Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Isis Study report of November 11, 2012
Summary and discussion
Isis Unveiled, vol. I
Chapter XIII – Realities and Illusion
Pages : 493 – 496.
Necromancy was strictly forbidden in the days referred to in the Old Testament
In the Bible the only instance of necromancy found is the story of the king Saul who sought answers to some pressing questions through divination. Having failed to invoke the holy spirits who seem to have abandoned him, he sought out a witch to raise Samuel from the dead, though he, Saul, the ruler himself, had decreed that enchanters, people with familiar spirits, soothsayers etc. were all prohibited to exercise their gifts. When the apparition of Samuel did appear at the invocation of the witch the shade rebuked Saul for having disturbed it from its rest. Moses decreed death against those who raised the spirits of the dead. Nowhere throughout the Old Testament, not in the writings of Homer nor in those of Virgil are to be found any evidence that they regarded raising of the dead otherwise than as necromancy—an accursed art,
Rarest of rare cases of appearance of true Spirits from the abode of the blessed
The easily evoked “spirits” of the dead are nothing more than the spooks or the astral remains of the dead whose “Spirits,” or the Divine Souls, have been translated into high spiritual state which is pure and divine, inaccessible to sundry mediums. Mediums evoke through their mediumistic practices only the shade of the dead, merely the astral corpse of the departed.
The true spirit of the dead translated into the “abode of the blessed” can never be invoked except on rarest of rare occasions. It is the doctrine of the ancients that no Soul from the ‘abode of the Blessed’ will return to earth except on extremely rare occasions when its apparition might be required to accomplish some great object in view, as bringing some benefit upon humanity. In such instances the Souls has no need to be evoked. It either sends portentous message by an evanescent simulacrum of itself or through a “messengers” who could appear in material form and personify faithfully the departed.
Easily evoked souls are spooks and no more
They are spooks or Larvae. Seekers spill fresh blood to attract them. They are not to be communicated with as such communications infect the invokers with psychic and moral contagion. They are larvae from the infernal region of the limbo, the Shoel, the so-called eighth sphere; but these are not the ‘hell’ of the orthodox Christian theological dogma.
Porphyry speaking of such abominable evocations is credited to have remarked : “I cannot prevent the witches from picking up their bones…See the blood they pour in the ditches to allure the souls that will attract oracles.”
Spirit materializations of ancient days are much different and varied in character from the modern mediumistic evocations of spooks
Many and varied are the ways of communication with true spiritual beings in days of old. Accounts of them are to be found in Sacred books. By no stretch of imagination did they resorted to the practices of modern séances. Medium requires darkness or dim lights, passive condition of medium etc. But the Patriarchs and Prophets of old needed no such aids. For example :
Three angels appeared to Abraham and drank in the full blaze of the sun (Gen. xviii-1)
The spirit of Elias and Moses appeared in day time. It is not probable that Christ and Apostles climbed high mountains during the night—as mediumistic evokers of the dead do.
Jesus is said to have appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden in the early morning.
Next we will discuss the phenomenon of Levitation—as practiced by Mediums, on the one hand, and Adepts (or Mediators), on the other, and vital differences between the two.
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Thursday, November 22, 2012
Isis Unveiled Study – Sunday, 5th November 2012, Summary and discussion
Isis Unveiled, vol. I
Chapter XIII – Realities and Illusion
Pages : 487- 493
Subject: Mediumship and Mediatorship (continued)
Passive Mediums and active Mediators:
Both of these opposite characters have appeared in all ages. How can we distinguish between them ? By their character and actions, it is answered, as we judge a tree by its fruits.
Character of impure mediums:
They have in them “familiar spirits” who control them. They generally make of their gift a trade. Indian jugglers, African and Asian sorcerers and serpent charmers exercise their gifts for money. They become physically, psychically and morally sick, and reduced to pitiable condition. They are harassed by various intelligences, and their weak and nervous natures are unable to shake off these possessing entities which over-power them. Their disability become chronic and are prevented by these “influences” from undertaking any profession or occupation. They are thus driven to extreme helplessness and are constrained trade their mediumship for money. They are to be pitied, not persecuted.
