30 September 2013

Ancient Advice


[QUOTING]

Saith the pupil:

'O, Teacher, what shall I do to gain Wisdom? O, Wise one, what to gain Perfection?'

Search for the Paths. But, O candidate, be of clean heart before thou startest on thy journey. Before thou takest thy first step, learn to discern the Real from the false, the ever-fleeting from the Ever-Lasting. Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the "Eye" from the "Heart" doctrine.

Yea, ignorance is like unto a closed and airless vessel; the Soul, a bird shut up within. It warbles not, nor can it stir a feather; but the songster mute and torpid sits, and of exhaustion dies

But even ignorance is better than Head-learning with no Soul-Wisdom to illuminate and guide it.

The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it to the Diamond Soul. Seek not those points in the realm of Illusion, but soar beyond illusions, search the Eternal and Changeless Absolute, mistrusting fancy's false suggestions.

For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek, O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and they Soul.

Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body -- the shrine of thy sensations -- seek in the Impersonal for the "eternal man", and having sought him out, look inward.

Shun praise, O Devotee. Praise leads to self-delusion. Thy body is not self, thy SELF is in itself without a body, and either praise or blame affects it not.

Self-gratulation, O disciple, is like unto a lofty tower, up which a haughty fool has climbed. Thereon he sits in prideful solitude, unperceived by anyone but himself.

False learning is rejected by the Wise, and scattered to the winds by the Good Law. Its Wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud.

There is but one road to the Path. At its very end alone "The Voice of the Silence" can be heard. The ladder by which the candidate ascends is formed of rungs of suffering and pain. These can be silenced only by the voice of Virtue. Woe, then, to thee, O Disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast not left behind. For then the ladder will give way and overthrow thee; its foot rests in the deep mire of thy sins and failings, and ere thou canst attempt to cross this wide abyss of matter thou has to lave thy feet in the Waters of Renunciation.

Beware lest thou should'st set a foot still soiled upon the ladder's lowest rung. Woe unto him who dares pollute one rung with miry feet. The foul and viscous mud will dry, become tenacious, then glue his feet unto the spot, and like a bird caught in the wily fowler's lime, he will be stayed from further progress. His vices will take shape and drag him down. His sins will raise their voices like as the jackals laugh and sob after the sun goes down; his thoughts become an army, and bear him off, a captive slave.

"The Voice Of The Silence" from The Book of the Golden Precepts - translated by Helena P. Blavatsky

[END QUOTING]

Before setting one's foot on the Path, one must be certain to count the cost, for there is no going back.

~ g
.

19 September 2013

The Divine Twin


[QUOTING]

A FRIEND - A HELPER

Long time ago, I heard a little story. I think it originates in Auroville in India. This story tells about how a Higher Plane opens up.

A human being sleeps and dreams deeply of a wonderful landscape covered in blossoming plants and a variety of fruits. He eats the fruit and inebriates in the scent of the blossoms. Awakening from this dream, he realizes that he is actually in the desert. The sand around him extends to the horizon. He is alone, nobody in sight, not even a camel he could ride. He is shocked, petrified. He immediately knows: "I have to leave".

He ties up his sandals in order to go and suddenly notices that someone beside him is also tying up his sandals. This person talks to him: "Look, I have always been by your side. I existed before you, and I will exist after you. Now I will be with you until the end of days. Follow me".

Here, the story describes the psychological moment where a human being becomes aware of his inner Divine Twin, his friend and helper: a completely different state-of-consciousness then. This often happens in a moment of crisis, when the Ego is helpless, when it is silent. Virtually every human being experiences such situations in his life. He is literally "called to come home". However, the Ego, in its urge for self-preservation immediately masks this moment. Thus, it prevents the opening of the Higher Plane where man may think, live and be Free.

Everyone of us is a two-fold being: mortal according to our biological aspect, and Immortal according to our inner Divine Seed, Thus, two voices speak in us. The Inner Man wants to return to his Origin, while the Ego tries to fulfill himself in matter. This will last until the psychological moment comes when we will listen to the Voice of our inner God.

The Other State-of-Being exists beyond ambivalence; it is untouchable and exists here in the same space. However, due to its higher level of vibration, it seems remote to us.

SPIRIT, LOVE, CHRIST

There is a gap between our present life and the Pure, Unlimited Life of Eternity. In order to fill this gap, great founders of a religion and Teachers of mankind have appeared. The core of any religion is to carry out the process of Transformation of the mortal existence into an Immortal existence. Religions show the way not only to our own spiritual  heart, but also to the "heart of the world", to the center of the "holy Earth". Even the Earth has a Divine spiritual aspect. It is connected to the spiritual aspect of the Sun. It is a path leading to the spiritual fields of the Earth and Sun-system. Those who follow this way, connect the power of those fields with life on Earth. Experience has proven that a very long time is necessary until such fruit has been able to ripen. However, in every microcosm there is a time when the Divine Voice awakens and is heard. The radiation-field, which emanates from the spiritual being of our Earth, stimulates this process.

