“Everyone must stand up against violence and say that what is going on in the world is not in accordance with the Christ teaching, it is not in accordance with God’s Love.

“Why did Christ come to Earth, what was his basic idea? The idea of Love, which can solve all issues (mental, emotional, and social), is the law of the living Love. In what specifically rests this living Love? To know that every man [and woman] in the world feels and suffers like you do and has such needs as you have. Consequently, to enter fully in their situation and be ready to help as you would do for yourself. This is a philosophy, this is a science, which will be applied in the future.

“Fear is the greatest disease that modern people have. It is a trap; it is a weakness of the human character, and ninety-nine percent of all crimes are due to fear. Consequently, every one of you who wants to be a hero must have absolutely no fear. His [or her] heart must be full of love.”

-Biensa Douno

Against Violence

It is in Gene Savoy, Sr.’s teachings that violence is contrary to being spiritual. Not only did he advise that we avoid acts of violence, but that we also avoid watching violent movies, television shows, and even sports activities with a lot of violence in them as they do affect our behavior and beliefs. The young people of today turn to violence far more than people did thirty or forty years ago because they watch a lot of violent movies and play violent video games where killing or maiming those you oppose is the norm.

Christ Taught Love

While it wasn’t the only thing he taught, it is true that all of the teachings of Jesus were based on love. God’s love for us is the only reason we have a path to redemption from the fallen realm of matter. Our love of God is the most important factor when it comes to developing our spiritual Self. Without that love, it would probably be impossible to resist the temptations of the dark beings an forces and the pleasures of the fallen realm of matter. It is also impossible to live in peace with each other if we don’t have love.

Everyone Suffers

While it may seem to you that some people have a perfect life and never have any problems, that is always an illusion. A person might be very wealthy, but his greed and fear prevent him from being able to truly enjoy that wealth. Another person may seem healthy and strong, yet have a disease that is not visible, yet is killing them. So everyone does suffer, in one way or another. That is why we need to have love for all people and not be jealous because we think someone else has it much better than we do. And remember, when it comes to God, and God’s Grace, how much money we have is not significant.

Fear is the Greatest Disease

Fear is the cause of most of the problems in the world. We avoid people who are different, as in a different race, a different religion, etc. because we fear their strangeness. We may not think that is why, but in truth, it is. We take jobs we really don’t want, jobs that harm the environment, animals, or even people, because we fear that if we quit that job, we won’t be able to find a better one. We war with other peoples and nations because we fear them in one way or another. We may fear that they are getting too powerful and will soon be strong enough to be a threat to us. We may fear that they will cut off the flow of natural resources that they have and we need. It isn’t really about oil, it’s about fear. Fear is behind almost all evil. But love conquers fear, which is why Jesus, Buddha, and other great religious and spiritual leaders tell us to love each other, to love God, and to love all that is. They don’t tell us to stop fearing because that wouldn’t work. They tell us we must learn to love, and so we must. It won’t happen overnight, but keep practicing your spiritual techniques, and love will develop.

“My heart has been pruned and its flower has appeared, and so goodness has sprouted up in it, and my heart has borne fruit for the Lord.

“For the Most High had pruned around me through His Holy Spirit, and so laid open toward Him my innermost being, and so filled me with His deep affection.

“And so His pruning around me became my salvation; and I made my way quickly in His peace, along the Way of True Realization.

“From the beginning to the end, I received His knowledge,

and I was established solidly on the rock of True Reality, the solid rock where He had set me up;

 

“and speaking waters touched my lips from the spring of the Lord, which does not hold back,

and I drank and became drunk from the Living Water That Does Not Die.

“And my drunkenness was not the kind that does not lead to knowledge. Did I not leave behind useless things?

And I turned back toward the Most High, my God, and I was made rich by His gift of goodness.

“And I left behind the foolishness that is broadcast upon the Earth, and then I took it off and cast it away from me.

And the Lord renewed me with His raiment, and so acquired me with His Light;

“and from above He revived me with what cannot be corrupted, and so I became like a land that blossoms and laughs in its fruits,

and the Lord became like the Sun upon the face of the land.

 

“My eyes lit up, and my countenance collected the dew,

and my breath laughed with the sweet fragrance of the Lord.

