On Reaching Beyond One's Capacity

[sdi]

All, then, that is present in the sense realm as Idea comes from the Supreme. But what is not present as Idea, does not. Thus of things conflicting with nature, none is There: the inartistic is not contained in the arts; lameness is not in the seed; for a lame leg is either inborn through some thwarting of the Reason-principle or is a marring of the achieved form by accident.

(Plotinus, Enneads V ix §10)

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When something unusual or unnatural occurs to upset the harmony of the physical—a shock, a jolt, a broken habit, an intense un-appeased desire, sickness—in fact, anything which would cause a lack of perfect material co-ordination—there is always a jar to the astral.

(Sylvan J. Muldoon, The Projection of the Astral Body II)

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Long, long have I wondered why, when so many are caught up in chasing after money, that I long only for the spiritual even when I have that which they desperately seek. Muldoon spells it out explicitly: one strives for internal unity, even if one cannot even hope to attain to that first tier of Maslow's hierarchy. To put it another way, the greater Self tries to find a agreement between the astral vehicle and the body; but if no agreement is possible, then shedding the body may be the only way for unity to exist.

I guess this ties into another point I've wondered: angels tend to appear only to the distressed. So perhaps the reason I am so often distressed is not a failing, but a cause: my angel has brought such circumstances about so that I may develop a communion with Them. This would seem to mesh with my understanding of Providence.