Astronauts who have observed our wonderful blue planet from above more than once have asked themselves why are there boundaries, why do people make war on each other? It is our own ego-centric consciousness which misleads us to make war. A war does not begin when the weapons are used; it starts with our thinking. If one considers mankind a body, it is as if some cells refuse to be of service to the whole organism. They fight against each other. Seen as a total entity, we are sick.

The forces of the spiritual Earth are also called the forces of Christ. They want to change and cleanse us, they want to eliminate ambivalence in order to renew our Soul. They want to free the Immortal Man, the Divine Twin in us, from the endless circle of incarnations of the microcosm. They make the spiritual heart in us vibrate and awaken a kind of belief which was unknown to us before. It is both inner Knowledge and Power, which can move mountains.

The 2000-year old narrative of the World Teacher, Jesus, cannot be dismissed as a historical event. This is meaningless. That incident already happened many times and the essence is on the invisible level, in a different dimension. These are universal incidents related to a pure Soul Atmosphere. In a pure Atmosphere where man is able to clean his heart and his thought, The Spirit, Love, Christ, the Divine Other One, may transform the human being atom by atom and cell by cell. Thus, another corporeality is created within the visible body of the personality.

SERVICE TO OTHERS

In the power of Christ, the Gnostic Rosicrucians transform that which is non-precious in them into Spiritual Gold. This is their true Secret: Transfiguration of Soul and Body. In this Power, uncountable entities work on keeping the balance between the nature realms to some extent, and make sure that our world and everything that grows and lives on it can further prosper.

Meanwhile, many movements world-wide try to change the world without conflict. As an initial reaction to the cosmic Christ-impulses, mankind develops a higher group-consciousness. Many young people feel that they are a co-responsible part of mankind. They feel that they are linked to each other although they have never met.

They feel some of the pain that someone else experiences in other parts of the world. They realize that the wealth of Western society is largely maintained at the cost of others. If we want to do justice to life, we need to consider the spiritual basis of our world. We now have the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the Stream that comes from The Absolute into our realms. In our times, the Great Opportunity opens for many to awaken the Immortal Soul by means of the Christ-power.

Today, many of us have the chance to develop the Immortal Soul through the cosmic Christ-power.  The shortest way there is to serve mankind, the Earth, and all its nature realms with the New Consciousness.

In the Bhagavad Gita, one of the holy scriptures of India, we read about The One who lives in all things, in all beings, in all religions:

"In all things, I am only my Self.
Yet, from me the entire All emanates
as a manifestation of my Self"

We encounter each other as members of different streams. We are all needed. Our work is beneficial if it is ensouled by The One who is hidden in the depths of each one of us. In Him we are all One.

From "A Joint Departure Is Possible" - Pentagram - the Journal of the International School of the Golden Rosycross - Lectorium Rosicrucianum, Vol. 35, 2013, Number 4

[END QUOTING]
.

14 September 2013

Thirteenth - Conclusion


[QUOTING]

However, if you are ready for it, if you want to shake off the pressure of the old Twelvefold, and if you long in every fibre for a fresh new start on a new 'thirteenth floor', then this is possible. Then you can break the cycle of life and death, abandon the Twelve and go up into the Thirteenth, the Higher Spiral of Life.  And even if you are unable to do it on your own, it is nevertheless an autonomous process.

Initially, you become aware of how closed you are, at least your emotional sphere, your inner being, your aura. Just as the Pistis Sophia, you go through the mist in order to reach the luminous certainty of the Christ-Field. You are assisted by a group, which carves a shaft through this collective field of mist, and which is actually indispensable in this. It concerns a collective of Light-seeking people and they form a new 'Twelvefold', from which a truly new, Thirteenth (aeon) speaks. It is a truly magical, gnostic-magical miracle! And in others, this Thirteenth will again awaken the 'holy agitation' - the Thirteenth becomes the number of the highest happiness.

From "Thirteenth" - Pentagram - the Journal of the International School of the Golden Rosycross, Vol. 34, 2012, number 4

[END QUOTING]


The Thirteenth Aeon, the radiation-field of the Christ vibration, is here now. It offers its transformative light energies to any and all who can hear its silent Call. Opening the heart, awakening the Divine-Spark within, tunes the seeker to the New Field of Life. All those who receive it will be given the power to become Sons of God once more.

