AMORC
Sanctum Ritual number 2 for Plane 6
1979
Salutes in omnibus punctis trianguli!
Beloved Members of the Esoteric Hierarchy:
We each of us at times have felt a strong affinity, an attachment to a place
which we have visited for the first time. There is a familiarity about the
environment; it may be a particular building, a street, a tower, or even an
individual house. Also, such an experience may produce an emotional response
that is not pleasant, a feeling of depression. There may be no single thing
which causes one to have such a feeling of uneasiness or a sense of anxiety or
the urge to leave a place in such circumstances.
The same experience sometimes is had when merely reading about a city or a
foreign country, even if it has never been personally visited by the person. Why
should one have such an emotional dislike or displeasure at the mere mention of
a country or a period of history with which he had no intimate relationship?
Psychology has an answer for this kind of experience, but it is not wholly
adequate. Psychology uses the technical term paramnesia. This is defined
as "distortion of memory with confusion of fact with fancy." Simply,
it implies that somehow what a person may have seen or read registered in his
subconscious with an accompanying emotional response of which he was not
objectively aware at the time. In other words, one may have no conscious memory
of such an experience. Later, then, the individual may see or hear something
which is somewhat similar to his original experience and then recalls, by
association, a sense of familiarity with it. The person then is confused, since
he cannot remember having had the original experience but only realizes the
effect caused by it.
However, the psychological nature of this phenomenon goes deeper than the
explanation offered by paramnesia . For example, could one have once lived in
the strangely familiar place or seen it in another life? Further, is it possible
that someone of blood relationship, though a distant relative, lived at that
time and place and had a traumatic experience which was transmitted in the genes
from him to the present individual? Could that experience be recalled at least
partially in the sensations ne has of familiarity and the unaccounted-for
emotional response?
One of such questions suggests that these experiences of having been some
place before or seen something that cannot be related to this life are of a past
incarnation. It is not possible to absolutely affirm that such phenomena are
either due to paramnesia or reincarnation. There is one thing of which most of
us can be certain, and that is that to some degree we have all had a similar
experience during our lifetime.
Some of these instances, however, we can relate to a definite objective
experience of this life. For example, we have all read a book, a novel, or a
history of a certain period; or seen a movie or television play that impressed
us greatly. It left a very strong emotional impact upon us; either one that was
inspiring and uplifting morally, or greatly depressing and even perhaps causing
anxiety. The memory of such remain in our conscious mind. We can freely recall
an experience of that kind. Consequently, such a memory and its associated
sensations are easily aroused by any other experience that seems related to
them. More simply, whenever we see or hear something that has an associated
relationship, we recall from memory the original experience.
Permit me to cite a personal experience as an example. My work in connection
with AMORC's past and with the culture of the artifacts in our Rosicrucian
Museum which is of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, has obliged me to do
considerable reading of ancient history. Further, with AMORC's staff technician
and with archaeologists, I have participated in professional motion picture
filming and still photography of ancient centers of civilization throughout the
world.
Center of Commerce
On one such occasion, we were filming in ancient Babylon. The ancient city is
located in the Euphrates Valley in Asia; actually between two rivers—the
Tigris and Euphrates. Approximately about 2100 B.C., Babylon became the capital
of Babylonia, settled by people of the Semitic race. In the sixth century B.C.,
Babylonia was a vast empire extending westward as far as Egypt, and eastward to
India. Babylon was then the greatest center of commerce and prosperity in the
ancient world. It had a luxurious palace, villas, and a great temple to such
gods as Marduk, the chief god and Ishtar, a mother goddess. The great stepped
tower of the god with the temple at its top is referred to in the Bible.
However, there were other similar temples in Babylonia.
It was in Babylon that the Jews were held in captivity, and their
lamentations about their plight are also related in the Old Testament. The Jews
were finally liberated by Cyrus, the Persian king, when he conquered Babylon.
In the city are the remains of the great Palace of Splendor of
Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who conquered Jerusalem, destroyed its
temple, and deported the Jews into Babylonia (515 B.C.). This palace was one of
the seven wonders of the world with its great "hanging gardens," that
is, terraces with vines and flowers hanging down its sides like tropical flora
on a mountainside.
There is a long stone-lined processional way leading to an imposing large
gate which was the portal to a courtyard, or pronaos, of this so-called
"Tower of Babel," to which we have referred. This portal is known as
the Ishtar Gate--the gate dedicated to the goddess. The facade of the portal was
originally covered with beautiful colored tile with designs of mythical animals.
