Passages similar to: The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians — The Aura and Auric Colors
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Western Esoteric
The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians
The Aura and Auric Colors (5)
The lowest element in the human aura is that which occultists call the "physical emanation," which is almost colorless, and which is marked by minute and thin "streaks" or bristle-like marks standing out from the body like bristles on a brush. When the person is in good health these "bristles" stand out stiffly, while when the person is in poor health or is suffering from impaired vitality they droop like the soft hair on the coat of an animal. This element of the aura appears to detach minute particles of itself from the aura as the person moves about, and it is believed that it is by these particles that dogs and other animals are able to track persons—it is this which is the essence of the so-called "scent" followed by the animals mentioned.
The third group of elementals is the salamanders, or spirits of fire, who live in that attenuated, spiritual ether which is the invisible fire...
(39) The third group of elementals is the salamanders, or spirits of fire, who live in that attenuated, spiritual ether which is the invisible fire element of Nature. Without them material fire cannot exist; a match cannot be struck nor will flint and steel give off their spark without the assistance of a salamander, who immediately appears (so the mediæval mystics believed), evoked by friction. Man is unable to communicate successfully with the salamanders, owing to the fiery element in which they dwell, for everything is resolved to ashes that comes into their presence. By specially prepared compounds of herbs and perfumes the philosophers of the ancient world manufactured many kinds of incense. When incense was burned, the vapors which arose were especially suitable as a medium for the expression of these elementals, who, by borrowing the ethereal effluvium from the incense smoke, were able to make their presence felt.
There areas many ethers as there are elements and as many distinct families of Nature spirits as there are ethers. These families are completely isola...
(15) is meant the spiritual essence of one of the four elements. There areas many ethers as there are elements and as many distinct families of Nature spirits as there are ethers. These families are completely isolated in their own ether and have no intercourse with the denizens of the other ethers; but, as man has within his own nature centers of consciousness sensitive to the impulses of all the four ethers, it is possible for any of the elemental kingdoms to communicate with him under proper conditions.
Chapter 14: How Lucifer, who was the most beautiful Angel in Heaven, is become the most horrible Devil. The House of the murderous Den. (15)
When the qualifying or fountain spirits were incorporated or compacted together, then the light shone much brighter and clearer in the body, and from...
(15) When the qualifying or fountain spirits were incorporated or compacted together, then the light shone much brighter and clearer in the body, and from or out of the body, than it did before, in the Salitter; for there then rose up a much clearer and brighter flash in the body than before, while the Salitter was thin and dim.
Chapter 5: Of the Corporeal Substance, Being and Propriety of an Angel. Question. (54)
So also in angels and men, the power of the smell riseth up out of all the powers of the body by and through the spirit, and cometh forth at the nostr...
(54) So also in angels and men, the power of the smell riseth up out of all the powers of the body by and through the spirit, and cometh forth at the nostrils of the nose, and is affected with all smells or savours, and bringeth them through the nostrils of the nose, which is the third counsellor, into the head, before the princely seat or throne.
Hermetic Pharmacology, Chemistry, and Therapeutics (13)
This vital energy has its origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has two bodies, one visible and substantial, the other...
(13) This vital energy has its origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has two bodies, one visible and substantial, the other invisible and transcendent. The latter consists of an ethereal counterpart of the physical form; it constitutes the vehicle of archæus, and may be called a vital body. This etheric shadow sheath is not dissipated by death, but remains until the physical form is entirely disintegrated. These "etheric doubles, "seen around graveyards, have given rise to a belief in ghosts. Being much finer in its substances than the earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible to impulses and inharmonies. It is derangements of this astral light body that cause much disease. Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid mental attitude could poison his own etheric nature, and this infection, diverting the natural flow of vital life force, would later appear as a physical ailment. All plants and minerals have an invisible nature composed of this "archæus," but each manifests it in a different way.
The reader should be careful not to confuse the Nature spirits with the true life waves evolving through the invisible worlds. While the elementals...
(18) The reader should be careful not to confuse the Nature spirits with the true life waves evolving through the invisible worlds. While the elementals are composed of only one etheric (or atomic) essence, the angels, archangels, and other superior, transcendental entities have composite organisms, consisting of a spiritual nature and a chain of vehicles to express that nature not unlike those of men, but not including the physical body with its attendant limitations.
Concerning the elemental ethers in which the Nature spirits exist, Paracelsus wrote: "They live in the four elements: the Nymphæ in the element of...
(17) Concerning the elemental ethers in which the Nature spirits exist, Paracelsus wrote: "They live in the four elements: the Nymphæ in the element of water, the Sylphes in that of the air, the Pigmies in the earth, and the Salamanders in fire. They are also called Undinæ, Sylvestres, Gnomi, Vulcani, &c. Each species moves only in the element to which it belongs, and neither of them can go out of its appropriate element, which is to them as the air is to us, or the water to fishes; and none of them can live in the element belonging to another class. To each elemental being the element in which it lives is transparent, invisible and respirable, as the atmosphere is to ourselves." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
And of those who are so by nature, some are capable of being apprehended; and these some would not call occult, being apprehended by analogy, through ...