There are, of course pure and genuine mediums, who are benevolent and do good. The above is not said of these. It is the sickly mediums who are players in séances and dabble with the so-called “spirits of the dead” who suffer.
Not so with Mediators and Hierophants.
Character of Mediators
Buddha was a mendicant who refused his father’s throne. The “Son of Man had not where to lay his head.” Apostles provided “neither gold nor silver, not brass in their purses.” Apollonius gave away one half of his fortune to his relatives and the other half to the poor. Iamblichus and Plotinus were renowned for their charity and self-denial. High character of Fakirs and holy mendicants of India is well described by the French Orientalist, Jacolliot. The Pythagorean Essenes and Therapeutae believed their hands defiled by the contact of money. When Apostles (except Peter, as showed himself a coward and thrice a renegade, according to Gospels) were offered money to impart their spiritual powers, indignantly spurned the offer, saying, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” These men were Mediators, guided merely by their own personal spirit, or divine soul, and availing themselves of the help of the spirits so long as these remain in the right path.
Mediums are controlled by inferior spirits or what are called gods. But Mediators have mastery over themselves and over all inferior potencies which obey their irresistible will. When Plotinus was asked to attend public worship of gods, is said to have proudly answered, “It is for them (the spirits) to come to me. In the Hindu sacred book, The Institutions of Manu, it said that the gods control the worlds, but that the gods are subservient to Mantras (incantations), and that Brahmans know the secret of Mantras, and, therefore, Brahmans exercise power over the gods.
Iamblichus asserted and proved by his own example that our soul can attain communion with the highest intelligences, with “natures loftier than itself,” and drove away every inferior spirit or bad demon from his theurgic ceremonies. He taught his disciples how to recognize them. He and Proclus attained and taught how to attain divine powers, over-power mundane life, rendering oneself an organ of Deity. Jesus declared man the lord of the Sabbath, much like the ancient Indian Rishis declared that Man is Deity himself (That Thou Art),and at his command terrestrial and elementary spirits fled from their temporary abodes. Apollonius and many of the Brotherhood of Essenes of Judea and Mount Carmel exercised divine powers. Upanishad declare man to be non other than Deity itself but is ignorant of it, and can overcome ignorance and realize himself to be God Himself.
Why in ancient times unregulated mediums were persecuted.
There must have been very good reasons. Moses had stringent laws against those who practiced such mediumship. Moses, David, Samuel maintained colleges for teaching their students to develop deific powers in themselves, and encouraged to study prophesy, astrology, soothsaying, but discouraged unregulated mediumship by which witches exercised divination by the spirit of Ob ( Astral Light) The latter were put to death, or exiled from the city walls and driven to tombs and waste places. Why was this ? Why were they not tolerated ? Because the ancients had the discerning power by which they could see the difference between good and evil spirits which possessed the poor witches. They knew well that unregulated intercourse with inferior evil spirits brought ruin on the medium and disaster to the community. This is supported by experience of mankind from time immemorial.
Can one develop powers of mediumship ?
It is a wrong question, as a medium has no powers, and he develops none. How then mediumship develops ? It is developed by a certain moral and physical condition of man which induces emanation, or an aura, in which controlling intelligences can live, and by which they manifest themselves. He will be channel through which they act and display their power. Their aura changes day by day, and hour by hour. The medium’s moral state determines the kind of spirits that are attracted to him, and influence him intellectually, morally and physically.
Mediumship, passivity and possessions
The perfection of mediumship is in ratio to his passivity, and the danger he incurs is equal in degree. When he is perfectly passive, his own astral spirit may be benumbed, even crowded out of his body, which is occupied by an elemental or what is worse, by a human fiend of the eighth sphere who proceeds to use as his own. Causes of most celebrated crimes is to be sought in such possessions.
