Page Back to: LOVE THE COMMON DENOMINATOR -LCD-

-LCD- CHAPTER UPDATES

Spiritual understanding is as dynamic as the life it touches. Here are Chapter Updates for LOVE THE COMMON DENOMINATOR MY JOURNEY TO THE TRUTH. (-TO VIEW-)
UPDATES click below - (PDF) LCD References  - Download-(PDF) Updates to LCD

• V-1 GENESIS VERSUS EVOLUTION–
  
  
• V-1CONFUSED LIP AND THE SEED OF ADAM–
  
  
• V-1 RUMORS OF GODS–
  
  
• V-1 EXODUS--MIRACLE OR HISTORY–
  
  
• V-1 VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS–
  
  
• V-2 333 B.C.E. TO 1 A.D.–
  
  
• V-2 BETHLEHEM TO NAZARETH–
  
  
• V-2 GNOSIS VERSUS ORTHODOXY–
  
  
• V-2 PERSECUTION AND THE EARLY CHURCH–
  
  
• V-2 CONSTANTINE, AUGUSTINE, AND PLOTINUS–
  
  
• V-2 BYZANTINUM, MARIOLARTY, AND THE RISE OF ISLAM–
  
  
• V-2 CRUSADES TO WORLD WAR I–
  
  
• V-3 WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS–
  
  
• V-3 TIMES AND TIMES AGAIN–
  
  
• V-3 MIND OR MATTER–
  
  
• V-3 ENCODED NUMBERS AND SYMBOLOGY–
  
  
• V-3 WHENCE THE ORIGIN OF EVIL–
  
  
• V-3 LAYERS OF DECEPTION–
  
  
• V-3 WISDOM RELIGION AND THE 7 KEYS OF INTERPRETATION–
  
  
• V-3 JOURNEY'S END–
  
  

 

UPDATES FOR VOLUME I
GENISIS VERSUS EVOLUTION

As stated, I had struggled with Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time for months before God told me to just store the information and think of Him as antimatter. More than 11 years later, both Craig and I consider Professor Hawking one of the greatest theoretical and philosophical minds of the 20th and possibly the 21st centuries.

Revisiting professor Hawking’s book, I found a diagram that concerned the possibility of imaginary time. It is described in our third book, The True Philosophers’ Stone:

The diagram consisted of two spheres side by side. One was the earth; the other was labeled the universe. On the sphere called the earth as expected there was the North and South Pole with the equator between them. However, on the sphere representing the universe, in the position of the North Pole, Hawking had placed an asterisk representing the Big Bang and at the point of the South Pole, he had placed an asterisk signifying the Big Crunch or the end of the universe. At the equator was the midpoint, which he hypothesizes would be where the universe has expanded to its maximum size.

Professor Hawking tells us that “In imaginary time” there are no black holes like there are in real-time. Concerning this hypothesis, Hawking writes, “This might suggest that the so-called imaginary time is really the real time, and what we call real time is just a figment of our imaginations…a scientific theory is just a mathematical model we make to describe our observation: it exists only in our minds….”As I gazed at the diagram of the two spheres, I realized that if the two spheres were malleable like play-dough and if you could theoretically place your thumb and forefinger on the points of the beginning and end of the universe and squeeze, then you could end up with a doughnut-shaped model with the hole between the beginning and the end.

Interestingly enough, in a recent program dealing with what is referred to as The Hawking Paradox, Professor Hawking hypothesizes that a black hole is the entrance to other dimensions.

Concerning black holes, cosmologists, astrophysicists and physicists posit the theory that at the heart of many galaxies there is a black hole. Astronomers state that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. This reminded me of the Days and Nights of Brahma. To recap a Day of Brahma, where the analogy was that Brahma was exhaling, was believed to represent the life or time of existence of the Earth, whereas the dissolution of the Earth could be described as Brahma inhaling. An Age of Brahma represented the life or time of the visible universe. Another name for this phenomenon is the “Great Manvantara.” We wrote in our third book:

To appreciate how science and ancient wisdom can come together, God showed Suzzan evolution of the universe as a doughnut; only the holes were not equal on both sides. On the “top” was a tiny pinprick; whereas the “bottom” or flipside had a huge hole. In the April issue of Discover magazine, she found two curious commentaries. First, in the R&D section, an article by Kathy A Svitil, entitled Let There Be Light  stated “A recent analysis of a Hubble space telescope image hinted that the massive stars were born en mass in a giant conflagration a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Astrophysicist Michael Norman of the University of California at San Diego and his colleagues created a supercomputer simulation to peer even deeper in time. Their model indicates stars started forming 100 million years after the Big Bang, much earlier than previous estimates. Those pioneer stars, 100 times more massive than our Sun, condensed from hydrogen and helium gas, ‘pristine stuff from the Big Bang,’ Norman says. Such huge stars would have lived a few million years before exploding as supernovas.  But during that brief time, they synthesized the first heavy elements -- the carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and other materials that eventually found their way into planets and life.”

A second article in the same issue of Discover magazine made a curious comment which gave Suzzan a plausible explanation as to why astronomers, using valid scientific theory could assert that the universe is expanding, while the ancient teachings stated that everything would eventually be reabsorbed into the Creator. The author Jennifer Khan informs us that, “Astronomers have only recently determined that a mysterious ‘dark energy’ is forcing the universe apart, overwhelming the equally mysterious ‘dark matter.’ that seemed to be holding it together.”

Craig and I understand it as a matter of perspective. Consider that the solar system is on an arm of the Milky Way, among literally billions of other galaxies; that said then maybe it is possible to understand what the astronomers are seeing. If other galaxies were on the sides of the doughnut God showed me then the universe would appear to be moving apart at an ever-increasing rate. If the galaxies were racing towards some mysterious vast empty void, this would agree with the ancient teaching.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CONFUSED LIP AND THE SEED OF ADAM

The Discovery Channel aired a documentary called “The Real Eve” that concerned the “Mitochondrial Eve” that geneticists state all of humanity has descended from. As I said mitochondria are passed from mother to daughter and although boys inherit mitochondria from their mothers, they do not pass it on.

The title of the show was deceptive, because the narrator, Danny Glover, was quick to point out that this is not the Biblical Eve, but a woman among a small group of individuals 150,000 years ago in Africa. One and a half millennia ago, the world was in the grip of an ice age. Evidently, our ancestors existed on one of the small pockets of fertile green islands that still existed on earth at that time. We wrote about this in The True Philosophers’ Stone:

Craig and Suzzan were amazed to learn that it only took 7000 generations, for humanity, or the species Homo sapien sapiens to leave Africa and penetrate every part of the world. Through genetic tracking the scientists have been able to trace how and when the different parts of the world were populated. The scene opens as stated with our “Eve” among a small tribe of hunter-gatherers. The narrator states that she wasn’t necessarily the most fertile. Nevertheless, her mitochondria are the only ones to have survived. Mitochondrial DNA is different from the DNA that determines how tall a person is. The African contains the oldest, i.e., the most mutations. The mutations happen at a constant rate creating markers. Through these markers the geneticists have concluded that everyone in the world descends from an African woman.

Interestingly, this would appear to agree with the anthropologists that support the position that modern humanity populated the world from Africa.  These anthropologists, dubbed the “out of Africa” group also believe that modern humans left Africa through the Fertile Crescent to populate the world. However, 110,000 years ago, according to the scientific investigators, the “Fertile Crescent” was experiencing a severe drought. Although conceding that many small groups of humans tried, the geneticists say they did not survive, succumbing to the harsh elements at the time.

One such group succeeded in making it to what is known today as Nazareth. The discovery of the remains in a cave seemed to support the theory that modern humans had indeed populated the world through the Fertile Crescent route. All the same, that is not what genetic tracking shows. Instead, by following the genetic markers of Mitochondrial DNA, the scientists learned that modern humanity left Africa by crossing the Red Sea at a narrow point into Yemen. Apparently, 80,000 years ago the descendants of Mitochondrial Eve experiencing another ice age had become beachcombers and fishermen. Another science supports this theory, as a geologist found stone tools embedded in a cliff, which were later determined to date from 125,000 B.C.E.

After the first group through necessity braved the Red Sea, others followed. It is important to realize that the sea level during the ice ages was 150 feet lower than it is today. From Yemen they followed the coastline up the coast of Arabia and into India. This information made perfect sense to me, as in our studies I had learned that Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world. Geneticists believe the group would have numbered approximately 250 and that from Yemen modern humans moved to populate the world.

Our question was how did just one genetic line become the progenitor of the human race?

Geneticists explain that this occurs through what they call genetic drift. They explain that the original group would have been isolated and therefore over time only one mitochondria line would exist among them. The narrator asks us to consider a small isolated Welsh village, where the predominant last name has become Jones. This occurs because of families intermarrying. As Mitochondrial DNA are only passed from mother to daughter, geneticists affirm it would only take 1000 years for this to happen. This is because not all women are fertile; some women only have boys; many daughters do not survive to adulthood.

Following the genetic markers, the geneticists find that Europeans, Australians, South East Asians, New Guineans, Indians, Chinese and Native Americans all originate from the same small mitochondrial line group. It was this small genetic group that eventually migrated north through the Fertile Crescent and is responsible for the population of the major civilizations of modern humanity.

Nonetheless, some of our ancestors took a different route, migrating East into Malaysia. It took this group 6000 years to reach their destination. In the remote Malay jungle, geneticists have found an isolated tribe. Incredibly, the tribe looks like they belong on the African Savannah. Unlike the known facial characteristics of the region, many of the tribe barely possess any Asian features at all. Through genetic tracking, geneticists discovered the tribes DNA or the mitochondrial DNA indicates that they are from the original “daughters of Eve.” In other words their DNA shows they were from the original group that left Africa through Yemen. Another science may also support the evidence that this tribe’s ancestors might be the original group that left Africa, archeologists digging near the site of the great eruption of the volcano, Mount Tobei in Sumatra have discovered stone tools covered by ash. The ash covering the tools has been dated to 74,000 years B.C.E., which corresponds to the date of the eruption.

So why does everyone in the world look so different? Apparently there are anthropologists that believe humanity evolved not only in Africa but also worldwide, which they say explains the difference between the races. They are referred to as the “multi-regional” proponents. The discovery of “Mungo Man,” in Australia seemed to support the multi-regionalists. This was because when the mitochondrial DNA was extracted from the skull it was found to be incompatible with any member of the human race, despite the earth surrounding the skeleton being dated to 62,000 B.C.E. However, geneticists point out that they are not saying that other lines did not exist, but that all of humanity “today” has descended from one line.

Amazingly, the human race differs genetically less than a small group of chimpanzees. How can that be? Environmental adaptation, diet and sexual selection, answer the geneticists. Apparently, the colder the environment, the shorter and stockier a person becomes to keep warm, whereas, in warmer climates, being tall and thin is more advantageous.

While being in the beauty business, Suzzan had learned that melanin in the skin determined how dark or light a person is. The healthy “tan” that many Caucasians seek, is merely melanin rising to the surface to protect human beings against UV rays from the sun. However, human beings also need the sun to produce vitamin D. When they are deficient in vitamin D, they are susceptible to the fatal disease of Ricketts.

The Real Eve documentary reported that a scientist investigating folic acid had made an important discovery. Folic acid is crucial to the development of the fetus, but too much UV destroys folic acid. However, as stated if human beings don’t have enough vitamin D, then they can contract Ricketts, hence humanity’s need to regulate skin color. Astoundingly, scientists now believe that it only takes 20,000 years for people to turn from Negroid to Caucasian.

So what of today, when the Human Race is protected from the environment? Obviously, sexual attraction will determine which genes are passed on and which aren’t. Yet, the West has become the melting pot of the world. Does this mean genetically speaking the Human Race could gradually become similar?
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO RUMORS OF GODS

The update to this chapter concerns The 12th Planet by Zechariah Sitchin. As I said the book interprets the ancient Sumerian Nineveh tablets as recording humankind’s involvement with extraterrestrials.

To recap, Sitchin relates that the Sumerian tablets speak of the comet or twelfth planet gathering satellites from Saturn, then smashing into the Earth, which was then much larger and known as Tiamat.

Informing us “Biblical scholars now recognize that the Hebrew Tehom (‘watery deep’) stems from Tiamat,” Sitchin theorizes that Genesis is relating the formation of earth after the collision. The “nephilim” or giants, spoken of in Genesis, Sitchin believes are the demigods from the planet Marduk, which had settled into a 3600-year elliptical orbit around the Sun. Sitchin also posits the theory that the later inhabitants of Marduk genetically altered one of the native species of earth, grafting their DNA onto it.

The world’s myths and legends are full of reports of humanity’s dealings with gods or rather demigods. Is Sitchin’s hypothesis that “the fall” is the ancients’ way of relating that our genes were mixed with extraterrestrial genes so outrageous. A good friend told me that the Hebrew nation was very enamored with the planet Saturn, even going so far as to make their Sabbath day the same day as the planet’s “Saturday” or “Saturn-Day.” Could Sitchin’s hypothesis explain the inexplicable advancement humankind made 40,000 years ago? In The Good News - An Alternate Theory we wrote:

Ever since Roswell, people have speculated over whether or not there is intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy. With the numerous reports of alien sightings, we had concluded that all the witnesses couldn’t be delusional; therefore there was something to the phenomena. Throughout the sixties, seventies and eighties, news reports centered on people being abducted by “aliens.” Recently, many authors related contact with extraterrestrials through meditation and channeling. The first thing we wondered was why an obviously advanced species would be interested in the Human Race? If the sightings and contacts are anything to go by, the alien vehicles are way beyond our current technology. So if they have nothing to learn from human beings, why the interest?

The answer as to why the aliens are interested in humanity comes with understanding the power of human emotions. In reading the numerous channeled books purporting that some outside force was going to save humanity, one aspect kept repeating itself. What these “benevolent” beings want from humanity is their emotions. It is through humanity’s emotions that the real Divine power is discovered. Only the Life Principle within our Solar system contains the Divine sparks of God and until they developed intellect through the Human Race, the Divine power was unavailable. The power became accessible through human emotions.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO EXODUS--MIRACLE OR HISTORY

In investigating whether Exodus is reporting an actual historical catastrophe or not, as I said I first looked into the biblical great flood, where supposedly all life, save those aboard the ark perished. Turning to the secular sources, I discovered that there have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth. Scientists say that four mass extinctions have occurred in the last 3.5 billion years in which many species have disappeared in a relatively short period of geological time.

The “Big Five” mass extinctions most scientists accept are the end of Ordovician, 488 million years ago; Late Devonian, 360 million years ago; End of the Permian, 251 million years ago; End of the Triassic 200 million years ago and end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. To be honest, I had only heard of the last two, so what happened? There appear to be several theories as to the causes of these mass extinctions. I found them listed on line at Wikipedia Encylopedia, they are:

1 - Massive and sustained volcanism. The formation of large ignneous provinces (flood basalt events), could have: produced dust and particulate aerosols which inhibited photosynthesis and thus caused food chains to collapse both on land and at sea. Volcanism emitted sulfur oxides which were precipitated as acid rain and poisoned many organisms — contributing further to the collapse of food chains. They also emitted carbon dioxide and causing sustained global warming. Various scientists have suggested that massive volcanism caused or contributed to the End of the Cretaceous, Permian, Triassic and Jurrassic eras.

2 - Sea-level falls, which could reduce the continental shelf area (the most productive part of the oceans) sufficiently to cause a marine mass extinction, and could disrupt weather patterns enough to cause extinctions on land. But sea-level falls are very probably the result of other events, such as sustained global cooling or the sinking of the mid-ocean ridges. Sea-level falls are associated with most of the mass extinctions, including all of the "Big Five"

3 – Impact event. The impact of a sufficiently large asteroid or comet could have caused food chains to collapse both on land and at sea by producing dust and particulate aerosols and thus inhibiting photosynthesis. If it hit sulfur-rich rocks, it could also have emitted sulfur oxides which were precipitated as acid rain and poisoned many organisms — contributing further to the collapse of food chains. Some scientists have suggested that impacts could also have caused megatsunamis and / or global forest fires, but these ideas are now regarded as exaggerations. Only the end of the Cretaceous period is associated with strong evidence of such an impact.

4-Sustained global cooling. This could: kill many polar and temperate species and force others to migrate towards the equator; reduce the area available for tropical species; often make the Earth's climate more arid on average, mainly by locking up more of the planet's water in ice and snow. The glaciation cycles of the current ice age are believed to have had only a very mild impact on biodiversity, so the mere existence of a significant cooling is not sufficient on its own to explain a mass extinction.It has been suggested that global cooling caused or contributed to the end of the Ordovician, Permian, Triassic and Late Devonian extinctions, and possibly others. Note: this item is labelled "sustained global cooling" to distinguish it from the temporary climatic effects of flood basalt events or impacts.

5-Sustained global warming. This would have the opposite effects: expand the area available for tropical species; kill temperate species or force them to migrate towards the Poles (or perish); possibly cause severe extinctions of polar species; often make the Earth's climate wetter on average, mainly by melting ice and snow and thus increasing the volume of the water cycle. It might also cause anoxic events in the oceans (see below).The most dramatic example of sustained warming is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which was associated with one of the smaller mass extinctions.

6-Anoxic events. The causes of anoxic events are complex and controversial, but all known instances are associated with severe and sustained global warming, mostly caused by by massive sustained volcanism. Prolonged high temperatures directly reduce water's capacity for dissolved oxygen, which could cause a marine mass extinction. Kump, Pavlov and Arthur (2005) have proposed that the warming also upset the oceanic balance between photosynthesising plankton and deep-water sulfate-reducing bacteria, causing massive emissions of hydrogen sulfide which poisoned life on both land and sea and severely weakened the ozone layer, exposing much of the life that still remained to fatal levels of UV radiation.

7-A nearby nova, supernova or gamma ray burst. A nearby gamma ray burst (less than 6000 light years distance) could sufficiently irradiate the surface of the Earth to kill organisms living there and destroy the ozone layer in the process. From statistical arguments, approximately 1 gamma ray burst would be expected to occur in close proximity to Earth in the last 540 million years. However, a recent study by Stanek et al (2006) says that GRBs are not possible in metal rich galaxies like our own. A proposal that a supernova or gamma ray burst had caused a mass extinction would also have to be backed up by astronomical evidence of such an explosion at the right place and time. It has been suggested that a supernova or gamma ray burst caused the Ordovician extinction.

8-Continental drift. Movement of the continents into some configurations can cause or contribute to extinctions in several ways: by initiating or ending ice ages; by changing ocean and wind currents and thus altering climate; by opening seaways or land bridges which expose previously isolated species to competition for which they are poorly-adapted (for example the extinction of most American [marsupial]s after the creation of a land bridge between North and South America). Occasionally continental drift creates a super-continent which includes the vast majority of Earth’s land area, which in addition to the effects listed above is likely to reduce the total area of continental shelf (the most species-rich part of the ocean) and produce a vast, arid continental interior which may have extreme seasonal variations. It is widely thought that the creation of the super-continent Pangea contributed to the Permian mass extinction.

9-Plate tectonics.This is the mechanism which drives many of the possible causes of mass extinctions, especially volcanism, continental drift. So it is implicated in many extinctions, but in each case it is necessary to specify which manifestations of plate tectonics were involved. Many other hypotheses have been proposed, such as the spread of a new disease or simple out-competition following an especially successful biological innovation. But all have been rejected, usually for one of the following reasons: they require events or processes for which there is no evidence; they assume mechanisms which are contrary to the available evidence; they are based on other theories which have been rejected or superseded.

According to the scientists, we are experiencing a mass extinction today. They call it The Holocene extinction event. Wikipedia reports that a survey by the American Museum of Natural History found that 70% of biologists view the present era as part of a mass extinction event, possibly one of the fastest ever. Some, such as E. O. Wilson of Harvard University, predict that man's destruction of the biosphere could cause the extinction of one-half of all species in the next 100 years. Research and conservation efforts, such as the IUCN’s annual “Red List” of threatened species, all point to an ongoing period of enhanced extinction, though some offer much lower rates and hence longer time scales before the onset of catastrophic damage. The extinction of many megafauna near the end of the most recent ice age is also sometimes considered a part of the Holocene extinction event.This is very thought provoking and I think in light of what has occurred in the past should be taken seriously. To return to the historiocity of Exodus, today there is bonified scientific evidence that the events recorded in the Bible could be relating real historical events.

