FOLLOWING AND BECOMING THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
A pupil of the soul who, after years of preparation within a spiritual tradition, has beheld the miracle of transfiguration on the mount with the inner eye, may tend to stay on that mount, to bask in the Light.
That may be why Peter, symbol of the will and vigour of the personality, proposes to put three tents on top of the mountain: one for Moses (knowledge of the Law), one for Elias (love for the Law ) and one for Jesus (fulfilment of the Law).
But a person who has truly received the spiritual Light – that is, Love power – cannot possibly keep it to himself. Love must express itself, it is the basis of its existence. Such persons will descend from the mountain in service to the world and humanity.
They will let the light that they have received, shine in the world for their fellow human beings who are still wandering in darkness. Through understanding, love and service they will fulfil their inner mission to be a bridge between heaven and earth.
Jesus and his disciples descend from the mountain; the human being on the spiritual path shifts his attention and soul power toward the outer world. Jesus teaches, nurtures and heals those who are open to it, he even heals a man born blind. About this we read:
And at another time as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “To what purpose is it whether this man sinned or his parents, so that the works of God are made manifest in him? I must work the works of my Parent (Father-Mother) who sent me while it is day; the night comes when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 53:1-2
Actually, every mortal human being in whom the inner Jesus is not yet born is one born blind for we are imprisoned within the life sphere of the physical senses. But Jesus can only open the eyes of those who have inwardly experienced something of the higher life of the soul. He says:
“I am the Light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 50:1
Walking in darkness signifies more than being caught up in the material world through the binding effect of the senses. It is in fact the existential state of the physical human being. The higher organs of perception are still closed to the higher life; the Light birth has not yet occurred. Being unaware of his own divinity, a person ‘who still walks in darkness’ is not yet able to be a bridge between the Creator and creation.
But as soon as the light of the new life has ignited the inner torch – once the dormant spirit-spark in the heart has awakened – Jesus can be perceived and followed. Then the light of the new life is carried within.
The Christ Power that is released in the heart of the human being then propels ‘someone who has regained his sight’ to continue on the path of rebirth. Then he not only follows the Light of the world, but he is that Light. That is why Jesus says to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount:
You are the light of the world. A city that is built on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it gives light unto all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father-Mother who is in heaven.
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 25: 7
The divine light is an unearthly light, a force with the highest vibration possible in this universe. To be able to reflect that light into the world, a pious and morally sublime lifestyle is not enough. Renewal as to spirit, soul and body is required in order to become a complete and capable mirror for gnostic light.
The fourfold mortal manifested body of the sevenfold man is like a small boat with which the stormy sea of life is navigated, with which the consciousness of good and evil is gained. It is governed by willing, thinking and feeling.
The physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the mental body are the coats of skins in which Adam and Eve were clothed. However, once the new soul is born and begins to build its own body again, these four bodies are purified and transformed.
For this purpose seeds of higher spiritual abilities have been sown in the physical body. They start to germinate under the influence of the light of the soul and make the body and its steering forces operate in a way that is helpful to the soul. The spiritual wealth of the human body is a treasure that we carry with us, but of which few are aware.
Everything that captures the attention of a human being brings about a detectable change, for example the production of a hormone, the activation of certain parts of the brain or a change in blood pressure. Similarly concrete changes occur when a person focuses his or her attention on the inner Light of the World.
If a person, on the basis of many experiences, has established that lasting fulfilment cannot be found in this world, and driven by deep nostalgia starts to search for his true destiny, then he radiates a specific and very powerful vibration. It is as if he calls out with a sound, a cry; his light nucleus is about to break open.
Such a call is heard by the Brotherhood of Living Souls. From afar they had already observed that the soul nucleus within the heart of this person was about to germinate and, unnoticed, they took him or her, into their care.
The response of the Brotherhood is unexpected; sometime during the hours of sleep the consciousness of the awakening soul is lifted up and provided both with instructions and also with power.
Thus, assisted by the Brotherhood, the soul can guide the personality through daily life: it whispers its counsels in the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing. And to his surprise the person concerned then finds people, organisations and publications which inform him of the existence of a gnostic and liberating path. That is the first response of the Brotherhood.
When such a person is touched by this response, obtaining insight and longing for true life ever more strongly, then the dormant spirit-spark in the heart flares up. The kingdom of the soul is perceived within the heart. The heart literally begins to see the Light of life as the spark starts reflecting this new Light power, just as the moon reflects the light of the sun. John the Baptist is born. He bears witness to the light, but he is not the light.
This Light power that is borne ‘in the blood’ of the John-being is an alien substance for the human body. Foreign substances in the body are fought forcefully, and Herod – symbolising the cleansing capability of the liver among other things – does his utmost to remove this strange ‘new-born king’ from his empire. And he often succeeds in the beginning.
