Myths, Metaphors, Magic & Spirituality

 

There are many well known stories, and fables seemingly intended for children, that strangely contain not the usual traditional lessons on morality, but contain instead, metaphysical, magical and alchemical lore. While I personally do not believe that there are dark, devious reasons why this information has been presented in these simple tales, there was a time when I certainly found the idea of disseminating the so called hidden knowledge in such a manner, very puzzling. There is of course at least one very good reason why these stories exist. For what better place to secret valuable truth than right out in the open. Where many people will see it and hear it, and some will even decipher it correctly for the benefit of others. The truth can be found in a variety of places in what appears to be clues to the meaning of life, or how to play at and win in the Game of Life. With the need to solve clues before advancing, this undoubtedly adds to the illusion that we live in a kind of puzzle, that some call a hologram, we need only to apply our attention and powers of deduction, using the clues provided in order to solve the puzzle. In this way, life becomes a game of fun and learning that leads to our evolution.  Even though we are playing the game partially blindfolded, and starting out without any idea of who we are, or of our inherent ability to successfully ace the game.

Along with freedom of choice given to humanity, vital information has been seeded across cultures in these simple stories that we find appealing and easy to remember. Humanity may at any time lose whole libraries of scholarly and Metaphysical knowledge but the fables that were either recorded in simple under the radar writing, or else handed down orally, would serve to ensure that we could still win at the game. It is up to us to learn of the many places in which to look in order to gain understanding and arrive at the correct interpretation. These stories when properly understood, teach about the nature of reality and the laws of our universe. Truth is never completely hidden, only disguised. Similar to the geometric patterns used to express life that can be seen throughout the natural world, allegorical stories are found again and again to signal important facts that should be heeded. Sadly however these stories have usually been taken at face value by the majority of the audiences to whom they were delivered, or else marginalized as being no more than meaningless storytelling. The tiniest amount of curiosity will however lead to the compulsion to look below the surface, and so discover that these tales are anything but simple, or what they seem to be on the surface.

To illustrate, let's examine a very well known story that contains one of, if not the most important metaphors about an essential activity of a successful life. It is the story of Aladdin and The Magic Lamp. Any online search of Aladdin will return numerous results, pointing to the Disney movie Aladdin. I cannot help wondering just how many people turn to Disney to learn about the secrets of reality. Disney appears to have taken on the work of disseminating information such as magic and sacred Geometry to anyone who looks carefully, and even better, yet to young children who learn by absorption without the engagement of a reasoning faculty to get in the way. At any rate, long before Disney, Hollywood and a host of other film making enterprises all over the world, comic books, theater, and video games, all appropriated the story of Aladdin and mixed it with other stories and characters, Aladdin and his magic lamp existed as one of the stories in A Thousand And One Nights.

The fact that this story should be so widespread and continually repeated and shown to successive generations, supports the fact that metaphors are great teaching tools. Such stories exist, to ensure that the priceless knowledge that it contains, is never lost or secreted away. It propagates itself because it appeals to directly to the human heart.It would seem that Aladdin and The magic Lamp appeals to so many, because most people will root for the underdog or welcome a good rags to riches story. As admirable as this may be, the story is about magic. Not the kind of magic as practiced by stage magicians, but rather Alchemical Magic. That is the kind of magic that has to do with transformative changes. It is important to keep a narrow focus on these elements of the story: The Cave, Aladdin, the Lamp and the genie that appears when the lamp is rubbed. Everything else can be ignored. now in case you have never paid any particular attention to this story, or have not understood the central metaphor, here it is.
Aladdin is every human being that ever lived. The cave where the magic lamp is found, is what is known to many as the subconscious mind. Aladdin is tasked with retrieving the magic lamp from it’s hiding place. The lamp represents the superhuman quality within the subconscious. This is consciousness which appears when appealed to via the subconscious to say; “Your wish is my command.” Some acquainted with the concepts of the subconscious mind and higher consciousness, believe that it is the subconscious mind that creates miracles. or magic. However the subconscious mind is the go between the self and the consciousness.
Note that while the genie can do anything, it offers no advice or judgement or what should be wished for. Our freedom of choice is always observed except in situations where our actions threaten the planet and the greater universe. In the story of Aladdin, some versions include the story of a magic ring, which is able to do a lesser magic, enough to recover the lamp when it temporarily leaves Aladdin’s possession through trickery. The ring represents the will. While it is possible to accomplish and manifest remarkable things using will, it does not have the superior power of consciousness. The metaphor in Aladdin and the lamp is only partially hidden. I think that many people can make the connection especially if they have some interest in spiritual or metaphysical ideas. So who is responsible for disseminating hidden kernels of wisdom?. The writers?. Not directly, the authors of these stories serve as conduits for the creative muse who finds ways to give humanity those all important clues to solve the mystery of life.

My favorite place above all others, to discover instructional metaphysical metaphors, is in the Bible. However I first had to reconcile my previous dislike of the bible, to the acceptance that it’s chapters were originally metaphysical teachings hidden in metaphors which were later re-written in parts to suit later prevailing belief systems. But why not simply discard all of those old Biblical stories; why keep any of them? Why not simply write a completely new cannon to suit the new religion of Christianity that did not hark back to those sometimes inexplicablestories?.   As I had stated elsewhere on the blog site, it was Florence Scovel Shinn’s statement that “The Bible is the greatest metaphysical book ever written,” that opened my eyes. So that I am now able to recognize the countless treasures that are hidden in the Bible. Florence Scovel Shinn was an American artist and book illustrator who became a New Thought spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer. Shinn gave lectures and also wrote several books, two of which are well known simple quick reads, and highly informative. They are; “The Game of Life & How to Play it,” and “Your Word is Your Wand.” Both are well worth reading.

