Slay thy Lunar Form at will

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Nefastos
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Slay thy Lunar Form at will

Post by Nefastos »

Yesterday we had a Lucifer lodge meeting to discuss The Voice of the Silence, a theosophico-buddhist mystical text. In my presentation, I likened the "lunar body" discussed in the text to the White astral (linga sharîra), while Blavatsky's own footnote likens it to the Red astral (kâma rupa). (Our members who have access to the video of this meeting can find this discussion at 54:00-57:10.)

I consider this topic interesting and important enough to be handled with some more length, since it comes close to the nucleus of one's occult striving, and touching many practical things. It can also be used to point to some tantric principles & the grand symbol of the Moon.

The Voice of the Silence wrote:Before that path is entered, thou must destroy thy lunar body*, cleanse thy mind-body** and make clean thy heart.

Eternal life's pure waters, clear and crystal, with the monsoon tempest's muddy torrents cannot mingle.

Heaven's dew-drop glittering in the morn's first sun-beam within the bosom of the lotus, when dropped on earth becomes a piece of clay; behold, the pearl is now a speck of mire.

Strive with thy thoughts unclean before they overpower thee. Use them as they will thee, for if thou sparest them and they take root and grow, know well, these thoughts will overpower and kill thee. Beware, Disciple, suffer not, e'en though it be their shadow, to approach. For it will grow, increase in size and power, and then this thing of darkness will absorb thy being before thou hast well realized the black foul monster's presence.

Before the "mystic Power"*** can make of thee a god, Lanoo, thou must have gained the faculty to slay thy lunar form at will.

The Self of matter and the SELF of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must disappear; there is no place for both.

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*The astral form produced by the Kâmic principle, the Kâma rûpa or body of desire.
** Mânasa rûpa. The first refers to the astral or personal Self; the second to the individuality or the reincarnating Ego whose consciousness on our plane or the lower Manas — has to be paralyzed.
*** Kundalinî, the "Serpent Power" or mystic fire.

Some of my thoughts on this disintegration of the lunar form can also be found from my commentary to this text ("Hiljaisuuden ääni: Kommentaari ensimmäiseen katkelmaan"), articles 59 & 62. I do not add them here not to make the long post even longer.

MOON is, like I mentioned in my presentation, the common symbol for all the substantial bodies, i.e. any a principle when it is seen as a vehicle. Every receiving aspect is the "moon" in its process of receiving and reflecting. While the Moon correspondence in the Esoteric Instructions (tabulation here) is linga sharîra, this is only one dimension of many. The Moon is similar symbol and name than astral; it has a myriad of uses, forms, and meanings. Some of these are lofty, some low.

Why it is especially interesting to make note of this difference in the context of commenting the Voice of Silence is because it also reveals a slight difference in the schools of Theosophical and Azazelian occultism. It might also be likened to the difference between the tantric schools of Buddhism and Hinduism.

Both of these Moons, the White Moon and the Red Moon, are energy made substantial on a super-physical plane. Linga sharîra, the White lunar body, is immortal in a way that it cannot be actually killed: it is one's permanent physical root, and even if an adept chooses to dismiss that body, it is passed to the world as a half-entitetic being(s) rather than annihilated. Kâma rupa, the Red lunar body, is an illusionary body formed by and consisting of our emotions. Yet its "slaying" cannot be but a metaphor either, since any meditative act of purifying violence targeted into it would only enfuel it: the phantasmal kâma rupa of ours is an Obi-Wan who is only made stronger by striking him down.

By seeking to banish this pesky phantasm the Voice of the Silence uses language that is often apt to summon more anguish than it helps to extinguish. The demand of "slaying" that is so prevalent in the first fragment will not kill out the kâma rupa, quite the contrary. The whole process should be focused elsewhere, and the Moon dealt with in a different manner.