"Unlucky", indeed.

~ g
.

12 September 2013

Thirteenth - Part Two


[QUOTING]

How have these nature-forces become aeons that control humanity, and how has humanity itself erected this prison and evoked these demons? Aeons are electromagnetic powers, and archons are concentrations of these power principles. The aeons are caused by mental activity and by the creation of mental images. Mental images have the property that they are able to increase infinitely, provided that they are nourished by a similar mental activity. In this way, nature-gods are formed, nature-forces that will wholly control the human being.

The head is continually busy thinking how the desires of the heart can be fulfilled. These mental images and desires do not have the same nature and vibration and, consequently, neither have the created aeons. Clouds of the lowest vibration have gathered closely around the earth. Layer after layer has been formed, with, at the top, the layer with the highest vibration. This exceedingly varied 'reflection-sphere' forces humanity to continue its fateful course.

The forces and energies of these spheres are able to penetrate the human vehicles so that the human imprisonment is virtually complete. Man is lived. No one is able to get out on his own strength. A 'thirteenth one' is needed for this. This thirteenth one exists in what the ancient Gnosis called: the Thirteenth Aeon, the radiation-field of The Christ. It is the radiation-field of the Original, Divine Nature that has one goal only: to transform the material world consisting of two poles, the pairs of opposites, to the transparent world of The Unity.

In our time, the vibrational frequency of the earth increases and, therefore, everyone reacts to the Touch from the spheres of that Field. For each human being, the Thirteenth Aeon creates the possibility to enter a new, Higher Field of Life.

THE REVERSAL

How is the human being able to bid farewell to what is old, that is, to the Twelve ruling powers and to concentrate on what is new, on the Thirteenth Aeon ? It is clear that a human being cannot possibly walk this Path if he still experiences the touch of the the Twelve ruling aeons in his daily life as a pleasure.

And here we see the reversal of the "Holy Thirteenth' into the "doom-predicting thirteenth". In general, people who do not have the desire to fathom the great question of The Why, feel quite alright in this world. They prefer that everything stay as it is -  at least, no illness and war, of course - but basically, they are not fundamentally troubled by what they find within time and space and within themselves. And yes, if then the thirteenth fairy enters the stage uninvited (!), and predicts that the Sleeping Beauty will prick herself and sleep for a hundred years -  as a symbol for humanity and for every human being in whom the Divine Principle is still asleep - this thirteenth fairy still does not cause any undue alarm.

Thirteen is threatening, thirteen breaks through what is familiar, and in this way, the Holy Number 13, the number of the New Dimension, the Higher Spiral, becomes an "unlucky" number. We do not want it...We skip the thirteenth floor.

End Part Two

From "Thirteenth" - Pentagram - the Journal of the International School of the Golden Rosycross, Vol. 34, 2012, number 4

[END QUOTING]
.

11 September 2013

Thirteenth


[QUOTING]

Thirteen.

It is Friday the thirteenth. On the radio, we hear that there will, statistically, be fewer accidents on this day than on other Fridays with the same weather conditions. Conclusion: people are more careful or people stay at home.

Another example: you are planning your wedding, but everything has been booked already. Only Friday the thirteenth is still available. You book a holiday: there is no chair 13 in the plane, there is no room 13 in the hotel and not even a 13th floor. Peculiar, how persistent an old superstition continues on both sides of the ocean even into the 21st century. It must be something that goes very deeply. What would be its origin?

TWELVE

The number twelve is a quite different story. Throughout history, society and culture have been familiar with it. There were twelve gods on Mount Olympus, we know the twelve labors of Hercules, and the twelve tables in the epic of Gilgamesh. There were twelve tribes of Israel, twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve precious stones of the high priest and Jesus had twelve apostles. Orthodox Christianity knows the twelve holy nights, adopted from the mid-winter time of the Germanic peoples, during which time seemingly stops for a while, until the birth of Christ is celebrated on the thirteenth night. The Book of Revelations speaks of a city with twelve gates and a tree with twelve fruits. The Round Table of King Arthur had twelve knights, and the jury system knows twelve members of the jury. There are twelve signs of the zodiac, fairy tales speak of twelve princes, brothers, fairies, etc.

And the human body has twelve pairs of cranial nerves.