Passive mediumship and possessions.
Mediums are possessed by elementals or Elementaries, the latter being the spooks of the evil-minded men who are dead. These latter seek such sensitives and weak-minded people and take possession of their bodies and minds, and drive them to vice and crime. Poor mediums labour under the mistaken notions that they are guided by their “guardian angels.” If they were really so guided by benevolent spirits, then they must answer why, in the history of mediuship, are mediums are allowed by these “guardian angels” to suffer nervous and mental disorders, not given them good health and domestic happiness, why deserted them when they faced trial of practicing fraud, driven them to abnormal vice, and so on.
On the contrary, ancient Apostles and thaumaturgists enjoyed good health, and their magnetism never conveyed to the sick patients, whom they sought to cure, their physical and moral taint, nor were they ever accused of vampirism, like the mediumistic healers are.
How to overcome mediumship ?
If one unfortunately develops mediumship it is difficult to overcome it. But it is not impossible to get over it. Physical mediumship depends upon passivity. The remedy lies in its antidote, that is—to be active in mind and positive in attitude. Let him cease to be passive. Spirits never control persons of positive character who are determined to resist all extraneous influences. The weak and the feeble minded fall victims to these ghoulish entities and are driven into vice.
More discussions follow.
Chapter XIII – Realities and Illusion
Pages : 487- 493
Subject: Mediumship and Mediatorship (continued)
Passive Mediums and active Mediators:
Both of these opposite characters have appeared in all ages. How can we distinguish between them ? By their character and actions, it is answered, as we judge a tree by its fruits.
Character of impure mediums:
They have in them “familiar spirits” who control them. They generally make of their gift a trade. Indian jugglers, African and Asian sorcerers and serpent charmers exercise their gifts for money. They become physically, psychically and morally sick, and reduced to pitiable condition. They are harassed by various intelligences, and their weak and nervous natures are unable to shake off these possessing entities which over-power them. Their disability become chronic and are prevented by these “influences” from undertaking any profession or occupation. They are thus driven to extreme helplessness and are constrained trade their mediumship for money. They are to be pitied, not persecuted.
There are, of course pure and genuine mediums, who are benevolent and do good. The above is not said of these. It is the sickly mediums who are players in séances and dabble with the so-called “spirits of the dead” who suffer.
Not so with Mediators and Hierophants.
Character of Mediators
Buddha was a mendicant who refused his father’s throne. The “Son of Man had not where to lay his head.” Apostles provided “neither gold nor silver, not brass in their purses.” Apollonius gave away one half of his fortune to his relatives and the other half to the poor. Iamblichus and Plotinus were renowned for their charity and self-denial. High character of Fakirs and holy mendicants of India is well described by the French Orientalist, Jacolliot. The Pythagorean Essenes and Therapeutae believed their hands defiled by the contact of money. When Apostles (except Peter, as showed himself a coward and thrice a renegade, according to Gospels) were offered money to impart their spiritual powers, indignantly spurned the offer, saying, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” These men were Mediators, guided merely by their own personal spirit, or divine soul, and availing themselves of the help of the spirits so long as these remain in the right path.
Mediums are controlled by inferior spirits or what are called gods. But Mediators have mastery over themselves and over all inferior potencies which obey their irresistible will. When Plotinus was asked to attend public worship of gods, is said to have proudly answered, “It is for them (the spirits) to come to me. In the Hindu sacred book, The Institutions of Manu, it said that the gods control the worlds, but that the gods are subservient to Mantras (incantations), and that Brahmans know the secret of Mantras, and, therefore, Brahmans exercise power over the gods.
