According to exegete Alvin Boyd Kuhn, the decline of consciousness stems from a change in the interpretation of so-called sacred texts and myths. When these sacred works were written down, and the myths were created and then transmitted orally, the inhabitants of the Earth had a mental structure very different from that of modern humans: they lacked the capacity for abstraction or linear analysis. They reasoned more cyclically and holistically. They were, in a way, more intelligent due to their cosmic connections, more subtle, and much less influenced by materialism and individualism.
Spiritual and initiatory knowledge, and the facets of the human psyche, were then portrayed through characters. These representations made it possible to both transmit abstract principles to people who lacked the intellectual capacity for abstraction, and to preserve esoteric secrets in plain sight (“hidden in plain sight”), which could not be destroyed or appropriated, and which could survive the centuries in all innocence. They also made it possible to preserve timeless truths through temporal stories. But still according to Alvin Boyd Kuhn, the West fell around the third century when the interpretation of texts and myths was no longer allegorical and symbolic, but became literal and historical.
The esoteric content was then lost, the spiritual and psychic depths became completely invisible. Interpretations revolved around historical, intellectual, and literal analyses, which inevitably rendered these texts and stories absurd, playful, anecdotal, or even downright impossible. With the true keys to understanding lost, a disconnection with these teachings occurred. Consciousness, suddenly finding itself in darkness without this age-old knowledge, would then have sunk into ignorance and the temporal (and temporary!) illusions of rational knowledge and purely intellectual understanding. For example, some religious texts present man as superior to woman.
But according to the esoteric key to understanding, all this would have absolutely nothing to do with sexual gender: man and woman represented Spirit and matter respectively!!! Spirit is therefore superior to matter because it is much higher in frequency and fertilizes the latter to spiritualize it. Another, more specific example: in the tale of Sleeping Beauty: at the end, the prince awakens the sleeping woman with a kiss of love. The interpretation could then be as follows: undivined matter is as if asleep. The Spirit touches it, spiritualizes it with an act of love, and awakens it.
According to Book 16 of the Corpus Hermeticum, which is a conversation between Asclepius and King Ammon: “When expressed in its original language, the text preserves the pure spirit of the words. For the quality of the sound and pronunciation of the Egyptian language carries within it the power of what is said. Therefore, O king, as far as your power allows, and your power is unlimited, please ensure that this text is not translated, so that these mysteries do not reach the Greeks. For the style of the Greek language is arrogant, cowardly, and flashy, which undermines the mystery and power of words. The Greeks use empty words that merely produce a facade.
This is the philosophy of the Greeks, a noise of words. We do not use this language, but sounds full of power.” Beyond the surprising aspects of these words and the theological and civilizing disputes during which this book probably finds its origins, there is the relationship to language. Hellenic civilization is the matrix of the West, which itself has shifted the world’s consciousness toward a much more “left-brained” relationship with reality and technology, that is, toward rationality and materialist logic.
The languages in which spiritual mysteries were preserved and transmitted were previously reserved for circles of initiates. From the moment a secular language served as a medium for esoteric knowledge previously the exclusive domain of certain initiates, the power and depth of words diminished. This is not about expressing opinions on whether one language is better than another, but rather about seeking to understand the invisible causes of a phenomenon of despiritualization of a civilization that took place over several centuries, even millennia.