SUPERNATURAL

March 2, 2013 By

SUPERNATURAL

 

Writings on an Unknown History

By Richard Smoley


Published by Tarcher/Penguin
240 pages, paperback

 Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History


Readers of New Dawn are certainly not strangers to the writing of Richard Smoley. He has been a steady contributor of articles to this magazine for a number of years. His latest book offers a collection of some of those articles as well as a few from other periodicals between the years 1997 and 2012. Altogether, this relatively short volume is composed of 16 separate chapters, each of which is a small gem of its own designed to be fast and enjoyable reading.

While I’m guessing the book’s title is a play on words of P.D. Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, the chapters themselves offer us brief glimpses of a variety of subjects suitable for the novice of metaphysical studies as well as those who have specialised in that area for a long time. Considering myself to be a member of the latter category, I found many delightful and interesting titbits of information of which I had not been aware.

Perhaps what is most engaging about this book is that Smoley gives us insight into some of his own personal experiences in the realm of the supernatural, whether they be direct encounters or accounts related to him by others. With his usual skilful writing ability, he tempts us to go further into our own investigations of subjects like archaic wisdom, Nostradamus, prophecy, The Da Vinci Code, the 2012 phenomenon, Atlantis, Freemasonry, The Course in Miracles, the nature of prayer, and many other areas of study.

Smoley’s knowledge of Greek and Latin enlightens us with definitions with which we may not have been familiar, and add to our understanding of sometimes difficult subject matter. As early as in his Preface, for instance, he gives us the root of the word “esotericism” as coming from the Greek esoterikos, meaning “further in.” This resonated and added to my mundane definition of that word as merely “hidden.”

Whether he’s talking about such diverse ideas as the Kabbalah; Tarot; the Western magical tradition; widening our observing faculties and qualities of attention in the manner taught by G.I. Gurdjieff; C.G. Jung’s world of archetype and synchronicity; the predictions of Edgar Cayce; the astral realm; sacred literature; Priory of Sion; Mayan Calendar; Theosophy; the Rosicrucians; the Kahunas of Hawaii; Gnosticism; Hermeticism; psychic protection; and a host of other fascinating topics, Smoley presents them all in a thoroughly delightful and down-to-earth way.

The author’s thematic stream prods us to develop our own way of finding our true Self, our real “I,” if you will. While there are innumerable methods for this in the “esoteric tradition – the body of knowledge that underlies all the great spiritual traditions of humanity,” Smoley cautions that we cannot necessarily find this in ordinary religion which “involves a relationship with a personal deity.” Perhaps we can only find the useful and correct method for enlightenment in the sacred and secret technology of “real” magic prompted by meditation and directed imagination.

Of course, Smoley admits we are left with many more questions than answers as to the nature of other realms beyond our own that may, indeed, be generating and controlling factors in our day to day lives here on Earth. He reminds us, “We do not know. The evidence would seem to suggest as much. At any rate, I am convinced that we will not understand the rise and fall of civilisations, or history itself, until we do know.”

And, he reiterates, a small step in beginning to crack the barrier to that knowledge is to get in touch with what it is, both within us and outside of us, that “experiencing.” But, he cautions that, “…this is not ordinary ego, with its thoughts and desires and judgements. Why? Because we can step back and look at all these things within ourselves. If we can look even at internal events, what is doing the looking?”

In the final chapter of the book, entitled “The Dual Nature of Reality,” Smoley gives us the goal from the Samkhya, thought to be the oldest of all Indian philosophical systems. It can be, and perhaps should be, the ultimate goal for those of us who are involved in metaphysical pursuits.

He summarises that ancient teaching’s objective and intended result in this way: “The spiritual path, which is for a long time the process of detachment, is a means of gradually separating the ‘I’ from the world, that is, separating consciousness from the contents of its experience. At this point, supreme illumination takes place. The old world falls away, and a new one arises. Such is enlightenment.”

– Reviewed by Alan Glassman in New Dawn 137

Filed Under: Alchemy / Hermeticism, Ancient Wisdom, Gnosticism, Historical Mysteries, Metaphysics / New Age, Occultism / Magick, Western Religion & Philosophy

SECRETS AND PRACTICES OF THE FREEMASONS: SACRED MYSTERIES, RITUALS, AND SYMBOLS REVEALED

October 29, 2011 By

SECRETS AND PRACTICES OF THE FREEMASONS

Sacred Mysteries, Rituals, and Symbols Revealed 

By Jean-Louis de Biasi 32°


Published by Llewellyn Publications
292 pages, paperback

 Secrets & Practices of the Freemasons: Sacred Mysteries, Rituals and Symbols Revealed


Those who have read Dan Brown’s last novel, The Lost Symbol, will be pleased to find specific explanations in this latest book by 32nd Degree Freemason Jean-Louis de Biasi referencing many of the examples Brown gives. And, if you are at all familiar with Washington DC, you are likely to find a new wealth of fascinating metaphysical information about locations and buildings in that capital city of which you were previously unaware.

Not counting the Introduction and Appendix, our author fittingly divides his book into 8 chapters, 8 being an important number to Freemasons.

