Lesson 3: The Awakening of the Consciousness

PENSUM

Consciousness and Subconscious. What is Consciousness? Why is it sleeping?
Causes that make the Consciousness sleep.
Identification and Fascination.
Integral Revolution.

WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT:

That human ignorance is due to the sleeping consciousness.
That the subconscious is the storehouse of Egos.
The necessity of an inner work towards self-discovery.
That the awakening of the Consciousness happens gradually as we eliminate the defects.

PRACTICE: CONTINUITY WITH PAST PRACTICE: OBSERVER AND OBSERVED THE KEY SOL (SUBJECT, OBJECT, LOCATION), SELF AWARENESS

What is consciousness

(See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter 1) (See “Basic Education”, chapter “Consciousness”)

It is not intelligence, it is not the intellect, it is not the mind.
consciousness is the ability to receive immediate knowledge, without thinking.
To be conscious is to be aware.
Consciousness is the Buddhi, the Divine Soul, the Intimate Christ.
- Located in the Buddhic or Intuitive World, between the 6th and 7th dimensions.
- It is a mediator between the Human and Divine part

Subconscious and Consciousness

“I” is the subconscious.
- Humanity has an average of 97% subconscious and 3% Conscious.
- When dissolving the “I” we turn the subconscious into Consciousness.
We must learn to activate our percentage of free Consciousness.
- If we don’t use it, it’s as if we don’t have it.
- Awakening is the use of free Consciousness.

The 4 States of Consciousness

(See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter 3) (See “Thesis of Hermetic Astrology”, chapter “Aries”) (See “Basic Education”, chapter “Consciousness”)

Man has the possibility of four states of Consciousness, but lives only in the two lower ones.
- We are like a building with four floors, where we only live in the two lowest.

	State	Name
4th	Objective Consciousness	NOUS
3rd	Self-Consciousness	DIANOIA
2nd	Vigilance	PISTIS
1st	Sleep	EIKASIA

1. Sleep

This is the state in which the physical body sleeps and the Consciousness is absorbed in dreams.
- It is the lowest state of Consciousness.
- There is no control, no logic or coherence.
- In the place of Consciousness there is unconsciousness, animality, barbarism, cruelty, etc.
In this state we cannot know anything, neither about ourselves nor about the world.
It is a state of subjective projections in which external stimuli do not reach our Consciousness, and if they happen to reach it they turn into imaginary images and dreams.
- i.e. the sound of a running tap, in our sleep, turns into the image of a waterfall.
- i.e. We dream that we are at work and talking with our colleagues. In the meantime, our feet come out of the covers and the feeling of cold makes us dream that we are naked!

2. Vigilance

The body is awakened and activated but the Consciousness continues to sleep.
- This is actually a state, not of wakefulness, but of sleepwalking: sleep with the eyes open.
As at dawn how the stars cease to be seen because of the intense light of the Sun (yet continue to exist), similarly, when the physical body awakens, we cease to dream because of the impressions we receive from the senses.
It is a subjective situation in which everyone has their own opinions, views, beliefs, theories, etc. There is no common truth.

3. Self-Awareness

Self-consciousness is a state in which we are aware of ourselves, we remember ourselves (self-remembering).
In this state we perceive things, phenomena, the external and internal world in a new way, completely different from the one we are used to.
It comes to life on its own only in rare and very brief moments.
- i.e. in a moment of danger.
- i.e. in a moment of very intense emotion.
- i.e. in a particularly unusual event that surprises us.
- i.e. in a new situation (on a trip where we are in an unknown place with unknown people).
It is achieved by correctly associating Consciousness with the environment and with the physical body.
To induce this state and stabilize it requires special training and discipline.

