The Evolutionary Impulse

In spite of Gopi Krishna's focus on the evolutionary aspects of kundalini, many people ignore the fact kundalini is, first and foremost, an evolutionary mechanism.

What does that mean exactly? Kundalini provides the energy needed to nourish nonstop neuroplastic activity in the brain, which, in turn, fosters cell growth and mutation upgrades.

"Billions of years ago, according to the theory of evolution, chemicals randomly organized themselves into a self-replicating molecule. This spark of life was the seed of every living thing we see today (as well as those we no longer see, like dinosaurs). That simplest life form, through the processes of mutation and natural selection, has been shaped into every living species on the planet."

~ "How Evolution Works" - Marshall Brain, How Stuff Works

We evolved from one-celled organisms into the current form we label homo sapiens. It took a long time, but the process was, and continues to be, ongoing and incessant. Thanks to its role in evolution, kundalini never takes a break.

"The initial response of most people who are unfamiliar with the idea of continued evolution of the human brain is to just dismiss it. This is not because it is illogical, or even improbable, but simply because it is foreign to their way of thinking."
~ Bradford, Michael. Consciousness: The New Paradigm (p. 50). Institute for Consciousness Research. Kindle Edition.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the acceptance of evolution is some people's belief that we have reached an end form, the last and ultimate configuration for our beings. Not so, we are a work in progress:

• It is possible for the DNA of an organism to occasionally change, or mutate. A mutation changes the DNA of an organism in a way that affects its offspring, either immediately or several generations down the line.
• The change brought about by a mutation is either beneficial, harmful or neutral. If the change is harmful, then it is unlikely that the offspring will survive to reproduce, so the mutation dies out and goes nowhere. If the change is beneficial, then it is likely that the offspring will do better than other offspring and so will reproduce more. Through reproduction, the beneficial mutation spreads. The process of culling bad mutations and spreading good mutations is called natural selection.
• As mutations occur and spread over long periods of time, they cause new species to form. Over the course of many millions of years, the processes of mutation and natural selection have created every species of life that we see in the world today, from the simplest bacteria to humans and everything in between.

~ "How Evolution Works" - Marshall Brain, How Stuff Works

Energy is needed to drive this process forward. Over the eons, as mutations occurred, there had to be an energetic outlay to transform each previous iteration of our species into new, improved species.

Where did this energy come from? It came from the same source it still comes from — part of our sexual energy is used for procreation and part for evolutionary purposes. There is, as Gopi Krishna stated, an Evolutionary Impulse that guides and determines how this energy is to be used.

Creating the energy for the regeneration process begins at the cell level:

"An enzyme is a protein that speeds up a particular chemical reaction. For example, one of the 1,000 enzymes in an E. coli's DNA might know how to break a maltose molecule (a simple sugar) into its two glucose molecules. That is all that that particular enzyme can do, but that action is important when an E. coli is eating maltose. Once the maltose is broken into glucose, other enzymes act on the glucose molecules to turn them into energy for the cell to use."

~ "How Evolution Works" - Marshall Brain, How Stuff Works 

It's a complex and intelligent biological process. There's another aspect of this process that's even more problematic for most people — consciousness. How and where does it fit into evolution? If there's an impulse there must be a consciousness that drives it.

Science is trying — without success for the moment — to find an explanation for consciousness. That's because scientists are looking from the outside-in, trying to locate consciousness on the periodic table as if it was a molecule.

"The argument unfolds as follows: physicists have no problem accepting that certain fundamental aspects of reality – such as space, mass, or electrical charge – just do exist. They can’t be explained as being the result of anything else. Explanations have to stop somewhere. The panpsychist hunch is that consciousness could be like that, too – and that if it is, there is no particular reason to assume that it only occurs in certain kinds of matter."
~ "Why can’t the world’s greatest minds solve the mystery of consciousness?" - Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian

So what's with the inside-out approach?