Chapter 1, entitled “The Masonic Tradition,” deals first with the real function of myth, usually thought of as merely legend or fictional tales. The goal of true myth is seen as giving meaning to life. “The word meaning,” says di Biasi, “indicates that the myth shows the moral values of your life, speaks about your origin, and gives you the direction in which you must go in pursuit of your greater purpose.”

He proceeds to recount a strange 18th century story, based on the first books of the Bible, explaining the origins and founders of Freemasonry. From it, we can begin to glean the relationship between constructing a building and making (or purifying and refining) one’s soul.

In keeping with the metaphor of a worker’s skill in masonry, we are told that the objective is to look for “the hidden stone within in order to work on it” (my emphasis). It’s the same as using the analogy of making the “philosopher’s stone, an alchemical substance that could transmute lead into gold and even confer immortality to its owner.” Put in still another way, we might say the essential goal of Freemasonry is to reveal the “key for understanding the search for the philosopher’s stone, which will become the cornerstone on which you will raise the temple.”

The Neo-Platonist Plotinus is quoted from his Enneads, in essence saying that the secret stone, the soul, is imprisoned in you and it is necessary “to go deep inside your own self” to find it. Your soul has descended into the material world (your body), and you must work to “remember” its divine origin by “moving aside the veils of illusions of this world.” The process of the various initiations in Masonry can help you accomplish this.

The initiate must first die to this world in order to be resurrected into a state of consciousness where the temple can be rebuilt. The temple, of course, is your own body. Fittingly, the end of the first chapter recounts the famous Egyptian myth of the resurrection of Osiris.

Chapter 2, beginning symbolically on page 33, takes us on a Qabalistic and Hermetic ride through Washington DC, highlighting the House of the Temple (pictured in Figure No. 8), the national headquarters of the Supreme Council 33rd Degree, a building which plays a prominent role in Dan Brown’s novel. We are given a diagram of the layout of a typical Masonic lodge, and we begin to see that the Mall of the capital city itself is laid out as a giant reproduction of the floor plan of a lodge.

Chapter 3, “The Widow’s Sons,” speaks to us of a prophecy about the present time when “the gods would leave the earth and go back to the sky. And so the earth became widowed of the gods.” The earth also constitutes our own physical bodies which have “lost vision of the inner presence of the divine” and are, thus, unbalanced. It is the goal of Freemasonry to return to the state of the Hermetic motto and the Lord’s Prayer: “As above, so below” and “On earth as it is in heaven…”

Chapter 4 is full of geometric attributes applicable to Washington DC, including Vitruvius’s 2-dimensional gnomon (sundial) geometry, which he suggested should be used for organising a new city, as well as the placement and design of the US Capitol building and the Library of Congress. We are told that the Scottish Rite Degrees reorganised by Albert Pike show an interconnection between the various fields of Western Esotericism: Theosophical, Hermetic, Rosicrucian, Pagan, Wiccan, etc., and we are reminded that the “Great Architect of the Universe is inside its creation, not outside.”

We are told to recall the Hiram Abif myth, presented in the first chapter, and its account of the loss of the sacred Word (our connection to divine truth, as in John 1:1-5). The lost Word(s) is our original heritage, an understanding of the knowledge given in the sacred literature so as to be able “to overcome death, to come back to heaven, and to reach the highest transformation called apotheosis.”

It’s in Chapter 4 that we are shown nine geometric symbols representing the different steps in the ascent of the soul back to its source: from #1 the Circumpunct to #9 the Gnomon. The upward pointing Washington Monument obelisk above ground with its downward pointing image in the reflecting pool as seen from the Lincoln Memorial is a representation of our return from imprisonment in the “jail” of this world to our rightful “homeland.”

Chapter 5 reveals the Masonic organisational structure and the Rose-Cross, and Chapter 6 begins with the transcription of an interview with noetic scientist Dr. Jaden Francis Ward on the untapped potential of the human mind. Later in this chapter, we are again reminded that, “the true object of the work is ourselves,” and is “about polishing your own stone.”

We are shown that the key to the use of symbols is creative visualisation. It’s the cornerstone of real esoteric work. The Masonic Meditation is given, we are told of the importance of the mysterious letter G, and this is followed in Chapter 7 with explanations of the ritual practices in some of the higher degrees.

Chapter 8 is devoted to thought-form exercises that we can use while we are actually at some of the locations on the Washington DC Mall. It’s a walking pilgrimage of sorts that acquaints us with the “hidden portals” mentioned in The Lost Symbol. De Biasi says, “There are several gates in Washington DC that allow the transfer of the energy that is accumulated on the spiritual plane to be directed to a gate in Washington DC in the physical world. Of course, each gate has a special key…. This process and its associated keys are true for other cities” as well.

We must not neglect the Appendix of the book. It includes Albert Pike’s Masonic Decalogue (the Ten Commandments for initiates) excerpted from his great work Morals and Dogma, as well as pictures of the Hermetic Tree of Life (the Sephiratic Tree of the Qabalah), the hexagram symbol for the higher degree practice Knight of the Sun, and the keys to various Masonic cyphers. In addition, the Glossary covers many terms also used by Dan Brown, from “Abramelin” and “Alchemy” to the “Zohar.”

