3y8u4hFD4

THE TREE OF LIFE
I53
Neschamah. With the lower lunar aspect of the astral, the region
of Qliphotic shells and demons and decaying phantoms of the dead, the
Magician has little or naught to do ; his aspiration is directed towards
that which is above, in the upper strata of the living Tree. " Stoop
not down," admonishes the Chaldaan Oracles, " into the darkly
splendid World ; wherein continually lieth a faithless depth, and
Hades wrapped in clouds, delighting in unintelligible images,
precipitous, winding ; a black ever-rolling Abyss ; ever espousing
a Body unluminous, formless and void. . . . Stay not on the
precipice with the dross of Matter, for there is a place for thy Image
in a realm ever splendid." It is the " realm ever splendid " which
does concern the Theurgist, since in it are the forces and powers
which may prove of the utmost assistance to him in his quest.
Within the dual Nephesch is a substantive and vital energetic
principle. The former is the so-called Astral body, or the subtle
duplicate to which the physical body owes its continued existence
and persistence. While the development of this Nepheshic body does
constitute a certain branch of Magic, it is not proposed to deal with it
here, since it has but little association with the higher Theurgy.
Pertaining to the realm of Tifiharas is a higher aspect of this astral
body which does enter very largely into practical Theurgy. It is not
really an astral body, in the sense of a vital model giving life to the
physical, but it is a mental or thought body, the direct vehicle of the
ideal and spiritual faculties, whose substance is that of the higher
or divine Astral. According to Blavatsky this is the Mayavi-rupa,
the thought or dream body, the sheath of the mind and memory
and emotion, known and named in Theurgy as the Body of Light.
Now, the Theurgists hold that this Body of Light may consciously
be separated and projected from the body-and Blavatsky expresses
the opinion that he who can do this is an Adept ! " Thou shalt
separate the fine from the gross, acting with great sagacity,"
counsels the Thrice Great Hermes. This Body of Light, as the
vehicle of the higher principles, may be made to investigate the
interior world with the view of ascertaining its real nature, thus
of the nature of man himself, inasmuch as the laws of the universe
are those of the mind, and vice versa. The higher Astral, with
which one becomes acquainted through the instrumentality of the
Body of Light, is thus used as a ladder, as it were, by means of
which the Theurgist mounts to the realm of the supreme spirit, fiery,
creative and ecstatic.