Oahspe Study and Faithism
From the Darkness into Light
How did the races of man help man move from the darkness into light? What was their role and heritage for man on his way toward Kosmon. And what does their legacy presage for man in Kosmon?
The angels of innocence, singing, that came with Sethantes to the pristine earth and begot children: Into the darkness I was lured; sweet perfumes arose amid the darkness. (Sethantes 05/4.15.)
Behold, the rose, deep rooted in the earth.... This subtle perfume, where does it come from, and where does it go? What power creates it, and propels it? O You unseen Om! Is my Spirit like perfume? Where does it come from, and where does it go? Give me of Your Mithra [heavenly revelation], O Om! (Ho'ed Ceremony 35/R.2-3.)
The first Oahspe quote depicts the descent of the light into darkness. The second quote depicts the ascent of man from the darkness of soul substance (which had become distorted and disfigured, being man's legacy), and his subsequent choice to rise into the light of Heaven from the time of Bon forward---when the Tree of Light was made everlasting within man's soul.
Those angels with Sethantes that descended to the earth came into pristine soul substance of the maiden earth. Because their pure soul substance mingled with the unprogressed souls of Asu, their descendants began to distort soul forms. First came forth I'hin---half es, half beast---balanced and obsessed to keep it so. Then came I'huan, then Druk. Modern man descended from those three races. Jehovih built the middle race I'huan toward perfection, using I'hin to lift the I'huan's es, and using Druk to endow robust physicality. I'hin---I'huan---Druk. I'huan refined to Ghan who refined to man by the time of Bon. With kosmon came man capable of manifesting and willingly sustaining the 50-50 balance without obsession or coercion.
The table below depicts the sequential emergence of races, together with their proportion of es (inheritance from angel blood) aka the Line of Light through the Tree of Life:
How can man in kosmon be half beast and still attain to Jehovih's kingdom on earth? The answer is he cannot. He must become half-Es and half Animal. The solution resides in understanding the difference between animal and beast, as well as in understanding the extremes of Asu and Yak. So strap on your seat belt 'cause here we go!
Part 1 - Asu the Pure Animal-Man
As proto-man Asu stood as man's pure animal heritage. As pure animal-man Asu had a special quality different from the other beasts of the field, forest, sky and water: Asu's es lay diffused through his entire person but had no concentrated es center. Although like a tree in that respect (see, e.g., 04/6.11), Asu had qualities the tree did not have, such as mobility not tied to the earth. Asu differed also from other beasts because the etherean overseers developed him to be especially receptive to Es (spiritual light) while remaining fearful of, repulsed-by, and withdrawing from beastly expressions (evil, darkness). So, instead of the other animal's fight or flight response to a threat, Asu responded with flight virtually always. Because Asu was peaceful but essentially helpless, he required Jehovih's overseeing angels to guide him along.
The angels of innocence who came with Sethantes and begat children with Asu imparted to the resulting I'hin a concentrated center of light. With a concentrated center came the beginning of intellect. With the rise of intellect would come the beast, though man in the first two eras did not recognize the beast---did-not / could-not differentiate the beast from Es. Eventually as man's es continued to grow he would become aware of the beast (3rd era, 02/1.6) as he moved toward and into a civilized social order (see, e.g., 09/1.17-21). And in the fourth era man would obey the beast (02/1.7). In the fifth era man learned how to recognize the beast through the tetracts placed on the shoulders by Aph. That is, by bringing down the high light of heaven to the low earth, Aph illumined man and lifted him sufficiently for him (man) to perceive the tetracts.*
But all that development began in the 6000 years (i.e., two cycles) before Sethantes with Asu purposely bred as a race to have his spirit and hence his light or intellect to be as diffuse as a tree. Asu's pure animal-mind had no intellectual center per se as we would define it today---he did not calculate things in his mind, for instance, but purely reacted to the vortexyan currents and the presence of Es, Daughter of Jehovih. In essence, Asu was close to being an herbivorous automaton but animated and inspired to go forth by Jehovih and not by the beast.
