouse for the essence of man’s experiences, is made of matter of the higher mental plane-the first, second and third mental plane, thus matter-energy on the plane of Manas.. As the Soul develops, its consciousness will be centered on the plane of Buddhi. In a later stage of evolution it will be residing on the plane of Atman. Whilst evil cannot be stored in the causal body, yet the practice of evil may hinder its development.


The relation of the Monad to the Soul
Each Monad is literally a part of God, apparently separated from Him while the Monad is enclosed in the veils of matter. The Monad can never be separated from God, for the very matter in which it veils itself is also a manifestation of the Divine. This Monad expresses itself through the Higher Triad in the individualized Soul. In the average man the Monad is little in touch with the personality and the Soul. But according to the degree that the Soul is controlling the personality (and this depends on the free will of the personality), the Monad gets more control over the soul. The time will come when the Monad will be one with the Soul, just as the personality becomes one with the Soul at the Fifth Planetary Initiation.
Whilst the Monad can be experienced only by an Adept (=One who has reached the Fifth Planetary Initiation) and the existence of it can only be known by an Arhat (=One who has reached the Fourth Planetary Initiation), still we must not make the mistake to think of the Monad as being very far away. For the Monad is the very root of our being.

The relationship of the Personality and the Soul.
The personality is a fragmented portion of the Soul and is an instrument by which the Soul intends to unfold its latent powers. So it puts itself down into successive personalities in a process which is called reincarnation.. Alas, the personality forgets his true mission –his dharma- and goes its own way.

One must not commit the mistake in thinking that there are two entities in man. Whilst there is mostly a great difference between Soul and personality, the difference is not in nature but in activity. The degree of absorbed soul activity by the personality is projected in a energy link between the Soul and the personality, the antahkarana. This antahkarana is mostly perceived as a thread of silver-white light by clairvoyants.

In ordinary men the soul seems to have neither much grip on the personality, nor a clear conception of its purpose in sending the personality forth. In the average man there is a constant strain going on between the astral and mental bodies –aspects of the Lower Triad- The cause and reason for this is that neither of these two bodies are in tune with the Soul or are prepared to act as a vehicle of the Soul.
The soul itself knows the true from the false, but generally when it casts an eye downwards, it finds so crazy a confusion of inconsequent thought-forms that it cannot distinguish anything definite. It seems to turn away in despair and decides to wait for the quietude of the heaven-world after death, before attempting to pick up the fragments of truth out of the chaos. (The disciple on the Path should of course try to bring about this heaven-world-condition while still in the physical body through periods of meditation and contemplation).

When the powers of the Soul are not stirred and attracted by the personality, the personality cannot respond to the higher vibrations of the higher mental planes of the Causal body. This added value to the soul mechanism of the human being can be fully enjoyed only by a new attitude of not permitting the physical, astral and mental body work on their own, but rather under the guidance of the Soul. This guidance of the Soul is acted upon by attracting a Senior-Disciple (mostly called a Master by us) who guides the process of reaching to the higher levels of being.

REINCARNATION AND THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Reincarnation is Now a Scientifically Acceptable Phenomenon - by Dr. Granville Dharmawardena, University of Colombo
(Based on a Scientific paper presented at the 52nd Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, November 1996)

In the seventeenth century when Rene Descartes divided everything in the universe into two realms as "Res Extensa" (matter) and "Res Cogitans" (mind), gathering knowledge within the realm of Res Extensa was called Science and the phenomenon of reincarnation got pushed into the other realm Res Cogitans which was condemned to be not respectable and not up to the dignity of Scientists to probe into. Science was considered the respectable realm to study.
All important and respectable knowledge of the universe was thus restricted to science which was restricted to the study of the aspects of the universe that are measurable. Scientists accepted that the universe consisted essentially of "objects" leading to the belief that the ultimate realities of the universe are things and not beings. It was believed that everything in nature could be explained in terms of interactions of matter particles.
Science developed in this framework is known as "Classical Science". Classical Science had great material success because it helped to develop technology which brought about wealth and material benefits to mankind. It helped the West to colonise the rest of the world and acquire economic dominance and political influence.
The frame work of Classical Science was punctured by Henry Becquerel exactly hundred years ago, in 1896, by the discovery of Radioactivity. Albert Einstein cracked it at the beginning of this century by discovering the theory of relativity. It was totally blasted by the advent of Quantum Theory and the Uncertainty Principle. It is noteworthy that Einstein's discovery falls entirely within the realm of Res Cogitans as it did not involve any experiments or measurements.

In classical science scientists made idealised mental pictures of the phenomena to be understood. Imagined mechanisms were usually presented to make various phenomena and relationships between them understood. But as Modern Science boosted man's knowledge transcending the limitations imposed by the five senses and took us to murky areas of nature, profound changes had to be introduced to procedures in science. Our ability to understand everything by way of perceptible mental pictures diminished and it became necessary to imagine models with components which behaved in ways that had no counterparts at all in the world familiar to us. Mechanisms involved in these models in most instances not only are invisible but also consist of elements that operate in ways never known in the world that we actually experience through our five senses.

For example a single electron can pass through two different holes on a screen at the same time and still remain a single particle on the other side. If we use some mechanism such as flashing a light on the electron to observe through which hole it passes, then it will pass only through one of the two holes. Mechanisms of such phenomena are beyond our imagination at least at present. Mathematical models devoid of pictorial content which are typical of modern science resulted from attempts to fit the concepts of atoms and waves to the discoveries made at the end of the 19th century which led to the quantum theory. Classical science usually stood for absolute precision where as modern science stands for impossibility of absolute precision.
Modern science joined up the two realms, Res Extensa and Res Cogitans and made us to understand that the universe cannot be broken up into two independent arbitrary realms as Res Extensa and Res Cogitans. They are not independent and cannot be studied completely independently. Within the establishment of modern science some of the aspects of nature that did not strictly adhere to the realm of Res Extensa, which were therefore earlier condemned as unbecoming of scientists to talk about have become respectable. Reincarnation falls into this category. Therefore scientists now have the professional clearence to scientifically investigate reincarnation. This paper does not distinguish between subtle differences among reincarnation, rebirth and rebecoming.

If reincarnation is to be examined from an unbiased scientific point of view, it is necessary first of all to find a way of bypassing such unscientific barriers as religious bias. This can be done by considering the standard procedure used at present for the acceptance of any modern scientific theory and testing reincarnation by following the same procedure.
Geremy Hayward has described how one ventures to deal with a new theory. He describes this procedure as a four step scientific process as follows;
a) study the relevant phenomenon,
b) formulate the new theory,
c) use the theory to predict observations that we should be able to make if the theory is correct, and
d) look for these predicted observations.

Richard Feynman, Noble Laureate for Physics, describes this process in detail. He combines steps "a" and "b" and describes it as a three step process.
If the observations made in the last step do not agree with the predictions of the earlier step the proposed theory is not acceptable. If they agree the theory becomes acceptable. If more and more observations show agreement the theory receives stronger scientific acceptance. Once a theory becomes scientifically accepted by this test it remains so unless someone finds reliable new data to prove its unacceptability.

Reincarnation is a very old belief and a large fraction of the world population believes it. For example Rene Descartes' statement "What I have said is sufficient to show clearly enough that the extinction of the mind does not follow from the corruption of the body and also to give men the hope of another life after death." in 1641 confirms his belief in reincarnation. About 20 percent of those in the Western World whose religions shun reincarnation nevertheless believe it. According to opinion polls this percentage is rising.
Hence the phenomenon of reincarnation is already known and therefore the steps "a" and "b" are already there. In examining the scientific acceptability of reincarnation therefore one has only to go through the last two steps of the above scientific process. If this is done successfully the scientific acceptability of reincarnation is proved in the way any other theory of modern science is proved.
Reincarnation may be defined as the re-embodiment of an immaterial part of a person after a short or a long interval after death, in a new body whence it proceeds to lead a new life in the new body more or less unconscious of its past existences, but containing within itself the "essence" of the results of its past lives, which experience goes to make up its new character or personality. Thus, infancy brings to earth not a blank scroll for the beginning of a new earthly record, but it is inscribed with ancestral histories, some like the present scene, most of them unlike it and stretching back into the remote past.
Reincarnation is an issue of utmost importance, one that promises to touch the ordinary man, woman and child in a profound and far reaching way. Crime statistics show that convictions are much lower among those who believe in reincarnation than among the others. If scientifically accepted, reincarnation will have a stake in defining human identity in the 21st century.

