Lunar Fog

[Smaragd]

A practice and discussion within a lodge working inspired me to think of the Moon and tantric worship; a theme that has been rising up occasionally in different areas of life and thus deserves to be discussed more about and given words to.
There are some aspects of tantric worship that has the danger to immerse the practitioner in to a fog where one might for example feel spiritually lost, distant from ones spiritual ideals and/or perhaps intoxicated by the worldly experiences to a point that the spiritual center is forgotten. It is as if such tantric worship* would be surrounded by the forms of the Moon. The forms might be so many that they appear as just infinitely small water drops forming a fog one can not see through or are unable to see to any specific point within a larger context of the spirit.

Drawing down the moon towards the ground, we might see the fog appearing for example when immersing in an intensive romantic relationships, earthly pleaures, or even worshipping with the help of an icon. I believe there are many points to this; but for starting the conversation we can point it might simply to mean that we have indeed been lost in to the circumference and unable to locate the core of ourself, i.e. we have work to do to find the corebeing of ourselves, purify our view of it again and find out how to keep the center always a center. But I’m interested of the middle ground points and possibilities that might lie in there and in this phenomena as a whole. For example, do you think it to be possible to hold on to the tantric idea of lifting these lower forms high – to turn the introxication and being lost, in to some sort of constructive wonder towards the Moon Goddess? There’s obviously the myths of maidens leading the aspirant to astray and to their death or ruin, connecting to this idea but I guess this narrative could also be changed by seeing this blood thirsty maiden as one form of the Moon Goddess and thus have again some specific point through which to gain ones sight back again. Then the death would be not ruinous but initiatory. If done right, this would be like succesfully finding the core center from the circumference, or a seam going between the center and the circumference – the Fog becoming the emptiness of all things, the frightening all encompassing Black otherness breahing from every droplet of the fog.

Now important question seems to be when coming back from the fog is whether such chasing of the magical forms of the Moon is actually running away from the duties the core center asks us to do? If not, then is the realization of the journey and returning from it brought to the actual daily life and the core of ones spiritul striving, or is it left to rot as mere powerful experience of the dynamism of going back and forth. And the most puzzling question for myself is: how to keep the center while truly immersing in to the wordly – that is enclosed within the realm of the mirages of the Moon – challenges; is the enchantment of the fog necessary part of truly being in touch with the worldly or does the fog appear only as a warning sign that something is off? These are questions having many facets, so we propably will not have simple answers, but I would be intriqued to see some discussion opening your perspectives to this.

* Meaning here the worship of the high in the low, acknowledging the micro- and macrocosmic correspondences and finding the perfect from the process of the imperfect transcending form through its form.

[Nefastos]

A large but important & interesting topic.

I experienced a little synchronism with this earlier this week. I was in a bus, reading an important esoteric texts connected to the Graal working (Rosicrucian esoteric practices of Ervast published quite exactly 72 years ago) and timings he wrote about there. I admired the beautiful sunny day with no cloud in the sky, and happened to receive a message from a fellow Graal member. At that time our vehicle draw into so dense fog that I have seldom seen such in my life. From the brightest sunshine into a witch-cettle of most dreamy mists, which lasted the rest of the journey & the rest of the day.

For the one on the Right Hand Path, this might have been an alarming sign. For me, it was completely the opposite. I love that kind of fog, and enjoy its mystery immensely. The possibility to take these things into the otherworldly state of lunar fog is only positive & balancing. Once again, the Sword (which is the cross inverted) and the Cup, as spoken just before...

do you think it to be possible to hold on to the tantric idea of lifting these lower forms high – to turn the introxication and being lost, in to some sort of constructive wonder towards the Moon Goddess? There’s obviously the myths of maidens leading the aspirant to astray and to their death or ruin, connecting to this idea

Will-o-wisps, sirens and so on, yes... The archetypical gender poles are centripetal and centrifugal, and there are two "dangers" from these feminine powers:

– One, the entity or attraction that breaks the neurotic male pattern of keeping into one point (his assumed center; of course that "center" can actually turn out to be peripheric).
– Two, the entity or attraction that breaks the harmony of the center and the circumference.

These are the two faces of Goddess (cf. two faces of Satan, bright & dark). The first one is absolutely necessary, and the humility it teaches is invigorating & helpful. The second one is factually disastrous. The problem is that one can seldom be sure where the borderline between these two goes: a neurotic temperament sees the second in the first all too often, while the hysteric temperament fails to understand their difference & embraces the second whenever the possibility arises. (In the SoA terminology the first one is Magna Mater, while the second is Lilith. The difference is in the aspect of vampirism.)

