Essence and egregore 1

[China Cat Sunflower]

In the realm of my own thoughts I don't worry about laying down hard lines on what is objectively "true". But I feel like when I write for public consumption I have some sort of obligation to state things that I think are universally true, or at least make a distinction between that and stuff that's for entertainment purposes only. But I don't want to constantly have to make caveats about the distinction between the two things. In my thought world "belief" doesn't have much currency. It's not necessary for me to believe that the way I'm organizing my thought hierarchies is universally true. I mean, we all construct our own personal myth for our own use. I borrow concepts from a wide variety of other belief systems and philosophies. I didn't make all of this stuff up myself, but I've chosen stuff that works for me. Still, I've made a major effort to empty my closet of second-hand stuff that doesn't serve my purpose, or that unnecessarily coddles my emotions in a way that undermines my intellectual independence.

Chris

[moseslmpg]

I think I may know what you mean about "skipping" the astral plane, but I think it comes across a little weird the way you put it. Do you mean that one should not dwell in the astral and try to "play God," but should rather reject the experiences and abilities that come with the astral and focus on moving up towards the spiritual realms? I agree with Taijasi, that one cannot actually skip the astral realm and that it is not a bad place in and of itself, but to stop there and focus on one's power in the astral is detrimental to spiritual development and potentially dangerous to those on the physical. I read something similar to this rejection of psychic abilities and even further the experience of being one with God/Source, etc. recently. With the rejection of the God experience you bypass even total unity and move into dissolution within the Not, etc.

Anyway, now that I've posted my piece, can anyone give me some good resources on the astral, i.e. egregores and other fauna that reside there? I'm not talking about that New Age-y kind of stuff either (no offense), I mean something a little more grounded (again, no offense to anyone).

[taijasi]

Originally Posted by moseslmpg

Anyway, now that I've posted my piece, can anyone give me some good resources on the astral, i.e. egregores and other fauna that reside there? I'm not talking about that New Age-y kind of stuff either (no offense), I mean something a little more grounded (again, no offense to anyone).

No single resource, in 17+ years of study and meditation, has been nearly as helpful for me as C.W. Leadbeater's book, The Astral Plane. This is written by a trained, well-grounded clairvoyant (someone trained by a Master), and it is very thorough, taking a scientific and comprehensive approach. The language used, for the most part, is very down-to-earth and graspable, and the Sanskrit terms that you may encounter are easily referenced on the web.

Another good book, a compilation of material by various Theosophical authors, is The Astral Body, by A.E. Powell. This may have a bit more teminology in it, and will require some additional reading & research. However, I have always regarded it as the "owner's manual" to the astral body ... and I treasure it enough to loan it my clairvoyant sister as a guide to help her sort through various experiences.

Madame Alexandra David-Neel, in one of her books about travels through Tibet, describes the creation of a tulpa - the Tibetan word for thought-form, thought-creation, or egregore. Things got out of hand; it had to be destroyed. The Eastern Masters, on the other hand, know what They're doing, and utilize thought-forms regularly in the Service of Humanity. Advanced Initiates learn how to properly create, and control them. Then again, aren't we all?

If you want a good book about the firsthand experiences of a Virginia businessman, who suddenly found himself `lucid dreaming' in the astral world, get a copy of Journeys Out of the Body, by Robert Monroe. This book is excellent, perhaps unparalleled and invaluable, in that the author doesn't begin with a bunch of preconceptions, expectations and religious mumbo-jumbo. He just tells what he went through, AS IT OCCURRED, and his business background and scientific (even skeptical) mindset proved a tremendous asset. The experiences occurred in teh 60s or 70s I believe, long before the `New Age' stuff was even heard of, let alone in vogue.

Leadbeater's Astral Plane is online, btw - here. (The table of contents follows a rather long introduction.)

Namaskar,

andrew

[moseslmpg]

Thanks a bunch, Taijasi!

Hey, while we're one the subject of creation of beings, do you think that perhaps golems and homunculi were really veiled references to the creation of egregore, albeit in terms of a physical being? I've always wondered about them, especially homunculi, since they are both supposed to run away from their masters after a time. The golem would be the egregore created through Kabbalistic means (permutations of the names of God, etc.) and the homunculi by way of the Hermetic science. What do people think?