(27) And of causes that are occult, some are occult temporarily, being hidden at one time, and at another again seen clearly; and some are occult by nature, and capable of becoming at no time visible. And of those who are so by nature, some are capable of being apprehended; and these some would not call occult, being apprehended by analogy, through the medium of signs, as, for example, the symmetry of the passages of the senses, which are contemplated by reason.
Air is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible, volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual air. Fire is visible...
(2) Air is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible, volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual air. Fire is visible and invisible, discernible and indiscernible--a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting through a material, substantial flame. Carrying the analogy further, water consists of a dense fluid and a potential essence of a fluidic nature. Earth has likewise two essential parts--the lower being fixed, terreous, immobile; the higher, rarefied, mobile, and virtual. The general term elements has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and the name elemental essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions. Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world composed of the gross side of these four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms.
If, therefore, true divination was a solution of the divine part of the soul from the other parts of it, or if it was a separation of intellect, or a...
(1) If, therefore, true divination was a solution of the divine part of the soul from the other parts of it, or if it was a separation of intellect, or a certain extension of it; or if it was a vehemence and extension of energy or passion, or an acuteness and motion of dianoia, or a fervour of intellect; then, since all such like particulars are excited by our soul, enthusiasm might be reasonably supposed to be the offspring of the soul. If, however, the body, on account of certain temperaments, whether they are such as are melancholic, or any other, or, to speak more particularly, on account of heat, or cold, or moisture, or a certain specific quality of these, or the mixture or temperature of these in a certain proportion, or the pneumatic part of the soul, or the more and the less of these; if any one of these is established as the cause of enthusiastic alienation, in this case, the alienation will be a corporeal passion, and will be excited by physical motions. But if its excitation originates from both the soul and the body, so far as these coalesce with each other, a motion of this kind will be common to the animal [produced by the union of the two]. The enthusiastic energy, however, is not the work either of the body or the soul, or of both conjoined. For these do not contain in themselves a certain cause of divine alienation, nor are things of a more excellent nature adapted to be generated by such as are less excellent.
For men who survey divine fire are not able to breathe, through the subtilty of it, but become languid as soon as they perceive it, and are deprived o...
(1) Moreover, with respect to the tenuity and subtilty of light, the Gods extend a light so subtle that corporeal eyes cannot sustain it, but are affected in the same manner as fishes, when they are drawn upward from turbid and thick water into attenuated and diaphanous air. For men who survey divine fire are not able to breathe, through the subtilty of it, but become languid as soon as they perceive it, and are deprived of the use of their connascent spirit. Archangels, also, emit a light which is intolerable to respiration, yet their splendour is not equally pure with that of the Gods, nor similarly overpowering. The presence of angels renders the temperature of the air tolerable, so that theurgists are capable of being united to it. But when dæmons are present, the whole air is not at all affected; nor does the air, which surrounds them, become more attenuated; nor does a light precede them, in which, being previously received and preoccupied by the air, they unfold the form of themselves; nor are they surrounded by a certain splendour, which diffuses its light everywhere. When heroes appear, certain parts of the earth are moved, and sounds are heard around them; but, in short, the air does not become more attenuated, nor incommensurate to theurgists, so as to render them unable to receive it. But when archons are present, an assemblage of many luminous appearances runs round them, difficult to be borne, whether these appearances are mundane or terrestrial. They have not, however, a supermundane tenuity, nor even that of the supreme elements. And to the psychical appearances the air is more allied, and, being suspended from them, receives in itself their circumscription.
Chapter 14: How Lucifer, who was the most beautiful Angel in Heaven, is become the most horrible Devil. The House of the murderous Den. (86)
Now being thus agreed, they generated also such a spirit, which came forth at the mouth, at the eyes, at the ears, and at the nostrils, and affected...
(86) Now being thus agreed, they generated also such a spirit, which came forth at the mouth, at the eyes, at the ears, and at the nostrils, and affected or mixed itself with the Salitter that was without, distinct from the body.
Book I: Introductory Instructions Concerning the Experiencing of Reality During the Third Stage of the Bardo, Called the Chonyid Bardo, when the Karmic Apparitions Appear (3.16)
The body which thou hast now is called the thought-body of propensities. Since thou hast not a material body of flesh and blood, whatever may come —...
(3) The body which thou hast now is called the thought-body of propensities. Since thou hast not a material body of flesh and blood, whatever may come — sounds, lights, or rays — are, all three, unable to harm thee: thou art incapable of dying. It is quite sufficient for thee to know that these apparitions are thine own thought-forms. Recognize this to be the Bardo.
Chapter 19: Of the Entering of the Souls to God, and of the wicked Souls Entering into Perdition. Of the Gate of the Body's Breaking off [or Parting] from the Soul. (17)
O no, beloved Reason, it is not so; the soul is not seen nor comprehended in the outward Elements; but that is the Brimstone- spirit, the Spirit of...
