In this article, William
Judge warns esotericists about the charm of perceiving astral phenomena, but
which unfortunately also divert seekers from the true path that leads to the
Divine.
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!
(Path, October 1887, p.206-8, Echoes I, p.49-51)
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