Inner Mysteries

Esoteric Meaning of Jack and Jill

It hides one of the oldest spiritual teachings on the relationship between the Sun and Moon, spirit and soul, masculine and feminine. It is a story of ascent and descent, the cycle of light through the heavens and within our own being.

The Sun and Moon Within

Jack represents the Sun, the active principle, the rising spiritual force. Jill represents the Moon, the reflective principle, the receptive soul that follows the Sun. When the rhyme says they “went up the hill,” it means the Sun and Moon ascending the arch of heaven, the great dome of the zodiac. The hill is the celestial mountain, the same symbolic hill we find in so many sacred stories.

The “pail of water” is not ordinary water. It represents the heavenly current, the living waters, the spiritual substance of Aquarius. It is the water of regeneration, the sacred fluid that descends into the body and may rise again when purified.

The Fall

When the rhyme says “Jack fell down and broke his crown,” it is describing the Sun descending after reaching its peak. The crown is the head, the spiritual seat, the higher consciousness that rules the body. The fall of Jack is the loss of that light, the beginning of the descent into darkness.

“Jill came tumbling after” because the Moon always follows the Sun. When the Sun descends, the Moon descends too. This is the fall of light into matter, the same pattern told in countless myths of the world.

The Alchemical Process

The story also describes an inner process. Jack and Jill are the solar and lunar currents within the human being. Their ascent up the hill represents the rising of spiritual energy through the spinal mountain. Their fall shows how that same energy descends into the generative region, into the lower nature.

The “pail of water” is the sacred secretion, the divine essence that can be lifted back up the hill. When this essence returns upward, it restores the broken crown. The crown is mended when the anointing oil reaches the head and the consciousness is renewed. This is the resurrection of the inner light, the return of the Christ within.

The Inner Lesson

Jack and Jill is a reminder of the great rhythm of ascent and descent. The Sun and Moon rise and fall in the heavens just as the light of spirit rises and falls within the human temple. To “fetch a pail of water” is to seek the living waters of heaven and to raise them again through the body.

It is a parable of how we lose and regain divine consciousness. The goal is to return the waters to the crown, to restore the light, and to live once more in harmony with the celestial order.

The Universal Doctrine

Eliphas Levi is the one who revived the esoteric occult arts in the West. This is where people like Manly P. Hall and hermetic orders draw a lot of their information from. He was kind of the top dog when it comes to Western esotericism, bridging the gap between what most people think are irreconcilable religions or ideas. For example, Christianity, esoteric Catholicism, esoteric Kabbalah, and ceremonial magic were all unified and brought together.

Levi was very religious, starting in exoteric Catholicism before departing to study occult esotericism. He saw that the Catholic Church was just the exoteric doctrine of the inner, esoteric, veiled universal truth. He said that the Christian religion is a direct transmission of the great arcanum or universal religion. That is why, as an esotericist, there is no need to argue with Muslims, Jews, or Christians. Most disagreements are due to differences in language or focus. Some religions discuss one aspect of God while others discuss another. Without understanding the transcendental nature of God, agreement is difficult.

The Pentagram and the Son of God

The pentagram represents the Son of God, the upright spiritual consciousness walking on the earth. Christ walked the earth, and this manifests through the pentagram.

Top of the pentagram: Spiritual energy
Bottom prongs: Earth and water
Right prongs (from the top): Air and fire, because they are subtle
Spirit (head/top): The kingdom of heaven within the body, the microcosm

Levi teaches that the pentagram is not a satanic symbol. It is a symbol of spirit manifesting in human form. The Logos or divine organizational principle anchors itself through earth and water and extends through air and fire. The top organizes itself.

The two eyes on top of the pentagram represent the pineal and pituitary glands, the spiritual eyes—intuition and imagination. Levi emphasizes combining the will (masculine essence) with imagination (feminine essence). Will plus imagination equals results.

Upright pentagram: Spirit dominates, alignment with the Most High, will is granted.
Inverted pentagram: Earthly desires dominate, material and emotional attachments above spirit. Some traditions see it as anchoring spiritual energy to matter, but it was corrupted by materialist organizations.

The pentagram teaches that spirit is the cause. It is a causal point within yourself that can create miraculous changes. You can uplift others, help those in darkness, and confront your inner shadow to liberate the great mother within.

Mother Mary, a representation of the universal mother, symbolizes the divine feminine or Kundalini energy. When upright and spiritually aligned, we have the opportunity to lift others out of inversions. This allows us to command elementals or demons, cast protective circles, and not be influenced by negative astral forces.

