More crucial, wise, and observant words from the great Rene Adolfe Schwaller de Lubicz. I posted the two previous chapters before, so if you have not read them then you may want to scroll back on my posts and do so, and then reread these two. Read them with care and a new clarity will arise within you. Peace. -Phoenix Excerpts from “Esoterism & Symbol” by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz Chapter 4   Intelligence-of-the-heart is purely a function of experienced innate consciousness. The heart beats its rhythm, not because it is driven by a motor, but because it is itself the motor of blood circulation. Each cell of the heart beats this rhythm, and Dr Carrel’s experiment demonstrated what was well known to ancient wisdom concerning innate intelligence and consciousness. Each organic being (and even each cell of the organs of an organized being) has its part in the general life which is its personal specification. Man’s heart is not alone in beating rhythmically like a motor; there are aquatic beings that are entirely a heart of this kind and represent the awakening of consciousness which will become “heart.” Another consciousness will become liver, another will become lung, and thus each function has its organ. Compared with an apparently inert mineral, for example, such an organ is the incarnation of a consciousness, of a cosmic function which has received corporeal life. A museum accordingly classifying “The Evolution of Consciousness” or “The Becoming of Life” as natural history would be much more authentic than our displays of dead specimens. Every natural object in the universe is a hieroglyph of divine science. Each animal, each species of plant, each mineral group, is a stage of “becoming aware” of the cosmic Cause, culminating in the complete organism of human man, the microcosm*—“man in His image.” The whole, thus formed into a complete living being, is a language that speaks. It expresses itself ceaselessly in its living function, and represents the basis of intelligence-of-the-heart, which is the fact that remains related to all of nature and consequently knows Nature. Knowledge of this kind cannot be objectified, but it is real. Reality is a fusion of consciousness with the object: there is identity. It is function experienced all by itself and innate in the organism which constitutes intelligence-of-the-heart. Obviously, therefore, we must be able to transcribe what is in us into our mental and objective consciousness, by establishing a relationship between the life in us and observation of that life in Nature. This we find supremely well expressed by the ancient Egyptians. It is a knowledge of magic, pure and sane, which can lead rapidly toward the spiritual goal of our lives, owing to the fact that we can evoke, by means of the sympathies of analogies in our surroundings, the consciousness of the heart latent in us. *In reality, man is the universe and not a miniature universe in the image of a large one. Chapter 5  Fundamentally, consciousness has two aspects: one is the result of comparisons, the other of identification. Both aspects need to be inscribed: one is an organic or cerebral inscription, the other is vital or functional. It would be absurd to expect an identical functioning for cerebral consciousness and innate consciousness. The meaning of the term “consciousness” must be outlined and defined. We lack a suitable vocabulary for this meaning as we find it established in the ancient Egyptian and Hindu languages by masters of wisdom. So let us say that cerebral consciousness is the result of quantitative experience, a mechanical consciousness resulting from comparison. Memory in itself is no more than a phonograph record or cinematographic film. A single impression is no more than an isolated groove of this record or one frame from this film. Functional memory, the definition of an impression recorded in this fashion, begins only with comparison. Even mechanically, one has to resort to “magic,” that is, to giving an impulse by evoking impressions. For example, a particular flash of lightning evokes an entire scene from the past. A scent recalls an impression experienced long ago; a word ignites remembrance of a thought heard or read, and may give rise to a long series of “thoughts,” of concordances. A fact recorded by the senses is what triggers recollection, and agreement or disagreement results in logical or illogical thought or sophistry. The entire cerebral mechanism can be reproduced mechanically. So much the better, as this will show the most obtuse of us where the error lies. But when we want to go beyond academic know-how—that sclerosis of the spirit—to fertile thought, the cerebral mechanism is no longer adequate. When we just said that we must necessarily turn to what constitutes true magic, namely, evocation, and that there is agreement or disagreement in the assemblage of recalled ideas, we were appealing to another power in us which comes from our innate consciousness, the source of the sense of harmony. If it is effective, this power will be the reason for genius, for creative thought, creative in the sense that it works ahead of the known, the classified. Isn’t it this consciousness of a new way, dictated to today’s decadent world, which impels artists to destroy the idols of yesterday in order to attempt irrational expressions? They seek a concordance of the elements of “sensations,” ignoring the rational combinations which only satisfy the inertia of acquired habit. Atmospheres, images, and forms are created to evoke a feeling, an emotion, to provoke a vital reaction. Art is the herald of the mentality of a period, the harbinger of its innermost tendency. Intelligence-of-the-heart, which establishes the relationship between innate consciousness and observation of fact, is identification. Identification means to live with and to live in the observed fact, to be that fact oneself, to suffer it, to act in it, rejoice with it. It is sympathetic consciousness, not a subjective consciousness such as logic would like to oppose to objective consciousness. Yet confusion between the two is easy: cerebral consciousness is graphically inscribed in the cerebral matter, as we have just stated. Innate consciousness is inscribed in the nature of the organism, meaning that the motive power of its function is the impulse of its necessity, the Idea, or principle of harmony. In man, as already in the higher animal, this creates emotivity. The greater the sensitivity of the emotional faculty, the better innate consciousness can express itself. If, then, the observed fact provokes a sensation, an emotional reaction of an egocentric order, this will be subjective consciousness. If the fact is observed by an individual in a state of neutrality, an impersonal state, this will be sympathetic consciousness. All these problems thus have their solution in the cultivation of self, in detachment from egoism, in the mastery of thought, of mentation, the cerebral cinema. The inscription of innate or sympathetic consciousness is vital or functional, if life as such and function as such are considered the very principle of living Nature. This principle is a reality beyond corporeal matter, but it assumes a body; it incarnates by means of the harmony of the ambient elements. When a certain number of elements exist, their relationship brings one or another function into play. For example, the earth breathes, the crab emerges from the sea, a plant germinates, the male palm tree grows toward the female palm tree….Function is a necessity, and the latter pertains to the living law or genesis whose order effectuates the entire play of Nature, inborn knowledge of which is sacred science. Everything, absolutely everything, obeys this divine mandate, which is a simple set of functions imposed on the universe. And no intelligence can resist it, no power can hinder it; it is order, the harmony of the causal Cause working through the cosmic Cause. The incarnation in man of all the necessities or functional orders of world harmony is the temple, where the original creative energy connects the intelligence-of-the-heart’s innate consciousness with the universe. This comes about through objective observation of fact, in order to arrive at a cosmic consciousness independent of destructible or mortal components. The science of this conscious return to the source (Christ arisen to the right of his Father, not into his Father) is spiritual psychology, and it speaks to us in this life, through Life. 

