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The Isles of the Blessed
Life is eternal, and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
ANONYMOUS
S
o let us look now at the evidence for the continuation of the Soul after death. To discover this we must take a look at the landscapes of Heaven and find out what both ancient and modern accounts tell us about this Paradise. Like many people today, the ancient world believed in the concept of Heaven and Hell as well as the many intermediate zones, or bardos,
that lie between these two. Yet unlike what is taught by the patriarchal religions, which claim that this in-between state is a permanent place, the ancient sages knew that these dimensions are only temporary abodes for the Soul, just as our lives on Earth are only temporary.
This world of shining light known as Heaven has been called by many other names: the Far Country, the Summerland, Shambhala, Valhalla, New Jerusalem, and Avalon. In Hindu teachings it is known as Svarga. To Mahayana Buddhists it is Sukhavati. Theosophists call
it Devachan, the land of devas and gods, also known as “the Shining Land.”
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This is a specially guarded place in the higher octaves of the mental plane where all sorrow and evil are vanquished by the great spiritual intelligences who oversee human evolution. It is a place inhabited by human beings who have attained a level of purity that lifts them from the world of conflict. In the next few chapters we will consider the remarkable stories of people who have traveled into these celestial realms and visited the realms of the Afterlife.
The Elysian Fields
The Greeks called Heaven the Elysian Fields, a vast paradisiacal land on the western margins of Earth, encircled by a stream called Oceanus, which may be another name for the great Cosmic Sea. This vibrant land glows with light and is reserved for only the good, the pure, and the noble. Similar to modern-day near-death accounts, or NDEs, the deceased person meets with his or her loved ones on the Otherside, where they take up residence in a beautiful, pastoral countryside. The Elysian Fields are the immortal lands of bliss where those who have lived lives of goodness are transported without ever having to taste the bitter sting of death. This realm is identical to the Field of Reeds in Egyptian cosmology, a Paradise of shady trees, magical forests, and pastoral gardens, all blooming in a perpetual season of spring. Here Souls experience friendship, joy, peace, and love without the heartache, pain, and struggle that we know so well in the physical world. This echoes a famous nineteenth-century folk song that compares our world with this celestial one:
I am a poor wayfaring stranger, traveling through this world of woe.
And there’s no sickness, toil or danger, in that bright world to which I go.
I’m going home to meet my father, I’m going there no more to roam.
I’m just a-going over Jordan, I’m just a-going over home.
I know dark clouds will gather round me, I know my way is rough and steep,
But golden fields lie out before me, where God’s redeemed shall ever sleep.
I’m going home to see my mother, she said she’ d meet me when I come.
I’m only going over Jordan, I’m only going over home.
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The Greeks believed that this paradisiacal realm was ruled by the titan Kronos, the father of Zeus, whose name symbolizes time. The word
chronometer
comes from Kronos; thus he represents the vast cycles of time through which the Soul must pass in its many cycles of life, death, and rebirth. This is the Wheel of Karma, where each Soul is transformed, giving us multiple chances to perfect our inner nature. As its ruler, Kronos has the ability to allow us to view our past and future incarnations, as well as to suspend time.
Like most cultures, the Greeks believed that the Soul is judged at the end of every lifetime, and the decider of one’s fate is the wise King Rhadamanthys. Similar to Osiris in Egypt, Jesus in Christianity, and the Hindu god Yama, god of death, the Greeks believed that Rhadamanthys dwelt in Paradise. Rhadamanthys was said to have been the son of Zeus and Europa, the god of the sky and the goddess of Earth, a merger of the male and female cosmic forces that rule the universe. The Neoplatonic teacher Lucian of Samosata depicts Rhadamanthys as presiding over a company of heroes on the Isles of the Blessed, and in his epic poem
The Aeneid,
Virgil reports that Rhadamanthys was a judge in the Tartarus section of the Underworld. In Homer’s epic poem
The Odyssey
we read, “The immortals will send you to the Elysian Plains at the ends of the
earth, where fair-haired Rhadamanthys is. There life is supremely easy for men. No snow there, nor ever heavy winter storm, nor rain and the Ocean is ever sending gusts of the clear-blowing west wind to bring coolness to men.”
