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Aug. 25th, 2005 @ 11:54 am Stuff I Thought About
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I was reading The Sword and The Serpent by Melita Denning in Treadwells yesterday (do I want this book, oh yes I do, I already have the first book 'Foundations of High Magick' but I want the other two) and as such was contemplating such things last night and here were my thoughts on the afterlife I guess although that wasn't really what I aimed at plotting out...

Think of the tree of life glyph as a three dimensional image. Seen from any horizontal layer it looks like the familiar tree of life glyph, seen from a vertical layer it looks like...

Tree of Life cross-section

The dotted line is the rough path of the returning soul, at any point in it's descent it can be halted and remain or return to reincarnate.

This is all very very simplified, for instance I do not actually necessarily believe there are four artificial deliniations of levels but they are a good enough way of representing what is there.

Assiah is the level of incarnation, when the body dies the soul leaves Assiah via Malkuth and Yesod. During it's passage through Yesod it must give up all mortal delusions and dreams or it cannot pass, if it refuses it will remain trapped as a ghost or spirit.

During passage through Yesod it reaches the level of Yetzirah where it must then pass through Hod where it gives up all factual knowledge gained during life and Netzach where it gives up all emotional attachments to it's life. At either of these points it can refuse to do so and remain stuck in Yetzirah as a spirit of some sort it must the wait for a chance to travel back down into incarnation (tricky especially if it hasn't passed Hod) or change it's mind.

Once past these points it has been cleansed of it's previous life and reaches Tiphareth within which is the passage to Briah. The soul is now free to choose to travel onto judgement in Geburah, to rest for a while in Tiphareth or to return to incarnation first. If it travels on its intrinsic morals and values will be judged in Geburah and it will either be refused passage and sent back to incarnation or allowed through to Chesed where it must make the final decision to pass on across the abyss or to return to incarnation as an enlightened and pure soul to help others learn.

There is no true return from the Abyss, the choice is like a human choosing whether or not to die. A young man might choose to live, an old man with much wisdom might choose to remain a little longer to pass on what he knows, a weary old man will choose to let go. The soul leaps from Chesed to Binah, the Great Mother, in the realm of Assiah.

Now the souls tripartite nature becomes important as its three parts return to their source. I don't quite understand this bit. One part remains in Binah, one in Chokmah and the final energy/light returns to the Limitless Light via Kether.

So to the ascending or descending soul from our pov/mythologies Yesod would seem like purgatory, Hod the pool of humanities collective knowledge, Tiphareth the christian heaven or classical elysian fields and Geburah the judgement of the soul (see Egyptian mythology in particular).

This is not my judgement set in stone as to what happens, it's just something I was thinking about.
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From:[info]explodi
Date: August 25th, 2005 11:25 am (UTC)
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That sounds quite a bit like what happens in Tibetan Bhuddism- and to help you might have a person siting next to your body advising you to ignore the various phantasms and ghoulies that tempt or scare you to get stuck on the lower planes.

My theory is similar, except that instead of the journey-type scenario, you're spiritual bits were allways in the right places anyway, but at death the connections between them break down, leaving them free-floating as it were. I suppose there's no reason for all the connections to all go at once though, so maybe the journey experience can also be explained that way. Hmmm.
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From:[info]cadmus
Date: August 25th, 2005 04:47 pm (UTC)
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All three of the second edition of The Magical Philosophy are good books to have. Foundations was reprinted in hardcover about two and a half or so years ago for cheap. You should be able to find a copy. Mysteria Magica came out from Llwellyn a year ago (again) and should be available. I've seen the paperbacks remaindered recently so you should snap it up.

I've heard a rumor that The Sword and the Serpent will be reprinted during this next year but we'll see.

I got a lot out of those books.
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From:[info]marysiak
Date: August 25th, 2005 04:57 pm (UTC)
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I have Foundations.

Sword and the Serpent is listed on Amazon as coming soon in paperback format, priced at £12.61. I've heard the release date is sometime in October.

Mysteria Magica is unfortunately somewhat more expensive at £21 for the paperback although it's available used at £9 plus postage, which still seems a lot to me for a second hand paperback.
From:[info]kall1e
Date: August 25th, 2005 06:49 pm (UTC)
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I loved this, thank you :) It ties into something a friend and I were discussing at work today and funny enough she has offered to lend me it! Am looking forward to reading/learning more :)
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From:[info]johnnyjinx
Date: August 26th, 2005 08:17 pm (UTC)
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Where's the tree?

-That guy