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From: Kristina- Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio
Date: 26 Apr 2003
Time: 03:20:03 -0400
Remote Name: 172.168.139.134
The soul daring to enter the underworld = leaving the above and going below to the innerworld - 7 halls (the seven stages of alchemy), 3 gods (body/mind/spirit), 21 pylons/gates = the entrances to each bridge, which all are very different --the seven alchemical processes of the Great Work (calcination [a purification process/destroying the false spirit that starves the soul and poisions the ego with selfishness and burns a substance to ashes], dissolution [dissolves the body and binds the spirit, allowance of nakedness and connection with our soul], separation [the separation of the pure from the impure and the subtle from the gross; after which the soul feels antogonized and attacks the will; the solution we are is corrosive and as sharp as an eagle's beak -- btw, my guess on why the Ibis represents Thoth is that an ibis is in the stork family, known for being the bringer of a new soul into the world], conjuction [making one out of two, being conscious of the opposing principles within and working to balance the opposites - the unity of which will precipitate their death, the sun/moon lose their identities and a new branch sprouts from the stump of the felled tree; at the river, one side is black though on the other side all is alive], fermentation [wow, do i know this one well - the long dark night of the soul, the descent into darkness, the change and the division, the death of the soul's dregs fall to the pits of the vessel where the body gives up its spirit - blacker than black, this process], distillation [the rising from Earth to "Heaven" and the descent again to Earth, like the dew, which combines both the powers of the Above and the Below and releases volatile essences from their material bonds, recondensing them in a purified form, again like dew, nothing can be rejected or "disowned" or "disavowed" - all must be embraced and integrated, no separating or filtering - the white dove], coagulation [the point where the Prima Materia (the divine principle/the first matter) has been liberated from its material bonds and has been purified, it's the Opus Magnum and the Philosopher's Stone, it's immutable and incorruptible - the salt of Earth and the salt of Heaven have become the same thing and the snake and the lion are one; the sacrifice of the undivided unity and becoming zero which is the sum and matrix of all possibilities - as the Tao Te Ching says: the clay pot itself is not the "thing", but instead it's the empty space within that can be filled.] These 42 gods who judge the traveler *are* the traveler, and a damnation judgement would come from our own selves at the end of the Great Work, from our own soul/spirit/heart, not from fear or commandments. Jesus said that only he who is without sin will enter the Kingdom and to show him the stone that the builder's rejected, which is the keystone. Accepting both dark and light without knowing it as sin. At the end of the Great Work, in the Hall of Double Right and Truth, which is just that, double *right* and *truth*, and negative confessions are a thing of the past, both polarities are right and truth. The opposites have become a united two, both "right" and loved, and both known as truth. And during all this, "Minnaloushe creeps through the grass alone, important and wise, and lifts to the changing moon his changing eyes" (Yeats). This is my take on this. Just hoping to continue the discussion on this, as it greatly interests me. Thanks and enjoy your salads. Thanks for your post, Don, I enjoy the new topic! -- Kris -- www.deliciousagony.com and [email protected])