There are two possible scenarios, No-Reincarnation scenario and Reincarnation scenario that can be considered. Human being is composed of the body and an immaterial part. The body which is the material part is well understood because it fell within the Classical Science realm of Res Extensa and was extensively studied by scientists. The immaterial part has not been studied by scientists because it fell within the Classical Science realm of Res Cogitans.
In the No-Reincarnation scenario death is something like the Event Horizon of a black hole. Crossing the event horizon is a one way journey and after crossing it nothing can come back, not even light. Here the body disintegrates after death and the immaterial part either annihilates or gets into a scientifically unknown state and remains there for ever, ie. each individual is borne, lives one life time and at the end of it passes the event horizon of death to a state of no return.

In the Reincarnation scenario death is not an event horizon because only the body, the material part, disintegrates and goes into a state of no return. The immaterial part enters into a scientifically unknown state and reappears, after a period.
The above description of the phenomenon of reincarnation constitute steps "a" and "b" of the scientific process. The next step of the scientific process is looking for observations that can be predicted assuming the existence of this phenomenon, observations that have a reasonable chance of being practically examined.

Abilities of individuals to carry memories of past events differ widely from individual to individual. Some people can remember events and experiences of long past whereas some easily forget things within a few years. Most people vividly remember special events such as tragic happenings for a very long time, even up to death. Under hypnosis people recollect events which they had completely forgotten. Some people have the exceptional ability to recall knowledge and experiences gathered long ago and use them when necessary. For example a friend of mine who had been discussing Advanced Level Physics with me when he was studying for the GCE AL exam long time ago, but never did any science there after escaped injury in the Central bank bomb blast by instantaneously recalling his memories discussing AL Physics. But others who had studied Physics more recently lost their eyes because that memory didn't flash back to their rescue at the time of impending disaster. As soon as my friend saw the flash of the bomb blast from his window , AL Physics flashed back to his mind and prompted to him that the shock wave comes a little while after the flash. Instantaneously he threw himself back flat on the floor before the shock wave blasted the window glasses.
If reincarnation as defined earlier is true it should be possible to extend some of the above human capabilities, which result from immaterial aspects of the human being, beyond birth to the previous life and even beyond to earlier lives. Some people should be able to remember events in their past lives. Hypnosis must enhance this ability. Some must be able to make use of knowledge and experiences of past lives.
With these predictions we can move on to the last stage of the scientific process, to look for these predicted observations.
A large amount of data has been accumulated by research workers around the world on matters relating to reincarnation.
spontaneous recall of past lives,
past life therapy,
child prodigies and others who can make use of knowledge and experience
gathered in their past lives are some of the aspects that have been subjected to much research and investigation.
The observations made on the above areas agree with the predictions made in the third stage of the scientific process thereby successfully completing the four step test for scientific acceptability. No scientifically acceptable data that can go to prove the scientific unacceptability of reincarnation have appeared in scientific literature so far.
On the basis of these tests it is concluded that the scientific acceptability of the phenomenon of reincarnation is proven at least on three counts in terms of the accepted principles of modern science.
A science minded person often finds it difficult to accept reincarnation because he/she had failed to perceive a reincarnation mechanism that is intelligible within the outdated Decartes' classical science frame work. But Modern Science, specifically Quantum Mechanics, has compelled us to accept unintelligible mechanisms of natural phenomena like the behaviour of electrons and we do not hesitate to accept them. Likewise with the data available we are compelled to accept reincarnation as a reality.
Austrian Scientist Rudolf Steiner says,"Just as an age was once ready to receive the Copernican theory of the universe, so is our age ready for the idea of reincarnation to be brought into the general consciousness of humanity".

RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF UNIVERSL PRINCIPLES PART ONE

A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES Part one

Dear Friends,

Some philosophical work on the following declaration:
The "What" is up to you, the "How" is up to Universal Consciousness (or God if you like that term). YOU DECIDE ~ Universal Consciousness/GOD PROVIDES. Tell the Universe what you want to experience and then allow God to work out the details for you.

Commentary:
I consider together with Rev. Joel Goldsmith that God will not do today what he hasn't done in eternity. In other words, God IS. He is not becoming, he is not changing. He doesn't do this for you today and for others tomorrow. He is not blessing certain people and condemning others. The God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac is a wrong description of God by the same Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or by their followers.

There doesn’t exist a God expressing sometimes punishment and sometimes rewards. (This punishment and rewarding occurs through a impersonal law called by men the Law of Karma) God is LOVE and God is WISDOM, God is not a being as us expressing acts of love and of wisdom.

When at last we decided to tell the Universe, what we want and we get afterwards what we asked for, two great principles took place at the same time: 1. We have decided to transcend the personality and the physical universe 2. We declared that we are ready for a certain change. When at last we decided to open our hearts for the abundance of the Universal Consciousness, we must not get stupid and consider that the Universal Consciousness has gone out of eternity and gone into the same trap of consciousness of our personality, a level of yesterday and tomorrow, a trap of here and there.

In the degree that we open our hearts for the total love and wisdom of the Universal Consciousness we will receive. That doesn't imply that the Universal Consciousness has given us something. Assuming this act of giving on the part of the Universal Consciousness is degrading the eternal love and wisdom aspect through clothing it in a time-space aspect. The fact that the personality feel the need to say thanks for receiving according to its opening for the Universal Abundance, doesn't imply that the Universal Consciousness needs that act of thankfulness.

The second part of the phrase “Tell the Universe ………… and then allow God to work out the details for you” must be “ and then the Universal laws knowing all your sincerity at this moment of asking will work out the details for you.Let us give thanks for what we get everyday, but let us have a correct understanding of the workings of the Life-Light-Love principle.

Henk

THE YEAR 2012

Roland Emmerich through his eco-thriller “The Day after Tomorrow”, which presents the Apocalyptic theme as being to happen in the year 2012, taps into the predictions of thousands of astrologers, doomsday enthusiasts, and conspiracy theorists who fear that a massive cataclysm will strike the earth on December 21 of that year.

The Mayan Calendar

The Harvard archeologist Michael D. Coe 2012 gained the apex of doom with the best-selling 1966 book "The Maya". He noted that the Mayan culture's famously complex "Long Count" calendar ends on 12/21/12, speculating that civilization might come crashing down on that date. Astrologers have also pointed out that during the winter solstice of 2012, the orbital planes of the solar system and the twelve Zodiacal constellations will intersect with the "Dark Rift" -- a black bit of the Milky Way located next to Sagittarius. Some argue this intersection is precisely why the Mayans -- who were brilliant astronomers -- ended their calendar when they did. But other astrologers believe that this conjunction will usher in a great shift in consciousness. And then there's the counterculture thinker Terence McKenna whose Timewave Zero theory -- drawing off of elements from the "I-Ching," the teachings of philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, and modern fractal mathematics -- which determined that 12/21/12 is the exact date of a profound change in the world. Roughly speaking, the Mayans, astrologers and McKenna are all predicting global doom or the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

Scientific community, Sunspots and Pole Problems
So if the apocalypse is set just in time for holiday shopping season three years from now, how exactly will the world end? One theory that actually has some traction in the scientific community is that a solar flare will cause a sudden shift in the magnetic orientation of the Earth's poles, causing all kinds of planetary problems like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. NASA is predicting strong solar activity around 2012 and there's evidence that the magnetic poles are slowly weakening, something that reportedly presages a reversal. Of course, most scientists think that this reversal will take centuries, not days, to occur.

So how does Roland Emmerich end the world in his upcoming epic "2012
"We found this obscure theory of 'Earth crust displacement,' written in the '50s by someone called Professor Hapgood. Albert Einstein wrote the foreword to his book. It pretty much [says] every X number of years the whole Earth's crust shifts, all together. We thought that that was a great underlining theory that can explain why there can be a flood."

And what is the director going to do in preparation for that fated date? When asked he said, "I'm a pretty down to earth guy. Even [though] I made movies about aliens, I don't believe in aliens. And I don't believe that the world will come to an end in 2012, but it's a great scenario."

