UNFOLDING COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

A MYSTICAL WAY OF UNFOLDING COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

ABOUT SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY

We become intuitively receptive to the essence of a symbolic image by holding it steadily in our mind, letting it irradiate our awareness with its subtle quality. Such contemplation of an image may lead to an IDENTIFICATION with it. Whether it happens spontaneously or intentionally, identification enables the understanding from within of the formless reality, which the symbol represents. Naturally, such cognitive connections do not occur to everyone all the time, and, when they do occur, they do not necessarily produce identical insights.

For example, for some people the diamond is a symbol of the Higher Self or Soul and of the world of visions, of glittering harmony and unity. But for others, the diamond may just stand for social status and prestige. For still others, the diamond may not be symbolic at all. It may be just a diamond, and nothing else. In any case, nearly all of us will find that one or another symbol can be a true reservoir of revelations.

Here is a series of visualization exercises based on symbolic images. Follow each one of them. Each one represents a subtle reality with its own particular quality. Hence, each opens the door to a new state of consciousness and can elicit psychological change. The technique of this series of visualizations is to focus easily and concentrate on your chosen subject and goal, visualizing the symbol, atmosphere and mood that you are creating as vividly and consistently as you can.

This series of symbols are different from the ones that appear and pop up spontaneously during your meditation or in your process of inner development. Rather, you are given to work with this or that symbol because of the cognitive and transformative value it offers. The issue here is a general one: You can creatively intervene, improve and cultivate the quality of your subtle senses, playing with them and exploiting their possibilities.

These preliminary exercises are given here to help you create a new world for yourself. They are "tools" to help you "activate" dormant qualities and "awake" a new aspect of your being - and a new level of consciousness. These preliminary exercises will help you create a positive "mood" and make you discover the power of your IMAGINATION and INTUITION.

Hence you will be given the possibility of working with two types of symbols. Concentrating and working with archetypal symbols, which are universal and on symbols that are "man made", meaning that they come from your personal experiences. Both types of symbols are in themselves powerful energies of transformation.

INTRODUCTION ON HOW VISUALIZATION AND MEDITATION WORK

We become intuitively receptive to the essence of a symbolic image by holding it steadily in our mind, letting it irradiate our awareness with its subtle quality and energy. Such contemplation of an image may lead us to completely identify with the essence and meaning enclosed and included within the symbol or image. Whether it happens spontaneously, or intentionally, identification with a symbol or image enables us to understand symbols from within, and intuition is nothing less than the understanding from within of the formless reality, which the symbol represents.

All symbols presented to you on this website are somehow connected to "SEED IDEAS" and all "Seed Ideas" are part of your spiritual being. In other words, these symbolic images will "TRIGGER" within you and awaken in you a corresponding energy. In their turn, the subtle energies within your etheric and astral bodies will be activated and consequently your emotions/feelings and thought processes will react accordingly. You will be presented with a series of visualization exercises based on symbolic images. Each one represents a subtle reality with its own particular quality.

Hence, each opens the door to a new state of "mind" and "feeling". This means that these symbols and exercises can help you bring changes in your energy levels and unfold subtler levels of consciousness within you.

EXERCISE : THE LIGHTHOUSE

Let us now turn our attention to a visualization exercise that focuses on "man made" symbol that has become an archetypal one because like the diamond it can suggest something more subtle and profound.

(first read this short visualization exercise and tape it on your tape recorder ) Relax on your chair and put the recorder on, close your eyes and imagine that you are on a small ship at sea, at night. A storm is raging, and the rain beats down on the deck. The ship is rolling and pitching. All around you is darkness.

Feel the rolling and pitching of the ship, hear the wind howling, feel the chill of the wind and the rain on your face. See the stormy sea at night. Experience the fatigue in your muscles and the difficulty with which you wrestle with the wheel.

Now, in the distance, you can see a dazzling light shining. Its source is a lighthouse. Its steady, radiant beam guides you through the night. You welcome this guidance with relief. Now you know where to steer. Concentrate on the lighthouse, and visualize its light radiating in all directions to help people who have lost their way, to give guidance to all who need it. The storm is raging, the wind howling, the rain falling, the night pitch-black. But the lighthouse stands solid and shining. Nothing can shake it.

After a time, let the visualization gradually subside, yet keep within you this sense of SHINING STRENGTH.

Such an example illustrates how symbols, rightly used, will deepen their transformative function, allowing us to change our inner attitudes and outer behavior. The quality inherent in the symbols not only reveals to us new ways of experiencing ourselves and life, it also creates a new line of force in our psyche - one which can gradually become a trait in our personality and thus affect our actions.

It is suggested that after doing this exercise for a couple of times, you visualize it without the tape. Please make a point to take notes of your impressions in your notebook.

