SPIRITUAL BEINGS | Journey Beyond the Veil — Transcript

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1. 0:00In any type of practical initiation
2. 0:02work, one of the first things that you
3. 0:03need to become aware of is that we are
4. 0:05surrounded by non-physical beings and
5. 0:08they're actually communicating with us
6. 0:09all the time. However, if we're not
7. 0:12developed to the point that we can
8. 0:13receive those communications fully
9. 0:15consciously, then those communications
10. 0:17will then enter into our structure
11. 0:20according to our present level of
12. 0:23development. Meaning that for example,
13. 0:26if you're not fully conscious at the
14. 0:28areas above the head, you will not be
15. 0:30able to receive what we refer to as
16. 0:31packed thought forms or highly
17. 0:34compressed information in the way that
18. 0:37angelic beings would communicate with
19. 0:38one another. It is possible to develop
20. 0:40that capacity, but most human beings do
21. 0:43not have it currently. If we are not
22. 0:44fully conscious in receiving these
23. 0:46communications in our thinking
24. 0:47faculties, then we will not be fully
25. 0:50conscious as far as conceptual clarity
26. 0:52about the information that we're
27. 0:53receiving. What will usually happen then
28. 0:56is that the communication then will
29. 0:58either activate our feeling life or
30. 1:00activate our will life. And so our
31. 1:02feelings will then get activated with
32. 1:05emotional movements for us to take
33. 1:07particular types of actions based on the
34. 1:10influence from the spiritual beings or
35. 1:12it will go directly into the will. And
36. 1:15so for example uh you might ask a person
37. 1:19why did you come to this class or why
38. 1:21did you move to this place and they may
39. 1:24say I really have no idea why. I just
40. 1:26knew I had to be there. I knew I had to
41. 1:28do that thing. And that's usually a sign
42. 1:31that the impulse from the spiritual
43. 1:33being went straight into the will and
44. 1:35was not able to be received fully
45. 1:36consciously at the higher centers. So
46. 1:38there's a complete process of developing
47. 1:40these centers and being able to be
48. 1:42conscious of the presence and
49. 1:44communications of spiritual beings. And
50. 1:46we're going to be looking again at some
51. 1:48of the different principles behind this
52. 1:50type of work drawn from multiple
53. 1:52traditions on this weekend. And again
54. 1:54this work is very important because if
55. 1:56we do not take in the impulses from the
56. 1:59spiritual beings fully consciously then
57. 2:01in addition to the fact of it will then
58. 2:03go into other centers of our development
59. 2:06that are not quite as conscious it can
60. 2:08actually sometimes take on pathological
61. 2:10forms and we're going to be talking
62. 2:12about that later in the weekend. So
63. 2:14there's actually a type of spiritual
64. 2:18imperative at this moment in human
65. 2:20development for us to actually become
66. 2:21conscious of communication with
67. 2:23spiritual beings. If it doesn't happen,
68. 2:25then certain pathological forms of the
69. 2:29impulse they're trying to bring us will
70. 2:31become more prominent in the world. And
71. 2:33this has always been the case in human
72. 2:35development. at certain points in
73. 2:37certain time cycles there will be
74. 2:40certain forward movements in human
75. 2:42evolution and human consciousness that
76. 2:44if they're not taken up fully
77. 2:45consciously then again various
78. 2:48pathological forms of those impulses
79. 2:49will manifest in their place. So that's
80. 2:52the basic foundation of what we're doing
81. 2:54this weekend looking at the principles
82. 2:56and the practice of communicating with
83. 2:58spiritual beings because people aren't
84. 3:00initiated anymore in a specific
85. 3:02classical system. we get bits and pieces
86. 3:05of information and the fragments of
87. 3:08information we get are sometimes missing
88. 3:10major pieces of information that one
89. 3:12would have gotten in a classical
90. 3:13tradition and so for example one thing
91. 3:15we'll look at and get clarity on is the
92. 3:18difference between connecting to what
93. 3:21someone like Rudolph Steiner would refer
94. 3:22to as a hierarchical spiritual being a
95. 3:25spiritual being whose evolutionary
96. 3:26process is actually much more advanced
97. 3:28than a human being who's much more
98. 3:30conscious and developed than the average
99. 3:32state of human consciousness versus
100. 3:34beings that are at a group mind level
101. 3:38that are in a sense below the state of
102. 3:40human consciousness that we often refer
103. 3:42to as elemental beings. And even there
104. 3:45we need to differentiate between what's
105. 3:47classically known as the elemental
106. 3:48beings that are the elemental beings of
107. 3:51the physical elements earth, air, fire,
108. 3:53water, and the elemental beings that are
109. 3:55actually generated by human beings that