While I feel the short Index at the end of the book could be much more complete, Secrets and Practices of the Freemasons is a formidable volume in the sense that the casual reader will no doubt be in awe of the breadth of information, while the seasoned esotericist (and especially those initiated into The Craft) will find new meaning and inspiration in what M. de Biasi has put forth. Much is given here for “he who has eyes to see and ears to hear.” This is a truly rewarding book for the knowledge seeker and the practitioner alike.

– Reviewed by Alan Glassman in New Dawn 129

Filed Under: Ancient Wisdom, Western Religion & Philosophy

EMBODYING OSIRIS

February 21, 2011 By

EMBODYING OSIRIS

The Secrets of Alchemical Transformation 

By Thom F. Cavalli, Ph.D.


Published by Quest Books
256 pages, paperback

 Embodying Osiris: The Secrets of Alchemical Transformation

I find it rare to encounter a book that’s both scholarly and profound, but I must include Embodying Osiris by Thom Cavalli in both those categories.

Obviously a seasoned student of the Jungian tradition, Dr. Cavalli dissects the Osiris myth in great detail and takes a close look at the alchemical significance of this important story. We become familiar with the gods and goddesses who are the characters in the drama, and we learn their deep meanings in relation to the human psyche.

Ancient Egypt and its deities are shown to be a reflection of not only the entire cosmos, but of our most internal psychological workings. In a way, the Osiris tale of birth, dismemberment, death, and resurrection is a tale of the possibility for the human being played out through the unconscious realm.

It is a metaphor incorporating “the alchemical methods involved in transforming living spirit into physical matter.” As such, Cavalli interprets the life of Osiris as being a representation of the three major alchemical stages: the nigredo (black), the albedo (white), and the rubedo (red). In fact, an alternate title for the book could have been the title of his second chapter: “Alchemy, Magic, and Osiris.”

Cavalli equates the Egyptian underworld with today’s idea of the unconscious. He tells us right up front that our “imagination allows us to experience Egypt and its gods as states of mind and psychic functions rather than well-developed gods whose identities were defined by more recent cultures.”

“Egypt,” he says, “is located somewhere between imagination and mystery.”

In the first two chapters of the book, we get a general overview of why the myth was important to the Egyptians and why it should be important to us. In order to really receive its truths, the author implores us to “embody” the god, not just study him, because “Osiris is the god of being and becoming.” He exists in the unconscious, and our task is to resurrect him.

Resurrection in that sense is a “method of achieving unity of body, mind, and spirit.” And, in order to do that, we must first, as with the gods, “step into the abyss of nonexistence.” One technique to accomplish this, and perhaps the most powerful technique, is to bring the warring opposites within us to peaceful resolution. Not at all an easy task.

In chapters three through ten, Dr. Cavalli quotes successive portions of a version of the myth and proceeds to analyse them in Jungian, archetypal terms. We come to see Osiris as the past and his son, Horus, as the future; Seth as the divine trickster, black magician, and alchemist who sets up the conditions of the physical world in which the magic can take place; Thoth as the magician who conjoins the opposites; Isis as the mother goddess, the feminine principle which furthers inner transformation; and so on with each of the Neters. In a nutshell, and to use agricultural growth as a metaphor, Osiris is the seed, Isis the earth in which the seed is planted, Seth the heat of the sun necessary for germination, and Horus the resulting, growing plant.

The story highlights successive battles between the protagonists “resulting in critical separation that helped form a psyche composed of consciousness and unconsciousness.” The goal, of course, is individuation, both of a culture and of individuals within the culture.

Reference to the action of lead in the alchemical process is likened to tribulations in this life. But, those difficulties must be recognised as the limiting, constricting forces against which we must struggle. Cavalli tells us that only, “Through conscious suffering, one confronts and transforms the shadow into something productive to the individuation process.”

The sealed coffin or box in which Osiris is put represents, of course, the alchemical retort, the vas hermeticum, our own body within which our transformation can take place. Cavalli says, “The box is sometimes depicted as a skull or vas mentalis, where the chief elements and stages of the Work are insulated from outside contamination.”

Throughout the text, Cavalli gives us anonymous examples of the reintegration process in patients he has treated, and this serves to make the myth even more real and relevant. He gives us hope by stating, “To experience a complete transformation of the personality within one’s lifetime is entirely possible.”

There are times in life when, as with Osiris in his coffin, we are alone, denied, cut off from the world of family and friends. All may seem lost. “But”, Cavalli concludes, “as long as we are aware of our own presence, hope remains, and at our darkest hour, some mysterious force in the universe comes to our side…. Fearless humility is a necessary quality, along with stillness, to allow grace to enter the vessel we have prepared.”

This book, in my opinion, is a valuable contribution to the body of literature concerned with work on oneself. It is in the finest of the Hermetic traditions. I recommend it to those who are interested in both the theory and practice of self-transformation.

– Reviewed by Alan Glassman in New Dawn 125

Filed Under: Alchemy / Hermeticism, Ancient Wisdom

THE LIFE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF G.I. GURDJIEFF

December 7, 2010 By

THE LIFE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF G.I. GURDJIEFF, Parts I, II & III

Directed, Written & Narrated by William Patrick Patterson

Published by Arete Communications
3 DVDs, 226 minutes

Directed, written and narrated by William Patrick Patterson, this remarkable documentary series covers the life and teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, one of the greatest and most enigmatic spiritual teachers who ever lived.