“And He led me away into His paradise, where is the wealth of the Lord’s delight.

And I revered the Lord because of His glorious radiance.

And I said, “They are good, O Lord, are they not, those who are planted in Your land, and have a place in Your paradise,

and who sprout up in Your trees’ sprouting growth, and have transformed from Darkness to Light?

“See, all Your laborers are beautiful, they who work good works, and turn away from what is useless toward Your sweetness.

 

“And by themselves the trees have changed from bitterness, once they were planted in Your land;

and they all exist as a remnant of You, and an eternal remembrance of Your faithful servants.

“How great is the space in Your paradise! And what place in it lies idle? Is it not all filled with fruit?

“Radiant splendor is Yours, O God, the everlasting delight of paradise!”

Hallelujah

-From the Forgotten Books of Eden, Translation by RF Robert Petrovich

My Heart Has Been Pruned

The Odes of Solomon describe one person’s journey of Spiritual Enlightenment. Like most scripture and other books of such information, it is written in mostly allegorical language. A real spiritual student will make sense of the allegories, whereas most others will not. Here, the writer is not talking about a literal pruning, nor about the physical heart. He is talking about a cleansing of the soul and mind, removing anger, jealousy, and all other negativity, leaving behind, love, tolerance, peace, and humility. God does this, the quote says, through His Holy Spirit, Which is another way of saying through His Light and Knowledge that is sent to us through Divine Light.

Rock of True Reality

When you have received God’s gift of Knowledge, the kind of true Knowledge that the Gnostics call Gnosis, you are on an allegorical Rock of Reality because you know that this knowledge is real, true, with no opinions, speculations, or theories. It’s Truth in its purest form. It reveals the true Reality of Heaven and Earth to us.

Spring of the Lord

This allegory refers to the Divine Light that “flows” to us from God through the intermediary of the sun. The Fountain of Youth is another reference to this Light.

Land that Blossoms

A person who becomes spiritually enlightened is like a land of blossoming flowers. We blossom with love, peace, and joy when we are enlightened. Like some rare flowers, we may take many years to blossom, but the effort required is worth it.

His Glorious Radiance

Again we see God being described with words that relate to Light because Light is the true face of God, the true image of God. We were once beings of Light also and we can become such beings again.

The Great Space of Paradise

The ode says that Paradise is a great space, which it is because it is unlimited by space and time being spirit, not matter. It adds that it is filled with fruit and no part of it is idle. Heaven is not a place of idleness, but one of motion, and the “fruit” found there is the souls of those who have achieved complete enlightenment, awakened their Christ Consciousness, and now dwell in Heaven with God and the Angels.

“Here we are on the verge of that great self-merging act which is the essence of pure love: which Reality has sought of us, and we have unknowingly desired of it. Here contemplation and union are one. ‘Thus do we grow,’ says Ruysbroeck, ‘and, carried above ourselves, above reason, into the very heart of love, there do we feed according to the Spirit, and taking flight for the Godhead by naked love, we go to the encounter of the Bridegroom, to the encounter of His Spirit, which is His Love; and thus we are brought forth by God, out of our selfhood, into the immersion of love, in which we possess blessedness and are one with God.’

“The beginning of this process of introversion, will not merely be the yielding to an instinct; it will be a voluntary and purposeful undertaking. Like conversion, it entails a break with the obvious, which must, of necessity, involve and affect the whole normal consciousness. It will be evoked by the mystic’s love, and directed by his reason, but can only be accomplished by the strenuous exercise of his will. … There must be a deliberate act of attention, a deliberate expelling of all discordant images from the consciousness.”

-Evelyn Underhill

Self-Merging

Self-Merging is something that happens on two levels. First, there is the personal self-merging in which your individual body, mind, and spirit merge into a fully integrated being. Second, is the Self-Merging with God and the All. Both are part of what Ms. Underhill is describing.

Contemplation

It should be understood that contemplation doesn’t mean basic forms of meditation that so many practice today without getting any significant spiritual development from it. Contemplation here means more like thinking about what you are doing and what you are trying to achieve when you practice spiritual development techniques. That could mean anything from concentrating on sending light to your weakest energy centers to thinking about the ultimate goal of self-merging with God.