4. Objective Consciousness

This is a state of perfect enlightenment, total awakening and complete absence of “I”.
It’s the Divination (Greece), Samadhi (Hinduism and Buddhism), Satori (Zen), Wu (Chan), etc.
In this state man knows Reality as it is, the Truth.
- There is objective clairvoyance, multivision, enlightenment.
This is the state of the Great Masters (Jesus Christ, Buddha, Moses, Hermes Trismegistus, Morya, Koot Houmi, etc.)
To reach the 4th state we must first settle almost permanently in the 3rd.
- When we are in the 1st we can have flares from the 2nd.
- When we are in the 2nd we can have flares from the 3rd.
- When we are in the 3rd we can have flares from the 4th.

Eikasia, Pistis, Dianoia, Nous

“The first state of consciousness is called Eikasia.

“The second state of consciousness is Pistis.

“The third state of consciousness is Dianoia.

“The fourth state of consciousness is Nous.

V.M. Samael also mentions the 4 states of Consciousness in these terms (which of course we will not mention in the First Chamber).

Eikasia: is ignorance, cruelty, brutality, terribly deep sleep, an animalistic and instinctive world, an infrahuman state..
Pistis: is the world of opinions and beliefs. It is belief, prejudices, fanaticism, theories in which there is no direct perception of truth. It is the level of consciousness of ordinary humanity.
Dianoia: is the intellectual revision of beliefs, analysis, conceptual synthesis, cultural-intellectual consciousness, scientific thinking, etc. Intellect studies phenomena and establishes laws, studies inductive and deductive systems with the aim of using them meaningfully and clearly.
Nous: is fully awakened Consciousness, it is the Turiya state: deep, perfect inner illumination. Mind is authentic objective insight. Nous is intuition, it is the world of divine archetypes. Mental thought is synthetic, clear, objective, and bright.

The 3 Stages of Sleep

(See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter 4) (See “Thesis of Hermetic Astrology”, chapter “Gemini”)

The sleep of Consciousness is due to forgetting ourselves.
Not remembering ourselves is the cause of all human ignorance.
In order to be able to wake up, one must first realize that one is sleeping.
People do not accept that they are asleep because they believe that since their physical body is awake, that means they are awake.
This is how they live their whole lives and do all their activities with the Consciousness asleep.
Some questions that show us that we are actually sleeping:
Why don’t we remember our conversations and our actions of last month, last week and many times of the previous day or the very day that just passed?
Why don’t we remember what we ate yesterday or 3 days ago or 8 days or 16 days ago? Why so much uncertainty?
Why do others tell us something and sometimes it’s as if we didn’t hear it from our own ears.
Why do we sometimes go somewhere and forget the umbrella, or coat, or any personal item?
Why many times is a person is on the bus, or in the subway and passes the stop where he has to get off? What was he thinking?
Why is it that sometimes when a man cooks or prepares his breakfast, the milk he warmed up spills, or the food burns in the pot or in the oven? Why do these things happen?
Why do we forget some of the work we have to do on the day it starts?
Why does a person sometimes not go to an appointment he has arranged?
All of this happens because Consciousness is not present, because there is “self-forgetfulness” and not “self-remembering”.
If man would remember himself, if he would not be “asleep”, all this would not happen, because Consciousness is capable of informing man at every moment what is right and what he should do.
The sleep of Consciousness occurs in 3 stages:
1. Identification
2. Fascination
3. Sleep

1. Identification

To identify is to equate with something.
Man is constantly in a state of identification — only its object changes.
One can identify with anything:
With something external: i.e. with a conversation, with something he sees on the street, with a movie, with a piece of music, with a product in a shop window, with something on the internet, etc.
With something internal: i.e. with a thought, with a memory, with an emotion, with a fantasy, with a problem, etc.

2. Fascination

When the identification becomes deeper and the man completely forgets himself, he passes into a more intense phase of mechanics: into fascination.
For the man who is fascinated by something, the other things no longer exist, there is only that which has fascinated him.

3. Sleep

When this state becomes even deeper, the person falls asleep.
The body remains active, but the Consciousness sleeps, just like at night in bed.

Awakening

This means that in order to awaken Consciousness we must not identify with anything.
Identification always leads to fascination and sleep.
To wake up we must learn to live here and now: moment to moment.
The past has already passed and the future has not yet come: the present is the only real state.
“The moment is God’s and the time is the devil’s.”

