Review of Lecture 9
Rudolf Steiner's Lecture
cycle
Subject:The Gospel of
St. John
Hamburg, 1908
The
Prophetical Documents
and
The Origin
of Christianity
As we read
each of these twelve lectures together on these twelve Holy Nights of
Christmas I am going to very briefly review the 9th. lecture of this cycle
and proceed to discuss the ideas, thoughts and questions that were
raised within me as I read this lecture and the preceding lectures by Rudolf
Steiner.
Steiner postulates that , ". . . The birth of Christianity appears as something positively necessary
in the whole spiritual course of human events." The advent of Christ could not take place before the time that it did nor after .
After the Great Deluge humanity came
into the period of the Indian culture. This was a time when humans saw the earth
as Maya and as an illusion in comparison to the reality of the spiritual worlds.
It was a time of "memory of" and "longing for" the spiritual worlds
only.
In the second
post-deluge culture known as the Persian culture, ". . . we saw mankind taking
the first step toward growing out of the ancient Indian principle and conquering
physical reality. Still nowhere was there any fondness for sinking into the physical
reality, also there existed nowhere anything like a study of the physical
world."
"Humanity
then passed over into that period of civilization which found its historical
expression in the Babylonian-Assyrian-Chaldaic-Egyptian culture and we have seen
how it happened that the starry heavens were no longer Maya to these people of
the third epoch, but something whose written characters could be read. In all
that still seemed a Maya to the Indians in the course and splendor of the stars,
the Persian saw an expression of the resolutions and purposes of divine
spiritual beings. They gradually accustomed themselves to the idea that outer
reality is not illusion but a revelation, a manifestation of divine-spiritual
beings. Then in the Egyptian civilization, men began to apply what they read in
the stars to the divisions of the earth."
"Thus
gradually a later humanity permeated this material world - looked upon at first
as only Maya -with the spirit, and this spirit also
gradually emerged within the inner soul life of the
human being."
"The human
being gradually reached the point of permeating matter with his spirit and this
increased as time went on. The fourth epoch (Greek/Roman) was that in which he
thoroughly incorporated into matter what he comprehended with his spirit."
". . . in the
fourth epoch the human being had reached the point where he objectified
his own spirituality, his own ego (I AM) and had placed it out in the
world. We perceive how gradually he permeated matter with his own spirit,
with his ego-spirit."
Humanity had
now reached the point where it could now accept the Christ (the Divine, Cosmic
EGO-I AM) in a human form. Humanity could now accept the reality that spirit can
permeate matter and that a God of the highest order could become 'flesh' which
is what the Gnostics could never accept. We see that the incarnation of Christ
could not come prior to this time nor after but rather, "Christianity could
arise only at a time when men were not so deeply immersed in matter that they
were likely to overestimate its (matter's) worth; when they were not yet plunged
so deeply into matter as is the case in our age, but were still able to
spiritualize it and to penetrate it."
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That's a very
brief synopsis of this lecture most of which are quotes from Steiner.For those
who wish to continue with this discussion there are other issues (questions)
that I wish to address which have come up while reading these lectures. For
instance, the Deluge story of the Bible and other sagas throughout various
cultures that speak of a deluge calamity. Certainly Steiner speaks of it as the
time of the sinking of the Atlantean continent which now forms the bed of the
Atlantic ocean. It was a calamity which was brought about primarily by
the practice of Black Magic as Steiner expresses it. There are others of
course who have their own specific views about the time that can also be
referred to as the ending of the last Ice Age. Those views often entail the
theories of a 'pole shift' such as Charles Hapgood's 'earth crust
displacement' theory and Immanuel Velikovsky's 'dark neutron star' theory'. Most
geophysicists reject both of these theories and others like them by simply
saying that it is geophysically impossible for the earth to 'flip-over' on its
axis. Many who hold to the 'pole-shift' theory say that approximately 12,000
years ago (as Steiner also holds that the sinking of the Atlantean continent was
12,000 years ago) around the time of the ending of the Ice Age the North
Magnetic pole was located at what is now the southern portion of the Hudson Bay.
