A Hermetic Viewpoint

Source: imgkid.com

Lately I've been reading through The Universal Master Key by Franz Bardon. The book wasn't written by Franz Bardon as such, but is actually a compilation of notes from Bardon's students in Prague. It's one of those precious tidbits of rediscovered knowledge that gets students of Bardon's system excited.

The book talks about different character traits the aspiring magician is supposed to develop, with each character trait representing a particular element. Together, all these positive character traits are supposed to develop an equilibrium of the elements within the magician, as is the objective of the exercise found in Step Two of Initiation Into Hermetics.

As you read more of the book, it becomes obvious that it's more than just another self-help or character development manual. To illustrate, let me refer to two specific character traits and quote a short description of each.

Strong Individuality (under the Fire element)

"When an accident or misfortune strikes us, when we get ill and have failures, we will always keep our composure and never despair, but instead we overcome with great eagerness all these fateful obstacles, which will only strengthen us, even if it seems to other people that we are persecuted by destiny and are unlucky in everything we do."

Self-Reliance, Certainty (Security) and Self-Confidence (also under the Fire element)

"We should also never be content to rely, not even occasionally, on various changes and circumstances that basically in one form or another will remove for us a particular difficult obstacle. Relying on that would be a major mistake, where we would be the loser in the end."

Considering that most people spend a lot of time, energy and resources to make sure nothing bad happens to them or that they achieve their goals with as few obstacles as possible, the above quotes would seem quite odd, perhaps even counter intuitive.  It's like standing your ground against a wild bear rushing towards you instead of trying to run or hide, as most people would do.

All of this starts to make sense only if we see life as a hermetic would. To the hermetic, this life is simply one of many incarnations. Worldly status or achievements, while they have their place, are still only temporary. When we shed our body, we also leave behind our material possessions, awards and recognitions. We only bring with us the traits that we developed in the course of achieving our earthly goals, and that is the crux of the matter.

To put it crudely, life is simply like going to the gym. Your muscles will only develop if you put a lot of stress on them which means temporary discomfort and suffering while exercising. But just as you leave the gym equipment behind once your session is done and use your newly developed muscles to perform better in the outside world, when the hermetic leaves this life he/she only brings those qualities that were developed through the course of one's time on the material plane.

Getting fired from a job, defaulting on a loan, a serious illness or getting in a spat with a loved one are enough to cause anxiety, anger, worry, fear and/or depression in most people. It's not that the hermetic is out looking for misery and misfortune, but if these things do happen then the hermetic approaches these circumstances with the same enthusiasm and vigor as he/she would when something good happens (ideally, at least). It's a  fundamental difference in state of mind, because to the hermetic, whatever happens in life is simply an opportunity for one's personal development, with no distinction on whether it's a good or bad situation.

This attitude is more than just indifference or an emotionless and fatalistic acceptance of events. The more accurate description would be the attitude of detachment as taught by the Buddha. That's it in a nutshell.

But why is there such a focus on developing character traits?

Here's something to think about. In one of his videos, Sadhguru discusses the question of what happens after death. He says that not everyone has the ability to shed the body consciously (it takes a certain level of inner development to do so). So for majority of people, once the body goes then the discriminating mind also goes and one starts to act according to one's tendencies.

That's why he said it's important to make the dying person's surroundings pleasant, so that the after life experience also becomes pleasant. So theoretically, if one has cultivated certain character traits that also result in an equilibrium of the elements, even in the aftermath of death the spirit can work effectively in the after life and better set the conditions for the next incarnation.

While these statements are difficult to validate, do note that when we go to sleep, most people can't even control what they do in their dreams. At most, people are just observers acting out in reaction to whatever situation is happening in the dream. And sometimes, the theme of dream situations are influenced by the thoughts that were running around in one's mind before falling asleep. Anyway, it's an interesting correlation that merits further investigation.

In the end, I don't think the book is saying that the hermetic shouldn't have any material ambitions or a wish for a better life. But at the same time, the hermetic is called to recognize that life by its very nature is filled with challenges, and these challenges serve a very specific purpose in one's inner development. It's in no way easy. If it was, then a lot more people would have become enlightened by now. But it's serious work, one that the spirit will eventually have to take up in earnest throughout the course of its earthly incarnations.

