Memory

Two of the key elements which supports my work are the concepts of both a physical

memory centered around the human brain and a spiritual memory contained within the

living soul.  A working sense of how these two systems interact with one another is

essential to understanding and practicing the system of Apotheosis.

Examining one’s mundane memories and reconnecting with one’s spiritual memories often

uncovers many exciting and wonderful things.  However, caution is recommended, for when

delving deep into such a mysterious and nebulous construct as memory, the seeker is likely

to uncover an equal or greater number of dark and shadowy things as well.  Advanced

awareness of these potential horrors provides the opportunity to be armed against them.

Knowledge is the best weapon to be equipped with when undertaking any journey, especially

one of introspection.  Therefore, a brief explanation of physical human memory is in order.

While medical science has made great advances toward understanding how the human

brain works, we still fall short of total comprehension.  Still, the storage of, capacity for, and

ability to recall memory is actually one of the most intensely studied and therefore more

accurately mapped functions of the brain.

All conscious experience of daily life is temporarily stored and processed deep within the

brain in an area called the “Hippocampus”.  These short term memories, in the form of bio-

electric impulses are then transmitted to the grey wrinkly outer layer or “Cortex”.  Within the

Cortex, bio-chemical material called “Neurotransmitters” imprint the brain cells with our life

experience.  Similar thought patterns and experiences are linked together by thin white

filaments called “Axons” to for memory groups known as “Engrams”.  By means of this

complicated network, any unit of memory can access any other unit of memory nearly

instantaneously.  Modern science contends that through this intricate web are born

humanity’s independent cognitive powers of thought.

Before I begin to explain the concept of spiritual memory, I ask the reader to please excuse

the confused mass of technical jargon crammed into the previous paragraph.  I do not claim

to be, nor could there be any mistaking me for, a neurobiologist.  What I do claim to be,

however, is an Occultist.  And while we practitioners of the Arcane Arts do not refute the

biological model of the human brain or its functions, we view them as more an extension,

or perhaps reflection, of a more subtle reality.  In other words, the biological mechanism of

memory is merely the material world counterpart to a subtle system of spiritual memory.

Many Occultists, myself included, assert that through the process of the mind, the material

world experiences of the current lifetime, and others, are imprinted upon the soul.  What

few seem to realize, or give equal recognition to, is the fact that this system of assimilation

works both ways...  The door to memory swings in two directions.  Just as the soul

accesses the brain in an effort to store experience, so too can the brain access the soul to

recall past life memory.

Within the span of an average single human life, a person will have many experiences in

their youth that will be remembered in later years, consciously of subconsciously, and

learned from.  This basic psychological model is how humans grow in wisdom and

intelligence.

The same model can applied to the living soul.  That which is learned in previous lives

makes the core essence of our being in this life.  Even though we may not consciously

recall all or any of the details of our past lives, they influence us on a subtle level all the

same.  In fact, our continued spiritual evolution is rooted in this process of memory and

assimilation.  Lessons we failed to learn, connections and debts we forged, and journeys

we embarked on yet never finished will hold over from one lifetime to the next, perhaps

indefinitely depending on the circumstance.  I am convinced that the reason history seems

to repeat itself is due to society as a whole becoming mired in a cultural lesson that must

be learned.  Only after the lesson has been accepted, absorbed, and transformation

permitted to occur can there be evolution.

An individual can also get caught up in these repetitive cycles in much the same manner as

a culture or society.  However, not all repetitive spiritual cycles are the result of unfinished

lessons, accidental connections, or karmic debt.  The notion that all things held over from

one incarnation to the next are circumstantial or negatively conotated  is erroneous. 

A being who has awakened from the dream of mundane reality may purposely choose to

create personal bonds that span across the divide of many lifetimes... they may consciously

opt to undertake a spiritual journey that could not possibly be completed in the brief number

of years allotted to one incarnation... they may willingly accept the responsibility or

transmitting across the ages a message, tradition, or timeless wisdom.  In short, the

voluntary and/or positive possibilities of recurrent cycles are endless.

The primary difference between the purposeful initiation of these grand cosmic cycles and

the accidental entrapment into spiritual repetition is twofold.  Both an awareness of a subtle

reality beyond that of the material world and a partial recollection, or at least theoretical

acceptance, of past life experiences are what separates a spiritual journey from merely

stumbling around in the mystical darkness.  This level of cognition is also what divides the

minority of awakened beings from the masses of slumbering individuals who are still rapt in

the mundane dream.

   

Awakened beings who one day realize or remember their participation in one or more of

these cycles are often adherents, if not the initiators, of cutting edge culture and/or

alternative spirituality.  Minds thus roused from the dream are rarely satisfied with anything

less than these type of transformative lifestyles.

Through these voluntary or involuntary cycles of incarnation, remembrance, physical death,

and re-incarnation age old spiritual truths and timeless mystical wisdoms spring up across

the globe throughout history under many different names.  Identical metaphors lurk behind

myths separated by millennia, similar symbols and imagery appear in the sacred art and

architecture of cultures divided by oceans, and even the basic form and function of ritual

within separate societies remains parallel though no ecumenical links exist. 

However, history shows us that the rise of these truths and wisdoms are often

accompanied by chaos and hardship.  The path of the prophet is typically fraught with

danger.  In their ignorance, the ruling bodies of mainstream culture have often sought to

eradicate the awakened and their liberating ideologies in an effort to remain empowered.

Fortunately, they have only ever met with temporary success for the martyred visionaries

and their rebellious visions are simply reborn in some other place at some other time.

Professor Adolf Bastian (1826 - 1905), the first Chairman of Anthropology at the University

of Berlin, called the recurring themes in seemingly isolated cultures, “Elementargedanken” or

“Elementary Ideas”.  Mr. Bastian felt that certain basic universal influences such as food,

shelter, procreation, etc. were the foundations of parallel spiritual development. 

Noted Sociologist and Psychologist Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) developed the theory of the

“Collective Unconscious” to express a similar ideology.  According to Jung, all sentient

beings partake of a group mind on the subconscious level.  Through this group mind

various universal archetypes influence the thoughts and actions of the human race.

Personally, I prefer the more poetic terms of Michelle Belanger (1972 - present), founder of

House Kheperu, who refers to re-emergent spiritual mysteries as “Hidden Traditions”.

Michelle maintains that throughout and before recorded history, esoteric wisdom would re-

emerge through the awakened when it was needed... in the right place and at the right time.

Regardless of the mechanism that supports the how or the reasons regarding the why,

society as a whole and awakened beings in specific, are unquestionably influenced be these

repetitive cycles and memories.  Perhaps the most treacherous aspect of transcendent

memory besides the subject of voluntary -vs- involuntary, is the human penchant to miss

the forest for the trees.  In other words, it is quite simple to get so caught up in a specific

memory that the deeper message is completely missed.

Knowing what happened in the past is a good foundation upon which to base our current

decisions and actions.  Unfortunately, humans often dwell on their past, and sometimes

their future, to such an extent that they fail to focus on the here and now.  To benefit from

the experience of remembrance, one must keep things in perspective, assimilate the totality

of the memory, and then apply it to life as it is today.  In this manner, personal evolution

continues to move forward instead of taking steps back.

~Gryphon M