Spiritual Contemplation
Spiritual Christmas - 08 - Your assignment in life
Spiritual Christmas - English
29-12 Narrative 8 Chapters 9 et 10 of the Aquarian Gospel: Elihu and Salome teach in their mystery school in Zoan
Narrative:
Narrative 8, for the evening of 29 December: Elihu and Salome teach in their mystery school in Zoan
Reflection:
Reflection 8, for 29 December: Your assignment in life
Narrative:
Narrative 8, for the evening of 29 December: Elihu and Salome teach in their mystery school in Zoan
Chapters 9 and 10 of The Aquarian Gospel: Elihu and Salome teach in their mystery school in Zoan
Salome taught the lesson of the day. She said, All times are not alike. Today the words of man may have the greatest power; tomorrow woman teaches best. In all the ways of life the man and woman should walk hand in hand; the one without the other is but half; each has a work to do. But all things teach; each has a time and a season for its own.
The sun, the moon have lessons of their own for men; but each one teaches at the appointed time. The lessons of the sun fall down on human hearts like withered leaves upon a stream, if given in the season of the moon; and so with lessons of the moon and all the stars.
Today one walks in gloom, downhearted and oppressed; tomorrow that same one is filled with joy. Today the heavens seem full of blessedness and hope; tomorrow hope has fled, and every plan and purpose comes to naught. Today one wants to curse the very ground on which he treads; tomorrow he is full of love and praise. Today one hates and scorns and envies and is jealous of the child he loves; tomorrow he has risen above his carnal self, and breathes forth gladness and good-will.
A thousand times men wonder why these heights and depths, these light hearts and these sad, are found in every life. They do not know that there are teachers everywhere, each busy with a God-appointed task, and driving home to human hearts the truth. But this is true, and every one receives the lessons that he needs.
And Mary said, “Today I am in exaltation great; my thoughts and all my life seem lifted up; why am I thus inspired?” Salome replied, “This is a day of exaltation; day of worship and of praise; a day when, in a measure, we may comprehend our Father-God.” Then let us study God, the One, the Three, the Seven.
Before the worlds were formed all things were One; just Spirit, Universal Breath. And Spirit breathed, and that which was not manifest became the Fire and Thought of Heaven, the Father-God, the Mother-God. And when the Fire and Thought of heaven in union breathed, their son, their only son, was born. This son is Love whom men have called the Christ.
Men call the Thought of heaven the Holy Breath. And when the Triune God breathed forth, lo, seven Spirits stood before the throne. These are the Elohim, creative spirits of the universe. And these are they who said, Let us make man; and in their image man was made. In early ages of the world the dwellers in the farther East said, Tao is the name of Universal Breath; and in the ancient books we read,
No manifesting form has Tao Great, and yet he made and keeps the heavens and earth. No passion has our Tao Great, and yet he causes sun and moon and all the stars to rise and set. No name has Tao Great, and yet he makes all things to grow; he brings in season both the seed time and the harvest time. And Tao Great was One; the One became the Two; the Two became the Three, the Three evolved the Seven, which filled the universe with manifests. And Tao Great gives unto all, the evil and the good, the rain, the dew, the sunshine and the flowers; from his rich stores he feeds them all.
And in the same old book we read of man: He has a spirit knit to Tao Great; a soul which lives within the seven Breaths of Tao Great; a body of desires that springs up from the soil of flesh. Now spirit loves the pure, the good, the true; the body of desires extols the selfish self; the soul becomes the battleground between the two. And blessed is the man whose spirit is triumphant and whose lower self is purified; whose soul is cleansed, becoming fit to be the council chamber of the manifests of Tao Great. Thus closed the lesson of Salome.
– – –
Elihu taught; he said, In ancient times a people in the East were worshippers of God, the One, whom they called Brahm. Their laws were just; they lived in peace; they saw the light within; they walked in wisdom’s ways. But priests with carnal aims arose, who changed the laws to suit the carnal mind; bound heavy burdens on the poor, and scorned the rules of right; and so the Brahms became corrupt.