"The first reality we come across is consciousness. The world comes later. We know first ourselves and then the world. So the wiser course is first to understand the knower. What modern thinkers have done is to ignore or bypass the knower, forgetting that it is the knower that is doing it."
~ The Awakening of Kundalini—Gopi Krishna

The "unified field of consciousness from the perspective of neuroscience" compares it to information stored in the cloud as opposed to information stored locally:

"Pim van Lommels take on the unified field of consciousness centres around the concepts of non-locality and interconnectedness:
“'The mind seems to contain everything at once in a timeless and placeless interconnectedness. The information is not encoded in a medium but is stored non-locally as wave functions in nonlocal space, which also means that all information is always and everywhere immediately available.' (van Lommel, p. 224, 244) The implications of this hypothesis challenge dramatically the perception of individual consciousness as something limited and folded upon itself.
“'In this new approach, complete and endless consciousness with retrievable memories has its origins in a nonlocal space in the form of indestructible and not directly observable wave functions. These wave functions, which store all aspects of consciousness in the form of information, are always present in and around the body.
"'The brain and the body merely function as a relay station receiving part of the overall consciousness and part of our memories in our waking consciousness in the form of measurable and constantly changing electromagnetic fields.
In this view, brain function can be seen as a transceiver; the brain does not produce but rather facilitates consciousness.'” (van Lommel, p. 265)

~ "Unified field of consciousness. ONE = MANY" - Van Lommel, Pim. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. HarperOne, London, 2010. as quoted in "Transcendental Meditation."

So, if these notions are to be taken seriously — as is more and more the case — then it is clear that both evolution and biology are expressions of a consciousness that is more extensive than present scientific theory supposes. It is consciousness that provides the energy for continued evolution as well as the impulse to continue to evolve.

Gopi Krishna hit the nail on the head when he coined the term, evolutionary impulse:

"The aim of the evolutionary impulse that is active in the race is to mold the human brain and nervous system to a state of perception where the invisible world of intelligent cosmic forces can be cognizable to every human being."

~ Higher Consciousness and Kundalini - Gopi Krishna

Due Diligence Is The Watchword

Questions about living with the kundalini-life force are specific to each case. Why? Because a lot depends on what triggers kundalini. Applying the wrong method can produce erratic or even harmful results. Moreover, cases of spontaneous kundalini arousal — those induced without using any method at all — can leave the individual confused and wishing he/she never looked into it.

There are many books and webpages devoted to questions and answers in these types of cases. However, the very fact that so many books dealing with the aftermath of questionable practices exist points directly to the issue of having a safe, reliable, repeatable method in the first place. How does one know if a method is reliable? Was the experience voluntary or involuntary? Was it permanent or temporary? Was it painful? And if so, where was the pain located? Was sleep difficult? What about diet? Specifically, what happened? Did it produce the results listed Triggers & Effects? It's important to be able to describe the experience accurately.

Thankfully, by employing a safe, reliable, and repeatable method like GFM, I was able to land safely. Of course, in the direct aftermath of my experience, I had many questions. What were the sensations and phenomena I was observing inside my body? What caused them? What should I eat? Would I be able to sleep soundly? Would my dreams be different? Would I be able to come to terms with the force that had occupied my body? Would it hurt me? Would it force me to do something I didn’t want to do? Could I make it go away? Could it run out of control? What were its capabilities? Would my sexual nature change? Would I be forced into abstinence?

"An ancient adept said: ‘Formerly, every school knew this jewel, only fools did not know it wholly.’ If we reflect on this we see that the ancients attained long life by the help of the seed energy present in their own bodies, and did not lengthen their years by swallowing this or that type of elixir. But the worldly people lost the roots and clung to the treetops."~ The Secret of the Golden Flower – Lu Yen - Richard Wilhelm, Translator

In my experience, the kundalini-life force as activated by GFM is benign. Moreover, GFM results are permanent. The kundalini-life force is with you for the rest of your life; day in, day out, until the day you die, after which, it will merge your essence seamlessly with the energy continuum.

And since practicing GFM is entirely voluntary, you will do so in the full knowledge that the results are permanent; you can’t make them go away. The kundalini-life force is there to help, to restore.

Kundalini is like driving a super-powerful car with many marvelous new features. You're not obligated to drive it at 500 mph or try out the new features all at once; you probably shouldn't...but you can learn to do so gradually. Kundalini will not only teach you to use the additional resources it endows you with, but it will make sure you do so under control, without abusing your powers. Accept and learn from it. It will change your Being and prolong your life.

Is it scary? Can it make mistakes? There are involuntary cases — those awakened without guidance or a method — where the mechanism that controls the energy dosages releases too much or too little. Practitioners using GFM or similar methods don't usually face these situations, at least, I have not encountered any. In all cases dealing with powerful energy cultivation techniques, due diligence is the watchword.