Simcha Jacobovici, an award winning documentary director and producer whose work deals primarily with controversies in Jewish history has put forward the hypothesis that the tenth plague or the death of the first-born was the result of an emission of CO2 by an erupting volcano on the island of Santorini. He believes the reason only the Egyptians were affected was because CO2 is heavier than air and only people close to the ground would be affected. The children or firstborn of the Egyptians would have been in bed, which meant they were lying down; i.e; closer to the ground, whereas, the Israelites were awake taking part in the passover meal, which meant they were sitting up. In 1986 the world saw how this scenario could have possibly have played out. Wipedika reports it thus:

On August 21st 1986, a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos in Northwest Cameroon, which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. … suffocating up to 1,800 people within 20 km of the lake…

It is believed that up to a cubic kilometre of gas was released. Because CO2 is denser than air, the gas flowed off the mountainous flank in which Lake Nyos rests and down two adjoining valleys in a layer tens of metres deep, displacing the air and suffocating all the people and animals before it could dissipate. The normally blue waters of the lake turned a deep red after the outgassing, due to iron-rich water from the deep rising to the surface and being oxidised by the air.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS

Originally I did not include Lao Tse as a Christ-like teacher, because God had not guided me to investigate Taoism. Now I understand that I first had to comprehend what I wrote in the third volume, before I could delve into Taoist thought. But first, what of the historical teacher? Evidently, Lao Tse is generally known today as Laozi, but according to Wikipedia, it can also be transliterated as Lao Tzŭ and Laotze. As stated Lao Tse/Laozi is traditionally the founder of Taoism. According to Chinese tradition, Laozi lived around 500 B.C.E. however, many historians contend that Laozi actually lived in the 4  century B.C.E.

Whether Laozi even existed is the issue of strong debate, because authorship of the Tao Te Ching (Dàodéjīng) is attributed to him. Laozi became an important cultural hero to subsequent generations of Chinese people.

So much for debate over his existence, what of his teachings. Wikipedia says that ostensibly, Lao Tzu’s wise counsel attracted followers, but he refused to set his ideas down in writing, worrying that written words might solidify into formal dogma. Lao Tzu laid down no rigid code of behavior. He believed a person’s conduct should be governed by instinct and conscience. He believed “simplicity” to be the key to truth and freedom. Lao Tzu encouraged his followers to observe, and seek to understand the laws of nature; to develop intuition and build up personal power; and to wield power with love, not force.

Apparently there is a legend that Confucius, hearing of Lao Tzu's wisdom, travelled to meet him. According to this story, Confucius and Laozi discussed ritual and propriety (cornerstones of Confuciianism) over the following months. Laozi strongly opposed what he felt to be hollow practices. Taoist legend claims that these discussions proved more educational for Confucius than did the contents of the libraries. Lao Tzu perceived that the kingdom's affairs were disintegrating, so it was time to leave. He was travelling West on a buffalo when he came to the Han Gu Pass, which was guarded. The keeper of the pass realized Lao Tzu was leaving permanently, so he requested that Lao Tzu write out some of his wisdom so that it could be preserved once he was gone, Lao Tzu climbed down from his buffalo and immediately wrote the Tao Te Ching. He then left and was never heard of again.

According to the Taoist fables, Laozi lived for over 900 years, which explained how he was both the senior and the contemporary of Confucius. These fables held that Laozi had been a court advisor in all of his previous twelve incarnations…No historical text supports these beliefs.

Also in The Voice in the Wilderness, I said there were no Christ-like teachers in Europe before Jesus’ time. However, Maurice Cotterell’s book JESUS, KING ARTHUR AND THE JOURNEY OF THE GRAIL  provided information that if true may contradict that assumption. Mr. Cotterell points to the silver Gundestrup Cauldron, discovered in1891, “…in a peat bog at Raevemose, Gundestrup, North Jutland, Denmark” as evidence of a Celtic Christ-like character existing 100 B.C.E., the accepted date of the manufacture of the cauldron. Inside the cauldron, on one five platelets is depicted, the Celtic god of hunting Cernnunos. Linking Cernnunos with Jesus, Cotterell relates, “On his forehead Cernunnos wears the horns of a stag associating the wearer with the Sun, light, God, and healing… the stag is also associated with Jesus.”

In addition, he links Cernunnos with Venus as the morning and evening star. Cotterell concludes, “Cernunnos is hence explicitly portrayed as Jesus on the Gundestrup Cauldron, as he is in the Bible, which surely means that the Gundestrup Cauldron tells, at least in part, the story of Jesus.” Being pragmatic, Cotterell says that if 100 B.C.E is the correct dating of the cauldron, then as “Jesus had not yet appeared on Earth…the appearance of the Celtic Cernunnos” can only point “to a future coming of Christ.”Cotterell believes his hypothesis is further backed up by “…the appearance of another character nearby Cernunnos, a small child riding on the back of a dolphin.” Cotterell says that this scene represents a myth of the sun god Apollo. He explains, “The Greek and Roman sun god was carried on the back of a dolphin from…the island of Delos, to Mount Parnassus...” He reminds us that Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were the children of the creator god Zeus. Then he relates, “Chi Zeus (son of Zeus) was the name given to Christ in the Bible…” According to Cotterell, Cernnunos was also known as the son of Zeus. Apollo was known as the archer (hunter) and Artemis was the goddess of hunting.

Cotterell not only connects the Gundestrup cauldron and Cernnunos with Apollo and Jesus, he also connects him with the sun god Mithra, only he calls him Mithras. He makes this connection because of what he calls, “…a remarkable scene of what has been described as ‘a dying bull pursued by a hunter a two dogs.’” He relates a legend that connects Mithras to Cernnunos. The “Legend says that the Sun god sent his messenger the raven to command Mithras to sacrifice a great bull. Mithras reluctantly obeyed and when the bull died a great miracle occurred-the world began. The cloak of Mithras was turned into a celestial globe on which the planets and stars were shining.”

Like D. Jason Cooper and Gerald Massey, Cotterell sees parallels between Mithras and Jesus, from the legend of Mithras “…seeing the afflictions suffered by mankind… came down to Earth, where his birth was witnessed on December 25 by shepherds.”

In 2000, Craig and I traveled to Peru and Bolivia, the land of the Christ-like teacher, Viracocha. The first sacred site to Viracocha we visited was the Sun Temple in Ollantaytambo, below the city of Cusco in Peru. At the top of stone steps to the Sun Temple, I found myself in what appeared to have been a small room. All around me were large blocks of stone in disarray. Still it was obvious to me, that this had been a very special place. A little way from the “room” there was a wall of six massive blocks of stone freestanding in a sort of open area. Mark Amaru Pinkham in his book The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom links the ruins to a “network of spiritual adepts known as the solar all great white brotherhood.”

Pinkham says of the ruins that, “In the construction of this glorious temple of light, the function of which appears to have been that of an initiation temple for the opening of the heart chakra,” extraterrestrial beings, such as Venusians “...left their signature at the site as a stair step motif of five ‘steps’, which can still be seen, engraved upon the only surviving wall of the ancient temple.”  He explains that the “wall” is compiled of six adjoining “megalithic stone panels.”  Interestingly, Pinkham reminds us that the number six is also the number of points in a “six-pointed star, the symbol of polarity union.”  He continues, “The six panels points to the temple’s function as an initiation temple which was designed for both polarity union and the awakening of the androgynous consciousness existing within the human heart chakra.” Next, visiting Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, I was amazed to learn when we got back that Tiahuanaco was known as “the city of the Lords of Light.” I learned this from being guided to read the channeled book, The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch. Remembering the pillar concerning channeled information, I discovered that apart from informing us the ancient name for the city, the author, J. J Hurtak says that Tiahuanaco was initially “built at sea level during a previous cycle and heaved up to its present altitude of 13,000 feet.” He explains that the original city “contains the gate threshold” which recounts that Melchizedek would come again “at the end of this cycle of time and open the Treasury of Tiahuanaco.”

This was interesting because although the above information came from a metaphysical source, the mystery of Tiahuanaco has caused many heated debates between different members of the accredited archaeological community. To recap, Graham Hancock questioned the conventional dating of Tiahuanaco of 500 C.E., by pointing out the “irrefutable evidence that -- the city of Tiahuanaco was once a port, complete with extensive docks, positioned right on the shore of Lake Titicaca… ”
Back to List at Top of Page

 

VOLUME II
UPDATE TO 333 B.C.E. TO 1 A.D.

At first this was the only chapter in the book I had not updated, but then Craig and I read Robert Feather’s THE SECRET INITIATION OF JESUS AT QUMRAN – The Essene Mysteries of John the Baptist. Earlier, I reported his controversial theory that connects Akhenaten to the Copper Scroll. As the title of the book mentioned above indicates, his new book hypothesizes that both Jesus and John the Baptist were connected to the Essenes at Qumran. Nonetheless, I am not concerned with that for now. Here, I want to address his identification of Onias IV as the Essenes Teacher of Righteousness.

I had often come across references to the Essenes mysterious figure, The Teacher of Righteousness. Moreover, I had read of the parallels scholars had found in the Dead Sea Scrolls between his teachings and the teachings of Jesus. Robert Feather presents a very good argument for identifying Onias IV with the Teacher of Righteousness,  but first I needed to investigate this Jewish High Priest. According to Wikipedia:

Onias IV is the designation given to the son of Onias III and the lawful heir of the legitimate high priests. He had reason to hope that the victory of the national party under Judas Maccabeus would place him in the office of his fathers; but being disappointed in his expectations by the election of Alcimus, he went to Egypt to seek aid against the tyranny of the Seleucids at the court of the Ptolemies, their political enemies. About 154, with the permission of Ptolemy VI (Philometor), he built at Leontopolis a temple which, though comparatively small, was modeled on that of Jerusalem, and was called by the name of its founder. Onias doubtless expected that after the desecration of the Temple at Jerusalem by the Syrians the Egyptian temple would be regarded as the only legitimate one; but the traditional teachings of Judaism, as contained in the Mishnah, concede only quasi-legitimate status to the temple of Onias; in fact, even for the Egyptian Jews the latter did not possess the same importance as did the Temple of Jerusalem.

Onias IV, who enjoyed the favor of the Egyptian court, succeeded in elevating Egyptian Judaism to a position of dignity and importance. A large number of able-bodied Judeans had accompanied Onias to Egypt, and these strangers, who were there called Κάτοικοι (“inhabitants”), received, on condition of performing military service and preserving the internal peace of the country, tracts of land of their own, on which they lived with their families. The district inhabited by them lay between Memphis and Pelusium, and was long called the “land of Onias”.

The Damascus Document reports: “He God left a remnant to Israel and did not deliver it up to be destroyed. And in the age of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after he had given them into the hand King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, He visited them and He caused a plant root to spring from Israel and Aaron to inherit His land…yet for twenty years they were like blind men groping the way.”

Robert Feather identifies the “plant root” as the Teacher of Righteousness, who as I said he identifies as Onias IV. First Mr. Feather asks us to consider that Onias IV was appointed as High Priest in 176 B.C.E. He observes that 176 B.C.E. is exactly 390 years from the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem. Providing even more evidence, Mr. Feather relates that Onias IV was the last Zadokite line of High Priests.” The Zadokite line traces its ancestry directly from Aaron and the tribe of Levites.

As for the reference to the “twenty years” of groping “..like blind men…” Mr. Feather says, “…The Greek successors of Alexander the Great began their rule of Judaea in 197 B.C.E. The ‘plant root’ is in dissaray as to how to deal with the new threat, and twenty years of groping like blind men pass until the Teacher of Righteousness takes command. It is now 177 B.C.E.”

The Teacher of Righteousness’ nemesis is “The Wicked Priest.” Mr. Feather identifies this figure with Menelaus, who succeeds Onias IV as High Priest. It is this event that causes Onias IV to flee to Egypt to appeal to Pharaoh Ptolemy VI for assistance and where he builds the temple of Onias.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER VIII BETHLEHEM TO NAZARETH

The Good News - An Alternate Theory, presents a hypothesis of Jesus growing up in Alexandria with no idea that he was destined to be the prophesied Jewish messiah. It provides Craig’s and my discoveries over the twelve years of guided study. I feel it is a crucial piece to my journey; consequently, it is reproduced throughout the updates as I feel it is appropriate.

A key element of the infancy narratives was to incorporate the fulfillment of the prophecy in Hosea 11:1, which said the father’s son, would be called out of Egypt. Let’s suppose for the sake of argument that the prophecy is relating to the messiah. If we accept this, is the Gospel of Matthew narrative correct? We would have to say NO, because our studies have revealed that the infancy stories were concocted in order to link Jesus to Moses.

Many scholars have hypothesized that Jesus was initiated into the Egyptian mystery schools. What if he had been born in Egypt rather than Nazareth or Bethlehem? It would certainly explain some of the mysterious events in the gospels. History records that many Jews settled in Alexandria, Egypt, after they returned from exile. In Alexandria were several mystery schools, such as Isis, Dionysus and Hermes. Isn’t it possible that some of those Jews could have been exposed to these mystery or esoteric schools?

Several writings point to Jesus and John the Baptist as being members of an ascetic Essene sect. We had been surprised to discover that the sect of Essenes wasn’t restricted to only an ascetic enclave whose remnants have been found in Qumran, near the Dead Sea. Apparently the Essenes also had a following within the general Jewish population and counted entire families as members.

There has been much speculation as to where Jesus was before his baptism by John, with some proposing that he was in India, while others favor his originating from Egypt. If we dismiss the infancy narratives (found in Matthew and Luke) along with the story of Jesus in the temple at the age of twelve, then two of the Gospels (Mark and John) have Jesus suddenly appearing at the river Jordan around the age of thirty. However, if we take into consideration the other writings, then maybe we can offer another explanation of the contradictions within the gospels. So with this premise in mind, we would like to present a different hypothesis for your consideration.

The hypothesis is that as an adolescent he entered the mystery school of Isis and was eventually initiated by the high priestess and trained in the arts of alchemy and magic. I feel his training explains some of the more mysterious events, such as recorded in John 8:59 where, when the Pharisees tried to stone him, he escaped by becoming invisible to them.

At the same time as Jesus was being trained in Egypt, his cousin John had entered an ascetic Essene community. While he was there, John received a vision informing him that he was to prepare the way for the messiah. At the time he did not know that the messiah was his cousin Jesus. More than likely he told his teachers about the vision, but because the Essene leaders were waiting for Elijah to return and John didn’t fit the expected profile, his revelations were not received well. He was told to forget the vision and continue his studies.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER IX GNOSIS VERSUS ORTHODOXY

In investigating the Gnostics, I discovered there were multiple sects and like today’s Christianity they all held wildly differing views on Jesus’ mission. As I said, God had guided me to the Valentinians as holding the piece of the Gnostic puzzle, but I have to admit to finding their explanation of the beginning of everything as confusing. That is the main reason for writing The Good News. I should state categorically, all the explanations are what God either led us to or showed us in visions. The Good News is available free, to download from the web. Or you can order a copy from Amazon.com or AuthorHouse.com.

Before we start, it may be beneficial to relate what God told us about the Divine realm “It is impossible for the human brain to comprehend how spiritual forces operate.” We can only identify with spiritual operation by relating to concepts we do comprehend. In point of fact, it wasn’t until the recent discovery of quantum physics that we began to understand energy, atoms and chemical forces. When the Gnostic teacher Valentinus wrote The Gospel of Truth, about nineteen hundred years ago, humanity didn’t even understand electricity, let alone atomic and sub-atomic particles. Consequently, the Gnostics tried to use terms that their contemporaries could understand. These analogies in no way meant that they saw the Divine realm in the same way as the mythical demigods whom the Greeks thought resided on Mount Olympus. Additionally we need to state that although we refer to God in “masculine” terms, this does not mean that we think of the Supreme Being as masculine. With this said, let us share what we came to understand about Gnostic emanations.

We are grateful to Professor Elaine Pagels for her translation of the teachings of the Gnostic Valentinians into a cohesive understanding.

Apparently the followers of Valentinus, who according to one report nearly became pope before his separation from orthodoxy told a mythical story to explain the beginning of everything. The myth said that the First Father or Supreme Being desired to be known, and so projected Himself into His consort, Silence, which brought forth two emanations, Mind (masculine) and Truth (feminine). This pair in turn brought forth the Logos (masculine) and Life (feminine), who brought forth the pair Humanity (masculine) and Church (feminine). (It is important to keep in mind these are ancient terms that have been translated into English and should not be confused with the definitions of the words church and humanity used today.) These six emanations, together with Silence and the Supreme Being, made up what the Valentinians referred to as the Ogdoad (8). The pair Humanity and Church also brought forth a pair who subsequently emanated another pair. Eventually, apart from the Ogdoad there were eleven more pairs, (22) which completed the thirty members of the Divine realm, which the Gnostics called the Pleroma. Each pair consisted of both masculine and feminine aspects working together in unison.

As we have said, the human mind can only conceptualize Divine powers in the most vague terms. This is why Jesus taught in parables and analogies; our vocabulary is wholly inadequate. Consequently, to attempt to put the pairs of emanations into our frame of reference is extremely difficult. Even so, God explained to us that rather than seeing these pairs in terms of couples, we should regard them as pairs of opposites, such as active and passive or positive and negative. Unfortunately the word “negative” has become connected to anything evil, but negative here needs to be seen as analogous to, relatively speaking, the negative prong of an electrical appliance’s plug working in conjunction with the positive prong. Both the positive and negative prongs are needed for the appliance to operate. Another example of how Divine potencies work together is the flower (passive) being pollinated by the bee (active); both depend upon each other.

Humanity has retained the memory of the union between these emanations through the myths and legends of creator gods and goddesses. These deities are known by different names throughout the world, such as; Shakti and Shiva, El and Astarte or Ashteroth, Baal and Baalti, and Zeus and Hera. Gradually the populations divided these pairs into sun/sky-gods and earth-goddesses. Civilizations that used brute force to rule and conquer their neighbors, gravitated toward the veneration of “sun/sky-gods,” which they saw demonstrated their power through manifestations of visible eclipses and thunderbolts. Tribal communities that relied on their survival by cooperation with “Mother Nature” came to venerate the feminine side of deity through the goddess. Regardless of later civilizations having given predominance to the male gods, the creative forces were always seen as dual. The concept of rulers as king and queen and emperor and empress, also reflected the union of the members of the Pleroma.

Valentinus tells us the problem began as Sophia; the feminine side of the last pair to be emanated went in search of her origin without her partner, who was referred to as (What-has-been-willed). We wondered if “he” could be seen as the Divine Will?

Because Sophia acted without her male partner, What-has-been-willed, she went against the natural order. In seeking the Supreme Being, she turned back and, in the words of Valentinus, “Was in danger of being absorbed into the Father’s sweetness.” We understand this to mean that when she beheld the magnificence of God, she became mesmerized and moved to rejoin Him. This is akin to a moth flying too close to the flame. Like a moth gets destroyed or absorbed by the fire, Sophia was in danger of being annihilated. However, unlike the exposed flame, the Supreme Being is surrounded by a power, or in the modern vernacular, a force field, that is referred to as the Limit. The difference between this force field and others was the Gnostic Limit had consciousness, and had the capability of supporting and restoring Sophia to her rightful place within the Pleroma.

Unfortunately, the emotions Sophia experienced (fear, grief, confusion and ignorance) could not be absorbed into the Pleroma and were expelled from the Divine plane. This meant that she became separated from parts of herself. To use an analogy, this would be similar to a person’s gangrenous arm or leg being amputated. Because Sophia was a member of the Pleroma, she was entirely infused with Divine power. To avoid the rest of the Pleroma becoming contaminated, for want of a better description, a Veil was temporarily placed between the Divine realm and that portion of Sophia, which was expelled. Also to prevent it’s happening again, the Supreme Being emanated the Christ, along with His partner the Holy Spirit, to teach the members of the Pleroma of their progenitor.

All of the above is very difficult to understand in scientific terms. However, God communicated to us if instead of names such as Mind, Life, Humanity and Limit, we think in terms of frequencies as in light, sound, vibration, and molecular bonds, then it becomes closer to today’s scientific view.

Desiring to rescue or recover her lost aspects, Sophia united with the Christ. Ptolemy, a successor to Valentinus taught that Sophia and the Christ transformed her fear into water, her grief into air, her confusion into earth and her ignorance into fire. These four elements were then used to create everything in the universe.

Earlier we discussed how the Human Race had retained the knowledge of the masculine and feminine powers by the worshipping of male and female “gods and goddesses.” You may have noticed that in the list of deities we didn’t include Osiris and Isis that is because they were actual historical figures. Also Isis represented Sophia and Osiris signified the Christ. There was a legend that Isis with her consort; Osiris corrected the watchers mistake with humanity. [In the ancient Book of Enoch, translated by Richard Laurence, the author relates that these “watchers” reveal the mysteries to mankind, which results in the multiplying of evil.]