This could explain why the North American continent was covered by ice glaciers
and Siberia had a very mild climate at that time. Much of North America would
have been within or near the Arctic Circle centered in the southern portion of
the Hudson Bay. If there had been a pole shift and the north magnetic pole
shifted from Hudson Bay to where it is today the consequences had to have
been disastrous. We know that the earth flattens somewhat at the poles and
bulges at the equator.When these areas were suddenly no longer poles and
the equator they had to have gone through dramatic changes as well as the areas
that became the new poles and equator. One would think that these areas were
areas of great earthquakes with deep fissures that spewed out both lava and
water which had poured into the opened fissures from the seas and oceans and
back out again and then over the earth itself. A pole shift also must have
created large coastal and possibly continental flooding. When Steiner began
discussing the post- Deluge cultures in this lecture, these questions (of a pole
shift) came to my mind.
Another issue
that is of interest is the mentioning of Moses' experience of the 'I
AM'. Drawing from Steiner and other writers of anthroposophical literature
there is a question as to the actual experience of Moses on Mt. Sinai. I believe
that we can speak of the Mt. Sinai experience in a very
esoteric manner without losing the historical aspect of what is more
commonly accepted. Did Moses actually climb a mountain? Possibly! However, this
expression is often veiled language for a very deep meditative state in which
the individual in question is experiencing an altered and elevated state of
consciousness. Moses reaches his inner 'I Am'; that is, he experiences his
own 'burning bush' which again is esoteric language for one's own 'I Am'.
At the same time he also experiences the outer Cosmic EGO-I AM which lives
in all there is and which is the seed force of our own EGO-I AM. In
Steiner's 'The Calendar of the Soul' in the verse of the 11th. week he
says, ". . . the human 'I' can lose itself and find itself within the
Cosmic 'I'" The lower astral 'I' (personality) is what one loses but deep
within, one finds one's true 'I' and with that experience one then also finds
and experiences the Cosmic 'I' of the Christ. What does Moses receive
in the Commandments? One Commandment he receives says, "You shall not take
the 'NAME' of the Lord, your God, in vain." What is the true 'NAME' of
Christ? It is 'I AM'. We receive the Christ Impulse in us over time through many
incarnations. We receive it into our own Ego-I AM where it flowers and
increases over many lifetimes. It is not to be taken in 'vain' but It (the EGO-I
AM Impulse of Christ) is to be taken into our own EGO-I AM in
'Full Freedom' and in 'Full Consciousness'; "For out of the Pleroma
(Fullness), we have received grace upon grace." This is a major
advancement in the evolution of human consciousness. Moses comes down from the
mountain and sees the people idolizing the golden calf or what could be
understood as the lower astral self. The people themselves are a picture of all
the lower, instinctive impulses that still fill the astral soul and which
obscure the higher 'I AM' self to which Moses is a testament. Though the tablets
are an external form of law, in time with the internalization of the Christ I AM
into our own I AM and soul we will eventually internalize the Law within
ourselves which eventually purges the lower astral self of its lower impulses.
This is symbolically portrayed in Exodus by Moses throwing the tablets down
at the base of the mountain and having the Levites slay those who would not
stand with Moses and later fusing the golden calf in fire and
turning it into powder,"which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites
drink." The Law then becomes internalized as there will then come a time when
Thou will no longer kill and Thou will no longer steal and Thou will no
longer take the 'NAME' of the Lord, your God, in vain.
