Left Hand Path Only: Can the Concept of Higher Self Hold up to Logical Scrutiny?

[EtuMalku]

The term "Higher Self" is not really very descriptive of something difficult to describe and impossible to trace down the origins of. Labelling it as such would involve speculation, which would be a distortion of the untraceable and hard to describe qualities. Just because whatever it is defies description and traceability in no way voids out the possibility of it being real.

Being a Mercuræn, without a Lucuferian self and Mercuræn Self, how do you achieve Mercurius Consciousness?

 

[crossfire]

Being a Mercuræn, without a Lucuferian self and Mercuræn Self, how do you achieve Mercurius Consciousness?

When you make conscious connections to unconscious aspects of your mind, can you really call any single aspect of these connections your "Higher Self?" I can make connections to other individuals or egregores as well, so is the ability to connect the Self, whether it be to unconscious aspects or other individuals? How about animals connecting to their collective consciousness? Does that make the collective egregore a "self," or does that make the egregore a "self," or does it make the ability to connect a "self?" I could easily substitute the word "Ego" for your "Luciferian self" term and the word "Animus" for your "Mercuræn Self" term without invoking the term "self." I can also use other terms to refer to that which is individuated, such as "Shadow" without invoking the term "self." Is Ego the Self? Is Shadow the Self? How about Superego? How about Id? Anima/Animus? Personas? Citta? Manas?

Does individuating any of these change the Self? If not, then why do the work of individuating?

 

[crossfire]

I prefer Monad, but that almost always creates even more confusion.

Indeed, trying to describe something like this is quite like the Centipede's Dilemma. You can easily paralyze yourself--not very useful--unless you are trying to paralyze yourself!

The Centipede's Dilemma - Wikipedia

 

[crossfire]

I prefer Monad, but that almost always creates even more confusion.

Indeed, trying to describe something like this is quite like the Centipede's Dilemma. You can easily paralyze yourself--not very useful--unless you are trying to paralyze yourself!

The Centipede's Dilemma - Wikipedia

Now that I think about it, this approach might be more conducive to ritual work--bypassing the "psychic sensor." One can always suspend any skepticism regarding Higher Self for ritual work, if it comes to that.

 

[EtuMalku]

When you make conscious connections to unconscious aspects of your mind, can you really call any single aspect of these connections your "Higher Self?" I can make connections to other individuals or egregores as well, so is the ability to connect the Self, whether it be to unconscious aspects or other individuals? How about animals connecting to their collective consciousness? Does that make the collective egregore a "self," or does that make the egregore a "self," or does it make the ability to connect a "self?" I could easily substitute the word "Ego" for your "Luciferian self" term and the word "Animus" for your "Mercuræn Self" term without invoking the term "self." I can also use other terms to refer to that which is individuated, such as "Shadow" without invoking the term "self." Is Ego the Self? Is Shadow the Self? How about Superego? How about Id? Anima/Animus? Personas? Citta? Manas?

Does individuating any of these change the Self? If not, then why do the work of individuating?

None of which you mentioned is the higher Self / Monad, they are all perceptions of our limited conscious awareness. The Monad is the actual locus of conscious being, a unique singularity that can only be identified and realized - not in defined terms of anything external. It is ethereal and distinct / apart from not just the OU, but even its own SU's. It is not a multiplicity of SU images, either individual or collective.

 

[crossfire]

None of which you mentioned is the higher Self / Monad, they are all perceptions of our limited conscious awareness. The Monad is the actual locus of conscious being, a unique singularity that can only be identified and realized - not in defined terms of anything external. It is ethereal and distinct / apart from not just the OU, but even its own SU's. It is not a multiplicity of SU images, either individual or collective.

Indeed, it is not any of the things I listed. From upthread:

I would tend to agree. I'm apophatic in my approach. As Chuang Tzu would put it, "The torch of chaos and doubt - this is what the sage steers by. So he does not use things but relegates all to the constant. This is what it means to use clarity."
It's like the Uncertainty Principle, where you can't precisely know both position AND momentum, or you can't precisely know both energy AND time, as the measurement of one requires the use of the other, and changes the value of the other. Likewise, if you use one component of Self to try to measure another, you will get the same Uncertainty. What you wind up with is something nebulous and difficult to describe. You can describe what it is not, but you can't describe what it is without any Uncertainty. Any concept applied to it would have to be conditional and subject to change--useful in only a limited sense.

Compare to this part of your post:

Mark Luskin on Isolate Intelligence
<...>
When an individual is interacting with a Divine Principle on a Gross level it is done through objects fashioned to reflect this Principle or through items thought to partake of its essence. When an individual is interacting with a Divine Principle on a Subtle Level this experience is had int eh language of mythology and personality. When an individual is interacting with a Divine Principle on a Casual Level they are dealing with a featureless pure abstraction.

Now let us look at the Principle of Isolate Intelligence in this fashion. On a Causal level the Principle of Isolate Intelligence is without Form, but sets the ways in which the Principle manifests in the Subtle and Gross realms. How a given individual will create a Subtle construct to interact with this Principle is highly shaped by their individual psyche which contains a fundamental "Mytheme" system to draw upon to create meaning. If the personal representation is seen as useful and meaningful it can be passed on to others as a means for them to gain access to the deeper Causal Principle. Highly stable Subtle constructs become the provenience of mythologies and can be shared across generations.
<...>

The conceptual idea of a "Higher Self" is not necessarily very useful or meaningful to me when applied to the basis of individual consciousness. I see this concept as a distortion. Since we are dealing with individual psyches here, your mileage may vary.

 

[EtuMalku]

Indeed, it is not any of the things I listed. From upthread:

Compare to this part of your post:

The conceptual idea of a "Higher Self" is not necessarily very useful or meaningful to me when applied to the basis of individual consciousness. I see this concept as a distortion. Since we are dealing with individual psyches here, your mileage may vary.

What if; your higher Self doesn't care whether you acknowledge it or not, it exists apart from all your human perceptions, illusions, and delusions. That it speaks to you through your Dæmon, if you enable yourself to hear this Dæmon or not is dependent upon the Path(s) you choose to work within; What if?

 

[crossfire]

What if; your higher Self doesn't care whether you acknowledge it or not, it exists apart from all your human perceptions, illusions, and delusions. That it speaks to you through your Dæmon, if you enable yourself to hear this Dæmon or not is dependent upon the Path(s) you choose to work within; What if?

Well, if you are not working an inward path, you probably won't notice subtle workings within your mind.

 

[RoaringSilence]

i had a fear of monkeys coz of a past experience , but i jumped in to save my office team mates when they were attacked by a group of monkeys . i did not know i had it in me..i found out that day , i was capable of overcoming fear when confronted. I had the choice of running away since i wasn't the front-liner. one of the team mates was with her fiance' and her guy actually hid behind his girl.
Once we had some training seminar where we gave a test and the test conductors circulated the papers back to us after a shuffle to call out answers so we could grade each other..one of my friends who was sitting next to me by chance got my paper ..and when she told me she had mine i asked her to ignore 1 error which she pointed out to me. she looked at me and said "you"? i dint expect this from you.. well i was ashamed coz before that day i was proud of my integrity. That day i found out i need a check on myself.
There have been several such self discovering moments both on higher side and the lower side. and i took note of stuff that needs to be worked on.

so my self aware of perception of it self ..can change if squeezed too hard or tested on unknown grounds.

 

[RoaringSilence]

inb4 someone wonders why there were monkeys attacking my team mates.. no i don't work in a jungle..we were out on an offsite at a jungle resort