Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

NAKEDNESS (HIGHER ASPECT)

 A symbol of purity, that is, freedom from the limitations and opinions (garments) of the lower nature. - See JOB i. 21.

"Such a spirit descended on the Goddess Usumé, that she loosened her dress (as she danced), revealing more and more of her loveliness, and at last, to the intense amusement of the Gods, discarded her dress altogether."—" The Dancing of Usumé," The Nihongi.

The soul realizing its needs, consciously hastened its own progress; the now exalted emotions (Usumé) cast away the bonds of convention and opinion, and revealed the truth within; until finally all Ideals (Gods) were realized, and the lower nature being purified, all its restrictions were discarded.

"Plotinus describes psychologically the method of preparation for the vision of the One. The process, which may begin at any point, even with the lowest part of the soul, consists in stripping off everything extraneous till the principle is reached." - T. WHITTAKER, The Neo-Platonists, p. 105.

"In order to bring back the soul to God, man is required to strip off all that pertains to the creature." - ECKHART.

“By nakedness is signified innocence, and likewise ignorance of good and truth." - SWEDENBORG, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 213.

"Catherine (of Genoa) not only, as ever, simply ignores all questions of a risen body, and transfers the concept of a luminous ethereal substance from the body to the soul itself, and refers the 'nakedness,'' unclothing,' 'clothing,' and clothing upon' to conditions obtaining not between the soul and the body, but between the soul and God; but she also, in most cases, takes the nakedness as the desirable state, since typical of the soul's faithful self-exposure to the all-purifying rays of God's light and fire, and interprets the 'unclothing' as the penitential stripping from off itself of those pretences and corrupt incrustations which prevent God's blissful action upon it." - F. VON HUGEL, Mystical Element, Vol. II. p. 78.

"There is an overshadowing of the embodied by a disembodied personality recognised by the Zohar and referred to twice by the text, namely, in the discourse of the Ancient Man in section Mishpatem. It is a very important section for many doctrines and ideas connected with transmigration. The thesis is (1) That all holy and superior souls which are destined to enter this world are accustomed-while awaiting incarnation-to descend from their residence on high and visit the Earthly Paradise at stated periods. (2) That they meet therein the souls of proselytes and other inferior souls which have been incarnated once only and cannot ascend higher. (3) That the superior souls clothe themselves with inferior souls, as if with a vesture, and are so joined to these during their sojourn in Paradise; but they unclothe to return above. It is a particular illustration of the invariable teaching that the spirit is draped to come down and undraped to go up. (4) That the inferior soul, so far from being degraded by this use as a vesture, profits through the experience." - A. E. WAITE, Secret Doctrine in Israel, p. 288.

This is a luminous description of the process of incarnation of souls. (1) The " holy souls are the spiritual egos or individualities who periodically descend to incarnate on the astro-mental plane (lower paradise). (2) They then meet with what remains of their attached personalities which have each been once incarnated. (3) The egos invest themselves with fresh personalities in the combined mental, astral and physical bodies of the lower nature. Physical death commences a gradual undraping of the egos, who build into the causal-bodies the best results of incarnation. (4) The personalities are developed by their experiences during life on earth.

No distinction is more important than that between the personal self and the Impersonal or Spiritual self. The Latin word persona, from which Our word 'person comes, means a mask, such as was worn by the old Greek actor on the stage, so called because the sound of the voice came through it. That is exactly what the personal self is—a mask which the genuine self wears upon this stage of life. I have called it illusive,' but we may be sure it is not for nothing; it serves some important purpose, and it may be that the term illusive' is not the one to apply to it. The great Self is within each of us, and is the genuine self of each of us. The real man-the soul-is permanent in distinction from the personal self, which is the changing consciousness." - K. C. ANDerSON, Serm., The Buried Life.

See Also

AMATERASU
ASTRAL
CLOTHING
DANCES
EXPERIENCES
GARMENTS
GILGOOLEM
INCARNATION OF SOULS
LAUGHTER Of gods
MeteMPSYCHOSIS
MONAD OF LIFE
MUSIC
REINCARNATION
SAMSARA
SELF
SINGING
UZUMÉ
VESTURES WHEELS OF BIRTH