Grave Soaking
or
Everything I need to know I learned from Highland Lawn
October 5, 2015
G.D.O'Bradovich III
“While it may seem that Great Occultists are nothing without their Apprentices...”
I
True philosophers are unknown and live and die in the remotest woods engaging Nature while practical or political philosophers remain in the city and enjoy the benefits thereof. Of course, the plethora of benefits found in civilization comes with the inevitable detriments or encounters of those whose minds are “less bound by the parameters of...” It only through experiences with people that the practical philosopher and his perennially perceptive Apprentices can find suitable subjects for commentary and criticism.
II
Recently, Apprentice Tyler enlightened me regarding the practice of “grave soaking” or lying on the grave and/or touching the headstone to absorb or channel the assumed holiness from the deceased. At our weekly meeting, I repeatedly described these people as atheists. Eventually, Apprentice Tyler understood my meaning of charging these individuals with atheism-since they only use sense perception, in effect, they are denying the spiritual realm and, by logical progression, the Deity. For all their sincere attempts to acquire a short cut to “holiness”, they have only experienced the mundane and material world.
III
I don't shout, wave my hands and sway my body when I meet a stranger. Nor do I behave this way with acquaintances or Apprentices. Nor would I do so if I were to meet our Mayor, or our Governor or a Head of State. However, it has come to my attention that certain people demonstrate this specific behavior towards the Creator of the Universe. What is this behavior, but irreverence? These Modern “Christians” are so irreverent that they believe that the Lord of Eternity equates juvenile behavior as a type or form of worship.
“Bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee...”, Dire Straits
It strains credulity that people engage in this behavior- Irreverence or, as Hardouin would write, impiety.
“Bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee...”, Dire Straits
It strains credulity that people engage in this behavior- Irreverence or, as Hardouin would write, impiety.
IV
As the reader knows, I frequently explore Highland Lawn Cemetery and I enjoy it because it is hilly and historical (two aspects the Capricorn thoroughly enjoys). However, I have never thought that I am soaking the energy of Chauncy Rose or Demas Deming or Max Ehrmann when I touch their monuments (Yes, I am a tactile person.) and I have never entertained the strange idea that I am absorbing the energies or experiences of a benefactor or a banker or a bard when I touch the markers. To quote an atheist -“I agree with Christ a great deal more than the professing Christians do.”
V
If, in fact, there is anything factual or, more accurately, beneficial to the practice of grave soaking (where we understand attracting a motley crew of graveyard demons as non beneficial), then, Gentle Reader, we now in the fortunate position to know the reason why Great Occultists are cremated, their ashes scattered to the four winds and no imposing edifices are raised to their eternal memory-it is so that lesser minds do no have an easy path to the time consuming and always arduous efforts whose result is experience, knowledge and Wisdom.