Mr. Barrios and his view on the Mayan Calendar

Mr. Barrios, a historian, anthropologist and Mayan priest, who was born in Guatemala and had contact with different ancients of the Indian tribes, considers that there will not be any end of the world at the winter solstice of 2012. He believes that there will be indeed great changes in the communities and it depends on the human reaction if it will be a difficult or easy circumstance. On information that he gathered he has pronounced that the banks will have a bad time in November 2002 and that the monetary systems will come to a chaotic end.

See : http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tzolkinmaya/esp_tzolkinmaya10.htm

Also the American writer Steve Alten, whose two last novels turn around a supposed Mayan prophecy of the end of the world in 2012, when the calendar of this culture finishes, assured in Mexico that this talks about to the end of an historical era and not the end of the humanity.

Opinion of the writer
I underline the opinion of the Mayan Elders that different changes which will happen will be smoothly if the human minds will approach these changes with the right attitude. They even say that as the human mind will be creative –using the Universal Life Energy in the right way- changes will be for the benefit of all. That attitude includes a right perception about the forces beyond globalization, the evil forces beyond politics and even the religions.

NOTE:
Contrary to the Christian point of view the Theosophist Secret and Sacred Doctrine declares that there will never be an apocalypse in the way that the Church is preaching. There will be rather different Days of Judgment and Periods of Transformation during the next million years to come. This science also emphasizes that there were also Days of Judgment in the past and different catastrophes in the past million years of humanity, including different floods.

Hendrik Schotte

Dear All,

Here follows an extension of message 226 as given in my emailsite of Foundation Training Centre Prana

While God is writing straigth all the time with crooked letters (us), still we must not be so smart to think that the most high planes of the Cosmic are passing through us when we are giving (self)treatment.
Its the same with meditation. We go into the sphere of meditation to contact the Higher Consciousness but have we attained the same levels of Consciousness as Jesus, Yogananda, Buddha during that meditation etc.??? No, because we have to break down a lot of walls constructed through prejugdment, wrong analysis, fear of the truth etc.

Reiki is one of the so many varieties of meditation done through/ with the hands of the healer and the one who is treated and either the healer or the one to be healed will attune to the levels of Cosmic Consciousness (Purusha) and Cosmic Energy (prakritri) according to his ability of resonance at this certain moment of his process of discipleship.
.
Why I am saying "at this certain moment"? Its possible that while doing the great art of healing one can suddenly transcend himself, one can suddenly attain a jump in consciousness. This jump in consciousness can take place in the patient or in both healer as client. All depends on the grade of intention and sincerety which will work out a certain degree of receptivity of the two parties.
You are determinating how your attunement to the Cosmic will be/is. And in the case that we are treating another person its the one who is treated who determines what is the result of the process for himself.

In reality we are not giving energy to the client but we are facilitating the client a psychological framework so that (s)he can have access to the energies which were always within and around him/her. {Even a High Master as Jesus could not heal those who he wanted to heal (and don't forget there are a hundred persons walking around you every day who need some or other form of healing)}. The client can receive through your mediation and facilitation, energies which you yourself cannot handle yet.

Clients have got through my workshops better contact with their Higher Self and could afterwards be even role-models for me how to act better in life. Even while they still neeeded my guidance to understand their dialogues with their Higher Self. This I could do based on experience with different persons.

There are Reikimasters who are proclaiming that when the practitioner is doing his work, the direction of the energy is from the healer to the client and never in the other direction. I consider this a manmade truth. While the energies are being attracted by the client, still there is a two-way track (even when the client is a very frustrated and very armored person).

In any group of persons there is a wide range of energies circulated through and among the different persons! Every one of us has to vow during his periods in his innier sanctum to give always energies of unconditioning love to their loved ones and even to their adversaries.

I am waiting for your remarks.

Henk

Evil studied from different angles

We have come to the next conclusions after reading Evil studied from different angles part one


The Devil / Satan etc. is not created by God but by men. (subparagraph 3 of The Satan Myth)
How its possible to explain God as being good and satisfied with his creation while he has put a Devil to put us in temptation

The symbol of the serpent was not to represent evil but just God himself. (subparagraph 4 of The Satan Myth)

So the interpretation of the allegory of the Garden of Eden is a false one. (It was not explained in that way by the Cabalistic rabbis.) (subparagraph 5 i 7 of The Satan Myth)

Evil is created by human beings (subparagraph 6 of The Satan Myth)

Lucifer can not be the same as Satan. How a Light bringer can cause darkness?
The allegory of The Garden of Eden was fabricated by Babylonians and Persians.
God cannot have an adversary. Man has, God not. And the adversary is the personality. (subparagraph 7 of The Satan Myth)

That the description of God and Shiva are not at all aspects of the True and Most High. So those are false gods. (“The Mahatma Letters”)
10 If you are not protected during meditation the members of The Great Dark Brotherhood can possess you. ( “The Dark Brotherhood”)
11 The members of the Dark Brotherhood are members of the human creation who have gone astray and now they are blocking the spiritual advance of others.
12 Those Dark Brethren will be saved some day. (subparagraph 2 of “The Dark Brotherhood”).
13 The members of the Dark Brotherhood can have their results on the physical and emotional planes.

In debating on this topic we in the Centre of Theosophy Curacao has come also to these conclusions:

14 Our personality is the fallen angel.
15 That you cannot judge another as being a server of evil while you don’t know his dharma.
16 That the Masters of Wisdom are set back in their spiritual advance by our errors (group karma).
17 That the nearer you come to Cosmic Consciousness, the more you must/will serve mankind.

Based on conclusions 8 and 14 I want to bring the next dissertations on “The Dweller on the Treshold” .

Adyar Pamphlets No.115
THE DWELLER OF THE THRESHOLD
by Franz Hartmann, M.D.Reprinted from The Theosophist, Vol. XI 1889Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar. Madras. IndiaJuly 1920
[Page 1] IT will perhaps be asked, why in this enlightened century we desire to call attention to Alchemy, which, by the majority of mankind, is looked upon as an array of vagaries, extravagancies and superstitions, having been repeatedly ex cathedra declared to be such by modern scientific authorities. To those who put implicit faith in the infallibility of modern science we have no apology to offer; but to the unprejudiced investigator we answer that Alchemy — if properly understood — is a science embodying the highest truths which a spiritually enlightened mortal may possibly attain, and that a practical knowledge of them is of the highest importance for his own eternal welfare and for the progression of mankind. Being a spiritual science, it is also a religion; for science means a knowledge of facts, and there can be no higher facts than those which relate to the highest state which a man may possibly attain, and with which religion deals. [Page 2] The word religion has a threefold meaning. In its highest aspect it means the practical application of wisdom, by which the divine element germinally contained in the constitution of man, is awakened to self-consciousness and reunited as a conscious power to the divine force from which it emanated in the beginning. This process is taught by those who are spiritually illuminated, but is beyond the full comprehension of those in whom the inner life has not yet awakened; for theoretical knowledge can never become real knowledge without practical experience.
In its second signification the word religion means a theoretical knowledge of the essential constitution of man, of the relation existing between man and the source from which he and everything else in nature originated, of his final destiny, etc. Here is the battle-ground of the philosophers, theologians and other speculative minds: the realm of various and contradictory opinions, caused by a reflection and distortion of the truth in the minds of individual men.
In its third signification religion is a system of forms, ceremonies and usages; by which some supposed external deity is worshipped or propitiated. Here is the realm of sectarian differences, of bigotry, superstition and ignorance. Here the form is adored, and kept sacred, and the principle neglected. The followers of this kind of religion appeal to the passions of men and cause conflicts and quarrels. It [Page 3] can have nothing to do with true religion; but is evidently opposed to it. [This mistaking of the form for the principle on the part of the keepers of religion is, to a great extent, the cause of the materialism of this Age; for the intellectual classes are wise enough to see that the forms are empty, but not wise enough to grasp the principle without the form]
There can be no religion and no higher science than that of the truth relating to the highest mysteries of the divine element in nature, and these truths are taught in our system of Alchemy. But it will naturally be asked: "Why then do our philosophers, theologians and scientists know nothing about it ? " The answer is that the Dweller of the Threshold guards the door to the temple of truth and must be conquered before we can enter.

Who is this Dweller of the Threshold ?