Even though we have been speaking of Sophia in feminine terms “she” shouldn’t be seen as a goddess. God had said that humanity is destined to unite the opposites: darkness and light, male and female and spirit and matter. So to think of the Gnostic emanations in terms of male and female gods and goddesses could be an error. Rather, it would be more appropriate to think of them as androgynous. We had found it interesting to learn that the Greek term for spirit is pneuma, which is neuter, neither masculine nor feminine, but both.

The elements of the universe made from Sophia’s Divine residue (emotions) became immersed in the Life Principle and lay dormant waiting to be awakened. So the seemingly interminable cycles of evolution began to transmute the elements (emotions) back into Spirit.

Due to the elements containing Sophia’s essence, they were of a dual nature, spiritual and material. They also contained both intelligence from Nous or Mind and the energy of life from Life. And so to redeem her residue, the Demiurge, was brought forth by Sophia and the Christ. The Demiurge, which the Gnostics called Ialdaboath, was the Creator and God of the Old Testament and has been worshiped throughout the world under various names. Because the Creator/Demiurge was beneath the Veil a new realm was created known as the Soul realm, which encompassed multiple layers including the astral plane. Every being beneath the Veil became ensouled.

The Gnostics believed that the Creator remained ignorant of his true origins, which they think is evinced with his statement in the Old Testament, “I am a jealous God etc,” whereas Jesus taught us that the Heavenly Father was Love. One of the first directives received was that our mission involved “vindicating Jehovah.” We learned this meant removing violent acts from his responsibility: more on this later.

The Demiurge/Creator’s role was as the Architect of the universe to administer evolution. He was unaware of the Divine sparks laying dormant in the elements, and so with the statement “Let there be Light” he unwittingly began the awakening of the sparks. Obviously the “Light” referred to in Genesis is not daylight or sunlight as this statement is made before the creation of the sun and moon or stars. We think the “Light” in Genesis should be seen in terms of Electricity. When we switch on the light in a darkened room we reveal the contents. In other words through the senses we become aware of the contents of the room. Even a blind person uses his or her senses of touch, smell and hearing to determine their surroundings. Consequently, if we connect Light with the enlivening of the Life Principle encased within the elements, then the Big Bang can also be associated with this event. This instant can also be considered as the beginning of the objective plane and linear time.

It may also help to think of the Divine sparks, dormant within the elements in terms of the sparks that fly off from a bonfire. They have no volition of their own and are completely at the “mercy” of the wind. The bonfire would represent the Supreme Being, however, the sparks that fly off into the night become separated from it. Many New Age philosophers teach that each human being is Divine and therefore does not need any Divine help. In a way they are correct. Every member of the Human Race is born with the potential of awakening the Divine spark within him or her. But, and this is a big but, until they give up thinking of themselves as separate individuals with complete autonomy, they are like the single spark that flies off into the night, they will eventually cease to shine.

Because the sparks immersed in the elements came from above the Veil, they had the capacity to co-create. All they waited for was the development of the intellect, which occurred with the development of Homo Sapien Sapiens, which enabled the Life Principle to access Mind/Nous to make this a reality.Previously, we said that we were to vindicate Jehovah and Saint Paul’s reference to not avenging an injustice with an injustice, but returning a wrong with a right, which “heap coals of fire” on the antagonist’s head provides the perfect example. Although St Paul wrote this in his letter to the Romans, what we did not realize was that he was referring to the Old Testament. (Leviticus 19:18 Deuteronomy 32:35) Although the latter scripture in Deuteronomy concerns how “Yahweh” will “avenge” Moses, the former in Leviticus is an injunction for constraint. “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge…” This sounded a great deal more just than vengeful and more indicative of a Divine being. Unfortunately, humanity wanted injustice eradicated and until they developed mercy could not conceive of the concept that kindness and compassion could “heap fiery coals”  (Proverbs 25:22) on their antagonist’s head.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER X PERSECUTION AND THE EARLY CHURCH

At the start of the chapter, I said that Saint Paul was attacked under the name of Simon Magus. What I was surprised to learn was that Simon’s companion; Helen was linked to Mary Magdalene. We wrote in The Good News:

After St Paul’s’ conversion Acts says that the disciples of Jerusalem were afraid of him and it wasn’t until Barnabas took him to the Apostles and reported Paul’s preaching that he was accepted. (Acts 9: 26-27) If we recall, Jesus appeared to his disciples in such a way that they did not recognize him. Saul/St Paul arriving in Jerusalem repeating Jesus’ words must have given them pause for thought. Could the disciples have wondered if Saul was Jesus returned?

As stated, Professor Elaine Pagels said that St Paul used Gnostic terms in his letters, (see 1Corinthinians 3:1). If St Paul did travel with Mary Magdalene it would explain why the Church attacked them under the names of Simon and Helen:

Many Gnostics claim that they take their teachings from Paul. In fact, Valentinus claimed to have been taught by Theudas a disciple of St Paul and as Pistis Sophia reports Jesus taught about Sophia after his resurrection, passing the baton, so to speak to Mary Magdalene. Could this be how St. Paul also learned about these controversial teachings? The whole premise of the Gnostics was one of self-responsibility. Gnosticism held that Jesus showed us the way. Salvation is in our hands. At the time of St Paul, the Jerusalem Church was gaining both converts and wealth. If Gnosticism had prevailed there would have been no need for a hierarchical Church.

The Church did not succeed in vilifying Saint Paul, but Christendom has come to vilify Judas Iscariot, saying that the New Testament gives them grounds, but does it?. In the Gospel of Mark the earliest accredited gospel, the disciples complain to Jesus about the use of Spikenard to anoint him, but by the last written gospel, John, the writer has Judas Iscariot complaining of the waste of the Spikenard, rather than the disciples. In The Good News we wrote:

The name Judas has come to be the synonym for traitor. Nonetheless, many scholars point out that the gospel account seems to have Jesus instigating the “betrayal.” The gospels report that Jesus knew he was to die, and that after three days he would appear alive to the disciples. After Peter declared Jesus the Christ, almost immediately Jesus castigated him for denying the prophecy of his master’s death, even going so far as to call him Satan, which meant adversary.

A recent documentary on the “betrayal” and arrest of Jesus directs us to the fact that Jesus had the opportunity to escape from the Garden of Gethsemane. In fact as stated earlier he had escaped violence several times previously by “hiding” himself (John 8: 59). Jesus knew that in order to fulfill his mission, he had to be arrested. He even stopped Peter from defending him, telling the disciples if it weren’t meant to happen, he would have twelve legions (144,000) of angels to assist him. (Matthew 26:53)

In The Good News, we propose a different scenario:
What if Jesus approached Judas Iscariot to help him, telling him that in order for him to declare himself the messiah, he needed to be brought before the Jewish authorities? What if he told Judas that no one was to know, including the other disciples? This was because in order to fulfill prophecy, he needed to appear to be betrayed, as per (Psalms 41:9; 55:12-14.) Many times the foreknowledge of future events can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jesus, as a trained Essene master would have been aware of the prophecy in Psalms. Could this have been why he approached Judas Iscariot? Judas was a zealot and saw the culmination of Jesus’ ministry as an earthly king. He had witnessed Jesus’ ability to elude his captors and probably thought Jesus was going to reveal who he was by supernatural means. What if, after Jesus was arrested, Judas followed him expecting Jesus to save himself? It must have been devastating for Judas to realize that Jesus was going to be crucified.

For anyone to identify himself or herself as the messiah without proof was considered blasphemy. However, the gospels say that Jesus had proven that he was the messiah several times. Anyone who had traveled with Jesus and witnessed the miracles could have reasonably expected their master to reveal his power. After Jesus was scourged, and it became clear what was going to happen, could Judas have asked, “Why didn’t he show the Sanhedrin his powers? Why didn’t he prove that he was the messiah?”

Something that has puzzled us is why the Jewish authorities didn’t recognize Jesus as the messiah and wanted him dead. The New Testament records “miracle” after “miracle”, but were they? Other writings state there were many healers in the Holy Lands during the first century of the Common Era. For instance, Apollonius of Tyana, a contemporary of St Paul was known as a healer.

Today, the healing of someone, without medical assistance is seen as a miracle. Yet as we learn that the body is so much more than mere physical flesh and blood, people are achieving remarkable results with holistic medicine. Reiki is a technique often used to assist in healing. Both the practitioner and the patient are involved. Isn’t this like Jesus saying to the person he heals, “Your faith has made you whole,” and so we ask if healing wasn’t proof of messiahship, then why did the Jewish authorities fear Jesus so much? The answer is in Jesus’ forgiving sins. The people of Israel and Judea at that time did not have compassion for those members of society that were less fortunate. The poor, the sick and the infirm were seen as deserving of their afflictions because of past “sins.” Like the fear of “eternal damnation” today, people of Biblical times believed in the law of karma in that you reaped what you sowed. That is why the disciples asked Jesus “who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) when they encountered a man who was born blind. By Jesus forgiving “sins” he was demonstrating compassion and clearly abolishing the Jewish Law of an eye for an eye and replacing it with mercy and forgiveness. That is why Jesus said your sins are forgiven, whenever he healed someone.

Despite the disparaging comments the gospel writers make against Judas Iscariot, the fact that he had “the bag” (purse) speaks volumes to us. You don’t give control of your funds to someone you don’t trust. Tradition says that after Jesus was crucified, Judas hung himself. As the disciples were unaware of the conspiracy, they saw Judas as betraying their master and would have nothing to do with him. Their condemnation after the crucifixion, as much as anything, probably added to the misconception. Is it possible that after the disciples shunned him, Judas left the area and traveled to Damascus?

Regardless of the story of Judas Iscariot’s suicide, by the gospels, the book of Acts may offer another result and also show the workings of Divine intervention. In chapter 9 and starting with verse 11, after Saul (St Paul) lost his sight outside Damascus, a disciple named Ananias received a vision of Jesus. In the vision Jesus instructed Ananias, “Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.” We would ask, what better way for the compassionate Christ to use this opportunity to teach that even enemies are redeemable? Many times Jesus had said to love your enemies. This scenario had Jesus sending his blinded messenger Saul to the house of Judas, a suspected traitor zealot and then sending the frightened disciple Ananias to the same house, to heal Saul the Pharisee and possibly bring Judas back into the fold. If the reaction of Ananias to instruction by Jesus is anything to go by, Saul’s reputation for ruthlessly and relentlessly persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ was very widespread. (Acts 9:13-14) By gathering these chosen vessels of Christ at the house of Judas, Jesus was teaching a very valuable lesson of forgiveness to all. God told us that the reincarnation of Judas has returned in order to correct a terrible wrong. Could the wrong be history’s condemnation of Judas Iscariot?

As I said the above extract is taken from The Good News, which was written between 2003 and 2004. Imagine my surprise to learn of the existence of a Gospel of Judas. I learned of this from watching a documentary on The National Geographic Channel on April 9, 2006.

Apparently, in 1978 a shepherd found a codex of The Gospel of Judas in a burial cave near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Tracing the codex’s journey between 1980 and 1999 is problematic at best. Nonetheless, the best guess is that it was sold in Cairo in 1980 and stolen shortly after. Its whereabouts was unknown until around 1983 it was offered for sale on the black market for sale and viewed by several experts. Unfortunately, as none of the experts were able to meet the asking price, it was pulled from the market and languished in a Hicksville, New York bank vault for the next 16 years until it came to the notice of Swiss antiquities dealer Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos, who purchased the document in September 2000.

The codex consists of 13 pages recounting Judas colluding with Jesus to hand him over to the Jewish authorities. Unfortunately the pages have deteriorated to fragments and have had to be painstakingly put together. In April 2006, a complete translation of the text, with extensive footnotes, was released by the The National Geographic Society, which played a large part in the restoration and conservation of the codex.

The codex has been radio-carbon dated to around 280 C.E. and the documentary related the content of the codex is found in writings of Saint Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyon, who wrote scathingly of the gospel, denouncing it as heretical in 180 C.E. This means that copies of the gospel were circulating at least a century earlier than the codex. Professor Pagels says that it is an “Authentic, ancient text that is impossible to date.” She believes it is “meant to be advanced level teaching.”
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XI CONSTANTINE, AUGUSTINE, AND PLOTINUS

We cannot think of the Emperor Constantine, without connecting it with the council of Nicea and the struggle to define the strange connection between God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Valentinians description of the Gnostic Pleroma, I was struck by the reference to Christ and the Holy Spirit being emanated by The First Father last. It is explained in The Good News thus:

Writing of the “birth” of Divine powers puts the process in some kind of sequential order. We live in a linear universe; however, this is only experienced beneath the Veil. There is no past, present or future above the Veil. There is only NOW. Consequently, the Supreme Being’s emanating the Christ and the Holy Spirit would have happened simultaneously with the other emanations.

Because the Supreme Being emanated the Christ and the Holy Spirit they were superior, so to speak, to the other members of the Pleroma. In fact, this is where the concept of the Trinity makes entry; the Father (Supreme Being), the Son (the Christ) and the daughter (the Holy Spirit.) The term “only-begotten” is only applied to the Christ and has caused more confusion over the person of Jesus than any other designation. It has been interpreted as not born from God, but a part of God. God had told us the key to the mysteries is hidden in our language (English). This key can be applied to help us understand the difference between the Christ and Holy Spirit and the other members of the Pleroma. The members of the Ogdoad had resulted through the First Father/Supreme Being’s “projecting” Himself into His Consort, Silence. If we remember that a projector is used to “project” images onto a screen, we can see the difference. The word “emanates” means to bring forth from the source. In other words, the Christ and Holy Spirit, rather than being a projection or “image” of the Supreme Being, were of His substance. Despite the Church making the Holy Spirit masculine, as the partner of the Christ, she was feminine. Hence the Holy Spirit could be thought of as the “only begotten” daughter of the Supreme Being.

The description of “the third member of the Trinity” has caused a great deal of confusion. We have spent many hours attempting to ascertain the difference between the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost. The answer, when it came was so simple; it is all to do with the difference between the words spirit and ghost. Most people understand that the “unseen” spirits of departed loved ones are with them, watching over them. Whereas, the haunting of a ghost is described often as a filmy/shadowy specter or ghost that is “seen” by the living. Acts describes Pentecost as flames settling on the disciples’ heads, in other words something that could be seen. This was the Holy Ghost, that tangible force that empowered them to heal and speak to the populace of all lands. The Holy Spirit is the Divine energy that was poured out on all humanity at Pentecost. The Holy Ghost could be seen as the designation for the Holy Spirit in physical form or when “she” is infused in a person, as occurred with Jesus and Saul/Paul and the disciples at Pentecost. However, we need to remember that after Jesus’ baptism the Holy Spirit reunited with the Christ, consequently, both Jesus and Saul/Paul became infused with the Divine partnership.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XII BYZANTINUM, MARIOLARTY, AND THE RISE OF ISLAM

            With respect to the cause of the Dark Ages, I said that there had been speculation to climate change. Since writing this chapter, I have seen a documentary on the examination of tree rings from the period, which point to a mini Ice Age in the sixth century. The tree ring analysis is described in an article from Wikipedia:

The inner portion of a growth ring is formed early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid (hence the wood is less dense) and is known as "early wood" or "spring wood" or "late-spring wood". The outer portion is the "late wood" (and has sometimes been termed "summer wood", often being produced in the summer, though sometimes in the autumn) and is more dense.

Growth rings (or “tree rings” or “annular rings”) can be seen in a horizontal cross section cut through the trunk of a tree. Visible rings result from the change in growth speed through the seasons of the year, thus one ring usually marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree. The rings are more visible in temperate zones, where the seasons differ more markedly.

Another article explains what occurred climatically during the sixth century and the results:

Climate changes of 535-536 refer to several remarkable aberrations in world climate that took place in the years 535-536 CE. The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded of 536, “during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness… and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.”

Tree ring analysis by dendrochronologist Mike Baille, of the Queen’s University of Belfast, shows abnormally little growth in Irish oak in 536 and another sharp drop in 542, after a partial recovery. Similar patterns are recorded in tree rings from Sweden and Finland, in California’s Sierra Nevada and in rings from Chilean Fitzroya trees.

Further phenomena reported by a number of independent contemporary sources:

• Low temperatures, even snow during the summer
•  
• Dark clouds, only a few hours of sunlight during the day
•  
• Summarily, there were reports of almost night-like darkness at midday
•  
• Floods in formerly dry regions
•  
• Crop failures
•  

It has been conjectured that these changes were due to ashes or dust thrown into the air after the impact of a comet or meteorite, or after the eruption of a volcano (a phenomenon known as “volcanic winter”).

The 536 event and ensuing famine has been suggested as an explanation for the fact that Scandinavian elites sacrificed large amounts of gold at the end of the Migration Period, possibly to appease the angry gods and get the sunlight back.

Wikipedia also relates that as recent as 1816, the World experienced a dramatic climate change. Only as this wasn’t as great an “aberration” its consequences were shortlived. The article reports:

A similar, lesser episode of climatic aberration was also observed in 1816, popularly known as the “Year Without a Summer”, which has been connected to the explosion of the volcano Tambora in Sumbawa, Indonesia.

In our third book, The True Philosophers’ Stone, I related how I had struggled with the apparent chasm between what Craig and I knew to be the truth and modern Islam. With words like “jihad,” which the fanatics translate into “holy war”, an oxymoron if ever there was one, the fanatical Moslem’s idea of God was unrecognizable to me. And yet, everything I had read on the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of the religion, indicated that he was a man of great principle and integrity, who earnestly searched for the truth. How could I reconcile the prophet and the religion? It had seemed that I would never find the answer. That is until Craig and I read the section on the Islamic faith in Manly P. Hall’s An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy – Being an Interpretation of The Secret Teachings Concealed Within the Rituals, Allegories and Mysteries of All Ages.

We reported in The True Philosophers’ Stone how Hall’s book had opened our eyes to see a deeper meaning:

Manly P. Hall quoting another investigator, Jennings, writes “This famous ‘stone of Caaba,’ Kaaba, Cabir, or Kebir, at Mecca, which is... kissed by the faithful, is a talisman.” Apparently there was a figure of Venus with a crescent engraved onto it. Hall continues, “This very Caaba was at first an idolatrous temple, where the Arabians worshiped Al-Ussa (God & Issa), that is Venus.”
This theory could be borne out by the fact that Mohammed destroyed 360 idols that surrounded the Caaba. An accompanying text to a black and white drawing  of the Caaba in Hall’s encyclopedia also interested us. Linking the Caaba with Stonehenge, the caption relates, “Opening onto the courtyard there are 19 gates” , the exact number of inner stones at Stonehenge. According to Hall this number also ties both sites to the Metonic cycle. I was unfamiliar with the term so I looked it up in the dictionary, where I discovered that the Metonic cycle is connected to the Moon. Evidently, the term was named after an astronomer called not surprisingly Meton from Athens. He had discovered that every 19 years the phases of the Moon returns to the exact same date. That is how the date Easter falls on each year is determined.

It seems that contrary to the teachings of fundamental Islam, Mohammed believed in the equality of men and women. That was hard for Suzzan to believe having lived under the male dominated culture of Saudi Arabia for more than nine years. However, Hall pointed out that, “The feminine symbolism is repeatedly emphasized in Islamic symbolism... Friday, which is sacred to Venus is the Moslem’s holy day; green is the color of the prophet and being symbolic of verdure is inevitably associated with the World Mother; and both the Islamic Crescent and the scimitar (the Arabian sword) may be interpreted to signify the crescent shape of either the Moon or Venus.”  Like the early Church’s making the pagan rituals, more Christian, it seems that Hall also saw evidence of the Moslems adopting ancient pagan rituals into the religion with the circling of the Caaba by pilgrims during the hajj. Evidently the pilgrims circle the central Caaba seven times. He asked if this was not representative of the movement of the seven ancient planets?

A remark Mohammed made concerning philosophy showed Craig and Suzzan that apart from being a highly enlightened individual, Mohammed was also extremely wise. According to Hall, Mohammed is reputed to have felt, “The ink of philosophers even more precious than the blood of martyrs.” Craig and Suzzan wondered what the prophet would have thought of the Islamic conquerors burning down the Alexandrian Library, not to mention all the atrocities carried out in his and God’s name.

This helped, but it was reading the inspired book, No god but God – The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam  by Reza Aslan that really lifted the veil, so to speak. Craig and I cannot recommend this book too much. In fact we think it should be required reading by ALL parties engaged in any dealings with the Islamic community.

