Death of the physical vehicle. These experiences are common to all and represent the same process in sleep as death of the physical vehicle. The problem is forgetfullness. We all know that sleep eventually ends and some can even do sacred 'erodinia' or lucid dreaming to establish spiritual and monadic contact with ones inner light.
In the Tibetian Book of the Dead (Based upon the Guhyagarba Tantra) the Lama guides and instructs the initiate through the process of the journey through the bardos' of conciousness.This is where the initiate is given their chance to perform the process of disolution and has a small window or opportunity to either be completely liberated without remainder or enter back into the world embracing the life of a bodhisattva.
This intensive meditation is designed to combat forgetfulness and assist the initiate with the process of 'conciously dying'. This is very advanced work and to be completely honest takes lots of time in Generation and Completion practices to completely master. For our purposes we will focus on the term "forgetfulness" rather than initiatic methods regarding death.
one of my favorite Gnostic Scriptures about "forgetfulness" is Hymn of the Pearl. In this hymn the lost person discusses how his parents clothed him with a robe (aura) and ring, and how he was given a pearl etc. etc. (see gnosis.org link on side and search, great story) In this story the traveler 'forgets' his parents and homeland, this story is indicative to me of our 'lost word', or the descent of persephone, its the same thing. essentially its the amnesia of our true beingness.
One of the secrets of immortality is to dis identify with mortality as a state of 'fixed' and 'absolute' being. This is similar to calling the reflection in the mirror oneself, so naturally by leaving the presence of the mirror the self reflected will be eliminated as well. Should a person cling to this image there will be tremendous anguish and agony. The problem is that its not just mental that the disconnection must occur at, there are several planes of manifestation that the reflected self has been incarnated upon.
This is portrayed in the skeleton and the sickle. The skeleton has for a long time represented death and or threat to mortality, the sickle is used to cut wheat or reap a harvest. funny how we call death the 'grim reaper' and a sickle symbolises the God Saturn. In the process of merkabah and the paradosis one ascends through the powers or archons of the 7 spheres of the planets. In this path of ascent the 3rd planet/sphere is Saturn. It is said that if one doesn't purify themselves they are stuck in this realm and can proceed no further.
FraterLucis CML