In what manner? Like I mentioned in my presentation, there's another approach in the Occidental occultism involving transsubstantion through the Grail and alchemical process. This path underlines the use of a different Moon body. While it brooks no greater tolerance towards one's egotism, it uses integration rather than extinguishing as its primary instrument.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Angolmois

Re: Slay thy Lunar Form at will

Post by Angolmois »

A synchronicity here for sure, for I have likened the sacrifice of Ódhinn's (left) eye into the well of Mimir also to this process of killing the lunar form at will power, and the myth has been very much present lately. I think it refers to the method of the "old covenant" in the same way that Blavatsky's text does, and there is a certain dualism left in this process. Of course the myth can also be seen depth psychologically in a way that Ódhinn has always one eye glancing into the subconscious astral world of memory where he has "sacrificed his eye" in a way that one has always one's other half piercing the veil of the subconscious and seeing into the akasha. Just last night I tried to "kill my emotions" for certain things.

As a sidenote, I recently had a mystical experience of those "eternal life's pure waters" as a form of an eternal spring of water that emanate from the higher levels of consciousness, "the higher waters" of buddhic levels, the water that Christ also speaks that when one sips from them one will never be thirsty again.
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Smaragd
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Re: Slay thy Lunar Form at will

Post by Smaragd »

The Voice of the Silence wrote: Strive with thy thoughts unclean before they overpower thee. Use them as they will thee--
I think this bit of the quote is very important if we want to bridge the language and imagery of slaying in to that of alchemical transsubstantiation. To use the unclean to serve the Self, is to find a way where the libido inhabiting the low stays alive, but at the same time can be turned to serve ethically pleasing holism. This process I’ve been finding in need of fresh air for the vessel – the Moon – to release some of those energies clinging to form. The athanor need that air to keep the fire going in the alchemical process, and the Hermetic vessel is sealed not for the air to get stale, but to acknowledge the microcosm a whole in itself which then opens up the skies within. I’m thinking this opening up the skies is a significant part of the transsubstantiation of the wine in to the blood of Christ. Such microcosmic acknowledgement also practically approaches Christ as the supreme deity ruling over all the heavenly spheres through the principle of buddhi. Rúnatýrs notion of the eternal spring can be seen an emblem of the same idea paraller to the dew-drops in the bosom of the lotus. The lotus still reaches towards the bottom muds of the waters, or from a alternative wordly perspective can be seen ascending from there.

The power of wielding a blade in an upward striving is one of the most difficult of arts, and thus the language and practice can be taken in a naively straightforward manner that rather falls by the sword. It’s so hard to point to problems with the sword and not fall immediately. Ones intentions can be quite nearly pure, but then the practicality of not fully taking in to consideration all the surrounding nuances will direct the blade in to harm.
Understanding the depth of the philosophy and nuances of the mythical blade and LHP imagery at large should help overcoming the straigtforwardly powerful symbolism and dodging the power trips and actually violent approaches a more dull state of our consciousness might find the inspiration moving towards.
Nefastos wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:42 am In what manner? Like I mentioned in my presentation, there's another approach in the Occidental occultism involving transsubstantion through the Grail and alchemical process. This path underlines the use of a different Moon body. While it brooks no greater tolerance towards one's egotism, it uses integration rather than extinguishing as its primary instrument.
Do you mean the Moon body underlined here is the White lunar body? Could shuch emphasis mean, for example, that slightly more focus is given to the powers and their dynamics within than to the kamic attraction and repulsion? To come back to the allegories, the slight change of focus (still holding to the whole Hieroglyphic Key) could be seen as working the athanor and the substance in the vessel by will. Such changes in ones focus can also be seen in choosing ones spiritual path or recognizing ones dharma and it's possible links to traditions and magical systems that might suggest some slight attunements incorporating the system in to use.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Nefastos
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Re: Slay thy Lunar Form at will

Post by Nefastos »

Smaragd wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:54 pm
The Voice of the Silence wrote:Strive with thy thoughts unclean before they overpower thee. Use them as they will thee--

I think this bit of the quote is very important if we want to bridge the language and imagery of slaying in to that of alchemical transsubstantiation. To use the unclean to serve the Self, is to find a way where the libido inhabiting the low stays alive, but at the same time can be turned to serve ethically pleasing holism.