(17) O no, beloved Reason, it is not so; the soul is not seen nor comprehended in the outward Elements; but that is the Brimstone- spirit, the Spirit of the third Principle; for as when thou puttest out a Candle, a filthy Smell and Stink comes from it, which was not before when the Candle burned, so here also, when the Light of the Body breaks, then the Brimstone- spirit is smothered, from whence that Vapour and deadly Stink proceeds, with its working [Spirit, or infecting] Poison.
"Yet," he adds, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh, blood and bones; they live and propagate offspring; they cat and talk, act...
(12) "Yet," he adds, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh, blood and bones; they live and propagate offspring; they cat and talk, act and sleep, &c., and consequently they cannot be properly called 'spirits.' They are beings occupying a place between men and spirits, resembling men and spirits, resembling men and women in their organization and form, and resembling spirits in the rapidity of their locomotion." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.) Later the same author calls these creatures composita, inasmuch as the substance out of which they are composed seems to be a composite of spirit and matter. He uses color to explain the idea. Thus, the mixture of blue and red gives purple, a new color, resembling neither of the others yet composed of both. Such is the case with the Nature spirits; they resemble neither spiritual creatures nor material beings, yet are composed of the substance which we may call spiritual matter, or ether.
Chapter 10: Of the Sixth qualifying or fountain Spirit in the Divine Power. (37)
Thus also in man: When one qualifying or fountain spirit riseth up, then it toucheth all the others, and seeth all the others, for it riseth up in...
(37) Thus also in man: When one qualifying or fountain spirit riseth up, then it toucheth all the others, and seeth all the others, for it riseth up in the middle or central fountain or wellspring of the heart, where, in the heat, the flash of light kindleth itself, wherein the spirit in its rising up, in the same flash, seeth through all the spirits.
Hermetic Pharmacology, Chemistry, and Therapeutics (12)
There is one vital substance in Nature upon which all things subsist. It is called archæus, or vital life force, and is synonymous with the astral...
(12) There is one vital substance in Nature upon which all things subsist. It is called archæus, or vital life force, and is synonymous with the astral light or spiritual air of the ancients. In regard to this substance, Eliphas Levi has written: "Light, that creative agent, the vibrations of which are the movement and life of all things; light, latent in the universal ether, radiating about absorbing centres, which, being saturated thereby, project movement and life in their turn, so forming creative currents; light, astralized in the stars, animalized in animals, humanized in human beings; light, which vegetates all plants, glistens in metals, produces all forms of Nature and equilibrates all by the laws of universal sympathy--this is the light which exhibits the phenomena of magnetism, divined by Paracelsus, which tinctures the blood, being released from the air as it is inhaled and discharged by the hermetic bellows of the lungs." (The History of Magic.)
This procedure, if approved, will entail a distinction between psychic and bodily qualities, the latter belonging specifically to body. If we decide...
(17) This procedure, if approved, will entail a distinction between psychic and bodily qualities, the latter belonging specifically to body.
If we decide to refer all souls to the higher, we are still at liberty to perform for Sensible qualities a division founded upon the senses themselves- the eyes, the ears, touch, taste, smell; and if we are to look for further differences, colours may be subdivided according to varieties of vision, sounds according to varieties of hearing, and so with the other senses: sounds may also be classified qualitatively as sweet, harsh, soft.
Here a difficulty may be raised: we divide the varieties of Substance and their functions and activities, fair or foul or indeed of any kind whatsoever, on the basis of Quality, Quantity rarely, if ever, entering into the differences which produce species; Quantity, again, we divide in accordance with qualities of its own: how then are we to divide Quality itself into species? what differences are we to employ, and from what genus shall we take them? To take them from Quality itself would be no less absurd than setting up substances as differences of substances.
How, then, are we to distinguish black from white? how differentiate colours in general from tastes and tangible qualities? By the variety of sense-organs? Then there will be no difference in the objects themselves.
But, waiving this objection, how deal with qualities perceived by the same sense-organ? We may be told that some colours integrate, others disintegrate the vision, that some tastes integrate, others disintegrate the tongue: we reply that, first, it is the actual experiences that we are discussing and it is to these that the notions of integration and disintegration must be applied; secondly, a means of differentiating these experiences has not been offered.
It may be suggested that we divide them by their powers, and this suggestion is so far reasonable that we may well agree to divide the non-sensuous qualities, the sciences for example, on this basis; but we see no reason for resorting to their effects for the division of qualities sensuous. Even if we divide the sciences by their powers, founding our division of their processes upon the faculties of the mind, we can only grasp their differences in a rational manner if we look not only to their subject-matter but also to their Reason-Principles.
But, granted that we may divide the arts by their Reason-Principles and theorems, this method will hardly apply to embodied qualities. Even in the arts themselves an explanation would be required for the differences between the Reason-Principles themselves. Besides, we have no difficulty in seeing that white differs from black; to account for this difference is the purpose of our enquiry.
Chapter 15: Of the Third Species, Kind or Form and Manner of Sin's Beginning in Lucifer. (44)
The [soulish] spirit of the soul is very much more subtle, and more incomprehensible than the body, or the seven qualifying or fountain spirits,...
(44) The [soulish] spirit of the soul is very much more subtle, and more incomprehensible than the body, or the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, which hold, retain and form the body; for it goeth forth from the seven spirits, as God the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father and the Son.