Have the branches of your Tree reached the Heavens?
Spiritual development: from the development of the personality to higher consciousness
Every process of spiritual growth begins with the preparation of the mystic or
magician. This is the way it has been since classical times. Then, ‘Know Thyself’ was written above the entrance to the Temple. Today too, many seekers start with the search for the Self. On the spiritual market various forms of therapy are offered to help people take their first important steps and guide the seeker in the development of a thorough self analyses and self healing. But how do you take the step from personality development to spiritual growth?
Article and illustrations: Ina Cüsters-van Bergen
read further at the Inner Circle of this webpage
Magical Consciousness
Magical consciousness is often seen as a way of thinking that creates illogical links between events happening in the outer world and the inner meaning of situations. Within healthcare settings magical consciousness is often seen as a confused form of thinking and one of the symptoms of psychiatric disease. An example of magical thinking is someone linking a passing red car with an expected future accident and an unhappy endings. Or in a milder form, the belief that a black cat passing your road is a sign of a chain of unfortunate events developing in the near future.
The most common scientific opinion of magical thinking is that is based on a disturbance in the neuro-technology of the brain, and that this kind of magical awareness is an abnormality, arising from a narrowed mode of consciousness.
Magical consciousness is connected to the ongoing stream of associations circulating in the subconscious mind, and forms a continuous undercurrent of awareness on which our daily decisions and actions are based. It is not common knowledge that this is a layer of consciousness that you can train and change. This is what we do in a magical training programme. This is the essence of magical exercises.
by: Ina Cüsters-van Bergen
read further at the Inner Circle of this webpage
Golden Dawn
Initiation in the Western Mystery Tradition
Nowadays, the term initiation is bandied about for all kinds of purposes. Initiations are for sale, or on offer rather like cheap holidays.
While one group might use the term initiation to describe its ritual for admitting members to the group, another will use the same term to describe their final exam. On the internet so called astral initiations are now readily available: these self initiations take place in front of a mirror and are explained in some detail. Channelled initiations can be bought and combinations of all these options can be found. So, what is the difference between these and the initiations offered by traditional Order or Mystery school?
What is initiation? Dictionaries speak of ‘Rites of Passage’ and of becoming part of secret Orders. Dion Fortune describes initiation as a 'karmic process taking place on a cosmic scale'.
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The Shield of Heracles
The spiritual task of the Ego
In spiritual circles people often assume that humanity has forgotten its true nature. They also assume that to become Enlightened the Ego needs to be dissolved. However, this is not the only spiritual vision on the ego. In the Western Mystery Tradition there are ideas that directly contradict this concept of ego.
I often get confronted by people who are of the opinion that it is desirable to let go of the ego. The underlying belief is that the ego blocks spiritual development. The ego is connected with thought forms that are essentially about 'who you are'.
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The spiritual development of paranormal talents
People who tread the path of spiritual development, often start to develop latent skills, through which they receive information in other ways than through the senses. In some people these skills were present from childhood, others develop these skills sometime during their lifetime.. Very occasionally these skills are symptoms of a psychiatric illness. In popular language, this phenomena is known as ‘psychism’. This is inaccurate, and leads to a lot of misunderstandings. This article explores the ways in which paranormal skills are developed through training and spiritual exercise..
I want to explain this by means of the Four Worlds of Consciousness of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. They form four layers, which are folded around each other as the shells of an onion. The most outer shell is the most material one; the core is the deepest Spiritual Essence.
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The Archetypical Magician
Within the Western Mystery tradition we work with the old Gods and heroes. Carl Gustav Jung called these psychological powers Archetypes. These archetypes form a bridge between the spiritual knowledge of the ancient Mystery schools, the sub consciousness, and the scientific approach of our present time. By working with these powers you contact a huge energy potential, which gives direction to the under current of psychic movement in your sub conscious. It can support you in your spiritual growth, which is the true goal of the work of the magician.
Before Jung described the archetypes, they were already depicted on the tarot cards. We all know the images. The Fool as the naive harlequin, who through his lack of experience falls into the pitfalls of life: the Hermit, who carries the light through the darkness as a lonely priest: the Empress, who as the mother of the land, nurtures and is fertile...
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Interview with Ina Cüsters-van Bergen
'The Road to the old Mysteries'
In WR Imbolc 2007 Merlin has written a short review about your new book. I have seen it also – I have not red it entirely, because such a book you read and use as a reference book for years. At least: that is how I think you wrote it – as a workbook. But we will hear later about the 'why'.
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Primitive consciousness and modern magical training
Often people wonder about the use of magic in modern times. The first question they wonder about is that they regard the use and the believe in magic as something of a long past area of development of humanity. Then of course they are surprised to find out that in our time and age, in western countries well-educated people not only believe in the effectiveness of magic but also practice it, and even teach it.
Is magic based on superstition or is there a reality behind its practice? Does magic has its use in a modern society?
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