In the Bible
another significant mention is made of a 'bush' which again can be read
symbolically as one's own Ego. In the account of Abraham who is told by God to
slay his own son we also have the ram caught in the bush. Here Abraham ascends a
hill and answers to God with the expression, "Here I AM". What we see is the
beginning of the dissolution of a blood-related group consciousness that was so
prominent in the times of the Old Testament. How often does Steiner mention this
that in the Old Testament we often are confronted with the old blood-ties of
consciousness and in the New Testament we see the full emergence of the
individuated I-consciousness. An angel comes to Abraham and again he
answers, "Here I AM". The angel tells Abraham not to slay his son. The old
blood-tie group consciousness had not yet run its full course in human
evolution. However, the 'sacrificial ram' (the future advent of Christ) in
the 'bush' (the human EGO-I AM) portends to the future when Christ will descend
to earth to give to us HIS 'Pleroma' (fullness of Grace; that is, His Self
as a source of spiritual Life from which we can draw while here on
earth).
Steiner often
makes mention of the fact that the author of the Gospel of St. John is referred
to as "the Disciple whom the Lord loved." We know from Steiner that this
Disciple is the Christ-initiated Lazarus who's name is now John. He is the
author of this Gospel, as the term ". . . the Disciple whom the Lord loved"
is 'mystery' language for expressing the fact that Lazarus/John is Christ's
most spiritually advanced pupil in esotericism and who was initiated by Christ
Himself. However, as Steiner makes it clear, John is never
referred to in the Gospel by his name but is only referred to as ". . .the
Disciple whom the Lord loved" in order to present to us that here lies a mystery
of a very high order. The old order of initiation was enacted upon Lazarus 'in
public' with the 'raising from the dead' which now sealed the fate of
Christ as the Pharisees were keepers of the old, exclusive and secretive
order of initiation. Christ now brought a new form of initiation to the earth.
One that can be exercised in full consciousness and is fully connected with the
Being of Christ Himself. The spiritual worlds can be ascertained in full
consciousness by developing one's own soul and spiritual capacities. Christ
brings to the earth the impulses to do this on our own.
Steiner
raises another often overlooked fact in the Gospel of St. John. This is the fact
that the "Mother of Jesus" is never named in the Gospel but is only referred to
as the "Mother of Jesus". At the Marriage at Cana it reads : ". . .and the
Mother of Jesus was there ;" also it reads "His Mother says to the servants."
When we get to the crucifixion in the Gospel, here it reads :
John
19:25
"There
stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother, and His Mother's
sister Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary
Magdalene."
Steiner points out that it is not customary for siblings to
have similar names today and it was not the
custom in those days either. The 'mystery' here is that the
"Mother of Jesus" by the Cross is not
the actual Mother of Jesus but rather
she is the step-mother of Jesus. The 'Mary' of the Luke Gospel is the actual
Mother of Jesus of Nazareth who passed away shortly after the 12 year old
Jesus was found after '3 days' (another expression of a very significant
initiation) in the Temple. Later this Jesus became the step-son
of Mary of the Matthew Gospel whom Joseph of the Luke Gospel had
married as the Joseph of the Matthew Gospel had already passed away.
My understanding then is that Mary and Joseph of the Matthew Gospel
were not originally named Mary and Joseph. They were given these names to
portray the 'mystery' roles that both were to enact in giving birth to the
being of Zarathustra whose name means 'radiant star'. The name of
Zarathustra gives rise to the 'star' that guided the three wise men (who were
past initiates of Zarathustra in past lives). As Steiner has so often
spoken before, names in the past were not given so arbitrarily as they are
today. Names were specifically given in the 'mysteries' to denote the role
one is given in life and often to convey the level and kind of
initiation that one has attained. We see it so often in the Bible
that names are radically changed when an individual has a very profound
spiritual experience, such as : Abram becomes Abraham , Jacob becomes
Israel , Saul becomes Paul and Lazarus becomes John. So here in the Gospel
of John the writer wishes to point to a deep 'mystery' which in time will
be revealed and understood by many in that there were actually two
Jesus childs. While in the Temple at the age of twelve one disincarnated from
the body of the Jesus of the Luke Gospel and that the Jesus of the Matthew
Gospel (Zarathustra) then incarnated into this body after he had disincarnated
from his own body which then died soon after.
