The Life Power, Ksiazki, Books, Occult Collection
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THE LIFE-POWER
Part 1.
Note: These pages contain the substance of my talks at the
Hotel Astor during December, 1922, in a form which is better suited for
study and reference. What is here given in a few pages might easily be
expanded into a good-sized book, hence it must be studied and pondered
upon, not merely skimmed through.
.
The purpose of our work is the unfoldment of a higher
consciousness, in order that we may obtain a better understanding of
cosmic law expressed through human personality. When this higher
consciousness and better understanding take form in action, we shall
develop more skill in applying our knowledge of cosmic law to the
solution of every-day problems.
To succeed in this understanding we must learn how to control
and direct a force which, although it is occult, is really "hidden in
plain sight," inasmuch as everything in our environment is a
manifestation of it. The first step toward gaining the knowledge which
shall enable us to control and direct this power is to learn that
although many names have been given to it, all these names are attempts
to describe a single reality.
Belief in a peculiar magic power employed by witch-doctors
and medicine men is common among barbarous peoples. Africans know it as
ngai
, Australian aborigines call it
kutchi
, in North American Indian
dialects it is
kukini
,
orenda
,
wakonda
or
manitou
, and the Polynesian
name is
mana
. This last suggests the Sanskrit
manas
, which has come down
to us through the Greek
menos
and the Latin
mens
, as the root of mind. I
do not know whether there is any etymological connection between
mana
and
manas
, but it is a fact that the
mana
of the South Sea Islanders is a
force whose activities are in large measure directed by mind, a force
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also which may be described with tolerable accuracy as the substance of
our thoughts, so that it is very much like the "mindstuff" of modern
psychologists.
One of the best accounts is given by Alphonse Louis Constant,
a French occultist, whose writings on magic began to be published about
1860. Constant, who wrote under the pen-name Eliphas Levi, was a student
of ancient symbols, of the Kabalah, and of the Tarot cards. In his day
electrical science was in its infancy, yet he was able, as a result of
his occult studies, to make the following remarkable statement:
"There exists a force in nature which is far more powerful
than steam, by means of which a single man, who can master it and knows
how to direct it, might throw the world into confusion and transform its
face. It is diffused throughout infinity; it is the substance of heaven
and earth, for it is either fixed or volatile according to its degree of
polarization. This agent is precisely what the medieval adepts called
the first matter of the Great Work. When it produces radiance it is
called light. It is substance and motion at one and the same time; it is
a fluid and a perpetual vibration. The will of intelligent beings acts
directly upon this light, and, by means thereof, upon all nature, which
is made subject to the modifications of intelligence.
"This force was known to the ancients; the Gnostics
represented it as the burning body of the Holy Ghost, and this it was
which was adored in the secret rites of the Sabbath or the Temple under
the symbolic figure of Baphomet, or the Androgyne Goat of Mendes. It is
represented on most ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines
in a loveknot around two poles, by the bull-headed serpent, by the
serpent with the head of a goat or a dog, and by the serpent devouring
its own tail. It is the double serpent of the caduceus (the wand of
Mercury), and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen snake of
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Moses, encircling the Tau, that is, the generative lingam. Lastly, it is
the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and is really the blind force which
souls must conquer, in order to detach themselves from the chains of
earth.
By the direction of this agent, we can change the very order
of the seasons, produce in the night the phenomena of day, correspond
.
instantaneously from one end of the earth to the other, discern, like
Apollonius, what is taking place at the Antipodes, heal or hurt at a
distance and endow human speech with a universal reverberation and
success. To know how to master this agent so as to profit by and direct
its currents is to accomplish the Great Work, to be master of the World,
and the depository even of the power of God."