Iamblichus asserted and proved by his own example that our soul can attain communion with the highest intelligences, with “natures loftier than itself,” and drove away every inferior spirit or bad demon from his theurgic ceremonies. He taught his disciples how to recognize them. He and Proclus attained and taught how to attain divine powers, over-power mundane life, rendering oneself an organ of Deity. Jesus declared man the lord of the Sabbath, much like the ancient Indian Rishis declared that Man is Deity himself (That Thou Art),and at his command terrestrial and elementary spirits fled from their temporary abodes. Apollonius and many of the Brotherhood of Essenes of Judea and Mount Carmel exercised divine powers. Upanishad declare man to be non other than Deity itself but is ignorant of it, and can overcome ignorance and realize himself to be God Himself.
Why in ancient times unregulated mediums were persecuted.
There must have been very good reasons. Moses had stringent laws against those who practiced such mediumship. Moses, David, Samuel maintained colleges for teaching their students to develop deific powers in themselves, and encouraged to study prophesy, astrology, soothsaying, but discouraged unregulated mediumship by which witches exercised divination by the spirit of Ob ( Astral Light) The latter were put to death, or exiled from the city walls and driven to tombs and waste places. Why was this ? Why were they not tolerated ? Because the ancients had the discerning power by which they could see the difference between good and evil spirits which possessed the poor witches. They knew well that unregulated intercourse with inferior evil spirits brought ruin on the medium and disaster to the community. This is supported by experience of mankind from time immemorial.
Can one develop powers of mediumship ?
It is a wrong question, as a medium has no powers, and he develops none. How then mediumship develops ? It is developed by a certain moral and physical condition of man which induces emanation, or an aura, in which controlling intelligences can live, and by which they manifest themselves. He will be channel through which they act and display their power. Their aura changes day by day, and hour by hour. The medium’s moral state determines the kind of spirits that are attracted to him, and influence him intellectually, morally and physically.
Mediumship, passivity and possessions
The perfection of mediumship is in ratio to his passivity, and the danger he incurs is equal in degree. When he is perfectly passive, his own astral spirit may be benumbed, even crowded out of his body, which is occupied by an elemental or what is worse, by a human fiend of the eighth sphere who proceeds to use as his own. Causes of most celebrated crimes is to be sought in such possessions.
Passive mediumship and possessions.
Mediums are possessed by elementals or Elementaries, the latter being the spooks of the evil-minded men who are dead. These latter seek such sensitives and weak-minded people and take possession of their bodies and minds, and drive them to vice and crime. Poor mediums labour under the mistaken notions that they are guided by their “guardian angels.” If they were really so guided by benevolent spirits, then they must answer why, in the history of mediuship, are mediums are allowed by these “guardian angels” to suffer nervous and mental disorders, not given them good health and domestic happiness, why deserted them when they faced trial of practicing fraud, driven them to abnormal vice, and so on.
On the contrary, ancient Apostles and thaumaturgists enjoyed good health, and their magnetism never conveyed to the sick patients, whom they sought to cure, their physical and moral taint, nor were they ever accused of vampirism, like the mediumistic healers are.
How to overcome mediumship ?
If one unfortunately develops mediumship it is difficult to overcome it. But it is not impossible to get over it. Physical mediumship depends upon passivity. The remedy lies in its antidote, that is—to be active in mind and positive in attitude. Let him cease to be passive. Spirits never control persons of positive character who are determined to resist all extraneous influences. The weak and the feeble minded fall victims to these ghoulish entities and are driven into vice.
More discussions follow.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Isis Study – Sunday, 28th October 2012
Isis Study – Sunday, 28th October 2012
Summary and discussion
Isis Unveiled, vol. I
Chapter XIII – Realities and Illusion
Pages : 486 – 487
Mediumship and Mediatorship
These two are important truths of ancient psychology. Those who are attracted to the occult and aspire to acquire yogic knowledge and powers—and their number in legion in every country—will do well to understand thoroughly the principles of spiritual psychology and philosophy of Occultism. Whoever ventures headlong into this study and practice without such a thorough knowledge and a thorough grounding in ethics will invariably destroy himself or herself – in the sense that he will either slide into “irresponsible mediumship,” or find himself landed in “Black Magic” which utterly ruin man.