The pupil of the soul thus sinks into deep despair as he continues to fall back into old life patterns. The Light power seems to slip away from him continuously. But precisely because of these dynamics and constantly losing the magnetic force of the broken unity, his desire for the light becomes stronger. And he perseveres.
Eventually Herod must surrender to the ever-increasing light: the blood and the nervous system can now be changed permanently by this new inner force. Jesus is born in man.
Two creatures can then be observed: the John-being who knows that he must decrease; and Jesus, the other one, who will thereby increase. The thymus gland behind the sternum – active until puberty for the growth of the child – is now coming under the influence of the light radiation from the heart and begins to deliver a more exalted growth hormone to the blood.
The blood that circulates between the heart and the head is charged with spiritual power from that moment on. When the blood reaches the head, the light forces arouse latent spiritual centres, including the pituitary gland. Just as the longing heart was touched by the Light, now the head is touched by the flow of Light power from the heart.
The head is thus cleansed. A new thinking faculty arises, a new certainty. An entirely new stream of thoughts and insights rises up within a human being on the spiritual path.
These insights come from within and it seems as if they have been there all the time. Thus the head is noticeably being prepared by the stream of Light for the direct descent of the Light, the fire of the Holy Spirit.
John sees Jesus coming to him steadily from beyond the Jordan. Jesus is baptised by John, he is cleansed by water. Then follows the baptism by fire, the spirit, symbolised by the dove descending into the pituitary gland and remaining there.
This is just the beginning of ‘Jesus’ pilgrimage on earth’: the whole body and the entire personality must still be cleansed and renewed. The lame, the blind and the crippled within the person on the gnostic path are gradually healed.
The central consciousness fire resides in the system formed by the brain and the spinal cord. Located in the spinal column of 33 vertebra, the energy that circulates within it is called kundalini.
This Tree of Life is connected to the entire nervous system. The energies that intertwine man with earthly life circulate in it, having been inhaled through the seven chakras. This channel, the link between the human mind and the body, is often referred to as the serpent fire.
Two serpents are coiled around our tree of life: a copper serpent and a fiery serpent. They symbolise, respectively, the female and the male principle within us, both active in the material world. Therefore they continue in ignorance, in darkness, in strife – they have knowledge of good and evil, but they have forgotten unity.
But by focusing on the life of the soul, the human being develops a new consciousness of a higher nature. Adjacent to the old serpent fire, an entirely new serpent fire spontaneously develops, without exercises or techniques. A new Light power descends and the head is able to receive it due to the fire baptism in the Jordan. The Light now starts its descent into the deepest depths of the human personality, the sacral plexus.
The stream of new Light force follows the nerve strands of the sympathetic nervous system which runs on either side of the spinal cord. In ancient Indian wisdom, they are known as Ida and Pingala. This Light force descends through the right strand.
On this path it meets the entry points of six of the seven main chakras: the brow chakra, the throat chakra, the heart chakra, the solar plexus chakra, the spleen chakra and the root chakra.
A chakra (meaning wheel) is a kind of breathing organ: by means of its rotational movement, each chakra breathes life forces in and out. Each chakra is as individual as a fingerprint. A new life force, such as gnostic Light force, will therefore encounter resistance from the chakras along its way engendering a trial of strength, a battle between the light and the darkness.
The most extraordinary encounter is that in the root chakra, also called the sacral plexus. The so-called coiled serpent of the kundalini is situated there – the point where karma is connected to a human being. It is there that the new serpent battles the old serpent, symbolically described in the Gospels as the temptation in the desert.
After the victory of the new serpent in the sacral plexus, the gnostic stream ascends in the left strand and there meets the chakras again, but in reverse order. This renewed encounter has special implications for the functioning of the chakras: through the influence of the Light power, they become attuned to the inner life and start rotating in the opposite direction, inhaling different forces.
In this way the copper serpent and the fiery serpent are replaced by golden serpents; the Caduceus is restored to its original glory and the Pentecostal fire, the fire of the Holy Spirit, can manifest itself.
But the journey ‘to Golgotha’, the place of the skull, is not over yet. For the seventh chakra, the crown chakra connected to the pineal gland, has not yet been touched by the Light power.
If the new Light power now follows its natural course, without forcing and without exercises, and succeeds in opening the crown chakra, the symbolic pilgrimage on earth is completed. This victory, achieved through our orientation to the new life, is described in the Gospel as the transfiguration on the Mount.
Both new serpents will wind around the staff as a trinity: the Tree of Life is again established within the microcosm. Then it is said to this tri-unity of spirit, soul and body:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father-Mother who is in heaven.
The Gospel of the Holy Twelve 25:7