But going back to the present, I think a practical approach would be to simply do everything you think you need to do to survive (while maintaining a clear conscience), but don't get hung up on the results. When things don't happen the way you want them to or when you want them to, it's easy to get bogged down with the negativity. Don't obsess about the bad but rather learn from them and work to overcome them, step by step without complicating the process with angst. Easier said than done, I know. But it helps when you have a general idea of how you should be going about it.

The book is titled the way it is because its method of inner alchemy is supposed to unlock the door to higher realms of consciousness, an existential experience of multiple dimensions that are so far from the physical that our everyday concerns and worries would seem quite trivial indeed.

Tracing the Roots of Bardon's System of Hermetics

Source: www.verlag-dr.de

Among the circle of students practicing Bardon's system of hermetics, there has always been speculation on who his teachers may have been or what prior teachings had formed the basis of his system. Although the accounts in Frabato the Magician allude to Franz Bardon as a fully developed adept from the start, the more skeptical tend to think that while perhaps gifted, he still must have gone through the normal process of magical development under the tutelage of adepts belonging to an already established magical order.

The candidates commonly brought up as Bardon's sources or teachers were the Czech mystic Karel Weinfurter, the occultist Wilhelm Quintscher and Paschal Beverly Randolph, particularly his magnum opus Magia Sexualis. Karel Weinfurter was a Christian Mystic, same as Franz Bardon's father, so it's easy to see how Bardon could possibly have come under his tutelage. Furthermore, Weinfurter's development seemed to follow the occult path to mysticism, which is similar to how Bardon approaches the concept of magical development.

About Wilhelm Quintscher, in Frabato the Magician it mentions a time when Bardon and a fellow occultist were being tortured by the Nazis. Unable to bear the pain, the occultist uttered a kabbalistic formula that temporarily paralyzed his tormentor but resulted in him being shot to death by a nearby guard. Supposedly, this occultist was Quintscher himself, although this account has been disputed.

Dieter Ruggeberg, who oversees the dissemination of Bardon's works in English, once wrote to Wilhelm Quintscher's son Ernst in order to clarify the matter but unfortunately did not receive any reply. Ernst Quintscher has since passed away, so it seems the issue will never be fully resolved. However, Mr. Ruggeberg still believes that, while both Bardon and Quintscher were good friends, they arrived at their magical attainments separately and that neither copied from the other.

Paschal Beverly Randolph was an American occultist and Rosicrucian who lived and died well before Bardon's time. However, it seems Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics (IIH) contains some materials that bear striking similarity to some of the topics discussed in Randolph's book Magia Sexualis (aka Sexual Magic). Among the subjects discussed in Magia Sexualis that are also found in IIH are the concepts of fluid condensers, volts, magic mirrors and living pictures. Supposedly, no other source material discussed the above subjects before IIH was published, so it strongly suggests a link between the two works. Bardon also mentioned sexual magic briefly in IIH but refrained from giving any details owing to how easily such knowledge could be abused.

With all that being said, I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that there are sources that would have influenced Franz Bardon. He certainly wasn't opposed to the idea of reading the occult publications of other hermetics. In fact, Bardon's direct students recalled that he had a respectable collection of occult manuscripts. To cite one instance, Bardon was so impressed with Georg Lomer's Seven Hermetic Letters that he had it translated from the original German into Czech so that his Czech students could easily read them (later on, the Seven Hermetic Letters would be mistaken as one of Bardon's works although that mistake has since been rectified).

Given the above details, the question would be, is Bardon's system of hermetics unique or did he just put together a hodgepodge of systems and call it his own? I'm not here to prove or disprove the speculated sources (or teachers) of Bardon because I think the answer is not so simple.

To illustrate, even Master Choa Kok Sui had a lot of references when he was formulating the workings of modern pranic healing and arhatic yoga. Some of those references influenced his work, while others were used to corroborate the results of his research. The rest was received through direct inner transmission and validated through experiments. He also had incarnated spiritual guides who helped him in his research.

And I think the process Master Choa went through was similar to what happened when Franz Bardon was tasked to publish the first three tarot cards (i.e. Initiation Into Hermetics, The Practice of Magical Evocation and Key to the True Quabbalah). If there were elements from other works that made their way into Bardon's books (as what seems to be the case from Paschal Beverly Randolph's book), it could simply be for the reason that the information was good enough to be deemed a natural part of hermetic practice and would otherwise have been largely overlooked or lost to obscurity if left out.

