Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00138)

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:37 Perry Coles wrote:

> The drawings in Hodgson's book `The Kingdom of the gods' of "devas"
> seem to be quite anthropomorphic with human type features, fairies
> with wings and gnomes sporting little jackets and boots ect.
>
> My understanding is that nature spirits are vortices of energy and any
> form we may see on them would be purely projection, perhaps.
Yes, I know some people who perceive the devas and nature spirits as 
primarily vortices of energy, and I consider the vortex to be a physical 
form that correlates well with their 4-D or trans-plane reality, whatever 
it is they are operating in at the time.

In my understanding, beings in these realms can readily adopt various forms 
when they decide to be seen by a human. Humans can choose to do that too, 
in those realms. Nature spirits, as Hodson points out in his book "Kingdom 
of the Gods" often do it with human clothing from earlier times in history; 
they pick a thought-form and put it on just for fun or because it gives 
them a buzz. I know a New Zealand clairvoyant, now deceased, who saw 
certain nature spirits dressed in the attire of the Maori - the indigenous 
people of New Zealand.

There may well be some anthropomorphising going on too, in that the human 
seer's brain-mind is likely to find that the image to hand that best fits 
the incoming meaning essence, is a face with eyes. But remember that the 
face itself is a condensation and particularisation of a spiritual 
archetype, like other forms in this world, so the situation is more complex 
and more inter-connected than may first appear.

> Past life readings is another area that can have different occult
> rationale, this could be tapping into astral shells and then risking
> the danger of becoming a passive medium.
Astral shells eventually dissolve, and in the vast majority of cases would 
before the next physical life of a soul, in my understanding, so passive 
mediumship would not be possible with these in the present. There is also 
the Akashic record of all past events, which many can tune into, including 
Hodson. He did an impressive research into the akashic record of fossil 
remnants with a paleontologist in the 1950s to 60s, to determine biological 
features.

It is a significant question, though, whether past life readings - or 
recall of past lives - are of the same soul or due to an identification 
with another soul's past selves. In the past-life and inter-life recall 
work of Michael Newton ("Journey of Souls" etc), I have not seen any cases 
of mistaken identification with another person's time-line or soul history, 
whatever you like to call it. People remember their own past much more 
easily than cross over into somebody else's existence, though the ability 
to consciously identify with another being or object arises on the later 
stages of the Path, known from ancient times in Patanjali's texts on yoga.

There is a growing line of therapy that takes a person into a greater or 
lesser degree of recall or rapport with their own past lives or personal 
selves, and there are many accounts of deep healing that can occur when 
unresolved issues from those lives are brought to conscious attention. This 
work is anything but passive mediumship.

> All I am suggesting here is as `would be' occultists we need to look
> at all the many different explanations, rationale and also possible
> dangers in sensitising ourselves to these psychic realms, with all
> there hazards and dangers.
Yep. Couldn't agree more.

> My understanding is that theosophy tries to develop the spiritual
> nature and then by default the more subtle psychic senses will develop
> more safely by themselves.
That's the sensible way to do it, but at the same time we have to be aware 
that large numbers of people have been born for some time, with subtle 
senses of different kinds already functioning, eg as described in the 
"indigo children". Our brief then, is not to say "put the genie back in the 
bottle", but help them to develop wise and service-oriented uses of those 
abilities. There's a catch, though; they're not likely to take much notice 
of people whose only knowledge of the subject is 2nd hand, from reading books.

> If we try and develop our psychic senses and start really focusing on
> that realm, we may end up over energising it and end up in the nut
> house as has happened many times to people unfortunately.
Yes, unguided or misguided psychic awakening and energies have often 
resulted in this, creating countless lives of enormous suffering. Some have 
just been spontaneous awakenings, not all of them prematurely stirred. 
There's a call here, to educate our psychiatric and medical professions to 
be more awake to and tolerant of these people. There are signs of some 
great developments in these areas, though they have still to hit the 
mainstream.

> I remember hearing many people at the TS say `if only we had a CWL or
> another Geoffrey Hodson' the trouble has been that people with these
> abilities who have become known as being psychics develop a kind of
> following and people tend to then put them up on a pedestal as being
> some kind of authority
Yes, that happened to the point of hysteria in CWL's time, and to a much 
smaller degree with Hodson who, incidentally, hated that stuff.

Best wishes
Murray