Voluntary and Purposeful

The idea that if you just wait around for it, spiritual enlightenment will come to you eventually. That’s like relying on a big lottery win to provide your retirement income. You can buy a lottery ticket and hope for the best, but you don’t rely on that money for anything. So the best way to grow spiritually is to voluntarily and purposefully practice spiritual development techniques. Why voluntarily? Because if someone is forcing you to do it, you won’t have the right mental attitude and you will accomplish very little. Underhill says it is accomplished by “strenuous exercise of his will,” but I don’t think that is all there is to it. You do have to use your will, but also your intuition. And you have to practice with love and humility.

Expelling Discordant Images

Ms. Underhill also says we need to expel discordant images to gain that state of self-merging. That might work, but is not so easy to do. It’s like the old story of telling people to close their eyes and don’t think about an elephant. The first thing that pops into their head when someone says that is an image of an elephant. A better approach is to try and put a better image into your mind, such as our Community Cross. That is why you learn in the basic techniques to form the image of the cross around and over the sun.

“The religious and esoteric history of every nation was embedded in symbols; it was never expressed in so many words. All the thoughts and emotions, all the learning and knowledge, revealed and acquired, of the early races, found their pictorial expression in allegory and parable. Why? Because the spoken word has an unknown to, unsuspected and disbelieved in, by the modern ‘sages’. Because sound and rhythm are closely related to the four Elements of the Ancients; and because such or another vibration in the air is sure to awaken corresponding powers, union with which produces good or bad results, as the case may be. No student was ever allowed to recite historical, religious, or any real events in so many unmistakable words, lest the powers connected with the event be once more attracted. Such events were narrated only during the initiation, and every student had to record them in corresponding symbols, drawn out of his own mind, and examined later by his master, before they were finally accepted. Thus was created in time the Chinese Alphabet, as, before that, hieratic symbols were fixed in old Egypt. In the Chinese language, the alphabet which may be read in any language, and which is only a little less ancient than the Egyptian alphabet of Thoth, every word has its corresponding symbol conveying the word needed in a pictorial form. The language possesses many thousands of such symbol letters, or logograms, each meaning a whole word.”

–Helena P. Blavatsky

Use of Symbols

There were several reasons why the ancient esoteric and religious writers used symbols. One was to hide the true meaning from materialistic people who would misuse the knowledge. Another was because symbols are the language of the soul. A third was because some of these symbols were in use before alphabets were created. But symbols are not always graphic, such as in Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Symbols can also be spoken sounds, and it makes sense that such sounds were often used by spiritual schools since it was forbidden to write down much of the spiritual knowledge they taught.

Sound and Rhythm

Sound is a type of vibration, and like other forms of vibration, it can cause other things to start vibrating in rhythm and harmony with them. That is why some ancient and primitive societies used sound for healing the physical body, such as the Australian Aborigines who used the didgeridoo for that purpose. Some theories now indicate that the mysterious rocks at Stonehenge may have been struck with a hammer to produce sounds that helped those present increase their spiritual vibration rate.

No Student Allowed

It is reasonable that students would not be allowed to recite the religious and spiritual teachings in the ancient schools, as they would be likely to mispronounce some of the sounds, or not use the correct rhythm. Of course, students would be allowed to sing or chant together as that would help them all raise their vibrations, even if some were not doing it with the exact right tone. Musical instruments could also be played by students if they were deemed good enough by their teachers. It is known that the students of Pythagoras played music while practicing spiritual techniques at sunrise.

Scripture

It is because of such use of sound that scripture is an unreliable source of spiritual knowledge. Few people understand that sometimes the ancient writers used a certain word because of the sound it made when spoken rather than for its literal meaning. Likewise, certain words were used in combination to produce sound progressions. This is all in the teachings of Gene Savoy, Sr.

In most cases, the scripture we read today, whether Christian, Jewish, Vedic or any other kind, is a translation from the language in which it was originally written. Very often we are reading a translation of a translation. The translators are translating according to the literal meaning of the words, with no regard whatsoever for the sound of the words when spoken. As a result, much of the intended meaning and purpose of the scripture has been lost. At least many churches and temples use music during their services, which does help. It is why we use music in our services.