First Aslan explains that in pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was originally an “ancient rain/sky deity” which had evolved into “..the role of the supreme god…” Aslan explains that because of Allah’s “eminent status” the general popoulation could only appeal to him “…in times of great peril..” Instead people prayed to his three daughters, one of which was al-Uzza, or “(the mighty).” The other two according to Aslan were, “Allat ( the goddess”) and Manat (the goddess of fate,)” Apart from being worshiped in the Ka’ba, Aslan says “they had their own individual shrines throughout the Arabian Pennisula. Allat in the city of Ta’if; al-Uzza in Nakhlah; and Manat in Qudayd.”

At the time of Mohammed’s “spiritual awakening,” Christianity had already made Jesus God and was beginning to use force to suppress anyone who dissented from this doctrine. Manly P. Hall related that Mohammed had spent time with the Christian sect of the Nestorians, which was founded by Nestorius, the. Archbishop of Constantinople from 428 C.E. to 451 C.E.

Wikipedia reports that there is evidence from within the hadith (traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad) that Muhammad had contact with Nestorian Christians. They this evinced by the similarities between Muslim raka’ah (ritual prayer) and and the genuflections performed by Nestorians during Lent.

According to Wikipedia Nestorius was most famous for being the originator of the Christological heresy, which became known as Nestorianism. In brief, Nestorianism was the opposition to the title Theotokos, which means Mother of God for Mary, the mother of Jesus. He was opposed to the title because he felt it denied Jesus’ humanity, instead he wanted to refer to Mary as Mother of Christ. Nestorius also argued that God could not suffer on the cross, as he is omnipotent. Therefore, the human part of Christ died on the cross, but not the divine. His opponents accused him of dividing Christ into two persons: they claimed that proposing that God the Word did not suffer and die on the cross, while Jesus the man did, or that God the Word was omniscient while Jesus the man had limited knowledge, implied two separate persons with separate experiences.

His main antoganist was Cyril of Alexandria, the Pope/Patriarch of Alexandria. Nestorius was eventually declared a heretic at the Council of Ephesus in 431 C.E., when Cyril argued that Nestorius was actually denying the reality of the Incarnation by making Jesus Christ into two different persons, (one human, one divine), sharing one body.

In his book, No god but God Reza Aslan describes in great detail the calling of Muhammad. He writes that after Muhammad’s status changed from marrying “a remarkable forty-year-old widow named Khadija,” who was a prominent member of Mecca, “Muhammad felt deeply conflicted.” Aslan explains that Muhammad was “renowned for his generosity…” and his fair business practices, yet he was plagued by the inequality and injustice of Meccan society. To deal with the conflict Muhhammad would  go on “solitary retreats of self-justification…in the mountains and glens surrounding the Meccan Valley.”Although I have already covered Muhhammad’s calling, Aslan’s account elaborates a deeper spiritual understanding for me. He relates that while Muhammad is “meditating alone in a cave on Mt. Hira….an invisible presence crushed him in its embrace.” Although Muhammad tried to free himself, the more he resisted the tighter the hold, “until he could no longer breathe.” Surrendering to his fate, Muhammad stopped resisting. It was then that a “light and a terrifying voice washed over him ‘like the break of dawn.’ “Recite!” the voice commanded.

“What shall I recite?” Muhammad gasped.

The invisible presence tightened its embrace. “Recite!”

“What shall I recite?” Muhammad asked again, his chest caving in.

Again Muhammad felt the bands around his chest tighten and “…once more the voice repeated its command.” When Muhammad could stand no more, Aslan reports, “…the pressure in his chest stopped, and in the silence that engulfed the cave, Muhammad felt these words stamped on his heart…”

The words were from Sur 96 1-5 in the Koran, but Aslan states that the word (iqra) that is translated “recite,” should be translated “read. ”However, Aslan recounts that some chroniclers claim that God’s first command (iqra) to Muhammad was neither “recite” nor “read,” but rather “arise and warn.”

What really interested Craig and I was Aslan’s account of what happened next. Surprisingly, he relates that “…like all the prophets before him, (Muhammad) wanted nothing to do with God’s calling.” Evidently Muhammad was so unhappy about it that “…his first thought was to kill himself.” Apparently, Muhammad believed that only the despised “kahin,” which Muhammad labeled as “reprehensible charlatans could receive Divine messages,.” According to Aslan, Muhammad said that rather than “the Quraysh” say he had become a kahin, he would climb a mountain and “…throw myself down…” As if this was not amazing enough, Aslan’s account of how Muhammad’s wife dealt with her husband’s experience absolutely floored us. He relates, “It is safe to say if it were not for Khadija, Muhammad might have gone through with his plan to end it all…” Aslan recounts that Muhammad anxious and shaken by “…the experience in the cave,” returned home to Khadija. Crawling to her, he cried, “Wrap me up! Wrap me up!”

According to Aslan, Khadija instantly responded by wrapping Muhammad in a cloak and holding him “tightly in her arms until the trembling and convulsions stopped.” When he was calm he began to weep, then through his tears he tried to relate his amazing experience.

“Khadija,” he said, “I think that I have gone mad.” “This cannot be, my dear,” Khadija replied, stroking his hair. “God would not treat you thus since He knows your truthfulness, your great trustworthiness, your fine character, and your kindness.”

Unable to convince her husband of the holiness of the encounter, Khadija decided to ask for help from as Aslan recounts, “…the only person she knew who would understand what had happened to her husband: her Christian cousin, Waraqa…” Waraqa was familiar enough with the Scriptures to recognize Muhammad’s experience for what it was. On hearing Khadija’s story, Waraqa tells Khadija, “He is a prophet of this people… “
We discovered from Wikipedia that a Waraqah was a Nestorian monk and Mecca’s priest or preacher according to some sources, and is said to have died a Christian even though he believed in the prophethood of Mohammed. He is reputed to have translated the Bible from Hebrew into Arabic. As the spelling of the name differs by only one letter, an “h” at the end, I presume that the Nestorian monk Waraqah is the same Waraqa who was Khadija’s Christion cousin.

Evidently, like many messengers before him, Muhammad had great difficulty accepting his mission. Nonetheless, the choice had been made and there was no going back. Aslan recounts how it was when Muhammad had hit rock bottom that he received Divine help. Like before it came in, “…same painfully violent manner as the first…” Muhammad was told according to Aslan “…whether he liked it or not, he was now the Messenger of God.” Fatalistically, Aslan states that “Now Muhammad no longer had any choice but to “arise and warn.”So when was the Quran compiled? According to the inspired and enlightened Reza Aslan, “…when Muhammad died…, the Quran had neither been written down nor collected, let alone canonized.” After Muhammad’s death, the first order of the day was to choose his successor and determine what muslims believed. This was a problem because as I said the followers strongly disagreed who should lead the Ummah, community; with some believing Ali, Muhammad’s cousin, son-in-law and companion should lead the Ummah. However, many felt that Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s companion and father-in-law should succeed Muhammad. Abu Bakr’s supporters won. Next the Ummah needed to determine an Islamic creed, but as Aslan said, Muhammad hadn’t compiled a cannon of his teachings. So, like the Christian Church arguing over his teachings after Jesus left them, the Ummah squabbled amongst themselves.This resulted as Aslan reports in the formation of  “…a new class of scholars called the Ulama, or ‘learned ones,’ who would take upon themselves the responsibility of guiding the Ummah on the straight path.”

Alas, as the centuries passed, like Christianity lost its purity and innocence, so did Islam. Aslan laments that “…the Muslim scriptural and legal scholars…” dismissed the idea that both followers of Judaism and Christianity “were part of the Ummah…” Rather the scholars labeled them both “…as unbelievers.” What was worse was that like later Christians, these Islamic scholars “…reinterpreted the Revelation to declare that the Quaran had supseded, rather than supplanted, the Torah and the Gospels, and called on Muslims to distinguish themselves from the People of the Book.”

God told me that Spiritual Revelation is like a rose bud. At first we only sense the beauty inside, but gradually as the sun’s rays warm the petals it slowly opens each precious petal, revealing the glory and wonder of the flower. It is then that the rose attracts the butterfly or bee to pollinate it and transform the rose into a new bush. For Islam this is exemplified in the development of Sufism. Aslan relates that the “Patriarch of Sufism” is Ibn Junayd; full name Junayd ibn Muhammad Abu al-Qasim al-Khazzaz al-Baghdadi (830-910).

Apparently, according to Wikipedia: In the trial of al-Hallaj, who was Junayd’s former disciple, the Caliph at the time al-Muqtadir demanded a “fatwa” (a legal pronouncement) in Islam made by a “mufti”, a scholar capable of issuing judgments on Sharia (Islamic law). The fatwa, Junayd issued was, “From the outward appearance he is to die and we judge according to the outward appearance and God knows better.” As the books I read on Sufism began in the ninth century, I naturally assumed that Sufism was a fairly late development in Islam. However, I was surprised to learn that Islamic mysticism, of which Sufism derives dates back to Muhammad. Wikipedia relates that four people are known as the first mystics. Although they only provide information on two of them Uwais al-Qarni and Hasan Ul-Basri. There are no details on the other two, Harrm Bin Hian and Sayid Ibn Ul Mussib:

Dealing with Uwais al-Qarni first, who died in 657 C.E. Uwais embraced Islam during Muhammad’s lifetime but he could not present himself before Muhammad because he looked after his elderly, blind mother and thus remained deprived of the honour of companionship. In honour of Muhammad, who at the Battle of Uhud in 625 C.E.had lost two of his teeth, Uwais al-Qarni drew out his own teeth. Muhammad called him the best of the Tabieen (successors) and he advised his companions to, “Get him to pray for your forgiveness.”

At times Muhammad would say of him. “I feel the breath of the Merciful, coming to me from Yemen.” Shortly before Muhammad died, he directed Umar ibn al-Khattab (second Caliph) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (the first Imam of the Shi’a) to take his cloak for Uwais.

Following the death of Muhammad in 632, Umar and Ali set out on a quest to find Uwais, who was residing alone in the desert. When they found Uwais, he was engaged in prayer, and they waited until he finished his devotions. They then asked for his blessings, gave him Muhammad's greeting and enjoined him to pray for the Muslim ummah (community).

In so doing, Muhammad confirmed the method of heart to heart communication through which Oveys had received the essence of Islam. The method of the passing of the Cloak represents two significant elements in the teachings of Muhammad which constitute the method of instruction of the School of Islamic Sufism--cognition must take place inwardly, and cognition must be confirmed…

The other mystic Wikipedia covers is Hasan Ul-Basri: His full name was Abu Sa'id al-Hasan ibn Abi-al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri, and he was born in Medina in 642 C.E. Hasan was a well-known Arab theologian and scholar of Islam. His father was a freedman of Zayd ibn Thabit, one of the Ansar (Helpers of the Prophet), his mother a client of Umm Salama, a wife of the Prophet Muhammad. Tradition says that Umm Salama often nursed Hasan in his infancy. He was thus one of the Tabi’een (i.e. of the generation that succeeded the Sahabah (companions of Muhammad). He became a teacher in Basra, Iraq and founded a madrasa (school) there.

Hasan was a great supporter of orthodoxy and the most important representative of asceticism in the time of its first development. According to him, fear is the basis of morality, and sadness the characteristic of his religion. Life is only a pilgrimage, and comfort must be denied to subdue the passions. Ul-Basri is also held in high regard by the Sufis, for his asceticism and subtle directions relating to the science of practical religion (ilm-i mu'amalat).

Many writers testify to the purity of his life and to his excelling in the virtues of Muhammad’s own companions. He was “as if he were in the other world.” In politics, too, he adhered to the earliest principles of Islam, being strictly opposed to the inherited caliphate of the Umayyads (r.661-750) and a believer in the election of the caliph. However, despite his critical position concerning the Umayyads, he did not approve of rebellion against tyrannical rule.

As I said, I could find no information on Harrm Bin Hian and Sayid Ibn Ul Mussib. However, Wikipedia does provide information on the Islamic mystical/Sufi orders.
The traditional Sufi orders emphasize the role of Sufism within Islam. Therefore the Sharia (traditional Islamic law) and the Sunnah (customs of the Prophet) are seen as crucial for any Sufi aspirant. Among the oldest and most well known of the Sufi orders are the Qadiri, Chisti, Oveyssi, Shadhili, Jerrahi, Naqshbandi, Nimatullahi, Mevlevi and the Ashrafi. One proof traditional orders assert is that almost all the famous Sufi masters of the Islamic Caliphate times were also experts in Sharia and were renowned as people with great Iman (faith) and excellent practice. Many were also Qadis (Sharia law judges) in courts. They held that Sufism was never distinct from Islam and to fully comprehend and live correct with Sufism one must be a practicing Muslim obeying the Sharia.

As for the more mystical teachings, Wikipedia relates: Schools were developed, concerning themselves with the topics of mystical experience, education of the heart to rid itself of baser instincts, the love of God, and approaching God through progressive stages (maqaam) and states (haal). The schools were formed by reformers who felt their core values and manners had disappeared in a society marked by material prosperity that they saw as eroding the spiritual life.

Wikipedia says that Rabia (The female Sufi I mentioned earlier.) was known for her love and passion for God. Junayad was among the first theorist of Sufism; he concerned himself with “fana” (literallly extintion) and “baqaa” (permancy) as the state of annihilating the self in the presence of the divine, accompanied by clarity concerning wordly phenomena.

It would seem that in the ninth century, Islam was poised to fully embrace the mystical teachings, so what happened? In a word, the Crusades.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XIII CRUSADES TO WORLD WAR I

With the recent success of The Davinci Code, the Holy Grail and the Knights Templar have become household names. However, two years before the release of The Davinci Code, we wrote in The True Philosophers’ Stone that in Graham Hancock’s The Sign and the Seal, we found:

Graham Hancock believes that the ark/grail “had contained ‘the root of all knowledge’.  In addition...the golden lid of the sacred relic had been surmounted by two figures of cherubim.  Could it therefore have been pure coincidence that, in Judaic lore, ‘the distinctive gift of the cherubim was (knowledge)’”?

Hancock asks if the “quest for the ark might also have been a quest for wisdom?”  He found it “equally significant” that when the Templars “were persecuted, tortured and put on trial in the early fourteenth century many of them confessed to worshipping a mysterious bearded head, the name of which was given as Baphomet.”  Giving an interesting explanation, he relates that “Dr Hugh Schonfield, an expert on early Christianity... deciphered a secret code used in a number of the famous ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’-- a code that the Templars might easily have learned during their long residence in the Holy Land.”  Evidently with some clever manipulation Dr. Schonfield demonstrated that the secret code “showed…the name Baphomet” could mean “…the Greek word Sophia.  And the Greek word Sophia, in its turn meant nothing more nor less than ‘ wisdom’.”

She was surprised to learn later that the Knights Templar oversaw the building of the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, of which Notre Dame in Paris is a perfect example. Mystery upon mystery surrounds this order of religious knights.  The designation Knights Templar first appears when nine Knights spent nine years in Jerusalem, living over the site of the temple of Solomon.  Apparently, they were associated with Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian order.

Their official function in Jerusalem was to protect pilgrims to the Holy Lands.  Only, legends abound that their real purpose was to locate The Ark of the Covenant.  Elizabeth van Buren points out in Refuge to the Apocalypse: Doorway into Other Dimensions, Rennes-le-Château the Key that it was Saint Bernard who “invented the name Notre Dame.” Hence it was his order, the Knights Templar who oversaw the construction of the Gothic cathedrals, which were dedicated to Notre Dame, “Our Lady.”  Interestingly, the majority of the cathedrals were built during four hundred years between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries.

Montsegur is a very powerful place. According to historians, in the thirteenth century Pope Innocent III had raised a “crusade” against the “heretics” of the Languedoc region.  Henry Lincoln in his book Key To the Sacred Pattern: The Untold Story of Rennes-le-Château relates the legend that the Cathars walked down from the castle hand in hand singing.  However, as at the bottom they were greeted with the sight of a huge pyre.

According to Lucien Bely’s Discovering The Cathars ,the philosopher Simone Weil viewed Catharism as a form of pythagorism or a type of Christianized Neoplatonism.  However, earlier the author Lucien Bely told us that the Cathars were very secretive, keeping the deeper mysteries from the average devotees and only giving the higher truths to the leaders of the sect, which were referred to as Perfects.  Because of this, the little that is known of them originates from utterances obtained under brutal torture or the literature of the Orthodox Inquisition’s representatives whose goal was to either convert or convict.The Cathars or Albigensians were Gnostics and historians have labeled them Manicheans.  This sect of Christianity was mentioned earlier.  Although Craig and Suzzan had learned of the Gnostics shortly after arriving in America, they had been surprised to discover that despite there being many different sects in the second and third centuries, only one had survived into the Middle Ages.

Although the castle had been designated as a Cathar stronghold, there is reason to believe the original building could be a lot older.  First, it is built in the shape of a pentagon.  True, the pentagon was a sacred geometrical symbol to the Cathars, but it was also a sacred symbol to the Celts and Druids.  Second, there is a legend according to Elizabeth van Buren’s Refuge of the Apocalypse: which, “speak of the giants who set up the mountain of Montsegur....”

Finally there is the astrological connection.  According to the official guide, there is a “resemblance” linking Montsegur with Machu Picchu.  The guide points out that this resemblance is not by chance, because the Catharists were also sun worshipers. Apparently, there was also a connection between the Cathars, the inhabitants of Tibet and the Knights Templar, although the guide does not divulge what that connection was.  In addition the guide cites the reason they (the Cathars) selected the site was due to the almost unbelievable terrestrial and cosmically generated “power”, which is put forth at Montsegur of which can be confirmed by a “measuring apparatus.”  Although appearing to be solid, according to the official guide, there are those who maintain that it is “HOLLOW.”  Besides, which the guide informs us that the original building was a great deal larger.  Originally it was a temple to the sun and on the summer solstice (June 21) the “angles” of sunlight filtering through the “arrow-slits” aligns with the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Alas Christianity wasn’t the only victim of power hungry men, masquerading as pious religious reformers. Islam, which was evolving out of fear and judgment under the mystical sects, found itself catapulted back to a time of injustice and intolerance. We are still feeling and living the result of that influence today. I have already mentioned that I experienced a form of Islam in Saudi Arabia that colored my view of the religion. The Taliban of Afghanistan exemplify this form too. That form is of course the puritanical sect of Whabism, of which the inspired Reza Aslan says in his book, No god but God “…the ideology of those Wahhabists who wish to return Islam to some imaginary ideal of original purity must be once and for all abandoned.”This is because as Aslan explains the Quran records that Muhammad believed in “pluralism” (the tolerance of multiple religions and philosophies.) He believes this is “…summed up in one indisputable verse: ‘There can be no compulsion in religion’ (2:256).
Back to List at Top of Page

 

VOLUME III
UPDATE TO CHAPTER XIV WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

In The Good News, we examined the statement “the Kingdom of God is within you. It led to a much deeper understanding of wheels within wheels:

Remember how earlier we said that to think of Gnostic teachings in scientific terms is very difficult? Well as this is the Fullness of Time, we have the opportunity to understand the Christs’ assertion that the kingdom of God is within us, from a scientific perspective. All the Christs have talked of the gate to be entered. In researching this we discovered that they were referring to the heart-gate, that is after we transform the heart, we enter through the heart-gate into the kingdom of God; in other words inner space, not outer space. Through the innovation of quantum physics, we now know that there are worlds within worlds. The sub-atomic particles of the quantum physicists are the same as the elementals of the mysteries. To understand how there is consciousness at the subatomic level we recommend you read Michael Talbot’s brilliant book The Holographic Universe.

Today, we understand that emotions have an affect on the physical body. Moreover, through the groundbreaking work of Masaru Emoto, we are afforded the opportunity to literally see the effect different thoughts and words had on similar water molecule crystalline shapes during identical freezing processes. Remembering that a human being is 70% water, this a sobering thought. (This is not mystical supposition, but a verifiable scientific fact.) In addition, the work of the Institute of HeartMath has shown that the human heart emits a magnetic field stronger than the human brain. Could this be why Jesus warned us to be careful of what came out of the heart?

Most religious minded individuals think of Heaven as being above us and they would be partly right. The astral plane, of which heaven is a part, vibrates at just a little higher rate than the Earth plane. Nonetheless, this should be seen as within rather than without. The astral plane is divided into three subjective levels, which the ancient esoteric teachers named Kama Loka, Avitchi and Devachan. These three levels, for ease of explanation, are often depicted one above another within this plane. All three levels are collectively called the astral plane. The Church taught that there was heaven, purgatory and hell. Devachan represented the highest level and would equate to the Greek concept of Elysian Fields or the Church’s Heaven. The reverse of Devachan is Avitchi, which would equate to the Greek concept of Hades or the Church’s Hell. Kama Loka could be conceived as equal to the concept of Purgatory. When a spiritual entity through free-will choice begins to slow down or lower their vibration, they sink lower in the astral plane. Eventually they slow their vibration to such an extent that they can no longer remain in the subjective astral plane and have to take on corporeal bodies in the objective Earth plane. However, it should be stated that as the levels within the astral plane are subjective, the experience in the astral plane is determined by an individual’s mental conception. The various levels should not be seen as locations for Divine reward or punishment. Your judgment of your life determines whether you reward or punish yourself.

