Ψυχη or Psyche

Like most words, 'psyche' has taken a long winding road through many centuries to get to where it is now. 

Plato (about 428bc- 347bc) Talks about 'Psyche' and Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002) Talks about 'Psychic Powers'.

 Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god.

The big blue Greek letters spell 'psyche,' and the quote around them is from The Psyche of the Cosmos, the 4th chapter in Plato's Timeaus..  In this version, as in all others I have seen, Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893) translates psyche as 'soul.'

You can find more of what Plato said about 'psyche' at the link below.   

Plato’s TIMEAUS:  The world’s soul

                                                                  

Here is how 'psyche' is defined in the first entry of a Greek-English dictionary:

Psyche- breath, Lat. anima, esp. as the sign of life, the life, spirit… from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon 

A good joke about a sobering problem 

 

It has been more than 20 years since I first advertised my services as an astrologer.  One of the first callers asked if I was psychic.  I don't remember what I said.  I just remember what Bob Rogers said when I told him about it:  "Tell her if you were psychic you would have called her."  It was a good joke about a sobering problem.  Astrology for me was about natural time and the planets we live with; but to the public it was, and still is, a mystery shrouded in myths about fantastic predictions. This "psyche" page is my response to questions about psychic phenomena.  

The following quote comes from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: a translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda. It is Swami Satchidananda's comment on the 51st sutra from the Portion on Accomplishments:

तद्वैराग्यादपि दोषबीजक्षये कैवल्यम्॥५१॥ *

TAD VAIRAGYAD API DOSA BIJA KSAYE KAIVALYAM

Tad=that; vairagyat=by non-attachment; api=even; dosha bija=seed of bondage; kshaye=destroyed; kaivalyam=independence.

By non-attachment even to that [all these siddhis], the seed of bondage is destroyed and thus follows Kaivalya (Independence).

This means that all these siddhis are beautiful, but they will bind us, because siddhis are the outcome of mind.  The mind wants something.  It wants to achieve this or that.  What for?  To be proud of itself.  It develops ego.  It makes your "I" and "mine" bigger.  Selfish desires are still there.  If you are after siddhis like astral traveling, clairevoyance and claireaudience, I ask you why.  You may say, "Oh I thought I could help people."  I say that this is just an excuse.  You want to show you can do something.  You want to be proud of it.

Are the siddhis bad then?  If so, why are they there?  I say they are not bad.  They are beautiful; they are good.  When?  When they come to you.  When you run after them they are bad.  That's all the difference.  Let the siddhis come and beg, "Hey, can't I do something for you?"  Then they are beautiful.  If you don't run after them and you don't crave them, they are not yours.  They want to have you as theirs.  They want to be with you and serve you.  Then they are okay.  That's why, even in the Bible, you come across these powers.  Everything will come to you.  When?  When you seek the Kingdom.  "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven; everything else will be added unto you."  You don't need to run after them one by one.  When you become the boss, you get everything.  You don't need to run after small jobs.

Not only these vibhuti, these siddhis, are like that, but everything is like that: beauty, money, power, strength, scientific knowledge.  All these things are becoming terrible, and the whole world is trembling with fear.  Why?  Because we have not sought God first.  What is God?  Peace, contentment, egolessness.  So, we are not really condemning siddhis.  They are God's powers, by-products of the search for Him.  Let them come after you.

When your mind is that clean and calm, then you will be able to handle them well for good purposes, not for your ego.  You won't be beating your own drum, "Oh, I can do this; I can do that."  Siddhis are not for that.  Patanjali clearly explains these things, because as a scientist he has to place the facts before his students.  But it is not that he is encouraging you to acquire siddhis.  That is the beauty of Patanjali.  He is not hiding anything.  He says, "These are all the possibilities, no doubt, but don't run after them.  You may get hurt by them.  Let them run after you." 

                                                        from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

                                                                Translation and Commentary

                                                                by Sri Swami Satchidananda

                                                                       

 "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven; everything else will be added unto you."

The goal of Our Sky Astrology is to foster familiarity with the real heaven that surrounds every one of us; that holds us aloft in the vast darkness of space; the heaven that moves, warms, feeds and nurtures us through all the stages of life.  Yes, you will stumble over many miraculous revelations along the way, revelations about your own divinity and the holy nature of all that surrounds you.  But first “Seek the Realm of Heaven.”                                               

* The Sanskrit text in the Patanjali quote is from kofibusia.com