Patterson is the founder/director of the Gurdjieff Studies Program, and has written a number of important books on The Fourth Way, including Eating the ‘I’ and Struggle of the Magicians.

A genuine authority on Gurdjieff and his work, Patterson is not only a gifted author but, as he’s proven with this series, an equally gifted film-maker.

The series consists of three DVDs, each around eighty minutes in duration (making a total running time of 226 minutes). Each DVD is a separate chapter of the story, so to speak, covering a different period in Gurdjieff’s life and the lives of his students.

In Part I, Gurdjieff in Egypt: The Origin of Esoteric Knowledge, Patterson begins his journey in Cairo, Egypt. It is here, we are told, that Gurdjieff arrived in 1895, while searching for ancient esoteric knowledge. His search had taken him to many remote and dangerous parts of the world, including Siberia, Tibet, the Hindu Kush, and even as far as the Solomon Islands.

Patterson explains that Gurdjieff, hoping to contact the Sarmoung, a secret brotherhood founded in Babylon, unexpectedly met an Armenian priest from whom he acquired a map of pre-sand Egypt. The map filled Gurdjieff with great excitement, though the reason for this remains unclear. It’s likely, concludes Patterson, that the map featured the Great Sphinx of Giza, thereby proving that the monument existed at a time when Egypt was not yet covered in sand.

During his spiritual mission in Egypt, Gurdjieff sought the answer to a very important question: “What is the sense and significance of organic life on Earth, and human life in particular?”

Patterson takes us on a tour of several ancient Egyptian temples that Gurdjieff himself visited and studied more than a hundred years ago, including the Temple of Man, the Temple of Karnak and the Temple of Edfu.

According to Patterson, it’s likely that Gurdjieff translated some of the hieroglyphic texts found on the walls of the Temple of Edfu, and that this information made its way into Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, the first of his three legominisms, known collectively as All and Everything. (A legominism is a way of preserving esoteric knowledge so that it remains undistorted throughout time. A good example is the Great Pyramid of Giza.)

Patterson reveals that the teaching of the Fourth Way, described by Gurdjieff as “esoteric Christianity,” did not originate in Central Asia, as is mistakenly assumed, but in prehistoric Egypt. In other words, the Egypt that existed before 4000 BCE – what Gurdjieff referred to as the Egypt that “we do not know,” as opposed to the one we’re familiar with.

Although this is clearly not a big budget documentary series, it’s nonetheless of a very high quality. It’s clear to see that a great deal of time, energy, passion and research went into the making of it. Gurdjieff’s story is presented in a clear, well-organised and extremely compelling manner.

In Part II, Gurdjieff’s Mission: Introducing the Teaching to the West, we find Patterson in St. Petersburg, Russia, where Gurdjieff arrived in 1912 with the aim of attracting students and establishing a Fourth Way institute.

Gurdjieff believed that this was the ideal location from which to spread the teaching to the West. It was in St. Petersburg that Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky first met and began working together.

Patterson spreads light on the challenging relationship between Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, one that proved not to last. He mentions how Gurdjieff, in an attempt to break through to Ouspensky’s emotional centre, occasionally treated Ouspensky in what was perceived to be a non-rational manner – what is known as ‘divine acting’ – such as by blaming him for problems he didn’t cause.

Due to the Russian Revolution, which began in 1917, the country was thrown into a state of turmoil, with inflation, suicide, famine, disease and civil war. Fearing for their safety, Gurdjieff and his students were forced to flee the country, ending up in the city of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey) and eventually France.

On a property not far from Paris, Gurdjieff finally established his Institute For the Harmonious Development of Man. Patterson takes us on a tour of the property, a large chateau, meanwhile explaining the day to day activities of Gurdjieff and his students. Students were required to rise early and work for most of the day, while constantly being aware of themselves in an effort to combat their mechanical behaviour.

The documentary series features music composed by Gurdjieff in collaboration with the Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann, one of his principal students. The music is beautiful and unique, and adds nicely to the overall mood of the series.

Gurdjieff believed, explains Patterson, that the earth had reached a critical stage in its evolution, and that the eastern world would again soon rise to a position of power. He further believed “that unless the energy of the West and the wisdom of the East can be harnessed and used harmoniously, the earth will destroy itself.”

So as to prevent this disaster from occurring, said Gurdjieff, the teaching of the Fourth Way was greatly needed at this time. He envisioned a process by which his students, having eventually developed themselves into truly conscious beings, would then assist others to develop themselves, and so on, until a larger percentage of humanity was awake, resulting in greater harmony on earth.

The final documentary in the series, Gurdjieff’s Legacy: Establishing the Teaching in the West, is perhaps the most interesting and touching of the three.

We are told of Gurdjieff’s near fatal car crash in 1924, which put him in a coma for days, and which, he insisted, “was not an accident.” Also covered is another saddening event – the closing of Gurdjieff’s Institute, which occurred due to financial reasons.

The viewer cannot help being drawn into, and emotionally affected by, Gurdjieff’s story. It made me realise just how demanding and challenging his spiritual mission was.

I was surprised to learn that Gurdjieff and the occultist Aleister Crowley had in fact met on one occasion. After having stayed at the Institute for a brief period of time, Gurdjieff told Crowley never to return, saying he was “dirty inside” (a fairly accurate description of the man).