But in order to provide another point of view, I'd like to present another system that has striking parallels to Bardon's own teachings, and that system is Taoism. While it may be surprising that an Oriental philosophy could have anything in common with hermetics, it really isn't that far-fetched and I'll explain this later.

I base my observations on a book I'm currently reading, Opening The Dragon Gate: The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard by Chen Kaiguo and Zheng Shunchao (translated from the original Chinese by Thomas Cleary). It's the biography of a living Taoist master named Wang Liping, 18th generation Transmitter of the Dragon Gate branch of the Complete Reality School of Taoism (a form of Taoism that integrated Buddhism and Confucianism into its philosophy; it spread in China during the Middle Ages and continues to thrive).

Wang Liping was born in 1949 and started his Taoist training at the same time the Great Cultural Revolution, one of the most tumultuous times in modern China, was underway. Three Taoist masters oversaw his training over the course of 15 years.

I will now quote select passages from the book and then point out the similarities between the Taoist training Wang Liping underwent and the hermetic exercises of Franz Bardon. The following passage describes exercises that are similar to the first three Steps of magic mental exercises in IIH.

The first exercise the old masters taught Wang Liping, therefore, was a practice called "repentance." What this means in the context of Taoism is cleaning the mind, clearing away mundane influences already infecting the consciousness, getting rid of the rubbish. The way this is done is by temporary isolation and self-examination. 

Now Liping sat quietly in the dark room practicing structured thought according to the directions of his mentor. First he reflected on the fact that even though his body was restrained in a small dark room, his thought could not be locked up and prevented from going out and about.... With this in mind, Liping deliberately focused his thought on his father....Now Liping began to go through books inside his brain. Here is a textbook, he began, and he started to look through it mentally from the first lesson. There is a picture of the Great Wall, very grand and impressive....He began describing it to himself. The wall is several meters in height, made of boulders and blocks, built along the spines of the mountains.

The following passages look like a combination of "mental wandering" and the magic physical exercises.

After sitting quietly for a while, Wang Liping felt his whole body become nothing. Inside his brain was a complete blank. Then, all of a sudden, images began to appear. These images were not the same as those that had appeared before when he was practicing deliberate thinking in the dark room. Those earlier images had been deliberately mentally formulated; these images appeared spontaneously. They were very real, distinct, and clear.

The Wayfarer of Pure Emptiness laughed and said, "You have again progressed further in quiet sitting. Now you have already entered into the second step of the method of developing mental capacities, which is called 'clear distinction of the real and the unreal.' When you gaze inwardly at your own body after entering stillness, even though your eyes are closed and you are in utter darkness, you can see the internal conditions of your own body with perfect clarity. When this happens, you should never be startled or frightened, and you should not engage in any activity. You must observe and make distinctions with accurate precision. See exactly how many bones there are in your head, what shape they are, and how they are joined together. What are the shapes of your internal organs? What colors are they? Are there any spots? When you can see these things plainly and register them clearly, then this becomes useful. This exercise is basic when it comes to diagnosing and curing disease. People may look well from the outside, but when you can see the internal condition of their bodies you know whether or not they are sick, and where the ailment is if they are. So this exercise method is called 'clear distinction of the real and the unreal.' Now that you have entered this domain, you should continue to practice, observing the structure of your body, remembering every detail."

Here is a short discussion of the microcosm and the macrocosm, which Bardon also emphasized in his work:

The "mechanism of heaven and earth" refers to the laws by which the universe operates. Humanity is born between heaven and earth. A human being is a microcosm that is influenced and regulated by the macrocosm. Unless you know natural laws, proper timing, and appropriate method, there is no succeeding in learning the Way. Polish away the temperamental nature of acquired habit, and fundamental essential nature appears of itself. Casting aside the ordinary mind, keep the true mind. Where does the true mind resort? To Nature.

