on specific genocide.
In studying Sheldrake’s “punctuated” evolution, we suddenly understand why our intuition has already told us that the HIV virus was man-made. As a naturally occurring genetic leap, the HIV virus is too fantastic to consider. Even if abrupt evolutionary leaps are the rule, not the exception, and even if revolution itself is part of the omni-conscious sphere of synchronous reality-alternation, it’s still too giant a biodic quantum leap for a virus suddenly to decide to take up residence within the human DNA factory merely in order to bypass the annoying “somatic individuation” phase. Viri don’t become that sophisticated that quickly. It’s the equivalent of the next generation of the human race suddenly being born with fully-functioning wings sprouting out of the shoulder blades.
The theory, of course, amongst bio-metaphysicians is that the body is merely a highly practical mechanism for the housing and passing on of the genetic code. One of the body’s more clever defenses is the brain, designed to repair itself, built to last at least twice as long as any other organ and encased in a hard, nearly impregnable shell (the skull). But the cerebrum isn’t just a defender of the body. It has, so to speak, a mind of its own and its own goals preempt the instincts. What’s more, the cerebral goals conflict with the goals of the genes. AIDS and the whole contemporary world of the 90’s — with its pollutions, rain forest depletions, baby boom, etc. — constitute the side-effects of a genetic war directed specifically against the cortex, occurring on a deeply subnatural level of the global collective unconscious.
As there are mental and spiritual planes, so there are various material planes. The “common consent” of the whole earth consciousness has been shattered in our time and the result is an insane interplanary (sic) war between the goals of the DNA and the goals of the human brain. Ideally, these goals should coincide, as with planned eugenics. Instead, we have mindless acquiescence to the genetic urge to procreate at any cost — regardless of overpopulation. Genetic consciousness knows only bodily success. It has no way of perceiving the larger context which is visible to the cortex: pollution, famine, despair, etc.
AIN — The Hebrew version of “the Void,” Nothingness (i.e., “The Other Universe” whence this one derives).
AIN SOF — The Infinite or Unlimited Absolute. Qabalistically, that which cannot be encompassed by understanding, but whose existence we readily acknowledge.
AIR — In physics, vacuum interference. In metaphysics, air is the element that pertains to dimensions and represents the tendency towards dispersion. Alice Bailey describes air as “the bridge between high and low.” (I would call all bridges “air.”) Commonly, air is the element attributed to the intelligence.
AIWASS/AIWAZ — Crowley’s alter ego. One of the 3 keywords of the Aeon of Horus (with Thelema and Agapé). Its number is 418. Aiwass has been attributed to Satan or Lucifer.
AKASHA — The fifth tattwa (Hindu element). The black egg of the spirit, i.e., the ether wherein everything is written down. In the Akashic records, found on every plane, no event, however insignificant, goes unmarked. If time be not a closed, self-repeating cycle, then the Akashic Records are of infinite length, having no beginning. The Guardians of the Akashic records have been equated with Thoth & Hermes as well as with Mnemosyne and the Muses. These were the guardians of the Well of Memory, from which the initiate must drink. In Norse mythology, the Guardian of the Well of Knowledge, beside the root of the world-tree, Yggdrasil, was Mimir (to whom Odin paid his eye).
HPB describes Akasha as “The Second Differentiation of evolving substance Chaos, Aether, Matter of the Monadic Plane ... often used where chaos or aether would be indicated.” Akasha is located in the sphere of Vibratory Sound, whence all auras derive.
AKHENATEN, AKHNATON or IKHNATON — (Means “Glorious Spirit of Aten.”) King Amenhotop IV — revered by many as the first Christ, the first monotheist, etc. (actually a maniac much hated by his people) — while still alive he incorporated himself as a God, along with Ra and Aten, forming a Trinity. All other Egyptian Gods were banished and removed from national monuments.
ALAYA — Universal soul or self of all things. Nyingpo amongst the Tibetans.
ALCHEMY — Chemistry isn’t the child of the Alchemists. It’s the legacy of “the puffers,” the charlatan imitators who tried to fake the production of real gold. Alchemy was called “The Hermetic Science” because it supposedly began with Hermes (or Thoth). Paracelsus saw it chiefly as a means of producing medicine. The classical goals of alchemy, however, have been to transmute lower metals into gold, to prolong life via an elixir, to search for the Mysterium Magnum, to create a humunculus and to find a universal solvent. This was to be accomplished via the manufacture or discovery of the Lapis Philosophorum, The Sophie Hydrolith, “Our Mercury” or “Philosopher’s Stone.” Other names for the “Stone” (achieved through the hieros gamos “marriage” of opposites) are: Virgin’s Milk, Cock’s Egg, Dry Water and similar contradictions. Generally, a cryptic vocabulary is used to disguise psychological and materialistic parallels, e.g. “red lion,” “nigredo,” etc. There are, supposedly seven stages of the alchemical Great Work, which are symbolical as well as chemical/metallurgical steps:
Calcination, Putrefaction, Solution, Distillation, Conjunction, Sublimation and Philosophic Congelation. There are also minor, intermediary steps, such as — Coloratio, Corrosio, Ceratio, Extractio, Separatio, etc.
We should bear in mind, however, that true alchemists consider the Great Work to be not merely aureofaction or the transmogrification of matter, but rather, as Alice Bailey points out, “to transfer consciousness to one of the higher vehicles ...” In other words, the integrity of the inner transformation is more important than any flashy theatrical effects.
According to some theories alchemy is the raising of vibrations. The vegetable kingdom resonates at the lowest level, the mineral kingdom at the highest vibrational level. In between vibrates the animal kingdom. It is for this reason that the extraction of plant essence is easy, while the extraction of mineral essence is extremely difficult. This is also why man, situated midway between the two kingdoms, can, by simultaneously distilling his own essence, assist the mineral.
From a psychological standpoint, any work, on the most general level, is the process of separating the important from the non-essential and the decision as to whether to continue further to distil that residue to any degree of perfection and finally the determination of when the whole is of a piece and completely finished. This process can apply to a work of art, to self-analysis, to the quest for the elixir of life or even, for that matter, to metallurgy — because all things are one.
It is no accident, for instance, that there is a correlation between the atomic numbers of modern physics and the ancient progression of metals in their metamorphosis into gold:
Lead ... 82
Thallium ... 81
Mercury ... 80
Gold ... 79
Platinum ... 78
The most important alchemical instruction is “Solve Et Coagula,” but an even more specific hint is “Flee contraction, seek dispersion.”
ALICORN — Unicorn horn. Another corpse in the bloody wake of Belief. Certain superstitious parts of the world already crowded to the point of asphyxiation (chiefly China, supplied by Islam) still insist that powdered rhinoceros horn will give them the one thing they crave above all else: reproductive
