“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

“For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

“Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.

“Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice,

because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,

“Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise

“Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

“Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever.

They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands, so that I might be glorified.

“You shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

“For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”

-Isaiah 60, 61

Your Light has Come

This is not an ordinary light that might come from a candle or a light bulb. The Light Isaiah is talking about is the Divine Light that comes to us through the Spiritual Sun. That is why he then adds that the “Glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Being one with God means allowing that Light into you to awaken and develop your spirit until it becomes a conscious Soul.

Darkness Shall Cover the Earth

This is certainly true today. There has never been a darker, more materialistic period in history than in the last few centuries. That is why this time is the final time we have to change our path and turn ourselves and all of humanity away from the darkness of materialism and toward the Light of Spirit.

Nations Will Come to Your Light

As the Community of Light grows, it will reach a point where desperate leaders of nations, businesses, and churches will turn to us for advice and help. We will gladly give them that help as humanity must be saved as a whole, not just a few of us.

Violence Shall No More Be Heard

When people turn to God’s Light, wars and violence of all kinds will be brought to an end. So will disease, famine, floods, and other “natural” disasters that are caused largely by Man’s angry and violent thought patterns that control the world far more than most of us realize.

Your Sun Shall No More Go Down

Materialistic people, and even some who think they are spiritual don’t think this is possible, or even a good idea. They think that light cannot exist without darkness, but they are wrong. As the universe becomes more and more spiritual, we will only be looking at the Spiritual Sun, which shines down on us at all times, even now. Since it is a Spirit, it is not limited at all by time and space.

Garment of Salvation

The Garment of Salvation, the Robe of Righteousness is the Spiritual Light. As we slowly change from our current material forms into more spiritual ones, we will literally glow with that light and help spread that light to all of humanity, all of the world, and all of the universe.

Seeds in the Garden

Our small Community is the seed in God’s Garden on Earth. We must grow and become a Great Garden of Light. That is our destiny. But unlike seeds in a regular garden, we can’t wait for others to water and fertilize us. We must seek out the Water of Life and the Fertilizer of Salvation which is that Spiritual Light flowing to us from God and through the Spiritual Sun.

“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 heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;

Yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens, he has set a tent for the sun,

Which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and nothing is hid from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure,

making wise the simple;

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true

and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” ~Psalm 19: 1 – 14

The Heavens Tell the Glory of God

The author of the Psalms was a spiritual person and was not writing about the physical, so when he says “the Heavens,” he doesn’t mean the stars and planets of the physical realm, but the true Heavens, the spiritual dimensions above us here in the third dimension of matter. Likewise, “the firmament” sounds like something solid, something material, but it isn’t. You could replace “firmament” with “permanent” and get a better idea of what is meant. The realm of matter is not permanent but is constantly changing, so the real firmament is spiritual.

Pours Forth Speech and Knowledge

The Spiritual Realm is full of Knowledge and those who raise their consciousness to those levels—even if only briefly—gain some of that knowledge. If you have read some Near Death Experience (NDE) books, you know that in those realms, when you mentally ask a question, it is answered immediately. It is not speech in the physical sense but a more direct spiritual kind of hearing that doesn’t require ears, but consciousness. This is the kind of Knowledge that ancient Gnostics knew to be the true Gnosis, and not something found in books, as some modern Gnostic groups believe. That’s why the Psalm says there is speech, but it isn’t heard. It cannot be heard at all by the physical ears, but only by the awakened spiritual senses.

Laws and Ordinances Of God

The Laws and Ordinances of God are the supreme Laws and all must obey them if they are to be saved. But those Laws are now found in the Commandments or in other writings that are more the opinions and interpretations of men rather than the Law of God. This Law isn’t about what you eat, on Friday, Sunday, or any other day. It isn’t about what clothing you wear or who you have sex with. They are not about physical acts at all, but spiritual ones. That includes Love and living in peace with all, which may seem like physical things, but they are more spiritual than physical. Most of all, the Law of God is about awakening and developing the spiritual faculties now, while you are still in the physical realm.

