LETTING SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY BECOME ONE
For many centuries Christianity has celebrated Christmas, Easter and Pentecost to commemorate key events described in the New Testament of the Bible.
They can be seen as historical events but also as milestones on a gnostic spiritual path that we as human beings can follow, in our daily lives. These three festivals can be understood as the three stages of our inner path, described as Formation – Reformation – Transformation, or as caterpillar – pupa – butterfly.
The first module in this series, ‘Spiritual Christmas’, discusses the esoteric meaning of Christmas: the birth of the light in the human being. It is the birth of a new, inner being. The second module ‘Spiritual Easter’ concentrates on the resurrection of the new inner being.
The third and last module ‘Spiritual Pentecost’ addresses the reality of the liberating power of the holy, healing spirit. The holy spirit is a sevenfold, unearthly power through which the essence and high calling of becoming a true human being can be realised.
This third module ‘Spiritual Pentecost’ aims to deepen the insights of the previous modules ‘Spiritual Christmas’ and ‘Spiritual Easter’, although it is not necessary to have read them first.
As was the case with ‘Spiritual Easter’, the reflections of ‘Spiritual Pentecost’ are based on The Gospel of the Holy Twelve by Gideon Jasper Ouseley.
This gospel is more extensive then the gospels of the Bible and is more directed to the inner being, the Other-One-within-us.
The ‘outer’ being, the human being that is tied to the material world with all his senses and faculties, is thus offered an inner perception, a view into another reality.
In chapter 91 of The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, Jesus says to his disciples:
The kingdom of Heaven is within you. But the time comes when that which is within shall be made manifest in the without, for the sake of the world.
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 91: 3
Christianity as we know it from the various denominations has separated the gospel stories from the inner lives of human beings. The unique and mysterious narratives were set in an inaccessible past, so that liberation became a promise for the future, following earthly life, and attainable only under certain conditions. In this way our present actions became focused on a future liberation.
But there is also an inner Christianity that focuses on liberation in the ‘now.’ Many generations and centuries of Christian traditions have planted the seeds of an inner truth into human beings. Every story, every character in the Gospels represents a universal truth that is deeply etched into the memory of nature, the Akashic-records.
Each aspect of the holy language is a seed of light that is sown in every human being who listens to it or reads it. These seeds of light are literally in our blood and will reveal their truth as soon as we direct ourselves inwardly to seek liberation from the captivity of this material world.
Inner Christianity has always been present, like a stream of light that is inextricably linked with external Christianity. At certain times its power has manifested itself in the foreground and has become visible in certain people or groups. More often, however, the inner stream of light has flowed through history hidden in the background.
But it has always manifested itself in human hearts, heads and hands.
In this context we can think of ancient Irish Christianity, the Manicheans, the Bogomils, the Cathars and the Rosicrucians. The stream of inner Christianity will always be found by those who seek it and have matured to it through life experience.
For outer Christianity unknowingly connects the human sub-consciousness with its inner stream.
Religion means literally to ‘reconnect’ (re’- again, ligare’- connect): reconnecting the horizontal (earthly) to the vertical (heavenly).
In the early days Christianity had the character of a mystery school. In a mystery school pupils are guided on a path of inner growth and self-knowledge in order to attain complete life renewal. Those who follow such a path of initiation become completely different people. Aspects and levels of consciousness that have been dormant in the human microcosm for a long time are awakened and gradually develop.
The human being of modern times differs greatly from the human being of 2000 years ago. Throughout the centuries humanity has gained many experiences, including those of Christianity. Those experiences are stored in the collective subconscious and are therefore part of the overall pool of experience of humanity.
Many people have found inner growth and self-knowledge in cosmic mystery schools based both on this collective pool of experience and also through their own individual karma and life experience.
They seek for truth, for real life, and have a deep desire to understand the inner meaning of the familiar biblical narratives. They want to achieve self-realisation through insight and longing in order to reflect the divine within themselves.
In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas (saying 84), Jesus says:
When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much joy will you have to bear?
The Gospel of Thomas, logion 84
Seeds with a Christian signature that were sown in the past can now sprout by the millions, growing into strong trees that bear fruit, the fruit of the spirit. In the Letter to the Galatians the apostle Paul names them as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5: 22-23)
In chapter 95 of The Gospel of the Holy Twelve Jesus prophesises:
But the time comes when the enemies of truth and righteousness shall rule in my Name, putting for my doctrines the opinions of men, and teaching in my Name that which I have not taught, and darkening much that I have taught by their traditions.
But be of good cheer, for the time will also come when the truth they have hidden shall be manifested, and the light shall shine, and the darkness shall pass away, and the true kingdom shall be established which shall be in the world, but not of it; and the Word of righteousness and love shall go forth from the Centre, the holy city of Mount Zion, and the Mount which is in the land of Egypt shall be known as an altar of witness unto the Lord.
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 95: 3-4
Egypt is not meant here as the land of the Nile in North Africa, but rather the material world with its repeating cycles of rising, shining and fading. It is the world in which we live as personalities but where our soul is in exile. It is the Christian calling of this time to lead our soul, the inner Jesus, out of slavery and into the freedom of the promised land.
The holy city on mount Zion is Jerusalem. Geographically Jerusalem is not located in Egypt but in Israel, the former Palestine which is considered to be the Promised Land in the book of Exodus. These references are given in the language of the mysteries, for ‘the holy city on mount Zion’ refers to the life field that is called the ‘New Jerusalem’ in the book of Revelation.
That kingdom of the soul is a healing energy-field of a much higher vibration than our earthly field of life, but it cannot be perceived by our ordinary senses or by sophisticated instruments.
However, it is completely attainable by means of the inner path, the royal path.
The Rosicrucians of the 17th century spoke of the house of the Holy Spirit. In their first manifesto Fama Fraternitatis R.C. from 1614 they declared that “our building will forever remain untouched, indestructible, invisible and totally hidden from the wicked world.”
When a person goes to sleep with the right orientation of the soul, then the soul can “ascend to the holy city on mount Zion.”
In the serenity of this life field the soul gains strength and knowledge to guide the outer being on his/her spiritual path during the daytime life. Then the sleep of the body is the waking life of the soul.
In the next eight days, it would therefore be helpful to focus on the gospel narrative in the evening and to read and consider the reflections based on the narrative the following morning.
Thus the soul, the inner Jesus, can become the bridge between the world of the spirit and the world of the body – the world of matter.
Especially for that reason Jesus says:
The kingdom of Heaven is within you. But the time comes when that which is within shall be made manifest in the without, for the sake of the world.
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 91: 3