Logos Lux - Part III

A kundalini awakening affects a person's potential as a spiritual human being. The awakened one's consciousness encompasses the entirety of our Solar System and its power. Once consciousness is raised to the cosmic level, the newly developed Spiritual body becomes an antennae to the vibrations — spiritual and mundane — within our Solar System.

To understand how this works you have to think beyond Space and Time as well as the concept of Size. Sure, looking at yourself in the mirror you are tiny in comparison to the Solar System: The average person is only 5'10." But your consciousness is not limited by Size because consciousness is Spirit and is everywhere at the same time, hence it is not limited in any way. And awakening the kundalini means the awakening of consciousness to the Cosmic Level. When your consciousness expands to the size of the Solar System, you receive vibrations from other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy as well as contact with different inhabitants from different planets in the Galaxy.

So the totality of your potential then depends on awakening Kundalini energy. You become antennae for the vibrations around you. By awakening the Spiritual Body, you acquire the powers of the planets in the Solar System. You exist as the center of our Solar System with the Sun in your chest and the planets orbiting around it. The planets are your Higher powers which shape your character and enlarge your morals and ethics.

All polytheistic philosophies and religions give the names of Gods and Goddesses to the planets and "personify" the signs of the zodiac. All polytheistic religions are essentially Hermetic in essence since Hermeticism is the study of our Solar System — the elements, planets, and the zodiac. The Universe and its knowledge is at the core of all religions.

This coincides with the myth of Hermes Trismegistus as the World Teacher who incarnates every 2000 years to teach the world and bring it back in tune with the essence of Hermeticism. Hermeticism is the philosophy and spiritual practice of understanding the Milky Way Galaxy and the Solar System. It encompasses the whole of the Qabalah and the Tree of Life since these universal energies can all be mapped on the Tree of Life. Jesus Christ, although teaching about the monotheistic One God who is Love, also walked around with 12 disciples and called himself the "Son of Man," the offspring of the One God. Symbolically he was the Sun and his 12 disciples represented the 12 zodiac signs. He was said to have been the last incarnation of Hermes whose teachings have shaped the world for 2000 plus years through Christianity.

Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus is said to have originated at the height of Egyptian prominence; sages and adepts from all over the world came to sit at his feet and learn from him. Then they returned to their respective cultures and countries and used his teachings to establish the religions that have Hermetic teachings and precepts at their core. Their Gods and Goddesses are attributed to the energies of the planets as well as the zodiac. Only after Christianity was established did the polytheistic veil drop and monotheistic religions arise, Islam being one of them.

Yes, there is a Source from which you came which is the number One, and the One God which is said to be Unconditional Love. In reality you cannot know the One God; you can only know Him/Her through the many Gods, hence the reason polytheistic religions were the first religions and offered a more elaborate understanding of the Creator through the different aspects of its Creation.

Monotheistic religions are confusing and teach ignorance to people since they took away focus from its Universal and natural component, the Solar System in which we live. Christianity has taken away the duality component and has proclaimed that God is Love and nothing more, giving rise to many meek and weak-willed people who let others do their thinking for them. This forgiveness without repercussions aspect has been used to dumb down the masses while those in power reign supreme. 

Jesus taught love. However, metaphorically he brandished a sword and was severe when necessary. What did he do when he walked into the Holy Temple and saw it was being used by merchants? He threw their tables on the ground in a furious fit. Every action yields an equal and opposite reaction. If this Law is not respected, then the balance will not be struck and problems will ensue.

Jesus' teachings have been misinterpreted by the Christian masses: responsibility for one's life and the lives of others have been replaced by forgiveness and repentance. You have to stand up for what is right and be severe when needed. What does a mother do to protect her child if it's in danger? Anything and everything in her power to counteract the threat. Nevertheless, the true teachings are reemerging; the world is undergoing a revival of Hermetic philosophy. Qabalah has become more popular over time and the veil of secrecy over mystery schools has fallen away with the advent of the Internet and its widespread use.

Since it is the driver of human evolution, kundalini energy must be investigated and normalized. The origin of the word "kundalini" as well as the use of yoga to awaken it are part of the Hindu tradition. The traditions of every nation, country, and culture have evolved from their respective placement on Earth. Life in India and life in North America are vastly different.

Kundalini energy in North America needs to develop its own usages and practices, separate from its Hindu roots. This energy is the force behind human evolution. How it works and operates in a given country and culture needs to be understood. Only then can we adapt its use to our respective cultures and traditions. Although kundalini induces the same effects, irregardless of culture, language, social norms, or geography, it is necessarily associated with religion in Eastern countries. In the West, it may need to take on a more scientific identity, for the very reason that Westerners are more apt to "understand and appreciate" subjects like kundalini if they are tied to the scientific method.

