In Graham Hancock's book Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization, he concluded that the Ice Age civilization that ended around 10,500 B.C. passed on not only a knowledge of astronomy and precession, related to the cyclic catastrophe that ended the Ice Age, but also a "science of immortality". This was a technology of the soul, in which techniques acquired over a millennia of study and experimentation could be used in ways to preserve consciousness beyond the veil of death. Hancock says the knowledge was passed down through secret societies, and traces can be found in the Gnostic writings at Nag Hammadi.
In Gnostic versions of the Genesis myth, the forbidden fruit gives knowledge of light and darkness. the Tree of Knowledge can easily be seen as some sort of hallucinogenic plant that made those who had eaten it aware of other planes of existence and, via out-of-body experiences, they would have seen that consciousness can exist without the physical body. The "Tree of Life" thus became perceptible; the Kabbalistic tree of life is a map of the paths of the netherworld, and the middle pillar relates directly to the chakras in our subtle body, situated along the middle pillar -- the spine. By certain exercises involving the chakras or power zones, and the snake-like Kundalini energy, it seems that the astral body can be perfected or transformed into a vehicle with a much longer lifespan.
So, Hancock's study traced this science of Soulcraft from a pre-diluvian race, through ancient civilizations in Mexico, Egypt and other places, suggesting that it is linked to the precession cycle.
Some of the information can still be found in the Bible. In Matthew 22, the "kingdom of heaven" is compared to a marriage, at which those who are not wearing the "wedding garment" will not get to witness the wedding. In Like and Matthew, we are informed about the pineal eye:
"Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of
light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest
the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark,
it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light." ~ Matt. 6:22-23
This theme is expanded in Matthew 25:1-13, in which we are told to have our lamps fully fueled up and burning, ready for the arrival of the bridegroom at his marriage feast. As to exactly what this means, John Major Jenkins, in Galactic Alignment, has provided us with as clue from a book called The Celestial Ship of the North, by Valentia Straiton, in which someone called Edgar Conrow is quoted:
"The pineal gland is the 'North Gate'. This, in man, is the central spiritual creative
centre. Above in the heavens, it is found in the beginning of the sign of Sagittarius,
and is the point from which spiritual gifts are given. It is called 'Vision of God', and
is the Light within, a gift to the pure in heart, who verily may 'see God', but to the impure,
or those who abuse this great gift, the consequences are terrible.
This North Gate, the creative centre in man, the most interior centre in the body, has
become atrophied, and redemption or regeneration means restoration to creative ability,
by having the electrical, or positive, and the magnetic, or negative, forces restored in
equal balance in man and woman."
The alignment of the solstice Sun with the Galactic Equator, close to Galactic Centre at the start of Sagittarius, is thus a time when the Galactic Pineal Eye will radiate its light and restore our individual pineal eyes to their full potential of transmundane vision. However, not everyone will qualify. Luke's gospel implies that only the unmarried will qualify, but it seems that he means male sexual energy should not be 'wasted' in ejaculation, but used instead for the higher purpose of modifying our subtle body into its fully flowered form.
Egyptian Shamanism
You can find an expanded essay on this subject, called Soulcraft, at www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/soul.htm in which all the traces of knowledge are exhumed and compared, but, briefly, we can trace it back to Egyptian sources to get quite an early version. The Egyptians had a shamanic religion, in which the Pharaoh would induce an astral flight by means of techniques including hallucinogens, light and sound, meditations timed by lunar phases, and possibly a darkroom retreat to become Osiris (who was cut into pieces and then re-assembled) in a death-rebirth experience. Isis reassembled the fourteen pieces of Osiris, having collected them in the Land of the Phoenix (Phoenicia -- now Lebanon), during the fourteen days of the waning moon (except for the phallus, which was lost), then bound him up like the pupa of a butterfly. She then used a wooden phallus to concieve Horus, and Osiris ascended to Heaven (possibly encoding the use of higher sexual energy). The phoenix was retained as the symbol of an immortal bird, but is also connected with the recurrence of a long cycle of time.
The Egyptian winged disk, according to Charles Muses, represents the "non-molecular body" that is developed for these flights. The timing of the whole 70-day mummification process was synchronised with the 70-day disappearance of Sirius into the Duat (the period when Sirius is not visible). Muses points out the parallels between mummification and the process of metamorphosis from caterpillar, via cocoon and pupa (chrysalis) into butterfly. The wrapping of the body in bandages represents the silk-enswathed larva (caterpillar), and the folded wings embossed on the sarcophagus lids represented the visible wing shapes that are visible on the pupa or chrysalis case. The Meskhent, or "birth tent of skin", that was placed around the mummy represented the outer cocoon, while the ancient Egyptian word for the funeral chamber is literally "the birth chamber". Humanity is seen as the larval stage in preparation for the final metamorphosis. The 70-day embalming period was a later metaphor for a metamorphic transformation -- one that was commenced while the physical body was still alive, leading to the birth of the "winged form", or immortal body.
