Kick-Start Your Spiritual Life
By Keith Sherwood
Although the seven principles of Hermetics – mind, rhythm, cause and effect, correspondence, vibration, polarity, and gender – regulate interactions between fields of consciousness, energy, and matter within the multiverse and interspace (the space between universes), there are five additional principles that influence these interactions that are often overlooked. These five principles, which have been integrated into the lives of spiritual adepts, are the principles of Desire, Knowledge, Appropriateness, Attraction, and Field Dominance. Your spiritual well-being as well as the health of your relationships are dependent on integrating these principles into your daily life.
The Principle of Desire
The principle of desire states: “Desire is a function of mind. Desire is active in all fields of consciousness, energy, and subtle matter. A stronger, more active desire will dominate a weaker, less active desire in all field interactions, including those that take place in both physical and non-physical dimensions.”
That said, it’s important to recognize that not all desires are created equal. There are appropriate desires that are life-affirming, and there are those that are not. Appropriate desires support the free radiation of life-affirming consciousness, energy, and etheric matter through your subtle field – and they support your personal dharma (purpose for being incarnated).
In contrast to life-affirming desires, inappropriate desires are Self-limiting. They interfere with the free radiation of life-affirming fields as well as your dharma and your personal process of Self-realization.
Given that desire plays a part in most field interactions – in dimensional fields as well as interspace –, you get what you desire most, regardless of whether you’re conscious of your deepest desires or not. This means you’re ultimately responsible for your present condition by participating in an activity or a series of activities which emerged from your strongest desires, someone else’s desire to whom you sublimated your own desire, or by default – when, by inaction, you didn’t assert your desire and oppose or refuse to participate in a field interaction created by the desires of another sentient being. Of course, in the complex environment in which we live, your well-being, the health of your relationships, and your ability to fulfill your dharma will be the sum of all three functions of desire.
Vedic texts, which are the basis of Yoga, teach that there are four life-affirming desires. The first is called Artha in Sanskrit. Artha refers to the desire for material comfort or wealth. Since it’s an economic necessary to amass enough wealth to be free from the drudgery of continuous work, fulfilling this desire is a prerequisite for sustained spiritual growth and development.
Kama is the second desire. It denotes both pleasure as well as the desire for pleasure. In the Bhagavad Gita, desire is put at the center of living and is equated with the life force.
Dharma is the third desire. Dharma literally means “that which holds together” (in essence, that which prevents worldly relationships from dissolving into chaos). Dharma has two applications. There is shared dharma, and personal dharma. Shared dharma is righteousness or spiritual duty. Righteousness in this context can be equated with appropriate activity.
Personal dharma is the specific path of appropriate activity that will lead a person back into conscious union with Universal Consciousness.
The fourth desire is Moksha. It denotes transcendence, which is spiritual freedom and liberation from karmic attachment. Of the four desires, moksha is the highest.
Since there are authentic desires that support your dharma, intimate relationships, and your process of Self-realization, it makes no sense to abandon them. Rather, you should substitute authentic desires for inauthentic desires whenever possible.
The Principle of Knowledge
Although we may live in the information age, and information can be shared, you can only attain knowledge through personal experience. It’s an act of becoming, which means that a person who has knowledge has made intimate contact with an object of knowledge. Human love illustrates what I mean. You can read books about love, listen to love songs, and even examine the effects love has had on people, but unless you’ve been in love, you still don’t have any idea what love is.
Information that is channeled or that is theoretical, abstract, or that has been transmitted by other people, film, or the written word cannot be considered knowledge.
Indeed, a sincere seeker of knowledge “observes till they know,” and if they don’t know, they continue to observe until they attain knowledge through personal experience.
It’s important to recognize that knowledge is each human being’s original state. In Sanskrit, Satchitananda denotes the basic relationship between a human being, knowledge, bliss, and the singularity that is the basis of existence.
Sat represents eternal life. Chit represents knowledge. Ananda represents bliss. All three elements of Satchidananda emerge directly from Universal Consciousness and are hard-wired into every human being.
The Principle of Appropriateness
This principle states: “Not all activities are appropriate. Activities that are appropriate enhance the free radiation of consciousness, energy, and subtle matter; they support dharma, and they enhance intimate relationships. Inappropriate activities do the opposite; they inhibit the free radiation of consciousness, energy, and subtle matter; they create attachments, and they inhibit a person’s ability to achieve and sustain intimate relationships.”
Within your subtle field, conflicting forces assert their influence. On one side are Universal Consciousness and Shakti. They provide you with life-affirming consciousness, energy, and subtle matter. These three essential elements maintain the integrity and stability of your authentic mind and intimate relationships.
On the other side are the ‘I’ and the individual mind and ego. They’re part of the collective field of maya, a community of fields that continuously change – and only have the appearance of reality. Maya manifests itself through fields of consciousness, energy, and subtle matter with individual qualities. These fields can be integrated into your subtle field, and – in conjunction with karmic baggage and non-physical beings – they create Self-limiting patterns that interfere with the functions of your authentic mind.