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Pindar, the ancient Greek poet, writes how each Soul stands before the judge of the dead before being sentenced to its fate: “And those that have three times kept to their oaths, keeping their souls clean and pure, never letting their hearts be defiled by the taint of evil and injustice, and barbaric veniality, they are led by Zeus to the end: to the palace of Kronos, where soothing breezes off the Ocean breathe over the Isle of the Blessed.”
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Figure 4.1. Theseus
and Ariadne in the labyrinth with the Minotaur (illustration by Tricia McCannon)
Plutarch claims that Rhadamanthys married Ariadne, the spinner of the red thread of fate. Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, the princess who helped the hero Theseus escape from the Minotaur in the underground labyrinth. In the language of the Mysteries these stories signify a deeper truth. Theseus, like us, must escape from the labyrinth of our ever-repeating cycles of reincarnation. To do so we must each conquer our own animal nature, symbolized by the Minotaur. The way we do this is by aligning with the goddess who holds the red thread of fate, a symbol of our higher destiny. By following her toward a higher purpose or goal, we escape the sevenfold labyrinth of the lower worlds, becoming free of the Wheel of Time. The number seven is significant in all esoteric traditions, for it symbolizes not only the seven chakras and energy bodies we must master, but also the seven dimensional realms of the time-space lokas.
The Fields of Asphodel
The Greeks taught that between each lifetime the Soul visits a sacred meadow called the Fields of Asphodel, or the Asphodel Meadows. This meadow was named after a lovely white six-petal flower associated with the mourning of the dead. This small flower is a diminutive version of the six-petal lily we use at Easter today and is much like night-blooming jasmine. Like the lily, the asphodel’s six petals remind us of the Merkaba field used to travel into the higher realms. The asphodel flower, like the lily, was thought to be a symbol of rebirth.
The Asphodel Meadows acted as a magical borderland of neutrality between Heaven and Earth. It was said that in this meadow were two pathways—one that led upward to the Elysian Fields, or Heaven, and one that led downward to the realm of Hades. The Greeks believed that at the time of death the Soul journeyed there, taking the path that was most appropriate to the life it had lived. The Soul also returned to these meadows when it was ready to come back to Earth and begin a new life.
Tibetan Buddhism calls this intermediate state the
bardo
plane. The term
bar do,
from the Sanskrit
antarabhava,
means “transitional state,” “in-between state,” and “liminal state,” refers to it being an intermediate dimension between earthly life and the other dimensions.
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In Homer’s epic the
Odyssey,
the poet relates the story of how Odysseus sailed beyond the dawn sky to the edge of Earth, finally arriving at a place where the sun never shines. There Odysseus entered a misty meadow filled with asphodel flowers, a grove of trees, and the junction of two rivers. Odysseus suddenly realizes that he has arrived at the Fields of Asphodel, the gateway to the Otherworld. This is the decision point of the Afterlife for the Soul.
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Figure 4.2. The six-petal asphodel flower
In Greek cosmology, the Soul returns to the Asphodel Meadows before each new lifetime. There it has a choice to drink from one of two pools: the River of Lethe or the Pool of Mnemosyne. Lethe is the pool of forgetfulness, while Mnemosyne is the pool of remembrance. Orphic mystics claim that less aware Souls drink from the River of Lethe, choosing amnesia before every lifetime, while initiates are taught to drink from the Pool of Mnemosyne, thus retaining the memory of who they are from lifetime to lifetime, as well as their purpose in entering each new life.
While today all of this might seem like fanciful mythology, what it reveals about our ancestors is their knowledge of the many dimensional planes of the inner worlds, especially the lower, middle, and higher registers of the astral plane reported by modern near-death experiencers.
As we shall discover, all of these various levels are dimensions within the astral plane known as the
kamaloka;
and it is our state of consciousness that determines where in the astral plane we will go upon death. While many of these realms are places of peace, joy, and light, there are yet higher and lower planes of Heaven that the Soul can visit.
The Landscapes of Hell
If a Soul does not go to one of the regions of Heaven, then it might wind up in the Underworld, a place also called Hades, Hel, or Acheron. This is where we get the modern word
Hell
today. Lamenting the fate of those who are consigned there, Plato writes, “To go to the world below, having a soul which is like a vessel full of injustice, is the last and worst of all the evils.”