But in the darkness of the age a few great masters stood unmoved; they loved the name of Brahm; they were great beacon lights before the world. And they preserved inviolate the wisdom of their holy Brahm, and you may read this wisdom in their sacred books. And in Chaldea, Brahm was known. A pious Brahm named Terah lived in Ur; his son was so devoted to the Brahmic faith that he was called A-Brahm; and he was set apart to be the father of the Hebrew race.
Now, Terah took his wife and sons and all his flocks and herds to Haran in the West; here Terah died. And Abram took the flocks and herds, and with his kindred journeyed farther west; And when he reached the Oaks of Morah in the land of Canaan, he pitched his tents and there abode. A famine swept the land and Abram took his kindred and his flocks and herds and came to Egypt, and in these fertile plains of Zoan pitched his tent, and here abode. And men still mark the place where Abram lived – across the plain.
You ask why Abram came to Egypt land? This is the cradleland of the initiate; all secret things belong to Egypt land; and this is why the masters come. In Zoan Abram taught his science of the stars, and in that sacred temple over there he learned the wisdom of the wise. And when his lessons all were learned, he took his kindred and his flocks and herds and journeyed back to Canaan, and in the plains of Mamre pitched his tent, and there he lived, and there he died. And records of his life and works and of his sons, and of the tribes of Israel, are well preserved in Jewish sacred books.
In Persia Brahm was known, and feared. Men saw him as the One, the causeless Cause of all that is, and he was sacred unto them, as Tao to the dwellers of the farther East. The people lived in peace, and justice ruled. But, as in other lands, in Persia priests arose imbued with self and self desires, who outraged Force, Intelligence and Love; Religion grew corrupt, and birds and beasts and creeping things were set apart as gods.
In course of time a lofty soul, whom men called Zarathustra, came in flesh. He saw the causeless Spirit, high and lifted up; he saw the weakness of all man-appointed gods. He spoke and all of Persia heard; and when he said, One God, one people and one shrine, the altars of the idols fell, and Persia was redeemed.
But men must see their Gods with human eyes, and Zarathustra said, “The greatest of the Spirits standing near the throne is the Ahura Mazda, who manifests in brightness of the sun.” And all the people saw Ahura Mazda in the sun, and they fell down and worshipped him in temples of the sun.
And Persia is the Magian land where live the priests who saw the star arise to mark the place where Mary’s son was born, and were the first to greet him as the Prince of Peace. The precepts and the laws of Zarathustra are preserved in the Avesta which you can read and make your own. But you must know that words are naught till they are made alive; until the lessons they contain become a part of head and heart.
Now truth is one; but no one knows the truth until he is the truth. It is recorded in an ancient book. Truth is the leavening power of God; it can transmute the all of life into itself; and when the all of life is truth, then man is truth.
Reflection:
Reflection 8, for 29 December: Your assignment in life
Your assignment in life
Man is a twofold being: he is mortal as to his earthly nature and immortal as to the original, divine nature. The Aquarian Gospel does not fail to point out this duality, as for example, in the teachings of the sages in Zoan when they talk about the two egos.
In every human life, there is always both an outer assignment and also an inner assignment. One can accept or reject an outer assignment, addressed to the mortal being. An inner assignment, however, addressed to the immortal, divine being in us, is part of the divine Plan of Creation. If we accept this inner assignment and show our willingness to cooperate, then this acceptance immediately includes the key to fulfilment.
Just like all Gospels, The Aquarian Gospel tells us of an inner assignment, of the inner development of man. The messengers, wisdom teachers such as Elihu and Salome, have the task of reminding us unceasingly of our inner mission, of our high origin, of the possibility of returning to the original nature and of living accordingly.