Probably all of our readers have heard of him. They may have read his description in Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni; where Glyndon, during the temporary absence of the Adept, impelled by his own curiosity to learn the forbidden mysteries of the latter, invaded the laboratory and is frightened out of his wits by the appearance of the horrible spectre which is henceforth his unwelcome companion for life. When he submits to the demands of his lower self, and revels in sensual pleasures, the hag disappears; but whenever he attempts to rise above that level, then she steps forth with her hateful eyes and seeks to drag him with her long fingers into her cold embrace. [Page 4] This Dweller of the Threshold meets us in many shapes. It is the Cerberus guarding the entrance to Hades; the Dragon which St. Michael (spiritual will-power) is going to kill; the Snake which tempted Eve, and whose head will be crushed by the heel of the woman; the Hobgoblin watching the place where the treasure is buried, etc. He is the king of evil, who will not permit that within his kingdom a child should grow up, which might surpass him in power; the Herod before whose wrath the divine child Christ has to flee into a foreign country, and is not permitted to return to his home (the soul) until the king (Ambition, Pride, Vanity, Self-righteousness, etc.) is dethroned or dead. Many times Christ flees before Herod and cannot return at all; because Herod lives and rules until the house of life —the temple of the divine Christ—is destroyed by death. [Many people celebrate the birth of an external Christ, as an event said to have taken place some eighteen centuries ago; while they continually drive away the living Christ from their hearts by the power of Herod. Few only recognize the true Christ and permit him to enter. The former flatter themselves for having the right belief; the latter enjoy the true faith.All such accounts are allegories, representing a real truth, whose knowledge is of the greatest importance; for it is the beginning of the Great Work; and he who does not know how to begin will not accomplish much.
The Dweller of the Threshold, the Dragon of mediaeval symbolism, is nothing else but our own [Page 5] lower semi-animal, animal or perhaps brutish self, that combination of material and semi-material principles which form the lower ego, which the great majority of men blindly and lovingly hug and caress, because they love themselves. Man does not see its true qualities as long as he clings to it, else he would perhaps be disgusted with it; but when he attempts to penetrate within the portals of the paradise of the soul; when his self-consciousness begins to become centered in his higher self, then the Dweller of the Threshold becomes objective to him, and he may be terrified at its (his own) ugliness and deformity.
Let us examine the attributes of that semi-animal self : First of all we see that it is the residence of animal instincts and passions, which represent themselves to the interior eye in semi-animal and animal forms; for external forms on the astral plane are the external expressions of internal principles ; a psychic activity will produce a corresponding form. In it reside the animal sensations and the calculating intellect with all its cunning, sophistry and craftiness, personal will and the love of illusions.

According to the doctrines of the Rosicrucians the personal intellect and will of man is merely a reflex of the eternal and universal spiritual Sun of Wisdom (spiritual consciousness) acting within the sphere of self, in throwing — so to say — a ray into the mirrors of the minds of men and women. As the light of the[Page 6] terrestrial sun, by being thrown upon the moon, becomes reflected and modified, and the earth during night-time — instead of the warm, life-giving sunshine — receives merely the cold and illusive light of the moon; likewise the material and superficial prisoner, during the night of his ignorance, sees only the cold moonshine of his own perverted intellect, and mistakes it for the sun of eternal truth. Proud of his supposed possession of the true light, he neglects to seek deeper. He rests self-satisfied in his acquired false learning and falls a prey to the dragon. He cannot conquer the Dweller of the Threshold, nor does he wish to do so, because he is himself that Dweller, and is in love with himself. He does not want to enter the temple, and does not perhaps even know that the temple exists.