Relevant to the subject under consideration, the first six of the ten propositions of Oriental Psychology are reproduced below (from Isis, vol. II, pp. 587, 588) A familiarity with these axioms are necessary to correctly appreciate the meaning and sense of what follows.
Proposition I :
There is no miracle. Everything that happens is the result of law—eternal, immutable and ever-active. Apparent miracle is due to operation of natural laws nit generally known. There may be laws once “known,” now unknown to science.
Proposition 2 :
Nature in triune : there is a visible, objective nature; and invisible, indwelling, energizing nature, the exact model of the other, and its vital principle; and, above these two, spirit, the source of all forces, alone eternal, and indestructible. The lower two constantly change, the higher third does not.
Proposition 3 :
Man is also triune : he has his objective, physical body; his vitalizing astral body(or soul), the real man; and these two are brooded over and illuminated by the third—the sovereign, the sovereign, the immortal spirit. When the real man succeeds himself with the latter, he becomes an immortal spirit.
Proposition 4 :
Magic, as a science, is the knowledge of these principles, and of the way by which the omniscience and omnipotence of the spirit and its control over nature’s forces may be acquired by the individual while still in the body. Magic, as an art, is the application of this knowledge in practice.
Proposition 5 :
Arcane knowledge misapplied, is sorcery; beneficently used, true magic or WISDOM.
Propositions 6 :
Mediumship is the opposite of adeptship; the medium is the passive instrument of foreign influences, the adept actively controls himself and all inferior potencies.
In the closing part of the previous blog such personages as Jesus, Moses, Paracelsus, Elisha, Apollonius of Tyana exhibited extraordinary knowledge and control over forces of nature that, they were in their days, and even in our times would have been, looked upon as miracles. They revived people apparently dead, produced and filled the air with pests, frogs and other creatures by a knowledge of occult chemistry and exercise of power of their will, animated inanimate statues making them walk and talk like creatures, transformed inanimate rod into serpent and budding branch of a tree, animated mandrogora and produced homunculi and so on.
They were past masters in Magical science and art, some of the principles of which are stated in the foregoing propositions. By Magic is meant Spiritual Wisdom, not the vulgar connotation it has in our day. The basic principle that emerge from a consideration of these propositions is that Man is a Microcosmos, a perfect copy of the great Macrocosmos. All the qualities, faculties, powers and potencies that there are there in the universe is present in man also, such that he is, in fact, a God on earth, there being no other God than man himself. They taught and demonstrated that God-like powers are latent in every man and everyone can develop them to perfection, and become like unto God himself. This is Adeptship.
Great Sages of the Alexandrian school of the 2nd century, such as, Iamblichus, Plotinus, Porphyry etc. were great Adepts and exhibited god-like powers and had risen to super-human sanctity and chastity in their life. Prof. Alexander Wilder, in his work, Doctrines and principles of the Alexandrian School, gives an account of the life and teachings of Plotinus. He taught that there is in the soul a returning impulse, love, which attracted it inward towards its origin and centre, the eternal good, that the soul contains the beautiful within itself, and that the wise man recognizes it and develops it within himself, through laborious discipline and pure aspiration merges his consciousness with the Divine Consciousness in himself and becomes like a god.
“The infinite is not known through reason…but by a faculty superior to reason, by entering upon a state in which the individual, so too speak, ceases to be his finite self, in which state divine essence is communicated to him. This is ECSTASY.” Hindus call it Samadhi. Such is the stature of an Adept, also called Mediators.