Accessing Higher Consciousness

The magical chain is key. Knowledge from Levi’s work is intense and not for everyone. It is part of the Great Work and rarely read, even though it is available in mainstream stores. Levi is one of the most prominent Western occultists.

“What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like what is above. The form is proportional to the idea. The shadow is as deep as the sword is long. Denial is proportional to affirmation. Production equals destruction in the movement which preserves life. There is no point in infinite space which is not the center of a circle whose circumference extends and retracts perpetually.”

This passage reflects Brahman, showing that God is everywhere, and the center is everywhere while the circumference is nowhere. Meditating on this allows consciousness to extend and access higher frequencies. Flow state, or tuning into higher frequencies, allows access to knowledge beyond immediate perception. This is how creative individuals channel inspiration.

Transmitting Energy and Impressions

Levi emphasizes tuning the inner “radio” to high frequency, transmitting energy, and refining the nervous system to communicate impressions physically. This requires stillness, silence, self-observation, contemplation, and daily remembrance of who you are. Serve truth, the eternal good, and higher principles—love, wisdom, and understanding.

The soul, mind, and body function together like a triad. The child, the crown, represents renewal and the coming kingdom within. Understanding Genesis is self-revealing, showing the path of the fallen Adam and the Christ or Michael archetype. By living upright, transmuting energy, and enduring conscious suffering, one can return to Eden—the garden of bliss. Bad days correlate to good days based on how we handle them. Plant seeds during adversity to reap a spiritual harvest, creating beauty, wisdom, and understanding to share with the world.

Your purpose is to bring more love, wisdom, and understanding in any way you are capable.

For more in-depth exploration, interactive versions of this content are coming soon on Patreon. You can also book a one-on-one consultation at innermysteries.org.

Occult Biochemsitry

Today we’re going to be talking about esoteric biochemistry and how it relates to the Temple of Solomon. The Temple of Solomon is essentially the physical body. Soul of man, soul and moon. Soul and moon meaning the solar and lunar aspects of the consciousness coming together to produce individualities within these temples, within these vessels, within these shrouds that we wear and call human bodies.

The soul wears the human body as a costume or molding vessel in order to acquire form and attributes so it can exist in the astral plane with individuality. This is cause and effect. The physical world is a spiritual factory for individualized immortal souls in eternal progression.

Esoteric biochemistry comes into play when the astral influxes descend as we come from the causal subtle realms into the physical realm in a vortex spiral of matter. When we come into matter we become dense and preoccupied with the elements, with attraction and repulsion, with the sense of separateness.

Before we descended into the physical realm we were in the pleroma, the Garden of Eden, which is unified consciousness. We were essences without full realized individualities or preferences. We took a dive into the physical realm to experience the duality of light and dark, good and evil, right and wrong in order to understand what we are as opposed to what we are not.

Esoteric biochemistry shows that our thoughts have a direct reaction on chemical inputs. The subtle realm always has a causal effect on the physical realm. The astral plane is the cause of the physical plane. We descend from subtle realities into dense forms.

Study Neoplatonism or the teachings of the ancient esotericists and you will understand that everything that we see comes from “nothing.” But nothing here means no-thing, no perceived thing. That nothing is actually everything. It is hyperspace, the full intelligent database that holds all knowledge and all intelligence within itself. In and of itself it is knowledge.

This knowledge has to come down and take form through archetypes and ideas. It condenses in the universal mind into physical forms, ones and zeros, red shift and blue shift, light and dark, night and day. These polarities help the soul self-realize. We are placed in a cycle of attraction and repulsion, pain and pleasure, until we realize that the physical body is not the doer.

The physical body is driven by the tattvas, the elemental forces. In the Hindu Brahman tradition these are tamas, rajas, and sattva. Tamas is ignorant, stagnant, and lazy. Rajas is passionate and fiery. Sattva is goodness and bliss. The soul is under the barrage of these elemental forces.

Paracelsus taught that everything in the physical realm, externally and internally, operates under these elemental clashes. Air, fire, water, and earth are always in conflict, and they create whirlwinds and disturbances. This is seen outside in weather but also inside as our inner weather.

Sometimes we are emotional like water, sometimes fiery and impulsive, sometimes weighed down by the heaviness of earth. These elements are psycho-astral. We are not just speaking of physical fire or water or air, but of their mental and emotional counterparts. Mental air, emotional water, impulsive fire, grounding earth.