Great Reward

Yes, there is a great reward in keeping the Law of God. That reward is to return in spiritual form to Heaven for all eternity. Many believe that reward goes to everyone when they die, but they are wrong. Do you really think Hitler or Ghenghis Khan went to Heaven when they died? If that were the case, Heaven would not be a place of Great Reward, but just another level of the mess we have here. So only the ones who have turned away from all forms of evil and embraced peace, love, humility, and spiritual growth earn that reward.

“The integral omnipresence of a unity numerically identical is in fact universally received; for all people instinctively affirm the God in each of us to be one, the same in all. It would be taken for certain if no one asked how, or sought to bring the conviction to the test of reasoning. With this effective in their thought, people would be at rest, finding their stay in that Oneness and identity, so that nothing would wrench them from this unity. This principle, indeed, is the most solidly established of all, proclaimed by our very souls; we do not piece it up item by item, but find it within beforehand; it preceeds even the principle by which we affirm unquestionably that all things seek their good; for this universal quest of good depends on the fact that all aim at unity and possess unity and that universal effort is toward unity.

“Now the unity, in going forth, so far as it may, towards the Other Order must become manifest as multiplicity and in some sense become multiple; but the primal nature and the appetition of the good, which is appetition of unity, leads back to what is authentically One; to this every form of being is urged in a movement towards ots own reality. For the good to every nature possessing unity is to be self-belonging, to be itself, and that means to be a unity.” ~Plotinus

Omnipresent Unity

It is true that there is an omnipresent Unity, but few of us are aware of it, and many don’t believe it. We have descended so far into the fractured realm of matter, that many think that each being is entirely an individual with no connection to any other. Nonetheless, the unity exists.

God in Each of Us

God is in each of us, or at least in our spirits, but few are truly aware of it. Some say that they know God is in them, but they don’t act as if they believe it. And like the omnipresence unity, many don’t believe it at all. Even some who believe in God don’t believe that God is in each of us. That is mostly because we come into this world of matter with our spirits in a dormant state. Until they are awakened, we cannot know that God is present in us, yet He is. And as Plotinus says, if no one questioned it, we would all take it for granted. Unfortunately, many do question it and use the logic that if we can’t prove that God is in us, then it isn’t true. They even question that God exists at all based on the same logic. The problem is, they expect material proof that God is in us, but God is spiritual, and nothing spiritual can be proven in the same way that you prove something of matter.

In studies done by quantum physicists, it has been proven that twin particles can react to each other, even when separated by a great distance. That proves to some degree that all things are connected, part on one Unity. That Unity is God, so God is in each of us.

Seeking Good

I don’t think it is true that all people seek the good. I think that there are those who seek good, and know what is good. There are others who seek good but are confused about what is really good for them and others. Then there are others who don’t seek good at all, but truly desire to bring evil into the world. And when it comes to doing the actual seeking, there are now four basic groups. There is the group that knows what is good and is seeking it in the proper ways; those who seek good, but do so in improper ways; those who seek good, but don’t know what is good, so they also seek in the wrong way; and those who don’t seek good and do it only by accident. But as Plotinus tells us, if you want the good, you must seek Unity, and that means seeking God and awakening our spiritual faculties so that we can connect with the Unity, which is God. As Jesus said, “Only God is good.” So if you are not ready to enter a spiritual development program like Cosolargy, at least try to do good.

Manifests a Multiplicity

Plotinus says that when we “go towards the other order,” which is to say, toward the separateness of the Demiurge and the realm of matter, we become “in some sense,” a multiplicity. The key to that sentence is, “in some sense”. That is because it is illusion. The separateness of material beings and material objects is an illusion. All are connected in the Good, all are part of the Unity, but all has to awaken and realize the truth of that Unity.