Standing there, I could envision the solemn processional of the devotees
marching along to the rhythmic beat of drums and accompanied by the cadence of
the chanting priests; the acolytes, each bearing a sacerdotal offering to Ishtar
and Marduk which they finally carried up the steep exterior stairs on the face
of the tower to the temple at its summit.
A short distance away are heaps of mud bricks of what was once
Nebuchadnezzar's palace; built by him for a mountain princess who had dwelt far
north of the hot flat land of Babylon. The underside of the mud bricks was
coated with an asphalt substance made of bitumen, a property common to that
area. It was used to cause the mud bricks to adhere rigidly. The outer side of
the bricks had baked-in colors, giving them a magnificent glossy or tile
surface.
Herodotus, the Greek historian (485-425 B.C.) referred to Babylon as a most
splendid city.
I stood gazing at each of the ruins before me, pondering the result of man's
passion for power, fame, and wealth. I visualized the humble craftsmen
exercising their skill and producing the handiwork of the times; the scribes,
seated in the shade of awnings of bright colors affixed to the walls of
structures along the stone streets, pressing their wedgelike reeds in soft clay
tablets to form the letters of their alphabet and to record what the king's
ministers had requested, and to issue other documents of the day.
Looking westward there laid crumbling portions of a mud brick wall. In my
mind's eye, I could see them as they were once, their massive bulk and height.
Their bronze gates opened to allow slaves to enter after crossing the moatlike
canal which was just beyond the wall. Each slave carried heavy burdens of
treasures from the conquered vassals of Babylonia. The soldiers prodded the
laggards with their short bronze swords.
Yes, it was all realistic to me, a reconstruction of what I knew of history,
combined with the actuality of my present surroundings. The parts I saw all
filled in what my reading had not revealed. I was for the moment enraptured by
my surroundings. My memory, my previous reading actualized the scene before me.
The whole experience was now an empathy. I was vicariously taking the place of
one of these people of nearly 3,000 years ago! I suddenly came back to the
realization of myself as of now and of the true perspective of my surroundings.
Intuitive Denial
The question often since perplexed me: Was I just a victim of the memory of
events read about this period of history and the emotional stimulus of
surroundings that gave realism to it? Or was it retrogression to an actual
period of life at a time of Babylonian splendor and its great ceremonial
processions? There was a vividness about the event that seemed to obviate the
idea that it was only the result of my interest in Babylonia. Rather, there was
an intuitive denial that kept me saying to myself that all of this was
not an illusion or a lapse into fancy. And there was an intimacy to it all that
haunted me at the time and lingered on for years.
Certainly each of you, fratres and sorores, have had some experience that
caused you to wonder: Is it my imagination, fancy, or a recollections of a past
forgotten to my conscious mind?
On this occasion, we would like you to conduct a Ritual Exercise that may
evoke this phenomenon for you. Perhaps it will have such an efficacy, be so
self-evident, that you may consider it a recollection of a past life; some
element of it perhaps you can confirm by referring to a history or other
reference source.
Ritual Exercise
A - Light one candle on your Sanctum altar.
B - Ignite your incense.
C - Dim the lights in your room.
D - Gaze at the single lighted candle; look at nothing else until you feel
relaxed.
E - Now take the tip of the first finger of each hand and press it gently
against each closed eye.
F - Breathe deeply several times and exhale slowly, but without stress, that
is, without discomfort.
G - Now think of a country or an area or a place or a type of architecture
that for some unknown reason strongly appeals to you.
H - Whatever ideas or feelings you may have at this time and which seem to be
associated with that experience should now be kept paramount in your mind.
I - With the feelings and impressions, there should eventually come an
eidetic image, that is, a mental picture which is as vivid at the
time as if you were actually perceiving it with your physical eyes.
J - This Ritual Exercise, if it is to be a success, if it is going to result
in retrogression to an actual experience, (one subjectively had) should now
occur in a matter of ten or fifteen minutes.
K - If the place or object that you are concentrating upon becomes fleeting,
goes and comes, we then suggest that you close your Ritual Demonstration at that
time, drop your hands in your lap, and rest quietly for a few moments. You must
be the one to determine whether the experience you may have had was
psychological or a recall of a past incarnation.
This exercise should be tried several times until the results are
satisfactory to you.
Your reports on this Sanctum Exercise will be appreciated.
Sincerely and fraternally,
YOUR CLASS MASTER