More crucial, wise, and observant words from the great Rene Adolfe Schwaller de Lubicz. I posted the two previous chapters before, so if you have not read them then you may want to scroll back on my posts and do so, and then reread these two. Read them with care and a new clarity will arise within you.

Peace.

-Phoenix

Excerpts from “Esoterism & Symbol”

by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz

Chapter 4 

 
Intelligence-of-the-heart is purely a function of experienced innate consciousness. 

The heart beats its rhythm, not because it is driven by a motor, but because it is itself the motor of blood circulation. Each cell of the heart beats this rhythm, and Dr Carrel’s experiment demonstrated what was well known to ancient wisdom concerning innate intelligence and consciousness. Each organic being (and even each cell of the organs of an organized being) has its part in the general life which is its personal specification. Man’s heart is not alone in beating rhythmically like a motor; there are aquatic beings that are entirely a heart of this kind and represent the awakening of consciousness which will become “heart.” Another consciousness will become liver, another will become lung, and thus each function has its organ. Compared with an apparently inert mineral, for example, such an organ is the incarnation of a consciousness, of a cosmic function which has received corporeal life. A museum accordingly classifying “The Evolution of Consciousness” or “The Becoming of Life” as natural history would be much more authentic than our displays of dead specimens. 

Every natural object in the universe is a hieroglyph of divine science. Each animal, each species of plant, each mineral group, is a stage of “becoming aware” of the cosmic Cause, culminating in the complete organism of human man, the microcosm*—“man in His image.” 

The whole, thus formed into a complete living being, is a language that speaks. It expresses itself ceaselessly in its living function, and represents the basis of intelligence-of-the-heart, which is the fact that remains related to all of nature and consequently knows Nature. 

Knowledge of this kind cannot be objectified, but it is real. Reality is a fusion of consciousness with the object: there is identity. It is function experienced all by itself and innate in the organism which constitutes intelligence-of-the-heart. Obviously, therefore, we must be able to transcribe what is in us into our mental and objective consciousness, by establishing a relationship between the life in us and observation of that life in Nature. This we find supremely well expressed by the ancient Egyptians. It is a knowledge of magic, pure and sane, which can lead rapidly toward the spiritual goal of our lives, owing to the fact that we can evoke, by means of the sympathies of analogies in our surroundings, the consciousness of the heart latent in us. 

*In reality, man is the universe and not a miniature universe in the image of a large one. 