Patterson places a lot of emphasis on Gurdjieff’s relationships with his students. None of these relationships were straight forward or without friction. Among his most famous and influential students were A.R. Orage, J.G. Bennett, Margaret Anderson and Maurice Nicoll.

Orage, a British intellectual and editor of the magazine The New Age, assisted in the publications of Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Orage eventually split with Gurdjieff – just as Ouspensky and Bennett had – choosing family life over the opportunity to work more closely with his teacher.

The documentary ends, of course, with Gurdjieff’s death in 1949. Proving that he practised what he preached, Gurdjieff is said to have died like a king.

Patterson has produced an outstanding documentary series, a true work of art, worthy of the major award it received at the WorldFest International Film Festival. It’s powerful, profound and absorbing and certainly worthy of multiple viewings.

I expect that many will come away from this series with a strong desire to learn as much as they can about Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way.

– Reviewed by Louis Proud in New Dawn 124

Filed Under: Ancient Wisdom, Eastern Religion & Philosophy, Western Religion & Philosophy

EATING THE ‘I’

November 8, 2010 By

EATING THE ‘I’

A Direct Account of the Fourth Way – The way of Using Ordinary Life to Come to Real Life

By William Patrick Patterson

Published by Arete Communications
408 pages, paperback

For readers of New Dawn, the enigmatic mystic and spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff needs little introduction. Like many others, I was first introduced to Gurdjieff’s ideas through P.D Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous, a work of great clarity and accessibility. Ouspensky’s book, which many consider a spiritual classic, helped bring the teachings of the Fourth Way to a wider audience.

Comparable in importance is William Patrick Patterson’s Eating the ‘I’, first published in 1991 and republished several times since. An authority on Gurdjieff’s teachings, Patterson is the founder and director of the Gurdjieff Studies Program, and has written a number of important books on the Fourth Way.

Eating the ‘I’ is a spiritual autobiography that reads with the fluidity and beauty of a novel. It covers the time that Patterson spent as a member of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York, run by the late Lord John Pentland, and the profound inner transformation he underwent as a result. Appointed by Gurdjieff to lead the Work in America, Pentland was president of the Gurdjieff Foundation from 1973 until his death in 1984.

At the beginning of the book, Patterson describes how he came to become a student of the strict and intimidating Pentland. Having gone bankrupt in a failed business deal, Patterson, depressed, unemployed and unmotivated, began to question his true identity. He asked himself, “Who was this ‘I’?” Not long afterwards, and quite auspiciously, Patterson met a writer by the name of Peter Rowley, who happened to know Pentland. Through Rowley, Patterson arranged to have a meeting with Pentland.

The meeting affected Patterson in a powerful way, forcing him to look at himself with greater honesty. In a compelling and often amusing manner, Patterson gives a detailed account of what took place during the many regular meetings he attended as a member of Pentland’s group. He describes Pentland as a remarkable teacher, possessed of great wisdom and insight: “His answers were always spare, precise, right to the point, yet they weren’t linear. They always seemed to come from a place above the question. He always gave a perspective I’d never considered.”

Eating the ‘I’ is an extremely honest book, filled with sadness, love, lust, humour, joy, conflict and everything else that makes us human.

Patterson bears his soul, revealing the many ‘I’s’ that make up his character – for, as Gurdjieff taught, we are not one ‘I’, but many.

Since the Fourth Way is the way of transformation in ordinary life – Patterson’s spiritual journey, his journey of ‘self remembrance’, concerns the events of his everyday existence, including his relationship with his wife, his difficulties at work and so on.

By following Patterson’s remarkable journey, one gets a sense of how, by properly applying the teachings of the Fourth Way, it is possible to live in a higher state of awareness and control. Which is not to imply, of course, that Patterson’s path is an easy one; quite the opposite, in fact. Patterson encounters a number of difficulties and obstacles on the spiritual path, all of which test and challenge him.

Thankfully, Patterson does not pretend to be a saint; nor does he pretend that Pentland is a saint. Unlike most of us, who would rather not reveal our weaknesses and faults, Patterson is extremely candid in every respect.

As the book reveals, Patterson’s relationship with Pentland was not an easy one. Throughout the book, he struggles to form a closer bond with his teacher, whom he occasionally refers to as his ‘spiritual father’. He even questions Pentland’s authority on a number of occasions. Like Gurdjieff before him, Pentland’s role was that of a ‘mirror’, who helped his students to see themselves as they actually are, not as they imagined themselves to be.

What makes this book particularly charming are its many humorous anecdotes, all of them well told and extremely entertaining.

One of my favourites is when Patterson, in an attempt to combat his mechanical conditioning by using a technique called ‘acting otherwise’, tries to arrange the cheapest funeral possible for his late father – an act that goes against his nature. He describes the incident: “Visibly shocked, even a might horrified at my lack of respect for the nature of the occasion, the undertaker’s pop eyes stared into mine. I must be the cruellest, most heartless son-of-a bitch on earth. But such judgements did not sell coffins.”

This is, without a doubt, one of the most compelling books I have ever read. Patterson is an extremely gifted author and a brilliant storyteller, incapable of writing a dull sentence.

