Oahspe Study and Faithism
Four Foods of Man Part 4
The Birth and Growth of Soul Knowledge
The previous part of this treatise traced from Apollo's cycle into the dan'ha cycle of Spe-ta when the development of man brought him into the depths of conceit as well as the budding of his perceiving a germ of truth from within his soul. This was so that man could come to perceive that he had a soul. And though the germ of truth that he saw was merely a glimpse as through a darkened mist of dusk, yet man knew he had perceived something true. The problem he did not understand at the time was that he had no context other than within the framework of his own darkened mind in which to place that germ of truth.
Nevertheless, that glimpse was vital to man's growth. For man knew for a fact, something to be true, namely the germ of light he had glimpsed. Even the darkness of the Spe-ta cycle helped man perceive his soul because light is easier to see when all is dark around.
A New Way of Knowing
This new way of knowing was soul knowledge --- as contrasted to either rational / reasoned knowledge (as was developed in the cycle of Osire) or because someone had told him what was true as in the cycle of Fragapatti, where man had to learn to use his spirit to discern the spiritual nature (the feel, the nature) of the proposed truth.
With growth in Soul knowledge, man would learn to recognize when the soul became illumed and accordingly he would listen to the light (illumed or magnified at times by Jehovih's angels in His name). Man was taught this time of illumination and impression as the Voice of Jehovih. For in truth it was the person's inner-fibers / soul-substance aligning to Jehovih's Voice that allowed for the Light to shine through; although the message carried in the light might still become obscured and misinterpreted.
Some mortals, the Me-de-ans in particular, rejected His name; and these were inspired to call the light and its message: the Voice of (that person's) Conscience. Throughout the cycle of Spe-ta the Me-de-ans would often intermarry with those of lower grade. And in this way, the idea of following your conscience, or following the light of your conscience or at least knowing of it, spread throughout the bulk of humanity by the end of the Spe-ta cycle.
This growth of conscience was also due in large measure to the labors of the Anubi rites, which were then later usurped by Anuhasaj and adapted to his purposes. What use did Deuce make of such rites? We need to consider man's condition at that time for since man was inexperienced in both understanding and applying soul knowledge, so he was yet, in essence, a child as to his own ability to perceive via the soul. Hence, for instance, the great Thothma became rather easily persuaded by the false Osiris that he, Thothma, had previously lived (i.e., reincarnated). Since mortals were so vulnerable, and because such false Gods had billions of drujas (low-grade slaves, depraved spirits, etc.) who could, would, and did inspire mortals --- so to escape them, the mortals would join the Anubi rites, and thus because they were uplifted out of ignorance and apathy to a degree, so were they of greater use to the false God.
Nonetheless and whether through the high road or the low road or the in between road, man thus learned of soul and to understand that it had needs. Or rather, he mostly perceived that there was an inner reality, that is, that he had an inner reality that required his attention. But because man was a beginner in knowledge of the soul, much less in its wisdom, and he had besides a strong corporeal orientation (which by reflex invigorated his own animal nature) he mostly fed his soul by feeding his self from the darkness that surrounded his soul.
Limits of Darkness
Man thus fed himself by directing his self-desires to fulfill the reality he desired, and, when he deemed necessary or desirable, he would twist, warp, or otherwise interpret the truth he had perceived so that it would benefit himself. Still, social pressure arising from the Anubi rites could cause him to look whether gamely or reluctantly to benefiting others as well. For it is a mistake to think that man during Spe-ta cycle could not (because of the milieu darkness) or would not be sociable nor conform to social expectations. True, there were plenty at the top of the social order who ruled as tyrants, and plenty others of lesser social rank could be coarse-grained; but the ordinary man was neither a warrior nor an evil person. But he did often join in the spirit of the times that slanted man's outlook toward a self centered corporeal orientation.