In Solomon’s temple, the body, astral impulses act through the nervous system. The nervous system reacts through the watery medium of hormones and chemicals. Secretions in the body are the water element because water carries the astral influx. Astral currents imprint magnetic impressions into the water of the body.

The Japanese studies of water show that water holds memory. Our body is largely water and blood. This is the Red Sea of scripture. The soul is baptized in this water and blood to gain self-awareness. The Bible is full of esoteric biochemistry.

George W. Carey, who wrote on esoteric chemistry and the sacred secretion, explains that everything begins in the garden of the mind. Thoughts must be watched carefully, just as Christ taught, because thoughts create the hormones and chemical influxes of the body.

Resentful, angry, lustful thoughts create toxic chemical secretions. Rage sends adrenal secretions into the blood, poisoning it. The blood must remain pure, and the minerals balanced. Esoteric biochemistry teaches that the mind must remain pure because all chemical reactions in the body start with thought.

This is why the Bible tells us to slay the Canaanites, which is symbolic of slaying negative thoughts and impulses, the animalistic urges, the turmoil that triggers adrenaline and anxiety.

When we observe the processes of the mind, we slow our reactions to the external world. We begin to see we are more than this realm of elements and biochemistry. Yet we must work with the elements and transmute them, distilling their subtle psychological aspects, so we can regain them and elevate into the astral plane with true awareness.

The Power of Revitalizing the Vital Body

When we speak of the human constitution, much attention is given to the physical body and to the astral body. Yet there is a third body, often overlooked, that serves as the bridge between the two: the etheric, or vital, body. This body of life-force sustains, recharges, and keeps the physical and spiritual aspects of our being interconnected. To neglect it is to weaken the very battery that keeps both the flesh and the soul energized.

The etheric body can be revitalized through both physical and spiritual means. One simple practice is to focus on the space between your hands. With a healthy charge of electromagnetic vitality, you will begin to feel a subtle current or field. This sensation is etheric energy itself. It is this energy that animates the nervous system, enlivens the cells, and provides the spark of vitality.

Sleep is another natural way the etheric body recharges. When the astral body departs during sleep, the etheric body is freed to draw in fresh energy. Grounding practices such as walking barefoot on soil, placing the feet in a stream, or simply touching the earth also restore etheric vitality. Water conducts electricity, and the living earth transmits currents of life into the nervous system, reducing inflammation and restoring balance.

Deep relaxation is equally important. When we release tension from head to toe and turn our energies inward, the currents normally spent on digestion or sensory activity are redirected to the etheric body. This recharge occurs when stillness is embraced and outward expenditure is temporarily stilled.

The sun is another source of renewal. At sunrise and sunset, when the rays are gentle, one may safely absorb the “angles of light,” the angels of life. Even with closed eyes, the photons stimulate the pineal gland, which is designed to respond to light. This gland, the inner eye, is nourished by these rays and awakens to higher perception.

Movement also charges the etheric body. Loose, flowing motion, walking in rhythm, and conscious breathing all keep the currents alive. The physical body is a laboratory, a factory-machine producing this subtle energy. Just as a battery must be recharged, so too must we take time to replenish the vital body.

Among the most effective methods is rhythmic breathing. Conscious, measured breath bridges the conscious and subconscious mind, strengthens willpower, and magnifies the flow of vitality. By inhaling, holding, exhaling, and pausing in rhythm, known as “box breathing,” the practitioner draws in not only air, but prana, the life-force itself. Conscious attention makes the process far more potent: when one imagines each breath as revitalization, the energy body responds accordingly.

Through these practices, the nervous system is charged with higher voltage, allowing deeper trance, extended meditation, and clearer vision in the astral and spiritual realms. Breath and intention transform the body into a living vessel of light.

By consciously cultivating the etheric body, we maintain the inner battery that sustains all higher work. Feel the energy between your hands, practice rhythmic breathing, walk upon the earth, and greet the sun in reverence. In so doing, the vessel is strengthened, the current flows, and the inner mysteries of life are unveiled.

Esoteric Science

Esoteric science is centered in the heart, not the mind, though the mind is the instrument used to comprehend it. Mind and heart work together like a chariot and its charioteer, two poles contributing to a common goal while performing distinct functions. The archetypal Eternal Father abides in the head, in that place called Heaven, the point between the brows, the eye of wisdom. The Divine Mother dwells within the heart as divine love. These twin attributes, wisdom and love, are the two supernal ideals that manifest the higher, middle, and lower realms and the beings that inhabit each.