110. 3:57we generate with our own mind power all
111. 3:59the time. That's the focus of other
112. 4:01traditions such as the work of
113. 4:02Stellionis the Teslas better known as
114. 4:05Dasklas the great Greek Christian
115. 4:06hermetic teacher from the island of
116. 4:08Cyprus who focused very much on these
117. 4:10types of human generated elementals and
118. 4:12other traditions will teach about them
119. 4:14as well they're called the Tulpas by the
120. 4:15Tibetans for example we all generate
121. 4:18them and they have a very different
122. 4:20quality than the nature elementals so
123. 4:22that's why sometimes we use the term uh
124. 4:24artificial elementals in some traditions
125. 4:26for those that are human generated
126. 4:28versus the elementals generated ated by
127. 4:30the higher hierarchical beings. So it's
128. 4:32essential in communicating with beings
129. 4:34outside of oneself to have at least some
130. 4:36fundamental understandings of the
131. 4:38different types of beings. And so in the
132. 4:40table of contents, some of the first
133. 4:41things here are the fundamental context
134. 4:43for understanding spiritual beings and
135. 4:46three essential stages of spiritual
136. 4:48discernment. Unfortunately, spiritual
137. 4:50discernment is one of those things that
138. 4:52did not get fully carried over from
139. 4:55classical spiritual traditions into
140. 4:56modern metaphysics. Spiritual
141. 4:58discernment is often lacking uh because
142. 5:00there's not a clear differentiation of
143. 5:02the different forces that we're exposed
144. 5:03to. And so we'll talk about some of the
145. 5:05fundamentals of this tonight. And then
146. 5:08on your table of contents, perceiving
147. 5:10the spirit in other human beings. That's
148. 5:12where we're going to start before we
149. 5:14start looking for non-physical spiritual
150. 5:17beings. We're going to start with the
151. 5:20spiritual beings that are right in front
152. 5:21of us all the time, which is basically
153. 5:23one another. We're all spiritual beings.
154. 5:26we simply have a physical embodiment at
155. 5:28the moment so you can actually see them
156. 5:29with your physical eyes in front of you.
157. 5:31So one of the best places to start is
158. 5:33always start with things at the most
159. 5:35grounded level and that is seeing the
160. 5:37spiritual nature the reality within
161. 5:39every human being in front of us. So
162. 5:41we'll start with that tonight in a
163. 5:42particular practice I'll tell you more
164. 5:45about a bit later. So that's most of
165. 5:46what we're doing tonight. And then in
166. 5:49the coming days, we're going to be
167. 5:50looking at the classical European system
168. 5:55starts with the old Jewish
169. 5:58Cabala as a revision of what was
170. 6:01actually part of the Egyptian mysteries
171. 6:02before that and then from the Jewish
172. 6:04Cabala moved into what we sometimes
173. 6:06think of as the Christian Cabala and
174. 6:08particularly in the form that it's
175. 6:09taught today by people like Rudolfph
176. 6:11Steiner which is linked to certain
177. 6:13medieval teachings and that is about
178. 6:15nine different types or ranks of what we
179. 6:18think of as angelic beings or what
180. 6:20Steiner would refer to as the spiritual
181. 6:21hierarchies. And the term spiritual
182. 6:23hierarchies goes back in modern times to
183. 6:27the work of Dionius the Aropagite who
184. 6:30wrote the book on the celestial
185. 6:31hierarchies which was first came out
186. 6:34around the time of the court of
187. 6:35Charlemagne and has been very
188. 6:36influential for western metaphysics
189. 6:38since that time. This is a fundamental
190. 6:41system that we should understand in
191. 6:43modern initiation for differentiating
192. 6:45different higher hierarchical levels of
193. 6:47being. Now it's very common that in
194. 6:49modern metaphysics these different ranks
195. 6:52of the angelic hierarchies are dealt
196. 6:54with quite abstractly and we don't want
197. 6:57to leave things abstract with a
198. 7:00spiritual science. We want them to be
199. 7:02clear in our cognitive understanding of
200. 7:05them. And so we're then going to look at
201. 7:08how these angelic hierarchies
202. 7:11manifest with a type of spiritual
203. 7:14development system with human beings.
204. 7:16And so that leads to the part of our
205. 7:18handout that's called angelic
206. 7:20hierarchies as alchemical stages of
207. 7:22consciousness. All the higher
208. 7:24hierarchies have names that reflect
209. 7:25their function. They do different things
210. 7:28and they have different levels of
211. 7:29consciousness that allow them to perform
212. 7:31those functions. It's a kind of ninestep
213. 7:34ladder above the human being that human
214. 7:36beings can attain those states of
215. 7:38consciousness. Some human beings have
216. 7:39attained a state of consciousness that's
217. 7:41equal to what we refer to as the angelic
218. 7:43beings. Not angelic in terms of all
219. 7:45higher beings, but of the angels per se.
