In my pursuit of Union (Yoga) with The One I have become aware of a number of stages, each of which is rightly identified in texts as ‘The One’ but, perhaps surprisingly, represent different stages in the process of Union.
Let us consider them in reverse order. In the Hindu tradition there is a stage of union which is known as Parama Purusha, the Supreme Personality. This is equivalent to the experience which in other traditions might be called ‘Union with God’ and identified as the seated figure, enthroned in light and splendour.
In the Greek tradition this can be recognised in the figure of Zeus, ‘King of the Gods’. Zeus is the first of the nomenclatures of The One we will look at. This can be recognised as union with the Soul and is often taken to be the end goal of the journey, not, perhaps, among orthodox Christian theology, but that is a relatively recent theology and has been subjected to much corruption as political orthodoxy invented heresy and heretical beliefs, leaving no room for interpretation. All of which began prior to the 6th century (CE), in removing certain doctrines the Western Church felt to be too subversive, including the ‘pre-existence of the soul’, thereby outlawing the notion of reincarnation.
Let us next consider Apollo, – not many, a-pollo – not, however, not-chicken, from the Italian pollo chicken, and the French derivative poule. Pollo took its name from Apollo since the cockerel always heralded the arrival of the Sun.
There are two aspects of Apollo. Firstly He is the Son of Zeus, King of the Gods, not the All-Father, since that peculiarity belongs to Pan. As such Apollo drives the chariot of the Sun across the Heavens in the track of the Zodiac. He is seen riding on Swan’s wings like his father. Indeed it is told that a flight of swans circled the island of Delos seven times at the birth of Apollo. Sometimes this figure may be seen standing upright in the Chariot, with or without attendant horses.
Unlike Zeus however, Apollo is not associated with the Eagle, that being reserved for the King of the Gods.
The second aspect of Apollo is as The One when he may be seen, possibly standing behind the enthroned figure of Zeus, in the figure of a Titan. This is often seen only as a pair of feet with ‘two vast and trunkless legs of stone’. The Titans are anterior to the Olympians. As such they precede the later Gods and are thus closer to The One. As a Titanic figure Apollo has the name Hyperion.
While considering the approach of Apollo to The One we might look briefly at the birth of Light in the Orphic tradition. Night, in loving union with Erebus, gives birth to Aethyr and Day. Aethyr, or Ether, is commonly seen as the ‘form-giver’. In the Hindu system of elements Ether carries sound, Air carries sound and feeling, we can all feel the passage of wind across our skin though we see nothing. But it is Fire which gives Light and with it Form and Colour. I think it is clear to see that while Day is the expanse of Lightness, in contrast to her mother Night, the period of Darkness, Aethyr is the one which brings the Light, or is the source of Light. This will be an earlier incarnation of Apollo prior to Hyperion and the rest.
While it is evident that Light reveals the forms of objects it is not the origin of those forms, since the objects already have forms prior to their revelation. Perhaps these forms are defined, limited in space and shape, by sound. Certainly forms can be revealed by touch. As the hands reach around an object they can tell if it is a brick, for example, a cube or a sphere. But while the hands may touch these shapes they are revealed by the Light of the Mind, touch revealing hardness or softness, sharp or blunt, but not the form as a whole.
Phanes is the next aspect of The One to consider, or more accurately the return of the self to The One, or, as it is generally spoken of, the first revelation of The One on the path of generation, the path to Manifestation.
Phanes is the first glimmer of that which lies beyond and is the revelation of the Light. For us, seeking union with The One, Phanes is that aspect of the self which, lying close to The One is viewed from below as a figure of Light transcendent, high in the celestial realms. It is the self in union with The One seen from below, from the extremity of our manifest form. The Self moving into identification with the Source.
Phanes is radiant, like Rama, the Shining One. It is Kether in the Tree of Life, the first manifestation of Light from beyond. As such it is also identifiable as Tara the Star, shining in the firmament, who guides us through the changing world of Samsara, or illusion. Tara is the second of the Mahavidyas in the Hindu tradition, subsequent to Kali, the great darkness.
However, beyond Phanes, lies Protogonus. His name carries the word Proto – that which comes before the full expression. Like Prototype. It is a preliminary form.
The question arises is it a human form at all, like those considered thus far, or something beyond this? The pinnacle of the Insect realm is the dragonfly. The dragonfly hangs in sublime union with The One, its head radiant in the transcendent condition of union, while its wings of aspiration hang below in iridescent shimmering maintaining its body in imminent union, while the long abdomen hangs below tracing its passage from manifestation to transcendence.
This form is surrounded by iridescent Light, the result of its shimmering intention, but also the expression of the Light in which its consciousness is raised. It is incidental that this shimmering manifests the form of the dragonfly, for it equally well manifests the form of the human being. This is the precursor of the image of Fairies in common consciousness. We see this in the Mithraic statue of Phanes Cosmocrator with the eagle’s wings behind it. We see the same image in the Buddhist forms with hands and flames surrounding the body of the awakened one, or the Aztec priest standing, arms raised, in a rainbow cape of parrot feathers, and in the tales of the rainbow serpent in the Aborigine lore.
All of these descriptions fit the same pattern as the sheaths of light which surround the Sheikh in Islam. This is the self in transcendent union with The One, a condition which Lakshman joo repeatedly points out is nothing out of the ordinary, that the yogi is Shiva and Shiva is the yogi.
Many making their way on the path as they rise to fuller union become enamoured of the condition to which they have been raised and can easily fall into the delusion that they are special and something more than the rest of humanity. It is simply not the case, merely more aware. Nor is it the case that the human transcendent form is anything more than the perfected forms of the many manifestations of Life we see about us.
It is this commonality which is embraced by the branches of the Cross. The vertical branch is the path of the individual, of individuation. The horizontal branch is the all embracing branch in which we are one with all other manifestations.
Let there be no mistake The One, God, if you wish, is present in all things and mover of all things, and the essential identity of all that exists. There is not a planet, a star, a galaxy. Nor a beetle, a fly, a frog or an ant which is not equally an expression of The One as we, the benighted observers, are ourselves.