The introduction to Her-Bak contained the following passage:
The Egyptian inscriptions express in various forms the idea that the Temple is the projection of Heaven upon Earth, that is the upon the world limited by the horizon; the horizon being the line joining Heaven to the world, whether this world be understood as our Earth, or the area contained within the walls of a temple or our own body.
The line that struck me was this, “horizon being the line joining Heaven to the world.” My lamen contains a horizon line. Initially, I thought that line was symbolic of ‘as above, so below’. Now, my understanding has grown. My relationship with my HGA is just this – the joining of Heaven to the world but what is the world?
The author, a well respected scholar, chose to capitalize Heaven but left world lower case. This appears to reflect the dualism rampant in the text and by extension the Egyptian cosmic view. Heaven is good/life-giving and the world is bad/dangerous or at least unworthy of an uppercase W.
My modern view disagrees. I believe the world is just as ‘good’ as Heaven. I think we get fooled by self-imposed dualism. We see beauty and assign to ourselves being egocentric or ethnocentric and see pollution and assign it the known or unknown other. The ‘other’ is always outside of ourselves and thus in the world. We then exaggerate that other to the world as a whole.
The line the joins Heaven to the world implies these two items have become one. If the world is ‘bad’ the joining would have to pollute or lessen the Heavens. Alternatively the Heavens could purify the world. I prefer to think the joining is the bonding of the best of the world (personally, the pure part of my personality) with Heaven (personally, my HGA). Though, the purification process is obvious as well.
I have asked if the horizon line in my lamen relates to the quoted lines. I was given a hasty yes and told to concentrate on my meditation. I will investigate this more. I do know that my HGA is really trying to explain some subtlety about the horizon that I can’t get. I can feel the communication take place but it doesn’t turn into words like it usually does. I don’t understand what is happening there.
(Picture from: http://www.dphoto.us/forumphotos/showphoto.php/photo/17085/si/Couple)
1 comment:
Personally, I believe there is no escape from duality below the realm of Saturn. Something about moving from an idea to a symbol of that idea, like being made into the image of God for example, creates a separation point. Everything becomes relative to your personal perspective. All of a sudden there is "me" and "not me."
We eventually understand that in a sense, we are not "really" separated, and there's something useful to be gained in understanding that part too, but practically speaking we are firmly standing as a participant in a reality that is dualistic (as we relate to it) in nature. Or, "regardless of the illusionality of dualism, the universe continues to behave as if it were dualistic."
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