Now important question seems to be when coming back from the fog is whether such chasing of the magical forms of the Moon is actually running away from the duties the core center asks us to do?

It always comes to the question whether it is the core center or the circumference asking. There are many demands in our life, all in their way valid, but part come from the center ("God" or actual Self) & part come from "the demiurge" of the society, family, our own neuroses, and so on. Perhaps the one most important ability for a human being would be to learn to make the difference between these spiritual & superfluous demands.

The intuition that answers us here is like a muscle, it must be trained to work. All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy.

And the most puzzling question for myself is: how to keep the center while truly immersing in to the wordly – that is enclosed within the realm of the mirages of the Moon – challenges; is the enchantment of the fog necessary part of truly being in touch with the worldly or does the fog appear only as a warning sign that something is off?

I think that the answer lies in temperament. There are forms of worldly one is able to, and sometimes actually enjoys, immersing into. But the form one of us can withstand is unbearable for another. Here too it is important to see where one's actual demands and "possibilities of immersion" go.

This difference in offices & needs can help us also be happy with our lot & dharma, in understanding that we are fulfilling something no one else in our hierarchy (including the unseen masters) most likely can. In most even weird works & challenges one is able to become a conduit of bringing the sacred there, although often in secret. But that is the way of the occult, it is seldom apparent.

The forms might be so many that they appear as just infinitely small water drops forming a fog one can not see through or are unable to see to any specific point within a larger context of the spirit.

This nebulous manifestation is the form of White astral i.e. aether, the disincarnated linga sharîra. It is the reason why ghostly apparitions (when they are physical) are seen as "foggy". But we see that even though the foci are many, they have a higher common (holographic) focus, so to say, in their connecting modus or eidolon, which is the mould of buddhi upon linga sharîra. That is the field of one's person-archetype – archetypal in the sense of being the archetype of one individual being – that is called augoeides in the rare occasions it can be reached as factually buddhi-illuminated. (Sorry about the heavy lingo here. But to say this without technical terms would most likely transmit zero information.)

[Soror O]

So many wise words already said in this thread, not sure if I'm contributing any additional worth to this discussion, but still willing to post. Heh.

I believe there are many points to this; but for starting the conversation we can point it might simply to mean that we have indeed been lost in to the circumference and unable to locate the core of ourself, i.e. we have work to do to find the corebeing of ourselves, purify our view of it again and find out how to keep the center always a center. But I’m interested of the middle ground points and possibilities that might lie in there and in this phenomena as a whole. For example, do you think it to be possible to hold on to the tantric idea of lifting these lower forms high – to turn the introxication and being lost, in to some sort of constructive wonder towards the Moon Goddess?

To me, being lost in the lunar fog is a prerequisite for locating the center. The center and the periferia give birth to each other, practically. The fog leads to the center, but it's not the center that one expects. The center is fluid as water - and still as a sword, striken into the eternal soil. The center is the ever-same but always changing. But... like I referred in my disclaimer: this is all assumingly well known theoretic territory, given the tantric nature of the brotherhood.

Still:

we propably will not have simple answers.

Or: the answer is really simple (as described above). But we humanoids are usually too complicated - or layered - to practise it in reality. Even now, I don't know if I'm rotting in the moist of eternal lunar fog - lost and only pretenting to be found. Or is it the sun that is shining so brightly through me that I'm vaporating into the thinnest of clear air.

Well poetry aside, this topic also reminds me of the nigredo, blackening. Blackening of the Sun, the Dark sun rising. Blackening of the Center, the Dark center rising. I went through the dark night of the soul about ten years ago, feeling like a omnipotent puppet. But the nigredo is different from the Lunar fog. Nigredo is absense of form, formlessness. Lunar fog is the multiplude of forms and the ray of moonlight (the center) that lingers on and in them. Nigerdo is annihilation of the center function. After this annihilation, a new center arises - the dark one (Dark Sun). So there is the Sun, the Moon and the Black Sun, which all have their peculiar rays of light - cutting throught the haze.

[Smaragd]

do you think it to be possible to hold on to the tantric idea of lifting these lower forms high – to turn the introxication and being lost, in to some sort of constructive wonder towards the Moon Goddess? There’s obviously the myths of maidens leading the aspirant to astray and to their death or ruin, connecting to this idea

These are the two faces of Goddess (cf. two faces of Satan, bright & dark). The first one is absolutely necessary, and the humility it teaches is invigorating & helpful. The second one is factually disastrous.