“The state of the saints is transparent and shining, and therefore they receive the Brightness without intermediary, but our state is still mortal and gross, and this sets up an obstacle which causes a shadow over the sun, which so darkens our understanding that we cannot know God and heavenly things as clearly as the saints do. For as long as we dwell in the shadow, we cannot see the Divine Sun clearly, but we see the sun through a glass darkly. Yet the shadow is so enlightened by the Sunshine that we can perceive the distinctions between all the virtues, and all the truth which is helpful in our mortal state. If we would become one with the Brightness of the Spiritual Sun, we must follow Love, and go out from ourselves into the Wayless, and then the sun will draw us with our blinded eyes into its Brightness, in which we shall possess Unity with God. As soon as we feel and understand ourselves thus, we are in that contemplative life which is within reach of our mortal state.”

–John of Ruysbroeck

The State of the Saints

When Ruysbroeck speaks of the saints, he means the true saints and not everyone who has been given that title. These saints are not literally transparent, but they have nothing to hide, so transparent in that way. They do shine with the Brightness of God’s Light that comes down to us from the Spiritual Sun.

Shadow Over the Sun

Whether you call it a shadow or a veil, the sun has been partially blocked from us for centuries. This is to protect us as well as to protect the sun from the thoughts of primitive, materialistic people. Now that we are in the End Times, and the birth of the Sun of Righteousness has happened, that shadow has been removed so that we can turn to the sun and receive God’s Brightness even if we are not yet saints.

With Love and Humility

With Love and Humility, and without greed or a selfish desire to use the Sun’s Power to control others, we can receive the Light of the Spiritual Sun, although we still receive the light of the physical sun along with it. We can, to a large degree, block out the negative effects of the physical sun by visualizing the Cosolargy Crose over the sun and over our eyes when we practice solar viewing techniques.

Unity with God

This is indeed the ultimate goal of spiritual practices. Few people achieve this during their physical life and those who do usually achieve it only for brief moments. Yet it is what we should aim for so that we can continue that quest to reach Unity with God and the All at the highest level of consciousness after the death of our physical body.

“Let it always appear and be manifest to you that solitariness, and places in the desert, so esteemed by philosophers, are of themselves but thus and thus; and all things are to them who live in towns also, and converse with others as there is the same nature everywhere to be seen and observed: to them that have retired themselves to the top of mountains, and to desert havens, or other desert places. For anywhere it thou wilt mayest thou may find and apply this to thyself; which Plato saith of his philosopher, in a place: as private and retiring, saith he, as if he were shut up and enclosed about in some shepherd’s lodge, on the top of a hill. There by thyself to put these question to thyself or to enter into considerations: What is my chief and principle part, which has power over the rest? What is now the present state of it, as I use it; and what is it that I employ it for? Is it now void of reason or no? Is it fresh and separated; or so affixed, so congealed and grown together as it were with the flesh, that is is swayed by the motions and inclinations of it?”

-Marcus Aurelius

Solitary Places in the Desert

It is somewhat difficult to follow the convoluted language of Aurelius, even though I have simplified it a little in the quote, yet I think we can all get the point he is trying to make. First, he tells us that we don’t need to be out in the desert or in some solitary place to practice our spiritual development techniques. Depending on where you live, it might be impossible for you to go to a desert, or a mountaintop regularly to do those practices. But Aurelius assures us that even those living in towns and cities can practice spiritual development techniques and get good results. So why do philosophers like Plato advise going to the desert or to a mountain? Because some places are better than others.

Who You’re With

Who you are with, or around, when you practice techniques is one reason why the ancient teachers recommended going to a solitary place. When doing techniques, it is best to be surrounded only by like-minded people. If that is not possible, then it is best to do them away from others whose negative or materialistic thoughts interfere with yours. It is like trying to get good reception on a cell phone when you are in a place surrounded by many electrical sources emitting static. You might still be able to hear the other person, but not very well. That is why it is recommended that those who live in urban areas make an effort to get out to the country, or at least to an open area such as a park, occasionally.