The Divine Father of wisdom leads us through reason and that subtle higher faculty in man which perceives truth. The Divine Mother allows us to feel holy love for humanity and for the soul of the universe. That love is a flame in the heart; it is microscopic and intimate, and yet it must be comprehended by divine wisdom or it will not be contained. The fires of the heart purify; they rise as the Holy Spirit, the magnetic fire that travels along the dorsal spine into the brain as a burnt offering.

Scripture, especially the Old Testament, is not merely a collection of moral stories; it is a catalog of divine truths that echo anatomically in the human body. The body itself is a map of the spiritual world. Most men live in complete oblivion to the fact that they belong to a higher, intricate system of divine craft and order. They do not know where they stand in the cosmic plan. Some declare that there is no plan at all, that the universe is a random accumulation of atoms without source or purpose. That view is the antithesis of esoteric science.

The esoteric scientist knows by self knowledge that the universe is founded on order, beauty, love, and wisdom. All things are wheels within wheels, cycles within cycles. Men live day to day, unaware of their participation in a vast system of divine order, beauty, and stability. To the esotericist the physical world is not a prison but a womb or a laboratory where the soul is being fashioned and refined for a higher purpose.

There must be a reason for the soul’s descent. Some say the soul came down to indulge in earthly pleasure because the spiritual world is not fanciful. Others say the soul came to struggle in the fields of duality in order to gain a broader appreciation for unity. Still others claim the soul is here by way of punishment for ancestral transgression. All these interpretations may serve for a time, but none help if they do not bring the seeker closer to truth. Truth alone heals conjecture.

The universal plan of love and wisdom is eternal. The soul’s nature is immortal progression. We see this mirrored in the physical realms by the repeated cycles of birth, death, and sacrifice. Life moves on; consciousness continues beyond the tomb. The physical womb is steadily producing vessels for different phases of the divine plan. Each cycle, measured by the great clock of eternity, is an instrument in the ongoing work of the soul’s upward progression.

We Already Live in the Astral

In this teaching I explain the astral plane from a practical point of view: how tones, vibrations, breath, and self-observation transport conscious awareness so you can receive, interpret, and navigate inner worlds.

We Already Live in the Astral

The most important thing to understand about the astral plane is that we already inhabit it. We dwell in two worlds at once. At one level we act in the physical world; on the inner side psychologically and emotionally we live in another world made of subtler, more fluid material.

When your mind wanders to yesterday, remembers an event, or anticipates the future, a portion of your consciousness creates an inner image and dwells in that image while your body remains in this room doing something else. People call this daydreaming. It’s common. But there are techniques to deliberately transport yourself into that inner world and make the experience conscious.

The Astral as Midpoint

The astral is the midpoint between the physical and the spiritual. Think of the physical world as a womb or a soul factory. From that ground the astral unfolds — a more subtle arena that interprets higher causal forms and translates them into physical manifestation.

So it’s not about learning how to “get there.” It’s about placing your conscious awareness on the frequency inside you that lights up that arena. If all your energy is tied up in digestion, worry, stress, tension, or shallow breathing, you won’t have enough vibrancy left to energize the inner images that let you jump through the picture.

Picture the Super Mario portraits: we create images in our mind like portraits, then we step through. When you step through your inner portrait, you inhabit the astral vehicle you’ve built by how you live and feel in the physical world — by the prana, ether, air, and light you take in and transform.

Practical Sensory-Closure Exercise

Do this in the morning facing east.
Close and slightly plug the eyes, ears, nostrils, and lips to withdraw the senses.
Focus inward on the vibration of breath.
Let sound, tone, and rhythm carry you deeper.
Watch for the inner image that arises. Step into it deliberately.

Final Thought

The astral is not far away. It is the immediate inner counterpart of the physical. With conscious practice, self-observation, and the right use of breath and vibration, you enter it at will and discover the higher reality shaping this world.

The Fourth Way: Self Observation and the Three Brains

The Three Yogas

Karma Yoga is the yoga of works. It is doing things without expectation, without a sense of reward. When we do something good, it should be for the intention of doing something good, not to acquire attention, wealth, or fame. Even when our actions bring wealth or fame, the fruit of that labor can be sacrificed to the Lord, to love and wisdom, the eternal nature of the universe.

Jnana Yoga is the yoga of knowledge. It is the path of studying the ancient scriptures and holy books, and acquiring self knowledge through meditation. In the West we would call it gnosis.

Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of devotion. It is devoting yourself to the highest ideal, God as the union of love and wisdom. It is an affinity or love for the Divine, a personal connection with the universal Creator.