PRIME NUMBERS

Twelve is a so-called 'rich number'. It can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, the sum of the divisors being greater than the number itself. Such 'rich numbers' are rare. They express a fullness: they contain all possibilities that exist. It is like a cornucopia. The whole of the twelve is waiting to be fulfilled. If no new situation arises, we can only fall back on what is old and familiar. This twelve, as a quality, expresses a desire for liberation from the cycle of spatiality. And the thirteen, a prime number (= indivisible), brings this liberation and leads the twelve to a New Reality: the world of unification with what is Higher. The number 13 contains the "1" as its deeper essence This "1" liberates the twelve from its cycle and grants it the spiral upward course.

Earthly space and time, within which the human being walks his path of life, gains his experiences, and within which the human being is imprisoned, is expressed by twelve. Twelve is the fullness of positive as well as negative.

In the book, The World Brotherhood of the Rosycross, we can read in a text by Rudolf Steiner that in the 13th century, the Brotherhood of the Rosycross consisted of a college of twelve men, who had assimilated the sum total of the spiritual wisdom of ancient times. The 13th, Christian Rosycross, was like a new birth of the twelve streams of wisdom.

Hermes Trismegistus ascertains that the natural human being is, independent from his ordinary behavior, dominated by twelve fundamental vices. He calls them ignorance, grief and sorrow, intemperance, desire, injustice, greed, deceit, envy, guile, anger, thoughtlessness, malice. They stem from the twelve elements of the zodiac, the twelve primordial forces of this nature.  These primordial forces have become what the Gospel of Pistis Sophia  calls 'the twelve aeons'. We may derive from this that the human being is not only imprisoned in space and time, but is also in the grip of these twelve aeons, as in boundless grief. Just look around you.

End Part One

From "Thirteenth" - Pentagram - the Journal of the International School of the Golden Rosycross, Vol. 34, 2012, number 4

[END QUOTING]
.

05 September 2013

Re: "Evil Is Independent Of God"


The following is posted in response to a question posed recently in "Cathar Belief and The Gnosis"

Question: If God is the Absolute it encompasses everything that is, was and will ever be; or in an intrinsic sense It IS All that IS. In that context how is it that evil is "independent from GOD"? Likewise how could any realm really be outside of the divine creation

We agree that "All are in The All, The All is in All". This is unequivocably true. It also creates a surface paradox when we encounter statements such as "evil is independent of God". However, upon closer examination, we will see that there is no paradox.

Everything that is exists within The All. Although The All is Unknowable, It can be experienced via Its manifested Creation. A major function of the Creation is this: Virgin, Divine Sparks of The All are sent out into the manifested Creation. Their mission? To explore, experience and enhance the Creation and, by so doing, come to a CONSCIOUS awareness of their Divinity and then return, Divine and fully conscious, to The All.

Each Divine Spark carries within it all of the Perfection and Omnipotence of The All. This has to be true as each Spark originates from and is simultaneously a part of that which is Perfect and Omniscient. In essence, they are Divine, but are not aware of this Divinity because it is their natural state. As the Sparks move deeper into materialization, clothing themselves in ethers that increase in density, some may forget their Divine origins and begin to believe that they are "separate" from The All. This idea of "separation" is a fundamental error. And that is all that "sin" is. Sin = error. Sin does not mean "bad" or "evil", it means "error". This can be proven through careful examination of causes, rather than effects. Behind every sinful or "evil" act that man commits, the idea of "separation", of "I" being-ness, of "me against ----" or "me first" will always be found at the root. This is why it can be said that "evil is independent of God". There is no separation in The All. The idea of separation is a distortion, an error.

The Creator grants Its Divine Sparks the independence, the freedom to explore and experience as they will. If they follow the Divine Blueprint, voluntarily carry out the will of The Creator and remain closely linked to the Divine Kingdom they will - in freedom - experience in harmony with The Creator within Its Creation.

Conversely, entities whose actions are not in harmony with the Divine Plan of Evolution are exiled to areas of the Creation where they can voluntarily experience in error to their heart's content, until their suffering becomes so great that they begin to seek for a way out, a Way Home. These entities cannot be allowed to contaminate the pure, Divine portion of the Creation.

Can you guess where we are?

Although there appears to be a paradox, there really isn't. As a final example, the following crude analogy may help: if a virus invades the body, an immune response is triggered and an attempt is made to segregate the virus from the rest of the body. All of this takes place within the body, but is independent of the parts of the body that are functioning in a healthy manner. The rest of the body continues to function while the threat is isolated and neutralized. Yet, all of this activity takes place within the body.

It is hoped that the foregoing has been of some help.

~ g
.

04 September 2013

"Be My Followers"


[QUOTING]

It is said that Lao Tzu wrote nine hundred and thirty books about ethics and religion and seventy about esotericism. But of all those works and the copies made of them, nothing remains. They have vanished without a trace. The only one of Lao Tzu's works still extant is the Tao Te Ching, a brief document of some five thousand words, covering twelve pages or so. Often, this text is virtually impossible to understand. And maybe that is why it has been spared the fate of the others.

