Theos-Talk Archives (July 2005 Message tt00224)

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Dear Reed:

Try Judge's  

 
ASTRAL INTOXICATION

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 remove 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 ascertain-able 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 light; 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 seems 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!
 
Path, October, 1887

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Also:

TRUE PROGRESS: 

IS IT AIDED BY WATCHING THE ASTRAL LIGHT?


 
PERHAPS those who have engaged in discussions about whether it is more
advisable to become acquainted with the Astral Plane and to see therein than
to study the metaphysics and ethics of theosophy, may be aided by the
experience of a fellow student. 

For several years I studied about and experimented on the Astral Light to
the end that I might, if possible, develop the power to look therein and see
those marvelous pictures of that place which tempt the observer. But
although in some degrees success followed my efforts so far as seeing these
strange things was concerned, I found no increase of knowledge as to the
manner in which the pictures were made visible, nor as to the sources from
which they arose. A great many facts were in my possession, but the more I
accumulated the farther away from perception seemed the law governing them.
I turned to a teacher and he said:

"Beware of the illusions of matter."

"But," said I, "is this matter into which I gaze?"

"Yes; and of grosser sort than that which composes your body; full of
illusions, swarming with beings inimical to progress, and crowded with the
thoughts of all the wicked who have lived." 

"How," replied I, "am I to know aught about it unless I investigate it?"

"It will be time enough to do that when you shall have been equipped
properly for the exploration. He who ventures into a strange country
unprovided with needful supplies, without a compass and unfamiliar with the
habits of the people, is in danger. Examine and see." 

Left thus to myself, I sought those who had dabbled in the Astral Light, who
were accustomed to seeing the pictures therein every day, and asked them to
explain. Not one had any theory, any philosophical basis. All were confused
and at variance each with the other. Nearly all, too, were in hopeless
ignorance as to other and vital questions. 

None were self-contained or dispassionate; moved by contrary winds of
desire, each one appeared abnormal; for, while in possession of the power to
see or hear in the Astral Light, there were unregulated in all other
departments of their being. Still more, they seemed to be in a degree
intoxicated with the strangeness of the power, for it placed them in that
respect above other persons, yet in practical affairs left them without any
ability. 

Examining more closely, I found that all these "seers" were but
half-seers-and hardly even that. One could hear astral sounds but could not
see astral sights; another saw pictures, but no sound or smell was there;
still others saw symbols only, and each derided the special power of the
other. 

Turning even to the great Emanuel Swedenborg, I found a seer of wonderful
power, but whose constitution made him see in the Astral world a series of
pictures which were solely an extension of his own inherited beliefs. And
although he had had a few visions of actual everyday affairs occurring at a
distance, there were so few as only to be remarkable. 

One danger warned against by the teacher was then plainly evident. It was
the danger of becoming confused and clouded in mind by the recurrence of
pictures which had no salutary effect so far as experience went. So again I
sought the teacher and asked:

"Has the Astral Light no power to teach, and, if not, why is it thus? And
are there other dangers than what I have discovered?"

"No power whatever has the astral plane, in itself, to teach you. It
contains the impressions made by men in their ignorance and folly. Unable to
arouse the true thoughts, they continue to infect that light with the virus
of their unguided lives. 

And you, or any other seer, looking therein will warp and distort all that
you find there. It will present to you pictures that partake largely of your
own constitutional habits, weaknesses, and peculiarities. Thus you only see
a distorted or exaggerated copy of yourself. It will never teach you the
reason of things, for it knows them not. 

"But stranger dangers than any you have met are there when one goes further
on. 

The Dweller Of The Threshold is there, made up of all the evil that man has
done. None can escape its approach, and he who is not prepared is in danger
of death, of despair, or of moral ruin. 

Devote yourself, therefore, to spiritual aspiration and to true devotion,
which will be a means for you to learn the causes that operate in nature,
how they work, and what each one works upon."

I then devoted myself as he had directed, and discovered that a
philosophical basis, once acquired, showed clearly how to arrive at
dispassion and made exercise therein easy. 

It even enables me to clear up the thousand doubts that assail those others
who are peering into the Astral Light. They compelled the disciple to abjure
all occult practices until such time as he had laid a sure foundation of
logic, philosophy, and ethics; and only then was he permitted to go further
in that strange country from which many an unprepared explorer has returned
bereft of truth and sometimes despoiled of reason. 

Further, I know that the Masters of the Theosophical Society have written
these words: 

"Let the Theosophical Society flourish through moral worth and philosophy,
and give up the pursuit of phenomena." 

Shall we be greater than They, and ignorantly set the pace upon the path
that leads to ruin?

BRYAN KINNAVAN	PATH, July, 1890 
 
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I hope these directions are what you want,

Dal

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Saturday, July 30, 2005

Reed to Dallas:
 
I am requesting your help. It seems to me there is some passage from Judge
on the need to control the visual input that we receive and to restrict the
undesirable images. All this for occult reasons.
 
But I do not know where that is. Do you remember such a passage? Could you
find it?
 
Thanks.
 
Reed