The Reed Fields

The posthumous fate of the human mind can unfold in two scenarios:

1) if its ties to the embodied world, its objects and beings, are not critically strong, then disembodiment occurs relatively painlessly and quickly leads to rebirth;

2) if during life particularly strong ties were formed, the mind may lack the energy to overcome them, and then it «gets stuck» in the interspace.

At the same time, the “anchors” that keep a mind tied to its former state can be strong emotional attachments, fears, and entrenched habits (as well as skills). We have already discussed that the Interworld’s mind, identical to the dream consciousness, is unstable, disordered and fragmented, and therefore the fate of elementers trapped within it most often ends sadly: deprived of access to energy sources, the majority gradually go mad, turning into utukku, which are captured and disposed of by special servitor creatures – gallu.

Nevertheless, in a number of cases the fate of elementers may develop differently:

· some of them, held in the interspace by a strong bond with their physiological egregore, merge into it, becoming Keepers of the lineage – Manes;

· “professional” dreamers and experienced meditators, held in the interspace by their skill at maintaining and sustaining trance states, remain in that condition, entering the so-called “tukdam” — “posthumous meditation,” or a similar “posthumous dream,” turning the mind inward. In this state the mind’s energy use drops sharply, and therefore such a state can be very prolonged, and the mind can long “live within itself”; however, gradually exhausting itself, it either enters rebirth, or repeats the fate of “ordinary” elementers, becoming a predatory utukku.

· a mind oriented toward the Interworld may deliberately remain there if it learns to find and use the few scattered energy sources that remain accessible. This path is followed either by members of schools and cultures that have such traditions (for example, the ancient Egyptians constructed their afterlife in this way), or by people deeply weary of embodied existence, in whose minds much energy has accumulated in resistance to reincarnation (for example as a result of their own suffering or strong compassion for others). Such elementers group together in particular areas of the Interworld, known as the “Elysian Fields,” the “Fields of Reeds (“Sekhet Iaru“)”, “Cities of the Dead,” etc.

Strictly speaking, these areas represent the “lower,” simplest level of “blessedness,” since the concept of the “Fields” in Egyptian mythology has several levels of meaning, and in its “higher” aspect the “Fields” are, in fact, pleromatic spaces located beyond the Interworld, although formed from the Interworld’s potential fabric. In this higher sense, the concept of the “Fields” is analogous to Buddhist notions of the Pure Lands, where beings are not subject to time and exist at the level of their full realization. At the “lower” level most of the “Fields” are situated in the etheric space of the Blessed, arising from its fabric in response to the appearance of a sufficiently harmonious and perfected elementer.

In fact, the formation of the “Fields” is analogous to the construction of fairy cities, which have also taken root in the Interworld. Despite traditional, mythological descriptions of the well-being in these areas, in reality the inhabitants of the “Fields” face the Interworld’s two eternal problems: 1) they lack energy and 2) they are hunted by gallu.

To address these problems, the “Fields” are formed within the energetic structures of Elemental Cities, serving, in essence, as their satellites, “rising” above them into the upper ethers and “sinking” into the lower ones. In other words, an elementer, depending on their nature and preferences, can “settle” in the “suburbs” of Gorias, Phalias, Phinias or Murias, and accordingly receive the energy of air, fire, earth or water. Thus the “sixfold” geography is formed of the Interworld, where at its base lies the “plane” of the elemental “City,” from which “up” and “down” extend “pyramids,” ” choroi” — dwellings of fairies, elementers and epiklets. Accordingly, as with fairy cities, each “Field” is divided into “Benevolent” and “Malevolent” Courts, respectively oriented toward “upper” and “lower” sources of energy. At the same time, as in “earthly” reality these “Fields” are built on a hierarchical principle, with Rephaim at the top, and also populated by other “peoples” of the Interworld — Elementaries and Epiklets. The cities have their own religions, built on the necessity of contact with the Bearers of Power — light and dark deities who bring the energy of the Great Current into the Interworld.

Despite their quasi-stability, the Fields do not provide full energetic sustenance for their inhabitants, many of whom, suffering from energy shortages, are forced to leave them and return to the fate of “ordinary” elementers — that is, either to be caught by gallu and subjected to completed disembodiment and subsequent rebirth, or to turn into a utukku and lead the life of a predator. Moreover, some inhabitants of the “Fields,” voluntarily or out of “hunger,” choose the way of “death” themselves and return to gilgul.

Thus, the “Fields” constitute a significant part of the world-spanning chain of the journey and development of the mind, and, although they themselves constitute a “cul-de-sac” branch of that journey, they contribute to the circulation of energy and the exchange of information between the layers of the cosmos.