THE RETURN OF THE POWERS

The power of the unconscious mind to anoint and guard the conscious mind is as old as the human race. But now, this power rarely exists at the collective level, with the extinction of tribal societies and the subsequent loss of shamanic guidance. At the individual level it may find a home but most doors are closed to it.

In the ancient past we have known how to hold and nurture this power, how to keep it close and keep it fulfilled. In return, the power has responded with healings and guardians and ancient spirits to stand by us in our times of need and to bring us great joy.

This power exists within each of us as potential. It is the greatest power of the universe because it exists within as the Being Within who functions to consciously unite with us and form with us an eternal individual. But the power has been diminished and even occulted over time by the advent of city-states, the explosion of the industrial world and, eventually, the stresses of our dangerous modern world.

Pushed more and more into the background by technological advances, the power ceases to exist, leaving us no choice but to look to the Ego at the seat of the conscious mind to guide us out of these chaotic times of survival struggles and disillusionment. But what we seem not to realize is that, since the advent of the city-states, the times have always been chaotic and we have always looked to the Ego for guidance. Thus, throughout history, the chaos compounds and confounds us and war never ceases. The Ego runs rampant as though possessed by some madness. It is missing its partner, the thing that keeps it balanced and sane.

As we feel loss of control over our lives and our environment, we seem also to have lost even the path to the reason why. As this cultural revival of the Dark Ages continues, we group together in churches to pray and in globally organized events intended to help and heal our world, such as Planetary Ascension 2012. It gives us relief and a sense of purpose that we are actively doing something about this absence of personal and group power by taking up the reigns ourselves and trying to bring about a global awakening and enlightenment. But unless we address the inner division first, we cannot hope to heal the outer world in any sustainable way.

Therefore, as Planetary Ascension 2012 looms as a missed opportunity we can look to Lunar Ascension 2013 for the remedy. Our planet stands now as a great and tragic metaphor of our division within, the distance between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind becoming as a chasm over which we are desperate to ascend. Our ascension efforts, carried out through traditional and historical methods of group prayer or through our various New Age spirituality attempts, are missing the mark, the effect being failure, because an important component is absent that would bring us success. There can be no ascension until the disparate parts of ourselves that are scattered chaotically throughout the conscious mind are brought into alignment with our perfectly organized, but wildly misunderstood, unconscious mind.

The achievement of this alignment and its consequent rise of planetary resonance, involves the kind of lightwork that is frightening because it necessarily involves darkwork. Diving into the unconscious mind in attempts to connect with it and even comprehend this incomprehensible power invokes colors, images, voices, sounds, aromas and other psychic phenomena that are little understood and certainly not supported by modern psychology. The social repression and even ostracizing of people who do this, most famously the Swiss psychologist Carl Yung and less famously many of the rest of us, stands as a warning to us to avoid this scary path. And as long as we avoid it we are forever condemned to have that relationship with it.

The relationship of avoidance of a core part of our being is a kind of insanity that we are willing to live with and failing to recognize. Yet all around us we can see its manifestation in the events of our world that seem both strangely familiar and incomprehensible to us. The idea that we must lose our minds in order to gain our sanity is a paradox, yet in paradox lies truth. Paradox, the long forgotten plural for paradise, is exactly what we must strive for if we are to bring about a better world in which to live. Even if we do not believe we can change the world, we know deep down within ourselves that we can change ourselves, and if enough of us do it, then the world will change. And deep down, deep within, is where we must go to do this.

The unconscious mind is the Psyche, which is the spirit, mind and breath of life. The Psyche awaits our arrival and yearns for it. As Carl Yung most famously wrote, "What I am saying is this. The Psyche is real!" The goal of the Psyche is the purification of the self, and until we recognize, acknowledge, and unite that part of ourselves, then nothing in our lives will ever change. Lunar Ascension 2013 has the potential of achieving that goal of union, but it requires on our part the putting aside of social programming, modern psychology, useless ideas, the misguided need to monetize everything, and even the people in our lives who would stand in the way of the union. A guide is required until the Psyche appears in the life of the individual and takes over as guide, because no one and no organization can lead the individual in the evolution of their consciousness like the Psyche can.

Even as we consciously distance ourselves from the Psyche, let us thank the moon for ensuring that we cannot completely disconnect. At night, when the planet turns away from the sun, the moon follows and shines upon us its reflected light that holds within it the power of transformation. As the moon pulls us back to the depths of our beingness in sleep, from out of our dreaming mind come shapeshifting forms strange to us, forms that seek us out even as we turn away in fear. Sometimes, we project the idea of them out into our waking world as angels and other times as monsters, where we can deal with them in some rational way. But if we were to embrace those forms as our own, we would find a new world waiting, one filled with hope, caring, kindness and love. This is the world we seek to bring the planet to, but this world does not exist for the purposes of a planet that, ultimately, can take care of itself. This moonlit world exists solely for us, for our own evolution of consciousness, and by going deeper into its mysteries and allowing its shadowy embrace we can experience the Return of the Powers.