In this 9th.
lecture Steiner asks a very profound question : "Who was the father" (of Jesus)
? He applies this question specifically to not only the Gospel of John but
especially to the Gospel of Luke. Why? Steiner refers to the Annunciation
when ". . .it was proclaimed : "
Luke
1:35
"The Holy
Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow
thee;
therefore also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God"
Quoting
Steiner from this lecture he says, "Even in the Gospel of St. Luke it is pointed
out that the father of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. This must be taken
literally . . ." However, Steiner in his own lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke
makes it clear that Jesus was conceived normally and that it was not a
'miraculous conception'. He says that Joseph was the father of Jesus. There
seems to be a contradiction until we look at two small but very important
passages in the Gospel of Luke. These passages refer to the 'voice' of Mary. In
the early chapters of the Luke Gospel (chapters 1&2) so much emphasis
is placed upon some form of vocal expression. The voice is a prominent
component of these early chapters. When we look at Mary,
however , there are two passages that are very significant. They are
:
Luke
1:41-42
"And it
came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe in her
womb leapt.
And
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice . .
."
Luke
1:44
"For behold
the moment that the 'sound' of thy greeting came to my ears,
the babe in
my womb leapt for joy."
We know from
Anthroposophy that the human voice in the future will be an organ for bringing
new life into being. That the Power of the Holy Spirit, that is
the Spirit-Self (Manas) aspect of the transfigured astral body (soul), has
given to Mary the beginning stages of a capacity to bring life into being
through the power of her 'spiritualized' voice. While in the womb of Mary,the
body of Jesus was being worked upon in a very special way by the life giving
forces of her voice which in turn would give this body much of what was
necessary to be the eventual vehicle for the incarnation of the Logos; the
Christ.
In Steiner's
lecture cycle 'Occult Signs and Symbols' he states :
"At present
the larynx is at the beginning of its development, but in times to come it will
be transformed into a spiritualized organ of reproduction."
"As men in
the future will be able to call people into being through their speaking, so it
was that the forerunner of mankind, the gods, were gifted with an organ with
which they expressed all things that are around us today."
However, when
humans achieve this ability the planet "will consist of fiery matter" and humans
will call forth humans of fiery form. The voice of Mary acting upon
the body of Jesus was the prefiguration of this future capacity of our
future selves. The same voice that gives us the ability to
address oneself as "I AM" will in the future create life itself as
the Logos (WORD) creates life now.
Returning to
Luke 1:35 which in part reads,". . . that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God ." The phrase 'Son of God' or more
specifically the term 'Son' is often a reference to any EGO-I AM. If we look at
Mary as a figure that is a personification or archetypal image of the human soul
we have the image of the human soul giving birth to the 'Son of God' within the
soul. That is, the soul gives birth to the EGO-I AM. The EGO-I AM then is born
to which it gradually develops over time in a sequence of physical earthly
incarnations. It is the EGO-I AM to which Luke is more specifically
referring when he gives us the genealogy of Jesus in his Gospel. It is purposely
placed immediately after the Baptism in the Jordan when
the Christ at that point in time (which is the "turning point of time" as
Steiner refers to it) had incarnated into the body of Jesus of Nazareth. It
is Christ that brings our EGO-I AM along in its on-going development and it is
here that Luke wishes to show that when Christ entered a human form and
soul He brought with Him the ' First Principle' from which every human
EGO-I AM can draw its life and begin its ascension. In the Luke Gospel we
are given a genealogy that ascends all the way back to ADAM, then to
God. What we are given here is the distinction between the genealogy of Luke and
that of Matthew. In the Luke Gospel the physical genealogy and blood-line
is not so much the issue as the body of Jesus in the Luke Gospel is more
of a creation of the forces of Mary's spiritualized 'voice' once
the physical conception has been consummated. In the Matthew Gospel,
however, we have the word 'begot' throughout the entire genealogy. This is a
much stronger form of description of physically passing on the blood-line than