Thus, the great pyramid was built as a monument, i.e., a projection, fruit, and concrete expression of (collective) man's own darkness, expressing and revealing man's inability to progress without Jehovih. Said another way, in order to reach his inner self, i.e., his soul --- man (meaning the king's people / today's uzians), required (mostly through the proxy of priests or by becoming an adept) the protecting shield of the pyramid to fend off the darkness and to calm the easily stirred chaos (vortexyan patterns) of the beastly soul substance so that his soul / inner-reality could be reached by him. In contrast, the Faithists of Jehovih at the time, even as today, receive their calm from listening to Jehovih and serving Him including following His commandments, doing good to others, etc.
But as to those who followed the beast: by listening to satan (the voice of self, the voice / light-of-Jehovih-indirectly) instead of listening to the voice of Jehovih directly, man limited his person not only in how high he could rise upward in corpor as well as in spirit, mind, soul, and form, but became limited in his aspirations because he placed corpor above es. (Which is in contrast to the way of progression; see, e.g., the arenas / seats / position of Es and Corpor on the Wheel of Life, which places Es above Corpor.)
Stumbling in the Dark - Vulnerable and Gullible
Because man could perceive very little of soul light, his perception of soul realities was also limited. Accordingly he lacked true perception as to Jehovih and especially as to Jehovih's higher soul realities. This condition gave rise to an inability, or at best, an enfeebled ability to differentiate truth from falsehood. Consequently a subsequent gullibility to voices of tricksters and deceivers grew into ascendancy and took root within man's soul. This gullibility has endured through the 6th era and was still endemic into early kosmon. In other words, man started / starts with a trusting soul but gets abused by the beast which sets in motion a search for a solution or an escape. Jehovih speaks to give man the solution but the man, being of the carnivorous habit, does not hear, or hears only faintly.
Under Seffas, one of the 4 heads of the Beast would offer such a person "the solution" to his problem, often appealing to and taking advantage of the man's weaknesses. Aside from offering some sense of normalcy through its imperfect system and order, this abuse of man's trust, appears to be cyclical. Today 170 ak (2018 ce), that abuse-of-trust stands as a standard tool, at times even the preferred tool to use to gain beastly ends, prevalent among politicians and other social order leaders, as well as by others (its real message is "Me First by whatever means").
Interestingly, this rise in abuse coincides with a period of growth in man's soul, where he is to awaken to the abuse to a greater degree and in much larger numbers than any time in the past. But for the present time, Jehovih is suffering man to continue on in his conceit for a while. For, as the light returns it will illume the soul, slowly but steadily --- underpinning and acting as a stabilizer against some erratic movements of the beast as it seeks to remain in control (all quite like the prophetic cyclical charts depict). In short, the desire to escape the chaos of the situation will cause man to draw toward the lure of a higher stability made evident to him by the Voice of Jehovih speaking to the soul of man, inducing him to desire Jehovih's kingdom.
And in that period of more or less quickening soul growth, the old things that man had been clinging on to, will increasingly seem flat, unresponsive, moribund and incapable of bringing satisfaction to the soul of man. That change comes about in part because the immensely vast numbers of drujas and evil spirits had been removed from the earth, and so there will be few if any spirits in es available to prod the beast in man.
But at the time of Spe-ta, man was not to be so fortunate. In fact the opposite occurred. Because of the much darkness of the Spe-ta cycle (again, necessary for man at the time to look in and perceive his soul), so the drujas, evil spirits and lusters could the easier manifest amongst mortals or at least inspire mortals to self or evil ends. Moreover, toward the end of the cycle the billions of drujas, evil spirits, etc., in the heavenly kingdom of Anuhasaj, by their presence alone covered mortals with a thick blanket of foul darkness when Deuce's atmospherean kingdom got pushed down to earth.
So, even as soul reality had become a part of man's inner self, or rather he was becoming aware of soul and its light and potential, so man struggled to stay with his soul light; but by the end of the Spe-ta dan'ha man had essentially lost the Tree of Light --- although he was close to keeping it illumed so that with the coming of the Arc of Bon the Tree was relatively easy to revive, restore, and seal in the soul, especially among the Faithist followers of Capilya, Moses, and Chine.
In Part 5 the Mind, Spirit and Soul, having been brought to man's consciousness at a formative level, the integration of these and the birth of form are traced in the Bon Cycle.
All Oahspe references are from the modern language edition: Oahspe Standard Edition 2007