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Tibetan Buddhism names six dimensional planes, or lokas, that the Soul might incarnate into, all six of which are considered realms of samsara or suffering. These are: the realm of the gods, the realm of the demigods, the realm of the humans, the realm of the animals, the realm of the
pretas
or hungry ghosts, and the Hell realm. Each of these realms has an excess of either suffering or pleasure, except the human realm, which has an equal amount of each, and is thus believed to be conducive to future spiritual growth. In
their illustrated commentary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, students of Eastern spirituality Stephen Hodge and Martin Boord note, “An excess of suffering prevents people from ever giving thought to anything else since their minds are overwhelmed by pain, while an excess of comfort and happiness dulls the mind and gives no motivation for change.”
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Figure 4.3. The six-petaled matrix of life
These six lokas can be seen as embodying psychological states, given that the Buddhist idea is that all things are shaped and formed by the mind. Hodge and Boord go on, “It is said that a predominance of any one particular type of negativity results in rebirth in the most appropriate mode. Thus, pride leads to rebirth as a god, jealousy as a demigod, attachment as a human being, stupidity as an animal, greed as a hungry ghosts and hatred as a hell denizen.”
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In theosophical and Hindu teachings, these lokas or dimensions exist at higher and lower frequencies, providing steps of consciousness for each Soul’s spiritual evolution. These are the various lokas or dimensions where the Soul takes birth and acquires experience. However, just like in our own realm, the time that a Soul spends in these dimensions is limited, whether it be a hundred years or a thousand.
At the center of these six lokas lies Paradise, the Buddhist nirvana, the Holy of Holies, the Far Country, the Summerland, or bliss, the central realm of Heaven. Looking very much like the petals of the Flower of Life, the six lokas or planes of incarnation sit around it. This plane of shining light is thought by most spiritual traditions to be the highest realm that the Soul can attain throughout its many incarnations, for this is where our Soul’s eternal essence dwells in its angelic form, even while another part of us takes birth in the worlds below.
The realm that we call Hell is a lower region of the astral plane. It is a land of darkness, gloom, black houses, black roads, and black holes in the earth.
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The Hebrew name for this region is
Sheol,
a place of negative self-delusion where the Soul is so lost in Shadow that the light from the higher realms cannot break through. This is because these Souls have imprisoned themselves with dark thought forms through their own choice. Sheol is thus a self-created prison that does not allow us to feel the love around us. In this delusionary realm we are not in touch
with the light within, so of course it feels cold and bleak, forlorn and hopeless, until we are willing to turn to the light. Then our guides can pull us upward into the higher realms.
In this Hell realm the Soul experiences the torments of the
Rakshasas,
mythological demonic beings found in both the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, sometimes called “man-eaters.” These frightening spirits can drive a Soul mad with anger, fear, judgment, pride, and egoic vanity. As we shall see, these are all creations of a person’s mind that has been steeped in ignorance and delusion. In truth, these furies are only aspects of the Shadow self that the Soul has given into while living here on Earth. These negative forces drove the person during his earthly life, and they continue to plague his Soul once it passes to the Otherside. This is certainly a strong argument for letting go of the destructive emotions of bitterness, rage, resentment, regret, vengeance, judgment, violence, and self-righteousness while we’re still in our physical form, for these states of consciousness cannot only trap us in this world, but also in the next.
This lower realm of the astral plane is a nightmare land, and many of us may have accidently wandered into this frightening realm or an adjacent one during the course of our convoluted dreaming life. However, contact with the lower astral planes can only happen when one’s thoughts and feelings fall into such decline that we consistently feel trapped in the negative emotions of anger, hatred, fear, loneliness, depression, or despair. This lowers our vibration. Then we may find ourselves dreaming in one of the lower levels that lie just above Sheol. In these realms what we see around us is merely a reflection of our own resentments, fears, and anxieties; however, none of what we see is real. It is only a projection of our own negative thoughts and emotions. This is critically important to remember so that we do not give it power. Thus, while any of us can fall into periods of grief, sadness, or depression over the course of a lifetime, it is important to remember that while we are living in this world we must maintain a positive focus. We must choose not to feed our darker thoughts, for then you will only give more power to the Shadow.