Nevertheless, the Asu race had the attributes of the beast as part of its heritage, since his es was subject to existence in the corporeal form. And even as man can transcend his beastly inheritance, his self, so had the angels of Jehovih led Asu to transcend unknowingly to himself, his beastly heritage and to favor Es instead. Think of a cat and dog, for example, living together in a family's house; under normal, i.e., wilderness conditions the two animals are mortal enemies; but under the spirit of the household's human family, their fight or flight impulse is held in abeyance. Similarly was Asu under the tutelage of his es'sean tenders.
Also, because of Asu's lack of self, that is, he lacked a concentrated center of es understanding of anything including self, Asu had no beastly self awareness to serve, and so had no opportunity to master such a beastly self so as to rise to inherit eternal life. But he could pass on his physical / animal heritage, which gave rise to the formation of the beastly consciousness in his I'hin offspring --- who inherited awareness of self existence from their etherean progenitors.
Asu also differed from the other animals in that these latter were created with an already developed sense (so-called instinct) being given set parameters for behavior including when to fight or flee or submit. For Asu received no parameters from his environment other than the Nine Entities, and vortexya to inspire him to flight. For example, Corpor, Son of Jehovih would inspire Asu with hunger. And Esfoma, Daughter of Jehovih, would inspire Asu to recognize an enemy. But most especially, Asu had the light of Es to inform him in times of important decisions, especially that pertaining to his protection.
Those qualities of Asu allowed man to be born blank as to knowledge (see e.g., 05/8.8-9; 08/1.18; 23/1.21; 25/53.1; 37/2.24). In other words other animals, which Oahspe calls beasts or beasts of the field, etc., were born with species-specific behaviors as well as action-reaction pathways already created, the so-called instincts (see e.g., 05/8.9; 08/1.18; 34/10.21; 38/9.8; 02/1.16).
Related to that, another difference between these beasts and Asu was that the beasts each had a concentrated spirit plus a concentrated mind that was / is somewhat like a pre-wired, pre-programmed intellectual center. The following happens when a beast reacts: The non-growth / static / complete / perfect in its order nature of the beast's soul allows the presence of Jehovih's mind to instantly inform the spirit of the beast, immediately coloring it and in that same instant its spirit in turn informs its mind. In that spirit the beast will then go forth with whatever plan within its mind's limited repertoire best fits the situation it may face. Jehovih also directly inspires the beast within the range of its tightly parametered mind to instantly respond to some ranges or types of vortexya. Said another way, since all the creation, including animals, other than Asu and then man, was created in perfection for its purpose, the animals did not have a soul that required a progression / growth toward its perfection, so their intellectual capabilities were necessarily limited.
In contrast, the etherean overseers who had the matter in hand during the 6,000 years before I'hin, took to developing Asu so that he would be responsive to an Es having corporeal form, especially the angels of innocence. Those etherean overseers also provided for Asu to be able to carry a child of Es light within its womb, so that I'hins could be born with eyes and ears and senses to perceive the spirit realm / es. To achieve that end, Asu needed to be developed so that his soul could and would grow. It could and did grow, but would do so only very slowly, and could only do so to a very limited extent and not enough to build the understanding necessary for Asu to inherit eternal life.
The soul in Asu could grow because although Asu was 100 percent animal-man, the "man" part gave him a growable soul just across the line from a non-growable soul. As the earth developed toward the birth of man, each new creation had a further infusion of spirit, thus bringing more complex life-forms with greater intellectual capacities until the final infusion that birthed Asu - Animal Man. And although Asu came forth as the next and final step in the progression of animals (beasts), being the culmination and pinnacle of the animal- / beast-line, yet Asu was simultaneously the foundation of the species of man. Because of his growable soul, slow that it was in comprehension, Asu could learn to speak words. (See, e.g., 04/6.11,15,18,20,22; 05/5.2; 11/1.18; 35/C.5.3; 35/C.6.1,3; 35/C.7.2; 37/2.46).**
The foundation for the Eoptian man (man born with capacity for eternal life, i.e., born with a sufficiently quickened soul) required the quickened souls of etherean angels. And so it would take the seed from Es-With-The-Corporeal-Form commingled with Asu to create within the I'hin that capacity for quickened and unlimited soul growth. This was not a deliberate ploy by the etherean overseers to stop Asu from inheriting eternal life for that was never the plan or a possibility. Eternal life impossibility for Asu resulted from the slow growth potential of his soul---such slow growth being necessary to balance the etherean angels of innocence's quick growth of soul. That balance was prepared for beforehand so that man's soul could grow at a healthy pace through the 96,000 years of man's eoptian cycle, to end with perfected man by the time harvesting was complete.