In The True Philosophers’ Stone, we wrote that seven major cycles are ending and beginning in December 21 (or 23 depending on the source) 2012:

Gregg Braden in his book Awakening to Zero Point: The Collective Initiation writes about the ending of a two hundred thousand year cycle. He explains that this indicates the “shift” in vibration that will signal the start of humanity’s most important experience to date. With reference to the date 2012, according to the Maya, a Great Cycle consisting of 5,125 years ends on December 23 2012. The Mayans believe the fifth sun will end on this date. Interestingly, Kenneth Johnson in his Jaguar Wisdom: Mayan Calendar Magic relates that there is astrological evidence for the date of December 21, 2012, (just 2 days earlier than the Mayans believed the fifth sun will end). Citing an astrologer, Joan Jenkins, as his source, he informs us “December 21, 2012, is one of those rare days, occurring only once in thousands of years, when the sun stands at the actual (as opposed to apparent) conjunction of the Zodiac with the center of the Milky Way ‑‑ the celestial equivalent of the Mayan World Tree. Therefore, it is fair to say that the sun is at the very center of all things on the final day of this great cycle.”

There is another author, who relates of specific cycles, Kristina Gale‑Kumar in her book The Phoenix Returns: Aquarius Dawns – Liberation beginsreports the predictions of the “Pale Prophet,” as recorded by the Native American tribe of Hopi. According to Gale-Kumar, the Native Americans said that the “Pale Prophet” foretold of five cycles of 500 years duration. Quoting the prophecies, she relates “For five full cycles of the dawn Star (approximately 500 years), the rule of the warring strangers will go on to greater and greater orgies of destruction... Are these bearded ones who are still my children going down war’s trail to final destruction, and thus giving the last human victory in death to (War)?… Know that the end will come in five full cycles, for five, the difference between the earth’s number and that of the gleaming Dawn Star, is the number of these children of war-fare.”

In trying to understand when this particular cycle would end, Suzzan was reminded of the Roman Empire. Her research for the second book had shown her that the Roman Republic according to historians was founded in 509 B.C.E. If she added 2,500 years (the five full cycles of warring strangers) she arrived at the date 1991. However, she knew that the numeral five was relevant here. If she added 509 numerologically, 5+0+9=14, 1+4=5. The year 1991 adds up to two, 1+9+9+1 = 20, 2+0 = 2. Coincidentally, the nearest year that adds up to five is 1994, 1+9+9+4=23, 2+3=5. Suzzan thought that the “coincidence” was just that, until God reminded her that the “Pale Prophet” was a Christ-like figure of the Hopis. In addition, 2012 is also a year five, 2+0+1+2 = 5.

According to G. de Purucker in his Occult Glossary: A Compendium of Oriental and Theosophical Termsancient esoteric teaching said that a planetary Manvantara, (a cycle of activity) consisted of 4,320,000,000 years. Is it a coincidence that according to geologists our planet Earth is estimated to be four and a half billion years old?

Most people have heard that we are now in or shortly entering the Age of Aquarius. Three of the cycles that are ending and beginning are concerned with the precession of the equinoxes. To recap, this phenomena is caused by the Earth’s wobble, which on the two equinoxes makes the planet appear to be traveling backwards through the Zodiac. It takes 25, 920 years for the Human Race to complete the journey through all twelve signs and halfway takes 12,960 years. To traverse one sign takes 2,160 years. As the Earth is completing a full precessional cycle, naturally the planet is also completing the halfway point of 12,960 and the previous or present sign Pisces one as well.

In many ways the revelation that we are completing a precessional cycle fly’s in the face of conventional thinking. Astrology charts place the sign Aries at the start, not Aquarius, however, as usual, the Heavenly Father had backed up the information with other sources. During her research for the second book, Suzzan had read an interesting book called Stowe’s Bible Astrology: The Bible Founded on Astrologyby Lyman E. Stowe. The author cited the scriptures as pointing to the Age of Aquarius, which he thinks we have already entered into. Apparently, Mr. Stowe saw Jesus sending 2 fishermen to the man carrying a picture of water as symbolic of the astrological change of the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius. However, he believed there was also another, deeper meaning contained within the scripture, referring to the end times. By instructing his disciples, (the fishermen) to tell the “water bearer” that the “last Passover” would be celebrated in “his house,” he was revealing that the “last Passover,” (the end-times) would occur in his age, the Age of Aquarius.

Also, as was said Graham Hancock in his Fingerprints of the Gods hypothesized that the Sphinx was once a lion to honor the constellation of Leo, in which the sun was rising. The Age of Leo occurred 10,970 B.C.E. to 8,910 B.C.E., which would coincide with the accepted dates for the meltdown of the last ice age.  Did the ancients know more than we do? Is it a coincidence that the opposite sign to Leo is Aquarius?

During the past 2000 years, prophets and seers from all religious backgrounds have warned people to “repent” because “the end is near.”  During their guided research, Craig and Suzzan learned that the word ”repent” originally meant to “change your mind” or change the way you think.

With the discovery of electromagnetism and how it is interwoven with all life on Earth, those words take on a much deeper and serious meaning.  Evidently, a layer of atmosphere that not only protects us from harmful rays from the Sun, but also acts as an electromagnetic oscillator surrounds our planet.  The name of this “envelop” is the Ionosphere.  A resonant cavity exists between the Earth’s crust and the edge of the Ionosphere.  Within this cavity, a kind of natural rhythm pulses in tune with our brainwaves.  However, that pulse has been quickening, which investigators link with a whole host of physical and mental conditions.

While researching the second book, Suzzan had found that paleontologists and anthropologists referred to a “giant leap” in our ancestors around 40,000 B.C.E.  The experts refer to this time as the emergence of truly modern man.  They have no explanation for the “leap.”  They state that 40,000 B.C.E. coincides with the advent of cave drawings depicting mysterious animal figures.  Even so, when it is understood that humanity’s mental evolution could be directly linked to the cavity between the Earth and the Ionosphere, then the “leap” may not be so mysterious.
The natural rhythm, designated as the Schumann Resonances, after their discoverer, was a constant 7.8 Hz, or pulses per second until 1987.  However, as this phenomenon has only been measurable since the early 1900’s, it is impossible to state with any certainty what the pulse started at.  What is interesting is that since 1987, the resonance pulse has been steadily rising and is now over 11 Hz.  If the pulse has not remained constant, but has steadily risen over the millennia, Craig and Suzzan postulate that the “leap” in consciousness that occurred 40,000 B.C.E was the result of the speeding up of the Schumann resonance.  Interestingly, according to Richard Alan and Iona Miller, in their article “Schumann’s Resonances and Human Psychobiology.”

“Schumann’s resonance forms a natural feedback loop with the human mind/body…” The authors state that the “pulse” performs as a “driver of our brains” and has the possibility of transmitting data too.  It seems that the natural development of the Human Race could be changed and “new patterns of behavior facilitated through the brain's web of inhibitory and excitatory feedback networks.”

Similar to “sound waves” the human brain has its “own set of vibrations,” which facilitate connection with the physical body.  The brainwaves can be measured by the EEG, which gauges the “speed with which neurons fire in cycles per second.” Additionally, at “their boundaries” the waves can extend beyond themselves to become integrated with each other…

“BETA waves (14 cycles per second and above) dominate our normal waking state of consciousness when attention is directed towards cognitive tasks and the outside world…

“ALPHA waves (7-13 cycles per second) are present during dreaming and light meditation…” As the majority of “neurons” adapt to the Alpha wavelength, alpha waves rotate over the entire brain.  The Miller’s believe that it is during the Alpha wavelength that people tap into their “creativity,” which resides immediately beneath the waking consciousness.  They state that the alpha wavelength is the “gateway” or “entry point” to “deeper states of consciousness.”  The authors also believe that this wavelength is “the home of the window frequency known as the Schumann Resonance…

“THETA waves (4-7 cycles per second) occur most often in sleep but are also dominant in the deepest state of mediation (body asleep/mind awake).  The optimum level for deep thought is this realm of Theta.  In Theta, the senses are withdrawn from the external world and focused on the mindscape, internally originating signals.  Theta waves are associated with mystery, an elusive and extraordinary realm a person can explore.  It is that twilight state which is normally only experienced fleetingly as an individual rises from the depths of delta upon waking, or drifting off to sleep.  In theta a person is in a waking dream, vivid imagery flashes before the mind’s eye and they are receptive to information beyond their normal conscious awareness.  Theta has also been identified as the gateway to learning and memory...and awakens intuition and other extrasensory perception skills.

“DELTA waves range between 0-4 Hz.”  Apparently this wavelength is related to “deep sleep”…It seems that “certain frequencies” in this wavelength activate the discharge of the “growth hormone” helpful for curative and restoration purposes.  The authors stress that this is the reason “why sleep, deep restorative sleep is so essential to the healing process.”

Craig and Suzzan found it curious that Theta waves “are associated with mystery” and is described as being “an elusive and extraordinary realm” and “a waking dream” with “vivid imagery flashes before the mind's eye.”  Does this not describe the experience of the 40,000 year-old cave painters?

So with the rise of the Schumann Resonances, this is the reason that humanity has arrived at the Fullness of Time.  Nevertheless if the whole human race is subject to the rise and fall of these resonances, why is there concern over seemingly natural occurrence?  An appendix to the Millers article entitled Electrical Technology and Human Evolution, by L. B. Hainsworth, an acknowledged expert on the Schumann Resonances, gave Craig and Suzzan pause for thought:

It states that “Accepting that changed electromagnetic field conditions will result in changed brain-wave patterns, there is still not enough known about their operation to say what effect this may produce in either the mental or physical characteristics of the organism.  The possibilities seem to include: A drop in the intelligence of the surviving species.  That is, the development of a moronic species, which would almost certainly be disastrous.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XV TIMES AND TIMES AGAIN

In The Good News we delve into the seemingly different descriptions of angels and why this is the Fullness of Time:

Angels have been depicted in various forms throughout history, from cutesy cherubs to awe-inspiring, huge beings of light, but always in human form. We discovered these beings had once been corporeal or human beings, and through enlightenment raised their vibration to become light beings. If we return to the beginning of the universe, we can recall that Sophia and the Christ transformed Sophia’s emotions into the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. What is more, Sophia and the Christ caused the creation of the Creator/Demiurge or the God of the Old Testament. It was the Creator/Demiurge that instigated the angelic realm. They were made of the same elements as human beings, only in a more refined, therefore lighter manner. They are also of the Soul Plane and consequently, endowed with souls.

The angelic realm has enthralled us for millennia. Its various divisions have generated numerous writings. Obviously, for so many people to believe in angels there must be some substance to the belief. Consequently, we feel that a brief description of the angelic realm is called for. The Old Testament is full of angels interacting with humanity, Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:12) and the two angels sent to warn Lot (Genesis 19:1) are just two examples. As we mentioned, angels have been depicted from cutesy cherubs to awe-inspiring light beings. Why such a huge disparity? The reason is because not all angels are equal. We stated that the Demiurge/Creator created the angelic realm; however, he didn’t create all levels of angels. Before the creation or if you prefer the evolution of humanity, the lower layers of the angelic realm did not exist. When the Demiurge/Creator was forming the Soul Plane, he brought forth creative (archons) and administrative (astrological) powers. These were identified with the suffix “im”, such as Elohim, Seraphim and Cherubim. The archangels were formed from early humanity, before the “fall.” As humanity evolved, Christ-like teachers taught them how to raise their vibration. This is how humans became angels. The angels were needed to interact with humanity on a physical level. Because they were made from the same elements, when the Demiurge wanted a message given to a person, he could send a messenger (angel) to the person, all the angel had to do was temporarily lower or slow down his or her vibration to the same as the person to be seen and heard. (Note: the angelic realm is androgynous, however, when an angel interacts with a human being the angel will appear as either male or female.)

Another astonishing piece of information we found is that all spiritual beings, along with the human race, have free will, and because they are beneath the Veil, they are of a dual nature. There is a Jewish legend to the effect that the angels were jealous when Yahweh (the Creator/Demiurge or the God of the Old Testament) asked Adam to name the animals. We can remember commenting on the fact that “angels” could be capable of jealousy. Nonetheless, if the Bible is to be believed, the angels are capable of more than one “human” emotion. The Scriptures state that some beings of the angelic realm exhibited the emotions of pride and lust.

Considering the amount of time, in evolutionary terms, that the angelic realm had existed, we wondered what caused the sudden rebellion. The answer really amazed us. It has to do with the axiom, “As above so below, and as below so above.” Every ensouled being is linked through the Soul Plane. When the Human Race, with its Divine sparks was altered by an alien race, the entire consciousness of the Soul Plane was affected. Just as the consciousness of every human being is affected by the mass consciousness, every entity beneath the Veil is also affected. Consequently, when humanity became infused with the shadow side of the universe, because of the axiom, “As above so below, as below so above,” the Soul Plane also became afflicted. Because every being beneath the Veil has free will, the angels also have to choose urges to which to adhere, self or selflessness. Obviously some of the beings chose self. That was what has been recorded as the angelic rebellion.

The question that plagued Craig and I was why 1994 was the Fullness of Time? We discovered the answer while writing The True Philosophers’ Stone:

In 2003, nearly a year after their return from Rennes Craig and Suzzan was reading, Time & The Technosphere: The Law of Time in Human Affairs by José Argüelles. The book referred to 9/11 as the Inevitable Event and linked it to Hiroshima. Argüelles’ Time & The Technosphere answered the big question of why 1994.

The reason concerns the prophecy of Pacal Votan, discovered in 1952 on the lid of his sarcophagus in the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. Although it was discovered in the fifties, according to Argüelles it wasn’t decoded until 1993. The main gist of the prophecy was to convince the world to adopt a new frequency of 13:20 by changing the calendar from twelve uneven months to thirteen even months of twenty-eight days. Argüelles also links this change to the destruction of the Technosphere, something he says humanity has created through its use of technology and the Law of Time. Relating that 9-11 is the Inevitable Event spoken of in the Quran, Argüelles states, “The Technosphere defines a 56 year cycle, 1945-2001…” He sees humanity as having created the “Technosphere” primarily through the employment of the twelve month year and sixty minute hour.

One thing needs to be said here, Argüelles is absolutely right when he links the tragedy of 9-11 to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. However, this in no way condones the terrorists’ “free-will actions.” It could just as well have happened through a devastating natural disaster or some terrible nuclear accident. The key was the worldwide feeling of shock and fear.

So why would the advocating of a 13:20 frequency necessitate Jesus’ return? Once again the answer is encoded in the number. As stated previously, Suzzan’s vibration was raised to 13:60 and the Earth’s frequency is moving to 13:00. The couple understands that changing the frequency is the key to the door to this cycle. However, there is another door, which leads back into this dimension/cycle. In the appendix, Argüelles makes a casual reference concerning the conscious affect of looking at a clock. He reports that the act of looking at a clock engages the human being’s cognitive brain and prevents any natural telepathic tendencies.

What Craig and Suzzan have been shown is humanity’s connection to linear time. Throughout their studies one message keeps repeating: the Human race creates their own reality. Craig and Suzzan had learned that the Life Principle has the imperative to move forward. This movement is seen as a linear movement. Despite that information, physical evolution is cyclic. So why would God want a person to continue thinking linearly? The reason is the condition of the general consciousness. Until humanity had attained the ability to control their lower instincts, it was unsafe to connect the consciousness of the planet together. As this is the Fullness of Time, obviously God feels a large number of humanity is capable of controlling their baser instincts and are ready to graduate.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XVI MIND OR MATTER

One of the greatest discoveries for me was the effect we all have on the world’s consciousness. But first I learned that consciousness is in all living things. We wrote in The Good News:

Esoteric teaching said that the Life principle moves through the mineral, vegetable, animal, before becoming human. All Life is conscious, but not all living/conscious beings are capable of rational thought. Let’s examine each category. Most people think of the mineral kingdom as inert matter, but minerals such as crystals grow and do not remain stagnant. Does this mean that minerals are alive? The first category that many scientists acknowledge as sentient or living is the plant kingdom. Plants are conscious and some people believe that because they are sentient, plants can feel pain. Included in the next category are insects. Colonies of ants and bees do not live individual lives but rather instinctually act for the good of the hive/hill/nest. Initially the animal kingdom; such as packs of wolves, hyenas and wild dogs, and herds of antelopes, zebra and wildebeests instinctually repeat this behavior. Nevertheless, the goal of evolution is to drive the Life Principle to individuality. The first sign of this is the appearance of family/blood groups and continues to develop in the animal kingdom through species like the big cats, such as tigers and leopards.

I said in the previous update how José Argüelles had advocated adopting a new system in counting time in order to connect the consciousness of the planet, but what exactly does that mean? And more especially, is it safe? That depends on your intent. In The True Philosophers’ Stone, we relate what we learned about the universal consciousness:

It seems that criminals reflect the sub consciousness of the rest of humanity. At first when God told her this, Suzzan had asked how law-abiding individuals could possibly be even partly responsible for murderers and rapists. First though, it is important to state that the perpetrator is always responsible for the terrible atrocities he or she carries out on a daily basis. Notwithstanding the responsibility of the perpetrator of crimes against society, how do law-abiding citizens fit in? To answer this, God reminded Suzzan of Al Capone, Machine-gun Kelley and other ruthless criminals who carried out such mass murders as the St. Valentines Day massacre of the twenties and thirties. The creation of this criminal element was born out of society’s desire for luxury, self-indulgence and greed. No one denies that the mob families’ main wealth came from the society of the day’s desire for bootlegged liquor. Suzzan could understand that the Law of Cause and Effect played a significant part here. That is the society of the day’s demand for illegal alcohol was satisfied by criminal behavior. In turn the violent gangs killed each other over who supplied the liquor. But how could that explain God’s statement that the criminal population is consciously linked to the rest of humanity? The answer is in the fact we are nearing the end of a major cycle. An earlier chapter related that Hermione visited Toon-Town in the astral plane three years before the film was released. Because we are in the Fullness of Time, and the astral plane is dissipating, the “inhabitants” of the astral plane are being expelled. Individuals that are enlightened “graduate” to a higher level. Those entities, thought forms and emotional forms that do not contain the light of God i.e., of the lower emotions, “fall” to the earth plane. As stated before, these entities have spent their time, (relatively speaking of course), trying to experience vicariously through a human being. Since the latter part of the twentieth century, their task has been a great deal easier. It all comes down to humanity’s ability to co-create. Remember the statement Jesus Christ made concerning adultery. In essence, what Jesus said was that if a man just thought about committing adultery, then he already had. Reminding her of Dr. Franz Hartmann’s writings on elementals, Suzzan was given to understand that the underlying message of this passage is warning humanity that as co-creators their thoughts, when energized by strong emotion or desire take a life of their own and will be released into the ether to find a weak-willed soul to enact them.

The reason it is easier for the entities that were in the astral plane to affect a human being is because of the advent of [TV, cinema and the Internet.] A human being’s imagination is how they create. In reading a book, different pictures of the story are produced in different people’s minds. But through the advent of visual stories, thousands, in some cases, millions of people view the same visual concept together. These pictures often elicit strong emotions and as stated earlier, every thought, when coupled with strong emotion takes on a life of its own, seeking actualization. This phenomenon is the reason the whole world was so affected by 9-11 everyone “saw” the plane hit the tower and en mass experienced the shock and horror.

The same applies to Internet sites, which incite violent and sexual fantasies. By hundreds of individuals sharing in the same thoughts and emotions, those fantasies, although not enacted out by most, are vivified and released into the ether.

Another way the power of the mind is depicted is in the perception portrayed of events by the media. We wrote:

Because there had been so much hoopla about the new millennium, Christmas had kind of got overlooked that year. Everyone was counting the days to 2000. For Washingtonians it had become a kind of anti-climax, as the celebrations beneath the Space Needle had been cancelled, due to a suspected terrorist allegedly trying to smuggle bomb-making materials into Washington from Canada. Nevertheless, as Suzzan is English, she decided to watch the coverage of the world firework displays covered by one of the networks.

As each country entered the new millennium, Suzzan felt a tremendous surge of joy and goodwill. She knew that anyone who wanted to spoil the celebrations would be thwarted as the mass consciousness was feeling goodwill to everyone. It was a valuable lesson for her to witness the power of positive thinking. Watching, she found that she was literally feeling exhilarated and her heart was being lifted. Suddenly, she realized what God wanted her to see.