Practice: The key of SOL

(See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter 6) (See “The Buddha’s Necklace”, chapter “The Division of Attention”) (See “Thesis of Hermetic Astrology”, chapter “Gemini”) (See “Yes, Yes, Yes”, chapter “Immediate Experience”)

The key of SOL is a technique to induce the state of Self-Awareness

It is done by dividing our attention into three parts:
- Subject
- Object
- Location
- Dividing attention allows us to be simultaneously aware of what is happening externally and internally.
Subject
- “Who am I”
- We remember ourselves, we feel our body, our Being.
Object
- “What am I doing?”
- We realize what we are doing, we do not identify with what we are doing, or what is happening, we consciously experience the event.
- Many times we do not realize what we are doing: we are doing something but we are thinking about other things and our Consciousness is absent.
Location
- “Where am I”
- We realize the place where we are.
- We do not mentally answer any of the 3 questions.
- The purpose is not to answer with the mind, but to realize, to come into a state of self-remembering.

Variation of the key of S.O.L.

(See “The Jewels of the Yellow Dragon”, chapter “Jewel 21”) (See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter 6)

V.M. Lakhsmi gave a variant of the S.O.L. Key. as follows:
Subject: The one who thinks.
Object: What I do.
Location: My heart.
When we do the S.O.L. Key it will help us a lot to have the focus in our hearts.
This gives us the ability to have the Center of Gravity in the heart.
The heart is the seat of Essence, Soul, Consciousness and Being in the physical body.

Alarms

(See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter “The Techniques of Awakening”)

As a help in awakening our Consciousness we can use Alarm Clocks.
i.e. Set our clock to chime every hour to remind us to be mindful.
i.e. Put a poster on our bedroom wall that says, “Are you awake?”
i.e. Put a card in our wallet or bag that reminds us to be aware.
i.e. To leave an object in a position that bothers us so that we have to be conscious not to fall on it.
The problem with Alarm Clocks is that after a certain period of time we get used to them and they stop working.
For this reason, we must “tune” them, i.e. change them every now and then.

The 3 Characteristics of Consciousness

(See “Basic Education”, chapter “Consciousness”)

Awakened Consciousness has three characteristics by which we can over time observe the progress we make in exercising the S.O.L. key.
Duration
- How long were we conscious?
- i.e. Seconds? Minutes? Hours?
Frequency
- How often did we remember ourselves?
- i.e. Once a week? Once a day? Ten times a day?
Range and Penetration
- From what were we conscious of?
The more we try to do the Key of S.O.L., the more Consciousness grows in these three aspects.
- This means that gradually we remember ourselves more often, for longer each time, and our Consciousness perceives more things and in greater depth.

Suggested Practice: Living in the Moment

At the end of the lesson we will do a short guided practice:
First we do some deep breathing, relaxation, etc.
We will try to empty the mind of thoughts, letting them pass, without having a dialogue with them, until the mind becomes like a calm lake.
We remain for a while in a state of self-awareness, centered in the heart, living in the moment.
We can read the following words of V.M. Michael from the book “The Awakening of Consciousness”:

“The PAST has already passed, the FUTURE has not yet come and that is why it is uncertain for man and the PRESENT, this HERE AND NOW is the only REAL, it is the only thing that really exists, it is the only thing that we can “touch”
The practice will last about 10 minutes.
Finally, to encourage people to do the key of S.O.L. as much as they can and to tell us in the next lesson their experiences and results.

Second Chamber Information

Just for our own understanding, not to share it with the First Chamber.

We Wake and Sleep in Sectors

Consciousness is like a lens that casts light where we focus it.
- Where we place Consciousness, there we awaken.
- Where we have not placed Consciousness, there we sleep.
To wake up in an area we need to put interest, attention and energy.
- Since the fields are countless and our energy is limited, we must put it into the fields worth waking up to.