220. 7:48And some have attained the state of
221. 7:49consciousness of archangels, some maybe
222. 7:51even of arai or even higher. This gives
223. 7:54us a sense of what these actual
224. 7:55alchemical crystallizations of
225. 7:57consciousness are. I've never seen this
226. 7:59particular system I'm describing here in
227. 8:01any external text. It simply became
228. 8:03self-evident to me at a certain point.
229. 8:05And for everything that we're teaching
230. 8:06you, because we're approaching things
231. 8:08here at the Vesica Institute and with my
232. 8:10own teaching as a spiritual science,
233. 8:12that means that it's not a
234. 8:15charismatic transmission. I'm not asking
235. 8:17you to believe anything based on any
236. 8:19charismatic authority. We want to give
237. 8:22it out in as clear and conscious a form
238. 8:24as possible. And you don't need to buy
239. 8:26into any of it until it becomes
240. 8:28self-evident to you. If it's real, at
241. 8:31some point it'll become self-evident. If
242. 8:33not, it's just somebody else's story,
243. 8:34which may be helpful for our own
244. 8:36development, but it's nothing that we
245. 8:38have to subscribe to. So, it's not a
246. 8:40dogmatic thing, but this has simply
247. 8:42became apparent to me as something
248. 8:43self-evident over time, and I know for
249. 8:46other people it's become apparent to
250. 8:47them as well. Then, how spiritual beings
251. 8:50connect to and influenced human beings.
252. 8:52This is actually a vast topic. We could
253. 8:54easily spend a week on this topic alone
254. 8:57and so we're just going to introduce
255. 8:58some very common basic aspects of this.
256. 9:01Then three current activities of the
257. 9:04analoy in the human astral body. Now
258. 9:06this is a very important section and
259. 9:08it's going to actually end our class on
260. 9:10Sunday. There was a very important part
261. 9:13of Rudolph Steiner's teaching that had
262. 9:15to do with clarifying the nature of
263. 9:16spiritual beings and how one directly
264. 9:17perceives and interacts with them. And
265. 9:19so at one time in 1918, Steiner was
266. 9:22approached by someone who asked them,
267. 9:24"Oh, how are we interacting with and
268. 9:26they would ask about these very high
269. 9:27levels of spiritual hierarchies? How are
270. 9:30we interacting with the thrones or the
271. 9:31cherubam or something like that?" And
272. 9:33Steiner says most people don't even have
273. 9:34the capacity to really conceive of the
274. 9:36level of consciousness and activity of a
275. 9:38being of that level. So let's start a
276. 9:40little bit closer to home. What are the
277. 9:42angels doing with human beings right
278. 9:45now? The angelic hierarchy, the closest
279. 9:47to us. And this led to a remarkable
280. 9:49lecture from Rudolfph Steiner that was
281. 9:51called the work of the angels in man's
282. 9:53astral body that for people that are
283. 9:55very aware of Steiner's work is a very
284. 9:57important fundamental lecture. And so
285. 9:59I'm going to give you some parts of that
286. 10:02lecture and take it a little bit further
287. 10:04on Sunday. And this will also illustrate
288. 10:07for us a very important principle about
289. 10:08how if we don't take in those impulses
290. 10:10fully consciously, they can take on a
291. 10:13pathological form. any type of impulse
292. 10:16that we are given in our life that we do
293. 10:18not act on consciously and integrate in
294. 10:20a beneficial manner can sometimes turn
295. 10:22detrimental and so we're going to be
296. 10:24looking at the specifics of that mostly
297. 10:26based on Steiner's work at that point
298. 10:28then four awareness levels of impulses
299. 10:31coming from spiritual
300. 10:33beings this is a more detailed
301. 10:35description of what I started the class
302. 10:37with today talking about the way that we
303. 10:40can take in the angelic communications
304. 10:44or anytime type of spiritual beings,
305. 10:46non-physical communications at a
306. 10:48superconscious level or at a conscious
307. 10:50level or at a subconscious level or at a
308. 10:54deep subconscious level. And we'll be
309. 10:56talking in more detail about exactly
310. 10:57what that means. And it'll hopefully
311. 11:00lead to your recognizing in yourself
312. 11:02about how certain impulses have come in
313. 11:04for you at different levels at different
314. 11:05times.