Although human beings are predominantly carbon-based life forms, they are still essentially energy and like all energy hold a negative and positive charge. If the majority of humanity can hold a positive charge then that is what they will all experience. Consequently, a recession will occur only when the majority of people feel pessimistic about the future. Whatever the mass consciousness believes that will become their reality.

The media, in this instance plays a crucial role. How they report events will ultimately determine whether or not it is a “storm in a teacup” or “the storm of the century.” More and more, Craig and Suzzan have observed a tendency to speculate on the future in a negative way. For example, during the Gulf War, Suzzan had watched the “experts” speculate over scenarios on the CNN while she lived in Jeddah. She had been appalled to hear an “expert” suggest that if Saddam Hussein were to set fire to the oil fields, it would plunge the world into a nuclear winter.

First it was foolish to suggest such an action, as history has shown he acted on the “advice.” Second, again as history has borne out, the world did not experience a nuclear winter and it turned out to be “a storm in a teacup” in terms of global impact.

Gregg Braden explains how the way we think can affect our reality:

Perhaps it would be better not to speculate on what disaster may happen, because that could be the very catalyst to bring it about. Gregg Braden explains how our thoughts can affect the material world in Awakening to Zero Point: The Collective Initiation He relates that each cell in our bodies is surrounded by a “magnetic field,” which can be considered as a “buffer stabilizing the information of the soul within each cell.” It is this “buffer” generating “drag or friction around each cell,” that prevents our capacity to completely “access that body of information.” Braden goes on to say that the planet’s magnetic field has traditionally acted as a “safety zone between thought and manifestation…” He explains that two millennia ago the earth’s magnetics “were high,” which meant there was “distance” between out thoughts and the manifestation of the thought. He adds, “The group-body consciousness was relatively new, learning the power and consequence of thought. It was during this time (Christ) that higher magnetics were desirable; both then and now it would be very confusing to have each thought and passing fancy become manifest in your life.”

Earth’s “magnetics were relatively high,” which meant that for a person “to manifest something in this world,” they needed to be really focused and “envision” the object desired. Braden explains that only with total focus “could the seed of that thought be sustained long enough to be pulled down through the matrix of creation, crystallizing into something ‘real’ in your world and your life.” Nonetheless, he cautions that at present “as the intensity of the fields decrease,” our thoughts can take form far more quickly than before. It is during “lower magnetic fields” that individuals can seriously affect their reality. Braden asks, “…as you think and feel, you create; is there ever a time that you are not feeling?”

Braden also points out that as humanity nears the close of this 2000 year cycle, “The alignment of magnetic contours are nearly identical to those present at the birth of Christ.” It is through cycles that humanity or rather our spirits evolve.

So if everyone is creating differently, then what is the result? Simply chaos. However, there is hope. Evidently, the number of people required to affect real change isn’t as high as we would think. Braden, like Michael Talbot, the author of The Holographic Universe: feels that the universe is a hologram. As a result “all knowledge is eternally present, stored as resonant patterns of sound and form (frequency and geometry).” By this reasoning, all of humanity can be affected by the actions of a few individuals. This is like Carl Jung’s Universal Unconsciousness, which he believed explained the phenomena of two people on opposite sides of the globe discovering the same thing simultaneously. Giving everyone hope, Braden states, “Through the holographic experience, a relatively few number of individuals may create change through ‘becoming the change’.”

The way people behaved immediately following 9-11 showed what could happen when enough people put their needs aside. God showed Suzzan how powerful this connection can be on the Friday after the event. She was cleaning house with tears streaming down her face. Out of character she was singing, “We shall overcome” over and over again. Wondering what was happening, she felt compelled to turn on the TV. To her surprise she was greeted with the sight of hundreds of people openly weeping and singing “We shall overcome.” Before the country descended into the emotion of vengeance, for one brief shining moment, the Human Race had the opportunity to literally transform this world.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XVII ENCODED NUMBERS AND SYMBOLOGY

Throughout our studying, Craig and I were continuously struck by the reference to the chakras. Consequently, I feel it is important to include what we discovered. This is recorded in The True Philosophers’ Stone:

Over time, the teaching on the Chakra system has become linked with the seven principles of humanity, making the lowest or base chakra correspond with the first principle and the Crown or seventh chakra correspond to the highest or seventh principle, which is the spirit or Atma. As the Crown is situated at the top of the head, Craig and Suzzan had a problem with this interpretation. Remembering that Blavatsky located the Spirit or highest principle within the heart, they were sure that the Crown chakra did not correspond to the spirit or seventh principle. This dilemma remained unresolved until they read The Wheels of Life -- A User’s Guide to the Chakra System , by Anodea Judith.

Concerning the heart chakra, Judith states, “The symbol for the heart chakra is a circle of twelve Lotus petals surrounding two intersecting triangles forming a six-pointed star. The triangles represent the descent of spirit into the body and the ascent of matter into the spirit. This symbol (also known as the Star of David) represents the Sacred Marriage: the balanced interpenetration of masculine and feminine. This is the star of radiance that emanates from an open-heart chakra.”

Judith continues, “The six points can also be seen as relating to the six other chakras, as they are each integrated at this center... Just as each chakra can be seen as a disc of swirling energy, so, too, can the entire body/mind be seen as a chakra. If we follow a path from the Crown chakra, spiraling through each center, we find that the heart is the end point of the spiral -- the center, the destination...”

The symbol of Lotus petals reminded Suzzan of another book called Djwal Kul Intermediate Studies of the Human Aura. The book is a channeled work by Elizabeth Clare Prophet and so Craig and Suzzan always had to keep in mind God’s instruction that all channeled material is a mixture of truth and lies. What interested the couple was “Djwal Kul’s” comment on the heart chakra. “The most important chakra is the heart, for it is the distributing center for the energies of life. From the heart chakra -- with its twelve petals surrounding the threefold flame of power, wisdom and love held in balance of the Christ consciousness…” It seems that it is through the heart that the “energies of life” are distributed throughout the other six chakras and all the cells in the body. “Djwal Kul” believes that by, “anchoring of the threefold flame within the heart, your heart is a replica of the heart of God and of the heart of Christ...” He states that if we can maintain “the heart frequency of the Christ out of compassion for all life, we find all life as one; for the threefold flame is at the heart of all life.”

In another place, “Djwal Kul” states, “In the heart there is a pulsation of life becoming life that is the established rhythm of the cosmos reflected from the heart of God... The heart is the connecting point for all being, for all self-consciousness. Through the heart all mankind are one...”
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XVIII WHENCE THE ORIGIN OF EVIL

Almost five years have passed since I asked the question “Whence the origin of evil?” and it seems the world has endeavored to take the subject to more and more depths of depravity. Nevertheless, God showed Craig and I how evil came about, through the writing of The True Philosophers’ Stone and The Good News. Starting with the first, we examined the characters and symbols of Revelations:

The Book of Revelation is a study in allegory. The literal translation of the figures within its pages has held the world in bondage of fear of judgment. Putting the traditional interpretation aside for now, Craig and Suzzan would like to share with you the deeper meaning they have been led to. Throughout Revelation, the number seven plays a significant part; seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls and seven vials. Previously it was related that Edgar Cayce associated the seven churches with the seven major chakras and the seven Sacred Planets. Following the churches are the seven seals. Looking at the outline to Revelation in the King James Study Bible, the first six seals seem to be describing existence in this “Vale of Tears.” The seventh seal releases the seven trumpets, which appear to show supernatural powers affecting humanity. With the seventh trumpet sounds the end of the age. Then there appears the mysterious figure of the sun-clad woman.

In ancient times, a woman often signified the human soul. A prime example was the Greek mystical character of Psyche. So if the woman in Revelation represents the human soul, what does the “sun-clad” represent? At this point, it may help to remember that humanity’s ancestors worshipped the Sun-Christ. As discussed earlier the ancient doctrine of the seven sub- races within the seven Root-races show that physical evolution is driven by spiritual evolution, with the goal of the soul to reconnect to the true spirit within.(See appendix 3)

In the Book of Revelation, the sun-clad woman represents the spirit overseeing the soul, whereas the moon beneath her feet signifies the soul’s dominion over the lower psychic forces. A crown of twelve stars worn by the woman symbolizes the divine astral powers recognition of the spirit within the soul, which is the child that she is ready to give birth to.

The next figure to appear is the seven-headed red dragon that is ready to devour the sun-clad woman’s child. To protect the woman, a place is prepared in the wilderness, while the archangel Michael does battle with the dragon. After winning the war in heaven, Michael expels the dragon from heaven and casts him into the earth. Upset with the state of affairs, the dragon sends a flood against the woman, which is swallowed up by the earth.

Obviously the above information is not to be taken literally, so what do the various elements signify? Could the seven-headed red dragon represent the reverse side of the seven Sacred Planets; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Venus, Mercury and the Sun?

Craig and Suzzan believe the flood released by the dragon represents emotions. Franz Hartmann listed twenty-three emotions that can feed the false ego.Could the fact that the earth swallowed up the flood “emotions” be saying that the earth or the material plane absorbed all the negative emotions, or the shadow side of duality?

Chapter thirteen of Revelations states that another seven-headed beast arises from the sea, but humanity is often attached to the symbol of the sea. Add aspects of the description of the beast; leopard, bear and lion, all creatures associated with earthly empires, and it is possible to see that maybe the passage is referring to the beast arising from the human race. Verse eighteen tells us that the number of the beast is 666; it is also the number of a man. Many theologians have theorized and puzzled over the identity of the man John was referring to, with various Roman Caesars being proposed.

It wasn’t until Craig and Suzzan read The Terracotta Warriors: The Secret Codes of the Emperor’s Army, by Maurice Cotterell that they began to wonder if the prefix “a” should be attached to man in verse eighteen. Cotterell relates the discovery in 1990 by Bruce Cathie, a New Zealand pilot. Cathie’s discovery was that light traveled around the earth at 144,000 “minutes of arc per second,”which meant that a “light beam” circumnavigates the earth “6.66”times per second. Cotterell proposes that the number 666 is for the “physical” earth. In conclusion, this information showed Craig and Suzzan why the prefix “a” placed in front of “man” with relation to the number of the beast could be an error. Just as in the writer of the gospel of John (4:24) referring to God as “a spirit” instead of simply Spirit is a sign of the intellectual development, rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive, the writer of Revelation can only write from his perspective, too. It is important to remember that humanity at the time of Christ could not conceive of the idea that God is everywhere. They didn’t have the benefit of knowing that energy exists in all things. Hence they could not understand the concept of humanity as one. It is also essential to remember that women were not considered as separate from men, consequently the human race was referred to as mankind.

One of the most powerful characters in the Book of Revelation is “The Whore of Babylon.” Throughout history this figure was used by religious and political leaders to vilify their opponents, but the truth is that the whore of Babylon, riding on the seven-headed beast’s back represents any and all dogmatic religions and ideologies which use fear and manipulation to keep their followers loyal.

The statement in chapter twenty that the dragon would be bound for 1,000 years, is describing the human race’s triumph over the counterfeit spirit. A clue to how humanity achieves this is found earlier in chapter sixteen. It concerns the seven angels with the seven vials of wrath. After the sixth angel pours out his vial, “three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” Wrath is the shadow side of Mars, which Craig and Suzzan learned is linked with both the 3 chakra or solar plexus and the element fire. Interestingly, John does not say what either the fifth or sixth angels’ vials contain, in fact, the only clue to any of the vial contents is in connection with the fourth angel. The scripture says that the fourth angel, after pouring out his vial “upon the sun,” was “given power to scorch men with fire.” Notwithstanding the vivid depiction of punishments meted out on humanity, could there be another message? If fire is thought of as representative of the passions, which if unleashed can consume a person, then could the weapon that defeats the counterfeit spirit be human emotions? Verse fourteen of chapter sixteen continues with “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”That battle is the long awaited battle of Armageddon.

All this occurs just before Jesus Christ returns as a “thief,” i.e., in secret, which is exactly what Craig and Suzzan were told happened April 4, 1994 in Jerusalem. According to Revelation, immediately after Jesus’ return, the battle of Armageddon is fought. This is a metaphorical fight between truth and illusion not a literal one.

Considering the connection in Revelations with the number of the beast 666 and evil I was surprised to read that Maurice Cotterell connects the number as the number of times light travels around the Earth in a second. Cotterell was a great source for my understanding. For instance he relates even more esoteric information hidden in the number 666. He writes in JESUS, KING ARTHUR AND THE JOURNEY OF THE GRAIL:

“The Earth is carbon based. The Carbon atom consists of 6 negative charges (electrons), 6 positive charges (protons) and 6 non-charged particles (neutrons). The number appears in the Bible; ‘here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of man; and his number is 666…’ (Revelation XIII, 18)”

Cotterell goes on to explain the deeper meaning: “9 is the highest number that can be reached before becoming one with God (as in 10). 999 thus represents Heaven above, God, the soul or a Supergod-a spiritual teacher. 666 represents the Earth below, Hell or the Devil. The purpose of life is to convert the body, 666 into Godly energy, 999.”

I found this fascinating because as was reported in The True Philosophers’ Stone:

In Numerology the number nine indicates humanitarianism and selflessness. To recap, in the Kabbalistic system, 9 correlates to “regeneration.” It also means “a new birth, spirituality and sense—extension”(spiritual evolution?) Whereas 6 indicates a life dedicated to learn and understand the balance and symmetry of the world and that every person is responsible for the Earth and every living thing on it. This is not advocating the extreme view of people who chain themselves to trees or worse spike them, but rather to learn through balance to responsibly respect the natural resources, taking only their fair share. According to the kabbalists, 6 is the number of co‑operation, marriage, connection...the interaction of the spiritual and material, the mental and the physical in man…

What this means is the union of all opposites. According to science, which Wikipedia records:

Carbon was not created during the Big Bang due to the fact that it needs a triple collision of alpha particles (helium nuclei) to be produced. The universe initially expanded and cooled too fast for that to be possible. It is produced, however, in the interior of stars in the horizontal branch, where stars transform a helium core into carbon by means of the triple alpha process. It was also created in a multi-atomic state.

They also state: Under terrestrial conditions, conversion of one isotope to another is very rare. Therefore, for practical purposes, the amount of carbon on Earth is constant. Thus processes that use carbon must obtain it somewhere, dispose of it somewhere. The paths that carbon follows in the environment are called the carbon cycle. For example, plants draw carbon dioxide out of the environments and use it to build biomass as in carbon respiration. Some of this biomass is eaten by animals, where some of it is exhaled as carbon dioxide. The carbon cycle is considerably more complicated than this short loop; for example, some carbon dioxide is dissolved in the oceans; dead plant or animal matter may become sedimentary rock, so forth.

So it would seem that the sinister number 666 is relating forgotten esoteric knowledge of humanity’s transformation. Until we reached a certain stage in our evolution, that information was obscured by myths and suspicions. At a very deep level, we knew we could not use the information until we were ready; consequently we made sure we neither forgot it or would use it until we were ready, by making it a universal number associated with danger that at some future date would have to be dealt with.

And now we come to the arch villain, namely the fallen angel, Satan, AKA Lucifer and the Devil. First I learned that Satan was a corruption of Saturn. This is evinced by the Jewish Sabbath being Saturday – Saturn’s Day? Of course Satan was not alone. In his rebellion he took a multitude of angels, which according to tradition became demons. We discovered a lot about this, which we record in The Good News:

Belief in places of punishment does more to keep people from God than anything else. So many individuals examine his or her past actions and judge them as unforgivable. Consequently they feel that, as they are already “damned,” they may as well enjoy the remainder of their time on Earth. We would remind these individuals of Jesus’ words “Judge not.” This injunction is not only to not judge others but also yourself. It does not matter how bad you think your past actions are, you can still help change the world. All of us without exception have regrets over things we’ve done and said in the past. It is important that you wake up and realize that you are a spirit inhabiting a body and that because this illusion is very seductive; many of us have fallen short of the mark (sinned).

Religion is only the start of the path to spirituality. All of the world’s major religions support justice. Where religion and spirituality differ is how we deal with injustice. Even the most radical fundamentalist is opposed to injustice. Like children throwing tantrums by destroying things, they are screaming to be heard. They are looking to their deity (parents) to cure all their ills. Enlightened people must show them that they are heard… What may surprise some people is that the atheistic communists are also struggling on the path to spirituality. Yes, they reject religion, seeing it as the cause of injustice, but they believe in the sovereignty of all people. (Isn’t this the same as seeing the Divine spark in every soul?) They see organized religion as hypocritical. If we look at religious history, we can hardly blame them; consider The Crusades and The Inquisition, to name but two examples. Unfortunately, the ideal of equality has been usurped by some individuals seeking power and as the saying goes “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely…”

When the “fallen angels” indulged in the lower emotions, they lowered or slowed their vibration, becoming heavier until they became of matter, with corporeal bodies…It is important to reiterate that an angel taking on corporeal form is not the result of Divine punishment meted out by the Creator/Demiurge. Instead, it is simply the consequence of the angel’s conscious choice. Could this be one of the meanings to what Jesus intended when he said that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit could not be forgiven? Once a spiritual being rejects the Divine realm, is there no way to return to that plane? Could this explain how some people seem to have no conscience? Do they have no way to redeem themselves?.

In the epilogue of The True Philosophers’ Stone, we relate how we came to understand what the counterfeit spirit was:

The alchemists used to warn humanity that all human beings contained a counterfeit spirit, but this was just a little too vague for Craig and Suzzan, what exactly was the counterfeit spirit? In today’s vernacular, the counterfeit spirit would be a person’s lower ego. The author of Inner Christianity, Richard Smoley warns that if a person lets this I or lower ego identify itself as God then they are in big trouble.

Hearing the fundamental ministers almost gleefully declare that “sinners” would only be forgiven if they repented, made Craig and I ask God about the statement in Matthew 22:13, where Jesus says that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit could not be forgiven? We wrote His answer in The Good News:

Referring to the appendix on The Relevance Of The Doctrines Of Rounds And Root-Races Today, we are reminded that the outer darkness that Jesus referred to (Matthew 22:13) is the dissolution of the outer layers (We must again repeat that this is not outer space but inner space.) Nevertheless, nothing is ever consigned to what the Church calls “eternal damnation.” Those souls that “choose” to deny their true spirits will be trapped in the outer darkness until the universe resets itself. Then they will be given new bodies. Still, everything that made them individuals (all their experience and accumulated knowledge) will be lost and they will have to begin again from scratch.

So have I answered my original question? Not yet. This chapter is inextricably linked to the next chapter and so I will refrain from my summation till after the next chapter’s updates. First though I would like to revisit the subject of Satan. A greater understanding of this “nefarious” character came from a most unexpected source, namely Sufism. Once again the inspired Reza Aslan’s book No god but God was our revealer. Aslan says that “Iblis or Satan, who began his existence as an angel in ‘the Way of devotion to the service of God,’ but who was cast out of God’s presence for refusing to bow before Adam…” I will return to this at the end of the next update as it is crucial to answering my question on whence the origin of Evil.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER IXX LAYERS OF DECEPTION

In the summer of ’99, Craig and I read the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean,  translated and interpreted by Doreal. Although, the material found within its pages is highly subjective, certain elements are inspired. We reported which parts we were led to in The True Philosophers’ Stone:

Evidently, the tablets’ author was Thoth, sometimes known as Hermes. Doreal proposes that Thoth built the Great Pyramid on the Giza plateau and that “In it he incorporated his knowledge of the ancient wisdom and also securely secreted records and instruments of ancient Atlantis.”  In addition, he states, “Thoth was an immortal, that is, he had conquered death, passing only when he willed and even then not through death.  His vast wisdom made him ruler over the various Atlantean colonies, including the ones in South America and Central America.”

There was much that Craig and Suzzan could agree with in the Emerald Tablets, which made sense to them…They found the actual tablets intriguing. The only word to describe them is “esoteric” which means “hidden,” for instance a passage in tablet VIII has information about the mode “evil” uses to infiltrate this plane of existence. It reads “Far in the past before Atlantis existed, men there were who delved into darkness, using dark Magic, calling up beings from the great deep below us. Forth came they into this cycle. Formless were they of another vibration, existing unseen by the children of earthmen. Only through blood could they have formed being. Only through man could they live in the world.”
 These “beings” had been vanquished by “Masters” to the underworld from where they had come from. However, a number still lingered between the layers, hiding in invisible realms, unseen and “unknown to man.” During the Atlantean era, these “beings” existed mostly as specters. Nonetheless, there were times when these “specters” appeared as human beings. The tablet warns humanity that this was merely an illusion as the “beings” were really “Serpent-headed.” They succeeded in gaining power by using sorcery to kill the rulers of the “kingdoms” and take their place as human-looking kings.