I have given this long quotation, not only because it is full
of clues to the real meaning of the ancient mysteries, but also because
it demonstrates conclusively that the strange symbols of the ancient
world do reveal a true science to those who know how to read them. It
was from these symbols, remember, that Levi was able to formulate the
doctrine just quoted, together with the remarkable prophecy in the
preceding paragraph. Every detail of that prophecy has been fulfilled,
and these things have come to pass through scientific application of the
laws of a "force more powerful than steam," which is "a fluid and a
perpetual vibration," and which Levi, long before modern theories of the
constitution of matter were developed, described as an "electro-magnetic
ether, diffused throughout infinity, the substance of heaven and earth."
He named it "Astral Light", thereby anticipating the modern
scientific conclusion that light is an electro-magnetic phenomenon. The
scientists of 1860 laughed at him. Their grandchildren proclaim his
doctrine, which they have been forced to accept. Our inventors have
fulfilled his prophecy. The pressure of a button can heal the sick or
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kill a criminal. An electrical apparatus can produce any temperature at
will. The telegraph and telephone make us practically omnipresent.
Wireless transmission of photographs is the forerunner of an invention
certain to be perfected before long, which will enable us to see what is
happening in London or Paris as easily as we see what does on in the next
room. And when one voice can be heard and even magnified as it is by
radio, who can deny that human speech is "endowed with a universal
reverberation and success?"
Among ancient writers, the Astral Light is frequently
designated by words which are the equivalent of the English "breath."
In Sanskrit it is
prana
, in Hebrew
ruach
, in Greek
pneuma
, (translated
Holy Ghost in our New Testament), and in Latin
spiritus
. Comparison of
the statements of Hindu writers with what Levi says about Astral Light
shows that
prana
is the same thing.
In Nature's Finer Forces, Rama Prasad says that
prana
is "the
life principle of the universe and its localized manifestation; the life
principle of man and other living beings. The suns are different centers
of the ocean of
prana
, and it is this ocean that moves the various
heavenly bodies."
Swami Vivekananda writes as follows in his Raja Yoga: "Out of
this
prana
is evolved everything that we call energy, everything that we
call force. It is the
prana
that is manifesting as motion; it is the
prana
that is manifesting as gravitation, as magnetism. It is the
prana
that is manifesting as the actions of the body, as the nerve-currents, as
thought-force. From thought down to the lowest physical force,
everything is but the manifestation of
prana
. The sum-total of all force
in the universe, mental or physical, when resolved back to its original
state, is called
prana
. The knowledge and control of this
prana
is
really what is meant by
pranayama
.
- -
"This opens to us the door to almost unlimited power.
Suppose, for instance, one understood the
prana
perfectly, and could
control it, what power on earth could there be that would not be his? He
would be able to move the sun and stars out of their places, to control
everything in the universe, from the atoms to the biggest suns, because
he would control the
prana
. This is the end and aim of
pranayama
. When
.
the Yogi becomes perfect there will be nothing in nature not under his
control. If he orders the gods to come, they will come at his bidding.
All the forces in nature will obey him as his slaves, and when the
ignorant see these powers of the Yogi, they call them miracles."
The Hebrew word for this force is
ruach
, spelled with three
Hebrew letters which may be transliterated into our alphabet as R, V and
Ch. In Hebrew, every letter of the alphabet is a word designating some
natural object. R, or
Resh
, means "head"; V, or
Vav
, means "nail"; Ch,
Cheth
, means "field". The esoteric meaning of the word
ruach
is thus
indicated by its letters. The Life-Power is an energy having its centers
of highest manifestation (as thought-force) in the head of man. The same
energy is also the "nail" or connecting link between thought and the
conditions of human environment, which are themselves manifestations of
the same force. Thus our definition of
ruach
by the very letters which
compose the word is completed by the letter
Cheth
, which indicates that
it is the "field" of all our work.
The Kabalists assign the letter Resh to the sun, so that the
first symbol in the word
ruach
also serves to remind us that the Life-
Power is the energy which comes to earth as solar light and heat.
Astrologers, moreover, say that the Sun is exalted in Aries, the zodiacal
sign governing the head of man, which contains the apparatus for
transforming the Life-Power into thoughts. The force required for this
process comes from food, air, light, and water, and this force is really
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