The kundalini energy is best understood through the Caduceus symbol which is carried by Hermes himself and has been around for thousands of years. The Caduceus has two snakes entwined around a central staff terminating in a winged disk with each snake's head facing it. They intersect with each other at six points, which represent the six Chakras and terminate in the Crown, where the winged disk represents enlightenment.

The Caduceus and the Chakras

The two snakes are the Ida and Pingala nadis, the carriers of the cold and hot currents in the body. The central staff is Sushumna through which the Kundalini energy passes. The energy rises from the bottom upwards through the spinal column and is accompanied by a hissing vibratory sound heard in the head as this is happening. This is why the kundalini energy has been described as a snake and the snake symbolism in all cultures when referring to this energy.

How does the kundalini operate? What is the timeline for the various effects that occur over time after an awakening? How does one handle the pitfalls that accompany an awakening? These are questions which are best answered through description and proper analysis and through logic and reason, to which, Hermeticism offers many keys.

Logic and Reason

Attributes of the planet Mercury, otherwise known as Hermes in Greek. The same Hermes who was named after Hermes Trismegistus, the carrier of the Caduceus staff, and original guide to awakening kundalini — the Serpent Power energy. Logic and Reason are the building blocks of intuition and its corollaries. We intuitively know the Truth of ontology. And by accepting this Truth, we build our logic and reason.

And we use logic and reason to understand each other and to communicate with each other when talking about different Truths. You see, Hermeticism is at the core of existence because it exists as a result of logic and reason in humans. And the kundalini energy is best studied through Hermeticism because only through logic and reason can we deduce what it is and how it works.

Kundalini is a Fire, but after a long period of burning away the dross and negative energies stored in the Chakras, it becomes liquid Spirit, akin to the Element of Mercury in nature. This is why the Alchemists, the Hermeticists, termed Philosophical Mercury the highest of the Elements, the Spirit. This change occurs after many years of purging of the negative energy through the use of the Kundalini Fire.

We are at the forefront in discovering how to study and describe kundalini energy. There needs to be a turning away from the conventional wisdom on kundalini; minds must embrace new ideas and approaches in studying this evolutionary energy.

Hermeticism is the core of all religions; the caduceus of Hermes, the first visual example of the kundalini energy, symbolizes healing for medical professions worldwide. Open your mind to Hermeticism and its power. Learn more about it and its many aspects such as the Qabalah, Tarot, Astrology and other subjects termed "esoteric" by modern day society. In it, you will find the keys you have been looking for and an understanding that revolutionizes not only how we perceive kundalini energy but also how it works.

Read Part 1
Read Part 2

What Is Self-Realization?

Along with enlightenment and spiritual awakening, self-realization sounds like an unattainable, if not undefinable state of being. One website makes the following distinctions:

“A definition of spiritual enlightenment or spiritual awakening is hard to pin down. This is, in part, because 'spiritual enlightenment' and 'spiritual awakening' have been used in so many ways to describe so many things, similar to the way in which 'love' is used to describe everything from a preference for ice cream to a merging with everything. And it is also because spiritual enlightenment and spiritual awakening are such rich and complex experiences that they are innately hard to define.

“Some definitions are very specific and narrow. One such definition for spiritual enlightenment is the complete dissolution of one's identity as a separate self with no trace of the egoic mind remaining. This sets the bar very high and means that very few people qualify as enlightened.

“The opposite approach is to say that everyone is enlightened, that there is only awake consciousness. In this view, it's only a question of whether this natural awakeness has been recognized or not. Of course, when a word describes everything or everyone, it loses some of its usefulness. If everyone is enlightened, then why even talk about it? 

~ What Is Spiritual Enlightenment or Spiritual Awakening? 

By the first definition, most Westerners claiming to be enlightened would be scorned as a braggart because in the end there’s no objective way of proving the person is or is not. In the West we measure everything quantitatively, by a series of criteria, which, once passed, automatically confers a rank or title. Like Ph.D or MD.

