(Quote) Mark Stavish - Between the Gates

"Meditation, lucid dreaming, and astral projection practices are to indirectly prepare us for our ultimate initiation - the death experience."

"There are several paths open to us at the time of death. Through esoteric practices we are able to consciously chose which path we will take."

(Quote) Mark Stavish - Between the Gates

"Often it is believed that we are in need of only our Higher Self and that because our Higher Self is perfect, it has no need of "us," or the ego, the individualized life. But it is only through the individualized life, through the developed ego, that the totality of consciousness can be experienced or have a reference point. Unity is known because of separation; good is known because of evil; death is known because of life."

(Quote) Mark Stavish - Between the Gates

"It is the purpose of each being (Adam) to go from blissful ignorance (Paradise) into ignorance (the Fall), and, through the experiences found in material existence, return to his or her primordial state (New Jerusalem), but with total knowledge, wisdom, and power. It is the story of the Prodigal Son as told in the New Testament."

(Quote) Mark Stavish - Between the Gates

"The Lower Self is sometimes referred to in Jungian terms as the shadow because of the dark, powerful, potentially violent energies that reside there. It is important to point out that the Middle Self [The Middle Self is what we experience in day-to-day, moment-to-moment life.] is primarily ideas, thoughts, and organized processes that have very little energy in their own right, whereas the Lower Self is mainly emotions, energy, and actions that have little intelligence behind them and no rational capacity. The Middle Self thinks and plans, but the Lower Self simply acts on what it is told. It is synthetic in function. However, without the energy of the Lower Self all the good ideas of the Middle Self are worthless. Plans collect dust, and dreams fade into the darkness of death. Only with the skilled direction and cultivation of the raw emotions of the Lower Self is anything accomplished in the material or psychic domains. Through proper training, suggestion, and specific practices, the Lower Self will accept the directions of the Middle Self, thereby opening up awareness of the world of miracles."

"Bringing the energies of the Lower Self into full cooperation and direction of the Middle Self, so that an effective channel to the Higher Self can be opened, is the work of various schools of ritual magic, Tantra, and alchemy."

"Tantra uses the energies of the body, particularly stimulation of the physical sensations to stimulate emotions that in turn are directed by the ego to open a pathway for the superconsciousness of the Higher Self to pour through."

(article) Problems on The Path of Return - Mark Stavish

The effects of pathworking are to greater or lesser degree well documented. Once the basic concepts of what each sphere represents in terms of psychological elements on the Tree of Life is understood, then the links which they form are realized either through ritual, mythological metaphor, meditation, or a combination of the above.


...the following examples of kabbalistic pathworking are being given, as well as possible psychological benefits as well as pathologies which their working (particularly out of sequence) can evoke within the psyche of the operator. While no single path is ever worked exclusively, only realized as such by our outer self (i.e. ego), the effects are seen predominantly when particular paths are undertaken as ritual or esoteric operations. The paths are numbered in a working sequence for a reason, it is best to follow that sequence if disharmony and psychic disruption is to be held to a minimum.


Click here to read the article.