Chapter 6. The Void

Can you imagine you could ever fall in love with darkness? Can you conceive that there could be a divine darkness so seductive, so crushingly magnetic, that it would make your soul swoon just to feel its touch?

Once you’ve had a taste of the Void – of pure spirit – nothing will be the same again. Something in you will have been torn apart. Something in you will have remembered what you truly are, and you’ll want more. Something in you will have been ripped from its slumber and consumed across the event horizon of your own black hole nature. You’ll have had a taste of your own soul death, an opening to your Source, and like a sailor to the song of a siren, you’ll not be able to turn away.

The dark light of spirit will ravish you. It will ravish you because it was here first. It has always been here, as the ecstatic, spaceless, timeless foundation of everything, upon which your soul, mind, and body arise like clothes, and any moment of its revelation simply affirms its utter dominance.

The Void of pure spirit is ravishing everything right now. Its electric darkness is penetrating the inside of all creation right at this moment and roaring in the pleasure of its infinite power, love and creativity through every inch of it.

This darkness is the seed of everything. It is actually sitting right in the core of your heart right now as a black hole of pure spirit that is emanating the entirety of you – your soul, body, mind and emotions – and simultaneously calling them all back into its heart.

There is no self there. There’s not even any witness. The witness and the witnessed, and all time and space have been crushed down to their SourceRoot. There is only the explosive, limitless energy of No-Thing.

This energy is Life. This energy is Spirit. This energy is Purpose. It is the vibration of unalterable destiny. It is black fire.

This is the energy that can rewire matter from within. This is the power that when eventually let loose through one’s being, one’s soul, one’s mind, heart and body, resurrects every last atom to Life.

“

Chapter 7. What the Void is Not

Nope, your spacey state of mind is not the Void"

There’s been a big rise in awareness about the Void in contemporary spiritual culture. This is due to the work of such organisations as ISTA, where teachings on awakening to the Void and the dark body have become part of the training there, from Level 2 onwards, and from Highden Temple in New Zealand.

In ancient mystery schools, the dark light of the Void, which is spirit deeper than personality and soul, was always one of the most occult, esoteric and secret initiations, so the fact that it is coming out today in contemporary spiritual culture as a known part of the path is at the cutting edge of humanity’s awakening.

Awesome. That said, I think most people who have any true awakening to the Void can see that there is a lot of misinterpretation, misrepresentation, and frankly, a lot of bullshit in the way most people talk about the Void most of the time. At least in the scene I’m connected to…

So, I wanna share some points on what the Void is not. I get some people might have a kinda postmodern, relativistic response of, “Well maybe people have different experiences of it, so who are you to say what is right and wrong?”.

Thing is, mystical realisation has always been a) focussed on REAL frequencies of Reality that may be interpreted differently by different realisers, but that have a solid foundation of "Yeah, this is the same thing", and b) has certain standards, as maintained by the community of those who have some realisation of those levels of Reality. It isn't just an "everyone's realisation may be different and equally valid" party.

While I get that people on different rays, for instance, might have different flavours of the Void show up in their realisation of it, what it is is clear to those whose self has temporarily died to know it.

*Disclaimer - while I do have an opening to the Void, and that is where I am sharing this from, I'm also open to there being errors or shadow in my presentation of it. I know one of my gifts is a very fine capacity for discrimination around the truths of spiritual awakening (5th ray mind). I also know I can seem / be mentally arrogant. Hopefully this piece is more the former.

So, getting into this…

• The Void is not a state of mind with mostly no thoughts. This one is super common. People saying that they are “in the Void” when they basically are in a state without many thoughts happening. That is awareness, folks. The awareness that is always there, deeper than mind. Good realisation. Not the Void.

• The Void is not equivalent to ‘not knowing’. This is another super common one. People don’t have clarity on what is going on in their lives, what path or choices they are likely gonna take next, and say, “I’m in the Void”. This is a state of not having clarity, which is totally fine. It’s one where we find ourselves, at best, available to being moved by life rather than believing we are in control. Great. But this isn’t the Void.

• The Void is not a spacey state of ‘flow’ or just ‘being’. Another common one. People in some state of being and flow where they experience a spacey kind of state, saying they are ‘in the void’. Again, sorry, nope.

