Spiritual Contemplation
Spiritual Christmas - 07 - Threats form the world and yourself
Spiritual Christmas - English
28-12 Narrative 7 Chapters 7 et 8 of the Aquarian Gospel: Mary and Elizabeth are taught in a mystery school in Egypt
Narrative:
Narrative 7, for the evening of 28 December: Mary and Elizabeth are taught in a mystery school in Egypt
Reflection:
Reflection 7, for 28 December: Threats form the world and yourself
Narrative:
Narrative 7, for the evening of 28 December: Mary and Elizabeth are taught in a mystery school in Egypt
Chapters 7 and 8 of The Aquarian Gospel: Mary and Elizabeth are taught in a mystery school in Egypt
The son of Herod, Archelaus, reigned in Jerusalem. He was a selfish, cruel king; he put to death all those who did not honour him. He called in council all the wisest men and asked about the infant claimant to his throne. The council said that John and Jesus both were dead; then he was satisfied.
Now Joseph, Mary and their son were down in Egypt in Zoan, and John was with his mother in the Judean Hills. Elihu and Salome sent messengers in haste to find Elizabeth and John. They found them and they brought them to Zoan. Now, Mary and Elizabeth were marvelling much because of their deliverance.
Elihu said, It is not strange; there are no happenings; law governs all events. From olden times it was ordained that you should be with us, and in this sacred school be taught. Elihu and Salome took Mary and Elizabeth out to the sacred grove nearby where they were wont to teach.
Elihu said to Mary and Elizabeth, “You may esteem yourselves thrice blest, for you are chosen mothers of long promised sons, Who are ordained to lay in solid rock a sure foundation stone on which the temple of the perfect man shall rest – a temple that shall never be destroyed. We measure time by cycle ages, and the gate to every age we deem a milestone in the journey of the race. An age has passed; the gate unto another age flies open at the touch of time. This is the preparation age of soul, the kingdom of Immanuel, of God in man; And these, your sons, will be the first to tell the news, and preach the gospel of goodwill to men, and peace on earth. A mighty work is theirs; for carnal men want not the light, they love the dark, and when the light shines in the dark they comprehend it not.
We call these sons, Revealers of the Light; but they must have the light before they can reveal the light. And you must teach your sons, and set their souls on fire with love and holy zeal, and make them conscious of their missions to the sons of men. Teach them that God and man were one; but that through carnal thoughts and words and deeds, man tore himself away from God; debased himself. Teach that the Holy Breath would make them one again, restoring harmony and peace; That naught can make them one but Love; that God so loved the world that he has clothed his son in flesh that man may comprehend.
The only Saviour of the world is love, and Jesus, son of Mary, comes to manifest that love to men. Now, love cannot be manifest until its way has been prepared, and naught can rend the rocks and bring down lofty hills and fill the valleys up, and thus prepare the way, but purity. But purity in life men do not comprehend; and so, it, too, must come in flesh.
And you, Elizabeth, are blest because your son is purity made flesh, and he shall pave the way for love. This age will comprehend but little of the works of Purity and Love; but not a word is lost, for in the Book of God’s Remembrance a registry is made of every thought, and word, and deed; And when the world is ready to receive, lo, God will send a messenger to open up the book and copy from its sacred pages all the messages of Purity and Love. Then every man of earth will read the words of life in language of his native land, and men will see the light, walk in the light and be the light. And man again will be at one with God.”
– – –
Again Elihu met his pupils in the sacred grove and said, “No man lives unto himself; for every living thing is bound by cords to every other living thing. Blest are the pure in heart; for they will love and not demand love in return. They will not do to other men what they would not have other men do unto them.
There are two selves; the higher and the lower self. The higher self is human spirit clothed with soul, made in the form of God. The lower self, the carnal self, the body of desires, is a reflection of the higher self, distorted by the murky ethers of the flesh. The lower self is an illusion, and will pass away; the higher self is God in man, and will not pass away.
The higher self is the embodiment of truth; the lower self is truth reversed, and so is falsehood manifest. The higher self is justice, mercy, love and right; the lower self is what the higher self is not. The lower self breeds hatred, slander, lewdness, murders, theft, and everything that harms; the higher self is mother of the virtues and the harmonies of life. The lower self is rich in promises, but poor in blessedness and peace; it offers pleasure, joy and satisfying gains; but gives unrest and misery and death. It gives men apples that are lovely to the eye and pleasant to the smell; their cores are full of bitterness and gall.
If you would ask me what to study I would say, yourselves; and when you well had studied them, and then would ask me what to study next, I would reply, yourselves. He who knows well his lower self, knows the illusions of the world, knows of the things that pass away; and he who knows his higher self, knows God; knows well the things that cannot pass away.
Thrice blessed is the man who has made purity and love his very own; he has been ransomed from the perils of the lower self and is himself his higher self. Men seek salvation from an evil that they deem a living monster of the nether world; and they have gods that are but demons in disguise; all powerful, yet full of jealousy and hate and lust; Whose favours must be bought with costly sacrifice of fruits, and of the lives of birds, and animals, and human kind. And yet these gods possess no ears to hear, no eyes to see, no heart to sympathise, no power to save.
This evil is a myth; these gods are made of air, clothed with shadows of a thought. The only devil from which men must be redeemed is self, the lower self. If man would find his devil he must look within; his name is self. If man would find his saviour he must look within; and when the demon self has been dethroned, the saviour, Love, will be exalted to the throne of power. The David of the light is Purity, who slays the strong Goliath of the dark, and seats the saviour, Love, upon the throne.
Reflection:
Reflection 7, for 28 December: Threats form the world and yourself
Threats from the world and from yourself
If anything of the new soul begins to glow in a human being, then there is great joy. Such a person has, after all, experienced something of a higher reality, of a grand plan and now knows from within that also for him or her there is a mighty spiritual perspective.