Traditionally these different yogas were assigned according to temperament. The earthy temperament was best suited for karma yoga. The airy temperament for jnana yoga. The devotional temperament for bhakti yoga.

The Three Brains

GURIDJIEF also taught the three brains. These are:

The intellectual brain, which studies and acquires theories.
The emotional brain, which longs for union with the Divine.
The instinctual brain, which works, labors, and lives day to day.

Most people live in one of these brains. The Fourth Way teaches how to unify them.

The Fourth Way: Self Observation

The Fourth Way is the yoga of self-observation and self-remembering. It is the practice of watching the three brains in action. It is being able to observe the mind in its intellectual factory, the heart in its emotional factory, and the instinctual nature in its physical factory.

Jesus in the New Testament taught this same path when he said to be watchful. In the Old Testament, when it says to pitch your tent and be watchful, it is teaching the same thing. To guard the mind against intruders. To keep watch over the subconscious.

If we are not watchful, our energy flows downward. This is the mystery of 666. When the intellectual mind, the emotional nature, and the instinctual nature are turned downward, the life force drains into the lower belly of the beast. But when these same centers are raised upward, the 666 becomes 999. Energy rises instead of falling.

Alchemy and the Flow of Energy

Esoteric science and alchemy are about reversing this downward flow of energy. The law of density causes energy to descend. The alchemical process makes the gross subtle. What has become heavy and gross must become light and subtle again.

The spinal column is a distillery. The abdomen holds the physical chi. The heart contains the astral chi. The mind contains the mental chi. Above the head is the etheric chi. Through the practice of self observation and self remembering we learn to refine and raise these energies.

The Mundane and the Transcendental

In esoteric science there are two realms. The mundane plane is the plane of appearances. The transcendental plane is the plane of higher laws.

On the mundane plane we may seem to be simply speaking opinions on the internet. But on the transcendental plane we are sharing astral insights. The mundane is a shadow, while the transcendental is the archetype.

This is why Moses and the Israelites ate manna from heaven. It is the dew of inspiration, the subtle essence that crystallizes in the brain and nourishes the soul. This dew is the same as the electric-magnetic fluid that descends from the pineal and pituitary into the body, only to rise again as the philosopher’s stone.

The Practical Path

How do you practice the Fourth Way? By living from moment to moment with awareness. When you are driving, when you are shopping for groceries, when you are working in the garden, you are training. Every act is preparation for something greater.

Self observation reveals the spiritual nature behind everyday habitual actions. It allows us to see that the physical realm is only a reflection of higher realms. By polishing the mirror of the soul we become clear reflections of the archetypes. By observing our instinctual nature, we transmute it. By mastering karma yoga through observation, we begin the real work.

The Goal

The goal of the Fourth Way is to reclaim the soul’s energy which has been throttled into the physical realm. Through observation, the soul is revitalized and begins to ascend the seven planes, climbing Jacob’s ladder back into the transcendental abode.

This is the essence of the Fourth Way. Self remembering. Self observation. Watchfulness in all things.

Mysteries of the Pineal Gland

Early in the path we encounter the pineal gland, presented as both a relic of former function and a promise of future awakening. Some teachers say it is atrophied from a previous existence, others that it is calcified and waiting to be purified. Either way, the pineal gland stands at the border between the seen and the unseen. It is a gland in the brain with an astral counterpart usually called the third eye. Together they form the bridge through which inner vision leaks into outer perception.

The third eye is vision without physical sight. It is the faculty of intuition and subtle perception. It is also the organ of imagination. Imagination, properly understood, is not mere fantasy. It is a cognitive organ that perceives archetypal reality. From that root grows what tradition calls magic. Magic is the capacity to see through maya into the causal realm of truth. An awakened pineal gland grants a person the ability to discern the deeper pattern beneath appearances in objects and situations.

There are signs of that opening. In deep darkness, in states of grounded presence, or upon hearing a living truth, some people feel a subtle cracking or a brightening in the center of the head. Traditions describe a secretion, a magnetic fluid, that courses down the spinal column and electrifies the nervous system. Read through an allegorical lens, the Bible and other sacred texts encode these processes. They are not merely moral tales. They are also biochemical parables that illustrate how the human body mirrors God, reflecting the microcosm’s repetition of the macrocosm.

Astrologically, the pineal center is often linked to Neptune, the ruler of dream, vision, and the dissolution of boundaries. That correspondence helps explain why this gland is a site of visionary experience and why it must be tempered with discipline. Awakening the pineal is not a show of power. It is a restoration of the original sense organ for truth.