EXERCISE : THE BUTTERFLY

Imagine a caterpillar. You can watch it crawling about on the tree where it lives. Attaching itself to a branch of the tree, the caterpillar starts to form its cocoon. Gradually it surrounds itself with golden, silken threads until it is totally hidden. Observe the cocoon for a few moments Now be inside the cocoonSurrounded by the softness of silkyou rest in the warmth of the golden darkness You are only dimly aware, so you do not know exactly what is happening to you, but you sense that in this apparent stillness a hidden, transforming intelligence is at work At last the cocoon breaks open, and a ray of light penetrates through a chink As the light touches you, you feel a sudden surge of vitality and realize that you can shed the cocoon.

As you feel the cocoon falling away, you discover that with it you have shed the defenses and supports of your safety and your past You are now freer than you ever dreamed you could be; you are a beautiful, multicolored butterfly You soon realize that your boundaries have extended infinitely you can fly... You find yourself dwelling in a totally new realm of colors, of sounds, of open space You experience yourself flyingbeing supported by the air, being gently borne up by the breeze, gliding gown, flying up again... Below, you see an immense meadow full of flowers of every kind and colorYou settle on onethen on anotherthen on another still, so gently that the petals are not even disturbed. You experience each flower as a different being with its own color and perfumeits own particular life and quality. Take your time in experiencing the many aspects of your expansion, your freedom, and your lightness.

Always try to record the exercise this will facilitate your inner work and visualization. (read and record your voice at the pace that is convenient and right for you)

Always keep your notebook handy to write down your impressions and insights

EXERCISE : THE FOUNT

Before starting your "inner work" make sure that you won't be disturbed and that you start with a relaxation exercise. Imagine a fount springing from granite rockyou see its pure water sparkle in the sun and hear its splashes in the surrounding silence you experience this special place, where everything is clearerpuremore essential. Start drinking the waterand feel its beneficent energy pervading you and making you feel lighter Now walk into the spring itselfletting the water flow over youimagine that it has the power of flowing through each one of your body cells and in between themimagine it also flowing through the innumerable nuances of your sentiments and emotions and through your intellect as well feel this water cleansing you of all the psychic debris we inevitably accumulate day after dayfrustrationsregretsworriesthoughts of all kinds.

Gradually you experience how the purity of this font becomes your purity, and its energy becomes your energy Finally, imagine that you are the fount itselfwhere all is possible and life is forever new

It is recommended that you tape this exercise on a tape recorder, find your own narrative pace and allow some time for creating the special moods and the atmosphere . Take if possible a few notes of your impressions.

EXERCISE : THE FLAME

Before starting your "inner work" make sure that you won't be disturbed and that you start

with a relaxation exercise. Imagine a burning flameSee it dancingdrawing ever-changing designs in the airlook into it as it movesseek to experience its fiery quality As you keep visualizing this flamethink about fire and its manifestations in the psyche: personal warmth and radianceflaming love or joyfiery enthusiasmardor Finally as you keep the flame in front of your inner eyeslowly imagine that you are animated by that firethat you are becoming that flame It is recommended that you tape this exercise on a tape recorder, find your own narrative pace and allow some time for creating the special moods and the atmosphere . Take if possible a few notes of your impressions

EXERCISE : THE SUN

Before starting your "inner work" make sure that you won't be disturbed and that you start with a relaxation exercise. Visualize yourself on the beach at dawn the sea is almost motionless as the last bright stars fade away feel the freshness and the purity of the airwatch the waterthe starsthe dark sky take some time to experience the silence before sunrise, the stillness filled with all possibilities slowly, the darkness melts and the colors changethe sky over the horizon becomes redthe golden Then the sun's first rays reach youand you watch it slowly emerging from the water. With half the sun's disk visible and the rest still below the horizonyou see that its reflection in the water is creating a path of golden shimmering light leading from you all the way to its very heart The temperature of the water is pleasantand you decide to go in slowlywith joyyou start to swim in the golden radianceyou feel the light-filled water touching your bodyyou experience yourself floating effortlessly and moving pleasurably in the sea The more you swim toward the sun, the less aware you are of the water, and the more the light around you increasesyou feel enveloped in a beneficent, golden light which permeates you completely your body is bathing now in the vitality of the sunyour feelings are pervaded by its warmthyour mind is illuminated by its light. It is recommended that you tape this exercise on a tape recorder, find your own narrative pace and allow some time for creating the special moods and the atmosphere . Take if possible a few notes of your impressions

EXERCISE : THE ROSE

To convey the sense of an unfolding process in the psyche, and at the same time to facilitate it, we have prepared this exercise of the blossoming of the rose. Imagine a rosebush: roots, stem, leaves, and, on top, a rosebud. The rosebud is closed, and enveloped by its green sepals. Take your time in visualizing all the details clearly. Now imagine that the sepals start to open, turn back, and reveal the petals inside -tender, delicate, still closed. Now the petals themselves slowly begin to open. As they do so, you become aware of a blossoming also occurring in the depths of your being. You feel that something in you is opening