Revealers of the Light
According to The Aquarian Gospel, Elizabeth and Mary receive an assignment following the births of John and Jesus. They are subsequently instructed in the caves of Zoan (in Egypt), that is, in the mystery school of Elihu and Salome. Elizabeth and Mary are called the ‘chosen mothers’ of the long-promised sons, the Revealers of the Light. Elizabeth and Mary accept the responsibility of teaching their sons in order to lay a solid foundation stone on which the Temple of the New Original Man must once again be erected.
They have to inspire their sons, ignite them with love and a sense of justice, pointing them to the holy purpose of their mission so that in due course the mighty work that awaits them can be fulfilled.
Once God and man were one. Due to thoughts, words and deeds linked to the world of space and time, man separated himself from the original, divine world and fell into the material world.
However, God does not abandon the world and humanity; rather, He seeks those who are lost. He wants to restore the original relationship between God, Cosmos and Man by means of Love. Therefore, He sends his children into the world to compel them to reveal the Light, the Love, and thereby to proclaim to humanity the possibility of a return to the Unity.
In order for that mission to succeed, John is given the task of preparation by means of unceasing purification. Only purity can clear the way, remove stumbling blocks and make the paths straight in order to allow Jesus to bring Love to humanity.
Love and purity
What is the essence of this message? The starting point is that nobody lives only for himself; every living being is bound to every other living being by invisible threads.
We all have a twofold inner assignment:
Firstly the individual assignment to live the life of our current situation, and thus, via life experience, to reach consciousness and renewal.
And secondly, to carry out the inner work and thereby be of help toward the spiritual development of the world and humanity.
Every human being has his ideals and is constantly striving to realize these. There are three areas of human endeavour that demonstrate this most clearly: science, art and religion. Each of these areas has its own ideal: in science, man seeks for truth, in art man strives for beauty, in religion man pursues goodness.
The true, the beautiful and the good
The areas of the true, the beautiful and the good correspond to thinking, feeling and acting. They become reality by means of three attributes: head, heart and hands.
But when we soberly consider what humanity has managed to achieve with its pursuit of ideals, it is noteworthy that man appears not to be able to gain lasting results – at most there are results that are only transitory. Therefore our world has proven to be a world of delusion.
Why is this? Why is everything only temporary? Why does it turn into its opposite and grind to a halt? It is because our world is not the original world. It is because our aspirations are based on the lower ego, even if we think this is not so.
Let us consult The Aquarian Gospel which relates what the difference is between the two egos: “He who knows himself well, knows the illusions of the world and knows of the things that pass away; but he who knows God, knows well the things that cannot pass away.”
Therefore, the sages of Zoan teach us: if man wants to be freed from the delusion of this world, let him turn his eyes inward. For this reason, the teacher Elihu makes a sharp distinction between the two egos.
Two egos
The self-created gods and demons who have neither ears to hear, nor eyes to see, neither a compassionate heart, nor the power to save, made of air and dressed with shadows and thoughts – they reside in the lower ego, which we know as our self-centred personality.
Elihu encourages us to learn to know this self-centred ego, to understand it and, having become fully aware of it, to purify our thoughts, feelings, and deeds. If we can pursue such a pure attitude of life, these demons will disappear through the power of love.
John is the forerunner. His mother, Elizabeth, is aware of the delusion of this world, from which she has stopped expecting anything. Her mind has come to the point where she will actually begin with the purification because there is no longer any other solution. John is the one who receives the assignment to effectively take charge of this purification and to realize a new mode of life, thus paving the way for the one who will come after him. For what comes after the purification is the love-power of Jesus; that which is born of the most sublime purity we could possibly imagine: Mary.
Thus we see that John and Jesus are not characters outside ourselves but rather, aspects of the inner assignment which all of us have received. We ourselves have been called to become and be revealers of the Light. As soon as the light of the Jesus-character has manifested itself within us, the way is open for the true, the beautiful and the good that know no opposite and are truly divine.