In their studies, Craig and Suzzan have learned that the life consciousness is carried in the blood. It is important to remember that Jesus ended all form of blood sacrifice. So what of the Old Testament, having Yahweh/Jehovah demanding blood sacrifices? A valuable lesson their journey has taught them, was to trust their intuition, which if you break the components of the word down, you have in tuition, or inward teaching. In the case of the Old Testament reporting the Creator demanding blood sacrifices, the couple’s intuition told them to question why the All Powerful Creator would need animal blood?

…Suzzan learnt from her journey that whenever the Bible referred to “The Lord or God” causing the death of hundreds of people, she was to question it. As she allowed the Holy Spirit to guide her, she came to understand that the Bible was not always the word of God. As stated, in the early days, when Craig and Suzzan questioned the Heavenly Father about many of the Scriptures, He had said “Even the errors will lead you to the Truth.”

We understood more when we wrote The Good News. God showed us that there was a very good reason why Saint Paul warned humanity that they “fought not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Our Solar system was chosen as the arena for the recovery of the Divine sparks through evolution of the Life principle, which the sparks are immersed within. The sparks became the spirit within all life, both incarnate and disincarnate. As stated in order for the sparks to gain understanding the Life principle had to develop intellect…When the Life principle evolved into the Human Race evolution took a huge leap. The allegory of Adam and Eve becoming aware that they were naked symbolized this. Also, the imbibing of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, apart from relating to the Life principle gaining intellect, as well as the ability to discern right from wrong, also demonstrated the ability of self or individual awareness. What we were surprised to learn recently was that the Divine forces above the Veil were waiting, so to speak, for the development of the Life Principle into human beings.

Like every other living being beneath the Veil, the Life Principle slowly developed souls as vehicles for the Divine sparks. Each soul was the instrument the Life Principle used to evolve; however, it was only with the advent of the individual human being that the soul could come into play. When the Life Principle developed intellect by becoming human, it could then begin the process of spiritualizing the elements, to return the sparks or residue of Sophia to Spirit.

The Appendix on The Relevance Of The Doctrines Of Rounds And Root-Races Today in the 2 book Love the Common Denominator and the 3 book The True Philosophers’ Stone stated that the separation of the sexes occurred during the 3 Root-race. Genesis chapter one reports the creation of the Human Race. The scripture says, “created He them male and female.” This would appear to mean that not only the creation of human beings had occurred before Adam and Eve, but also like the Divine emanations they were androgynous. So what does the story of Adam and Eve mean? We believe one of the multiple meanings is relating the separation of the sexes. The allegory of Eve being created from a rib of Adam is a metaphor for this.

Interestingly the name Eve in Hebrew means Life, as recounted in the second appendix in Love the Common Denominator. Remembering that Life’s partner was the Logos and that they were members of the Ogdoad, was the writer of Genesis trying to impart yet more secret information by calling “the first woman” Eve? Some people have interpreted the name of Adam to mean the element earth. Tradition has that Eve came from a rib of Adam, but curiously, we learned recently that one school of thought replaces the rib with the heart. Life is in a manner of speaking the ancestor of Sophia. Recalling that Sophia’s emotions were transformed into the elements of the universe, could one of the meanings of the allegory of Eve being taken from Adam be that the Spirit of Wisdom, Life is within matter? As stated evolution is the means used to redeem the lost essences or emotions of Sophia, and because the Life principle developed a soul, the Divine sparks became connected to the Soul Plane. The Divine spark now became the Spirit encased in the vehicle of the soul. While in the temporary vehicle, the Divine spark or Spirit’s role was through intellect, to understand the Truth that the individual Spirit’s destiny is to reunite with the All, the Supreme Being.

Although the makeup of humankind is seen in modern terms as variously, Mind, Body and Soul, Mind, Body and Spirit or Spirit, Soul and Body, the ancients saw the human being consisting of seven separate bodies. Esoteric teaching tells us that three of these seven bodies are souls. These souls are animal, human and spiritual. Is Genesis relating the insertion of the spiritual soul when it records that after the Lord breathed Life into Adam he became a living soul? Again, obviously Life cannot mean literal life, as it already existed. However, if we remember that Life was the partner of the Logos and these two were members of the first eight or Ogdoad, then we can see the possibility that the higher spiritual forces were acting through the Creator/Demiurge to infuse humankind with the spiritual soul. In addition, is it a coincidence that humanity is the only species on the planet to possess fully articulate speech? Considering that Life’s partner is the Logos, which is also known as the Word, is it surprising that humankind developed the ability to converse with one another? It is by the secret oral teachings handed down through the generations that the Truth has survived. Nonetheless, like many gifts, they are double-edged swords. The ability to speak allows for the Truth to be communicated throughout the ages. Conversely, because we are co-creators, humanity’s words have power and depending on the intent can be either benevolent as in prayers and blessings or malevolent as in curses and condemnations.

With evolution, everything was progressing according to plan until the unforeseen event occurred. At this point we feel it is important to share with you what we were told about life in the universe. Although the development of the universe had resulted in multiple worlds, some with intelligent life, only the Life Principle of the Solar system contains the Divine sparks of Sophia, therefore the Spirit of the Supreme Being.

The unforeseen event, as recorded in the appendix on The Relevance Of The Doctrines Of Rounds And Root-Races Today, was the genetic manipulation of the Earth’s native species. At this time the Creator/Demiurge had created an infrastructure that governed the evolution of the soul. In this system, the Divine sparks through evolution, were slowly re-accessing their spiritual origins. This infrastructure included archons and astrological powers. The Creator/Demiurge had become the impartial judge of the universe, where free will was sacrosanct. The unforeseen event as was stated in the aforementioned appendix, was the human race taking on alien DNA, which meant the Human Race did not gradually incorporate and transmute the negative emotions of Sophia. On the contrary humanity was suddenly thrust forward in an unbalanced existence. This resulted in the infusion of the counterfeit spirit, which was known as the lower ego. The appendix also related that it wasn’t until the Creator/Demiurge adopted mercy that other Divine forces could become involved. Another word for mercy is compassion, and that is the epitome of the Christ, so by adopting mercy, the Creator/Demiurge facilitated the entry of the Christ into our plane. Because the Christ had united with Sophia, they entered this realm together. They did this in order to teach the human race of their spiritual origins, which was accomplished with the instigation of the Wisdom Religion. The Wisdom Religion was taught through teachers such as Krishna, Pythagoras, Socrates, Confucius and Gautama Buddha, infused with the Christ and Sophia energy combination. Surprisingly, they were most successful when they inspired an individual. Whenever either the Christ or Sophia actually entered a teacher it took more time. First they would have to overcome the ego and animal instincts before bringing their chosen vessel to enlightenment. The long path Siddhartha took to become Gautama Buddha is evidence of this.

Ever since Roswell, people have speculated over whether or not there is intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy. With the numerous reports of alien sightings, we concluded that all the witnesses couldn’t be delusional; therefore there was something to the phenomena. Throughout the sixties, seventies and eighties, news reports centered on people being abducted by “aliens.” Recently, many authors related contact with extraterrestrials through meditation and channeling. The first thing we wondered was why an obviously advanced species would be interested in the Human Race? If the sightings and contacts are anything to go by, the alien vehicles are way beyond our current technology. So if they have nothing to learn from human beings, why the interest?

The answer as to why the aliens are interested in humanity comes with understanding the power of human emotions. Recalling that all the elements in the universe were created from Sophia’s rejected emotions, we can see the reason. As stated, only the Life Principle within our Solar system contains the Divine sparks and until they developed intellect through the Human Race, the Divine power was unavailable. The power became accessible through human emotions. In reading the numerous channeled books purporting that some outside force was going to save humanity, one aspect kept repeating itself. What these “benevolent” beings want from humanity is their emotions. It is through humanity’s emotions that the real Divine power is discovered.

Gautama Buddha taught that suffering releases the soul from samsara, or the cycle of rebirth/reincarnation. This statement has generally been thought to mean that life on Earth was meant to be painful. It was only when a soul had learned all the lessons and become disincarnate that the individual could cease experiencing physical life and therefore experience the bliss and happiness of Nirvana/Heaven/Devachan or whatever term they used to describe paradise. As the majority of people’s lives were a constant struggle, this gave them hope that their suffering would eventually end. Even so, when we remember that the universe consists of Sophia’s emotions a deeper meaning of Gautama’s teachings is revealed. The Life Principle of the Solar system was chosen as the way to redeem the lost essence or Divine sparks. Redemption is achieved through the Life Principle in the form of humanity transmuting their emotions, it isn’t the suffering that releases the Spirit or Divine sparks, but the emotions the suffering generates. Whenever a person transmutes their emotions, they help change the world and bring paradise or Nirvana/Heaven/Devachan to Earth.

The Divine sparks or Spirit of Wisdom is hidden within the Life principle, which is encased within the soul. The human conscience began with humanity’s development of a spiritual soul, which the allegory of Adam becoming a living soul could be reporting. This was done to assist the human race as the redeemers of the Divine sparks. It is also important to keep in mind two things; one is that the substance that needs redemption is made up of Sophia’s emotions. The second point is that humanity has the capacity to create. This they do through their imagination, which in conjunction with their emotions and intent co-creates this reality.

I said earlier how I had a problem with what I thought was Islam. However, God showed me that the puritanical Wahabism, I had experienced in Saudi Arabia bore absolutely no resemblance to what the Prophet Muhammad advocated.

God showed us this by guiding us to Manly P Hall’s Encyclopedia. We relate this episode in The True Philosophers’ Stone:

As Suzzan read to Craig about Mohammed’s sincere search for the truth, once again she felt the holiness of the man. However, when she reached the part about the archangel Gabriel appearing to him, chills ran up her spine. “Why am I so uncomfortable with this?” She asked herself. Manly P. Hall dealt with the prophet fairly and objectively, so why did she have such a problem with it? A vision of the Prophecy -- trilogy of films, which centered on the archangel Gabriel working against humanity, flashed through her mind. Suddenly she understood what she was being shown.

Hall relates Mohammed receiving the Quran, as “the prophet would become unconscious, sweating profusely while reciting the words that close associates either wrote down or “committed to memory.”

As Suzzan read this information to Craig, he said, “He was channeling!  It was just like Edgar Cayce.”

“Yes” agreed Suzzan.  “And just like God told us, all channeled information is a mixture of truth and lies.”

Suzzan had almost despaired of finding the Truth within the warring factions in the “holy lands,” until she read the above information. It showed her that the Heavenly Father is truly great in that He showed her Mohammed was a deeply spiritual man who sincerely sought God. Unfortunately, like Christianity and other religions, individuals that came later corrupted the original message for purposes of power and control.

To understand why I had received a red flag on this we need to return to The Good News. It concerns the universal law of Cause and Affect, or Karma:

…When the Human Race was interfered with, the Creator/Demiurge had acted by reducing the life span and creating the Wheel of Necessity or the Law of Karma. He also created the astral plane in order to shield the upper levels from humanity’s depraved thoughts and to facilitate the purification of the Divine sparks in the astral plane through the Law of Karma. It was also stated that the Creator/Demiurge determined to send a chosen soul, a messiah to help the human race. The soul that was to sacrifice his life was born as the man Jesus. The sacrifice was required because as the judge of the Law, the Creator/Demiurge could not absolve the Law of Karma. Although the law had been put in place in order to assist humanity, because of the aspect of an eye for an eye or retaliation, it had become a vicious cycle where revenge was seen as justice. That is why a “sacrificial lamb” was required to absolve the retaliatory part of the law. The Creator tried to teach his children that they should leave the business of vengeance up to him, with his statement “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.”

Previously, we said that we were to vindicate Jehovah and this scripture provides the perfect example. Although St Paul wrote this in his letter to the Romans, what we did not realize was that he was referring to the Old Testament. (Leviticus 19:18 Deuteronomy 32:35) Although the latter scripture in Deuteronomy concerns how “Yahweh” will “avenge” Moses, the former in Leviticus is an injunction for constraint. “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge…” This sounded a great deal more just than vengeful and more indicative of a Divine being. Unfortunately, humanity wanted injustice eradicated and until they developed mercy could not conceive of the concept that kindness and compassion could “heap fiery coals” (Proverbs 25:22) on their antagonist’s head.

…Between 2004 and 2005, the start of a five-year window will begin. What that means is during this time, the human race will fight the metaphorical battle of Armageddon within their mind, using their heart for spiritual discernment. Because this is the Fullness of Time, the astral plane is dissipating and the three levels are condensing into one. Because of this, all spiritual forces within the astral plane that have assisted humanity, such as angels and guardian spirits, have been asked to release all contact with their charges in order to let us do the work ourselves.

Unfortunately humanity does not escape all outside influence. Every thought and emotion is energy and is released into the ethereal or astral plane. Every spiritual entity in the astral plane that does not have humanity’s best interests at heart has lost individuality. Now, all lower spiritual forms have merged into one all-consuming power, which we will call the World Soul, although Animal Soul would be more appropriate. The Emerald Tables of Thoth the Atlantean, translated by Doreal, relate that there are mythical beasts, which are called the “Hounds of the Barrier,” that guard the exit out of this cycle. According to the tablets only those of the brightest light are able to pass by the hounds. We believe that this is an analogy of the World/Animal Soul. If we remember that in both cases the barrier used is of an animal nature, we can begin to see the role these figures play. Animals are territorial and will defend their territory with their lives. Human beings reflect this behavior by dividing the Earth into different countries, which they feel obligated through patriotic fervor to defend.

It is interesting that although the goal of evolution is to drive the Life Principle to individualization and self-awareness, the objective of involution, or the redemption of the Divine sparks is the reverse. Consequently, only those individuals who no longer see themselves as separate from every other soul will pass by the guard through the door. In other words, it is necessary to view ourselves as above all differences, citizens of the planet Earth.

Both the World/Animal Soul and the Hounds of the Barrier are of the same vibration as the aggressive masculine energy that is connected to the human race through its ego and lower passions. Despite the designation masculine, this energy is not exclusive to men. Women who demonstrate anger, jealousy and ambition or any of the passions connected to the lower ego are exhibiting the same “masculine” energy. Because the World/Animal Soul and Hounds are of the same vibration, they can recognize those individuals that have not transmuted the masculine energy. In addition, this vibrational energy relates to the third or solar plexus chakra.

As we previously stated, every human being has an Achilles heel or weakness. That weakness is of the same vibration as the World/Animal Soul. The World/Animal Soul could be considered as an envelope of selfishness. It grows stronger by people giving into their lower ego or counterfeit spirit, in other words, anything that is not for the greater good. We have continuously said everything beneath the Veil is vibrating energy. The frequency at which the World/Animal Soul/Hounds vibrate is connected to this round or cycle, so only those individuals that have raised their vibration can pass the guards to the door to the next cycle. When a person identifies their weakness and initiates direct two-way communication with God, whatever the Divine is to you, they change their vibration. Moreover, by connecting through the heart they diffuse or dissipate the World/Animal Soul.

For almost two thousand years the human race has been fighting the battle against evil, with very little headway. Despite the advances in civilization, many human beings still carry out the most depraved acts on their fellow brother and sisters; why? Most religious people would respond with, “Because they are evil.” But is this the answer? I would have to say no, they are not evil; their acts are. So what of my question, whence the origin of evil? Remember how I said the Sufis explanation on Satan was crucial, well it is time to explain why. To recap, Aslan says the Sufis explain that “Iblis or Satan…began his existence as an angel in ‘the Way of devotion to the service of God,’ but who was cast out of God’s presence for refusing to bow before Adam…”

The key is in Satan’s separation from God. I said that carbon, the element in all life is assigned the number 6 in Gematria, which is also assigned to the Hebrew word badl. It is the word “separation” that is associated with badl that holds the answer to my question. In a nutshell, the origin of evil is duality, which results in separation from God. Does this mean that existence or life, which is dual is also the origin of evil? In a way yes, but we need to see it as any and all division. We overcome evil with unity. God told me that Craig and my mission was to unite all opposites.

Something both Craig and I found very interesting in reading Reza Aslan’s No god but God was that the founder, al-Banna of the most radical sect of Islam, the Muslim Brothers wanted to help his fellow Muslims. Aslan reports, “In Cairo, al-Banna was struck by the depravity and rampant secularism that had gripped the city. Traditional Islamic ideals of egalitarianism and social justice had been swept aside by the unbridled greed of the country’s political and religious élites….”

Aslan relates, “True to his Sufi upbringing, al-Banna was convinced that the state could be reformed only by reforming the self.” Considering that al-Banna was a Sufi why did the Muslim Brothers become so radicalized? The answer is in the response to injustice.

Earlier I said that The Good News reported: All of the world’s major religions support justice. Where religion and spirituality differ is how we deal with injustice. Even the most radical fundamentalist is opposed to injustice. Sufism is based on love. However, the reverse of love is hate. That is why Jesus warned us not to resist evil, because when you do you empower it. So what are we to do? God gave us the answer “Fight the battle of Armageddon between the armies of Gog and Magog.” As I have already explained, “the battle of Armageddon” is allegorical; consequently I will endeavor to explain the mystical/spiritual interpretation later.

As previously stated in the aforementioned appendix, when the Human Race was interfered with, the Creator/Demiurge had acted by reducing the life span and creating the Wheel of Necessity or the Law of Karma. He also created the astral plane in order to shield the upper levels from humanity’s depraved thoughts and to facilitate the purification of the Divine sparks in the astral plane through the Law of Karma. It was also stated that the Creator/Demiurge determined to send a chosen soul, a messiah to help the human race. The soul that was to sacrifice his life was born as the man Jesus. The sacrifice was required because as the judge of the Law, the Creator/Demiurge could not absolve the Law of Karma. Although the law had been put in place in order to assist humanity, because of the aspect of an eye for an eye or retaliation, it had become a vicious cycle where revenge was seen as justice. That is why a “sacrificial lamb” was required to absolve the retaliatory part of the law. The Creator tried to teach his children that they should leave the business of vengeance up to him, with his statement “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.”
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XX WISDOM RELIGION AND THE 7 KEYS OF INTERPRETATION

In The Good News we hypothesize that the allegory of Adam becoming a “living soul” might be referring to the insertion of the spiritual soul:

This could be considered as the birth of the conscience or higher self, which although was originally meant to assist humanity in redeeming the Divine sparks, it has also turned out to be the greatest “weapon” in combating the negative side of the universe. The foe or adversary is the lower ego. The real battle is to resist those subtle and sometimes not so subtle urges from the lower ego or counterfeit spirit to be selfish, thinking of yourself and not others.

Although I gave an example of the seven keys of interpretation in the main text, some of you have said that it wasn’t clear. Consequently in our third book, The True Philosophers’ Stone we tried to make it clearer, using the most famous scriptural allegory, namely the first chapter of Genesis:

Blavatsky had only named six keys leaving the highest and seventh key hidden. While Craig was in the bathroom, Suzzan wondered how she could find out what the last key represented? Almost before the question formed in her mind, Suzzan intuited that the seventh key was spiritual or divine.

After Craig left for the center, Suzzan endeavored to use all seven keys to interpret one of the Bible’s greatest allegories. She knew that many people take the story of the creation as literal; nevertheless, the literal interpretation of Genesis has been what had separated science and spirituality.

Asking God to reveal the hidden keys, Suzzan began to reread chapter one of Genesis. The first two verses are describing the beginning of the universe. Then suddenly she understood the difference between the keys anthropological and anthropogony. Anthropology is the study of humanity’s physical or material origin, while anthropogony reveals the origin of life itself. Apart from the key anthropogony, the first two verses can be interpreted using the fifth, theogony and the seventh, spiritual keys. With the scripture informing us that God named the “Light” and the “Darkness” “Day” and “Night” respectively, the writer is letting humanity know through the theogony key that this was the beginning of duality, or the start of the objective universe. Eastern philosophy believes the “Days and Nights of Brahma,” is representative of the universe’s condition. During a “Day of Brahma” the universe is in an active or objective state, whereas in the “Night of Brahma” the universe reverts to the subjective, or dormant state.

The “firmament” of the second day is obviously not the physical material land, as the “dry land” does not appear until the third day. No, again, using the key of anthropogony this is a further recording of the condensing of the elements. Key number seven, spiritual is used to understand that above or rather inside all manifestation of our tangible, physical or objective universe is the Spirit of God. With the science of quantum physics modern humanity has learned that the subatomic world is a very different place and operates on wholly different laws than in the world. The first two keys physiological and anthropological are used to understand the rest of chapter one. These verses seem to be accurately describing today’s accepted view of the process of the evolution of physical life, from the “dry land” emerging from the waters and producing vegetation, to the origin of animal life beginning in the sea, verses 9,10,11,12,13, and 20 to 25. You may have noticed that verses 14 through 19 were skipped. That is because these verses are out of sequence with the stages of evolution, placing the creation of vegetation before the creation of the Sun.