This is an important notion and something I believe is often overlooked because of another difficulty still quite prevalent in our time. That is the over emphasising, that is non-integrated use of, the rational, which in its monstrous form has choked the unconscious and directing kama rupa in to a inflamed state. Historically this problem isn’t anymore as terribly unbalanced as hundred years ago, perhaps culminating in the World Wars, but we have still quite some way to go. So this difficulty between Mars (kama rupa) and Saturn (kama manas) woundedly compensating the unbalance of our past by emphasising the former insists that the mystery of the unknown almost should not be analyzed and made into interpretations. As if it were too sacred to be tinkered like that. And this feeling can also be quite right if we continue to inspect the matter on the single pole of kama manas and kama rupa turning over against each other. Such a way does not offer the transcending capacity of the Hieroglyphic Key as a whole.* Also the initial feeling could be proposing that an interpretation would split the wholeness of the experience of mystery, but as something that has been experienced, the mystery must already be split and compromised and thus, one could argue that it asks to be also rationally interpreted and thus made whole again; for if it does not include the aspect of kama manas, it is not truly whole in the sense that it must be understood within the human condition amidst the fallen angels. Through these thoughts, not to mention the obvious suffering the automatic acceptation and consequent serving of the dark face in the wordly mysteries causes, I’ve acknowledged the difference between the bright and dark faces of the Goddess must be recognized. It might look like moralistic assertion to some, but then these nuances and practical realities have been ignored.
We come yet again to the topic which I have often spoken of as the obscurity and some sort of calling for it, that I have also personally longed for. When the depth of the bright face of Satan is something that truly can be accepted and acknowledged, it seems to be a great turning point regarding the interconnectedness and wholeness of the mysteries – the obscure, allowing one to become an active magician to whom neither the obscurity of the mystery nor the directedness and upstanding conduct of wielding the sword would become the sole master from the vantage point of the other is fought against.

* Thus such balancing between the two points of the downward triad not really leading anywhere from the lower worlds, might open up for an interpretation of the fog to be a symptom of the exclusion of the third – linga sharira, Moon. Exclusion and ignorance is seen from the other side as a secret over emphasis, as the meaning of an aspect is pushed away it being seemingly too difficult to integrate. Thus the appearance of the fog might be seen as a mechanism for the Moon aspect to be noticed and included within focus and thus making way for the whole lower triad to find it’s esoteric counterpoint in the transcending higher triad.

To me, being lost in the lunar fog is a prerequisite for locating the center. The center and the periferia give birth to each other, practically. The fog leads to the center, but it's not the center that one expects. The center is fluid as water - and still as a sword, striken into the eternal soil. The center is the ever-same but always changing.

I agree it is somewhat of a prerequisite to be occasionally lost, such bravery being the very thing which allows the aliveness of an open yet directing mind to be a gateway between the lower and the higher. This brings us to the pentagram and the Rose. What I’m running after is the perfect equilibrium between the elements so that being in the circumference and immovable in the center could be simultaneously existent for the practitioner. Trying to find this ideal of truly tantric worship from ones life, I think one might be able to loose being lost, or being solely center, from the sequence. Again, why would one seek to do so? Because these extremes are the cause of suffering. Perhaps we will find a point in our life when we don’t need to wait for the suffering to motivate us, or so I should hope. The Rose as something delicate (and positively associating to the otherwordly beauty of the lunar fog) and yet as powerful as the pentagram seems to point there to the being of such constant presence of the circumference and the center in each other.

Now important question seems to be when coming back from the fog is whether such chasing of the magical forms of the Moon is actually running away from the duties the core center asks us to do?

It always comes to the question whether it is the core center or the circumference asking. There are many demands in our life, all in their way valid, but part come from the center ("God" or actual Self) & part come from "the demiurge" of the society, family, our own neuroses, and so on. Perhaps the one most important ability for a human being would be to learn to make the difference between these spiritual & superfluous demands.

The intuition that answers us here is like a muscle, it must be trained to work. All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy.

This is a very practical way to get rid of the unnecessary suffering that are related to the giving in to the polar extremes, and thus should be given great attention to. For me it seems these questions need answering again and again as we become aware of larger wholes and deeper connections between our psyche and the objective world.

(Sorry about the heavy lingo here. But to say this without technical terms would most likely transmit zero information.)