Find Your Place

Aurelius advises us to choose our place for spiritual practices by asking ourselves: What is the state of that place now? Does it feel spiritual to you, or has it become congealed into a materialistic place? Many places that were once considered holy or spiritual are not so anymore. So do the best you can to find a good spot and if you can be in a desert, by the seashore, or on a mountain top occasionally, you should make the effort to go there.

I fly above the dark and angry sea
I call to others to come join me.
But few respond, most cannot see
or hear the things ahead of me.
So fly alone, if you must fly
’til others join you in the sky.
One day, the angry sea will end
And we will call each other “friend”.

“According to the Hermetic philosophers, there were seven primary causes of disease. The first was evil spirits. These were regarded as creatures born of degenerate actions, subsisting on the vital energies of those to whom they attached themselves. The second cause was a derangement of the spiritual nature and the material nature; these two failing to coordinate, produced mental and physical abnormalities. The third was an unhealthy mental attitude. Melancholia, morbid emotions, excess feelings, such as passions, lusts, greeds, and hates, affected the mumia, from which they reached the physical body, where they resulted in ulcers, tumors, cancers, fevers, and tuberculosis. The ancients viewed the disease germ as a unit of mumia which had been impregnated with the emanations from evil influences.

“The fourth cause of disease was what the Oriental call Karma, that is, the Law of Compensation. … A physician had to be careful about interfering with the working of this law. The fifth cause was the motion and aspects of the heavenly bodies. The stars did not compel the sickness but rather impelled it. The Hermetics taught that a wise man ruled his stars.

“The sixth cause of disease was a misuse of faculty, organ, or function, such as overstraining a member or overtaxing the nerves. The seventh cause was the presence in the system of foreign substances, impurities, or obstructions. Under this lead must be considered diet, air, sunlight, and the presence of foreign bodies. This list does not include accidental injuries. Frequently, they are the methods by which the Law of Karma expresses itself.”

–Manly P. Hall

Hermetic Philosophy of Disease

It seems that the Hermetic philosophers believed that disease was nearly always the fault of the sick person, at least partially. It isn’t that they didn’t believe in germs or other external causes, it’s that they felt in some way the diseased person had invited the attack from those external causes, usually without consciously realizing it.

Evil Spirits

The first cause listed by Mr. Hall is Evil Spirits. He says that these “creatures” were born of degenerate action and they subsisted on vital energies of those they became attached to. While that form of Evil Spirit may exist, there are Evil Spirit, often called Demons, that exist independently of us but are prone to attacking us and harming us. They may do it by absorbing some of our energies, or they may do it by putting evil energies into us.

Disharmony Between the Mind and the Spirit

The second cause in the Hermetic philosophy was a disharmony between mind and spirit. Generally speaking, this means that the mind has accepted as true the false philosophy of materialism while the spirit knows the truth lies in the spiritual. The third cause is, I believe, a variation of the second. The unhealthy attitudes of the mind are almost always related to the lack of coordination between the mind and the spirit, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say between the physical mind and the spiritual mind.

Karma

I have written about Karma previously, so I won’t get into it too deeply here. Suffice it to say that Karma is real and the deeds we do always result in Karma. Sometimes it is good Karma, sometimes it is bad Karma. Sometimes an illness caused by Karma may be the result of something we did just a few days ago, but it might also be caused by something we did a long time ago.

Heavenly Bodies

Here, Halls is talking about what we know of as Astrology. It is true that the movements of the stars can affect our health, but as Hall notes, the Hermetics, as well as other Spiritual Schools, ruled that the wise person who developed their spiritual faculties did not let the influences of stars or other heavenly bodies control them, though they were generally aware of such influences so they could be on guard for them.

Misuse of Faculty or Organ

This one is obvious to most of us. If we strain our eyes by watching too much television or being in front of a computer screen all the time, it may result in eye damage. If we workout too vigorously at the gym, it can result in muscle damage.

Foreign Substances

Foreign Substances can indeed cause many illnesses. The most obvious is poisons that can kill. But Hall mentions some of the less obvious ones. Diet is the most common one. When we eat a poor diet, our physical body doesn’t get the nutrition it needs, and becomes weak and susceptible to germs. Or we may eat a fairly healthy diet, but with some added things that are very unhealthy and cause damage to the body. Some such “foods” are red meat and added sugars.