The Peace Which Passeth All Understanding THE WORLD'S WISDOM When we delve deeper into the unconscious mind we are as swimming in the ocean. On the surface are the waves of the ocean that wash over us in perfect rhythm, one after another and so predictable. These waves of waking consciousness inform us that all is normal, all is well. But far beneath these waves swim the sea creatures and strange monsters of the unconscious mind, so familiar to us and so misunderstood. Everything on the surface seems logical and rhythmical, while everything below seems to lurk in patternless motion. On the surface we create a patterned world based on timetables, nine to fives, and monthly bills. But down below no such parameters exist, so of course we are uncomfortable there as no one and nothing seems to be in control. When we encounter creatures of the unconscious mind we do not recognize them or understand them because they are mutable. They change shapes and identities. We are more fixed and thus are more comfortable with the predictability of the sane conscious mind than we are with the unpredictability of the insane unconscious mind. And of course, we know we are not supposed to embrace insanity. But we forget one important thing or perhaps we just choose to ignore it. The sane and rhythmical waves of our ocean are responding to a distant power that we also do not understand. The gravitational pull of the moon is the governor of the waves of the ocean and also the governor of the unconscious mind. So we cannot escape whatever it is we think we are escaping by ignoring the depths below as we must also ignore the depths above. And those creatures down below in the unconscious depths of the sleeping mind, where we must visit every night whether we like it or not, are also responding to the powers of the moon. Our consciousness is linked to the moon in ways we do not understand and never will unless we simply acknowledge that it is so, and then seek to discover the connection. But Ego has created its own tool, modern science, to deny such connections exist. From the perspective of modern science, all such connections must be empirically provable and if they cannot be, then they are dismissed as fantasy so that the Real Fantasy can continue. In the Real Fantasy, the celestial bodies, the planets and moon, are just casually floating around up there, as unconnected to us as are the creatures of the unconscious mind, while we sit in the middle in the catbird seat, masters of the universe. As long as the Real Fantasy governs our thinking, we will never understand what in the world is going on and even what we are supposed to be doing in the world, besides fixing breakfast, going to work, coming home and watching movies. We love movies because they pull us out of ourselves, like the moon pulls the tides, and they allow us to explore all these lost connections and misconceptions within the safer context of entertainment. Our attraction to movies is not only about the fun of watching them but also about their technology. Movies work by projecting images with devices, and projection is something we are very good at, even if we don't know it. If it turns out that we really are masters of the universe, it will only be because of one simple, incredibly complex, skill we have. We are masters of projection. Can it be possible that those strange, mutable creatures, the population of the unconscious mind we encounter in dreams, are actually projections of our conscious mind? Suppose for a moment they are. Does a two-street exist? Are things outside of us actually projections of our unconscious mind? If we are projecting forms both inside and out, what is their relationship and what is their purpose? How do our projections become so real that we do not recognize them at all, as though they exist in a life of their own? The ocean just got deeper. INTO THE VASTY DEEP IN THE SHADOW OF HER WINGS In the legend of Lillith, said to be the first vampyress, dominance over men seems to be the theme. Although widely believed to be part of the Bible, but really just part of the babel, Lillith does not appear in the Bible at all, except as a word meaning "night creature" or "screech owl." So where does her legend begin? It would come as little surprise to women everywhere if the legend of Lillith was created by men. In the legend, Lillith is the first wife of Adam. She left him because she refused to be dominated by him. In other versions, she left him because of his sexual inadequacy. In these accounts of her, Lillith left Adam to have an affair with the archangel Samael who is the blind Angel of Death, explaining perhaps how Lillith came to be associated with death. This archangel is actually the Archon Samael, which is not the same rank as archangel. An archon is a planetary ruler. His mother Sophia, who created him without her partner, the Savior, named her mistake Samael. He is really the "blind" for Ialdabaoth, his true identity as the monstrous lord of matter. Ialdabaoth/Samael, upon opening his eyes at birth saw only dark matter and deduced from his solitude he was the one and only god, even though his mother kept telling him he wasn't. One day Samael proclaimed himself to be the one and only god, whereupon he heard a voice answer that he was mistaken. Samael challenged the voice to show itself and began unleashing demons into the world to prove his powers. He also vengefully created death to reign in the sixth heaven, and somehow he lured Lillith away from Adam. Adam goes down in this history as bad husband material, so perhaps the legend of Lillith originated with women. Adam is too bossy, he doesn't know how to show Lillith a good time in bed, and he's not a god like her lover is. So his wife leaves him, the first time any wife left any