10 Aspects of Awakening

(See “The Awakening of Consciousness”, chapter “10 Aspects of Awakening”)

To know the Message.
- One cannot be awakened if one does not know how to do it.
- That is why the White Brotherhood gave the Message through V.M. Samael during this time.
To interpret the Message.
- After knowing the Teachings we must understand them correctly.
To want to experience the Message.
- Once we interpret the Teachings correctly we must make efforts to experience them practically
To learn the discipline of Observation.
- Observation is the ability that allows us to be aware of what is happening around us.
- That is, it makes us awaken to the external world.
To learn the discipline of Self-observation.
- Self-observation is the ability that allows us to become aware of what is happening within us.
- That is, it makes us awaken in relation to the astral world.
Meditation.
- It is a technique through which we try to free Consciousness from the body, emotions and mind.
- That is, it allows us to reach states where the Consciousness is awakened.
Discipline when we lie down and when we get up.
- This allows us to keep a general discipline in our purpose to awaken.
- When we rise we do the Hermetic Seal to establish the decision to be conscious throughout the day.
- Also, in the morning we can do practices with prayer, meditation, runes, pranic exercises, physical-internal exercises, etc.
- When we lie down at night we can do astral practices, relaxation, meditation, prayer, contemplation, etc.
To dedicate the ritual of Transmutation to Consciousness.
- When we crystallize in the heart the energies we have transmuted, then they mutate into spiritual light which helps a lot in the awakening of Consciousness.
- We achieve this through the technique of Inspiration.
To reflect every day.
- It is necessary for our Consciousness to process and assimilate all the experiences we have in our life.
- In this way the Consciousness is nourished, since it extracts from the events of Living Knowledge.
To have Methods.
- To use all the tools and aids that the Masters have given us.
- i.e. incense, herbal baths, detoxifications, etc.

The Management of Consciousness

(See “Light in the Darkness,” chapter “The Sense of Inspiration”)

Body	Tools
Atmic	Worship
Buddhic	Contemplation
Causal	Loyalty
Mental	Inspiration
Astral	Self-observation
Physical	Observation

There are certain “tools” that allow us to manage Consciousness at every level.
Observation corresponds to the Physical level.
Observation is being aware of what is happening around us.
Self-observation corresponds to the Astral plane.
Self-observation is being aware of what is happening within us.
Inspiration corresponds to the Mental level.
Inspiration is a higher inner state which allows us to perceive the harmony and beauty of creation.
Devotion corresponds to the Causal plane.
Loyalty is doing the same thing in the same way over and over again.
It must be something that expresses the Soul: the Conscious Will.
i.e. every morning one does his daily prayers, every Tuesday and Saturday he goes to the Lumicial, every night he does an astral practice, etc.
Contemplation corresponds to the Buddhic realm.
Contemplation is becoming one with something.
i.e. when we walk in a forest let us be the forest, not the one walking.
Worship corresponds to the Atmic plane.
It is the worship of our Being.

The Different Kinds of Consciousness

(See “Endocrinology and Criminology”, chapter “The Subconscious”)

Hyperconsciousness

(See “The Perfect Marriage”, chapter “Consciousness, Subconsciousness, Hyperconsciousness”)

It is a property of the Innermost (Spirit).
The faculty of Hyperconsciousness is Intuition.
We reach Hyperconsciousness through the 3 stages of direct knowledge: Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition.
Subconscious, Unconscious, Infra Consciousness
They are forms or regions of the sleeping Consciousness.
Subconscious
The subconscious depends on three things:
1. Heredity (Genotype): is the vehicle of Karma.
2. Education (Phenotype): “sows” impressions in the subconscious which later produce good or bad fruits.
3. Conditions: external states combine with subconscious states and cause actions.
Infra Consciousness
Related to nightmares.
They are the lowest animal depths of man.
In the infra consciousness of Nature are the dark memories of the Earth’s history, as well as the opposite of each person (i.e. the opposite of the Angel Anael is the demon Lilith).