Non-Molecular Body
The Egyptian soul-science ("psyche-ology") is quite complex, with several non-physical bodies being involved, but Jeremy Naydler has reconstructed the scheme in a quite convincing way in The Temple of the Cosmos. The khat is the physical body (symbolized by a fish hieroglyph), and the ka (symbolized by upturned arms), or double, can be seen as "vital force" -- an energy body that seems to be equivalent to an etheric body. The ba (symbolized by a bird with a human head), although often translated as "soul", is better understood as a seed-soul consciousness, since it is "but a preliminary to a yet more exalted state of consciousness". It is consciousness externalized, and seems to be the equivalent of the astral body. "As a ba, a person had the experience of looking at his or her body as if from an outsiders standpoint. This experience was central to the Osirian initiation". The khabit, or shadow (symbolized by a dark silhouette), represents "all the transformed earthly appetites and obsessions that fetter the ba to the physical realm and prevent it from moving on" (the astral body is also known as the emotional body). The akh, also called akhu or khu (represented by a bird -- the Crested Ibis), means "shining one" or "illuminated one". It is also called "the imperishable one" that returns to its source beyond the Duat.
Naydler says "The akh may be understood as the ba divinised" but in order for the akh to be released from the body, a new spiritual body had to be germinated from the physical body as a vehicle for the akh. This spiritual body is the sahu. This sounds like the immortal man in Taoist Yoga, who is gestated in the abdomen and expelled through a psychic opening in the top of the head to appear as a person sitting on a lotus within a golden sphere, as we shall see shortly. The lotus was also a symbol of rebirth in Egypt. Naydler says the re-membering following the dismemberment was an essential part of the Osirian initiation, which is a germination process in which the sahu is formed and the akh is attained, allowing access to the stellar realms beyond the Duat.
Naydler's interpretation implies that the conscious mind resides in the khabit (shadow) and the unconscious mind in the ba (astral body). If the shadow can be conquered, then it can unite with the ba to form the akh (khu). At the same time, the sahu can be germinated from the ka, which now has access to more vital energy -- the sexual energy, that is no longer being diverted into emotional blockages since the cleaning up of the shadow. this interpretation provides a scheme of the unification of male and female (conscious and unconscious), while retaining the evolution of the higher bodies.
This all seems to support the contention of Charles Muses that there were three post-mortem paths that could be followed by the newly deceased Egyptian: The Hippo Path, in which the the soul's vehicle disintegrated and the soul reincarnated; The Cow Path, in which the soul experience a dream-like existence in the Duat, or Underworld, from where it could either reincarnate or ascend; and The Lion Path, where a higher body allowed access to a higher dimension...
Taoist Yoga
There is an important point to consider, if we are to find ourselves navigating the "invisible landscape" of the astral realms, and this knowledge has arisen from a study of neolithic sacred sites, combined with certain clues from Taoist yoga, so we shall follow the clues in the next few paragraphs.
In Taoist yoga, breathing and visualization exercises are practiced in which the generative force is diverted from its normal route (ejaculation) and is circulated around a system of power zones that closely resemble the Hindu chakras.
In a leaflet from the occult bookshop The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the system is claimed to be similar to Kundalini yoga, but safer. During a long process of internal alchemy, the original spirit cavity is located and transformed into the "precious cauldron" (which is equivalent to the activation of the pineal gland), and an "immortal foetus" starts to develop. Eventually, the spirit body separates from the physical body (up from the precious cauldron, through the top of the head, or "heavenly gate") and combines with the spirit body.
The developing immortal foetus (left), from which the immortal man emerges in a mass of golden light (right). After Luk [1970, 1996]
In the version given by Lu K'uan Yu, the immortal man or spirit body sits upright within "a mass of golden light, the size of a large wheel":
"When spirit manifests for the first time, it should only be allowed to leave the
physical body in fine weather and it should be well looked after, like a baby
just born. Its egress should on no account take place when there is thick fog,
heavy rain, gale, thunder and lightning."
The spirit body is "very sensitive to fear and awe, which should be avoided at all costs". This immortal man within a golden wheel is reminiscent of the original "merkabah" (Hebrew for chariot) that was seen by Ezekiel, enlarged on by Hurtak, developed further by Drunvalo Melchizedek and connected by Gregg Braden with the zero-point in 2012. Braden said that when the component tetrahedrons were counter-rotating, the whole Mer-Ka-Ba (he spells it like this to emphasize that the concept includes the Egyptian Ka, or etheric body, and the Ba, or astral body) would look like a flying disk. Lu K'uan Yu also describes the spirit body as a "golden ball of light".
From ~ Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy - A Complete Guide
to End-of-Time Predictions, pgs.240-244 & 255-256
By ~ Geoff Stray; Introduced by John Major Jenkins
Related Posts:
Example of Sufi Ideas
Insan-i-Kamil: The Completed Human
The Earnest Expectation of the Creature
Stepping through the Shadow
