Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

NET OF THE ASAR TO CATCH LOKE

A symbol of the astral mechanism of the physical eye which is to be used as a sense apparatus for the acquirement of knowledge and experience through which the mind may control the desire-nature.

“When the net was finished, they went out and cast it into the force. Thor held the net on one side, and all the Asar upon the other, and so drew it. Loke crept down and lay between two stones, so that the net passed over him, although they could very well perceive that there was something alive there." - The Punishment of Loke, Prose Edda.

When the astral mechanism of the physical eye was finished, the organ was adapted to the use of the ego which responds through the desire-nature to the impacts from without in sensation. The higher mind (Thor) is said to use the "net," yet it is not the mind alone which is responsible for the mechanism. The nature forces (the Asar) play their part in assisting at its manufacture. Now the desire-nature (Loke) is said to descend in the water, to be scarcely perceptible, in fact. This corresponds to the earliest feeble functionings of the At the same time the flickerings of self-consciousness are quite apparent. The "two stones are symbols of differentiation, and signify the life forces segregating the atoms on the astral plane. As the impacts from without through the sense organs cause thrills in the matter of the lower astral sub-planes, so the response from within is aroused, and the Self under the aspect of desire is said to descend and lie between “two stones," or perceive differences.

“Then a second time they went up the force and threw the net, having first tied something so heavy to it that nothing could possibly escape under it." - Ibid.

And again the impacts from without are so strong that they are said to penetrate the "net." And at this stage the sensorium is established, which precludes the possibility of any vibration from the lower levels going unperceived.

See Also

ASAR
ASTRAL PLANE
EYE (third)
FRANANGER
LOKE
SALMON
THOR
WATER (lower)