Therefore the gradient of etheric matter is, according to present standards, immeasurable and irreconcilable; and even though it does share opportune space, it is also impartial to the sensory perception of man, who if equipped with astral vision may readily, however, penetrate these older worlds. They are there as foundation. They are there caught in time also, because of those 'bits and pieces' that are still to be redeemed and retrieved; held back because they could not make the 'crossing' over into the newer frame of being. However, the planet does keep all that is her own, and would not fain discard or throw off these many beings merely because of their immaturity.
It is the sphere directly beneath this one in which the Faerie Kingdom is contained, and many of the animal souls also. It has run for some time now, almost as quite a parallel world merging out from their timelessness, from past time, endeavoring to awaken into material substantiality. Intelligence has showered into these wisdom-imbued realms and many influences do not have to be met with there, having come directly into the greater path of current activity; and so these etheric beings are largely untroubled by the impinging trends which stretch and contest our Globe.
Looking in, one well might imagine our sphere to be as a very large ball of entwined string. Certainly as a continuum this is quite correct, and also from the perspective of channel runs within the outer shell. It does from the larger perspective, appear as just that - coiled over and over, with the lines being so small as to be almost indistinguishable, fading into obscurity. This 'line' of continuum, when traveled back (and indeed it is) goes right into the very centre space through which we travel into the higher and lower stratospheres. The ‘higher’ being the Heavens, which may be confused because the point of entry is literally from a lower advance, whilst the 'lower' realms of former spheres are indeed 'higher' places in relation to earthly existence. So it could be differentiated by thinking in related terms of 'inner and outer' regions, however, that too is inappropriate as to the truth, for in relation to each other they are both.
Adding to this, we can also have the third option when positioned in an interior globe: moving through to either physical Earth, the open gateway, or the door to the older worlds - and the inexperienced who come to such 'centers' whereupon they may move up and out are often known to confuse the actual places of being. To the insufficiently trained this is quite an ordeal. We have retrieved men from the inner spheres who, once there, have fully believed themselves to be in Heaven, when in fact they are not. With some, their bodies have deceased while awaiting their return, commanding their recovery, and a whole life has been severed because of this would-be initiate's mistaken direction.
In sleep too, there are the wanderers. In vision also, these can be the very spaces of which the seer has experienced the most terrible destructions and actually witnessed the death-throes of the expiring planet as borne out time and time again, within one of the lower spheres - being that which has happened, mistaken for that to be our impending fate. Not so! In point of fact that kind of vision we shall always refute. The reason being that the manner of expiration is not preordained at this point and there is no 'real' substance to this kind of visionary predicting.
Returning to our twiny roads - it is as the 'string' follows through into that space, that sphere adjoining, and may be followed once again, similarly to its respective core. The difference in perspective is that one does not travel directly in but rather is obliged to have moved around (and around) - which, we may point out, by this method one has had to actually experience every cubit of the sphere until finished before gaining the entrance to the heart, the core, of its being. (This, as a fundamental Law: that before one can go to the heart of anything they must know it as well as travelling every length of all the string - i.e. the whole mass.) This is a vast distinction, as you might well now appreciate. The time it takes is not a consideration, for it can be negotiated faster than a crossing of the English Channel. It's all in the technique and the level of self-consciousness which may accordingly determine stopovers.
For the unconscious travelers, the souls who stream through whisked along the channels, their journey, the unconscious passing, is much faster than that of the lone initiate. (Group tours are like that, aren't they? Speeding through places barely touched.)
Coming to the innermost central sphere and the question as to what exactly it is: it is the Sun. This shall confuse a fair few and yet you did ask us of this question - it is the Sun, indeed, our Sun. Nothing more at this point shall be expounded, we would rather leave it with you as is.
The sphere adjoining it (the second youngest/oldest) was/is indeed the 'perfect' realm. It is still intact, with all of its pristine beauty, essential to the first dream of Being. The fullness and majesty of young Creation, which, as Sleeping Beauty, awaits that time when the Savior Prince may recover her and the true Golden Age shall resume to reign - this time with souls apparent and a humanity reworked and revised in glorious apparel, each with their 'keys to the city'.
The Snake Gate, Hell Gate, or Pluto's Gate, discovered in Turkey. |
Concerning the lost Kingdom of the Mother, it is interesting to consider Rudolph Steiner's words to Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk at the end of the Agricultural Course (Whitsun 1924) at which he laid the foundations for a new and conscious relationship to Demeter through a spiritually-based agriculture (bio-dynamic farming):
ReplyDeleteRudolph Steiner was good enough to come up to my room, where he spoke with me about the Kingdom in the interior of the Earth. We know that at the moment Christ's blood flowed onto the Earth a new Sun-globe was born in the Earth's interior. My search had always been to penetrate the depths of the Earth, for I had seen raying up from there an Earth-core of gold, which Ptolemy designated as the "Archetypal Sun". I could not do otherwise, again and again, than to bring this golden ground into connection with the land of Shamballa, of which Rudolph Steiner had spoken. He had recounted how this land had disappeared from the sight of human beings and that Christ would open the door to those human beings seeking it, to lead them to the "sunken, fairy-tale land of Shamballa" of which the Hindus dream . . . I asked Rudolph Steiner, "Is the interior of the Earth of gold, originating from the empty space within the Sun, actually belonging back there again?" He replied, "Yes, the interior of the Earth is of gold." For the sake of certainty, I asked him further, "Herr doctor, If I stand here upon the ground, then beneath me, deep in the interior of the Earth, is the golden land. If I were to attain to freedom from sin and were to remain standing in the depths, the demons would not be able to harm me and I would be able to pass through them to the golden land. Is this so?" He replied, "If one passes through them together with Christ, then the demons are unable to harm one, but otherwise they would be able to destroy on!" He added the significant words, "However, they are able to become our helpers. Yes, this is so. The path is right, but it is very difficult.
Quote from Robert Powell's article SUB-NATURE AND THE SECOND COMING http://www.eleggua.com/Objects/Powell4.html