The following reminds me of the "depth point exercise" in Step V of IIH:

A Taoist scripture says that there are 84,000 miles between the heights of heaven and the depths of earth, so the center of heaven and earth is 42,000 miles up. If the human body is a miniature heaven and earth, and the heart and navel are 8.4 inches apart, then the center is 4.2 inches from each. This opening is right in the center, where all channels connect, an empty opening with a tiny pearl hanging in space. This is the true center of the universe in the body, the aperture where the original generative energy is stored. Therefore the master teacher Chunyang said, "The mystic female, the mystic female, the true mystic female; it is not in the heart and not in the kidneys. Find out the beginning of life where energy is received; do not think it strange the celestial mechanism has been divulged." From this the importance of that aperture can be seen.

About the importance of balancing the elements in the human body

Liping's mentor had him walk along a certain prescribed route, based on the interrelations of the five elements to tune the internal five elements within the human body, using the external five elements to exert a pull on the internal five elements, so as to arrive at equilibrium of the internal five elements, in order to get rid of diseases and prolong life. 

Hygienists consider heaven and earth to be the greatest things, and humankind to be the most intelligent of beings. The human body is a microcosm, a miniature universe, having within it a sun and moon, yin and yang, and the operation of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—fostering each other and overcoming each other, taking advantage of each other and dominating each other, thus achieving balance.

This looks like something out of the Practice of Magical Evocation:

That night, there was a fierce rainstorm, with lightning and thunder. The wizards hurriedly shut the windows; aware of the emergence of an abnormal condition,they changed into Taoist garb, took up ritual swords, burned incense, and performed a rite....Immediately they sat in a battlefront formation, held their precious swords upright, and performed an esoteric rite. The grand master first caused the wind and rain to stop in the area, and saw to it that the spirits did not interfere; he also forbade pure yin entities from approaching. The two younger masters both exercised their extraordinary arts to create a protective seal around Wang Liping's body. 

And finally, a passage about hand rituals and kabbalistic formulae:

Having spoken, the Wayfarer of Pure Serenity made a hand gesture; suddenly his whole body shook, and a peculiar stream of sounds poured from his mouth. At the same time, there was a lightning flash, followed by a distant rumble of thunder. The Wayfarer pointed both hands in the direction of the lightning, making a gentle stroking motion. The clouds in the sky began to part, opening up a strip of pale light.

I think I've already quoted enough passages so that students already familiar with Bardon's books can see enough of the parallels in both systems. What then is the significance of these similarities?

Aside from the above mentioned training, Taoists also study and practice alchemy (both internal and external), physiognomy, fortune-telling and divination, and Chinese medicine (which includes herbology and acupuncture). Franz Bardon is supposed to have said that there are 22 initiations in hermetics, each initiation represented by a tarot card. Rumor also has it that Bardon was actually tasked to release the first FIVE tarot cards, but unfortunately only three came out before fate intervened. While we don't know for sure what the other two tarot cards were going to be about, some say that at least one of them was going to be about alchemy (see again the similarity with the Taoist system?).

What I'm getting at is this, perhaps in Taoist training we see an example of what a "full deck" of Tarot cards would have looked like. Bardon was certainly fully initiated, and he did heal people using herbal and alchemical mixtures, same as the Taoists did. In fact, Franz Bardon would have fit the description of a Taoist master.

This is not to say that Taoism is "superior" to hermetics. It's just that the Taoists were more successful in preserving their lineage while hermetic science has, for the most part, become quite fragmented. I think Bardon was trying to piece together those hermetic fragments into a coherent whole while removing all the fluff that had accumulated. Of course, the whole is far from being formed but at least Bardon planted the seeds for its eventual fruition.

What does this all mean for us? Towards the end of Frabato the Magician, among the supposed previous incarnations of Franz Bardon were Lao Tzu and Hermes Trismegistus. Whether these were his actual previous incarnations or not is beside the point. What is significant though is that Lao Tzu is widely believed to have written the Tao Te Ching and is credited with the start of Taoism, while Hermes Trismegistus is the author of the Emerald Tablet and is credited with the start of the hermetic tradition. In essence, both systems come from One Source! I'm not only referring to the personalities that started these inner sciences, but rather Divine Providence that opened a way for all this occult knowledge to make its way into our physical realm.

In the end, it doesn't really matter as much what system one is following, as long as one is sincere and pure of heart. As the Taoists say, the level of one's attainment is not important, as long as you are able to help and do a lot of good deeds. And in that way can we be confident that we are representing the will of Divine Providence.

