Past-Life Memories
© 2002
>> In Bardon's IIH (at least I think that it was there) he mentioned that a Magician should not look into his past lives because that as soon as he does he will inherit the Karma from those lives and he will have to carry it in his current incarnation. I hope I stated that properly :-) However, I thought that we were already carrying the Karma from our past incarnations, so why Bardon's distinction or admonition? <<
I don't think he was saying that one should not ever do this; rather, he meant it as a caution for the new student.
It is true that when you regain the entire corpus of the Individual Self's memories (i.e., of all your past lives), you do become painfully aware of your past actions. This should be put off until you have directly addressed the karmic load of your present life, otherwise the realization of what you've done in the past can make the whole load overwhelming.
Our accumulated karma is always with us, yet we are normally only *conscious* of our most recent accumulations. Being *conscious* of your karmic indebtedness transforms your relationship with it. It makes it VERY real in that sense. It's sort of like when you cut your foot while walking through the cold water of a creek -- at first you barely feel it because of the cold, but when you leave the water it hurts and you realize you're bleeding.
There are often opportunities in the early stages of initiation when the student might glimpse the memories of their past incarnations. It is always tempting to go there and explore. The "Was I Cleopatra?" syndrome is very enticing. ;-) But in the end, if this excursion into the past occurs prior to our truly exploring the present, it can delay the true resolution of karma. In other words, if your grasp on reality is at all weak, then the
past-life memories can be very deluding and diluting.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
13 Feb 2002