Your well-being, your ability to follow your personal dharma, and your ability to engage in intimate relationships will be determined by whether you engage in activities that emerge from your authentic mind and are appropriate or whether you engage in activities that emerge from your ‘I’ and/or individual mind and ego and are inappropriate.
When you engage in activities that are appropriate, the universe will support them, and life-affirming consciousness, energy, and subtle matter will radiate through your subtle field. You will stay centered in your authentic mind, and you’ll be able to share pleasure, love, intimacy, and joy freely. Appropriate activities will also mitigate the karmic penalty you incurred from inappropriate activities that you performed in your youth and prior incarnations.
The Principle of Attraction
In the West, knowledge of polar relationships has been shaped by the ancient Hermetic principle of polarity. It states that “Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”
Although the Hermetic principles are the foundation of the Western metaphysical tradition, a bipolar universe is far too simple to support all the interactions that take place in interspace and the multiverse. In fact, as you become more conscious of your subtle field, you’ll recognize that bipolar relationships exist only as long as you believe that you’re an individual being, separate from Universal Consciousness and the diversity of life that exists in both the physical and non-physical universe.
Once you’ve expanded your paradigm to include non-physical dimensions and interspace, you will experience seven polar fields.
The polar field that governs an interaction will determine the direction consciousness, energy, and subtle matter move through your subtle field in relationship to Atman, the point on the right side of your chest, where bliss enters your field. It will also determine the level of attraction or repulsion you have for that field and the sentient being radiating it.
The first polar field is considered masculine, which means that, when it governs an interaction, you’ll radiate consciousness and energy forward, and you will become assertive.
The second polar field is considered feminine. When it governs an interaction, you’ll draw consciousness and energy inward toward Atman. And you’ll manifest power and awareness passively by becoming receptive.
The third polar field is neuter, which means that it will not react to other fields of consciousness and energy. By centering yourself in your third polar field, you can remain undisturbed for extended periods. That will keep you serene while you interact with non-physical fields that may be highly polarized.
When you’re centered in the fourth polar field, consciousness with a higher resonance and energy with a higher frequency will become dominant and will move inward at the expense of consciousness with a lower resonance and energy with a lower frequency. Your identity will reflect this shift, and you’ll be able to live with greater integrity.
In the fifth polar field, your interactions with other subtle fields will be a function of vibration, not movement, and will be uniquely feminine. As you become more conscious of the fifth polar field and learn to function through it with conscious awareness, your receptivity to the universal feminine will increase, and you’ll experience more pleasure, love, intimacy, and joy.
In the sixth polar field, subtle interactions are a function of vibration and resonance, not movement, and are uniquely masculine. As you become more conscious of the sixth polar field and learn to function through it, your receptivity to the universal masculine will be enhanced.
In the seventh polar field, polarity is no longer distinguished by movement, vibration, or resonance. It’s distinguished by Universal Consciousness who emerges into your subtle field through your seventh polar field. From there, Universal Consciousness descends through your subtle field from the fields of highest resonance and vibration to the fields of lowest resonance and vibration. Although, this may appear to be a directional movement, it cannot be because time-space, as we experience it in the physical-material universe, does not exist within Universal Consciousness.
The Principle of Field Dominance
The principle of Field Dominance declares that “Fields of consciousness, energy, and etheric matter with a higher resonance or vibration have a greater impact and/or effect than fields with a lower resonance or vibration. In all field interactions, fields with a higher resonance or vibration displace fields with a lower resonance or vibration.”
If you apply the principle of field dominance to field interactions, you’ll recognize that Universal Consciousness, who is the same in the beginning, the middle, and the end, will control, transmute, and/or release subordinate fields in all subtle and/or physical-material interactions. It also confirms that two fields cannot occupy the same dimensional space at the same time.
Because the principle of field dominance applies to all interactions on both physical-material and non-physical dimensions, you can use fields with a higher resonance or vibration to overcome the limitations imposed on you by blockages created by subordinate fields with a lower resonance or vibration.
On the level of soul, life-affirming energy in the form of prana radiates through the organs of your subtle field. This energy has universal qualities. When used in the appropriate way, it can release all forms of energy with individual qualities. Its ability to release subordinate fields explains why prana can be used to heal trauma and physical disease as well as Self-limiting patterns that disrupt your relationships.
On the level of spirit, chi can be used to release subordinate fields with a lower vibration. On the levels of consciousness, bliss radiates from its source, Universal Consciousness, into all living beings. According to Tantric texts, bliss is an enduring condition created through the union of consciousness (Shiva) and energy (Shakti). The merging of consciousness and energy with universal qualities provides you with a constant flow of power on the level of consciousness, that can heal disease and release karmic baggage and attachments.