Theos-Talk Archives (June 1995 Message tl00004)

It's nice to read your invitations to rejoin.  Thank you.

Reading the posts here everyday is only rewarding if we are able
to respond in kind.  To respond in kind, I need to prepare by
reading theosophical books.  Spiritual reading is one of my goals
and theos-l enhances this effort.

I know Jerry Hejka-Ekins and his wife, April, (my husband, Eldon,
also) have an approach of studying theosophical classics.  Since
only some theosophy is presented at any one time, we have to
retain our own holographic view while looking at a given part.
Wherever I am able to find harmonious thoughts and spiritual
life, I am comforted.

My thoughts are drawn to some of the recent posts on Goddesses,
THE INNER LIFE, and Sarah's beautiful meandering on Mayan
customs, but I'd like to respond to Cleatus Fernandez re: Fear of
Death:

Something I read in THE ASTRAL BODY, edited by Powell, hit me
very powerfully.  The idea is unusual and distinct.  It is that
if a person allows their astral body to separate into graded
matter after demise, the coarser matter will form a ring around
the finer matter and with the matter divided into several rings
by grade, only coarse vibrations will be felt and are able to
cause a person to respond.  The subtle and refined vibrations
will not be received from outside of our vehicles and refinement
is locked in as well as out of a person's being until the coarse
matter disintegrates.  Leadbeater says that even family members
and loved ones appear as monsters to someone who allows their
astral matter to become divided in this way rather than allowing
the matter to mix and swirl as in normal experience.

I'm glad to see that someone is questioning and pondering, as a
good book should be thought provoking.  Dreaming and death are
mysteries still and all of these novel ideas concerning dreaming
and death could be true.  At least they are encouraging thoughts.

I'd like to recount my dreams for the last two nights in short.
The first night's dream was in two parts.  Two women entertainers
became suspicious of a stagehand or producer's assistant and
decided to investigate his authority and past.  When they
discovered his disrepute, he appeared in their room and murdered
one of the inquirers.

In Part 2, the scene switches to a mountainside in a blizzard.  A
spiritual teacher huddles near a fire.  Among him were strangers,
somewhat ignorant and cut-throat.  (Perhaps even one of them was
the murderer from part one.) After preparing a warm kettle of
food he had with him, the spiritual teacher bundles some of the
food and sets out on foot in the blizzard.  He prefers to face a
blizzard rather than keep company with the unenlightened.
Concerned as ever though for the future of man, the teacher walks
about a day's pace before storing the food in the snow and
continuing his journey unnourished and cold.  He left it there in
case there should be a follower to his footsteps.  I awoke with
the shameful thought that this teacher had somehow been to blame
for the murder in the first part of the dream, and that he was
suffering for another's actions.

The second night was a dream of a prison.  In this prison was a
woman who had stolen my wallet when I was in my early twenties.
She had committed several other crimes and was beginning a
sentencing by the courts.  As she remembered my name as one she
had used (credit cards, driver's license), I was on her mind.  I
saw some of the torture of her prison life, but refused to become
sensible of any of her other crimes, feeling they were somewhat
worse in nature.  Whose duty is it to reform criminals? The
prison staff's? I felt this could be a way for me to help, so I
drew on energy from the planet Pluto among other half-waking
thoughts of my friends in life, to stimulate energy for reform
for her and all of those who had committed crimes to me.

You wonder about "further enlightenment" "communication with
loved ones" and "incidents during sleep." I know I shouldn't
revere this author again, but his writing is so inspired.  Does
it really matter if we understand it totally? It's very
comforting to me that he mentions a "temporary absence" from
loved ones.  Don't we have sleep experiences as well as future
life experiences to permit our separation to be temporary? I
guess my fear of death is similar to a fear of life.  I may be
thrown into the company of unenlightened.  I guess we need to
remind ourselves to be brave.

Your interest in dreaming could prove fruitful in more ways than
one.  Maybe you wouldn't be able to effect strangers, but we have
plenty of karma which could help in the unfolding of our inner
lives.  I wanted to report what my own endeavors had resulted in
in terms of encouraging this sort of life experience.  If we
learn from our experiences, we certainly are able to learn from
inner experiences of this nature in a similar manner, but
possibly the learning is more similar to what we learn when we
read something spiritual because it contains a lesson or requires
that we actively put forth an effort (even if only through
thinking) to live in accordance with natural law and love.  If we
love a deceased person and they need help, would we be available
to render that assistance? Or are we just seeking pleasure and
reward?

As Alan (Dr.  Bain) mentions SCIENCE OF THE SACRAMENTS, I'd just
like to say, as Christians, we are as one body, one soul.  And
when this body is united on a soul plane, it is very
strengthening and nourishing to know its light and glory.  To
make it useful on earth though, it is broken and eaten,
symbolized by the bread and wine.  The young souls here may only
respond to the ONE SOUL, by receiving it in segments until it
becomes a constant yearning in them to reunite the many parts in
fellowship and wholeness.

Ann Bermingham: I lived in Chicago for many years and am a
graduate of The University of Illinois Chicago Circle.  Do you
have acquaintances at the Headquarters of the T.S.?

Everyone: I haven't read more than a page or two (Liesel) since
my last post, so there's plenty of archival material.  Do you
think this would be worth reviewing or that I should be able to
just step in from this point? Would anyone be able to do a quick
review of material from the past ten months?

I heard Jerry Hejka-Ekins is no longer writing much as he felt
the group was constricting or something.  It's good to hear from
Aki, Astrea, Sy-Hello, and everyone: thanks for bearing with me
through a reacquaintance.