Theos-Talk Archives (June 1995 Message tl00082)

I don't know how many people occasionally remember that
"superstition" is something to be avoided.  "Superstition" to an
occultist is more of an accumulated way of thinking than it is a
true and valid practice.  In its simplest most frequent form, it
is avoiding ladders, remembering all day the black cat which made
us "wary," knocking on wood, etc.  I recently tried teaching my
five year old about superstition and had some difficulty.  So I
decided I needed to review what we're trying to accomplish by
being anti-superstitious.  (Does this remind anyone of
morphogenetic learning?)

My last post contained three separate, though united, ideas.
Here they are again for a recap:

If people are behaving like automatons, choose Jehovah.
If people are ridding themselves of sin, choose Soul or Satan.
If people are seeking the divine spirit, choose Logos.

If you choose Logos, you'll have to oppose (or maybe balance)
Jehovah and Satan-Soul.  We in manifestation are still capable of
many things.

The last SD search was re: adversary as I mentioned.  This time I
tried a search on Oneness and found a passage re: superstition
which made me think I should try a search on superstition, but
haven't done so yet.=20

The passage was in Vol I, Section XIV, The Four Elements (p.466
1978= edition)

HPB compares the Bible believers with those they were condemning,
or the mythological-minded.  I got the impression from reading
here that believing Jehovah will help you in a time of war and
squash your enemies is as silly as believing that lightning is
the angry voice of God or that there is a God of Lightning.

But in the words of HPB, "The ancients knew these powers so well,
that, while concealing their true nature under various
allegories, for the benefit (or to the detriment) of the
uneducated rabble, they never departed from the multiple object
in view, while inverting them.  They contrived to throw a thick
veil over the nucleus of truth concealed by the symbol, but they
ever tried to preserve the latter as a RECORD for future
generations, sufficiently transparent to allow their wise men to
discern that truth behind the fabulous form of the glyph or
allegory.  They are accused of superstition and credulity, those
ancient sages; and this by those very nations, which, learned in
all the modern arts and sciences, cultured and wise in their
generation, accept to this day as their one living and infinite
God, the anthropomorphic "Jehovah" of the Jews."

When life is really in need of support, its really kind of
comforting to find God in simple things.  For God to have a
voice, whether in the lightning, in the winds, in the law, or in
the harvest, at least this becomes an external force calling for
us to awake to a higher life.

Part of my meditations lately have been in regard to "Space is
the real world." I am having the same difficulty there which I am
having on this earth, however.  I am surrounded by stars which
are objects of light primarily.  Yet to research oneness, I have
to choose a particular source of light and do the meditation
which unites one with the object.  Likewise, I have been finding
myself seeking one particular object out of all the available
objects on earth to hold as a meditation point during the day.

This may seem like a futile exercise to some, but then I ran
across another passage in SD which made me take notice.  (Vol II,
p.  41-42)

"Christian theology, having rejected the doctrine of emanations
and replaced them with direct, conscious creations of angels and
the rest out of nothing, now finds itself hopelessly stranded
between Supernaturalism, or miracle, and materialism.  An
extra-cosmic god is fatal to philosophy, an intra-cosmic Deity,
7i.e.  Spirit and matter inseparable from each other is
philosophical necessity.  Separate them and that which is left is
a gross superstition under a mask of emotionalism.  But why
"geometrize," as Plato has it, why represent these emanations
under the form of an immense arithmetical table? The question is
well answered by the author just cited.  His remarks are quoted
in Part II., =A7 "The Theogony of the Creative Gods."

"Mental perception," he says, "to become physical perception,
must have the Cosmic principle of light: and by this, our mental
circle must become visible through light; or, for its complete
manifestation, the Circle must be that of physical visibility, or
Light itself.  Such conceptions, thus formulated, became the
groundwork of the philosophy of the divine manifesting in the
Universe.""

THE SECRET DOCTRINE suggests many more activities which can be
done with "space." Number, geomentry, distance or measure all
become relevant= activies.

(and p.  41-42) "This is materialising the Spiritual without
scruple.  But the Kabala was not always so well adapted to
anthropo-monotheistic conceptions.  Compare this with any of the
six schools of India.  For instance, in Kapila's "Sankhya"
Philosophy, unless, allegorically speaking, Purusha mounts on the
shoulders of Prakriti, the latter remains irrational, while the
former remains inactive without her.  Therefore Nature (in man)
must become a compound of Spirit and Matter before he becomes
what he is; and the Spirit latent in Matter must be awakened to
life and consciousness gradually.  The Monad has to pass through
its mineral, vegetable and animal forms, before the Light of the
Logos is awakened in the animal man.  Therefore, till then, the
latter cannot be referred to as "man," but has to be regarded as
a Monad imprisoned in ever changing forms.  Evolution, not
creation, by means of words is recognized in the philosophies of
the East, even in their exoteric records."

These words to me are the "objects" of oneness in meditation.
Favorite objects are: water, bottle, cross, pencil, etc.  This is
like awakening in the morning with the light from one star or one
zone in the universe.  Now, have I ridiculed the idea of
"oneness" enough.  I can recall the thoughts which used to
elevate being "oneness with nature", "oneness with humanity", and
here are a few final quotes which may interest you from Volume
II.

(p.  216) "From the possession of the double principle in one,
that is the Androgyne condition, the separation of the dual
principle was made, presenting two opposites, whose destiny it
was, for ever after, to seek reunion into the original one
condition.  The curse was this, viz.: that nature, impelling the
search, evaded the desired result by the production of a new
being, distinct from that reunion or oneness desired, by which
the natural longing to recover a lost state was and is for ever
being cheated"

"This Tree reaches the heavenly vale and is hidden between three
mountains (the upper triad of principles, in man).  From these
three mountains, the Tree ascends above (the adept's knowledge
aspires heavenward) and then redescends below (into the adept's
Ego on Earth)."

(p.  249) "(b) This verse (thirty-ninth) relates exclusively to
the racial divisions.  Strictly speaking, esoteric philosophy
teaches a modified polygenesis.  For, while it assigns to
humanity a oneness of origin, in so far that its forefathers or "
Creators " were all divine beings, though of different classes or
degrees of perfection in their hierarchy, men were nevertheless
born on seven different centres of the continent of that period.
Though all of one common origin, yet for reasons given their
potentialities and mental capabilities, outward or physical
forms, and future characteristics, were very different.  (With a
footnote as follows)

Some superior, others inferior, to suit the Karma of the various
reincarnating Monads which could not be all of the same degree of
purity in their last births in other worlds.  This accounts for
the difference of races, the inferiority of the savage, and other
human varieties."

The conversations are very stimulating!!!