I thought about commenting this same instruction already above. "Use them as they will thee" is once again pointing to the same practice of making the kâmic energy as the fuel for the process, instead of putting the fire out – which would actually destroy the dynamism as a whole. (Blavatsky would disagree here!)

Smaragd wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:54 pmDo you mean the Moon body underlined here is the White lunar body?

Yes.

Smaragd wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:54 pmCould such emphasis mean, for example, that slightly more focus is given to the powers and their dynamics within than to the kamic attraction and repulsion?

Rather that the pole of kâmic dynamism is to be inverted. Instead of killing the kâma rupa, its pole is placed from the lower triad of self to the higher triad of Self. For any practice that is formed only as a reaction of the lower to the lower, will necessarily keep in to the sphere of the lower: only the higher can actually redeem the lower, and it can never hate it or see it worthless, no more than a parent can see her child. But a parent can see that the child can have issues, and will find some ingenious means to work the issues (karma) into the Work (dharma). This is the alchemist's attitude towards one's inner humunculus-child.

Smaragd wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:54 pmSuch changes in ones focus can also be seen in choosing ones spiritual path or recognizing ones dharma and it's possible links to traditions and magical systems that might suggest some slight attunements incorporating the system in to use.

The eight paths for the esoteric schools are, after all, mostly differences in emphases, as long as it comes to the side of praxis. For since occultism is in itself paradoxical and the same thing can be said, according to situation, in the two completely opposite ways, things come back to how one's inner temperament is (and one wants it to be!) founded. The exceptions are there but they are few.

Rúnatýr wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:51 amA synchronicity here for sure, for I have likened the sacrifice of Ódhinn's (left) eye into the well of Mimir also to this process of killing the lunar form at will power, and the myth has been very much present lately. I think it refers to the method of the "old covenant" in the same way that Blavatsky's text does, and there is a certain dualism left in this process. Of course the myth can also be seen depth psychologically in a way that Ódhinn has always one eye glancing into the subconscious astral world of memory where he has "sacrificed his eye" in a way that one has always one's other half piercing the veil of the subconscious and seeing into the akasha. Just last night I tried to "kill my emotions" for certain things.

This naturally brings to mind the apparently fanatical instruction from the Sermon on the Mount: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." (Matthew 5:29) This is an extremely Right Hand Path teaching, and very much separatistic, but it is also a poetic one. The eye which should be "single" is one's vision of unity instead of discord, and it is only in those "alchemical processes which have the heuristic need for the separation to polarities" (to quote freely from my message just sent into a Finnish discussion about problems in polarizing discussions) where something must be removed. It should be both intuitively and intellectually clear that there is no such thing that absolute unity without separation, unless we speak of some metaphysical God principle – and even then it remains problematic. There's always both separation and unity for the world or a body or an idea to hold itself together & keep functioning. But how one uses these will form steps either upwards or downwards. And in the long run, the emphasis on oneness is the prime method of ascension, while the emphasis on separation is the method for the descending path.

Rúnatýr wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:51 amAs a sidenote, I recently had a mystical experience of those "eternal life's pure waters" as a form of an eternal spring of water that emanate from the higher levels of consciousness, "the higher waters" of buddhic levels, the water that Christ also speaks that when one sips from them one will never be thirsty again.

The "living water of Christ" is a very good and often used symbol for attaining that unity which is formed from making the eye single. It is the great lake of the heart, formed from the snow-melt waters, at the same time as they also pass onwards to the world of others:

"Shalt thou divert the stream for thine own sake, or send it back to its prime source along the crests of cycles? If thou would'st have that stream of hard-earn'd knowledge, of Wisdom heaven-born, remain sweet running waters, thou should'st not leave it to become a stagnant pond." (The Seven Portals)
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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