To be better understood, we will call the light coming directly from the great spiritual Sun of Wisdom Intuition: that coming to our consciousness through the intellectual working of the brain Reason. They are originally caused by only one ray; but the former represents that ray in its purity, the latter as having become colored, distorted or reversed within the individual sphere of self. In the day-time, when the sun shines, we do not require the light of the moon. If it were continually day in our soul, if its atmosphere were not clouded, if we were living in that pure ethereal state in which one is able to see the light of wisdom in its [Page 7] fullness and without a doubt, we would not need to exert our own individual intellect for the purpose of knowing the truth. The voice of intuition would be heard so plain, that it could not possibly be misunderstood and we should know all we desired to know, for we should perceive indirectly and not need to speculate about it. But man has become immersed in matter. A part of that divine man-forming ray has become so much differentiated as to be grossly material, and has lost the capability to see the pure light of the spiritual sun. The consequence is that we must necessarily have recourse to the feeble moonlight of our own material reason, to help us to grope along in our darkness. A part of ourselves — that part which has not yet become grossly material, our higher self — still sees the light of the sun and hears the Word, and may communicate it to the lower self, if the latter will listen; but the more the lower self clings to the sphere of phenomena and sensuality, the more will it become separated from the higher self; the more will the light of Intuition become indistinct and uncertain, and the more will the superficial reasoner become dependent on his individual reasoning intellect and proud of its illusive power, until he falls a prey to the dragon. [Modern material science can therefore never become Spiritual science; for the former is bound to the sphere of phenomena and deals only with them. To become practically acquainted with spiritual science, men must develop their own inner senses. Without the ability to perceive interior things, such a science would be a matter for mere speculation and theory ] [Page 8] The same line of reasoning may be applied to the Will. Man imagines he has a will of his own; but his life and will is merely a ray of the eternal and universal life and will-power, acting within his sphere of self, becoming colored, distorted and perhaps perverted, by personal and selfish desires. The ray of the Eternal Will, acting within the entirely unselfish soul of man, is the legitimate son produced by the power of Abram, shining into the womb of Sarah (meaning the pure and unadulterated living well of truth); but the same ray, acting within Hagar and becoming tainted by selfish desires, produces the son of the concubine, the Ishmael who must be sent away into the wilderness to starve and to perish. [Little indeed would be the value of the Bible or any other Holy Scripture, if the stories contained therein were merely accounts of events having taken place in the lives of certain persons unknown to us, and said to have been living some thousands of years ago. The Biblical personages are allegories, representing certain occult powers, and their history represents certain mysterious processes. The book of Genesis, if properly understood, is a history of spiritual evolution]
Man's selfish love, will, thought, imagination, etc., are all only temporal and illusory possessions, which would cease if the eternal sun of the spirit should cease to shine. Likewise, in perfect darkness, all objects are of the same color; only when the light shines forth, each of them will appear in its proper hue by reflecting the universal light; according to the peculiar attributes belonging to their constitutions. But if we conquer the Dweller of the Threshold — the
[Page 9] lower self, what shall we obtain? When Adam, the material man with all his passions and desires and animal instincts, has died and disappeared during physical life upon the earth, the spiritual man, the Christ, arises in his glory.[This event is not to be expected to take place after physical death, but must take place during life. Spirit needs the lower life as a ladder to climb up and attain the higher life] In this spiritual principle rests spiritual consciousness, spiritual life, spiritual knowledge and spiritual power. Its will and imagination are one with the Will and Imagination of the all-penetrating universal power, which created all the forms of the Universe out of its own substance.[The word Creation meaning a something coming into existence out of nothing, can only refer to form. Form is nothing, it is a mere shape of something which existed before the form was created, it is nothing per se but an illusion] Being one with the divine power in nature, and knowing itself, it knows all the mysteries of nature by direct perception and without the slow process of intellectual theoretical speculation. Being one with the carpenter of the universe it may create forms or destroy them by the power of its spiritual will.Man is a Microcosm, in which are potentially or germinally contained all the powers, essences, principles and substances contained in the Macrocosm of the Universe; heaven and hell, God, angels, elementals and devils are Within him; and whatever is in his constitution may become developed and grow. [The science of Alchemy teaches the spiritually enlightened man how to deal with these unseen principles and powers; which, though they are invisible, are nevertheless substantial for Matter and Spirit are One. They are both the manifestations of one original power. The manifestation of that power in its external and visible effects is called Matter; in its invisible and causative activity it may be called Spirit] [Page 10] A man who thoroughly knows himself, knows all nature, a man who can govern himself with divine wisdom is subject to no other power. He is a God within his own realm, and being one with the ruling power of the universe, his power extends as far as the latter.*[Man can know nothing except that which exists within himself. We can not see a house before its image has entered our sphere of consciousness]
It will therefore be seen that the true science of Alchemy does not require for its practice an array of costly chemicals, retorts, stones, bottles and pots; but the materials with which it deals may be had everywhere for nothing and are within the reach of every one, even within that of the poorest. The power used in practical Alchemy is the power of the Spirit, and only those who possess this power can practice this art; for those who do not possess it, its study will be a matter of mere speculation. There are three distinct kinds of manifestation of energy known: (1) Mechanical force, acting merely on the surface of things, and being the slowest of all; every one who is not paralyzed possesses that power: if he did not possess it, he could not know it, neither could if be satisfactorily described to him; (2) Chemical action, being far more powerful, because it penetrates into the interior of objects and produces [Page 11] molecular disintegration. Bodies which resist mechanical force can be dissolved by it. It is a power known in its effects to the chemist, while those who are not acquainted with chemistry know little about it, and the opinions of the latter in regard to the facts of chemistry are of no practical value; (3) Spiritual activity; the most powerful of all; because it penetrates into the very center — the spiritual essence of things — and changes their substance and infuses them with life. Like the preceding ones it is a force well known to those who possess it, but unknown to those who do not possess it, however learned in other departments of Science the latter may be. Those, however, who possess it, are at present — in our material Age — very few; because they are the spiritually illuminated ones, the Adepts, or men who have passed through the process of spiritual regeneration.
They are people in whom the spiritual soul has grown and developed, penetrating the whole physical body with its power, enabling them to cure diseases by the touch of their hands and communicate life to them, to sink their own consciousness into the minds of other men and read their thoughts, to perceive with the interior eye things which are hidden to the external sight, and to perform other things which the ignorant call miracles; because they are miraculous to them and beyond the power of their understanding.[Page 12] Do you know what the expression spiritual regeneration means ? If you do not know it, ask some modern scientist, and he will probably answer like Nicodemus of old: " How can a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb ? " You may ask your clergyman, and if he has not passed himself through that process and become an Adept, the probability is that he will have only a very vague idea about it. If he belongs to a Christian Church. he will probably say that spiritual regeneration takes place when the ceremonies of baptism and confirmation are administered ; that thereby a spiritual power descends through his hands upon the candidate, who thereupon becomes regenerated. He will say that the power to confer this spirit has been given to him by having been made a clergyman. But he does not himself know that power, neither have we ever seen a case in which a person, after having submitted to such ceremonies, has become an Adept and endowed with the power to heal and to work miracles; nor is it reasonable to suppose that the Universal Spirit — the Holy Ghost. could be monopolized by any class of people or by a Church, and be made an article of trade, or that one man's spiritual evolution could be made to depend on the will and pleasure of another human being. Everything in nature takes place according to natural laws. Trees and animals grow when the necessary conditions are given; intellectual [Page 13] development requires intellectual food; spiritual development requires the growth of the spirit. Grapes do not grow on thistles, and men are not born from cows. No one can give to another that which he does not himself possess. A truly divine person must be in possession of divine powers, and he cannot possess and use such powers without being conscious of it. Oh for a clergyman who is really a divine ! He would be a real spiritual guide. But to be a true spiritual guide requires more than mere talk about spiritual things, which one has merely learned from hearsay and knows practically nothing about. [Paracelsus says: " The wearing of a black coat, or the possession of a piece of paper signed by some human authority, does not make a man divine, who acts wisely, because wisdom comes from God. The knowledge which our clergymen possess is not obtained by them from the Father, but they learn it from each other. He who desires to learn the truth, must be able to see it, and not be satisfied with descriptions of it received from others. The highest power of the intellect, if it is not illuminated by wisdom, is only a high grade of animal intellect, and will perish in time; but the intellect animated by the love of the Supreme is the intellect of the Angels and will live in eternity." (See Fundamenta Sapientae.)Jacob Boehme, the great Christian mystic, says: " Feign and dissemble, shout, sing, preach and teach as much as you please; but if the spirit within you is not alive, all the noise you make will amount to nothing. A Christ belongs to no sect, and needs no artificial church. He carries his church within his soul; he does not quarrel or dispute with others about any difference of opinion, he desires nothing else but his God." (Regeneration.)]
There are, however – even in this age of materialism–men who have passed or are passing through this spiritual regeneration, of which the Bible says that no one can (consciously) enter the Kingdom of God, except he be reborn of the Spirit. They say that spiritual regeneration or initiation has three [Page 14] stages. With the first spark of an interior thought, penetrating to the center of the soul and awakening the spiritual consciousness of man, the germ is laid for the development of the inner spiritual man. If the new-born Christ is continually fed with the proper nutriment (of the soul) and not driven away by Herod, it will grow ; a new and inner life (unknown before) will come into action and penetrate all the parts of the physical body. Certain mysterious processes, which are not communicated to the uninitiated, take place, and in this consists the true baptism with the water of truth or the attainment of spiritual consciousness, having nothing to do with any external ceremony or administration of water by sprinkling, dipping or otherwise. It consists in the unnatural man becoming natural, in bringing his will and imagination (thought) into harmony with that of the Universal Spirit, and becoming able to recognize the truth by direct interior perception.

The second is the fastening of the Spirit, the Baptism of blood, when the inner life becomes fixed through the power of the Word — a process during which certain physiological changes take place within the organization of the physical body. The third is the Baptism with the living fire of the Spirit; whereby the candidate for immortality attains spiritual power and becomes able to exercise it according to his will. Then will he be able to control the organic functions of his body (involuntary functions), [Page 15] because he will be master over the functions of his soul, the physical organism being merely an external expression of the former. He will be able to act from the interior to the exterior, from the center to the periphery; while the inexperienced waste their strength in useless attempts to reverse that process. To practice Alchemy and to exercise spiritual power, one must be spiritually developed. The first step to this development is the conquering of the Dweller of the Threshold, and the key to the position is the displacement of the love of self by the love of eternal Good, which finds its expression in the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, the fundamental principle upon which the Theosophical Society rests.

Parti di Kapitulo III for di e buki di Max Heindel “ A web of Destiny”