Mediatorship
The psychological axioms say that when the real (inner) man succeeds in merging himself with the Spirit, he becomes immortal and partakes of the omniscience and omnipotence of spirit and its control over forces of nature. Such are called Adepts. They have self-mastery and mastery over forces of nature. They transcend time, space and causality, and know past, present and future. Apollonius is known to have this power, and for him the present and future were visible as in a clear mirror. This is called spiritual photography. The soul is the camera in which facts, events, future, past and the present, are alike fixed. This is because of his abstimonious mode of life and purity. This is MEDIATORSHIP, as such an one consciously mediates between this world and the higher planes of existence and causes wondrous phenomena to transpire.
Mediumship
But the above (Mediatorship) is not Mediumship, which is the very antithesis of Adeptship. Mediums are generally sick people and of highly nervous, passive and sensitive nature, who are controlled and moved by forces and influences extraneous to them, over which they have no control. Miscellaneous spirits of all kinds—human, elementary and elemental—use them, and produce various physical and psychological phenomena
There is normal mediumship and abnormal mediumship. All and everyone, for that matter, is a medium, as no one is so impervious to outside influences as not to feel for and sympathise with others. But this is normal mediumship. In the aura of every person external influences can enter, live and move. But if abnormal mediumship is developed outside influences control the medium who becomes a passive instrument of them.
How is mediumship developed ?
It may be self-developed.
The first of the kind may develop in people who for long periods indulge in wrong meditational and yogic practices—“sitting for development,” as they call it—especially in those in which the practitioner resorts to passive mental condition, or, keeping the mind blank. Subjecting oneself to hypnosis renders one weak in will power, weak in mental strength and prone to suggestions of every kind. They fall into mediumship. Attending séances in order to communicate with so-called spirits of the dead lay one open to developing undesirable mediumship.
Kinds of Mediumship
Mediumship is measured by the quality of person’s aura with which the individual is surrounded. It may be dense, cloudy, mephitic, noisme, nauseating to the pure spirit and attract only foul beings who delight in such atmosphere, like eel does in turbid waters. Such mediumship is undesirable and leads to person’s ruin.
In case of pure mediums their aura will be pure, crystalline, limpid, opalescent as the morning dew. All depends on the moral character of the medium.
Mediumship is antagonistic to Adeptship (or Mediatorship)
Such holy men as Ammonius, Iambliches, Plotinus, Porhyry there gathered about them heavenly nimbus. It was evolved by the power of their own souls in close union with their spirits; by the superhuman morality and sanctity of their livcs, aided by frequent interior ecstatch contemplation. Such holy men pure spiritual influences could approach. They radiated an atmosphere of divine beneficence. They caused evil spirits would flee before them, and left the persons whom they were possessing and obsessing and fled when such holy men approached the victims. This is Mediatorship and not Mediumship. Such men are temples in which dwells the spirit of the living God.
If the temple is defiled by admission of an evil thought or desire, the mediator falls into the sphere of sorcery. This is still mediatorship, but of evil sort. Sorcerer forms his own aura and subjects to his will congenial inferior spirits.
Mediatorship and Mediumship both have existed on earth since the appearance of man on earth. Mediumship is yielding of weak mortal flesh to the control and suggestions of spirits and intelligences other than one’s own immortal Daemon. It is literally obsession and possession.
How many crimes have not been committed by individuals whose minds were implanted with the idea of the crime by evil influences from the Astral Light ! Such carry out the deed suggested to them like automatons. Such is the horror of developing undesirable mediumship.
Happy are the pure in heart, who repel unconsciously, by the very cleanness of their inner nature, the dark spirits of evil. They have no other weapons of defence but that inborn goodness and purity. Meidumhip as practiced in our day is more undesirable gift than the robe of Nessus.
The discussion on Mediatorship and Mediumship will be continued in the next week’s study.
--------------------------------------------
Summary and discussion
Isis Unveiled, vol. I
Chapter XIII – Realities and Illusion
Pages : 486 – 487
Mediumship and Mediatorship
These two are important truths of ancient psychology. Those who are attracted to the occult and aspire to acquire yogic knowledge and powers—and their number in legion in every country—will do well to understand thoroughly the principles of spiritual psychology and philosophy of Occultism. Whoever ventures headlong into this study and practice without such a thorough knowledge and a thorough grounding in ethics will invariably destroy himself or herself – in the sense that he will either slide into “irresponsible mediumship,” or find himself landed in “Black Magic” which utterly ruin man.