You Don't Have to Be Perfect (All The Time)

Source: mashedpotatobulletin.com

A Hindu story about the god Indra goes:

The Hindus tell a tale of one of the great gods — Indra — who, following a caprice, incarcerated himself in the body of a pig. He took unto himself a pig mate, and raised a brood of little pigs. He lost all sense of his own identity, and was thoroughly hypnotized with the idea that he was a pig. The fellow-gods, grieved at his illusion and his pitiful state, called upon him to come out of the pig-state, telling him that he was a great god and not a swinish creature wallowing in the mud. He grunted out a denial, saying: “I am a pig, not a god—let me alone!” They persisted, and he continued to repel them. They killed his pig-mate, and his little pigs, but he squealed out his sorrow and rage, and tried to destroy the gods in his wrath.

Finally they killed his pig-body, as a last resort, and lo! Indra, the god, stepped forth in all his glorious power, and laughed in astonishment when he realized the extent and degree of his late illusion.” By this parable, the Hindu teachers impress upon their chelas the fact of their Real Self. (excerpt from The Arcane Formulas by William Walker Atkinson)

And I suppose that one of the chains that prevents us from realizing our Real Self is the fear of being wrong. I sometimes think that it's the fear of being wrong that fuels a lot of the conflicts in our lives.

Why do I say it's a driver for conflict? Because being wrong is usually punished. In school, it can get you an "F." At work, it can get you fired or demoted. Contrast this with the fact that those with the fewest mistakes get the A's and the honors, and at work, minimal mistakes get you the fast track to promotion (especially if you can successfully let someone else take the fall for your mistakes) and it's easy to jump to the conclusion that "being right" is the only way to get ahead or be rewarded.

It's just my opinion, but I think most people subconsciously think and act that way. Maybe that's why it's harder for people to back down when they get into a public confrontation, because backing down means being wrong, and being wrong doesn't work out so well in school or at work.

It's okay to make a mistake, just try not to repeat it. It's just a marker for learning, but it never takes away anything from You, the Spirit. Your personality might react, but just remember the story of Indra above.

I'm not saying we should avoid striving for excellence. We should. After all, there are activities that, if botched, could harm a lot of people if not get them killed. But we should also have a reasonable acceptance that everyone is fallible. Trying to avoid getting something wrong can be as stressful, if not more so, than actually getting it wrong in the first place when done from the point of view of trying to avoid judgement from others.

Let me ask you this. How many people do you know are emotionally mature enough to realize that being wrong does not diminish their worth as a person?

Life is more than about being right or wrong. The great hermetic Franz Bardon once said, "We must enjoy the good, and learn from the bad." And while bad things may happen from making mistakes, it doesn't change the fact the we are eternal Spirits, still part of the Divine, and still loved by God. And I think if we can remember that realization in our everyday encounters, differences among people can become an opportunity for dialogue and learning, rather than as an arena for conflict and character assassination.

Much Ado About Nothing?

By Jack Ohman, for the Sacramento Bee

Everyone not living under a rock is probably aware of Ebola right now, especially since mainstream attention got a boost when patient zero Thomas Duncan unwittingly imported it into the US from Liberia last October 1. The timing of TV shows like The Last Ship and The Strain have certainly helped thrust the subject of pandemics into the spotlight.

Just like any tragedy, there are many opinions going around, including conspiracy theories. One of the more popular conspiracy theories is the "global depopulation agenda" supposedly being instituted by those working towards a New World Order. In fact, as far back as 2006, University of Texas professor Dr. Eric Pianka advocated the mass culling of 90% of the world's population through the use of an airborne Ebola virus. Creepy, huh?

There are others who contend that it's all an elaborate ploy for pharmaceutical companies to make a killing with vaccines, the way Tamiflu was pushed in the wake of the H1N1 scare. Actually, one of the more far out conspiracy theories I read about came out soon after the disappearance of Flight MH370 back in March. The theory goes that MH370 was actually diverted to the US military base in Diego Garcia via remote control (like a drone) and that a team from the CDC and its counterpart from the People's Republic of China were scrambled and sent there. Since, in hindsight, it turns out the Ebola virus was starting to rage out of control in Africa at about that time, one has to wonder if there really was something to that particular conspiracy theory.