The real "Dweller on the Threshold" is the composite elemental entity created on the invisible planes by all our untransmuted evil thoughts and acts during all the past period of our evolution. This "dweller" stands guard at the entrance to the invisible worlds and challenges our right to enter therein. This entity must be redeemed or transmuted eventually. We must generate poise and will power sufficient to face and command it before we can consciously enter the super-physical worlds.
As before stated, a worldly life increases the proportion of the lower ethers in the vital body to that of the higher. Where, in addition, a so-called "clean life" is lived and excesses avoided, the health during life is more robust than that of the aspirant to the higher life, because the latter's attitude to life builds a vital body composed principally of the higher ethers. He loves "the bread of life" more than physical sustenance, and therefore his instrument become increasingly high-strung, nervous, and delicate, a sensitive condition which greatly furthers the objects of the spirit, but which is a hardship from the physical viewpoint.
In the great majority of mankind there is such a preponderance of selfishness and a desire to get the most out of life as they view that matter, that either they are busy keeping the wolf from the door or accumulating possessions and taking care of them, and hence they have very little time or inclination to undertake the soul culture so necessary to true success in life. The writer has often heard them contend that if they pay the minister to study the Bible during the six days and give them on the seventh an epitome of what he has found, that should be all that is required to get a ticket to heaven. They subscribe to the church and to the things ordinarily called for in life as honorable and upright; for the rest, they have "a good time." Therefore there is so little that persists in each life of the majority and evolution is so frightfully slow that until one is able to vie the act of death from the higher regions of the World of Concrete Thought and, so to say, look downwards, it does not appear that anything is saved of the vital body. This body seems to return complete to the physical body and to hover over the grave, there it disintegrate simultaneously with the latter. As a matter of fact, an increasing part cleaves to the higher vehicles and goes with them into the desire world, there to be a basis of consciousness in, and to live through, the purgatorial and heaven lives, generally persisting until man enters the second heaven and unites with the nature forces there in his efforts to create for himself a new environment. By that time, it has been absorbed by the spirit or almost so, and whatever may remain of a material nature will quickly fade away. Thus the personality of the past life has vanished and the spirit will not meet with it in the future lives upon this earth.
But there are some people who are of such an evil nature that they ENJOY a life spent in vice and degenerate practices, a brutal life, and who delight in giving pain. Sometimes they even cultivate the occult arts for evil purposes so that they may have a greater power over their victims. Then their fiendish, immoral practices result in hardening their vital body.
In such extreme cases where the animal nature has been paramount, where there has been no soul expression in the preceding earth life, the division in the vital body spoken of before cannot take place at death, for there is no dividing line. In such a case, if the vital body should gravitate back to the dense body and there gradually disintegrate, the effect of a very evil life would not be so far-reaching, but unfortunately there is in such cases an interlocking grip of the vital and desire bodies which prevents separation. We have seen that where a man lives mostly in the higher nature, his spiritual vehicles are nourished to the detriment of the lower. Conversely, where his consciousness is centered in the lower vehicles, he strengthens them immeasurably. It should be understood that the life of the desire body is not terminated by the departure of the spirit; it has a residual life and consciousness. The vital body is also able to sense things in a slight measure for a few days after death in ordinary cases (hence the suffering caused by embalming, postmortem examinations, etc., immediately after death), but where a low life has hardened and endued it with great strength, it has a tenacious hold on life and an ability to feed on odors of foods and liquors. Sometimes, as a parasite, it even vampirizes people with whom it comes in contact.
Thus an evil man may life for many, many years unseen in our very midst, yet so close that he is nearer than hands and feet. He is far more dangerous than the physical criminal for he is able to prompt others of a similar bent to criminal or degenerate practices without fear of detection or punishment by law.
Such beings are therefore one of the greatest menaces to society imaginable. They have sent countless victims to prison, broken up homes and caused an unbelievable amount of unhappiness. They always leave their victims when the latter have come into the clutches of the law. They gloat over their victims' sorrow and distress, this being a part of their fiendish scheme. There are other classes which delight in posing as "angels" in spiritualistic seances. They also find victims there and teach them immoral practices. The so-called "Poltergeist" which enjoys breaking dishes, upsetting tables, knocking hats over the heads of the delighted audience, and similar horseplay, is also in this class. The strength and density of the vital body of such beings makes it easier for them to give physical manifestations than for those who have passed beyond into the desire world; in fact the vital bodies of this class of spirits are so dense that they are nearly physical, and it has been a mystery to the writer that some of the people who are taken in by such entities cannot see them. Were they once discovered, one look at their evil sneering faces would very soon dispel the delusion that they are angels.
There is another class of spirits belonging to this same category who appeal to person seeking spiritual development outside the spiritualistic line, by posing to them as INDIVIDUAL TEACHERS and giving them a lot of goody-goody nonsense. They also play upon the credulity of their victims in an almost unbelievable manner, and even though for years they may keep their intentions secret, sometime or other they will show themselves in their true colors. Therefore it cannot be reiterated too often that no one should accept from any one else, either visible or invisible, teachings in the slightest degree contrary to his own highest conception of ethics. It is dangerous to trust absolutely to people in this world and admit them to our full confidence; we know this by experience and act accordingly. We ought, naturally, to be much more careful when the question comes to matters of the soul, and not trust that most important of all matters, our spiritual welfare, in the hands of some one we cannot at least see and judge accordingly. There are many spirits, of course, who have not the wits to do anything very evil with their victims, and who just lead them around by the nose for years and years without any particularly harmful results. But SELF RELIANCE is the most essential virtue to be cultivated by us at this stage of our evolution; the mystic maxim, "If thou art Christ, help thyself," is always sounded in the ears of those who endeavor to tread the true path. Hence we ought to guide ourselves without fear or favor from any spirit.
It is amazing when one searches the Memory of Nature of the past to find how prevalent this interlocking condition of the desire and vital bodies was in former centuries and millenniums. We realize, of course, in a sort of an abstract way, that the further we go back into the history of men the more savage we find them, but that in our own historical times this savagery should have been so common and so brutal an that might was the measure of right absolutely and beyond dispute, was, to say the least, quite a shock to the writer. It has been taught that selfishness and desire were purposely fostered under the regime of Jehovah to give incentive to action. This in the course of time had so hardened the desire body that when the advent of Christ took place, there was almost no heaven life among the people then living; but the writer, personally, never realized what this fact implied until the recent investigations of "The Web of Destiny" were commenced.
Nor were these ancient people content to do all the evil they could in life and then get away, but they must even have their war horses killed, their weapons laid down in their coffins, and everything else possible done to keep them here, for the ether in those things which had belonged to them during life had an attraction for them, and was a means to further keeping them within the earth's sphere. It enabled them to haunt, for they actually did haunt, their castles for years and years, and of course it was not only the rich or the warrior classes but also others. In cases of blood feuds where people were slain, the ghosts incited their relatives to avenge them by remaining about and helping them to carry out the bloody deeds. Thus they perpetuated evil and kept the world in a turmoil of blood and strife; nor is this condition entirely broker in what we call modern days. Wherever a person dies who has fostered malice and hatred in his heart, these interlock the desire and vital bodies and make him a more serious menace to the community than anyone can imagine who has not investigated this subject. Therefore, if for no other reason, capital punishment should be abolished so that we may not let loose upon the community such dangerous characters to incite the morally weak to follow in their footsteps.


From “Web of Destiny” Part 3 by Max Heindel. Founder of the Rosicrucian Fellowship

“The real "Dweller on the Threshold" is the composite elemental entity created on the invisible planes by all our untransmuted evil thoughts and acts during all the past period of our evolution. This "dweller" stands guard at the entrance to the invisible worlds and challenges our right to enter therein. This entity must be redeemed or transmuted eventually. We must generate poise and will power sufficient to face and command it before we can consciously enter the super-physical worlds.”

From Volume 3 of “The Secret Doctrine”. Page 525
The impulse of animal life is too strong; it cannot wear itself out in one or two lives only. In rarer cases, however, when the lower Manas is doomed to exhaust itself by starvation; when there is no longer hope that even a remnant of a lower light will, owing to favorable conditions—say, even a short period of spiritual aspiration and repentance—attract back to itself its Parent Ego, and Karma leads the Higher Ego back to new incarnations, then something far more dreadful may happen. The Kâma-Mânasic spook may become that which is called in Occultism the “Dweller on the Threshold.”

This Dweller is not like that which is described so graphically in Zanoni, but an actual fact in Nature and not a fiction in romance, however beautiful the latter may be. Bulwer, however, must have got the idea from some Eastern Initiate. This Dweller, led by affinity and attraction, forces itself into the astral current, and through the Auric Envelope, of the new tabernacle inhabited by the Parent Ego, and declares war to the lower light which has replaced it. This, of course, can only happen in the case of the moral weakness of the personality so obsessed.
No one strong in virtue, and righteous in his walk of life, can risk or dread any such thing; but only those depraved in heart. Robert Louis Stevenson had a glimpse of a true vision indeed when he wrote his Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His story is a true allegory. Every Chela will recognize in it a substratum of truth, and in Mr. Hyde a Dweller, an obsessor of the personality, the tabernacle of the Parent Spirit.
“This is a nightmare tale!” I was often told by one, now no more in our ranks, who had a most pronounced “Dweller,” a “Mr. Hyde,” as an almost constant companion. “How can such a process take place without one’s knowledge?” It can and does so happen, and I have almost described it once before in the Theosophist.
The Soul, the lower Mind, becomes as a half animal principle almost paralyzed with daily vice, and grows gradually unconscious of its subjective half, the Lord, and of the mighty Host; [and] in proportion to the rapid sensuous development of the brain and nerves, sooner or later, it (the personal Soul) finally loses sight of its divine mission on earth.
Truly, Like the vampire, the brain feeds and lives and grows in strength at the expense of its spiritual parent . . . and the personal half-unconscious Soul becomes senseless, beyond hope of redemption. It is powerless to discern the voice of its (Page 526) God

Some thoughts of Paul Foster Case and Ann Davies as projected in the lessons of Builders of the Adytum regarding Tarot card 15 –The Devil- and The Dweller on the Threshold.
The ignorance, the fear, the bondage and inversion represented by the Devil are not contrary to Cosmic Law. They are phases the way that the Life Power works, inevitable consequences of the descent into the planes of Name and Form. Our bondage is due to the fact that the collective consciousness of the trillions of cells in our bodies is tinged with errors whose source must be sought in imperfect observation and inaccurate interpretation of sense-experiences. This imperfect observation and inaccurate interpretation are not ours alone. Much of the error stored in sub consciousness is the result of accumulated race-memories. These combined with our personal misinterpretations, are the chains which bind us.
But we are helped also by race-memories. For the race-memory includes all correct interpretations of sense-experience as well as records of the false interpretations. . (Lesson 1 Tarot Interpretation)

In connection with the same key you have been reminded again and again that nowhere in the Universe is there really anything as a devil.
An adept is not a person who has acquired unusual power. He is a person who has achieved an unusual point of view. (Lesson 17 Tarot Interpretation)
You have come to know that whatever bondage you seem to be enduring is really a result of ignorance. (Lesson 19 Tarot Interpretation)

In general, every problem is a phase of what key 15 symbolizes. Analysis of any problem into its parts is valuable because it shows where these parts fit into the cosmic order. This analysis leads to synthesis and synthesis unveils the beautiful truth behind the ugly face of every problem (lesson 21 Tarot Interpretation.)