Eating the ‘I’ is a delightful gem of a read. I cannot recommend it enough. Few spiritual books have captured my interest and attention with such force. Even for those who have little interest in the teachings of the Fourth Way, it is bound to entertain and enlighten.

– Reviewed by Louis Proud in New Dawn 123

Filed Under: Ancient Wisdom, Eastern Religion & Philosophy, Western Religion & Philosophy

THE FUTURE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

September 8, 2010 By

THE FUTURE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Essays on the History of Consciousness

By Jeremy Naydler

Published by Inner Traditions
320 pages, paperback

 The Future of the Ancient World: Essays on the History of Consciousness

The Future of the Ancient World is a serious study that sheds light on the evolution of consciousness from antiquity to modern times and is abound with breathtaking insights into the mind of the ancients and how their thought systems evolved into ours.

Perhaps more pointedly, it indicates how much modern man has lost and how shallow our lives are in comparison with our ancient forebears.

The book consists of twelve essays that examine developments in human consciousness that occurred over the past five thousand years that regular history books do not touch on and we only glimpse briefly in the classics of Homer and his contemporaries.

Jeremy Naydler is a philosopher who specialises in the religious life of ancient cultures and his essays deftly reveal the fact that in ancient times, human beings were attuned to the invisible world of the gods, spirits and ancestors, and this attunement enriched their lives in ways modern man cannot fully grasp.

Today we assume such abilities to be the territory of adepts and psychics, yet in ancient times the veil between the worlds was transparent enough for most people to receive glimpses to these other worlds.

We live in a world where our modern scientific consciousness regards what is physically imperceptible as unreal. Our experience of the natural world has shifted from an awareness of the divine presence animating and inspiring all things to a mechanical analysis of physical attributes.

Did the ancients have something invaluable that we have lost? It seems the clues lie in ancient myths and stories from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and the early Christian period.

As a working clairvoyant myself, who has always been able to “see” spiritual beings, I am often envied by others for having what they believe is a unique or at least special gift, yet our ancient forebears knew that sight was not the primary key to spiritual understanding, but rather audio.

The first essay traces the historical process by which the sense of sight usurped the sense of hearing as the primary metaphor of human mental functions. It seems we have become accustomed to thinking of our mental processes as “insights” that we assume humanity has always done so.

In the ancient civilisation of Sumeria, which flourished in Iraq during the late fourth and early third millenniums BCE, it seems the ear was the organism that corresponded in its functioning most closely to that of the mind, writes Jeremy Naydler.

“Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, who was said to know all things, was described as ‘he whose ears are wide open’.” Likewise, the Goddess Inanna, as she entered the underworld, was said to have “opened her ear to the Great Below.” The words for “the mind” and “the ear” were in fact identical. This same pattern runs through ancient Egypt where the divine gift of hearing was the basis of perception of spiritual truth, writes Naydler.

The Greeks first introduced the eye as the primary metaphor of mental function. In Homer, we begin to see the first signs as he writes about the “bright-eyed” Athene who intervened in the thoughts of the heroes. Her symbol was the wide-eyed owl, a creature that can see in the dark.

Naydler suggests we have lost much in our adherence to sight rather than sound as the metaphor for gaining spiritual insight. He suggests the cultivation of the art of listening is one of the surest ways of developing a more open, responsive and contemplative mode of relating to the world.

In this well detailed book, Naydler also explores our changing perception of weather, of space and finally how ancient perceptions were molded into our modern conceptions of Christ, angels and God.

Jeremy Naydler shows how the consciousness that prevailed in ancient times may inspire us towards a future in which we once again reconnect with invisible realms.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book, and beg the serious student of consciousness not to dismiss it because of the non-descript title. The future of the ancient world lies in the minds of us all, and Jeremy Naydler enjoins us to consider deeply before we dismiss ancient thought as irrelevant, because our future may depend on us embracing the gems hidden within ancient wisdom.

Not so many years ago, people listened within and studied the inner voices and urges of their subconscious minds. Today far too many of us run off to ask these questions of psychics and clairvoyant tarot card readers, simply because we assume they have an ability we do not. This is a huge mistake, and may render us all spiritually blind if we do not reconsider.

This collection of essays is packed full of gems and amazing insights, and it’s certainly a book I will re-read and use for reference. It is illustrated with various diagrams and has copious endnotes and references. Perhaps most importantly, Jeremy Naydler stretches the mind, and makes us question our own thinking, and for that we should all be truly grateful.

– Reviewed by Lesley Crossingham in New Dawn 122

Filed Under: Ancient Civilisations & Enigmas, Ancient Wisdom

ART AND SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION

June 7, 2010 By

ART AND SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION

The Seven Stages of 
Death and Rebirth

By Finley Eversole, Ph.D.


Published by Inner Traditions
400 pages, paperback

 Art and Spiritual Transformation: The Seven Stages of Death and Rebirth

The role of art in the modern era is hotly debated. For many contemporary artists, creation is simply a tool of self-expression, for others it is a political or socio-economic statement, and for a few it offers spiritual solace and wisdom.

In ancient times, art depicted the unknowable mysteries of life, such as the primordial shamanic cave paintings seen in France and other parts of Europe. The same spiritual energy, or zeitgeist, was later channelled by the Church into educating the illiterate about the marvellous stories of creation and the biblical message for humanity.