• The Void is neither masculine not feminine. This is a more advanced misrepresentation that is growing, saying that the radical darkness of the Void is the Mother, or the Father. It’s neither. It is the Father-Mother if anything. It contains the polarities of both masculine and feminine, latent. As its expresses, or in terms of the way it us opened to (either through consciousness or the body) more of the masculine or feminine side can initially show up in someone’s realisation of it for sure, but it in itself is neither one or the other. ***

Ok, so what about if we explore what the Void IS.

(*Disclaimer: obvs you can’t really say what the Void is because it is the essence of Non-Being, but cut me some slack right now. I’m trying to clarify some stuff, and let’s not get too mystically anal just yet…)

• The Void is the electric emptiness of infinite darkness and spirit prior to all creation, and when realised, transmits that Reality through the temporarily ended self that has opened to it…I know, that doesn’t seem to make sense. How can one realise something if the self to realise it isn’t there? One of the paradoxes of mystic realisation.

• The Void is deeper than personality and soul. The Void is the true nature of spirit. That means that if you are in personality in any way, not it. And it means that it is even deeper than who you are as a transpersonal spiritual light being – a soul. That said, the Void starts to stably come online and reveal itself – initially actually through a self that still has come centre to it – when the soul and personality start to fuse. Their integration reveals what is deeper than both – spirit.

• The Void is dynamic silence. It is the most intense, infinite, radically pregnant silence prior to all creation and it is its infinite power that moves all creation to arise and live, just like a black hole, simply through the power of its silent, dynamic being, holds an entire galactic field for 100 billion suns to be born, live and die.

• The Void can be opened to via consciousness, heart or body. There isn’t a single path into it. Consciousness can look back into its own source and open to the void. The heart will eventually reveal the electric dark light of the Void at its core. And the Void can be opened to via the body, the base chakra, or indeed any chakra actually because the Void is the dark empty core of every chakra.

• The Void is infinite power, and that power is the power of pure Being. Whether someone’s Void level – their spirit or monadic level – is on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd rays, the Void is the power, purpose and will of the One expressing through that ray – either pure power, ecstatic love or universal creativity. Any which way, it’s fucking intense, profound, powerful, and transformative.

• The Void is actually present at the core of everything, whether we are talking super high vibration levels of our multidimensional self-system, or the body and all matter. The Void is the tear in space and time at the heart of everything, which opens from the manifest to the unmanifest domain.

Ok, so this will do for now. I wanna be clear that I didn’t write this coz I wanna pee on anyone’s Void party, but just because while it is good that awareness of the Void has started to become part of our collective spiritual culture, my feeling is that we are ready for the next step – moving from a loose understanding of the Void to a deeper, more authentic realisation of it. I find that a super exciting possibility, because the power alive in this depth of reality contains profoundly transformational and catalytic qualities, which can dramatically speed up someone’s remembrance of who they are as a soul and their emergence into the world as the love that they are.

Chapter 8. So You Want More Void In Your Life?

In the teachings out of which Agni Yoga comes, we have this super mystical statement, “it is the extremity of the soul in service calls forth the power of spirit (meaning the Void)”. This is a badass spiritual pointer with a fuck tonne (excuse my French) of contemplative nutrients packed into it, and yet, the soul is just one doorway into the Void. There are three others we work with as well.

This gives us four doorways into the raw, wild power of the radical darkness of the Void:

• The doorway through the body

• The doorway through the mind

• The doorway through the soul

• The doorway through the heart

Let me break this down for you, adapting this passage in the teaching about the extremity of the soul in service to these other levels.

*Note: the word "extremity" in these sentences means coming to that place where you're giving everything you’ve got. It's where you are leaning into your very limits and edges. That’s where transformation happens. That’s where we open to the NEW but ever-present reality of WHO WE ARE in ways that calls forth a fundamental re-patterning of our being. That’s where we break through.

