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The Goddess Sekhmet
The Way of the Five Bodies
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Way of the 5 Bodies
The Sekhmet Project
Robert Masters
-- Neurospeak
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KHU:
THE "MAGICAL BODY" Those bodies -- KHU and SAHU -- which are involved in true magico-religious Work can be thought of as the "higher unconscious," collective and personal. The "House of Life" of the ancient Egyptians, and other Mystery Schools, aimed at making these bodies conscious and integrating them with the "lower" bodies. The KHU was made conscious, and its powers developed, by means we now think of as "magical." The SAHU was made conscious, and its powers developed, by what we now think of as religious or spiritual practices. (Actually it is a question of emphasis since for both KHU and SAHU the work combines magical and spiritual elements.) When these higher bodies are made conscious, a person lives at once in two different realities: he or she acts in the mundane world of everyday life, and also interacts with the Neters, participating thereby in their supramundane world. The world of the KHU is essentially a School and a Temple. One who has developed to this level of consciousness will, hereafter, have a Neter --"God" or "Goddess" -- as his or her primary Teacher. If a human teacher has brought the person this far, that teacher may still assist in the Work but assumes a secondary role. The Teacher may also be assisted by other Neters -- subordinates in the Way being taught. By means of his or her opened psychospiritual senses, accessible when the KHU is made conscious, the pupil is able to participate fully in the realities created for him or her by the Teacher. The quality of his or her work will determine whether the KHU remains conscious. It is quite possible to "fail" in the School -- then the higher consciousness is lost and the KHU world remains in the mind only as a wondrous memory. True ritual and ceremonial magic, involving elaborate and potent symbol systems; HEKAU (Words of Power); consciousness-altering sounds, gestures, postures and Sacred Movements; means of activating centers and energy systems of the subtle bodies; subtle body diagnosis and healing; methods of attack and defense; metamorphosis and transformation of the bodies; psychospiritual alchemy; philosophy and theology of Cosmos and Chaos; and ways of interacting with the Neters -- these are aimed at developing the KHU and enabling it to use its capacities. The magician is taught and learns to function, first of all, exclusively in the KHU world and the KHU body. Later, however, the "whole person" (SAHU, at this level of the Work, excepted) participates -- so that, for example, the Sacred Movements, gestures and postures are executed by the four bodies simultaneously. This furthers integration of the bodies and also makes the work more effective in the worlds of the less subtle bodies. The postures, movements, and some other procedures are also used to help lower level students advance to the higher states of consciousness. In Yoga, for example, consciousness is directed to centers (chakras) found only in the KHU and SAHU bodies, in the hope that this will activate the subtle centers -- a procedure which bears little fruit. The Yoga postures (asanas) are more efficacious and lay a foundation for higher development. But Yoga, for all its merits, unfortunately survives only in fragments, too much is missing, and the psychophyscial methods of the Way are a more complete approach to mind-body integration and awareness. Moreover, most Yoga teaching professes a bias against siddhis -- precisely those powers which the KHU must acquire and develop to realize itself and to do its appropriate Work, including preparation for integrating KHU and SAHU. Like other present-day spiritual disciplines, Yoga is focused on attaining to those states of consciousness available at the SAHU level -- Samadhi, Nirvana and others -- and at best only realizes approximations to these since the level of the KHU is inadequately worked with. These disciplines also have forgotten that the siddhis, subject to abuse in the mundane realities, are essential tools for the most important Work --interaction with the Neters and participation in The War in Heaven. Similarly, such "states" as Nirvana, Samadhi, Cosmic Consciousness, Enlightenment, are but means by which the SAHU is strengthened to do its greater Work. The KHU's "magic" and the SAHU's "spiritual practices" are simply psychological, psychophysical and psychospiritual methods applicable at "levels of consciousness" which ordinary psychologies and other modern approaches fail to deal with and typically believe not to exist. Just as many people do not believe in the incredible wealth of the unconscious, until they experience it in trance or drug states so there is a disbelief in the still more remote and higher reaches of the unconscious until, by appropriate means, these too can be experienced. The disbelief is merely a product of ignorance based upon lack of first-hand experience. The Work with the KHU makes plain its reality and further enlarges and expands one's awareness of what is. Until this is done, the person is cut off and alienated from his own Higher Self and potentials and, whatever his other attainments, is for practical purposes "spiritually dead." The person who has integrated physical body, conscious mind and the (HAIDIT) unconscious, already has advanced far enough to be greatly differentiated from less developed human beings. His or her life will almost certainly be rich and productive and he or she will live in close enough proximity to the higher realities that there will need be no fear of actual spiritual death or that life will lose its meaning. This is not true, sad to say, of the majority of humankind. When there has been no effective Work at all -- no integration of body and mind, no exploration of the unconscious -- then the "person" sleepwalks through life and is "human" only in form and potential. In practical fact he or she is humanoid only, a mechanical unit having just the appearance of a "human." If one looked into his or her unrealized potentials, then one would see that the world of the KHU is silent and unmoving, as if lifeless. The KHU body lies inert and sleeping as it dreams the essence of the myth that is the "meaning of life" for that person. The Temple and its School stand empty except for this body and what appear to be statues representing certain Gods and other beings. This is the latent and waiting world and body of the person who is cognitively cut off from the higher realities and "spiritual" Forces. The KHU body and world can come intensely and vibrantly -- numinously and awe-fully-alive, but only if "brought to life" by Work. Otherwise the Neters, who might have been the Teachers, remain only statuesque representations; the Temple and the School remain forever silent as a tomb. If all Work on the less subtle bodies is neglected, and if they should be sufficiently misused, then the person does spiritually die and the KHU no longer even dreams the essence of the myth. With that, the meaning of life is lost altogether and there is an inner void far more terrible even than the living of an inane and destructive myth. More, that same life may have to be lived over and over. This is what Gurdjieff, many of whose teachings had their roots in those of ancient Egypt, meant when he said that the person who fails to do the Work on Oneself will perish like a dog.
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