Later, as kings and emperors usurped the Church’s grip on power, art represented the mighty and powerful, to encourage patriotism. Perhaps the most famous painting encapsulating this image is one of Napoleon Bonaparte, sword aloft, on horseback victoriously riding into the future.

With the advent of the camera, and the immediacy of the front-page news photo, art was free to find new pathways and it became more personal and expressive. Yet the ancient link, the representation of the sacred, remains the golden thread weaving through the spiritual body of art.

This element can often be a surprise to those who do not understand the inner spiritual journey or the archetypal journey of the artist.

In Art and Spiritual Transformation, author Finley Eversole examines this sometimes obscure golden thread as he explores the seven stages of death and rebirth through art.

He believes transformational art offers a journey that takes the “darkened soul” or perhaps sleeping soul to the awakening light of spiritual illumination.

Eversole’s book begins with an overview of the history of art, and then moves rapidly to well known 20th century artists such as Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, as well as modern visionary artists such as Alex Grey and Ernst Fuchs.

Many readers of New Dawn will attest that the spiritual journey, whether we are aware of it or not, is the authentic path each of us walks in life. Most acknowledge this, but we tend to separate this inner journey from the day-to-day demands of life.

Most artists attest that when a desire arises to create, be it painting, writing, or any other art form, they enter a desert to wrest with unseen energies and suddenly seem to receive a creative spark. For many this comes after many hours of labour; for others it seems to float into the mind as if from another dimension.

Even more surprising is that when we try to lose ourselves, or find solace in our art or creativity, we instead enter into a soul journey which reveals more about ourselves than any comment we may attempt to make about the world.

Finley Eversole’s book offers an insightful study of art that reveals the influences of ancient Egypt, India, China and alchemy. Perhaps most importantly, he draws on philosophy, myth and literature to explain the seven stages of spiritual death and rebirth via art.

This includes the journey of self-loss, the infamous “dark night of the soul” journey into the underworld, the conflict within, and the final stage of full reintegration of consciousness on a higher plane of being. The result is ecstasy, transfiguration, illumination and liberation.

Just as the shaman painters who created the ancient cave masterpieces intuitively foresaw the great herds of deer or buffalo long before they entered the valley where the tribe lived, so artists of today psychically receive images and information from the great collective and express them in their work.

Eversole points to several examples of this in contemporary artists whose work unconsciously channels images and patterns from the deep collective subconscious. One such artist is Robert Smithson (1938–1973) who explored spirals in his work.
Artworks with the spiral pattern indicate the eternal and ancient labyrinth that leads us out of the maze of confusion into the spiritual work of reaching the higher self. Eversole points to the fact that as Smithson created these works in the 1970s there was a huge push from the collective to explore the spiritual journey more consciously.

Eversole offers many examples of contemporary artists expressing the needs, desires, unconscious or otherwise, of the great collective’s inner ache for meaning. He believes that artists, aware of this or not, automatically tap into this body of desire and express it in ways that speak to us all. In short, says Eversole, artists are the contemporary shamans of old, and the walls of the caves have become trendy little galleries serving low-fat lattes.

As an artist myself, I am indebted to this wonderful, personal and touching book by Finley Eversole. It made me return to studying my own work from a new perspective.

Looking back through my portfolio, I discovered that nine months or so before the 9/11 conflagration I was painting and creating pieces on the tumbling tower from the Tarot deck. The Tower is one of the Major Arcana, and symbolises the destruction of old edifices and the need to destroy what no longer works in our lives.

You do not have to be an artist to enjoy and receive the rich offerings of Art and Spiritual Transformation. I believe you will see art and your own creative expressions with different eyes once you have studied it. It is indeed a book to be studied, delved into and intuitively opened to certain pages when the time is right.

This book is definitely a “must have” for any aspiring artist, both of fine arts and prose, as it reveals in very clear terms the link between image, archetype and reality. It is a large book, beautifully illustrated with many plates and images from various artists. Each page is divided with a large margin in which quotes and insights from such notables as H.P. Blavatsky, Li Po and Alice Bailey, are recorded to support the information explored.

Finley Eversole, Ph.D. brings his wide and eclectic wisdom to this book. He has lectured widely on the arts, philosophy, metaphysics and creativity. He has collaborated with Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, W.H. Auden and Alfred H. Barr Jr on various works.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone wishing to explore the creative and unconscious side to the journey of spiritual awakening. It is a delightfully written book with lots of personal touches, but perhaps most importantly it asks us to delve deep into our psyche and explore the rhythms, patterns and unconscious urges that truly govern our lives.

With our collective eyes fixed intently on the shifting patterns and prophesies of 2012, it is finally time for each of us to study the inner artist and gain a deeper and more personal insight into the bigger picture.

– Reviewed by Lesley Crossingham in New Dawn 120

Filed Under: Ancient Wisdom, Metaphysics / New Age

THE DICE GAME OF SHIVA

April 7, 2010 By

THE DICE GAME OF SHIVA

How Consciousness Creates the Universe

By Richard Smoley


Published by New World Library
240 pages, paperback

 The Dice Game of Shiva: How Consciousness Creates the Universe

Some might hesitate, or at least pause before daring to explore consciousness, knowing we are using a culturally, ethnically and socially conditioned – and therefore restricted – mind to do so.

