According to Tradition with a capital T, human beings are composed of three parts: body, soul and spirit.
Earthly life is conceived of as the soul’s descent into the realm of matter, and the task in this “simulation” written by the Great Author, is to “remember” what we really are, and attain sufficient spiritual knowledge in earthly life that we may be “promoted” to other states of being upon our exit from this mortal coil.
The path of awakening, of achieving conditioned immortality along the left-hand path of spiritual heroism, which is the only one available now, requires passing through two gates.
And just as the Author gives every character a unique fingerprint, so does each incarnated being have a star-written plot of potential, and a chance to victoriously pass from earthly life back to the divine realm with consciousness intact. The pieces of the puzzle have been magnetized deep in the vibrational chamber of your heart.
Here you will find the clues that point the way to the first gate, from the bodily outer world of transience and illusion to the light of inner truth, the real reality of dreams and visions seen by the mind’s eye. If you’ve had a lifelong obsession with a certain historical period or fantasy world, then seek therein the gate that will take you from body to soul.
But do not stop there. The second gate will be found within this kingdom of the soul. Imagination is the mediator between the human state and divine, for, as Meister Eckhart says, “The eye through which I see God and God sees me are one and the same.”
In deep states of expanded consciousness, you may find a passage leading to unconditioned states of the spirit, to the supra-personal part of your being’s trifecta. Here space and time lose all meaning, and one becomes an androgynous angelic traveler with unlimited freedom to explore the microcosm, our great mirrored reflection of the universe as macrocosm.
Hermes will guide you from personality to soul, and from soul to spirit. He is also called Mercury, and astrology, which he rules, represents the principle of mind or consciousness. In Egypt he was called Thoth, and may be the origin of our word “thought.”
The universe is not made of matter but rather of consciousness, in states both gross and subtle, and “gates” are not physical openings but inner passages to higher states of being. Hermes is called the Thrice Great, for with his winged feet he flies as fast as thought through the three realms of body, soul and spirit. Learn the ways of his art, and you may become lord of Total Reality.
Meanwhile, back in reality, souls and spirits don’t exist, the personality is an emergent property of a functioning brain, and when we die, we’re gone forever.
This life is all we get, and it is short. Wasting time living in a fantasy really isn’t much help.
Seek joy and meaningful connection, folks. Not this gobbledigook.
I’m with Mark Green on this piece and will go further. Religious “thought” and belief are responsible for most of the vicious killing throughout human history that have bern and continue to be done on this planet — all done in the name of an invisible creator and a belief system that has a corner on “The (only) Way”–even that of the Buddha. We witness Buddhists killing Muslims, Muslims killing Buddhists, Muslims killing one another and members of most other religions, Jews killing Muslims, etc., etc., throughout history–and the priests of every religion exercising their dominant power positions vis-a-vis the most vulnerable members of their respective “flocks” by mind-control, molestation and rape. It is time to wake up and smell the smoke human ignorance, greed and stupidity have unleased upon all other humans and every other type of living creature on earth. Stopping it is something real to spend one’s precious life time doing. Believing there will be a better world after death is a major excuse for not taking responsibilty for the horrible condition of the planet we actually live and die on.
Thanks for an interesting column. I appreciate people still willing to explore the spiritual dimensions of life, which to me are the most important, and which have a strong influence on our physical lives. As for whether souls and spirits exist, I guess we’ll all find out once we die!
I’m with Mark Green on this piece and will go further. Religious “thought” and belief are responsible for most of the vicious killing throughout human history that have bern and continue to be done on this planet — all done in the name of an invisible creator and a belief system that has a corner on “The (only) Way”–even that of the Buddha. We witness Buddhists killing Muslims, Muslims killing Buddhists, Muslims killing one another and members of most other religions, Jews killing Muslims, etc., etc., throughout history–and the priests of every religion exercising their dominant power positions vis-a-vis the most vulnerable members of their respective “flocks” by mind-control, molestation and rape. It is time to wake up and smell the smoke human ignorance, greed and stupidity have unleased upon all other humans and every other type of living creature on earth. Stopping it is something real to spend one’s precious life time doing. Believing there will be a better world after death is a major excuse for not taking responsibilty for the horrible condition of the planet we actually live and die on.