* Shoulders function as the connection between the labor of the hands and the intent of the laborer. By analogy the shoulders represent the hopper which holds the grain to be ground by the labor of the hands; or as in mythology the world resting upon the shoulders of Atlas, balanced by (the work of) his hands. In that sense, the shoulders signify work undertaken or work to be done, and this reveals, by retracing, the choices of the person. That is, the shoulders reveal what a person is responsive to, is responding to, has taken on responsibility for. To say that man became aware of his responsibility in the 5th era which began with Aph, Son of Jehovih, would be an overstatement. At best because of learning of and knowing the signs of the tetracts, man began to recognize the presence, signs or marks of the beast.
The tetracts were actually with man from the beginning as when the I'hins first came forth, but man was unable to discern them clearly, much less master them. Although, by the time of Aph man desired to discern the Beast through the tetracts, lest man fall back into the hellish condition prior to the flood. Bear in mind that although man learned about the great flood in after times, yet it was man's collective soul experience that allowed him to continue desiring to recognize the beast and to avoid or circumvent it if possible.
It may help to realize that the seven main chakras in man's body correspond to the seven eras of man. The eighth and final era corresponds to man going forth with all seven chakras vibrant and healthily functioning, with man being more or less wholly receptive to Es, indeed to the Family of the Universe (the Nine Entities 36/01-10.). So we see that when man's awareness of the beast was rising through the eras, that with each era man would labor in the corresponding chakra. Neph's cycle was the fourth and final dan'ha of the fourth era. The fourth pulse of anything always lays the groundwork for a new foundation; for, the fourth pulse presents an integrated foundation that allows for a new trajectory (that will come with the fifth pulse). So that toward the end of Neph's cycle man's prayer, as it were, was to recognize the beast so as to avoid it or master it, which in the beast-man was seen as flight (avoidance) or fight (mastery).
The key (knowledge of the tetracts) to that recognition came with the fifth era. Note that the fifth chakra resides in the throat region sitting atop the shoulders. It would take till the sixth era before man could understand the beast. The sixth chakra resides at the brow centered between the eyebrows but above them on the forehead. The seventh chakra rests atop the head and the seventh era signifies the time when man will grow to not only understand the place of the beast in Jehovih's creation but to accommodate the beast in the sense of providing for the resurrection of both those able to and those unable to untangle themselves from the beast. In that regard, recall the Listian race (25/21.3) who were able to tame wild beasts. (In terms of blood, Listians were 5/12ths es and 7/12ths beast, and contributory to Bon man--also 5/12 es and 7/12 beast. But compared to Bon man, the Listians were deficient in worldly knowledge but exceeded Bon man in es knowledge. The two would blend to create a more balanced man by the time of Ka'yu and Sakaya, both of whom emphasized balance. Sakaya oriented more toward the inner realm side and Ka'yu toward the outer realm side. By the time of Joshu, those in the west, i.e., the descendents of the Israelites and others of the region, would have aspects of both outer and inner realm attributes which would be instrumental in the rise toward Kosmon Man and the 50-50 balance)
** The early Druk race had a slow growth soul, quicker than Asu but like Asu, born with enough soul growth potential for their offspring to be quickened to everlasting life, given the right mate. The Yak race suffered pitifully slower soul growth, perilously close to a non-growth soul even as the Asu was. But the Monstrosities had lost all capacity for soul growth, which in turn made them infertile and no longer capable of supplying seed for man.
Next in Part 2 we look at the rise of the Beast-Man and his part in the development of Perfected Man
All Oahspe references are from the modern language edition: Oahspe Standard Edition
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From Darkness into Light Part 2 - The Beast-Man