In order to break up our complexes of error, represented by the Tower (Tarot card 16), we must adopt the mental attitude expressed by Key 12. Conscious and voluntary reversal is indispensable. This reversal must be practiced continually.

Remember, you cannot stay as you are and become an adept.

“The Dweller is none other then your false self. On what threshold does he stand? On the threshold of the Adytum of –God nourished silence. On the threshold of the Gate of Eden. On the threshold of Paradise. Remember that paradise means “enclosure”. The path of liberation leads within. (Lesson 22 Tarot Interpretation)

Also recommended the book of Rudolf Steiner “How to know higher worlds” Chapter 10 and 11 with info about The Dweller on the Threshold.

EVIL STUDIED FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES Part One
released 13-04-2008 to foundation_trainingcentreprana@yahoogroups.com

Mahatma Letter CXXXIV

We do not find it either necessary or profitable to lose our time waging war to the unprogressed Planetaries who delight in personating gods and sometimes well known characters that have lived on earth. There are Dhyan-Chohans and "Chohans of Darkness," not what they term devils but imperfect "Intelligences" who have never been born on this or any other earth or sphere no more than the "Dhyan Chohans" have and who will never belong to the "builders of the Universe," the pure Planetary Intelligences, who preside at every Manvantara while the Dark Chohans preside at the Pralayas. Explain this to Mr. Sinnett (I CAN'T) -- tell him to p.463
read over what I said to them in the few things I have explained to Mr. Hume; and let him remember that as all in this universe is contrast (I cannot translate it better) so the light of the Dhyan Chohans and their pure intelligence is contrasted by the "Ma-Mo Chohans" -- and their destructive intelligence. These are the gods the Hindus and Christians and Mahomed and all others of bigoted religions and sects worship; and so long as their influence is upon their devotees we would no more think of associating with or counteracting them in their work than we do the Red-Caps on earth whose evil results we try to palliate but whose work we have no right to meddle with so long as they do not cross our path. (You will not understand this, I suppose. But think well over it and you will. M. means here, that they have no right or even power to go against the natural or that work which is prescribed to each class of beings or existing things by the law of nature. The Brothers, for instance could prolong life but they could not destroy death, not even for themselves. They can to a degree palliate evil and relieve suffering; they could not destroy evil. No more can the Dhyan Chohans impede the work of the Mamo Chohans, for their Law is darkness, ignorance, destruction etc., as that of the former is Light, knowledge and creation. The Dhyan Chohans answer to Buddh, Divine Wisdom and Life in blissful knowledge, and the Ma-mos are the personification in nature of Shiva, Jehovah and other invented monsters with Ignorance at their tail).

From: Letters of Occultism by Alice Bailey

The Kinds of Obsessing Entities
These are too numerous to mention in detail but I might enumerate a few.
Discarnate entities of a low order awaiting incarnation, and who see, in cases one and two, their wanted opportunity.
Suicides, anxious to undo the deed and to again get into contact with earth.
Earth-bound spirits, good and bad, who from anxiety over loved ones, over their business affairs, or eager to do some wrong or to undo some evil act, rush in and take possession of cases one and two.
Dark Brothers as aforesaid, who avail themselves principally of the third and fourth cases already cited. They require highly developed bodies, having no use for weak or unrefined bodies. In case three the weakness is entirely relative, due to over-accentuation of the mental vehicle.
Elementals and subhuman entities of a malicious nature who rush in on the slightest opportunity and where kindred vibration may be felt.
Some of the lower devas, harmless but mischievous who, from sheer freakishness and fun, enter another body in much the same way that a child loves to dress up.
Occasional visitors from other planets who enter certain highly evolved bodies for purposes of their own. This is very, very rare... [127]


The Dark Brotherhood
September 25, 1919
Today I seek to speak to you on The powers of the Dark Brotherhood. Certain laws that govern their actions, [134] certain methods employed by them in work need to be realized and certain methods of protection apprehended and utilized. As before I have told you the danger is as yet inappreciable to the majority, but more and more as time elapses shall we find it necessary to teach you, the physical plane workers, how to shield and guard yourselves from attack.
The Dark Brothers are - remember this always - brothers, erring and misguided yet still sons of the one Father though straying far, very far, into the land of distances. The way back for them will be long, but the mercy of evolution inevitably forces them back along the path of return in cycles far ahead. Anyone who over-exalts the concrete mind and permits it continuously to shut out the higher, is in danger of straying on the left-hand path. Many so stray... but come back, and then in the future avoid like errors in the same way as a child once burnt avoids the fire. It is the man who persists in spite of warning and of pain who eventually becomes a brother of darkness. Mightily fights the Ego at first to prevent the Personality so developing, but the deficiencies of the causal body (for forget not that our vices are but our virtues misused) result in a lop-sided causal body, over-developed in some direction and full of great gulfs and gaps where virtues should be.
The dark brother recognizes no unity with his species, only seeing in them people to be exploited for the furtherance of his own ends. This then, on a small scale, is the mark of those who are being used by them wittingly or unwittingly. They respect no person, they regard all men as fair prey, they use everyone to get their own way enforced, and by fair means or foul they seek to break down all opposition and for the personal self acquire that which they desire. [135]
The dark brother considers not what suffering he may cause; he cares not what agony of mind he brings upon an opponent; he persists in his intention and desists not from the hurt of any man, woman or child, provided that in the process his own ends are furthered. Expect absolutely no mercy from those opposing the Brotherhood of Light.
On the physical plane and on the emotional plane, the dark brother has more power than the Brother of the Light, - not more power per se but more apparent power, because the White Brothers choose not to exert Their power on those two planes, as do the Dark Brothers. They could exert Their authority but They choose to refrain, working with the powers of evolution and not of involution. The elemental forces to be found on these two planes are manipulated by two factors.
The inherent forces of evolution that direct all on to eventual perfection. The White Adepts cooperate in this.
The Dark Brothers who occasionally employ these elemental forces to wreak their will and vengeance on all opponents. Under their control work sometimes the elementals of the earth plane, the gnomes and the elemental essence as found in evil form, some of the brownies, and the fairy folk of colors brown, gray and somber-hued. They cannot control the devas of high development, nor the fairies of colors blue, green and yellow, though a few of the red fairies can be made to work under their direction. The water elementals (though riot the sprites or sylphs) move on occasion to their assistance, and in the control of these forces of involution they at times damage the furtherance of our work. [136]
Oft too the Dark Brother masquerades as an agent of the light, oft he poses as a messenger of the gods, but for your assurance I would say that he who acts under the guidance of the Ego will have clear vision, and will escape deception.
At this time their power is oft-times mighty. Why? Because so much exists as yet in the Personalities of all men that respond to their vibration, and so it is easy for them to affect the bodies of men. So few of the races, comparatively speaking, have as yet built in the higher vibration that responds to the keynote of the Brotherhood of Light, who move practically entirely on the two highest levels (or the atomic and subatomic subplanes) of the mental, emotional and physical planes. When moving on these subplanes the attacks of elementals on lower planes may be felt but effect no harm, hence the necessity of pure living and controlled pure emotions and elevated thought.
You will notice that I said that the power of the Dark Brotherhood is dominant apparently on the physical and emotional planes. Not so is it on the mental, which is the plane on which the Brothers of the Light work. Mighty dark magicians may be located on the lower mental levels, but on the higher, the White Lodge dominates, the three higher subplanes being the levels that They beg the evolving sons of men to seek; it is Their region, to which all must strive and aspire. The Dark Brother impresses his will on human beings (if analogous vibration exists) and on the elemental kingdoms of involution. The Brothers of Light plead as pleaded the Man of Sorrows for an erring humanity to rise upward to the light. The Dark Brother retards progress and shapes all to his own ends; the Brother of Light bends every effort to the hastening [137] of evolution and - foregoing all that might be His as the price of achievement - stays amid the fogs, the strife, the evil and the hatred of the period if, in so doing, He may by all means aid some, and (lifting them up out of the darkness of earth) set their feet upon the Mount, and enable them to surmount the Cross.
And now what methods may be employed to safeguard the worker in the field of the world? What can be done to ensure his safety in the present strife and in the greater strife of the coming centuries?
A realization that purity of all the vehicles is the prime essential. If a Dark Brother gains control over any man it but shows that that man has in his life some weak spot. The door whereby entrance is effected must be opened by the man himself; the opening whereby malignant force can be poured in must be caused by the occupant of the vehicles. Therefore the need of scrupulous cleanliness of the physical body, of clean steady emotion permitted in the emotional body, and of purity of thought in the mental body. When this is so, coordination will be present in the lower vehicles and the indwelling Thinker himself permits no entrance.
The elimination of all fear. The forces of evolution vibrate more rapidly than those of involution and in this fact lies a recognizable security. Fear causes weakness; weakness causes a disintegration; the weak spot breaks and a gap appears, and through that gap evil force may enter. The factor of entrance is the fear of the man himself, who opens thus the door.
A standing firm and unmoved, no matter what occurs. Your feet may be bathed in the mud of earth, but your head may be bathed in the sunshine of the higher regions. Recognition of the filth of earth involves not contamination. [138]
A recognition of the use of common sense and the application of this common sense to the matter in hand. Sleep much and, in sleeping, learn to render the body positive; keep busy on the emotional plane and achieve the inner calm. Do naught to overtire the body physical, and play whenever possible. In hours of relaxation comes the adjustment that obviates later tension. [139]


