Continued from Sodality

The most exalted type of sodality is filled with the living essence of Spirit in its highest form. This derives from the Supernal Realm, the grand and glorious sphere where All is One, pervaded by the divine love we call Caritas. The material universe is encompassed by the Supernal Realm like a babe in the womb, and is dependent upon it in exactly the same way.

When a living human gets a personal glimpse of Supernal Spirit, he is said to have had a religious or spiritual experience. When an individual attains permanent Supernal awareness, he is said to be enlightened. Today’s society abounds with people who fit these descriptions, and the long sliding scale of illumination in between. Yet the society as a whole continues its headlong plunge into avidya (spiritual ignorance), moral decay, and the mass insanity that breeds a never-ending train of fatally-frustrated public shooters, private abusers, and media-fueled perversity of every stripe. The striking contrast between these two poles of postmodern life is ironic but not contradictory. The root of the problem is the fractalization of the social body into a swarm of disconnected individuals, not a higher organism but a lower form of life, like a slime mold. So it’s fitting that the nature of enlightenment in this alienated endtime has been termed individuation.

The only thing that can deliver people from this long, whimpering apocalypse is a collective manifestation of Supernal Spirit. It may seem like a miracle to those lost in the lonely crowd, but Supernal Sodalities are always present in the midst of humanity. Some of them are secret, some are shouted from the housetops, and some are simply low profile. All the high religions were Supernal Sodalities in one or more of their past eras, or harbored them in the manner of an esoteric core with the mass of believers as the outer circle. The essence is that there must be at least one Supernal initiate who is sufficiently enlightened and adept to transmit the divine light to others. This can be done in many ways, but only with people willing to receive the light and to keep it circulating among them and the transmitter. This circuit of force is exactly the same dynamic that enlivens our physical bodies and keeps them running; there’s simply the difference between Supernal and somatic energies.

A strong, well-integrated Supernal Sodality is in fact the body of a higher organism, a spiritual being. This is the truth behind the Catholic doctrine that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. But contrary to the dogma, there are many such entities; the Sanskrit term is Devakaya, which translates as Godbody.

To create and sustain the circuit of force that can grow into a Godbody requires that the individuals surrender their self-interest to the welfare of the greater whole. This is true for any type of sodality, but the rewards are greater here because the act and practice of spiritual surrender opens the members up to the beatific influx of Supernal Spirit. In the Western religions this is called surrendering to God, while in the East the most commonly-used term is Bhakti, which literally means devotion. The practice can be very challenging depending on personality type, at least when done individually; it‘s considered to be a moderately advanced stage of meditation. But it’s much easier to accomplish in a sodality because the interpersonal dynamics are at once demanding and supportive. Sitting alone in the dark it’s hard to tell where your ego ends and Spirit begins ~ but when Spirit surrounds you embodied as people you care about, you’ll intuitively act in ways that enhance the situation. And whenever you slip into selfishness and hurtful egotism, they’ll be sure to remind you of where the boundaries are, and help you get back in the Spirit.

White Spirit