Relevant to the subject under consideration, the first six of the ten propositions of Oriental Psychology are reproduced below (from Isis, vol. II, pp. 587, 588) A familiarity with these axioms are necessary to correctly appreciate the meaning and sense of what follows.
Proposition I :
There is no miracle. Everything that happens is the result of law—eternal, immutable and ever-active. Apparent miracle is due to operation of natural laws nit generally known. There may be laws once “known,” now unknown to science.
Proposition 2 :
Nature in triune : there is a visible, objective nature; and invisible, indwelling, energizing nature, the exact model of the other, and its vital principle; and, above these two, spirit, the source of all forces, alone eternal, and indestructible. The lower two constantly change, the higher third does not.
Proposition 3 :
Man is also triune : he has his objective, physical body; his vitalizing astral body(or soul), the real man; and these two are brooded over and illuminated by the third—the sovereign, the sovereign, the immortal spirit. When the real man succeeds himself with the latter, he becomes an immortal spirit.
Proposition 4 :
Magic, as a science, is the knowledge of these principles, and of the way by which the omniscience and omnipotence of the spirit and its control over nature’s forces may be acquired by the individual while still in the body. Magic, as an art, is the application of this knowledge in practice.
Proposition 5 :
Arcane knowledge misapplied, is sorcery; beneficently used, true magic or WISDOM.
Propositions 6 :
Mediumship is the opposite of adeptship; the medium is the passive instrument of foreign influences, the adept actively controls himself and all inferior potencies.
In the closing part of the previous blog such personages as Jesus, Moses, Paracelsus, Elisha, Apollonius of Tyana exhibited extraordinary knowledge and control over forces of nature that, they were in their days, and even in our times would have been, looked upon as miracles. They revived people apparently dead, produced and filled the air with pests, frogs and other creatures by a knowledge of occult chemistry and exercise of power of their will, animated inanimate statues making them walk and talk like creatures, transformed inanimate rod into serpent and budding branch of a tree, animated mandrogora and produced homunculi and so on.
They were past masters in Magical science and art, some of the principles of which are stated in the foregoing propositions. By Magic is meant Spiritual Wisdom, not the vulgar connotation it has in our day. The basic principle that emerge from a consideration of these propositions is that Man is a Microcosmos, a perfect copy of the great Macrocosmos. All the qualities, faculties, powers and potencies that there are there in the universe is present in man also, such that he is, in fact, a God on earth, there being no other God than man himself. They taught and demonstrated that God-like powers are latent in every man and everyone can develop them to perfection, and become like unto God himself. This is Adeptship.
Great Sages of the Alexandrian school of the 2nd century, such as, Iamblichus, Plotinus, Porphyry etc. were great Adepts and exhibited god-like powers and had risen to super-human sanctity and chastity in their life. Prof. Alexander Wilder, in his work, Doctrines and principles of the Alexandrian School, gives an account of the life and teachings of Plotinus. He taught that there is in the soul a returning impulse, love, which attracted it inward towards its origin and centre, the eternal good, that the soul contains the beautiful within itself, and that the wise man recognizes it and develops it within himself, through laborious discipline and pure aspiration merges his consciousness with the Divine Consciousness in himself and becomes like a god.
“The infinite is not known through reason…but by a faculty superior to reason, by entering upon a state in which the individual, so too speak, ceases to be his finite self, in which state divine essence is communicated to him. This is ECSTASY.” Hindus call it Samadhi. Such is the stature of an Adept, also called Mediators.
