I have been taking some time off from many things. Studying and reading. I came to notice that there is much to learn, and understand and many things are just tricky, roads that when taken can lead us to the most different aspects of ourselves.
When I examine life, peeling its layers, I get a glimpse of what could be the core. We hold different aspects, masks, layers like I said that exist to support life, this life. This one we have in this existence. But what are we exactly?
Observing some layers we are a name, an age, an address. Then we are a daughter or son, a niece, a cousin. A friend, a professional, someone on the street.
Then there is the internal resonance with something we feel connected to. Those studies, beliefs, things we follow, we practice in order to evolve. But we are still not them.
Descriptions inside this world could be like: vampire, witch, otherkin, Asetian, human... still we ARE NOT these.
I believe they are how we vibrate, we identify, but we can keep digging deeper.
What is inside? The essence... the raw material...
"Know thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods."
(Inscription on the frontispiece of the Temple of Apollo on Mount Parnassus, Greece, 2500 B.C.).
There are many ways a person can take in order to discover his true nature, about himself. And it is, indeed a hard work. One that demands patience.
"... Spiritual evolution and magickal power are only attainable through undeniable hard work and those forces cannot be limited by the constraints of time."
Violet Throne
~Luis Marques
I find it to be very interesting The Magnum Opus (The Great Work). A term for the process of working with the prima materia to create the philosopher's stone.
Then the four stages
nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
albedo, a whitening or leucosis
citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis
"In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter.
In analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor 'for the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within"
"Albedo - It is a Latinicized term meaning "whiteness". Following the chaos or massa confusa of the nigredo stage, the alchemist undertakes a purification in albedo, which is literally referred to as ablutio – the washing away of impurities. In this process, the subject is divided into two opposing principles to be later coagulated to form a unity of opposites or coincidentia oppositorum during rubedo.
Titus Burckhardt interprets the albedo as the end of the lesser work, corresponding to a spiritualization of the body. The goal of this portion of the process is to regain the original purity and receptivity of the soul. Psychologist Carl Jung equated the albedo with unconscious contrasexual soul images; the anima in men and animus in women. It is a phase where insight into shadow projections are realized, and inflated ego and unneeded conceptualizations are removed from the psyche."
"Citrinitas, sometimes referred to as xanthosis, is a term given by alchemists to "yellowness." It is one of the four major stages of the alchemical magnum opus, and literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar consciousness." In alchemical philosophy, citrinitas stood for the dawning of the "solar light" inherent in one's being, and that the reflective "lunar or soul light" was no longer necessary. The other three alchemical stages were nigredo (blackness), albedo (whiteness), and rubedo (redness).
Psychologist Carl Jung is credited with interpreting the alchemical process as analogous to modern-day psychoanalysis. In the Jungian archetypal schema, nigredo is the Shadow; albedo refers to the anima and animus (contrasexual soul images); citrinitas is the wise old man (or woman) archetype, and rubedo is the Self archetype which has achieved wholeness."
"Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage in their magnum opus. Both gold and the philosopher's stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signaled alchemical success, and the end of the great work."
Everything goes through different kinds of processes, and they take time. Transformation and transmutation take a lot of time...
(Persistence of Memory - Salvador Dali)
The important thing is acting. Seeking for answers. Feeling that agony inside, the one that moves us forward.
When we begin questioning life, our existence itself, we begin opening our eyes to roads that were not visible before. Learning that life is not real, being mere shadows projected in the walls of this cave we believe is our home.
When we question, we begin to free ourselves from the concepts mentioned by Plato in his "Allegory of the Cave". There is much to question, there are so many things that should not be taken just because someone said it is like that.
Living and experiencing things can bring better results as we are able to feel them.
Bringing this issue to the identity layer, as I mentioned above, the idea of being a vampire, for example, is one of this layers but cannot be used as a crutch, or as a single element of the being, like "I am this or that and period". This kind of thought would be limiting and thus, impede growth.
When a person identifies himself as having a vampiric nature, being a vampire, practicing vampirism, I believe he can use the elements connected to it to go after the necessary things for him to learn and evolve.
It could be the books, the rituals, practices that best align with what he is and pursues.
Inside vampirism, there are a lot of areas, concepts, ideas, practices, and they are also related to what people think, want, like. Especially vampirism that is something people tend to have a prejudice against even inside occult circles, finding answers is not always easy.
There will be lots and lots of people, houses, groups with their own ideas and concepts. Things that resonate with them. Some will have serious work, others crazy ideas. So it is not easy for newcomers to find trustful info.
I would strongly recommend a person that is looking for answers to not stay closed inside a system without questioning, researching a lot of different things in order to compare and validate some of them or discard...
This is something I always had with me, the eager for reading and learning about different things. Of course not practice them all! It would be confusing and conflicting. But, for me, what works is knowing about different things, this way I am able to at least talk about them and know what serves me and what serves me not.
This is something mentioned in the Aset Ka books, by Luis Marques. Studying and learning about many things so we can expand our framework.
When there is seriousness involved in the journey, the process is rewarding.
Life is a mystery and quite fascinating.
In the end, we are all going through the alchemical processes, we are all changing and transmuting somehow.
Let this process be one we are conscious about. Because if we are not in control of life, if we are not driving the car, we will be sitting in the passenger's seat, blindfolded, being driven...
Source: Wikipedia
Violet Throne - Luis Marques- Aset Ka