As a kind of spoof to upper class imperiousness, we also accept that a celebrity bearing a title has every right to. Was Duke Ellington really a duke? Or LeBron James really a king? Queen Latifah really a queen? Does it matter? We take things like this with a grain of salt, but we don’t play around with academic rank. Claiming the title of enlightenment would appear to be a serious matter, yet there are no criteria. No board of governors to examine candidates. Yet, some are universally considered “enlightened.” Did they acquire the title by general approbation and word-of-mouth? In the East they have long-standing traditions for recognizing the qualities associated with self-realization; we, in the West, do not. So how does a Westerner earn the title? I would think someone claiming the title would need solid grounds to claim such ineffable status. 

And therein lies the irony. The spiritually inclined among us begin a quest whose ultimate aim is self-realization or enlightenment, only to discover that what they are searching for is undefinable and unattainable.

If they’re smart, they settle for something else, some incremental state of being, a shock to the Ego perhaps, brought on by meditation, through which, over time, makes one more aware of the non-dualistic nature of existence. Is that enough? It is for me: I’m okay with living for forty years with kundalini. I'm okay with the opportunities it’s given me to know and heal myself. Self-realization is incremental, at least, it has been for me — presenting me with a series of opportunities to delve deeper into my being, to deal with blockages, negative emotion, and egoic distortions.

Self-realization isn’t a status symbol; it’s a process. Although disciples may consider a teacher to be "realized," the truly enlightened person would never make such a claim. In the end rank and titles don't matter.

“My sense of kundalini is it’s your life force. It carries consciousness. It moves through the body in ways that both clear out old patterns and transform the heart energy, transforms the throat energy, transforms the brain so that there’s a dramatic shift in how we’re identified. For me, a spiritual awakening is a shift in identification out of our old created conditioned self into a sense that we are an energy, or a consciousness, that is universally connected.That here’s one consciousness moving through all of us. We get a glimpse of that.”

~ Bonnie Greenwell

Another colleague, Corinne Lebrun, uses a clever metaphor to explain kundalini and self-realization. She says that normal people are like a piano with only three octaves. When kundalini rises, by whatever means, suddenly the person is a piano with eight octaves. Whether or not the person takes advantage of, learns from experimenting with the additional notes, is up to him/her.

Kundalini supplies the opportunities — infinite in number and discernment — you must decide which path to travel and how far you are willing to go. If you want to call yourself King, Duke, or Queen, so be it. If you want to call yourself “enlightened,” you may be missing the point.

The Secret Power of Kundalini and its Effect on Human Evolution

At the base of the spine is a power,

A gland, a source of pleasure

That when aroused sends its fluid to the brain,

Ecstatically releasing its treasure.

Its essence, its medicine if you will,

Transforms the nervous system,

Stimulating growth and expanding awareness,

Creating genius and prophetic vision.

This new evolutionary mechanism

Pushes humanity ahead –

Jesus, Mohammed, and Moses,

Rumi, Lao-tse, the Book of the Dead;

Leonardo, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh,

Einstein, Tesla, and Newton;

All geniuses down through time,

Advancing human evolution.

The secret of all this is kundalini,

Known in Mexico as Quetzalcoatl,

The feathered serpent of the Aztecs

In the ancient language of Nahuatl,

The serpent of wisdom in Egypt,

The dragon of heaven in Asia,

Found in Persia, Greece, and Ireland,

Though the modern world has amnesia.

“Many are called but few are chosen,”

So says the ancient saying,

As adepts seeking spiritual liberation

Use the power of service, meditation, and praying.

It is said that kundalini guides human evolution.

It is posited that a new sense is revealed,

A spiritual mystical intelligence,

A psychic awareness unsealed.

Can a global effort be marshaled?

Can scientists and priests come together?

Can modern civilization

Master this science as it masters the weather?

The comprehension of this spiritual phenomenon

Could help blend the world’s religions into one,

Ceasing the ecumenical separatism

That threatens to blow our world to kingdom come.

NBS

Prescott

9/5/2017

Logos Lux - Part II

Our Solar System consists of the Sun and the seven planets orbiting around it. In the recent past, we've discovered two more planets — Pluto and Neptune so we now have nine planets, including our Moon which was counted as a planet by the Ancients. According to the Qabalah, we derive the totality of our cosmological powers as human beings on Planet Earth from the Solar System. These powers include our Higher Selves: each planet emanates a power that governs the different facets of our personalities and characters as well as our destinies.

