Some reflections, thought splinters on the birth of man, of humanity.
alterus non sit,
qui suus esse potestBe not another if you can be yourself
Life motto of Paracelsus
Humanity is about to commit collective suicide,
because there is too little individual capacity.
Jan van Rijckenborgh
Why worry about this axiom above, a life mandate from one of the Masters of days gone by? I am, as a member of this humanity, surrounded by a myriad of ideas, programs, mediumistic narratives, fears and worries of more or less the whole of humanity – the old certainties are breaking one after the other and in my soul a deeply felt emptiness – of another be not – – – who or what can I still trust across the path in my search for what really is?
1
Hypnosis – Almost all great world teachers, masters, philosophers and prophets use expressions such as awakening or awakening of man when he is to fulfill his inherent, divine tasks. The greater part of mankind is still sunk in a deep, hypnotic sleep caused by fear and superstition. The question soon arises, what is it that is to awaken in man? From our own experience we learn to be (at least) twofold beings, first there is our personality with the usual consciousness, which more or less constantly revolves around outer things, their values and dramas, busy with fears and worries; and sometime, when enough is enough, dies with the body; but then we are also cosmic creatures with something like a universal consciousness, an all-consciousness, a deep calling, which makes itself known to us in many different, often astonishing ways. Namely, when we become unsure of familiar things, when we begin to ask questions, when we realise how injustice and corruption, lies and disregard for simple human values become apparent.
2
Power – The powerful of all times create systems, thought forms, desires, fears, set trends in the world that ripple like waves through the heads and hearts of people. Opinion makers, influencers, whisperers from many directions arouse desires, generate emotions, enthusiasm, resentment, urge people to fight or submit, resign. People are used, their energies and vitality are claimed, they are alienated. Of course, this can only go on as long as we participate, as long as we allow ourselves to be used and “overwhelmed” against our better knowledge and our intuition. The guides in the areas of life in which we are intertwined suggest openly or covertly: If you do what we tell you, you can become happy, healthy and live in peace and joy. Paradise may not be here yet, but you can make a little bit of it a reality for you … And of course the fear-mongers: If you don’t, then … you will become seriously ill, sick and die and no one, no one will feel sorry for you, we meant it and said it in a good way … In this way, very many people are, as it were, taken away from themselves, their life contents are delivered to them from outside.
And those who keep these cycles alive are themselves victims, complicated victims, are themselves caught up in subterranean currents, are often deathly unhappy, shaken by the deepest fears and even more unfree than we and the majority of our contemporaries. As larger parts of humanity awaken to self-responsibility and their intuitive capacity, they too have the opportunity to recover.
Just as in earlier times the various churches threatened us with hell and destruction if we disobeyed, so today it is parts of the natural sciences and related economic interests that are forcing peoples all over the world to adopt materialistic views, or at least trying to do so. It is not for nothing that spiritual teachers speak of the “delusion of science”[1], referring to scientism, the belief that the natural sciences can explain the whole of man and life. The pain of inner emptiness, the suffering in and around us, the disappointments we experience day after day, the gap between aspiration and reality, the injustice so obvious that we encounter it at every turn, causes anger and resistance to flare up in people, and also the willingness – despite clear consequences such as exclusion, ridicule, disregard, even persecution in some places – to no longer participate in the usual social systems and currents. The first step in awakening then consists of a pause, a mostly unexpected and surprising and perhaps even overwhelming touching, being seized by another world order, a reality that had so far completely escaped attention.
If we take a bird’s eye view of the history of our era, we see at its beginning a powerful spiritual impulse – Christ, the solar Logos. This impulse pours into the world with the mandate to humanity to remember its own calling as the image of the Godhead and to make this calling a reality in its own life, and to do so by a radical renunciation of the old gods, doctrines and methods. Since then it has been said to us, do we not know we belong to a royal and priestly race, have we forgotten to be fellow heirs and inhabitants of the kingdom of heaven? For at least 2000 years man has been called to realise his destiny individually and in groups of like-minded people. Naturally, this was as unwelcome to the powerful of that time as it has been in subsequent centuries. Is there only one reason why it should be different today? The dramas of history – all wars of all times, to be precise – are nothing but a continuing struggle against the light of the “other world”, between awakening and suppression or distraction. The Renaissance, which began a few hundred years ago in Italy and from there changed parts of the world, only became possible by fighting step by step for the ground of a new freedom with the heroically endured suffering of countless people, with persecution and banishment, burning at the stake and imprisonment – – – but the rebirth of man is progressing precisely for this reason, unceasingly, timelessly; in the present it has gained a dynamic that was perhaps only imagined and hoped for until now. A mysterious call to humanity goes out over the whole, wide earth. The crises of all times have at all times broken people open and urged them to renewal, to rebirth, to renaissance. The Venezuelan physician, diplomat and philosopher Dr. Adolfo Aristeguieta Gramcko already spoke decades ago of a turning point in time we are entering, which will far surpass the old renaissance, the visions of the ancients should become radiant, blissful reality … [2]
3
Decampment – Decampment is possible in our everyday busyness, but only after awakening. Decampment, a wonderful word with two meanings that quickly catch the eye. On the one hand, to break, on the other hand, setting off. Before the awakening of the spiritual possibilities within us, there must often be a breaking of our attitudes, our beliefs and habits and habitual matrices, our often so dull, blind automatism. And at the same time it can lead to a decampment into a spiritual realism that not only gives us a glimpse of the new, the luminous, but also towards a great change in a life that makes it possible for the hidden spark to become a flame, for the flame to become a fire. A fire that leads our whole being into a great process of change, of renewal. What happens in this change? The light of the divine spark is reflected into us. It first touches our mental sphere and calls for a new way of thinking. The mind is to become an organ of sense, an organ of reflection, in which our true being is reflected – and that in ever new, ever wider ever-expanding facets. It wants to be understood, it wants to be welcomed, it wants to be received and realised by us, its image. The self, which until now has lain dormant within us, wants to awaken to itself – and thus to cosmic consciousness and glory. For this it calls forth in us a new thinking, an intuitive inner understanding.
Not to be other people and their thought streams, but belong to the Other in us, the hitherto unheard, the unthinkable with our previous thoughts. He wants to think himself in us. And we are called upon to think with him. Our whole being is seized and shaken by it. In this way he transforms us – and we allow it. A “revolution” is taking place within us. A renaissance greater than the first.
In a visionary thinking, we unite with each other, he with me, I with him. Out of this arises the new, the unprecedented in this form: The cosmic I.
To be or not to be, to be a victim or not to be a victim, that is the real question. This means that the more consciously a group of men and women place themselves in the processes of their own transformation and have the courage to bear witness to this steadfastly in their outer life, the more perhaps still hesitant, procrastinating people will be infected, to enter into this joy of renewal. – – –
Be not another if you can be yourself
[1] Cf. e.g. v. Rijckenborgh, especially in “The Coming New Man”, “Call of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood”; there are also numerous references in this direction in the writings of Rudolf Steiner, Krishnamurti and others.
[2] In a personal conversation Nov. 1993 on the occasion of a Paracelsus-Sypmosium on the occasion of his 500th birthday in Carracas
