Your Inner Palace and the Akashic Records

The Akashic Records is very much a Western conception, right? The Theosophists of the 19th century formulated a mash-up of Eastern and Western esoteric traditions and from that mash-up came its most popular legacy– the Akashic Records.

Most of us get that the /”Akashic/” part was inspired by the akasha, a fifth element or essence found in various Asian traditions, associated with the sky, space, aether, and in Buddhism, even a state of mind. But what about the /”Records/” part?

The Inner Palace (Yuán Chén Gōng, 元辰宮) is a concept that seems to be traced from the Lushan lineage 閭山派 of Taoist magic, a southern tradition that blends Taoism, esoteric Buddhism, and the shamanistic witchcraft of the Min-Yue people 閩越巫法.

I’d like to make the case that the Inner Palace concept originated from the Palace of Mysteries (xuán gōng, 玄宮) located in the Realm of Nothingness, as cited in the Zhuangzi (350 – 250 BC), later integrated into the Book of Supreme Mysteries (Tài Xuán Jīng, 太玄經) (33 – 18 BC) and Ge Hong’s Baopuzi (283 – 364 AD), a Taoist grimoire.

In the library of the Inner Palace, you can gain access to a Book of Life and Death 生死簿. The Book of Life and Death is a mythical register accounting all deeds of all people, that accurately calculates the future and reveals that future.

Perhaps another name for that Realm of Nothingness is the Akasha. And the Western Theosophical concept of the Akashic Records can be traced back to the Inner Palace or Palace of Mysteries.

By the way, initially I was going to title this video “Temple of the Primordial Aeon and the Akashic Records”…

Companion blog post to video discussion: https://wp.me/p32or0-a84

Timestamps:
01:25 The Mystery Palace, circa 400 BCE
03:11 About Your Inner Palace [Yuan Chen Gong]
05:04 The Palace of Mysteries [Xuan Gong]
07:57 What are Inner Palace Readings?
11:46 Lu Shan; Wu Shu (Wu Shamanism) of the Southern Min People
12:53 The modern New Age practice of Inner Palace Readings
14:15 The Inner Palace and Eastern occult philosophy
15:57 On the Inner Canons of the Yellow Emperor [Huangdi Neijing]
16:44 Defining “Shen”
18:14 Tracing the Roots of the Akashic Records (continuing our excerpted reading of the Huangdi Neijing and defining “shen”)
23:22 Personal Reflections
26:18 How do you access your Inner Palace, or read the Akashic Records?

Illustration Credits:
– “山水背景图片” via nipic.com
– Painting of Akasagarbha by Miki Okuda from the Esoteric Buddhism of Japan Oracle Cards (Card 22: Kokuzo Bosatsu)

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