Part of the Satan Myth by Henry T. Edge
As published in THE THEOSOPHICAL FORUM of April 1936; page. 264 to 268

The natural intelligence of man has felt that the truth must be one and single, not divided into two opposite species. A God that is all wise and all loving cannot rightly be conceived as an obscurantist. Then there is the well-known problem why such a God could create man, allow him to fall or be led by Satan into corruption, and then provide for his rescue by doubtful means and one that (in strict theological interpretation) comprehends but a minute fraction of the human race. Things like these have driven many worthy souls out of religion altogether, unaware that there was any genuine truth to replace the spurious article which they have rejected. This is what is meant when we say that the theological interpretation conflicts with human experience instead of explaining it. This divorce between two vital aspects of truth has also had a disastrous effect on science, causing it to propound a view of man's origin and nature based on purely physical influences. The duality of man's nature is the most common fact of experience, constituting as it does the entire motive of the drama of human life. It is surely the function of any body of doctrine, whether it pose as religious or scientific, to explain this fact of man's duality. If we compare the stories of man's creation as found in the various scriptures and mythologies, we find everywhere a dual creation of man. He is created as an innocent being, without knowledge of good and evil, without free choice, living in a state of harmless and unprogressive bliss. Afterwards he is enlightened by the gift of divine fire, which turns him into a responsible being, made in the image of his divine creators, and destined thenceforth to learn wisdom by experience of pain and pleasure, wrong and right. Such is the true interpretation of the allegory in Genesis.
The Serpent is man's real Savior. It is this Serpent that teaches man the knowledge of good and evil and makes him like unto the Gods. The Serpent is actually the Lord God in another form, perfecting his own original work and making of the earlier mindless man a complete being, a fitting image of his divine author. The Greeks tell the same thing in the story of Prometheus. He takes compassion on helpless mankind and brings fire down from heaven in a tube, enlightening men. There is the same apparent hostility between Zeus and Prometheus as between the Lord God and the Serpent. It is evident that the man of Eden, and the man whom Prometheus enlightened, were little better than automatons. Such a being could only become a real man by having a choice given him. Only thus could he exercise free will, that attribute of divinity. The exercise of free will and choice can be construed into an act of rebellion. Satan is said to have rebelled against God and fallen from heaven. He did so in compassion for man, performing an act of self-sacrifice for the salvation of man, just as Prometheus sacrificed himself and was ejected from Olympus to be fastened to a rock. Satan is the head of a host of angels, who with him rebelled against God and fell from heaven. They were the true enlighteners of man. This allegory of the Fallen Angels has been so misrepresented that it may seem as though we were being profane in so speaking of it. In fact, it is one of the most holy and sublime teachings of ancient wisdom.
The kind of evolution studied by science cannot produce anything higher than animals. The human self-conscious intelligence can never have been evolved from the animal mind. It is a gift apart. This gift of the divine intelligence is passed on from beings that have it to those who come after them. It is brought to men from above, not worked up from below. The scriptures say that in ages long gone by, man walked with the Gods. Man had intercourse with divine beings. It was thus that man received that marvelous intelligence which, all obscured as it is by his mortal clay, yet makes him so immeasurably above the animals. The earliest races of mankind were mindless, sinless, and devoid of initiative. Later in evolution, the divine fire was passed to man from beings who had acquired it before. Man was enlightened. This teaching regarding the evolution of human races is too long to be entered into here, but can be found in Theosophical books. It is allegorized in the Bible and other sacred books. The temptation of flesh in the Garden of Eden is a gross misinterpretation of the allegory. God has been represented as cursing forever what was a purely natural act and function. Here is another false antithesis, by which natural functions have been connected with the idea of sin. Man has been set at war with himself.
Endless moral confusion has gone down through the ages. If this Biblical Satan is a name for man's enlightener, and not the archfiend and enemy of God and man, nevertheless there may be a real devil among us. This devil is our own personified passions and evil thoughts. We know this devil by experience. We know how the alliance between fleshly passion and human self-consciousness can engender an evil personality that steps into our clothes and wears our mask. It is not mere physical immorality, harmful though that may be, that is the worst foe of man. It is selfishness, hate, anger, cruelty, and heartlessness. These whither and petrify the soul. It is riot those who have been most noted for sanctimoniousness who have been most free from this kind of sin. Man's true redeemer is that Divine Spirit which was breathed into him when from being an unselfconscious creature he became like unto the Gods. For man, good is what expands and evil is what contracts. Good sets the common weal above so-called personal interest. Evil seeks to promote self-interest regardless of the common weal. Good is constructive and makes for harmony. Evil is destructive and makes for discord. Equally fatuous are both those who accept the Eden story in its literal sense and those who scoff at it as foolish superstition. They both make the same mistake. They are guilty of the same lack of proportion. The story is symbolic and allegorical. The same symbols are universally found.

What is that Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that Tree of Life, that pleasure garden? The Garden is the state of primitive innocence in which dwelt early man, when yet the light from Heaven had not kindled the latent spark within him. The Tree, Tau, and Cross are universal symbols of the Wisdom-Religion, as is the fruit which hangs near the top of the Tree. Around the Tree, we often find a Serpent coiled -- the universal emblem of Wisdom. ("Be ye wise as serpents.") This is the origin of the Christian Cross, which should symbolize the sacrifice of self for Self, the salvation of man by exchanging the mortal for the immortal, the true Resurrection from the dead. These most sacred symbols have been turned into a dogmatic system, in which man is made to believe himself doomed by the sin of Adam to eternal damnation, only to be saved by an act of homage to a crucified God. See how good and evil have been mixed up, that which is holy profaned, and man made to damn his own God-given faculties. The above is not an advocacy of anything like Satanism or devil worship, or any such evil cult as may be found lurking in dark corners today. The distinction between good and evil is clear enough. If Satanism means the deification of evil passions, black magic, and sorcery then the name of the divine archangel has again been traduced. Such unhallowed cults are simply one of the natural results of denying man his own natural power of self-directed evolution. By cutting him off from the true light, we drive him to seek refuge in false lights. The Bible is one of the world's sacred scriptures. When we know the keys, we can interpret it aright. It can also be interpreted entirely wrong, so that a fraud has been practiced on humanity.

Next: Evil studied from different angles part 2 with notes from different esoteric scholars about The Dweller on the Treshold and a view of Ann Davis on Tarotcard 15.(The Devil).