Sunlight

Sunlight can cause illness when used improperly, but most often, especially today, it is the lack of sunlight that is causing the illnesses. A few decades ago, the medical profession, especially dermatologists started warning us to avoid sunlight as if it was some evil radiation. The result of people listening to them was illnesses caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, and thin, pale skin that is more likely to let germs into the body than tanned, thick skin that comes with reasonable exposure to sunlight. And as Cosolargists, we know of the value of sunlight, when used properly, for spiritual development.

“If we allow ourselves to follow a path of evolving consciousness as individuals, in response perhaps to some deep yearning for peace and happiness and for a greater freedom from the afflictions of disconnection and distress and disease, sooner or later it will have a profound impact on our relationships with each other and on the society and world we inhabit. It has to.

“Peace and happiness are not commodities to be acquired or conferred but qualities that are embodied and lived. They can only be embodied and lived in practice, not merely by the enunciation of principles, however lofty. Thus, here at home, we have seen all those who were originally excluded by law and social mores from participating in and benefitting from the declaration of inalienable rights of freedom and self-governance ‘for all,’ by fits and starts and through tenacious and courageous struggle transform in tandem, however slowly and painfully, both our consciousness and our laws—regarding slavery, race, indigenous peoples, women, children, sexual orientation, marriage—as well as our understanding of the infinite suffering of real people and real families occasioned by exploitive institutions and the laws and social conventions that uphold them and will uphold them until they change and are, in their new form, vigorously enforced.

“In an evolving democracy, the list of current social injustices and grievances at any given moment is likely to be a long one. But the growing goes on to.”

–Jon Kabat-Zinn

A Path of Evolving Consciousness

Some spiritual students don’t realize that the quest for spiritual development and the quest for higher levels of consciousness are the same thing, but they are. Some people think that such evolution doesn’t need to be sought, that it just happens automatically. It doesn’t. Just as the body and mind have to be intentionally developed, so does the spirit. Kabat-Zinn says that some seek out a path of spiritual development because of a deep yearning for peace and happiness, and that is true. Others do it because they feel that something is missing from their material life and realize that it is the development of their spiritual side which includes the development of higher levels of consciousness. Humans are already at one of the highest levels of consciousness possible for a physical being. The only way to reach even higher levels is through the development of the spiritual faculties.

Impact on Relationships

The development of higher levels of consciousness will indeed have a profound effect on our relationships with other individuals, societies, and the entire world. It will not only impact our relationships with other humans, but with all beings, and the change will be for the better. We are already seeing this to some degree even with only a small percentage of humanity engaging in consciousness evolution.

Not Commodities

It is true that peace, happiness, and love are not commodities that can be bought or conferred on others. They must be gradually awakened by the development of our spiritual faculties. Nor can peace and happiness happen simply by telling people that they should live together in peace and harmony. If we want that to happen, we must encourage spiritual development, which is the only true path to the awakening of internal peace and happiness.

Government for All

Government and a social order that treats all people equally never happens overnight. It takes slow and gradual progress to grant rights to one disadvantaged group after another. Even more to grant rights to animals as well as humans and to understand that all life is sacred since God is the only creator of life. We have seen in recent years that when a government that promotes greater rights and freedoms for all is put in power, the next election may bring about a reversal of such advances and push us back several years. Nonetheless, the overall movement over the past few centuries has been toward greater inclusion, greater harmony, and greater freedom for all. As more of us awaken spiritually, that trend will continue until we finally see an end to hatred, slavery, wars, etc. and a return to what we were before the Great Fall from Heaven.

“It is from water and fire that the soul and the spirit came into being if is from water and fire and light that the son of the bridal chamber came into being.

“The fire is the chrism, the light is the fire. I am not referring to that fire which has no form, but to the other fire whose form is white, which is bright and beautiful, and which gives beauty.

“Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images. The world did not receive truth any other way.

“There is a rebirth and an image of rebirth. It is certainly necessary to be born again through the image, for resurrection.

“The image must rise again through the image. The bridal chamber and the image must enter through the image into the truth; this is the restoration.

“Not only must those who produce the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, do so, but they have produced them for you.

“The Lord did everything in a mystery, a baptism and chrism and a eucharist and redemption and a bridal chamber.

