Awakening & Other Esoteric Thoughts

Birth

I desire birth.

I am ready to be burned and consumed; for that

is what birth is.

I am ready to be naked and unprotected and to

suffer from my nakedness; for that is what

life is.

I am ready to make the pilgrimage through matter

in darkness and in fire, so that the circle of the

uncreate shall become one with the circle of the

create.

The ordeal of fire which comes upon the soul immediately that the desire for birth is experienced, and continues while man remains man only, is the burning out and consuming of all alloy in the nature. When this is accomplished, the ego can effect the miracle of resurrection and re-birth into a higher state, and can begin to form a regenerated shape which shall be worthy of immortality.

It is the emotions which admit you to the citadel of the soul; it is through the heart that you reach yourself. It is through love you must learn. Dwell upon this miraculous thing, cultivate it, study it. Take your heart and all its emotions, divest them of all covering and gaze upon them. Gaze on your heart unflinchingly and learn of it.

The disciple who would enter the School of Love must pass through a severe preparation, and must have attained possession of the five qualities:

First, the Capacity for Faith, or Unconscious Knowledge.

Second, the Divine Confidence, or Hope Inextinguishable.

Third, the Gift of Charity.

Forth, the Power of Pure Love, which gives without expectation of any return.

Fifth, the Consciousness of the Unseen, or the Knowledge of super-Nature.

The above quote is from the book, “When the Sun Moves Northward”, by Mabel Collins (1923), a very esoteric book. This book teaches about the sacred festivals that occur on the inner planes, she calls them the ethereal planes, some of which are mirrored in our physical world as a reflection that have long lost their inner meaning. For instance, the above litany of “Birth” takes place in December which is reflected in the birth of the Christ or Christmas. This litany can be understood as the birth of the Soul in a new physical body or the birth of the ‘essence’, the soul in-incarnation, the true spiritual person within the confines of the personality.

Of interest is the line….”can begin to form a regenerated shape which shall be worthy of immortality“…what is this referring too? Although Mabel Collins is writing for occult disciples in the West, she is very knowledgeable of the Eastern esoteric traditions. In the “Six Yogas of Naropa”, a mysterious and very esoteric teaching, one of the Yogas is called ‘maya-virupa yoga’. The advanced disciple works consciously over a long period of time to build a ‘maya-virupa’ or ‘illusory-body’, a second body on the inner planes that can be utilized for the awakened essence after death. With help of the disciple’s Master, the essence, that which withdraws after death, can be guided into the ‘mayavirupa’ after death so that the disciple can continue their spiritual effort and progress immediately after death, so no time is lost. Thus achieving a relative immortality. This is one of the purposes of true occult meditation. First the ‘essence’ has to awaken, secondly, stabilize through the trials of ‘viveka’ or spiritual discrimination, learning to distinguish between ‘essence’ and personality. Thirdly, the ‘essence’ has to build the illusory-body or maya-virupa.