On the other hand, both government and medical officials keep stating that there is nothing to worry about, that Ebola does not spread easily. A few outlets have even mentioned other threats and diseases that kill thousands of Americans each year (also refer to the infographic image) but don't make the news like Ebola does, the implication being that Ebola is being hyped by fear mongers.

Be that as it may, something was lacking in the CDC response to the initial Ebola outbreak. Two healthcare workers got infected after treating Duncan (compare this to Doctors Without Borders where they were able to treat thousands of Ebola-infected patients before doctors started getting infected), there were missteps in decontaminating the apartment complex where Duncan stayed, and one of the infected nurses was even allowed to fly by the CDC despite having a fever.

Even if Ebola was not as scary as portrayed by media, people may have more to be concerned about government ineptitude (or nefariousness, if you believe the "depopulation" theory) than with the virus itself. Add to this the fact that the US continues to accept flights from Ebola-affected countries and hasn't secured illegal immigration in its southern border and it's easy to see why some people think that the US government wants Ebola to spread inside the country.

Nevertheless, there are signs of hope. Aside from the two nurses who were caring for Duncan, no one else Duncan had come in contact with has come down with Ebola and the Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola has apparently fully recovered. Even more goods news is the report that Nigeria has managed to become Ebola free with no new outbreaks for the past 42 days. It's encouraging because Nigeria's case shows that a country doesn't need to be a first world nation in order to effectively handle Ebola.

Still, Ebola remains a major concern. As long as air travel continues unabated across the world, it's still possible for Ebola to slip in even to those countries that have managed to stamp it out or into areas that haven't had an Ebola infection before, as evidenced by the latest news that a New York City doctor who just came from West Africa has tested positive for Ebola. Mutation is also another concern, although health officials keep downplaying that possibility.

But then again, in the book The Hot Zone, author Richard Preston relates a 1989 incident at a primate quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia where an Ebola virus quickly mutated and started to spread among the primates like influenza. When samples were sent to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), two USAMRIID scientists accidentally exposed themselves to the virus when they wafted the flask. Although airborne and lethal to monkeys, thankfully that particular strain was effectively harmless to humans. However, the incident still shows that the possibility of Ebola becoming airborne is not as remote as we are being told to believe.

Given the above, is there anything the individual can do? The answer is yes. Since Ebola is a virus, the only way to fight it is through the body's immune system. Medical care can only help insofar as providing the patient enough nutrition and keeping the patient hydrated and clean, but the real battle can only be fought by the patient. Therefore, it makes sense to simply strengthen one's immune system and keep it that way, and this would be important even without the Ebola crisis anyway.

Fortunately, instead of sitting down just waiting for a vaccine, there are many natural ways to improve your immune system right now. Turmeric, cayenne pepper, Vitamin D through sensible sun exposure and apple cider vinegar are just some of the natural supplements you can take everyday. Getting enough sleep and exercise (not too much, since overtraining can actually reduce your immunity) also help.

Another important thing to note is that 80% of your immune system is located in your digestive tract, so keeping your beneficial gut bacteria at an optimal level is paramount. You can do this by consuming more fermented foods, kefir and yogurt (go organic, as much as possible).

While doing the above won't guarantee immunity or even survival, better health still leads to a better life even if you never encounter Ebola (and hopefully never will). The important thing is that you can be proactive and not give in to the fear, because the response is literally in your hands!

The Mid Life Crisis and Its Significance In Astrology

Source: blog.brazencareerist.com

Recently I got to talk with an astrologer and one of the topics we talked about was the mid life crisis. Apparently, in astrology the mid life crisis is quite real and important. Here's how it was explained to me.

We understand the mid life crisis as a period of reflection and sometimes confusion about one's place in life. It can also be one of those times when someone earning a six or seven-figure salary suddenly drops everything and gives it all up to start a band, or something else that's not as financially lucrative. Crazy, right?

This period of reckoning happens most intensely from age 42 until 49. However, it's possible for a person to start questioning himself/herself even as early as the mid-thirties, just as it's also possible for the period to last up to the age of 51.

In order to understand why this period happens, we need to know a little of what astrology does. In astrological terms, every person has a "destiny" (we do have free will). The positions of the planets and stars at the time of a person's birth determines, in very large part, a person's interests, talents and life events that the person is expected to go through in this lifetime.