It is the same old story. The primordial Adversary, which has taken so many forms since the beginning of time, did as it always does, using every available means to destroy any documents which appear to threaten the continued existence of the nature-of-death or which contains information about the reality of the two natures. Indeed, over the centuries, many people have fallen victim to the Adversary because of this kind of thing. For it is a fact that, in the nature-of-death, everything possible is done to erase any trace of the Divine messengers.

So there is but one way, one method, of removing all obscurity and confusion that stands between you and The Great Reality. It is the Way, the Method, we have been explaining. You need to approach the actual nature of Tao, which exists in the center of your being. In self-surrender of the heart, and in profound yearning, you need to approach the nature of Tao within you. Then you will discover that there really is an infallible, Divine testimony, a Kingdom of God within you. Since the most distant past, says Lao Tzu, the Divine Essence, which is so near to us, has been imperishable. And it is that Divine Essence which can bring about genuine creation, the Rebirth of what is True and Real.

So let us take a look at how this process of creation can unfold in someone who puts the threefold gnostic method into practice:

First of all, the person needs to withdraw from his own astral field, which belongs to the nature which deviates from the Divine;

Secondly, he needs to dissociate from the astral field of the group to which he belongs as a result of his birth in this nature;

Thirdly, he needs to dissolve any astral ties there may have been between himself and the astral field of the nature-of-death as a whole.

At first sight this threefold assignment seems like an inescapable wall, barring our way. Yet it is the same task that has been carried out by all the Great Ones throughout history, by all the Children of God. It is exactly the Path that Jesus the Lord exemplified on His via dolorosa. The Kingdom He sought and found was 'not of this world'. That is why He immersed Himself in the waters of the Jordan, the river of life, and why He overcame the Adversary.

So if you want to become a real follower of Christ -- and you can, because the Kingdom of God is within you -- you must make a concrete beginning. With an all-encompassing desire in which your whole heart is absorbed, you must turn towards the 'Lord in your Midst'. If you cannot yet summon up that kind of desire, or if it costs you a great deal of effort -- well, then your time has not yet come. No one can force you to produce that boundless longing of the heart. You cannot achieve it by means of exercises or through an intellectual decision. It is a state-of-being, rather like being in love.

From The Chinese Gnosis - Catharose di Petri

[END QUOTING]


Do we know what is meant when we are told that 'The Kingdom of God is within you?". It is not just some comforting platitude. It is a living truth, it is a literal reality. Your Spirit-spark atom, your Divine-Spark, The Rose of the Heart, is composed of Divine matter, from the Original Realm, a nature-order which has nothing to do with either the material-sphere or the reflection-sphere (the so-called 'heaven-worlds').

In order to awaken this Spark, one must be ready to part with all that this world has to offer. We must kill our desire for the things of this world. There must be a deep yearning for that Kingdom which we cannot yet see, but which, through a newly developed insight, we know does exist.

Jesus, the Christ, the Prototype of the Liberated Man, set forth the requirements for walking the Path via the demonstration of His life. He passed on important guidance and information to all who would hear, albeit in various stages of detail. To the curious crowds, he spoke in parables which left most of them in confusion. Why? Because they did not have The Key and therefore, were not given to know. To His disciples, He presented deeper teachings and to His Apostles, He entrusted the greatest secrets. These latter two groups were much smaller than the former, but their influence was infinitely greater. After the departure of the Christ,  they carried forth and spread the Pure Teachings to those who were ready for them, those who had "ears to hear".

These Pure Teachings are with us even today, embedded in the gospels of the New Testament. They remain disguised to the profane masses but speak plainly to all who possess The Gnostic Key. This is why many are baffled, confused and frustrated by the New Testament. They are like the curious masses referred to above. Without The Key, they will never be able to comprehend what has been set before them.

Those who are ready to awaken their Divine Spark and begin the process of building the New Soul need only to look towards the Living Example set by the Divine Avatar two thousand years ago. There was a reason that he spoke these words to all who would aspire in the future to walk the Path of Return:

'Be My Followers'.

'Followers' not in the sense of worship and adoration, but 'followers' in the sense of imitating His life. If we follow that Example assiduously to the Good End, we too will triumph over death and regain Immortality.

~ g
.

02 September 2013

Cathar Belief and The Gnosis

 
The following should not be construed to be "Cathar beliefs", originated from and the exclusive property of this preceding brotherhood. These are some of the pillars of gnostic thought, existing since time immemorial and passed down through the ages like a lantern in a storm. All truly spiritual gnostics will recognize these tenets, no matter their time, place, race, national or planetary origin. 

