“Everybody Needs the Light” (or “Poking Holes in the Veil”)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I was just listening to In the Light, Led Zeppelin’s mystical minor masterpiece (despite the alliteration, it didn’t quite make me go “mmm” with aural pleasure), and I came across the opening quote that appears in the title. I was reading Ethan Indigo Smith’s The Tao of Thoth at the same time (multitasking on my treadmill) and encountered several parallel insights. (As an approach to transcendence, the lyrical mysticism of the Tao masters is a path I’ll choose any day over the stiff-necked allegory of King James.)
American “brain coach” Jim Kwik — quoted by Smith — observes that “If an egg is broken by outside force, life ends. If broken by inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from inside.” I guess it depends on which side of the wall you’re facing at the time. I’ve eaten many a life-enhancing omelet, and you have to intentionally break some eggs to make them; on the other hand, if I were a chick ready to hatch, I would be “going for the light” by pecking my way out. But in pragmatic terms, if you don’t want a few embryonic chicken-bits in your omelet, you’d better get a-crackin’. Just because something worthwhile is inside doesn’t automatically mean we have to crawl in there to get at it or wait for it to emerge; I often talk about metaphysical “can-openers” and “nutcrackers” that will liberate the kernel of truth in a spiritual conundrum by accelerating the extraction, which could involve knocking down a barrier. (Consider the fractious tarot Five as an antidote to the stalled Four.) The upshot of this kind of shortcut is not a false epiphany, just a measure of expedience that overcomes the drag of mental entropy.
Smith notes that the spiritual and the physical are “co-arising” in the sense that there can be no yin (spiritual realization) without yang (physical engagement, ergo tai chi or its refinement, taiji), and the goal of the seeker is to harmonize the upward trajectory and momentum of both as a means of attainment, thus achieving enlightenment. My preferred way to do this is through the art of divination, by which we can open windows into the Unseen; I think of it metaphorically as “poking holes in the Veil.” Mediation — at least the Western “discursive” kind — aspires to the same thing, it just requires much more profound inward reflection. Smith also talks about the Kybalion, an Hermetic text he equates with the Tao, noting that it posits physical, mental, spiritual and ethereal (or universal) planes of existence, with the ethereal being the interstitial link between the other three. (To be honest, it impressed me when I read it several decades ago and I do agree with its tenets, but I found it a little clumsy when recently attempting to re-read it.)
In my experience, the point of contact between our conscious state of mind and the first inkling of abstruse insight that presents itself to our awareness occurs on the Astral Plane, often in the unconscious form of dreams but also as a numinous region we can visit via the “spirit vision” in a quest for illuminating advice. (Hint: it’s not the “managed network of curated content” epitomized by religious orthodoxy and its purveyors; it’s far more impressionistic — artists can vouch for that — and it is gloriously spontaneous [therein lies its charm and its peril].) I believe the idea of goal-oriented (as opposed to shamanistic) astral projection originated with the 19th-Century Theosophists and their practice of mediumship (although I’m not sufficiently conversant with their canon to say for sure). But there is a parallel notion that is of some concern: the idea that such encounters always offer a fortuitous connection to “spirit guides” whom their supplicants imagine to be wholly benevolent in nature.
Shepherding inexperienced seekers toward these liaisons via the agency of “group guided meditation” seems to be a growing industry among enterprising “neo-New-Age” entrepreneurs (for some reason I’m envisioning the “take-a-number” waiting-room scene from Beetlejuice). The premise may well be that there is a “mental-health-and-safety” benefit in numbers, since there is evidence in the writing of those who have spent considerable time navigating this subliminal landscape that it harbors disembodied entities (Jungians would probably call them unassimilated fragments of “shadow”) who — if not entirely inimical to human well-being — are at best indifferent to our incursion into their space. Maybe they will decide to aid us, maybe they won’t, and we don’t have any claim on their indulgence even if we ask nicely. Therefore, some danger of misadventure is always present when doing so, even if its mainly cognitive.
Smith notes that “The Yin is chaos and more exactly amorphous flow. The Yang is structured direction,” which sounds like the way many people initiate astral communication: that is, with a specific purpose in mind that ignores the rigors of psychological readiness. (Ouija board, anyone?) He goes on to say that in order to embrace the Yin we must become “soft” in our approach, entering a condition of “circular softness rather than linear stiffness.” This suggests letting spiritual experiences wash over us without trying to pick them apart or — more significantly — hoping to bend them to our will. However, this is easier said than done from a physical vantage point, which is why it is often felt to be more effective for Western aspirants to “open a channel” that steers us toward the goal with our “psychic antennae” extended. This can be like hoisting a beacon in the dark (or, more accurately, a lightning rod), one that can attract any and all local denizens of the Astral regardless of their attitude toward us. I’ll misquote the tag line from the movie Field of Dreams: “If we lure them, they will come” (and we don’t even have to say “Beetlejuice” three times). It might be a good idea to vet them at the gate before letting them in; there could be a “smoking gun” or two hidden in their deceptively angelic robes.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on October 15, 2024.
