"The Only-Begotten"

[QUOTING]

We would now like to consider verses 16 and 17 of the thirteenth book of Hermes:

"Therefore, my son, I have at all times listened to the words of the Good Demon. If he had made them available in writing, he would have rendered a great service to the human race. He alone, my son, has spoken truly divine words, since he, as the first-born of God, recognize all things. Thus I once heard him say that all created things are one, and in particular the corporeal beings endowed with intellect; that we live out of potential power, through active power and through the essence of Eternity. That is why the Spirit, just like the Soul thereof, is good. Consequently, the things of the Spirit are undivided and the Spirit, which rules over all things and is the Soul of God, is capable of doing whatever it wills".

We would like to try explaining to you what Hermes means by these words. If we succeed, you may well see shining through them the entire compendium of the gnostic doctrine.

The voice of the 'Good Demon' is nothing less than the voice of the Original Soul. In the western world, the word 'demon' has adverse connotations, because the terms 'demon' and 'demonism' are associated with various evil forces and influences of nature. In antiquity, however, the word 'demon' was used simply to refer to a force or being of nature. The voice of the Good Demon, in our context, is nothing else than the voice of the Original Soul created within every microcosm, to whose voice Hermes says he has always listened.

Anyone endowed with a Soul functioning in a proper way, is capable of eluding all evil. So if we liberate the voice of The Good in our hearts, we will always have in our possession the weapon capable of leading us to freedom. The human race would benefit greatly if it knew this from within, but the heart of the person who allows himself to be led by his physical nature will close up; it petrifies, or as the Bible puts it, it becomes hardened, it grows 'fat'. Not because that person is objectionable, or because he should be totally negated as some yoga systems claim, but because he needs to be guided by the Spirit and the Soul. For the Original Soul is the first-born or only-begotten Son of God.

You may well be familiar with this expression, particularly if you have been brought up in the Christian church. 'Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God' is what you were taught, isn't it? And over and over again the dogma was drummed into you that 'Jesus Christ is the only and absolute Son of the Father'.

As confessors of the Arch-Gnosis, we fully accept this. We believe in this absolutely one and consummate man: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But we divest this ineffable divine truth of all theological and dogmatic fetters. We free it of all those fatal, ecclesiastical trusses because the Good Demon, the Original Pure Soul is, and has been from the beginning, the only-begotten Son of God.

When the dawn of the Universal Manifestation broke and the human life-wave was differentiated into myriads of microcosms, there was a blazing light present in each microcosm. This light was capable of self-realization: It was the only-begotten Son of God manifested in nature. It was the Good Demon or Original Soul.

Only through him, the only-begotten One, can you attain blessedness, completeness. There is no other way. So if you look far away, outside of yourself for that One, if you seek Him in some remote heavenly world, yes, then your vision will become distorted. Then you will be turning from what is within to what is outside. And if, with folded hands, you pray for help to this only-begotten One, whom your misguided vision tells you is sojourning in some heavenly domain or other, then that help cannot be given to you. The Christian revelation of salvation will then have been rendered entirely negative.

Knowing this, the Rosicrucians wholeheartedly confess with respect to the Bible that:

'Blessed is he who possesses it; more blessed is he who reads it; most blessed of all is he who understands it; while he is most equal to God who both understands and obeys it'.

End Part I

"The Only-Begotten Son of God" - The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis Vol. IV - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

Remember, the soul that we have now is nature-born, mortal, temporary. It is not the Original Soul. The Original Soul is locked within our sleeping Divine Spark. It is our duty to free Him from this prison so that it can begin helping us to complete the great process of Change, the Divine Metamorphosis:

Transfiguration.

~ g
.