I quite enjoyed 'augoeides' coming up for it felt like yet another whisper of the Neoplatonists calling me to visit. These whispers have been more and more recognizable recently. Although I must have stumbled on the word somewhere through Blavatsky or someone, it hadn’t left its mark on my memory. Surely enough a day or two after your message, the word came up on the pages of the Bylwer-Lytton novel Zanoni.

Well poetry aside, this topic also reminds me of the nigredo, blackening. Blackening of the Sun, the Dark sun rising. Blackening of the Center, the Dark center rising. I went through the dark night of the soul about ten years ago, feeling like a omnipotent puppet. But the nigredo is different from the Lunar fog. Nigredo is absense of form, formlessness. Lunar fog is the multiplude of forms and the ray of moonlight (the center) that lingers on and in them. Nigerdo is annihilation of the center function. After this annihilation, a new center arises - the dark one (Dark Sun). So there is the Sun, the Moon and the Black Sun, which all have their peculiar rays of light - cutting throught the haze.

Yes, the nigredo between the two Suns could be seen as seeing the death and emptiness in the fog after the meaningless play with the wordly forms stops giving. The Moon rays are sort of in-between phase, where the Sun - the Dragon is tried to be mounted, which would give the wordly forms unquestinable wholesome meaning again if succeeded.

[Nefastos]

The fog leads to the center, but it's not the center that one expects. The center is fluid as water - and still as a sword, striken into the eternal soil. The center is the ever-same but always changing. But... like I referred in my disclaimer: this is all assumingly well known theoretic territory, given the tantric nature of the brotherhood.

We certainly will never have enough, let alone too many apt & vivid illustrations! (Which once again illustrates this lunar fog nature of/in the brotherhood.)

The changing sword you mentioned must be the revolving sword of Genesis. The part where it is mentioned also mentions the "eternal soil": Genesis 3:23-24

But the nigredo is different from the Lunar fog. Nigredo is absense of form, formlessness. Lunar fog is the multiplude of forms and the ray of moonlight (the center) that lingers on and in them. Nigerdo is annihilation of the center function. After this annihilation, a new center arises - the dark one (Dark Sun). So there is the Sun, the Moon and the Black Sun, which all have their peculiar rays of light - cutting throught the haze.

I think this is very well put.

This fact of the several polar dimensions can be confusing for the aspirant, but it will become clearer once the practice has been done actually & in earnest. When one overcomes the pits of fanaticism, scepticism & all that one-sidedness, he starts to grasp the idea of the added axes in reality. It starts with one axis extrapolating as two: to the Right---Left is added Up---Down, or vice versa. This sublimating function of polar functions (without giving up polarities as an idea, since that remains vital to the end!) goes ever onward not unlike branches in the Tree of Life. Dimensions are added even after we already have a three-dimensional model in the cube, and that is the point where things go really esoteric. That is our pathway to the stars.

This is an important notion and something I believe is often overlooked because of another difficulty still quite prevalent in our time (...)

Yes, the problem of separation: one's temperamental keen of having the rational & emotional in their different baskets, to use without each other as far as possible. The blame goes equally to both parties of the apparently too much stressed intellect (usually completely in the secret reins of unseen emotions) & the apparentely too much stressed feeling (often coldly calculating under the surface). I believe that our work will always rest of the foundation of the Polyharmonic credo, i.e. the statement for the need of the unification of the opposites in a fruitful, ascending manner. Correctly interpreted, we find all the colour aspect approaches in this same practical philosophy of oneness; Red as well as White & Black, and the most obvious one is naturally the Chalice aspect of the hexagram.

might open up for an interpretation of the fog to be a symptom of the exclusion of the third – linga sharira, Moon.

For the obscuring aspect of the fog, we can indeed say so. This is the effect where & why the "dark faces of the Goddess" appear, and from that surplus tamas, or the lack of the third & uniting aspect, we will have Evil: karmic burden, or sthûla sharîra, the vehicle that hinders by its slow response. But like I said in the last part of my first message, the "fog" is also that Moon itself in its bright face, for it is our bright lunar body in linga sharîra. The dark moon is something still in need of going through the process, while the bright moon has accomplished its potential. Of course, this once again means that both of these might yet again be either beneficent (dark moon might hold positive secrets) or maleficent (bright full moon is "the friend of the sorcerers and the foe of the unwary": it gives potency also to things that should not be wanted).

This brings us to the pentagram and the Rose. What I’m running after is the perfect equilibrium between the elements so that being in the circumference and immovable in the center could be simultaneously existent for the practitioner. Trying to find this ideal of truly tantric worship from ones life, I think one might be able to loose being lost, or being solely center, from the sequence.