However, for those human beings who have been touched in such a special way, the joy is still incidental and certainly not stable. For as soon as a person (symbolized by Elizabeth, Zacharias and John), driven by inner recognition and insight (Mary and Joseph) is longing to let the spiritual being (Jesus) come to development within him or her, it seems as if everyone and everything is trying to prevent it.
If the soul begins to awaken within you, you will have the natural tendency to share your joy about this with people who are dear to you, your life partner, relatives and friends. However, it often appears that they do not have any interest in this and switch to everyday topics as soon as possible.
As a consequence, you can experience a great loneliness and grief because of so much superficiality. No one seems to realize what, according to you, really matters in life. You will be thrown back on yourself and so you withdraw to protect yourself:
Elizabeth knew not that Herod sought to slay her son, and she and John were yet in Bethlehem; but when she knew, she took the infant John and hastened to the hills. The murderous guards were near; they pressed upon her hard; but then she knew the secret caves in all the hills, and into one she ran and hid herself and John until the guards were gone.
In a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the Ugly Duckling is bullied by the young ducks because he is different. He thinks that there is something wrong with him but is not yet aware that he is a swan in the making. But as soon as the swan (symbolizing the soul) has reached maturity, he is free and the ducks no longer bother him.
A human being must overcome quite a few resistances on the way to adulthood. However, the resistances on the way to the maturity of the soul are even greater and above all of a different character. Both the personality and the soul need opposition in order to obtain strength. Without resistance, there is no progress. One cannot polish without friction, nor fly a kite without wind.
In our society, there is much that makes it difficult for the Other-one-within-us to awaken, to be active and to grow. Every day our attention is drawn toward the external world by means of a bombardment with stimuli from sight, sound, smell, taste and feelings. The subtle voice of the soul is easily deafened by this.
There are forces that prevent human beings from going the Gnostic spiritual path. Why? Because everything in this world has the natural tendency to maintain the existing equilibrium.
Anything that places this equilibrium at risk, will be fought against. It is this primal basis of existence that causes human beings, plants and animals to recover from illnesses and injuries. This principle is the reason why organizations, social systems, cultures, solar systems, et cetera, can remain in existence and why it takes so much effort to change existing situations.
This equilibrium-seeking force is an inwardly directed force. When it concerns the individual human being we call this force: ego-centricity. As soon as any human being chooses to suddenly withdraw from that world, he or she will inevitably evoke counterforces.
In the Christmas narrative, these counterforces are referred to as King Herod.
These Magian priests could read the hearts of men; they read the wickedness of Herod’s heart, and knew that he had sworn to kill the new born king. And so, they told the secret to the parents of the child, and bid them flee beyond the reach of harm. And then the priests went on their homeward way; they went not through Jerusalem. And Joseph took the infant Jesus and his mother in the night and fled to Egypt land, and with Elihu and Salome in ancient Zoan they abode.
There is no place for the new soul in this world. There is no room in the inn. In fact, all kinds of powers of this world seek to kill the new soul, the young Jesus. They seek to kill not only the new soul, but also the personality that is paving the way for this soul: John. That is what the story of the massacre of innocent children in The Aquarian Gospel makes clear.
Their cruel task was done; the guards returned and told the story to the king. They said, We know that we have slain the infant king; but John his harbinger, we could not find. The king was angry with his guards because they failed to slay the infant John; He sent them to the tower in chains.
In the story about the children’s massacre by order of King Herod, not just one child is killed but countless children. The ‘children’s massacre’ has perhaps taken place within ourselves many times, because even the story of this slaughter indicates a spiritual process: the emerging powers of the soul are nipped in the bud through natural resistance to alien forces.
So again the character Herod has a symbolic meaning. Herod is the essential force of natural resistance on the spiritual path. This resistance is located both inside and outside of us and can occur in many forms, shapes and situations that we encounter, especially at those times when we least expect it. But it is also the force that the inner life can and must fight in order to be able to rise to a higher plane. If the inner life of the soul is strong enough, then it will overcome the resistance of that moment and be able to proceed. Thus the impediments may turn into milestones on the path that we have to follow.
However, on the spiritual path, where the personality-being is the disciple of the soul, resistance to the inner life is exercised through the personality. And therein lies the great danger of the ‘children’s massacre.’
The higher self of man arouses in the lower self the desire to walk a spiritual path. But the lower self on its own does not feel the slightest need to do so because it knows that it will then have to recede into the background.
In the narrative, Herod even invites the three wise men to his court. He wants them to supply as much information as possible about the new-born king in order to be able to effectively combat him; the personality-being considers himself more excellent than the powers of the soul and makes every effort to maintain his position. Obviously, this plan fails; the wise men know better …
And so they told the secret to the parents of the child, and bid them flee beyond the reach of harm.
Joseph and Mary, the head and the heart, are informed about what to do from within: to protect the young child and flee into Egypt, the symbol of the state of neutrality and silence of the soul. The soul never fights. At most the soul makes itself known to the personality from within by means of suggestions on how to act.
The natural reaction of the personality is to fight the Jesus and John within him.
To which voice will he/she listen..?
In this delicate early stage, there is only one way to escape the inner and outer violence… by taking flight, that is, by rushing to a place where the threats are much reduced. In practice, this means: protecting yourself as much as possible from harmful influences and thereby opening yourself to the whispers of the other life.
Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt with their child (Egypt is also the symbol of the Mysteries, the force field of the soul). Along with Elizabeth and John, they have been taught in the mystery schools of Elihu and Salome. They have overcome their resistances; Herod dies. In Zoan the inner Man as well as the personality receive the insight and strength to further devote themselves to their task. That is the great miracle of the Mysteries.