Chapter 5

 
Fundamentally, consciousness has two aspects: one is the result of comparisons, the other of identification. Both aspects need to be inscribed: one is an organic or cerebral inscription, the other is vital or functional. 

It would be absurd to expect an identical functioning for cerebral consciousness and innate consciousness. The meaning of the term “consciousness” must be outlined and defined. We lack a suitable vocabulary for this meaning as we find it established in the ancient Egyptian and Hindu languages by masters of wisdom. 

So let us say that cerebral consciousness is the result of quantitative experience, a mechanical consciousness resulting from comparison. Memory 
in itself is no more than a phonograph record or cinematographic film. A single impression is no more than an isolated groove of this record or one frame from this film. Functional memory, the definition of an impression recorded in this fashion, begins only with comparison. Even mechanically, one has to resort to “magic,” that is, to giving an impulse by evoking impressions. For example, a particular flash of lightning evokes an entire scene from the past. A scent recalls an impression experienced long ago; a word ignites remembrance of a thought heard or read, and may give rise to a long series of “thoughts,” of concordances. A fact recorded by the senses is what triggers recollection, and agreement or disagreement results in logical or illogical thought or sophistry. The entire cerebral mechanism can be reproduced mechanically. So much the better, as this will show the most obtuse of us where the error lies. But when we want to go beyond academic know-how—that sclerosis of the spirit—to fertile thought, the cerebral mechanism is no longer adequate. When we just said that we must necessarily turn to what constitutes true magic, namely, evocation, and that there is agreement or disagreement in the assemblage of recalled ideas, we were appealing to another power in us which comes from our innate consciousness, the source of the sense of harmony. If it is effective, this power will be the reason for genius, for creative thought, creative in the sense that it works ahead of the known, the classified. 

Isn’t it this consciousness of a new way, dictated to today’s decadent world, which impels artists to destroy the idols of yesterday in order to attempt irrational expressions? 

They seek a concordance of the elements of “sensations,” ignoring the rational combinations which only satisfy the inertia of acquired habit. Atmospheres, images, and forms are created to evoke a feeling, an emotion, to provoke a vital reaction. Art is the herald of the mentality of a period, the harbinger of its innermost tendency. 
Intelligence-of-the-heart, which establishes the relationship between innate consciousness and observation of fact, is identification. 

Identification means to live with and to live in the observed fact, to be that fact oneself, to suffer it, to act in it, rejoice with it. It is sympathetic consciousness, not a subjective consciousness such as logic would like to oppose to objective consciousness. Yet confusion between the two is easy: cerebral consciousness is graphically inscribed in the cerebral matter, as we have just stated. Innate consciousness is inscribed in the nature of the organism, meaning that the motive power of its function is the impulse of its necessity, the Idea, or principle of harmony. In man, as already in the higher animal, this creates emotivity. 

The greater the sensitivity of the emotional faculty, the better innate consciousness can express itself. If, then, the observed fact provokes a sensation, an emotional reaction of an egocentric order, this will be subjective consciousness. If the fact is observed by an individual in a state of neutrality, an impersonal state, this will be sympathetic consciousness. All these problems thus have their solution in the cultivation of self, in detachment from egoism, in the mastery of thought, of mentation, the cerebral cinema. 

The inscription of innate or sympathetic consciousness is vital or functional, if life as such and function as such are considered the very principle of living Nature. This principle is a reality beyond corporeal matter, but it assumes a body; it incarnates by means of the harmony of the ambient elements. 

When a certain number of elements exist, their relationship brings one or another function into play. For example, the earth breathes, the crab emerges from the sea, a plant germinates, the male palm tree grows toward the female palm tree….Function is a necessity, and the latter pertains to the living law or genesis whose order effectuates the entire play of Nature, inborn knowledge of which is sacred science. Everything, absolutely everything, obeys this divine mandate, which is a simple set of functions imposed on the universe. And no intelligence can resist it, no power can hinder it; it is order, the harmony of the causal Cause working through the cosmic Cause. 

The incarnation in man of all the necessities or functional orders of world harmony is the temple, where the original creative energy connects the intelligence-of-the-heart’s innate consciousness with the universe. This comes about through objective observation of fact, in order to arrive at a cosmic consciousness independent of destructible or mortal components. 

The science of this conscious return to the source (Christ arisen to the right of his Father, not into his Father) is spiritual psychology, and it speaks to us in this life, through Life. 


Tags: r.a. schwaller de lubicz esoterism philosophy observation intelligence intelligence-of-the-heart spirit matter religion science science balance