what the Luke Gospel uses. Here in the Matthew Gospel we see that the
actual physicality of a descending genealogy is emphasized in passing on
the blood-line. The blood-line is in a descending order which is
significant because it also alludes to us that here we see the
eventual path of the EGO-I AM descending deeply into matter. It is also a
genealogy that places much importance on past human 'history' and it is the
genealogy of Zarathustra (radiant star). In Luke we are given a genealogy
that looks to the 'future' though it returns us to ADAM. It returns us to ADAM
because the further back we go in human history the more spiritualized was human
consciousness. However, what was missing was the capacity to stand within the
spiritual realms with one's own individuated consciousness. Our
consciousness then was really nothing more than the consciousness of higher
spiritual beings permeating our own souls. We had no
true individuated consciousness. Only by gradually descending
further into matter (The Fall) did we then develop an individuated
consciousness because we moved further and further from the spiritual realms as
we moved deeper within matter and consequently deeper within our own
selves. We were then ready to slowly receive and develop our own EGO-I
AM. The ascending genealogy of the Luke Gospel therefore uses the term
'son' all throughout until it returns to God. Again, Luke places it after the
Baptism in the Jordan (the point in time when Christ finally appears on earth as
He incarnates into the human body of the Luke Jesus) because with Christ now
here on earth the human EGO-I AM over future eons ascends back to God; that is,
it ascends and the earth spiritually transfigures back to the spiritual
worlds. With this ascending genealogy Luke therefore shows us that as our
consciousness ascends back to its former spiritually endowed capacity (the ADAM
consciousness which reaches up to God and the spiritual worlds) we will
'also' have with it an individuated, awakened, Christ-filled, ascended
EGO-I AM consciousness which is to be attained in full
freedom.
One final
point of interest is a statement that Steiner once made in reference to the
Crucifixion. He said:
"The Cross
on Calvary is the seed of a new cosmos."
This cosmos
is to be a cosmos of LOVE. As the Moon Period (the earth's and this solar
system's previous incarnation) was the cosmos of Wisdom in that wisdom was
worked into that cosmic body throughout its entire Moon Period, Love is
now being worked into the earth and this solar system. Human EGO-I AMs are the
seed forces for this cosmic body of Love. It is only in complete freedom and in
full-consciousness that Love can be expressed and given. When this 'Earth
Period' planetary condition is completed and we move into the next which is
called the 'Jupiter Period' planetary condition in Christian Esotericism ". .
.all things will breathe out Love." All things will be permeated with Love. The
conditions of life in the Jupiter planetary condition will be quite different
than what they are now. However, in all of our incarnations we have been
developing into independent beings and that over time we will take in more of
the Christ Impulse into our EGO-I AMs. There it is nurtured and flowers
into the Pleroma (Fullness) of the Grace of Christ. In time we seed the earth
with the living impulses of Love that fill our thoughts, feelings and actions.
The soul and spirit essence of Love from human beings is taken up into the
Christ-imbued, etheric-astral sheath that now envelopes the earth where the
Etheric Christ now lives. This sunlike etheric-astral sheath which we help to
create is the beginning stage of development of the future Jupiter planetary
condition.
The eventual
condition of the present earth is that it will eventually (along with all of the
other planets) reunite with the sun. Christ brought to the earth the forces of
the six Elohim Who reside within the spiritual sphere of the sun. With these
sunlike forces brought by Christ that are now within the sphere of the
earth there is a 'force of attraction' that now impels the one to unite
with the other. The sun and the earth are now impelled to unite with one another
because they both contain within themselves 'like forces'. On a microcosmic
level the same can be said about the relationship of humanity to Christ. Christ
is the Divine and Cosmic EGO-I AM. Within us resides our own EGO-I AM. Here
again a 'force of attraction' is at work. Our EGO-I AM is drawn to the EGO-I AM
of the Christ. Our EGO-I AM becomes increasingly more like the EGO-I AM of
Christ. In like manner on a macrocosmic level our earth becomes increasingly
like a sun until it finally unites with the sun and becomes the 'seed force' for
a new sun.