For millennia, the endeavour was considered so preposterous that musings and insights into the essence of consciousness were hidden in metaphor and legend, most notably the story of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati.

The wonderful and tantalising story has been studied for generations. It centres on a delightful and somewhat saucy game of dice between the almighty lord of the universe, Shiva – a God that “no living being can overcome” – and his consort who declares that only she can overcome the mighty Shiva.

After a long battle with the dice, the beautiful Parvati wins and waltzes off with Shiva’s vestiges of office, leaving him with only a loincloth. At first blush this could be a story read in any supermarket-tabloid about a modern divorce settlement, but our story has a twist.

The ancient legend recounts that the God quietly, and without complaint, withdraws and becomes an ascetic, meditating in solitary peace in the forest.

Parvati is victorious yet very soon feels lonely and frustrated without him. She finds him alone in the forest and tries to win him back, and so begins the famous legend that continues to roll back and forth just like dice on a board.

It is this ancient legend that forms the backbone of Richard Smoley’s latest book, and he uses this delightful story as a cipher to explore consciousness.

Richard Smoley has over thirty years of experience studying and practicing esoteric traditions. Currently the editor of Quest Books and executive editor of Questmagazine, his other works include Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions (with Jay Kinney), Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition, The Essential Nostradamus, Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism, andConscious Love: Insights from Mystical Christianity.

A compelling parallel can be found between the dice game of Shiva and Albert Einstein’s quip, “God does not play dice with the universe.” As the author points out, it appears the myth is saying, “that God not only plays dice with the universe, but constantly loses.” Of course, this begs the question, why is Shiva lured into this seductive game? How could he lose? And perhaps more importantly, how does Parvati win?

Shiva represents consciousness, in a more universal sense rather than simple human awareness. Parvati represents prakriti or the contents of consciousness experienced in its internal and external forms. Esoteric Christianity calls this the “world.”

At the beginning of the story, Shiva and Parvati are locked in union; therefore, there is no distinction between consciousness and its contents, and there is no world. The dice game is introduced which symbolises the beginning of manifestation. It seems we cannot have manifestation or a reality without an element of discord.

Consciousness – how to describe it or the way our minds interact with it – has long been debated, and many philosophers believe the question of truly understanding it is fundamentally insoluble. Richard Smoley ventures into this labyrinth and uncovers many hidden treasures secreted within this particular legend.

After losing the game, and seemingly losing his powers, Shiva accepts the defeat with a mere shrug of his shoulders and then withdraws into the forest to meditate. This element of the story reveals that consciousness can detach itself from its experience, it can free itself from its own contents, withdrawing into a peaceful state.

Generally, we do not experience this state as our individual ‘consciousness’ tends to be very narrow and fenced in with rigid distinctions. Richard Smoley points out that enlightenment, it would seem, “lies precisely in the recognition of this truth.”
Hundreds of books describe or analyse the pathway to enlightenment, but few truly begin to unravel the inner mystery of consciousness itself, and of course there are many who declare it an impossible task.

It seems that those of us with unenlightened consciousness, like Parvati, have won the dice and the spoils of the battle but have actually lost the bigger game.

It is Parvati’s desire to return to her lord Shiva that inspires us all, but most importantly, reveals and defines our own inner longing. The hunger within cannot be assuaged, no matter how much we indulge in the desires of the body and the lures of the material world. This hunger is exemplified by the actions of Parvati in our story.

Western religion is poorer for lacking such a legend, as the inner hunger for peace and the cessation of inner and outer war is something we are told can be overcome with prayer and other austerities. While the biblical story of Adam and Eve describes a fall from grace, the core issue of consciousness itself is unacknowledged.

Richard Smoley believes that consciousness may become the focal point of civilisation in the third millennium because although we have gained a higher standard in material terms, the inner thirst remains unquenched.

In the end, writes Richard Smoley, the quest to know ourselves outstrips any pragmatic applications. In the biblical story of Genesis, the serpent told Adam and Eve that the fruit of the tree of knowledge would ensure their godhood because they would know good and evil. That was not a lie, writes Smoley, although he “did not…. spell out all the consequences of this act.”

This is why the ancient Gnostics saw the serpent as a figure of liberation. This is why Odysseus chose to know the Sirens’ song even though it caused him untold anguish, because he simply needed to know. It seems we need to also know darkness and pain and recognise we are still as Shiva, quietly meditating in the forest of inner peace.

“I’ve often thought that the purpose of humanity is to collectively experience the full range of possibilities available on this earth,” writes Smoley, sounding a little reminiscent of the 60s Jim Morrison.

He acknowledges there is something within us telling that no matter what the world thinks of our achievements, they inevitably amount to nothing more than illusions within a dream. In the midst of it all remains consciousness, “awake or asleep, enlightened or deluded, everywhere cramped and constrained yet also eternally infinite and unstained, just as Shiva perpetually loses the dice game, while actually losing nothing.”

I highly recommend The Dice Game of Shiva to any serious student of conscious enlightenment as well as anyone who has acknowledged that inner longing.

– Reviewed by Lesley Crossingham in New Dawn 119

Filed Under: Ancient Wisdom, Eastern Religion & Philosophy