Ah, the mystic Rose, the goal & secret wealth of the true Rosicrucian!

Before commenting this, I'd like to make sure I understand right the part of your message I put here in cursive. Did you idicate that the the equilibrium of the pentagram (its perfect angles) can be found when the melody of life can simultaneously find its focus (the middle point) and the circumference (the periphery) in the free play of one's individual astral being? Am I close, or reading too much of my own thoughts into your writing?

[Smaragd]

This brings us to the pentagram and the Rose. What I’m running after is the perfect equilibrium between the elements so that being in the circumference and immovable in the center could be simultaneously existent for the practitioner. Trying to find this ideal of truly tantric worship from ones life, I think one might be able to loose being lost, or being solely center, from the sequence.

Ah, the mystic Rose, the goal & secret wealth of the true Rosicrucian!

Before commenting this, I'd like to make sure I understand right the part of your message I put here in cursive. Did you idicate that the the equilibrium of the pentagram (its perfect angles) can be found when the melody of life can simultaneously find its focus (the middle point) and the circumference (the periphery) in the free play of one's individual astral being? Am I close, or reading too much of my own thoughts into your writing?

I was supposed to clarify things, but my thoughts went to the more wildly elaborate direction. Short answer is: I think you understood me right. Longer answer follows.

If by ”one’s astral being” we are marking also linga sharîra, then I think we might be approximately on the same page. I would think linga sharîra as our energetic/vital body carrying the initiatory charges of initiations of the Stars taken and initiations in preparation*. And at the nerve of the moment – relating to ”the free play”, I suppose – we are in touch with the vital body, we are giving answers through** to the feelings that are the red astral, which in turn is hopefully an impression directed by the black astral vision (the black visionary core – a deeply romantic sensibility, or the source of poetry for example – pointing towards the meaning, and being something that is immanently in touch with ”the melody of life”) of the moment. In this interconnected working and tracing the living beautiful meaning (without force, without neurotic chasing etc., but by meditation on our spiritually central concepts and practice throughout the years resulting the flower opening little by little) through the three astrals we might see such ”free play of one’s individual astral being” as a fitting metaphor for the equilibrium in the pentagram connecting to the lower triad. This is my interpretation and zoomed in observation of how the flower connects to the lower triad in the opened up informative illustration of the threefold key. We have talked about these three astrals only superficially before so I’ve had only seeds of you mentioning them, but this is how I see them at the moment. This was quite a techincal way to explain this while it might be more helpful to just speak about a sort of romantic or poetic attitude towards life entwined to the threefold key, but I guess both have their merits.
When it comes to piercing through from the center to the circumference and vice versa and its relation to the pentagram, it seems to me the clarity in the opposing polarities can built the base for finding the perfect angles within the fundamental ideas of Shiva & Shakti.

* I suppose linga sharîra embodies the Celestial energies, or the seeds of the true potential, in realized or unrealized way, the latter of which is the shadow side of the Planets/Stars cast by the imperfection in the angles.

** Just in case I’m writing too densely and high flying manner, I’d like to ground this idea with the following point: We might see the answers within the energetic body are often simultaneously carried forth by the more coarse sensory phenomenas of body movements, speech, all the ethical choices every moment encloses within, but as occultists, and just observing human beings we know these simultaneously coarsely sensory expressions, often coarse by not being able to connect to the common cultural language, ofcourse are not everything that is happening.

[Soror O]

The changing sword you mentioned must be the revolving sword of Genesis. The part where it is mentioned also mentions the "eternal soil": Genesis 3:23-24

I'm not consciously that familiar with Genesis, actually. But these are such universal allegories that they tend to stick easily. They just make sense (as in Vulgar Latin, sennus meaning sense, reason, way).

This fact of the several polar dimensions can be confusing for the aspirant, but it will become clearer once the practice has been done actually & in earnest. When one overcomes the pits of fanaticism, scepticism & all that one-sidedness, he starts to grasp the idea of the added axes in reality. It starts with one axis extrapolating as two: to the Right---Left is added Up---Down, or vice versa. This sublimating function of polar functions (without giving up polarities as an idea, since that remains vital to the end!) goes ever onward not unlike branches in the Tree of Life. Dimensions are added even after we already have a three-dimensional model in the cube, and that is the point where things go really esoteric. That is our pathway to the stars.

My brain can just about crasp the three dimensions, my spirit handels the rest.