According to
Steiner, Christ is a Being that comes from spiritual realms beyond the
constellations. He is a Being that stands above all of the Divine Hierarchies
which include humanity up to the Seraphim. What we see in the way of outer
planetary and solar bodies (the planets and the stars) are actually the outer
physical vestments behind which much deeper spiritual dimensional realities
exist. As our own physical bodies are actually the outer physical vestments of
our souls and spirits so are the planets and stars outer physical vestments for
the spiritual beings who reside behind them in spiritual dimensions. Our
physical sun is the physical vestment for the six Elohim and other beings that
reside within its spiritual sphere. The planets are the physical bodies of
other hierarchical beings and the same can be said for the constellations.
Christ's spiritual dimensional reality resides beyond the constellations. When
Christ came to earth and began the process of creating a new cosmic body of
Love, He began the process of uniting the entire solar system into one body
which will eventually form a new 'sun'. The earth is now the seed for that
new sun. What may be taking place here is that not only are we becoming a seed
force of a new sun but we may be actually becoming a seed force for an
entirely new Galaxy; a cosmic Galaxy of Love; a cosmic Galaxy in which ". .
.all things will breathe out Love."
On a web
site by Nick Thomas he displays a picture of the position of our sun
in relation to other stars within a radius of 38 light years. The picture shows
the distribution of all the stars around our sun and in relation to each other
within the 38 light year radius. The results are very dramatic. We see that all
of the other stars are clustered very closely to each other but that the space
around our own star, the sun, is significantly hollowed out and that our sun
clearly stands alone among the other stars. One has to see this picture in order
to appreciate its full impact. The web address is :
http://www.anth.org/nct/sunpos.htm
What we see
in this picture is possibly the gestation and incubation of a newly forming
Galaxy within the Milky Way Galaxy which is its Mother Galaxy. In time this
new Galaxy will separate from the Milky Way and form its own galactic
sphere. The new sun that we are now creating will be the new spiritual center of
this future new Galaxy. The spiritualized earth will be the seed force within
this new sun and new Galaxy. Repeating what Steiner once said that the Cross
of the Crucifixion, that is, the forces that were present on Calvary, is
the seed force of a new cosmos.
When Christ
spoke the words, "IT IS FINISHED" while upon the Cross, what He spoke of
cosmically was that 'The Fall' of humanity into matter and all of the forces
that brought humanity deeply into this condition were now 'FINISHED' and ended.
Christ Himself has now died upon the Cross of 'matter' and has united His
Being with the earth itself. A new Impulse of spiritual Life was brought
into the sphere of the earth that would now bring the reversal of direction into
the course of human and earthly evolution. The two earthquakes that took place
during the death of Christ on the Cross and at the Resurrection were like
'signs' from the earth itself. The forces of the Fall were brought to a halt by
Christ at this time which then literally shook the earth at its foundations. The
new forces of the Resurrection and eventual Ascension of the earth and humanity
back into the spiritual spheres which were begun by Christ on Easter Sunday
morning also shook the earth at its foundations. As a result, a reversal in
the direction of human and earthly evolution had now begun.
We know from
Anthroposophy that in the blood are the spiritual forces of the EGO-I AM. We
also know that the forces of the blood at the time of death will etherize into
the etheric realms. When Christ died on the Cross and spilled His blood, these
EGO-I AM forces of Christ were lifted into the etheric-life realm of the earth
where they have remained. Normally for a human being these blood forces etherize
and return to the cosmic etheric forces of the sun, but with Christ His
etherized blood has remained here on earth and has permeated the etheric-astral
sheath of the earth. Since the Mystery of Golgotha we now have an etheric-astral
sphere around the planet of the earth that is the early spiritual essence of a
new earth, a new sun and eventually a new Galaxy.