[QUOTING]

According to Antonin Gadal, the spiritual source from which Catharism emanated is undeniably Gnostic.

Here are some of the explanations he used to give:

"Gnosis is the knowledge of all that is related to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Return to Divine Life. It is the Christian synthesis of all the philosophies of Liberation scattered in the world before the coming of Christ. Like all the spiritual traditions, the Gnosis considers the world as an illusion, a pseudo creation, unstable, imperfect. The only, unique Reality is in God.

Without God’s Knowledge, men chain themselves to an unreal, material world. To go beyond matter in order to get closer to God, to consider sufferings as a basis for purification, to follow, tirelessly, the path of Perfection, is, to summarize, trying to get as close as possible to the purity of Jesus Christ, the divine Master.

How to achieve this? By the practice of the Endura”!

=========================

Breaking Free from Illusion

To get away from matter, we must break with the links that tie us up to the world of the senses. Breaking free from matter is to break the hold it exerts on our senses, to conquer the individual or collective illusions it produces; it is to renounce the ego. Only then shall we be able to come back spiritually to the world and work for its redemption because then matter has no hold on us anymore.

Such is the work of initiation of the Perfects, the Pure Ones or “Bons hommes”, the Cathar priests. Detachment, renunciation of all forms of instincts and passions, self-abnegation: poverty in spirit, the “Endura” of the Cathars.’

To break free from the grip of matter and evil does not imply that there is an evil god. ‘God is love.’ Gnostics, Cathars, Rosicrucians and Templars never believed in two Gods. As such, they never were ‘di-theists’. They recognized in Jesus the Divine Word manifested to us as a man, uniting the Divine essence with human nature through the appearance of a human being. That Word awakens in men’s souls the remembrance of the lost Kingdom. It opens in them the sources of the sanctifying Spirit for a complete Liberation".

=========================

What is the cross?

- Master, if Christ had an ethereal body, did He not suffer? Did He not die on the cross?

- He suffered 'in spirit'. His soul was tortured in the agony of Gethsemane.  But He did not die! A God cannot die!

The cross is the human body through which the divine soul goes its 'path of the cross': From Bethlehem (the heart) to Golgotha (the mount of the skull) to his resurrection, passing through hell (the sacral plexus, the subconscious) and to the eternal Fatherland (the Father).

========================

Who Is Lucibel?

He is the one who sets the dawn. The most famous and glorious of all angels. The highest of  God’s creatures.

How did he fall?

Arbitrary will and rebellion; disproportionate ambition; immoderate desires. He is less guilty than unfortunate; the chief of the exiled souls who willingly accompanied him in his ruin.

========================

Will All Souls Be Saved?

All of them! After countless series of ordeals and purifications, after the hard trials to reach Perfection, they will go back up into the Azure. 

Look at this Ocean of Ether. It is sparkled with fire islands, archipelagos of light. They are the souls’ stations in the space, the many mansions Christ talks about, the Path of the Stars. The souls will climb from star to star, from constellation to constellation up to God’s bosom.

During that process, the soul unties all its earthly links and puts on the ‘Light Vesture’ that it had to leave behind after the fall into the lower world.

=========================

What About Satan?

Why would Satan be the only outcast excluded from Salvation? God is love! Christ will bring the great outlaw back to Heaven, consoled.

Is Satan not evil? Does absolute, substantial evil exist?

Where would it be, as God is the absolute, substantial, infinite Good? Evil is independent from God. It is non-being established in time, outside of the Divine Creation.

=========================

Who Is Our Patriarch?

It is John, son of Zebedee. John, Jesus’ Beloved who rests on his heart and knows all the mysteries of that Divine heart. The virgin apostle of Love, the Eagle of the mystical theology, the prophet of Patmos, Plato of the Gospel, Homer of the Apocalypse.

He is no pontiff in the Church of the Paraclete, but simply a Master of the Gnosis. His Gospel is called ‘the Spiritual Gospel’ of the Redeeming Word.

‘In the beginning is the Word’ who is God, Life, the Light of men:

- everyone is linked to his lost Divine original Sonship.

‘And the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not receive It’:

- within us and in the world, reign two opposed nature orders.

‘To those who receive It, It gives the power to become children of God’:

- deliverance is an absolute fact.

