From knowledge to mental liberation, stage 11

Evil
«Evil dims the Truth like dust dims the light on a mirror »; «Cosmic Evil is the matter, namely the condensation of the spiritual energy».

One of the main aspects of esoterical research is the interpretation of symbols and allegories. They are the key to old knowledge; therefore they have the same role as a patient’s dreams for his psycho-analyst. Allegories, like dreams, must be carefully interpreted in order to reveal the hidden message.

Evil as well is an old allegory; it exists, but not in the forms which it is represented with. It is the great antagonist of Good; all philosophical and religious doctrine originated from the conflict between light and shadow.
On the matter of Good and Evil the opinion of man is still divided between the suggestive visions of surreal religions and the scientific hyper-rationality that acknowledges only the effects of health and illness. Perhaps the best way to start talking about ‘good and evil’ is to ignore both surrealism and hyper-realism, following the teaching that sees a principle of cosmic conscience in the universal aura.

To give shape to cosmic conscience through man’s principles is pure myth (religious anthropocentrism). It is reasonable to wonder, though, if the universe is not an alien form of intelligence, if the planetary systems follow an evolution similar to consciousness and if the matter (solid, liquid and gaseous) has a memory that allows it to reproduce and perfect itself.
The matter of evil
Mysteric doctrines distinguish three kinds of Evil, all linked with each other: an evil of cosmic dimensions, one of planetary dimensions and one that concerns Man and his world. ‘Evil’ has an energetic cause. We should never forget this detail (*).

(*) The most experienced people know that ‘Evil’ is the result of the contraposition between the two energetic aspects that help forms and phenomena to condensate, namely to appear physically. The subject of spirit-matter is a difficult one; in old times we find it associated to the metaphor of masculine-feminine. In actual fact they are both allegories of different energies. Nowadays we might say that spiritual and nuclear energy are two names for the same thing. In the old East they used to say that God was the Atom of all atoms. In the metaphor we find two kinds of energy, the atomic one (that penetrates the matter) and the physical one that makes it mobile. Feminine and masculine represent the passive pole (-) and the active pole (+) of the physical energy in every level of manifestation.
The positive (+) and negative (-) polarities attract the material components of the physical bodies, whilst the energy of the atoms produces the core (nucleus) of every visible form. Also the components of the physical form have been represented in the allegory of the 4 elements of nature, earth, water, air and fire (see «From mineral-man to spiritual-man»). All cosmic, planetary and human manifestations are the effect of the opposition of two energetic aspects. This statement is not at all singular if we consider it from the perspective of a vital conscience, such as the aura, which links every living phenomenon.
We can think that if Good is harmony, then Evil is chaos. If good is order, evil is disorder. If good is balance, evil is asymmetry. If good is aggregation, evil is separation. Also, that the ‘Great Work’ of the hermeticists is the re-unification of good and evil, spirit and matter. But where is evil and where is good?

Orbo ab Chao
Freedom of choice
The man who chooses to believe, for convenience or hypocrisy, that evil comes from ‘outside’, makes a mistake. Likewise the man who chooses to be under the illusion of being a victim of Evil. Man is not a pawn in a chess match between a good and a bad entity. Man plays chess with good and evil and he decides to move one or the other and to produce one or the other.
The Evil of the world is Man. Man is Evil because evil is inside him. Man is Good because good too is inside him. All the Evil and Good visible around him are a result of his choices; only by accepting this statement Man can be free from them. It is not enough to affirm the Good, though. Man must look for evil in the right place, namely inside himself, in the astral conscience. This is the real starting point towards freedom.
Conscience focuses the faculty to choose and decide. The way that goes from disorder (evil) to order (good) is conscience. The mind is the pointer of the scale of good and evil in the conflict between physical conscience (evil) and subtle conscience (good).

Free will
The astral conscience deceives itself, and this is wrong; the mind deceives itself as well and this is wrong, too. But conscience and astral mind join forces to deceive the subtle conscience and this is even worse. If the fulcrum of Evil is deceit, Evil rules the world through it. Deceit must not be identifiable; this is when delusion, its direct derivation, comes into play. Delusion uses the game of mirages and we must be able to recognize them in order to acquire the judgment ability called Free Will.

How delusion originates
Mirages reach the mind through the physical senses, manipulating the mind which, on its turn, manipulates reality and pictures it as it likes. This is the mechanism that generates the astral conscience. Lower psychism and astral conscience are two measures of the same aspect and they become the empire of vanity that imprisons man in the charm of material conditions.
The idea of deceiving deceit is not a surreal goal; it is the game of mirrors, where delusion is defeated with the same instruments. Sight, hearing, taste, smell and tact are the openings to look after (self-control) together with the emotions originated by the senses. We also have strong instruments, such as intelligence and orientation towards the inner perception, called voice of the soul.
This is all necessary to face the first true initiatory trial, namely to leave illusion and abandon the sensual way.

Powers of the mind
«Mind is the battlefield of the forces contained in the microcosm... The stage of evolution that we have reached is the starting point for the great fight.» Some thoughts on the Gita.

Lower psychism originates from the identification of conscience with the instinct of the animal nature (astralism). Higher psychism originates from the identification of the mind with the superior Ego.
Higher psychism is a phenomenon of communication between the higher Ego (vehicle of the soul) and the physical mind (lower psyche). The consequence is the phenomenon called illumination that becomes the fulcrum of vertical telepathy.
«Vertical Telepathy is possible when the extension of the sense of hearing is such that it regards the higher Psyche.»

The extension of the sense of hearing is connected to the development of conscience and of the so-called higher psychic powers, which in the East are called siddhi.

The ‘powers of mind’ are the subtle counterparts of the physical senses. To make it clearer, we can say that the physical senses are the physical-ethereal counterpart of the subtle part called higher Ego.
The sense that is expressed by hearing on the physical plane, on the ethereal plane becomes clear-hearing and in the subtle plane is telepathy.

Some commentaries define the physical senses as phenomena of ‘lower psychism’, and the senses of the planes closer to the higher Ego as ‘higher psychism’. They also introduce the idea of horizontal telepathy (starting with empathy) in the first case and vertical telepathy (starting with intuition) in the second. The telepathic process is therefore a process of communication between two psychic elements which are different but harmonious, like lower mind and higher conscience. Their link is perceived as the sense of hearing.

These elements introduce us to the fundamental principles of esoterical Psychology.

By Athos A. Altomonte