Birth and Death

The development of the mind, both on the macrocosmic and microcosmic scales, proceeds by the successive assimilation of new elements, their synthesis, their formation of more or less stable systems (models), and by the successive replacement of these pictures.

We have already said that, as ever more elements are incorporated into an existing system, it initially expands and develops, but after a certain point it becomes apparent that the system’s capacity to include further components is exhausted, and for further development the whole system must be radically reorganized. The necessity of this reorganization is due primarily to the fact that the axis of the system itself, its organizing core, needs periodic replacement, since only a system with a limited number of elements can be built on such a particular axis.

In other words, every system has a beginning and an end, and upon reaching its developmental limit it must be dismantled so that its constituent elements can be regrouped in new combinations, available for further expansion, development, and so on.

Thus, both the mind as a whole and its individual modes must periodically pass from one stationary state to another in order to ensure the continuity of their development — the realization of their potential.

Since each new system, although built on the basis of the old, has a new system-forming principle, the continuity of these systems is largely relative and conditional, and each transition of the mind from one stable state to another is, in fact, the death of the old system and the birth of a new one.

This phenomenon occurs on all levels — at the level of the individual personality, its subpersonalities, at the level of the Monad’s individuality, and, of course, at the level of the integral mind of the Great Spirit.

From this point of view it is clear that any death is a path to rebirth, but the new birth itself is only indirectly related to the previous form of existence.

Moreover, the period of disintegration that follows every death and precedes every birth is of extraordinary importance. It is precisely the events during this period that lead to the formation of a new system, and the kind of system that will be born depends on how those events unfold.

Ancient magi and mystics who studied the postmortem states at the level of an individual incarnation noted these essential elements: both the ancient Egyptian “Rau nu peret em heru” and the Tibetan “Bardo Thödol” point to the importance of properly undergoing the disintegrative processes, and to the fact that each of the states — “Bardo”, “Hall” — is itself a quasi-stationary state, and the transition from one such state to another is likewise accompanied by a period of “amnesia”, is death and birth.

Unlike religious doctrines that present “the afterlife” as a “mechanical” continuation of embodied existence, magical and mystical systems insist on a qualitatively different level for each form of consciousness. The transition from “Bardo” to “Bardo”, as well as the journey from Gate to Gate in the Duat, is the death of one system and the birth of a new one, ultimately leading to a transition into a new stationary state — a new birth of the being. In this light it becomes clear that, from the point of view of Magic, it is more accurate to say not that “the heavy soul falls into Sheol“, but that it “is born in Sheol”, and likewise — with the blessed worlds — the soul does not “fall” into the Fields of the Blessed, but “is born” in those fields.

Such a seemingly fine distinction nevertheless has an important practical consequence — the soul born in Sheol will inevitably die there and be reborn somewhere else, just as the soul born in “Paradise” is likewise destined to die and be reborn.

Accordingly, the attitude toward these transitions changes, and with it both unhealthy religious fanaticism and unhealthy pessimistic fatalism disappear.

Another important practical consequence of this view of the existence of the mind is the understanding that death is as necessary as birth. Indeed, it often happens that the mind is afraid to let go of an outdated system, afraid to let it die, and in doing so limits its own development.

Finally, it is very important to understand that movement occurs discontinuously, and periods of integration are followed by “dark” stages, the correct passage through which largely determines the subsequent fate of the new system.