Home
Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
A to Z
Related Information
|
DEATH OF OSIRIS
A symbol of the immersion of the Higher Self in
the matter of the lower planes, as the Archetypal Man.
"Osiris laid himself down in the chest that had been prepared for
him, and forthwith Set and his companions put the cover on, and
nailed it down. Afterwards, Isis searched for and found the chest,
which had been cast into the sea. This she eventually put in an
unfrequented place. Set, however, as he was out hunting,
accidentally met with it, opened it, and tore the body into several
pieces, fourteen (or more) in all, dispersing them up and down in
different parts of the country. Isis, hearing of this, set out in
search of the scattered fragments, and wherever she found one, she
there buried it, and erected a sepulchre." - PLUTARCH, Isis and
Osiris, § 13.
The Higher Self (Osiris) in completing the process of involution
into matter, occupied the lower World-soul (chest) which the laws of
nature had built; and he willingly submitted himself to the
limitations imposed upon him by the lower nature (Set and
companions). The Wisdom from above (Isis) was able subsequently to
impress and raise the soul, after it had first been acted upon by
environment through passion and desire (waves of the sea). But as
the lower emotions evolve, a state of inertia supervenes
(unfrequented place). Then the form-nature, motived by Desire (Set)
attempts to force, as it were, the higher Life out of the soul, and
the resistance being great, there is caused the evolution many
qualities which operate on various sub-planes. This implies
individuation,-the homogeneous becoming heterogeneous.
Then Wisdom descends and endeavours to harmonise and discipline the
qualities. The erection of a sepulchre signifies the establishment
of a mode of functioning from an astro-mental centre. These
sepulchres are forms of faith; sectarian presentations which are too
often but empty forms under which truth is buried.
John Scotus (Erigena) understood much of the processes of Involution
and Evolution, as the following account will show. The first
sentence may be taken as referring to the Archetypal Man (Osiris).
"The uncreated but creating nature is the source of all created
things. First of all, the created natures or beings, which are
endowed at the same time with creative power, were produced. These
include the totality of primordiales causa, prototypa, primordialia
exempla, or Ideas, i.e. the eternal archetypes of things. These
Ideas, which are the first causes of individual existences, are
contained in the Divine Wisdom or the divine Word, the only-begotten
Son of the Father. Under the influence of the Holy Ghost (or the
fostering divine love) they unfold their effects, which are the
created and not creating objects, or the external world. . . .
Creation is an act of God by which he passes through (processio) the
primordiales causas, principia into the world of invisible and
visible creatures. Scotus says expressly that he affirms the
doctrine of the descent of the Triune God into finite things, not
only with reference to the single instance of the Incarnation, but
with reference to all created things, or existences. Our life is
God's life in us. The knowledge which angels and men have of God is
God's revelation of him-self in them, or theophany." - UEBERWEG's
Hist. of Philos, Eng. trans., Vol. I. p. 362.
Ideas,―the archetypes on the mental plane of things to appear on the
lower planes, are contained in the Arche. typal Man or Incarnate
God. Under the influence of Wisdom (Holy Ghost) these Ideas take
effect on the astral and physical planes and become the qualities
and objects on those planes. The Creative Spirit in Involution
passes through the matter of the planes to endow it with that which
shall afterwards appear in the "world of invisible and visible
creatures."
"And the water under the earth, which is in nature indeed one, but
which flows through all the paths of earth and is divided into many
parts, they call Osiris, as being cut in pieces." - Clementine
Homilies, VI. 9.
The lower water is a symbol of the astral, or astro-mental
nature,—the "body of Osiris," which is differen tiated into the
qualities of the lower nature (earth).
|
See Also
|