The Qabalistic Tree of Life

The Moon regulates our Emotions. Our emotions work through the water in the body which make up 60% of our physical Selves. On a spiritual level, it effects the second Chakra, Swadsthihana, which is elementally the Water Chakra. But the action of the Moon includes Air as well as Water since it's the Air that moves the Water. Air is Thought which precedes Emotion. The Moon also regulates the tides of the seas and oceans. The Moon fluctuates in a back and forth action, best described as the movement of the pendulum. This same pendulum movement manifests itself in our emotions as well, since we constantly oscillate between opposites. Love and hate, big and small, up and down. The Moon governs duality which takes place in our minds and affects how we feel.

Mercury governs our Intellect, how we think, as well as our thoughts and the speed of thought. This is why Mercury, or Hermes, is always portrayed with winged shoes, thereby describing metaphorically his speed and movement as he is the actual Thought inside of us. In Egypt, he is given the name Thoth, which is the origin of the word Thought. Our logic as well as our reason is governed by Mercury. Mercury is balanced by the Moon, which metaphorically means that our logic is governed by our emotions and powered by our thoughts. Let those with ears of understanding hear this Ancient mystery. Thought is at the basis of all existence.

Venus governs love and desire. It is a fiery planet, but not the same fire as Mars, which is a raging fire. The fire of Venus is calmer and more of the nature of desires, especially of the sexual kind. It is the fire of emotions. It has an intuitive element to it since desires come from somewhere deep down in our subconscious. Venus is also connected to the Moon in that sense since desire manifests itself through the emotions. The impulse to seek romantic love and find a lifelong mate is an aspect of Venus. A big part of romantic love is sexual desire and while sexuality is more linked to the Moon since it's a more basic emotion that manifests itself as lust, lust can become love over a period of time. Love is an expression of the universal love and is unconditional, while lust is a base emotion relating to the physical body and its satisfaction.

Mars powers drive, ambition and competition in us. Its fire is very masculine and active, as the fire of Venus is feminine and passive. Since Mars is the Willpower, it needs a push from another planet since the Will has to be moved by something. And that something is Jupiter, since Jupiter is Unconditional Love. Love moves Will, but Will is also moved by the Intellect of Mercury since on the Tree of Life there is a path connecting each element. When Willpower is moved by Intellect, it's caused by the Ego or Lower Self. When it's moved by Unconditional Love, the action is pure and of the Higher Self. Too much Mars energy without the moderating influence of intellect or Unconditional Love results in anger, as this energy is just raw force with no guiding element.

Human Being as Center of Solar System

Jupiter is the mercy as Mars is the severity in us. Jupiter is unconditional love and stems from the higher aspect of the higher Water element as Mars is the higher Fire. They balance each other since Mars needs to fight for something as it's his nature to fight, and he fights for love. Venus is the lower Fire element and the the Moon is the lower Water element.

Keep in mind that the Water and Fire elements make up the hexagram or star of David. This is the symbol of the perfected human. When these two elements are in balance. It is our duty as human beings to learn to balance our Fire and Water elements throughout our lives. The Elements manifest through the planets. Lower Fire is the Intellect, higher Fire is the Willpower. Lower Water is the desire while higher Water is Unconditional love.

To break it down further, Fire acting through the Spiritual Self is Willpower which acts in the name of Love. When it manifests in the intellect its the Ego. Since the intellect is based on rationalizing according to what it has seen in the past, it belongs to duality since past acts attempt to calculate future outcomes. Only acts of love are in the present, in the now. This is where we seek to be. In the now. Water is emotion and is passive, it is involuntary. Water in the Spiritual Self is Love, while in the Ego it is lust. These are all aspects of the Self.

All polytheistic religions and philosophies use the planets to describe the different aspects of the Self. They personify the Planets, calling them Gods and Goddesses, in order to help us understand our own makeup and the forces acting on our characters and personalities. Monotheistic religions only refer to the One God and abolish the Many Gods. Yes, there is the One God behind all of existence. But since that One God is incomprehensible and immutable and cannot be known or reached by the humans as presently constituted, the Ancient religions and philosophies didn't bother trying to understand the One God. Yet, they used the Universe around us, and more particularly our Solar System, to better describe "how" the One God manifests inside and outside of us.

Saturn, the biggest planet of them all, regulates and governs time, old age, restriction, and society. It is closely connected to the Moon since its revolution is 28 years while the Moon's is 28 days. Saturn is therefore Karma on a grand scale as well as Materialism. It is of the Air element. The Air element encompasses Saturn and most importantly the Sun. But as stated above, Air is also found in the Moon since Thoughts precede and move emotions. Once again, Air is thought.