Mediatorship
The psychological axioms say that when the real (inner) man succeeds in merging himself with the Spirit, he becomes immortal and partakes of the omniscience and omnipotence of spirit and its control over forces of nature. Such are called Adepts. They have self-mastery and mastery over forces of nature. They transcend time, space and causality, and know past, present and future. Apollonius is known to have this power, and for him the present and future were visible as in a clear mirror. This is called spiritual photography. The soul is the camera in which facts, events, future, past and the present, are alike fixed. This is because of his abstimonious mode of life and purity. This is MEDIATORSHIP, as such an one consciously mediates between this world and the higher planes of existence and causes wondrous phenomena to transpire.
Mediumship
But the above (Mediatorship) is not Mediumship, which is the very antithesis of Adeptship. Mediums are generally sick people and of highly nervous, passive and sensitive nature, who are controlled and moved by forces and influences extraneous to them, over which they have no control. Miscellaneous spirits of all kinds—human, elementary and elemental—use them, and produce various physical and psychological phenomena
There is normal mediumship and abnormal mediumship. All and everyone, for that matter, is a medium, as no one is so impervious to outside influences as not to feel for and sympathise with others. But this is normal mediumship. In the aura of every person external influences can enter, live and move. But if abnormal mediumship is developed outside influences control the medium who becomes a passive instrument of them.
How is mediumship developed ?
It may be self-developed.
- It may develop by extraneous influences.
- It may be latent throughout life.
The first of the kind may develop in people who for long periods indulge in wrong meditational and yogic practices—“sitting for development,” as they call it—especially in those in which the practitioner resorts to passive mental condition, or, keeping the mind blank. Subjecting oneself to hypnosis renders one weak in will power, weak in mental strength and prone to suggestions of every kind. They fall into mediumship. Attending séances in order to communicate with so-called spirits of the dead lay one open to developing undesirable mediumship.
Kinds of Mediumship
- Positive
- Negative
- Passive
- Active
- Receptive
- Repellent
- Pure
- Impure
Mediumship is measured by the quality of person’s aura with which the individual is surrounded. It may be dense, cloudy, mephitic, noisme, nauseating to the pure spirit and attract only foul beings who delight in such atmosphere, like eel does in turbid waters. Such mediumship is undesirable and leads to person’s ruin.
In case of pure mediums their aura will be pure, crystalline, limpid, opalescent as the morning dew. All depends on the moral character of the medium.
Mediumship is antagonistic to Adeptship (or Mediatorship)
Such holy men as Ammonius, Iambliches, Plotinus, Porhyry there gathered about them heavenly nimbus. It was evolved by the power of their own souls in close union with their spirits; by the superhuman morality and sanctity of their livcs, aided by frequent interior ecstatch contemplation. Such holy men pure spiritual influences could approach. They radiated an atmosphere of divine beneficence. They caused evil spirits would flee before them, and left the persons whom they were possessing and obsessing and fled when such holy men approached the victims. This is Mediatorship and not Mediumship. Such men are temples in which dwells the spirit of the living God.
If the temple is defiled by admission of an evil thought or desire, the mediator falls into the sphere of sorcery. This is still mediatorship, but of evil sort. Sorcerer forms his own aura and subjects to his will congenial inferior spirits.
Mediatorship and Mediumship both have existed on earth since the appearance of man on earth. Mediumship is yielding of weak mortal flesh to the control and suggestions of spirits and intelligences other than one’s own immortal Daemon. It is literally obsession and possession.
How many crimes have not been committed by individuals whose minds were implanted with the idea of the crime by evil influences from the Astral Light ! Such carry out the deed suggested to them like automatons. Such is the horror of developing undesirable mediumship.
Happy are the pure in heart, who repel unconsciously, by the very cleanness of their inner nature, the dark spirits of evil. They have no other weapons of defence but that inborn goodness and purity. Meidumhip as practiced in our day is more undesirable gift than the robe of Nessus.
The discussion on Mediatorship and Mediumship will be continued in the next week’s study.
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