So, the doorways to the Void:

1. Body doorway (through the base chakra and sexual centres):

“The extremity of the personality to survive calls forth the power of spirit – the Void”

This is about physical life or death moments for the ego. In situations of great crisis, intensity and sensed danger, where our animal survival instincts are triggered big time, like in situations of unexpected violence or the classic example of a mother’s sudden capacity to lift a car her child has become trapped under. Or in planned situations of intensity, like in martial arts training or perhaps in some BDSM scenarios. What brings the Void-energy online here is the activation of the life/death drives in the base chakra. This could be, in extreme situations, the need to protect life or take it. When this process works through the sacral chakra, it could be either the body’s natural instinct to seed life (masculine sexual life force – phallic power), or nurture life (feminine sexual life force – womb power). The void-energy in the base chakra is also liberated into expression as kundalini when the soul fully lands there. Another frequency of this same activation of kundalini happens when the soul lands in the sacral chakra. To integrate this doorway into Void energy, so that its power is brought online for the soul and for love, we do the work around the dark masculine and dark feminine.

This is like accessing the black hole of the Void through the core of the Earth.

2. Mind (3rd eye):

"The extremity of the self’s turning upon itself opens us to the Void"

This is the insight or die journey of the soul – the drive towards the wisdom of awakening that turns on at a certain point in the soul journey and after that, there is nothing the being is called to more than the wisdom-insight of awakening to the Void. As Rumi says, "There is some kiss we want with our whole lives". This awakening happens through the mind being turned back upon itself. It happens through the mind ceasing to be caught up in outer experience, and drilling back into itself. The mind seeks out the subject of all experience, starts to explore and deconstruct its own body-mind system, and finds….the vastness of the Void.

3. Soul doorway (often through the crown chakra):

Like I gave already – “The extremity of the soul in service calls forth the power of spirit – the Void”

This is the service or die journey of the soul. That’s right. I mean the points of crisis that come once we have said a true yes to our soul purpose and to showing up as love in the world where we refuse to leave the battlefield –where we refuse to surrender our stand for love and purpose. It is this commitment in us, to give everything to our soul purpose and to show up as love, even in the face of huge challenges, which sends a vibration back through our being, into our Void-core saying, “I need more power to hold my stand as purpose and love”. And like always, when we sound out the call for more guidance, insight, strength or power to and through the core of our being, IT COMES UNDER LAW. The Void-power at the core of the soul gets activated and this electrifies the soul’s capacity to live its purpose and love in the world. This is where we do the light masculine (awakening and purpose) and light feminine work (living as love).

This is like the journey into the black hole of the Void through the centre of the Sun.

4. Heart doorway (opening to spirit through the heart):

“The extremity of the heart in LIVING calls forth the power of spirit – the Void” This is the all or nothing journey of the heart, where those who are passionate enough about giving everything to life, give themselves fully to the spiritual will, power and wildness present in their hearts, and simultaneously offer their very core up to be penetrated and opened by Spirit itself – the One – the Void. This willingness to offer one’s entire being up as a sacrifice to the One calls in the dark light of Spirit that punctures the heart and the self at its core, and opens us to the ecstatic emptiness, power, love and creativity of the Void. This is opening to the black hole of spirit in the heart.

So, to tie neat little ribbon on this, the doorways into the Void I’ve mentioned are:

• Integrating the Void-power in our body through working with the life and death drives in our base and sexuality

• Integrating the Void-power through our mind's ability to turn attention back upon itself

• Integrating the Void-power in our souls through giving ourselves fully to our soul purpose and living as love

• Integrating the Void-power of pure spirit in our heart through giving ourselves to fully living, in each and every moment from the will, power and purpose in our heart, and offering ourselves up to being penetrated and opened by the presence and power of the One.

If you want more Void in your life, consider saying yes to them all.

The Creed of Power – Frank Crane

"I am backed by Power, vast unconquerable, irresistible Power. Suns are behind me, galaxies, whirling fire-mists. Great winds, oceans, and rivers bear me on. That which launched my personality into life's struggle is destiny. No one can resist her. She moves through the swarms of men as the elephant through the reeds of the jungle. It is not I who am coming, it is destiny advancing me, her pawn.

I am. I am not a little exclusive I, but the great inclusive, allied I. It is the play of stellar electricity in my soul. It is the central heat of the planet warming my being. Behind me, bearing me on is power. This power energizes me, it is within me. It roars dull and deep as a blast-furnace. I can hear it in the nightwatches, a rumble as of distant thunder.

Men, events, and death do not dismay me. Worlds mean nothing to me. Removed from this earth, dead, I shall expect new planets as footholds for my forces. I shall not be disappointed.

I look into myself, and if I find in me any goodness, any nobleness, any love, any up-leaping ambition to create, I laugh, for these things are fragments of supernatural radium, of everlasting outpouring power.