More often than not, we are molded by what society expects from us, and thus we start to live according to the standards that have been set down for us. It's not like Divergent where you need to be part of a faction to be accepted in society, but sometimes we make our choices more out of pragmatism or social pressure than true desire.

Sounds preposterous? Well, did you know that before World War I, women really didn't mind having armpit and leg hair? But shortly after World War I, a massive advertising campaign dubbed "The Great Underarm Campaign" slowly changed market attitudes so that it would now be anathema for women to show off hairy underarms (or legs) in public. Read 5 Basic Facts of Life (Were Made Up by Marketing Campaigns) to find out what else we've been manipulated into accepting as part of daily life.

In astrology, the farther you get from expressing your true or inner inclinations, the more you start to feel that "something is missing." While this line of thought may only tease one's mind while young, it takes on more significance as one's 40s draws closer. The intensity of this period differs from person to person, but generally speaking the farther one is from the point of "this is how it's supposed to be" or "I am doing what I am supposed to," the more intense the self-questioning is.

In biblical terms, a mid life crisis can feel like the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel (Genesis 32:22-32). The outcome will mark you and leave you changed forever.

The question is, why does the mid life crisis happen at the period that it does? What's so special about the 40s aside from it being the midpoint of average life expectancy?

The number 40 appears many times in Biblical scripture. The 40 years the tribes of Israel wandered the desert, Jesus fasting for 40 days and nights, the 40 days and nights it rained during the Great Flood, etc. They all refer to periods of testing and judgement.

But the number 40 can also mean the start of a journey. After all, isn't there a saying that life begins at forty? And it's more than just a joke to play down one's age. Traditionally, a man is only initiated into the study of the Kaballah once he reaches the age of 40.

From the astrological point of view, the planet Saturn exerts its influence more strongly in a person's life during one's 40s. As it turns out, in Franz Bardon's hermetic system, Saturn is the sphere where the Lords of Karma reside. So esoterically speaking, it means that this period puts more focus on one's life karma than at other points in one's life.

Resolution doesn't necessarily involve giving up or changing one's career. If you've always wanted to be a doctor and have a successful practice, any period of self reflection may simply involve adding another specialty or moving from clinical to administrative duties.

According to the astrologer I talked to, there are three outcomes that can be expected from a mid-life crisis:

1. The person recognizes what he/she really wants to do in life and does it regardless of the social cost,

2. The person comes to terms with not being able to follow his/her true inclinations (usually because of financial responsibilities like sending his/her kids to school). It's also possible the person may try to incorporate some aspects of his/her passion into his/her regular life without making too many waves.

3. The person is unable to come to terms with his/her life and a breakdown happens (not necessarily leading to a room with a padded wall, but the person can develop vices, be more hot tempered or just have a general air of disgruntlement; he/she can also start to develop serious illnesses at this point, i.e. a breakdown of health).

But whether one goes through an actual mid life crisis or not, I think the most important take away is that it's not so much about following your dreams as it is about being at peace with where you decide to take your life. In that sense, you are taking responsibility for your choices and when the self-questioning begins, you will find out whether you can really stand by your choices or not.

The Dilemma That Is Abortion

Source: flickr.com

I'd like to touch on the topic of abortion for now. Yes, it's quite a controversial and sensitive topic, but I've been seeing some articles on abortion pop up on my Facebook feed now and then so I thought I should at least give a stated opinion about it. I know this won't end the pro- and anti-abortion debate, but speaking only for myself, I know where I stand and why I stand for it.

In general, I am against abortion. Why? Let's first go to the end.

What bodily function do medical personnel check to see if a person is alive or dead? The heartbeat. If the heart stops beating, the person is dead. The heart = life. Now, what is the very first organ that forms after the sperm fertilizes the egg? The heart. When you look at the ultrasound screen and see that pulsing point of light that is the heart, you know the fetus is alive and the fact that you're going to have a baby hits you.

The fetus is not just another part of a woman's body that shoots itself out after nine months. It is another life. The difference between the heart of a fetus and an adult is merely one of degree. So whenever an abortion is performed, a life is snuffed out. There's no getting around that.

That is why I cannot understand the logic that would support abortion in the name of freedom of choice alone when to kill a baby after it is born would be called infanticide. All I'm saying is that abortion and infanticide are two sides of the same coin, and the only thing separating the two is a mother's womb.