“He said, ‘I came to make the things below like the things above, and things outside like those inside. I came to unite them in the one place.’”

–Gospel of Philip(58-61)

From Water and Fire

When we read ancient documents, we must understand that fire often means light as fire was the only way to make light back then. It is also true that fire often means energy of any kind, so this really means from Water and energy. The next sentence adds light. It is an allegorical use of those elements. It is not physical water or physical light that brought the soul into being, nor is it the physical elements that awaken and develop the soul in us. The soul is spiritual, and it is spiritual water, energy, and light that awakens the spirit.

Chrism and Light

The second paragraph in the quote now says that “fire is the chrism, the light is the fire”. So Philip is saying here that the words fire and light are used interchangeably. He adds that he is not referring to the fire which has no form, but to the fire that is white. So there are three levels of light: the mundane or physical light, the spiritual Light that comes to us primarily through the Spiritual Sun, and the highest level of Light which is Divine Light. Only a fully awakened and conscious Soul can partake of Divine Light.

Truth does not Come Naked

Truth comes into the physical world in symbols and images as its true spiritual nature cannot be comprehended by physical beings. Zeven as symbols, it cannot be understood by the human mind, but it is understood by the Soul.

Rebirth Through the Image

It is through the image of God that we are reborn as spiritual beings, and that image is the Light of the Spiritual Sun and the even higher Divine Light. When Philip says the image must rise again, he means that the world must become spiritual again, and that is happening now, but it is a slow process as people gradually awaken to the truth. That is what it means when Philip quotes Jesus saying “’I came to make the things below like the things above.”

“Christ said. Unless ye turn and become as children, ye shall not see the Kingdom of God. Again, he said to Nicodemus; except a man be born again, of Water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

“Scripture positively declares that the fleshly natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know or achieve them.

“Now seeing that all of us have Flesh and Blood bodies, and are mortal, as we find by experience, and yet scripture says that we are Temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in us, and the Kingdom of God is within us. … Therefore we should seriously consider what kind of person it is that is capable of being thus like the Deity.

“For it cannot be said of the mortal flesh … that it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost; much less can it be said that the New Birth comes to pass in this earthly flesh, which dies and putrifies.”

–Jacob Boehme

Become as Children

This is one of the most misunderstood things that Jesus said. He didn’t mean that we should physically shrink down to the size of children. Nor did he mean that we should be uneducated in a general sense. What he meant is that by the time we become adults, we are full of beliefs, ideas, and concepts that are sometimes false, or only partially true. These beliefs and concepts prevent us from seeing things that do not fit in with our beliefs. The best example of this is the Story of Christopher Columbus landing in the New World. The Native Americans saw the small boats that brought Columbus and some of his crew to shore, but they could not see the large ships those boats came from. Their beliefs blocked them from seeing something that contradicted those beliefs. Only the Medicine Man, the most open-minded of them, saw the big ships and slowly described them to the others. Once they were told about them, they were suddenly able to see them. This is true for many beliefs that we hold about God, spirits, and just about everything. It is most important for the spiritual student to learn to push aside those beliefs and concepts in order to see what is truly there.

Water and Spirit

This is an allegorical saying as well. It does not literally mean water, as in baptism, but the Spiritual Water, the Grace of God. The point is, to reborn does not mean to study scripture or to be ordained a minister. It means to take in the Spiritual Light that awakens and develops the Spirit. That is being Reborn.

Flesh is not The Temple

The material body of flesh cannot be the Temple of the Holy Spirit, yet Scripture tells us we are such a Temple. It is the spirit of man that is the Temple. The spirit is our link to heaven, to the Angels in Heaven, and to God. But that link doesn’t function if we allow the spirit to stay in the dormant state it was in when we were born. We must awaken and develop the Spirit until it becomes a conscious Soul. That is what the ancient mystery schools taught. It is what the Gnostic groups taught in secret to their members. It is what was truly taught by Jesus, Buddha, and the other founders of great religions. It is the developed Soul that will go to Heaven, not the physical body. The physical, being created by the Demiurge, cannot go to Heaven. In the not-very-distant future, though, matter will change back to its original form as spirit and all will be as God wants it to be.