I have taken this power as my own. I have stripped all the rags and trappings of heathenism from it. I have discovered its shattering stellar beauty. I have found out it is what men call---God."

Chapter 9. Serpents, Angels and Divine Darkness

Ever seen that picture of the Archangel Michael spearing the serpent? It’s part of Revelations in the end of the Bible – that super mystical, kinda unintelligible section at the back filled with passages about serpents, Armageddon, some woman who seems kinda kinky called the whore of Babylon, and beings with four heads, three out of four of them not human. Yep, good Christian scripture.

Well, even if you didn’t, you might have seen this kind of image from some other traditions. Maybe you’ve seen images of the Ancient Egyptian sun god, Ra killing the giant snake Apep. Maybe Apollo and Python or Zeus and Typhon from Ancient Greece. Or Indra and Vritra from Vedic India.

Clearly, this kind of myth gets around. It’s common to a bunch of different mythologies and mystical traditions all over the world. Beings of light battling serpents, and this isn’t to even mention that whole Garden of Eden fiasco. See, the thing you need to know here is that mythology was the secret code used in the ancient Mystery School traditions, which were basically the transformational highways of the ancient world, for the different states and stages of the mystical path. Sure, it all seems like simple, albeit often bizarre stories on first glance, and yeah, ancient mythology was the religion of the people in the ancient world. But for those who were initiated into the deeper mysteries, the secret meanings were revealed and lived.

Clearly, both the angels and the serpents had power. They’re both badass beings, one with the power of heaven and the other the power of earth. That is significant in understanding the secret codes of what they stand for.

The angel stands for our higher self – the higher consciousness of our soul that knows itself as a child of the Most High.

The serpent stands for our embodied, erotic nature – our material self – which swims and flows in the sacred currents of nature and the earth.

Both of these are expressions of our divinity, and the ancient mystery schools knew this. The solar schools focussed on awakening to the soul. The lunar schools focussed on awakening to sacred embodiment.

But if they are both rooted in aspects of our divinity, why are they at battle?

Think about it.

Higher consciousness and bodily instinct.

Service and desire.

Spirituality and sexuality.

These two haven't always played well together.

The thing is, until the soul is at least as strong in a person’s life as their material self, the material drives of the serpent power can overpower them. Ever been taken over by your bodily drives and did something your conscious self regretted after? Sound familiar? Maybe that actually happens every single day? Yep. Hence those on the higher consciousness side being ready to battle the body.

And equally so, aligning ourselves with the higher consciousness of our souls doesn’t always lead to full and alive embodiment. Ever seen examples of people who seem connected in to the light and love of the higher planes but can’t really get life moving in the material realm? Yep.

The ancient mystery schools played out this battle between the two sides. The story of the solar mystery schools was the triumph of light over matter and soul over body, to reset the balance and produce beings of light in a world of material preoccupation. Most people’s lives are being run by their material self and its drives for personal gratification, sex and survival. There’s nothing inherently wrong with our animal drives. They’re just a problem when they are so strong that the soul can’t get any stage time in the person’s life. The battle between angels and serpents was about the soul making a come back and taking the throne for itself.

The solar mystery schools turned out initiates who could dominate matter, from the Ancient Egyptian initiates who learned to hold their presence in pits of crocodiles and snakes, to Jesus with a spear in his bloody side on the cross. But their dualism cost them the divinity, juice and power of their embodiment.

The journey in the lunar schools was about freeing the serpent from the control of mind and consciousness. They trusted the divinity, power and wisdom present in our eros, our bodies, our desire, and our connection to the earth. They recognised how the mind can shut down, dominate and control these energies of the body and in recognition of their divinity, they sought to set them free.

They turned out initiates who could transmit, channel, ignite and awaken the bodies of others with the sacred flow of eros and the life force in matter, but often through the rejection of consciousness and light.

In both, it was a win-lose game.

In the coming mystery schools, things are changing. They will integrate both. They will anchor themselves deeper than the battle between the sun and the moon, angel and serpent, and soul and body. They will anchor themselves in the dark light of spirit – the outer symbol for which is the black hole at the galactic centre, which both the sun and the moon orbit. They will anchor themselves in the divine darkness that is the root of both the solar and lunar lights.