Theos-Talk Archives (January 1994 Message tl00026)

Mike Levin asked about planes and Dark Chohans. I have a few words
that I would like to say about both of these topics.

Planes are both "actual different dimensions" and "co-existing types
of matter" (Besant/Leadbeater were big on this one). I think that most
scientists are undecided about how many dimensions our universe has
although everyone agrees that our senses only perceive three. Einstein
added time as the fourth, but since we can only move through time in
one direction (what Steven Hawking calls The Arrow of Time), it really
doesn't serve as a true dimension very well. Mathematicians have
proved that many dimensions are possible (it was up to eleven back in
my undergraduate college days), but no one has yet been able to relate
the math to the real world.

Probably the easiest way to think of a plane is to consider your
dreams at night as if they were real experiences taking place on the
astral plane. Your emotions are on the astral plane. Your thoughts are
on the mental plane. The subtle planes are all around us, and we
live/exist on them all the time but are simply not aware of it because
our five physical senses only detect things on the physical plane.

My own thoughts:  Our world has four dimensions which comprise the
spacetime continuum defined and described by relativity physics. It
also has a fifth dimension - consciousness. Just as we can move about
in four- dimensional spacetime, so we can move through the Cosmic
Planes of Manifestation via the axis of consciousness (or more
accurately, the axis of the sutratma or Silver Cord).

Concerning the so-called Dark Chohans, we have to be very careful
about the word "evil."  The term "left-hand path" actually refers to
the difference between two types of Tantra. One tantric group
practices their rituals with a physical sexual partner who sits on the
left side of the yogi during the early stages of the ritual (and faces
him on his lap in a sexual embrace without orgasm during the ritual
itself). The other group does not use a physical sexual partner. The
group without a sexual partner (this partner, by the way, is called a
Karmamudra) referred to the other group as the left-hand path and this
name slowly was adopted to mean any "evil" spiritual practice.
Personally, I do not practice sexual magic with a partner, but I also
do not consider it to be evil. Many good people, including H.H. the
Dali Lama, approve of it. (Use of a sexual partner is prevalent in
Tibetan Buddhism where Karmamudra is usually translated as an "Action
Seal." Probably the most famous examples of Action Seals are the many
deities shown conjoined together in the yum-yab position.)  So
whenever you hear the term 'left-hand path' you can remember that it
is a reference to sexual magic (unless the term is being misused, of
course). It is not a reference to Black Magicians per se (whatever
they are?). The definitions of what constitutes black magic are
voluminous and often conflicting. I rather like the definition that
black magic is any magic that for any reason deliberately hurts
someone. The modern Wiccan movement of white witches has adopted the
motto "And it harm none, do what ye will" which I personally
wholeheartedly subscribe to myself.

Do Black Magicians exist? Yes. The Qabala teaches that even the
Sephiroth have their dark side. They are called the Qlippoth and are
said to be the 'shells' or 'dregs' of the Sephiroth (the Sephiroth
correspond to the Globes of our GV Model and basically are worlds). In
the GV Model, we can think of Avaiche as being equivalent to the
Qlippoth. However, as HPB tells us, we have to be very careful
whenever we hear that someone or something is 'evil.'  For example,
those spiritual forces along the Arc of Ascent are considered evil by
those manifesting forces along the Arc of Descent. Basically, most of
us consider a person to be evil if that person opposes us in some way.

Magic teaches that dark brothers, or the Brothers of the Shadow, do
exist, and that they can progress very high up the line, including to
the lower stages above the Abyss. This means that the Dark Brotherhood
exists on the spiritual plane and on every plane beneath the spiritual
plane. Are they evil? Do they murder their mothers? Would they sell
their daughters for the right price? Do they conduct unsavory
sorcerous rituals at midnight? Well, probably not. In fact, no, not at
all. What then is their crime? Their crime is that they ignore the
suffering of their fellow human beings. Thats it. Most have the notion
that because all is maya/illusion anyway, all of the poor suffering
people on Earth only exist in their own mind, and so they turn a deaf
ear to them. But there is another group, somewhat more obnoxious, who
rise to lesser spiritual heights because they refuse to surrender
their sense of identity. They cling to egoism - to a personal sense of
Self or to a belief that they are a Monad and thus will live forever.
They have spiritual pride and think that they are better than others.
They say things to themselves like, "Look, I am spiritual and
enlightened, while you are still floundering in your ignorance."
These can rise no higher than the fourth plane because they cannot
cross the Abyss, which is a Ring-Pass-Not to any sense of personal
self. All of these unfortunate retches are classes of Dark Chohans.
And their power, such that it is, is permanent insofar as our
manvantara lasts. They include within their ranks many great yogis and
pious spiritual adherents.

What about the real murderers and rapists? What about those who kill
children in bloody orgiastic rituals seeking personal riches and power?
These never get to the level of Dark Chohans or the Black Brotherhood,
or anything else. They either wind up in a Hell somewhere on the lower
astral plane to be born as a politician or lawyer (;-) or they go to
Avaiche, the Dark Planet, where they doubtless suffer pain and anguish
until they are finally ready to say Uncle and start anew.

If there is a 'root of all evil' it is not money as some have
suggested, but rather it is our sense of personal identity which
always separates us from others thus causing a root sense of
differentiation and difference.
                                      Jerry S.