From 'Gnosis And Its Foundations'

Source Link: Antonin Gadal - The Work of a Man Inspired By The Spirit

[END QUOTING]

Antonin Gadal was a special human being. It was he who, practically single-handed, kept alive not only the memory of the Cathars, but their essence, their history, their rites and traditions. He was known as the 'Grandfather of the Cathars', 'The Patriarch', and 'the New Bon Homme'. Gadal explored and maintained as best he could the miles of caverns that were used by the Cathars in the Ariège valley. He held on in this capacity, laboring alone until the mid-1940's where he made the acquaintance of two more special human beings. Again, from the site referenced above:

[QUOTING]

There certainly were, in France or elsewhere, broadminded human beings who possessed the soul qualities and wisdom that would have awakened them to the unique Universal life; who would then aspire to that imperishable Treasure of the Light and would have enough love of mankind to undertake to bring that Knowledge to their consciousness.

Antonin Gadal finally met them. They were a man and a woman of Dutch origin: Jan Leene (Jan van Rijckenborgh) and Mrs. Henny Stok-Huizer (Catharose di Petri). In the Netherlands, they had founded a school of thought, a Gnostic Brotherhood, the Spiritual School of the Golden Rosycross.

[END QUOTING]

These three, linked by their genuine spirituality and devotion to the Liberation of mankind would eventually join forces in 1956 to form the youngest link in the Chain of Universal Brotherhoods. Grail, Cathar and Rosycross were united in a Tri-Unity of Light.

~ g
.

The Cathars - Part 4


Inquisition

We hear much about the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century and its atrocities. Little to nothing is mentioned of the Papal-ordered Inquisition that preceded it in the South of France during the 13th century. A snapshot is presented below.

[QUOTING]

It is an obligation of every good Catholic to reveal any heretic he knows. The officials of the King and the Count of Toulouse are to seek them out and a substantial reward is offered for anyone who reveals a heretic and procures his condemnation. A Council was convened at Toulouse by the Papal legate which formulated forty-five canons for the purging of the country of heresy. These canons codified a whole procedure of search, pursuit and repression, the first outlines of what shortly afterwards became the Inquisition.

The bishops were to appoint a priest and two laymen in each parish who were to take an oath to seek out heretics and their abettors, and for this purpose they were authorized to search houses, barns, cellars, anywhere they had reason to suspect a Cathar might be hiding. Those who gave shelter to a heretic were to have their houses burned and their goods confiscated. Any official who was not considered zealous enough in hunting out heretics was liable to the confiscation of his goods, while any lord on whose territory too many heretics were found was liable to lose his lands. Every man over fourteen and every woman over twelve was to take an oath of fidelity to orthodoxy and swear to seek out and denounce heretics. Those who failed to take this oath or who did not come to communion and confession three times a year were to be treated as suspected of heresy.

No layman was to possess a copy of the Scriptures except a psalter, breviary, and the canonical Hours, and all in Latin. Catharists who were converted voluntarily to Catholicism were obliged to wear a yellow cross sewn on their clothes front and back, to live in a Catholic city, and to lose all civil rights. Those who were converted only after proceedings against them had been taken suffered imprisonment and the confiscation of their goods. Finally, no heretic was to practice as a doctor and persons dangerously ill were to be watched to prevent the approach of anyone who might confer the Consolamentum, and the making of wills was to be witnessed by a priest.

The collaboration of the civil and religious authority was thus organized for searching out and punishing heresy. At first this repression acted intermittently under the ordinary authority of the bishops. But in 1233 Pope Gregory IX made it a permanent and continuous institution and entrusted its exercise to the Dominican Order acting in the name of the Holy See.

"Catharism: The Historical Setting" - The Treasure of Montsegur - Berks, Gilbert

[END QUOTING]


Yes, that Dominican Order, as in the order founded by "Saint" Dominic to mimic the style of the Cathar parfaits who walked the countryside in poverty and humility. The Dominicans were to also play a major role in the Spanish Inquisition two centuries later.

For Cathar sympathizers and supporters, the penalties were severe. This was the Middle Ages, the high point of feudalism. For the people of that time, their land and personal goods were all that stood between them and poverty. The threat of confiscation was not an idle one. We can only imagine the difficult and heart-wrenching decisions that had to be made by those who were confronted by the Inquisition.

This is a vast and complex subject of great significance that has been buried and suppressed for centuries. Not a single mention is made of this Church-sponsored search-and-destroy mission in any history book from elementary school right through college. Part of the reason is that the Church wants to put their role in this episode of history behind them.

The other, more important reason, is that there is no way that the Vatican wants anyone to remember the Cathars or begin researching them. There is no way that they want this "heresy" and its pure doctrine to re-surface ever, ever again. Thankfully, despite those decades of cruelty, injustice and bloodthirstiness, they failed in their objective.

You can't kill the truth.

~ g
.