husband, and God had to make a new wife out of Adam's rib since the old one ran off with her boyfriend. Lillith's choice of Samael as the cuckold of Adam is symbolic and makes sense. In this mythological menage a trois, Adam represents the beginning of all human life, Samael is the end of it, and the sexy Lillith is the connection between them. It also sets the archetype for women leaving their husbands all throughout time for pretty much the same reasons as Lillith left Adam. (See above.) Samael's ultimate defeat by the highest powers represents the triumph of life over death. Lillith may have originated as Lilitu, a Mesopotamian storm demon, who was thought to be the bringer of death. If so, she is at least 6,000 years old and looks like she may have been the inspiration for vampire author Anne Rice's fictional character Akasha, Queen of the Damned, who appears as a stone statue. Seen in this image with her screech owls, the winged Lilitu may also have been the inspiration for the Greek goddess Athena, who sometimes appeared as an owl and who obviously is an import from some other ancient civilization. Demonization of revered figures, in which the old gods become the new demons, is not uncommon when inventors of new religions are striving to usurp the place of the old ones. But Lillith or Lilitu escaped that transformation because she was a well-respected demon to start with. This may account for the ease with which she found her place in iconography as the first vampyress. Even Michelangelo, as late as the 16th century, portrayed Lillith in art as the serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempted Adam and Eve, perhaps sneaking back in to get even with Adam for remarrying. She spent a lot of time talking Eve into doing something that would get her and Adam in a world of trouble and ultimately evicted from their home. (This sets the archetype for the relationship of the first wife to the second, younger wife. :) Michelangelo, who is supposed to have been gay, might have admired Lillith for her cheek in doing whatever she wanted to do with whoever she wanted to do it with, regardless what anybody thought about it. Later on in medieval times, the Christians tried to put a stop to all that when they created the crime designated "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," sometimes punishable by death. But Lillith just shapeshifted her myth and began appearing as the succubus, the winged being who circumvents the law by seducing men in their sleep. She is always welcome, it would seen, perhaps because she is known to suck more than just their blood. (I can see why Freud avoided comment on this one. He hadn't quite got it figured out hehe) For Lillith to be in dreams shows she is the free Spirit of the Psyche and was probably close friends with Carl Jung (wink wink nudge nudge). And he did write something like, "What I am saying is the Psyche is real!" One thing is certain. If we got to know her better, it could be dangerous! She might suck us in and we might like it. Who knows, we might even meet Samael! SAMAEL THE SEDUCER SAMAEL THE SEDUCER "How has the existence which does not exist appeared from an existing power?" (Zostrianos, Gnostic papyri) Samael's problem is that he is certain he is the highest god and he won't accept the idea that he is duly appointed. That implies a higher authority, and he knows he is really Self-Appointed. Samael, lord of the material world, evolves and the world evolves along with him. Samael/Ialdabaoth makes a transformation from archon and planetary ruler to Adamanous, via the enlightened Hermetic literature. From a Hermetic treatise 'Upon the Creation of Man" attributed to Hermes, Adamanous is the Form of Forms, the template upon which humanity is patterned. Nous means 'mind.' So Adamanous is the human collective unconscious mind, there being other kinds of collective unconscious minds possible. Adamanous is linked as in a chain to ever higher and higher realms. He is the actual living pattern and microcosm of the higher macrocosm so that, in turn, all of us are patterned upon higher realities. Hermeticism, borrowing from the Egyptian religion, names Harous, a version of Horus, as the creator of Adamanous. Horus, who is the creation of the planets seeking spiritual expression, and the planets themselves are enabled to create by the heavenly Virgin. Harous creates Adamanous by channeling the forces of the Archons (planetary rulers) into him and thus he is perfect in appearance, but ignorant and mute. Harous then channels the power of the stars into him so that he becomes intelligent and speaks. Even though the colossal Adamanous is as tall an the clouds and can hear the sound of the rotation of the planets, he worships Harous for his size, who is so tall he can touch the planets and any sign of the zodiac. Harous creates a mate for Adamanous, called Haivanous. Right away war begins when the planet Saturn, who is excluded from participation in these creations, becomes enraged and wishes to destroy both micro- and macrocosm. Harous invokes powers to constrain Saturn, and to bind all impure spirits to the four corners of the macrocosm where they are held as prisoners in watch-towers. Adamanous and Haivanous, now free from danger, parent 14 children - seven sets of twins, each pair a boy and a girl. The planets endow these children with their respective personalities and appearances, both positive and negative aspects. Down at the bottom of this chain of command we humans, patterned on all those realities abovel us, are born into the world, and each planet we pass through helps create our indivituality. So finally Samael/Ialdabaoth becomes human and free to create his own destiny. TO BE CONTINUED - THE WIFE-IN-LAWS OF LILLITH NEXT - THE THEORY OF MINOAN ASTRONOMY