In my first foray into Biblical metaphysical metaphors, I’ve written a post titled; Eden: The Garden of Good & Evil. Delving into the Genesis story of creation and seeing it with new eyes was very enlightening. As I continue to decipher more and more of the familiar biblical stories, I am finding that they provide a backdrop for deeper understandings of metaphysical teachings.  and beliefs in the same manner that Quantum Physics is now beginning to explain the seemingly inexplicable actions and abilities that spiritual masters have, demonstrated, taught and spoken about for ages.

I have found that it is also helpful to look at the cultures that lived in both Egypt and in Israel where the stories of the people overlap, in order to get a better understanding. Because the metaphors especially in the old testament, were not created in a vacuum or just by co-incidence, but rather they exist as a part of the larger story that is being told. The story of The Ark of The Covenant is one that I find very telling as I process it both mentally and intuitively. And looking at it in the context of the greater story of what was happening to the Israelites as they fled Egypt makes the deciphering of the Ark even the more intriguing. The Ark was never meant to be a physical structure but rather it is a metaphor for the human brain.  and the Mercy seat, the place in the human brain that the individual soul connects with consciousness. In heightened states of mediation the human ego self becomes aware of a mental exchange initiated by something outside of the self that is recognized by the adept as consciousness. And it is this consciousness that is referred to as GOD. At times when meditating I experience bright flashes of light going off in my skull. And when I am able to get into a period of regular deep and sustained meditation, these flashers of light are no longer confined to just my periods of meditation, but can occur at any given moment throughout my day.  The Bible tells us repeatedly, that one of God’s characteristic is light; we read inNumbers: 7-9, And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, God, He heard a voice of one speaking to himfrom off the mercy seat… And The lord spake unto Moses saying, “ when thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlesticks.” The Mercy Seat of The Ark, is in the human Brain and the place where this flashing light is issued from. The seven lamps are of course the seven chakras.

When the larger Biblical story is dissected, it is obvious that the Egyptians from whom the Israelites were supposedly fleeing, were very muc aware of certain aspects of present day spiritual and metaphysical teaching. These include the Kundalini symbolism on the head dresses and death mask of pharaohs such as Tutankhamen, where the cobra is prominently displayed. The Egyptian’s knowledge of the inner mechanism for achieving powers above the normal human abilities, can also be seen in their reference tothe Pineal Gland which was represented in their culture by ‘The Eye of Horus,” which they placed on their bodies in the guise of eye makeup or art.

Since childhood, I have been deeply intrigued about the story in Exodus where pharaoh and God have what I refer to as the snake competition via the rods thrown down by Pharoah’s high priest and Moses. It simply did not make sense in the biblical context.  I like to call this story the great snake off. As a child, I wondered why If God is all great and all powerful, why would he even indulge in such a game of “My snake is bigger and more powerful than your snake,” with one of his creations?. Why didn’t he just show his omnipotence from the very beginning: I also spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out who had given the Egyptians theirknowledge of magic that made them capable of dong things similar to what God was capable of doing?.  Unfortunately no one had an answer, a fact which only served to rouse my suspicion that adults did not always have the answers dispute them often pretending that they did.  later on as I learned that the Egyptians believed that the human soul had five parts, three of which were the Ka, the Ba and the Akh. I couldn’t help but instantly notice that modern day Jewish people have the Ka- bba- lah. So these two opposing peoples and cultures have parts of what seems to be the same story based on metaphysical learning, even though one has transformed that story into a religion in which they become God’s chosen people. There has to be more to the story, at least more than the neatly sanctified version.

We could of course attribute this to mere co-incidence or keep digging until we uncover the truth. For my part, I have a low tolerance for co-incidence so I will be continuing to examine and decipher these hard to digest co-incidences attached, to or wrapped in metaphors, in future posts. Once I formulate the questions for which I desire an answered, I apply logic,  reasoning. and If this step fails to provide an ah ha moment then I let go of it and leave it to inner wisdom to send the answer when it is ready. I have intuited the real meaning to a whole series of biblical stories specifically about The Creation story, Kundalini, the third Eyeand the human brain in general, as well as the body’s electrical system and how it all ties in with the spiritual teaching about awakening and enlightenment.  I think that anyone just paying close attention with an open mind, to what the sometimes odd stories in the bible are saying will quickly figure out that there is more to them than meets the eye. I enjoy deciphering these metaphors as doing so engages both my intuition and the analytical side of brain, and at the end, I have another piece of an intricate puzzle that helps with the understanding of life and reality.I believe that the quicker these stories and teachings are taken apart and deciphered, the quicker we can reach the point where more people on the planet will come to a realization of our connectedness as well as how the workings of our inner abilities have been hidden to humanity’s detriment. This is clearly one way of answering the questions about reality. I will be posting about all of these in the future, mostly in The Illuminarium so stayed tuned and I will be looking forward to your feedback on these topics.  

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