01 September 2013

The Cathars - Part 3


"Kill them all, God will know His own"

The major centres of Catharism in France were Toulouse, Albi, Beziers, Carcassonne, Narbonne, Foix and the entire Ariege valley.

There were also smaller towns that were firm strongholds of Catharism such as Limoux, Montreal, Castres, Lavaur, Avignonnet, Castelnadaury, Laurac, Fanjeaux, Mirepoix, Saissac, Cabardes and Minerve.

All quotes below are extracted from "Catharism: The Historical Setting" - The Treasure of Montsegur - Birks, Gilbert

[QUOTING]

In January of 1208 matters were brought to a head when Pierre de Castelnau, the Papal legate (authorized representative of Pope Innocent III), after solemnly excommunicating the Count of Toulouse, was murdered by one of the latter's knights. The Pope at once called upon the King of France to drive the Count of Toulouse from his lands and give them to good Catholics 'who under your happy rule will faithfully serve the Lord'.

In July 1209 the Army of the Cross assembled at Lyon under the command of Arnaud-Amaury, the new Papal legate. The numbers are impossible to estimate, but they must have been considerable for the period. The army descended the Rhone river and entered Montpelier, which was still largely a Catholic city, without opposition.

On 22 July the Crusaders arrived before Beziers, which closed its gates. But the over-confidence of the citizens led them to attempt a sortie which, being repulsed, they were driven back in disorder and the Crusaders entered the city and captured it in the ensuing panic. A general massacre followed, and the Papal legate, in answer to the query how Catholics were to be distinguished from heretics, is said to have made the famous reply, "Kill them all, God will know His own".

[END QUOTING]

Anywhere from 7,000 to 15,000 people were slaughtered in this Crusader riot. The numbers involved fluctuate depending upon which historian is involved.

From Beziers, the Crusaders marched on to Carcassonne, which fell after a siege. In quick succession fell Montreal, Limoux and Castres. The Church's war on the Cathars, the Crusade against the "Albigensian heresy", continued apace for the next thirty-five years, culminating in the capture of Montsegur, a 4,000 foot high mountain fortress in the Pyrenees and the last refuge of the Cathar parfaits. During these decades of oppression and suppression, many atrocities were carried out, too numerous to expound upon here. Let the following suffice as a guide:

When a town was captured or capitulated, the Crusaders would force the inhabitants to make a choice: either renounce Catharism or burn at the stake. Surprisingly, many Cathars chose the latter and walked willingly into the fires of their own accord.

[QUOTING]

The orders of the Pope to his legate, Arnaud-Amaury were to "drive out the heretics", which may explain the bloodless surrender at Carcassonne. But this could afford no satisfaction to the Crusaders, nor was it, from the point-of-view of the Church, any real solution, since it merely dispersed the heretics instead of extirpating them. On the other hand, further indiscriminate massacres like that of Beziers could clearly not be countenanced either.

The solution which reconciled these differences was that adopted when the castle of Minerve was captured in 1210. The conditions of capitulation were that the fighting men should go free and Catharist Credents ("believers") would also be free on the condition they made their submission to the Church. As for the true Cathars, 'clothed heretics' they were called on account of their distinctive dress, they were to have the choice of abjuration or being burned at the stake. The Abbot of Vaux-Cernai made an effort to preach to the latter in an attempt to save them but they refused to listen to him and hurled themselves voluntarily into the fire. At Minerve, those who perished were more than one hundred and forty, both men and women.

Thereafter this became the usual procedure and the capture of each castle was accompanied by the burning "with great joy" according to the chronicler, of the Cathars who had taken refuge in it. There was no trial, neither did the Cathars seek to dissemble their quality or hesitate to affirm their faith, and invariably went into the fire of their own accord without even requiring to be led to it. The greatest holocaust was at Lavaur in 1211 where between three and four hundred perished at the stake while the Catharist chatelaine (castle commander) was thrown into a well and stoned to death.

In this manner the elite of the Cathar Church were destroyed during the course of the Crusade.

[END QUOTING]

In conjunction with the physical extermination process being carried out by the crusading hordes on behalf of the Church, an Inquisition was ordered by Pope Innocent III (who chose that name for him?), Its purpose was to sift through the surviving populace, carefully weeding out Cathars-in-hiding or Cathar sympathisers. A bit more on this next.

Please note how the Church used the State as a proxy to carry out its murderous intentions. This has always been so. One need only refer back to how the Pharasaic Sanhedrin goaded and manipulated the Roman state into condemning the man Jesus to death. There are plenty of more modern examples, as well, if one examines history with an objective and critical eye.

This is the pattern.

~ g
.