Obviously, the Sun is most important since it regulates Light and it brings forth Light into our Solar System. The Moon is the reflector of this Light, and it acts on us during the night when the Sun is illuminating the other side of the planet. The Moon is therefore the reflection of the Light, but not the Light itself. The Sun is Truth while the Moon is Illusion. Humans are influenced by both and it is our job to walk in Truth and discern Illusion as best we can.

What is Soul is a central question of all religions. The answer can be found by probing the cosmological role of the Sun and its relation to human ontology. Qabalistically, the Sun is called Sol, pronounced like the word Soul | sōl |,which again is related to the Soles of our feet which we use to walk on Planet Earth — a connection between Sol and the Soul which, upon closer inspection, we realize that one is basically the other.

The Soul is a Fire, it is Light, a spark within us, our center, our core. It resides in the Solar Plexus and has a direct connection to the Heart Chakra above it, between the breasts. It is Light and Fire and is said to be eternal and everliving. Hence we conclude that the Soul originates directly from the Sun. Better yet, using the Qabalistic and Hermetic framework, we understand that the Soul is the Sun itself. Maybe not in its totality, but in quality. It is a part of it and belongs to it. They are one and the same.

Jesus Christ as the Light of the World

Jesus Christ, the so-called Light of the World, preached Unconditional Love and gave his life for all of humanity because he loved us. Jesus was called the World Sun, he was the World Soul, and following him were the 12 disciples. The 12 disciples are synonymous with the 12 Zodiac entities. This mythos was present also in other religions and spiritual philosophies that centered on the Sun and the 12 Zodiac entities. In essence, it is very Hermetic. The Sun gives forth the Son, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. Notice that the word Son, the offspring, carries the same pronunciation as the word Sun.

This philosophy proposes that each of us is the Sun itself and that orbiting around us are the nine planets and the fixed 12 zodiac entities representing the totality of the Milky Way galaxy and the energies contained therein.

To be continued in Part III...
Read Part I

Higher Consciousness And Kundalini

This is a complicated issue, both the consciousness and the kundalini parts, separate and indivisible.

Pyramid of Consciousness

Just thinking about it got my head spinning, which led to more questions than answers:

• If there's such a state as higher consciousness, does lower consciousness also exist?
• How do higher and lower consciousness relate to each other?
• Is consciousness — higher or lower and all states in-between — relative or absolute?
• Are the various levels of consciousness definable by various manifestations?
• Is Enlightenment the highest state of  consciousness?
• Is Enlightenment an absolute state or is it relative?
• Relative to what?
• How does kundalini affect consciousness?
• What if both relative consciousness and absolute consciousness exist?

So I started a list (don't we in the West always resort to a list?) of what attributes and qualities might constitute higher consciousness.

Manifestations Of Higher Consciousness
1) talents/powers/gifts

sudden acquisition of:

• language
• musical ability
• art/photography abilities
• writing ability
• math ability
• healing ability (oneself or others)
• prescience
• clairvoyance

2) realizations

• oneness
• no death
• a purposeful life
• all violence is self-hate
• part of an energy continuum
• there is a pre-conception design for the body
• renunciation of material objects

3) sensitivities, aversions to

• diet – meat, etc.
• alcohol, cigarettes
• drugs
• electro-magnetic energy
• noise
• harsh sunlight
• prescription medicines

4) states and conditions

• visions
• out of body experiences
• revelations (as opposed to realizations: more micro than macro, for example, the imminent death of a friend)
• invisibility, astral travel

It's a long laundry list of superhuman attributes and abilities. Whether one individual can manifest all of them, I don't know, but I would imagine it's more like a smorgasbord, not one YOU choose from, but one that confers the requisite assortment on you, according to your personality, character, karma, and level of attainment.

So if higher consciousness annointees manifest an assortment of the above, you can imagine the opposite end of the spectrum and the types of attributes the members of the lower consciousness group manifest. I won't elaborate; news blogs and journals are full of examples of the lowest common denominator behavior some human beings are capable of.

Can a person be more or less enlightened or is there nothing in between the state of complete enlightenment and the state of being completely unenlightened, i.e., an individual that spiritual teachers describe as being under the control of dualistic mind/emotion paradigm?

According to Osho, enlightenment does exist, but because of the variance among individuals, people not only come at it from different starting points, they also exhibit different states of attainment, a statement that gives credence to the notion that higher consciousness is relative, not absolute.