God had told the couple that science and spirituality went hand in hand. With that definitive statement, how did Suzzan reconcile the errors in the sequence of creation in Genesis? Several years earlier when they had discovered such discrepancies throughout the Bible, Craig and Suzzan had turned to God for guidance. As we’ve already mentioned, He simply stated, “Even the errors will lead you to the Truth.” With this in mind, the Heavenly Father directed Suzzan to read the commentary by the scholars on the creation of the Sun after the creation of the vegetation. The theologians explain that God wanted to make it clear that He created everything on Earth, not that it gradually evolved with the help of the Sun. However, it was their comment that Genesis was written from a geocentric (Earth at the center) rather than a heliocentric (Sun at the center) that helped Suzzan to see the light and understand what God was showing her. In their journey Craig and Suzzan had discovered many individuals had changed a few words of scripture to alter meaning.

Christianity outwardly had condemned all forms of astronomy or astrology, teaching that it was the tools of the Devil. Verse 14 has “…let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:” At this point it is important to state in ancient wisdom, astronomy was synonymous with astrology. If this verse is read using the astronomical/astrological key it can be interpreted how the “signs” of the zodiac and the planets can affect humanity. Also the “lights” are created before the Sun and the Moon, so the “day and night” of verse 14 cannot be referring to the rotation of our planet. Neither is it referring to the universe coming into objective form. Using the astronomical/astrological key it may be understood that this day and night symbolizes the positive and negative aspects the planets and stars have on life.

Verses 26 through 28 brings in the physiological key in that it explains the development of the human race’s intelligence to reach the point when they can subdue and govern the natural resources of the Earth. However, by stating that “man” and animals were given “every green herb for meat” was teaching through the physiological key that the Human Race could thrive on purely a vegetarian diet. The reference to God creating both “male and female” can be interpreted using the seventh key, spiritual as that human beings like God are androgynous.

The only key Suzzan had not used was the third or psychic key. At this point she was reminded that according to Michael Drosnin in his book The Bible Code, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, contain predictions of all Earth’s events buried within the text. Although these predictions can only be found today through the assistance of a computer program, the original authors were psychically moved to write the scriptures in the manner that would reveal the code at a time when humanity would benefit the most.

If instead of taking all scripture literally, we saw the writings as carrying a teaching, as in parables, then everything changes. Looking at Revelation in an allegorical way opens the door for another message:

If it is understood that the Book of Revelation is allegorical then is it possible that maybe it is saying that humanity is equipped to bring heaven to earth. Again it was mentioned earlier that Edgar Cayce believed the reference to the seven churches was alluding to the seven chakras. The Church had always interpreted Revelation as the final battle between good and evil, before the final judgment and the Second Coming. However, Craig and Suzzan had been told that Jesus Christ had already returned, so what could the Book of Revelation be referring to? The main clue is in the word apocalypse. Today the word brings visions of destruction and devastation, but in the original Greek text, apocalypse meant reveal, as in revelation. Gregg Braden says that a Dead Sea Scroll mentioned in his The Isaiah Effect shows that the prophet Isaiah was warning his listeners that there were two possible outcomes to the Israelite’s future.  That is what Revelation is revealing, too. Unless humanity “repents,”(changes the way they think) the majority will experience terrible disaster.

I learned that the reason using nuclear weapons is so devastating spiritually concerns the fact that the origin of evil is separation. But first I needed to examine what happens to matter. I found the article below on the web and reproduce it as I feel Steve Czarnecki’s explains the nature of matter and energy far more eloquently than I ever could:

The classic view on conservation of matter is this: all matter is composed of atoms of the various elements, and the total number of atoms in the universe remains constant. That is, you can rearrange the existing atoms in any way you like, but you cannot cause additional atoms to materialize nor can you cause existing atoms to disappear. These are powerful and extremely practical ideas for scientific understanding the physical world. However, they are not quite correct.

Einstein showed that a consequence of his special theory of relativity is that matter and energy are coupled, and that one can indeed create or destroy matter (or energy) PROVIDED an appropriate exchange is made between matter and energy. That is, energy can be converted to matter, subtracting from the universe’s store of energy and adding to the total number of atoms. Conversely, atoms can be destroyed, subtracting from the total count but thereby adding to the universe's store of energy.

In other words, what Einstein discovered is that the universe’s total matter plus energy is constant -- you can convert between matter to energy and energy to matter, much as one can convert U.S. dollars to Deutschmarks and back again, provided the proper conversion rates are used. Thus, Einstein’s contribution was to combine the two independent laws of conservation into a single law of mass-energy conservation. The conversion factor between energy and matter is Einstein's famous - E = mc2

               This tells us how many joules of energy are produced for every kilogram of matter converted to energy, or how many kilograms of matter are produced for every joule of energy converted (c is the speed of light, which is 300,000,000 meters per second) This means that the mass of an object increases as its potential energy increases. Conversely, as we extract potential energy, the mass of the products is less than the mass of the ingredients (that is, when we burn the wood, the mass of the ashes and gasses is slightly less than the mass of the wood and oxygen we started with). However, the increase or decrease is so small it almost always negligible for all practical purposes, except one. For example, my watch weighs a bit more after I wind it. But the increase in weight is about one millionth of one trillionth of a gram. That’s pretty close to zero, for most practical intents and purposes.

Except where nuclear physics comes in: Inside the atom are forces holding the nucleus together, called, without too much imagination, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. This force represents a potential energy within the atom. When a radioactive atom decays, it spontaneously breaks up into two or more smaller atoms which have less mass in total than the parent atom; the missing mass has been converted to energy (kinetic energy of speeding particles plus the electromagnetic energy of photons). The missing mass equals (via E= mc) the potential energy of the nuclear forces that has been liberated; the liberated nuclear potential energy equals the kinetic and electromagnetic energy.

We can stimulate this decay process in a nuclear fission reactor by bombarding certain unstable atoms (types or uranium or plutonium, for example) with neutrons, causing them break up and convert some of their nuclear potential energy to heat and light. Or energy can be liberated through a fusion process, where certain simple atoms such as hydrogen are combined to form helium. In either case if you add up the mass you start with, it will equal the total of mass plus energy you wind up with. For example, the Sun and all other stars use nuclear fusion to generate their heat and light. These basic fission and fusion processes are also the basis of nuclear weapons.

To give you another example of how immense this conversion factor between energy and matter is, consider this: a huge nuclear power plant might produce 1 GW (gig watt) of electricity, enough to power a medium size city. Over the course of a year, producing this much energy “burns” (converts from matter to energy) about 350 grams (3/4 of a pound) of nuclear fuel. By comparison, a coal-fired power plant would use hundreds, if not thousands of railroad carloads of coal. But if we were to carefully measure all the coal ash, and all the gasses produced during the burning, and compare it to the hundreds of thousands of tons of coal and oxygen fed to the boilers, we would also find ourselves 350 grams short at the end!
Steve Czarnecki

The reason we broke a universal law was because the word atom meant indivisible and in order to create a nuclear reaction, the atom has to be split. In splitting or dividing the atom and taking life, as I said we reversed Creation, through the ultimate separation.
Back to List at Top of Page

 

UPDATE TO CHAPTER XXI JOURNEY'S END

I mentioned earlier that when Craig and I had asked God how to help the world, He had told us to fight the battle of Armageddon between the armies of Gog and Magog. Until we understood that this was a metaphorical battle and not a literal one, we didn’t understand. However, God showed us that this metaphor had far more reaching consequences than we first. As we wrote in The True Philosophers’ Stone:

To be honest fighting the battle of Armageddon sounded a little grandiose and “pie in the sky” until God laid out His or if you prefer Her plan for humanity.  It began in January 2003, when Suzzan was told to form the I.D.E.A. Foundation for the Benefit of Humanity.  The acronym I.D.E.A. stands for Individual, Dynamic, Entirety, Activation in other words helping the individual to help themselves.  Again, both Craig and Suzzan wondered how they would make the vision a reality.  Realistically it was going to take several million dollars and everyone they had asked to participate in the formation of the foundation was certainly not in any position to bankroll the project.  But after forming the foundation, Suzzan received another vision.  This time it was multitudes of people wearing a button saying “I Commit to Humanity.” Seeking a meaning for the vision, God told her that throughout the world different people hold a different vision of God or divinity which in effect diffuses the focus.  If instead the Human Race could see the spark of the Divine in every human heart, even if only in potential, then they will bring that focus together and begin to build the Body of Christ. When Craig, Hermione and Suzzan had named their center the 7 Keys Millennium Awakening Center, they had commissioned someone to create a logo for them.  The lady chosen for the task had attended the same shamanic class that Craig and Suzzan had in 1999.  The logo she created contained the 7 Keys, which alluded to the seven Keys of interpretation of all scriptural allegory.  Regardless of the validity of the meaning, when Craig and Suzzan adopted the logo for the I.D.E.A. foundation, God told Suzzan that the symbol contained a far deeper spiritual meaning.  The symbol also stood for the seven Keys to Love and the seven points to Truth.  Dealing with the latter first the seven points to Truth are Objectivity, Discernment, Impartiality, Honesty, Curiosity, Awareness and Wisdom.

Seems clear enough, but the seven Keys to Love posed a much more difficult question for Craig and Suzzan.  Today, Love is used to describe almost every strong desire and or affection for a person or object, but how can the Heavenly Father be an emotion?  The master key, to use a euphemism, turned out to be the identification of Love as a state of being.  John’s gospel refers to God as Love and so to achieve union with the heavenly Father, an individual must foster the 7 Keys of Patience, Forgiveness, Kindness, Humility, Understanding, Altruism and Compassion.

Over the past twelve years, God had consistently taught us of the sacred marriage or union. We wrote of this in The Good News:

The fact that Jesus spoke of the Sacred Marriage gave the advocates for Jesus’ being married, ammunition. Still if by the Sacred Marriage, Jesus meant the union of spirit and matter, or rather the spiritualization of matter, it changes or rather spiritualizes it. Could this be why the ancient symbol for this union is the interlaced triangles or the six-pointed star, the top triangle signifying the descent of Spirit into matter and the lower triangle signifying the ascent of matter to Spirit? Could Jesus be saying that the ancient rite of Hieros Gamos (Sacred Marriage) wasn’t about sexual freedom, but rather about Divine Love and the unification of the masculine and feminine within each of us?

Recently, God reminded us that there are three Greek words for love: eros, philo and agape. We learned that eros, from which the word “erotic” derives, represents the three lowest chakras, base, sacral and solar plexus and the five senses i.e. purely physical love. Philo, from which the word philosopher is derived, on the other hand symbolizes the three highest chakras, throat, third eye and crown and the two senses of sight and hearing. Interestingly, philo signifies mental love, which means a mental choice. Unlike eros, where all five physical senses are involved, philo love involves only two senses, sight and sound. Philo occurs with a calculated mental choice, and can also be seen as love for inanimate objects. So much for eros and philo, what about agape? Apparently, agape love is not generated with either physical sensation or mental calculation, but through compassion. It is symbolized by the heart chakra. The Gospel of John records Jesus as saying “greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” From this we understand, agape is completely selfless love. A person running into a burning building to rescue a stranger without thought for his or her own life could be described as demonstrating agape love. Nevertheless, it is through the unification of all three forms of love that the hieros gamos or the Sacred Union or Marriage occurs. It seems relevant that the symbol for the heart chakra, the chakra that lies between the three lowest and the three highest chakras, and representative of hieros gamos is a six-pointed star.

In my journey something that kept repeating itself over and over was how harmful fear was to the spiritual path. God explained the consequences of fear, which we recorded in The Good News:

You cannot both fear and love God. Fear is the emotion behind every lower emotion. The doctrine of the seven deadly sins was invented to combat this. Fear is behind every one of the listed sins. For instance, the fear of not having enough can lead to someone greedily grabbing more than they need.

Everything that isn’t of love cannot rise to the higher or inner planes. Kama Loka is where everything is frequency-filtered. Like a sieve allows only the finest particles to pass through it, this location only allows the purest thoughts and emotions of the higher frequencies through to Devachan. Now, because this is the Fullness of Time, as the metaphor of the war in heaven proclaims, the Soul Plane is being restructured. Everything that isn’t of adequate frequency, so to speak, is being expelled to the lower frequency layer, the physical plane in order to be transmuted by the Sacred Union. Every entity or soul in this category has been duped or mislead into choosing physical immortality and or power over altruistic love and therefore missed the parameters of spiritual evolution.

It is through the Sacred Union that the World Soul is dissipated or dissolved. How can that be? We said that a more appropriate name was Animal Soul; that is because it represents the Kama Rupa or animal soul of the Human Race. As stated according to ancient teaching, the human being has three souls: animal, human and spiritual. (See appendix 5)

The lowest, the animal soul is linked to the Kama Rupa or heart chakra before it is transformed. It is interesting that Jesus taught that we should be concerned of what came out of the heart, instead of worrying about what we ate. (Matthew 15:17-20) Until a person transforms their heart, from fear, anger and hatred to love, forgiveness and compassion, they feed the soul plane with lower vibrations…hence Jesus’ warning.

We said that Kama Loka is the holding area used to determine who leaves this cycle and who stays. Like the physical universe, the astral plane operates on clearly defined laws. Nothing is ever lost. All less than loving thoughts and emotions, along with all entities that have been misleading humanity and all human souls that have no love or compassion within them, have been combined into the World/Animal Soul. This entity acts like a dividing force, tempting and trying to coerce humanity into maintaining the status quo. It is the Fullness of Time or end of the cycle, as we said the three levels of the astral plane Devachan, Kama Loka and Avitchi condense into one plane, or Kama Loka. It is within this plane that the World/Animal Soul resides and war, hatred, and aggression throughout the world, feeds and sustains it. Alternatively, when enough members of the Human Race transform their hearts and minds, through the Sacred Union, following the law of “As above, so below, as below, so above,” not only those souls and entities that were expelled to the physical plane, but everything within Kama Loka will also transform. At this time the World/Animal Soul will dissolve into the outer darkness. Any soul or entity that through choice will not transform literally melts with the World/Animal Soul into the outer darkness, waiting for the universe to reset and the new cycle to begin. Then like the potter’s clay, this lump or mass will be remolded into new bodies and their lessons will start again. All of the above is occurring now and will be completed in a relatively short period of time. We say relatively short, because this is where the five-year window we spoke of earlier comes in.

What really surprised me was that the clearest way to unite all three levels of Love is described by the Islamic mystical sect of Sufism. Once again I turn to the inspired and enlightened Reza Aslan’s book No god but God. Before I relate Sufism explanation of the Sacred Union, Craig and I would like to say something. We said earlier that anyone who deals in the Islamic world should read this book, we would like to amend that to everyone who is what Muhammad called the People of the Book and “dhimmi” (protected peoples.

That is every Muslim, Christian and Jew in fact anyone who believes in the Divine.

I can remember having a problem with many New Agers affirming that everyone is god. However, the Sufis concept of union with God may explain where this concept came from. Relating that the Sufi concept of the “Intoxicating love” has caused extensive confusion and condemnation from the more orthodox members of the Islamic society, Aslan explains the Sufis were using metaphors to describe a Sufis union with God or self-annihilation. For Sufis, “Once the veil of traditional dualities has been lifted, the ego obliterated, and the ruh (spirit) allowed to absorb the qalb (heart), the disciple finally achieves fana, (ecstatic self-annihilation.”

In conclusion, Craig and I had learned that it was up to each and every one of us to do our part. That is why we are here on Earth at such an auspicious time. This is summed up in The Good News:

The consciousness of humanity is connected. We experienced this connection immediately after 9/11, when we were all linked through suffering…Whenever we experience compassion, it takes a great deal fewer individuals to influence change. Gary Zukav in the Seat of the Soul says that the world reflects the consciousness of humanity. For instance if the majority of people are feeling hatred and anger, that is translated into wars and violence. Conversely, if the majority of people have compassion for their fellow human beings, that is what is reflected in the world.

Every soul born between 1945 and 1983 has returned at this time not to balance their personal karma, but to assist in the spiritual evolution of the Human Race. We mentioned earlier that members of the baby boomer generation were the first souls to mature. Whenever we think of the sixties, hippies and the flower children come to mind. Despite the historians making the flower children synonymous with the revolution of sex, drugs and antiestablishment, this generation were trying to teach the world a valuable lesson. The communes that they founded showed that if we stopped focusing on our differences, we could live in harmony with both nature and each other. Another thing this generation taught the world was that the power of the people is in their voices and not their fists. Of course there were some individuals connected to the movement that were bent on violence, nevertheless, the majority of young people advocated peaceful demonstration. Those hippies and flower children are in their fifties and sixties now and need to be reminded of the goal they held true during the summer of love. The ideals they held during this time were the ideals taught by all the Christ-like teachers throughout history. When their dreams were not realized, the hippies and flower children faded into obscurity believing that the dream could never be realized in their lifetimes. Many settled into their conventional lives helping the dream by supporting the various charities and thank God for them. Without the charitable organizations, the plight of the poor, sick and disenfranchised would be a great deal more serious. Unfortunately charities only relieve the symptoms without curing the disease. This is tantamount to putting a band-aid over a festering wound, the wound looks clean from the surface but underneath the infection is growing. When God told us to form the I.D.E.A Foundation for the Benefit of Humanity, we understood that rather than relieving symptoms we were to work to cure the disease. The most deadly diseases that affect the world are indifference, apathy, greed and selfishness. The world was not ready to rip the band-aid off during the sixties, but this is the Fullness of Time and it is now the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

It is interesting that although the goal of evolution is to drive the Life Principle to individualization and self-awareness, the objective of involution, or the redemption of the Divine sparks is the reverse. Consequently, only those individuals who no longer see themselves as separate from every other soul will pass by the guard through the door. In other words, it is necessary to view ourselves as above all differences, citizens of the planet Earth.

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ greatly assisted in the process. Literally millions of people were moved to tears of compassion for Jesus’ suffering, and this is the reason we can change the world. By experiencing compassion, we touch the more painful emotions inside. Then we transmute those feelings by the act of helping and caring for others.

This is what Jesus and all the Christs of history have been telling us. It is through the Sacred Marriage or Union we change the world. By combining all three aspects of love we no longer objectify Love; we become the quintessence of Love, which is a state of being. It is only then that through altruism, compassion and selflessness that all suffering ends.
It is up to each individual. No one can do it for you. You must decide for yourself, whether you believe people can change the way they think and become selfless or whether humanity is hopelessly selfish. We believe in the former. Given the chance most people will rise to the occasion, will you? J.F.K said in one of his most famous speeches, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” We would go one further and say: ask not what the world can do for you; ask what you can do for the world.

Although I understood that Love was the Common Denominator, I discovered that my journey was far from over. Like I had to change tracks, so to speak between Volumes II &, III, I not only needed to change tracks, but my understanding of reality had to be revised. I began this process with the 3 Appendix on the Relevance of the Doctrine of Rounds and Root-races Today. This had taken me into the investigation of spiritual evolution. Following on with that, 5 more appendixes have been added to this edition.

Appendix 4 is called “Craig’s Energetic Perspective on Evolution.” As the title suggests it is Craig’s interpretation of evolution from a scientific perspective. In it he includes a scientific explanation for his multiple visions, from which he includes information from David Wilcock and his on-line book Divine Cosmos.

Appendixes 5 & 6 are entitled “SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION – Or From The Fool to The Hermit” Parts One & Two. These two appendixes deal with the connection between the 22 cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot and the Kabalistic teaching of the Sephirotic Tree of Life, to spiritual evolution.

Appendix 7 entitled “Full Circle: The Mysteries Uncloaked” traces the Christ, Sophia and Hermes or Melchizedek teaching humanity how to overcome the counterfeit spirit through multiple incarnations.

Appendix 8“Hidden Symbolical Relevance” shows the hidden meaning through the progression of our three book covers

Appendix 9 “Visions of Change” relate the 3 visions that showed us how the I.D.E.A. foundation would be formed and how it would operate.

Back to List at Top of Page

 

Back to Top

 

TRIPLE 7 CENTER

CONTACT US

• Sephirot - Tarot
• Colors - Sacred Shapes
• Sounds - Numbers
• Chakras - Rounds
• Planets - Globes
• Consciousness - Principles
• Continents - Empires

• Patience
• Kindness
• Humility
• Altruism
• Forgiveness
• Understanding
• Compassion

• Objectivity
• Discernment
• Impartiality
• Honesty
• Curiosity
• Awareness
• Wisdom

CONTACT US