Worlds of Retribution
Although the concept of “Hell” in the familiar Christian sense is entirely alien to magical thinking, it nonetheless includes the idea of dark worlds of retribution.
The necessity of such worlds is bound up with the idea of the “mass of the soul” acquired in the course of embodied existence. We have already discussed that, in the course of the Monad’s realization, its potentials are imbued with consciousness, bringing them into actuality. The result of this “spiritualization of matter” is the formation of a neutral substance traditionally called the “soul.” Rejecting the immortality of the soul as an inherent property, Magic regards it merely as a product of concrete existence, subject to destruction, restructuring and rebuilding in the next existence. Yet it acknowledges that the soul experiences the death of the body and its subsequent transformations, which give rise to the program and tasks of the next “incarnation” (that is, the next projection of the Monad into the field of manifestation). For those transformations — for post-mortem existence — the crucial factor is the amount and depth of awareness accumulated during life.
At the end of the embodiment cycle, when one enters the world vortex and is absorbed by Baphomet, awareness gradually departs from the soul, which subjectively experiences various states depending on the ratio of “spent” life force to “accumulated” awareness. In other words: if during a given incarnation the transformation of life into awareness proceeded efficiently, then by the moment of disembodiment the being leaves with minimal life force and maximum awareness. If, on the other hand, transformation was inefficient, then at disembodiment the soul finds itself poor in awareness but rich in vitality.
We have already seen that the subsequent fates of these components are entirely different. Awareness is absorbed by Baphomet, and this absorption is subjectively experienced as beneficial since it occurs within the World process. Baphomet takes no interest in life force, which is taken instead by minor predators dwelling outside the Great Flow of Power. Such predators are called “qliphothic” entities (from “klippa” — “empty husk”, since they do not receive Power directly but must extract it by various predatory and parasitic means), and the state of mind (that is, the “World“) corresponding to this process is called the “World of Retribution”.
It is obvious that this conception contains no moral or ethical judgments; it concerns simply the “fulfillment” or “non-fulfillment” of life’s aims and tasks. It should also be noted that the notion of “Worlds of Retribution” does not conflict with ideas of Hel and Valhalla, Kure, Iria and other afterlife worlds, since it describes the state of a particular soul in the afterlife, not the existential place or realm designated by that state.
If in “dark” or “infernal” worlds a being is born, lives, then dies there, in the intermediate spaces of suffering it is only temporarily present, purging its own dark impulses. In this sense one can distinguish “worlds of suffering” — Hells, Tartaros — from “worlds of retribution”, i.e., intermediate spaces.
This condition is most closely described by the idea of “Sheol”, the Kabbalistic World of Retribution, and by the somewhat vulgarized contemporary Catholic notion of “Purgatory.” Sheol differs from Hell in the brevity of the sinners’ stay there (up to a year on Earth) and in its purgative, “educative” character. Sheol, as one of the stages of disembodiment, is marked by inactivity and the passive state of the souls within it. According to Talmudic tales, Sheol is not under the earth but, as it were, in another space beyond the “mountains of darkness”, so that Paradise can be seen from it, and vice versa. It is said that the River of Fire, issuing from beneath the Throne of Glory and having circled the universe, descends upon the sinners in Sheol. This image accurately reflects the essence of the process — Sheol embraces the soul in proportion to how inefficiently it lived, and for the time required to remove the consequences of that inefficiency.
And is Baphomet interested in the awareness of beings of any hierarchical position?
Baphomet is interested in awareness as a phenomenon, and from its perspective, everything that exists and everyone who exists is needed for one purpose – to transform the Stream of life into the Stream of awareness. It accepts both the meager awareness of a mineral and the cosmic awareness of a god.
How does the afterlife change with cremation, when the point of support quickly disappears?
On one hand, cremation very quickly destroys the physical body, accelerating the process of disincarnation, not allowing it to go through all necessary stages. This can have unexpected consequences in the form of “memories of past lives,” often observed in India, but which are rather negative than positive since, in this case, life is doomed to repeat the past path. Another negative consequence can be the slowing down of passing through the Between Worlds, which can take a long time. However, these negative consequences are not universal, and the only widespread negative element is the subjectively unpleasant sensations of the disincarnating being. However, the custom of cremation was widespread among those peoples (or at that stage of development) for whom normal burial was difficult, and as an alternative, for example, to having the body torn apart by predators (which complicates disincarnation much more), it was evidently a convenient burial method.
Enmerkar, what do you say about the burials in the fetal position found by Yu. Shilov in the territory of the Stone Tomb (Ukraine) and about the ‘Stone Tomb’ itself?
The fetal position is the oldest position in all burials: this position was given to the deceased to facilitate rebirth even back when they were not so desperately clinging to life that they got stuck in the Between-worlds. As for the Stone Tombs – there are indeed two such monuments in Ukraine – in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, they are very powerful, threshold places, although their actual use for magical purposes is extremely difficult.
I got a bit confused in understanding Life Force and the Force of Awareness. Is Awareness ‘seeing’, ‘understanding’ the world around, processes, people, as well as their actions and all consequences? Then does Life Force represent Life? By translating it into awareness, do we lose life in this body?
If all the available Life Force of a being is translated into the Force of Awareness, the embodiment of that being will indeed cease. However, in practice, the amount of available Life Force far exceeds the actual possibilities for its transition into awareness, which, however, does not prevent it from being actively dispersed – leading to the same result – the cessation of embodiment, that is, death.
According to my information, besides Life Force and Awareness Force, a person also consists of Night Force and Knowledge Force. They, moreover, correspond to the earth, air, water, and fire elements respectively. And also to the sides of light.
With Life Force (Dragon) and Awareness (Spirit) everything is clear, thank you, by the way, for the information – the mosaics fit! =)
But what happens to the other two parts of the being (the western and southern) after an ordinary human death – do you happen to have any hypotheses?
Leon: One opinion says: 1) To know someone else’s myth and its description means to immerse oneself in someone else’s myth and description. Each of them has its own history, path, and picture. 2) By introducing new elements into the description of the picture – be ready to explore-seek the resultant independently; no one but the magician will do this. 3) The elements undergo the same treatment after reintegration and the disintegration of threads as they always do.
IN THE SECOND PHOTO, where BAPHOMET…., what does he hold in his hand (with thumb and forefinger)?? Who knows?? This gesture is very popular among Freemasons, apparently it hints at this thing that I saw in this photo… What is it? Thank you!
In this image, Baphomet holds a Vajra – among Buddhists, the symbol of the indestructible principle of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, their active compassion – bodhicitta. In the case of Baphomet, the idea is probably that it embodies the beginning and the end of worlds, that it is the inside-out of world processes.
Pagans always burned the dead. You write that they did this due to lack of land, was there really no place, or did they still know what exactly to burn is correct?
Hello, Enmerkar. What, according to your myth, lies at the very center of the Earth? The deepest abyss where the main clipotic demon resides? Or conversely – the last bastion of light, besieged by the forces of darkness but inaccessible to them – the throne of light, from which a fiery river flows – a mantle of magma? According to various basic concepts, the center of the planet contains either a metallic core or something like a central inner Sun – the heart of the planet that fills it with inner light and life.
Hello. I don’t think it is correct to literally correlate physical spaces and objects with metaphysical notions. I don’t think clipot can be associated with the ‘underworld’, but the darkness and earthy energies may facilitate contact with the inferno. Not because it is ‘close’ there, but simply due to the peculiarities of energetic influences.