But aren't there instances when abortion may become necessary? Yes, I understand that if the life of the mother would be placed in jeopardy if a pregnancy were continued, like in an ectopic pregnancy, it would be best to abort that pregnancy. But these are extreme circumstances where a decision is not (or at least should not be) arrived at lightly (just like the decision to take a life in self-defense).

But what about pregnancies due to rape, or when there is a genetic defect / illness detected in the fetus? Now those are tough calls, and are difficult on so many levels. I won't presume to advise what the decision should be except to say that any decision should be arrived at with careful deliberation.

I hope that, when faced with the question of abortion, the woman would at least be aware of what she is really deciding for. Abortion goes beyond the right of a woman to do what she likes with her own body. She is not only deciding for herself, she is deciding the fate of two lives. And unlike a newborn baby that can at least breathe on its own or even be given up for adoption, the fetus is totally and utterly dependent on the mother for its survival. The fetus has no choice in it at all.

The decision whether or not to abort is, in the end, a decision whether or not to take a life. A woman should ask herself, what is she trying to gain in exchange for a life? Is that goal worth taking a life for? Can she live with that choice? That choice, and it is such a heavy choice, should be weighed with all the gravity such a decision deserves.

The decision whether or not to take a life merits nothing less.

Wealth and Spirituality = Oil and Water?

Source: http://www.stat.org.au/

I recently read an article entitled How Materialism Posing as Mysticism Limits Consciousness and Subverts Spirituality. The article makes a lot of interesting presuppositions and I agree with its basic premise...to a certain point.

It's true that there are charlatans who fleece unwary believers of their money, and even in genuine spiritual/esoteric organizations there are unscrupulous individuals who are either power-tripping or out to amass more money at the expense of others (usually both). However, equating the use of the Law of Attraction with greed, as the article seems to imply, would be an oversimplification of the complexity of living in the modern world.

We are aware, at some level, of the rising level of inequality between the rich and the poor. In fact, I've heard many references about the 1% that controls majority of the world's wealth and resources. So for the rest of the world population that has access to much less, keeping one's financial neck above the water can become a daily challenge. Especially now in a tepid world economy, there is a lot of motivation for the breadwinner to provide a better life for one's loved ones.

Of course, the Lord Jesus did say that you cannot serve both God and mammon. However, while there are yogis, hermits and sadhus who renounce everything of the world, including ties to family, there are those who want to be spiritual yet still live within the framework of mainstream society. And as such, these people still need to live within the norms of that society, and that usually means having a roof over your head, feeding your family, sending your kids to school and other banalities expected of normal people. Even in alternative or off-the-grid communities, the demands of daily survival still require the acquisition and use of material resources.

Just like in most subjects that deal with the spiritual and esoteric, discernment and balance should be the key. It's hard to be spiritual when your stomach is growling or if you see your loved ones suffering and you can't help because you lack the means to do so. It's simply Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs at work.

Given the above considerations, I wouldn't call using the Law of Attraction so that you can create the conditions that would provide a roof to stay under, feed your family three square meals a day or pay your child's tuition as "worshiping mammon."  Not having to worry about paying the bills on time or wondering where your next meal will come from would certainly free up a lot more energy to engage in spiritual practices and help other people as well.

But that's the key distinction that I think spiritual seekers need to keep in mind. We need to earn enough to be able to discharge our earthly responsibilities without this drive devolving into the pursuit of wealth for the sake of wealth itself or to merely maintain or acquire greater social bragging rights.

Of course, what constitutes "enough" will differ from person to person. For example, someone who is married, has a housing mortgage and needs to send children to school will need much more compared to someone who is single. I do think it's possible to achieve that material balance, but I admit that it's easy to get lost in the effort itself, and I think that's the danger that the article I mentioned earlier was trying to point out. But while the struggle to maintain a balance is hard, isn't that what the spiritual development process is also about?

So don't worry if you're trying to use the Law of Attraction in order to improve your lot. Just remember why you're doing it. And don't feel guilty if you get rich, because I know of wealthy people who help their financially challenged siblings or send their nephews or nieces to school if the child's own parents couldn't afford it.

It's not just the tool itself, but the way that you use the tool that determines if your effort will lead to good or ill.