Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tt00446)

 ASTRAL INTOXICATION

 William Q. Judge

 There is such a thing as being intoxicated in the course of an
unwise pursuit of what we erroneously imagine is spirituality. In
the Christian Bible it is very wisely directed to "prove all" and
to hold only to that which is good; this advice is just as
important to the student of occultism who thinks that he has
separated himself from those "inferior" people engaged either in
following a dogma or in tipping tables for messages from deceased
relatives -- or enemies -- as it is to spiritists who believe in
the "summerland" and "returning spirits."

 The placid surface of the sea of spirit is the only mirror in
which can be caught undisturbed the reflections of spiritual
things. When a student starts upon the path and begins to see
spots of light flash out now and then, or balls of golden fire roll
past him, it does not mean that he is beginning to see the real
Self -- pure spirit. A moment of deepest peace or wonderful
revealings given to the student, is *not* the awful moment when one
is about to see his spiritual guide, much less his own soul. Nor
are psychical splashes of blue flame, nor visions of things that
afterwards come to pass, nor sights of small sections of the astral
light with its wonderful photographs of past or future, nor the
sudden ringing of distant fairy-like bells, any proof that you are
cultivating spirituality. These things, and still more curious
things, will occur when you have passed a little distance on the
way, but they are only the mere outposts of a new land which is
itself wholly material, and only one removed from the plane of
gross physical consciousness.

 The liability to be carried off and intoxicated by these
phenomena is to be guarded against. We should watch, note and
discriminate in all these cases; place them down for future
reference, to be related to some law, or for comparison with other
circumstances of a like sort. The power that Nature has of
deluding us is endless, and if we stop at these matters she will
let us go no further. It is not that any person or power in nature
has declared that if we do so and so we must stop, but when one is
carried off by what Boehme calls "God's wonders," the result is an
intoxication that produces confusion of the intellect. Were one,
for instance, to regard every picture seen in the astral light as
a spiritual experience, he might truly after a while brook no
contradiction upon the subject, but that would be merely because he
was drunk with this kind of wine. While he proceeded with his
indulgence and neglected his true progress, which is always
dependent upon his purity of motive and conquest of his known or
ascertainable defects, nature went on accumulating the store of
illusory appearances with which he satiated himself.

 It is certain that any student who devotes himself to these
astral happenings will see them increase. But were our whole life
devoted to and rewarded by an enormous succession of phenomena, it
is also equally certain that the casting off of the body would be
the end of all that sort of experience, without our having added
really anything to our stock of true knowledge.

 The astral plane, which is the same as that of our psychic
senses, is as full of strange sights and sounds as an untrodden
South American forest, and has to be well understood before the
student can stay there long without danger. While we can overcome
the dangers of a forest by the use of human inventions, whose
entire object is the physical destruction of the noxious things
encountered there, we have no such aids when treading the astral
labyrinth. We may be physically brave and say that no fear can
enter into us, but no untrained or merely curious seeker is able to
say just what effect will result to his outer senses from the
attack or influence encountered by the psychical senses.

 And the person who revolves selfishly around himself as a
center is in greater danger of delusion than any one else, for he
has not the assistance that comes from being united in thought with
all other sincere seekers. One may stand in a dark house where
none of the objects can be distinguished and quite plainly see all
that is illuminated outside; in the same way we can see from out of
the blackness of our own house -- our hearts -- the objects now and
then illuminated outside by the astral lights; but we gain nothing.
We must first dispel the *inner* darkness before trying to see into
the darkness without; we must *know ourselves* before knowing
things extraneous to ourselves.

 This is not the road that seem easiest to students. Most of
them find it far pleasanter and as they think faster, work, to look
on all these outside allurements, and to cultivate all psychic
senses, to the exclusion of real spiritual work.

 The true road is plain and easy to find, it is so easy that
very many would-be students miss it because they cannot believe it
to be so simple.

 "The way lies through the heart";
 Ask there and wander not;
 Knock loud, nor hesitate
 Because at first the sounds
 Reverberating, seem to mock thee.
 Nor, when the door swings wide,
 Revealing shadows black as night,
 Must thou recoil.
 Within, the Master's messengers
 Have waited patiently:
 That Master is Thyself!

[~Echoes of the Orient~ 1, 45-47; ~Theosophical Articles~ 1, 359]
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--
Nicholas <> am455@lafn.org <> Los Angeles
 With a disposition to forget our selfish selves, and to live for
 others,... to do our full duty to our mission in life, then we shall be
 living the occult life. Katherine Tingley