Part 2 - AMORC

with its Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman basis increasingly rejected theold consciousness. The world becamemore and more impermeable to thedivine, archetypal and imaginalpresences. In Judaism the notion ofidolatry, which would have beenincomprehensible to the ancientEgyptians, came to dominate thereligious consciousness; while theGreeks and Romans saw the godsslowly fade away and become less and less easy tocommunicate with. 7 The new consciousness meantthat people experienced the world going through akind of solidification, so that it was no longer able totransmit the radiant energies of the divine.At the same time there emerged an increasingsense that human beings were simply terrestrialbeings and consequently, our happiness wasconceived less in cosmic terms and more in terms ofsatisfying our physical needs, desires and comforts.The material world had to be mastered to this endand this, in time, became the great project of scienceand technology, which involved an almost completeforgetfulness of our cosmic origins.It also involved a forgetfulness of that partof human existence that belongs between deathand rebirth. There was a growing identificationof the human being solely with the life that welead between birth and death. Already, boththe Greek and Judaic conceptions of life after deathexpressed the conviction that the soul survived asa pale and ghostly reflection of its former self. Asthe ghost of Achilles says in Homer’s Odyssey, “thesenseless dead [are] mere shadows of men outworn.” 8 Thisview, so very different from that of the Egyptians,culminated in the modern idea that there is simplyno existence at all after death. Modern scientificA portion of the earliest sacred literature, the Pyramid texts.Statue of Thutmose III.materialism is founded upon a totalignorance of the spirit world.At the beginning of this essay[Rosicrucian Beacon March 2008], Iproposed that ancient Egypt exposesa tension in our own culture and thatin so doing we can see its karmicrole today. The reason why it may behelpful to see Egypt in these termsis because we are now coming tothe end of the Greco-Roman/Judeo-Christian era. It has achieved its purpose, whichwas to make us more individuated, more self(rather than god) centred in our soul-life, and thusmore free.Becoming Aware again ofInner Spiritual RealitiesNow there is a need to become aware again of inner,spiritual realities but to become aware of themgrounded in our own sense of self, and with a clearand discriminating intelligence with which we canonce more turn toward them. So I would suggestthat it is here that the profound karmic relationshipis working between ancient Egypt and the new erathat is beginning to unfold before us.We are driven to find our own newrelationship to the spiritual dimension.While our relationship to ancient Egyptis certainly based upon our acquiring a deeperand more accurate knowledge of its culture andreligion, the relationship is by no means simply inthe direction of the present to the past. It is also abouthow the past can support us in forging our ownfuture by helping us to re-engage with the spiritualdimensions which were so intrinsic to people’sexperience in times of old. 9What ancient Egypt can do today is to provideboth the impetus and the anchorage for a modernesotericism. By esotericism I mean knowledge ofinner realities. There is no question of “going back”to ancient Egypt. It is rather the case that by wrestlingwith ancient Egyptian sacred texts, we are drawndown to a deeper level of awareness that we needto make more conscious. And feeling this need, weare driven to find our own new relationship to thespiritual dimension.As I see it, there are three tasks ahead forcontemporary esotericism. The first is to grow intoa fully felt and participative relationship with theThe Rosicrucian Beacon -- June 2008