One way of changing this negative energy is by focusing on spiritual
affirmations or maxims as the ancient philosophers did. Another way is through prayer and forming a connection with the powerful life-affirming grace of the spiritual masters who serve this light, and with the angelic forces that are never far from us, but who work by invitation only. Another way of counteracting the Shadow is by reading spiritual literature on a daily basis. Writings that are transmitted from the higher realms have a vibration that will pierce the darkness of pain, grief, and sorrow and lift you into the higher vibration of love. The more you can focus your thoughts in this direction, the quicker you will transform your own emotions.
Releasing the Etheric Double at Death
In Greek cosmology it was believed that to enter the realm of Hades the Soul had to cross the River Acheron. As movies such as Clash of the Titans
depicted, the Greeks believed that the Soul had to be ferried across the river by Charon the ferryman. His price was a small golden coin called an obolus
that was placed on the eyes or in the mouth of the deceased person. Virgil’s Aeneid
says that for hundreds of years there were paupers gathered on the shores of the River Acheron, stuck between the worlds. These people did not have a coin to give to Charon to help them on their passage across. Some Greeks even made a practice of offering libations to these unhappy spirits to prevent them from haunting the living. These are the pretas
in Tibetan Buddhism, the hungry ghosts whose cravings and needs keep them perpetually trapped in the lower astral plane. Greek cosmology also taught that there was a guardian of Hades. This was Cerberus the three-headed dog who stood on the far side of the river. Like the loyal Basenji dog Anubis in Egypt, he conducted Souls to the Halls of Judgment. Once the Soul passed beyond this point, it had officially entered the Land of the Dead.
Theosophical wisdom, much of which is based on the bardo teachings of Buddhism, teaches that once a person dies there is a period of time during which the subtle-energy bodies detach from the physical body. While some parts of us travel up into the middle or higher regions of Heaven, the etheric sheath that acts as an interface between spirit
and matter often remains on Earth for a time, although it is said to detach from the body during the first thirty-six hours after death. This etheric double is the body closest to the physical world, exactly mirroring the structure of the physical body it served. When we are living, this etheric double is blue gray in color and extends about an inch from the body, mimicking its shape and appearance. If the person is buried, then this etheric double may float over the grave for a time until it slowly disintegrates; but if the body is cremated, the etheric double breaks up very quickly, having lost its physical center of attraction. This is one reason, among many, why cremation is preferable to burial as a way of disposing of the bodies of the dead, for it frees the Soul from any connection with the etheric double, giving it nothing to tether it to Earth. If the etheric double does not disintegrate properly, it can become a Shade. In theosophical literature a Shade is an aspect of the astral body that can sometimes form from lower mental attachments. It appears as an exact duplicate of the physical person, complete with all its idiosyncrasies. It is not a hungry ghost, but rather a trapped portion of the etheric double, or subtle energy field that connects the Soul with the physical body.
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The Five Rivers of Hades
The Greek Mysteries taught that in Hades there were five separate rivers, each representing one of the five negative emotions that can bind the Soul to the lower astral realms. These rivers were Cocytus, the river of lamentation, said to mostly be for traitors who were filled with regret; Phlegethon, the river of fire, said to be for sinners being punished in the heat of their own unbridled passions; Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, where we fall into unconsciousness and oblivion; Styx, the river of hate; and Acheron, the river of sorrow and woe into which all the other rivers empty. These rivers represent the five most negative states that keep us trapped in a dark state of consciousness: the emotions of sorrow, grief, anger, forgetfulness, and hatred. These are the life-smothering feelings that keep us stuck in a state of self-blame, judgment, self-righteousness, vengeance, and regret—a reminder to those of us still in the land of the living to dispel these dark emotions while we still have the chance.
Figure 4.4. Crossing the River Styx (engraving by Gustave Doré
)
What I find most intriguing about this cosmology is that it was the river of hate, the River Styx, that formed the boundary between the upper and the lower worlds. This tells us that it is the choice between love and fear that finally divides the realms of darkness from the world of light. To be free of this Shadow within we must first let go of any hatred of ourselves or others. This is the true power of forgiveness.