I see it as a process. Whether the result is full or partial enlightenment — because we inhabit bodies — there is always work to do. And that's why it is not a battle between information on consciousness and consciousness itself. Labels don’t matter; polemics don’t matter. What matters is how you manage the process on a daily basis.

I can see my process in my mind’s eye. When I look back at my life, a stranger stares back at me. This is not uncommon. In this work, life isn’t a straight line progression; it’s a series of leaps and plateaux. Whether you’re a reformed prisoner or a spiritual seeker, you probably identify with having experienced the unbearable feeling of being lost, followed by wondering if change was possible. That’s the first step. Seeing the person you once were in the rearview mirror and wondering how you were ever that way, I not only look back at one instance of my Being, but at several, shaking my head in wonderment at the various ‘me’s — even some that appeared after kundalini rising. At first, I thought I had achieved something. Like the priest who graduates from the seminary, I was unable to resist the propaganda my ego fed me about being spiritually fast-tracked.

Whether or not I am any nearer to enlightenment now than I was forty years ago, I do not know. Before I activated kundalini, I was a tangle of lost perspectives and jumbled thinking. And yet, back then, even as a preteen, I knew an ultimate being existed in me and that I could self-actualize. My childish consciousness envisaged such a transformation.

As a child, I felt capable of doing things without my knowing I was doing them…as an instrument of consciousness. Sadly, as I grew older, I put these notions or insights away and, for a while, I followed the conditioning of my social surroundings. Later, after much discomfort and failure, I came back to my early insights and thus enabled kundalini. It allowed me to step outside the mind and emotional patterns that had so long controlled me. I felt very close to the insights I’d had as a child. I began to see that even under the influence and control of the ego, I’d had moments of clairvoyance all along, spurred on, I suppose, by what Gopi Krishna called the evolutionary impulse. And I was able to learn from a series of life lessons.

Lesson One: In the hospital at age 21, I had an out-of-body experience. This confirmed that I was more than my physical body.

I can see it in my mind’s eye at any moment: a superior being, physically, mentally, and psychically capable of full consciousness. And when I see this being, I am enveloped in a mindfulness that puts everything into the simplest nonverbal terms. I vibrate at a higher frequency, sure in the realization that this state is attainable by me and by anyone else.

So how do you become enlightened? By putting your life on hold and going after it, sampling one method or following one guru after another? Or by letting it come to you? Does thinking about enlightenment in an intuitive dream state mean it exists?

I wasn’t trying to raise kundalini; in fact, I had never even heard of it. I was only trying to improve my breathing to help me play a wind instrument. Kundalini found me. And once it found me, it started to act on me, first physically, then in other ways, completely overhauling my Being. Kundalini changed my metabolism, my anatomy, my soma, my psyche, my morphology, my emotional states, and my psychic condition. And as time went on, I realized it had a evolutionary purpose: It was trying to perfect me.

Lesson Two: Kundalini has taught me is that humans are perfectable. We can be transformed; we can perfect ourselves. Nevertheless, I see this perfectability as a process and therefore it is relative, not absolute. If it was absolute, it wouldn’t be a process; it would happen all at once. And maybe it does for some, but that is a different story.

Lesson Three: Having activated kundalini, I see reincarnation as an actuality. If that's true, there must exist, subsequent to this present mortality, a kind of firefly of essence that carries the accumulated energy of previous lifetimes to the next incarnation — a spark of consciousness that's never extinguished.

My colleague, Corinne Lebrun, uses a wonderful analogy to compare the attributes of average human consciousness to a piano with three octaves. Once kundalini is awakened, the deficient piano becomes an instrument of eight octaves. It's not possible for the initiate to avail himself of all eight octaves immediately, but at least — unlike in his previous limited state — he now knows those extra octaves exist. Over time, he learns to incorporate the now greater range of his instrument into the symphony of his life. Yes, life is like a symphony:

• 1st movement: Allegro
• 2nd movement: Slow
• 3rd movement: Minuet
• 4th movement: Allegro

It ends up as it starts out, unless those additional octaves are awakened.

Hopefully, some manifestations of higher consciousness fall into his lap, like when a pianist creates an improvisation never before attempted; some demand further practice.

And he ends up with a potpourri of talents, powers, gifts, realizations, sensitivities, conditions heretofore unimaginable, allowing him to attain his predestined level on the pyramid of consciousness.

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