In the Bible we are told that Christ descends into Hell
after the Crucifixion. We know from Anthroposophy that this is primarily a
reference to the realm of the dead where at that time in human history the
dead retained very little and sometimes no consciousness in their afterlife. This sleep-like consciousness
of the dead in their afterlife is alluded to so often in the Bible. Here
Christ brings with Him to this realm a source of Light and Life to which
the dead in their afterlife are able to respond depending on
the Christ (LOGOS) Impulse that one has taken up in one's earthly life in
full consciousness and in full freedom. The dead are then able to ascend into
the higher spheres in their afterlife with the ability to retain a greater level
of awakened consciousness throughout. Paul speaks in 1Corinthians 15:50-55
that the dead shall rise first then we who are the living shall meet Him in the
air. This literally is true in the sense that the post-life pattern of
ascending into the higher spheres for any one individual (microcosmically) is
exactly the same pattern (macrocosmically) which will take place over eons of
time for the whole of humanity and the earth
itself. It is the ascension of the earth and humanity into the higher
spiritual spheres along with the eventual ascension of the human Christ-filled
consciousness. Retaining consciousness after death is a priority in anyone's
spiritual evolution. This is where we gather the harvest of our earthly life and
it is here where we plant new seeds for our next life. A significant point in
our afterlife is immediately after our death where we spend time reviewing our
past life. This again is referred to by Paul in Hebrews 9:27 when he says ". .
.it is appointed unto men to die once and after this comes the judgment." Our
physical death, the death of the physical body, is the 'first' death after which
we pass through a period of a life review where all that we had done in our lives
is brought back to us in reverse and we experience the impact of all that we had
done to others from their perspective. The verse which reads, ". . .it is
appointed unto men to die once. . ." tells us in a more veiled language
that a second type of death is not meant to be for humans and that is the death
(loss) of consciousness in one's afterlife. This is what Christ came to
overcome for our afterlives when He descended into the realm of the dead after
the Crucifixion.
Another issue
of importance is the question of the wording that Christ Jesus uses to describe
His own Death and Resurrection. In John 2:19 He says, ". . .Destroy this Temple
and in 'three days' I will raise it up." When Christ speaks of the destruction
of the Temple which He will raise in 'three days' it is clear that he is
speaking in 'mystery' language. We know from the Resurrection accounts
given in the Bible that three days had not passed between the time of His
Death to the time of His Resurrection. The Gospel
writers never say that three days had passed. They all use the
expression ". . .on the morning of the first day of the week." Only
Christ refers to it as "three days." All initiations in the old
'mystery' oracles which brings the celebrant to a higher stage of
development are referred to as the 'three days of death'. It was because the
celebrant was in a near-death condition for approximately three days. This would
allow the celebrant to ascend into the spiritual worlds to which he would
be initiated into the wisdom and truths of the spiritual worlds. Other
references in the Bible would be the raising of Lazarus "from the dead"
after three days and Jonah in the belly of the whale for three days which should
not be interpreted as it is done so often but rather it is a clear reference to
the ancient art of 'mystery' initiation.
The initiation and the raising from the dead to which
Christ referred was an initiation of His Own
Self. However this initiation was an initiation of the Highest Cosmic Order. It
was an initiation of a Being that stands above all other beings in the Cosmic Order. Here again this
initiation became the seed force to
which Christ rises ever higher as the
future central Being (the First
Principle) of a new Galaxy and the new spiritual dimensional realities that
would be the Life and Light behind this new Galaxy. This is the beginning of the
creation of the new Galaxy; a Galaxy ". . . from which all things will
breathe out LOVE."
John
15:12
"This is My
commandment, that you Love one another as I have Loved you."
