“Pathology of the Sublime” from Problems on the Path of Return by Mark Stavish, M.A. in Vol 3 No 1 of Caduceus.

“It may seem strange that someone who has entered onto a spiritual path, or at least one of self discovery should seek to avoid the very thing they are seeking. However, the human ego is a strange and complex creature, and like any living organism, often fights change.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “Compensation is the embracing of views, ideals, or activities opposite of those sought and experienced in the transpersonal and spiritual realms. Love results in anger, lofty experiences in base living, or similar forms of embracing the opposite of what we seek. (Netzach/Venus)”
  2. “In this way, Thrones became described as various types of fiery wheels in relation to their function in the chariot of God, as in Ezekiel 1: 15–20: Now as I beheld the living creates, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Withersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.”
  3. “This movement from psycho-spiritual sleep to wakefulness is the Work of the initiate. The results of its successful completion, or at least working completion, can be seen in the expression of a powerful, harmonious, intuitive, and creative personality that is generally unaffected by the petty, worldly entrapments that seek to draw us away from the powerful resources of our central Self.”
  4. “Then there is the Self, or Higher Self (Tiphareth), which we seek to express in and through the little self, and in the functions of the various levels of our unconsciousness. These levels are designated as unconscious for the obvious reason that they exist and function within our psyche regardless of whether we are aware of them or not. We only become conscious of the effect they have in our lives when we seek to break through the layers of external conditioning that have been used as reference points for our sense of being.”
  5. “The Ceremony of our first degree, then, is a swift and comprehensive portrayal of the entrance of all men into, first, physical life, and second, into spiritual life; and as we extend congratulations when a child is born into the world, so also we receive with acclamation the candidate for Masonry who, symbolically, is seeking for spiritual re-birth”