GRC: 5 Fold Gnostic Path

Today’s message about the ego referenced the 5 Fold Gnostic Path. They are defined below:

  • insight (seeing true value of things of this world so we seek absolute values)
    • can not be shown first so this happens with faith at first
  • longing (heart) for the absolute values of an impermanent world
  • self sacrifice: the self stands between us and what we want (desire and longing)
  • behavior changes: we adopt a different mode of life (we hold the longing, and no longer listen to the self to drive us)
  • Those elements above grow into a new soul in the 5th step. This is the consequence of letting go of self, and cleave to longing.

When our desires, our yearnings, are focused upon the horizontal plane of life, when
our strivings are directed at this nature, towards the things of this world, then obviously we strengthen the magnetic attachment to earthly nature, because our yearning has an attractive, magnetic effect. If this desire is directed towards the earth, the other magnetic pole will naturally repel everything which is not directed towards the earth and thus keeps away all liberating influences.

The Coming New Man, pg. 58

Gnosis is the Death of Faith…

Many years ago, during my occult phase, I read the work, “Nigri Liber Solis” (The Black Sun), and a phrase popped out at me. It read, “Gnosis is the Death of Faith and the Birth of Power.” It affected me so much that to this day I remember that passage from a very obscure text. But what does it mean and how does this relate to the teachings of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum (Golden Rosycross)?

As noted elsewhere, I don’t always see eye to eye with the ideals of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, and their views on faith is one such example. Like many Rosicrucian organizations, they are heavily vested in the words of the Bible. Although they do a great job in spiritual understanding of the Bible, they are attached to the role of Faith. Faith comes up quite often and it is described as a natural first step along the path.

This is true. It is a natural first step. Before you move your hand for the first time, you believe you can, and then you try. Once that is achieved, you no longer live by faith that you can move your hand, you KNOW you can move your hand. In that analogy, knowing is Gnosis. Gnosis is the direct experience of Truth. Not truth in a rudimentary materialism, but a deep profound Truth.

When someone has a direct experience, faith is no longer necessary. From my perspective, we should be preaching about the Direct Experience, not Faith. I think it’s a trap to put the idea of Faith as the goal, because it leads away from direct experience. One falls into the trap of belief, never attempting direct experience because it may be seen as “not the right time,” or “only a perfected being can achieve that.”

Quote

I found a quote by Jan van Rjickenbourgh from “The Coming New Man,” on the topic of Faith.

To believe, in the sense of the Brotherhood, means to know from within, and this ‘knowing from within’ is the activity of the spirit-spark atom. Paul therefore speaks about ‘the faith in your hearts’. By this he does not mean a kind of sentimentality or some traditional bible- or church belief, but refers to the sparkling vibration of the spirit spark atom in the right heart-ventricle. This is the belief which must make its abode in your heart. In order to obtain this faith, to arouse this vibration, you are admitted to the forecourt of the Spiritual School but do not imagine that the Spiritual School can or will do anything further for you before you ‘move mountains’ on the basis of this new, exclusive vibration of faith.

The Coming New Man pg. 56

You have to initiate yourself along the narrow path of self-freemasonry. ‘Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling’, says the Lord of all Life, namely: ‘Work for your liberation, by forgetting the self ’, and you will succeed unconditionally if you believe this.

Therefore, we do not stop at the sight of ruined sanctuaries or yellowed parchments, although we salute them with reverence. We thank God for the preceding Brotherhoods, who have borne and suffered so much for us, for through their love-power, it is now permitted us to approach the Gnosis. However, we must never forget that, as a young gnostic Brotherhood, we are to do in the living present what the ancients did in the past.

The Arch Egyptian Gnosis pg. 6

Healing and Manifestation: Good? Bad? Neutral?

There are many misconceptions with regards to healing and manifestation, especially from the Rosicrucian point of view. Many Rosicrucians and Buddhists would find the idea of manifesting an outcome (through spiritual means) wrong. Some might call it an act of self-maintenance (meaning, an act of the material ego). Others might say it’s a degenerative action that pulls one closer to their lower nature and further from the Higher. I will attempt to illustrate the true power of manifestation, and it’s connection with physical action – showing that neither is different and the mitigating factor of “good” or “bad” depends on the motivation of the effort.

Desire and Action

Imagine a person who is out of work. They need to pay the rent or mortgage, pay for food and take care of their family, but they just got fired. This person may go out and buy a suit and tie, and adjust their attitude to work at a new job. Perhaps it’s a job selling televisions at an electronics store. Likely this isn’t something they are excited about, but they put on the suit, go in for the interview and give the impression this is the most interesting job offer ever. All that to score a job. What are they doing? They are adjusting their energy – they are in fact committing an act of magic.

Now imagine this jobless person going into an interview, but before they walk through the door they mutter a silent prayer. Walking in they take a seat and feel more confident, having the will of God on their side.

Now imagine a third scenario where they prepared themselves mentally with an esoteric practice to “manifest” this job as their desired outcome. Going into the interview they have a renewed confidence that the perfect job will manifest into their life.

In a fourth and final scenario, the person attunes to the will of the Higher within, and allows that presence to radiate from them, like a pyramid of Divine Will.

Considering those three scenarios, is there a “right” or “wrong” way for a pupil of the Spiritual Path? For some, the prayer, or manifestation is breaking a natural law. For others, everything beyond the natural means is wrong. I will demonstrate how the source of each of those scenarios is the same – making them all equal.

The Source of Desire

When you make an action, whether it is by physical means, or spiritual, you are acting from a desire center within you. Even the most mundane act is sourced from this desire center. It is perhaps an act of will, but the will is not to be confused with thinking or thought (head).

To test this, do the following:

Go into your restroom, and before you shut the door, become observant of your muscle movement. Before you move your arm and hand to shut the door, what happens? Tune into that micro moment. There’s a brief moment of feeling, an impulse. That impulse comes from your core desire. It wants to shut the door (or turn the door knob when you want to open the door). That feeling turns to a thought and that turns into muscle movement. Try it and see for yourself.

If you can hold that feeling, you can actually do some fairly strange things. Metaphysical things. However, that’s outside the scope of this topic. What’s important is that this desire is the source of your action – your physical action. It’s also the source of your spiritual action. Before a person utters a prayer, or becomes the prayer, they have this same impulse.

In other words, no matter what action you take: physical action, prayer, manifestation, occult action, it all starts with the same impulse (desire). Therefore, it isn’t the action that is “wrong” or “right,” but the desire (impulse) itself.

lt is said that a pyramid arises when we pray which vibrates and is coloured in conformity with our inner quality. Therefore, prayer can be something highly dangerous, for all misunderstood prayer turns against us. 

Elementary Philosophy of the Modern Rosycross

Dangerous?

Jan van Rjickenborgh writes about the dangers of prayer – prayer that is colored with a selfish inner quality. In my view, it’s no more dangerous than doing the act physically. If your action is in alignment with the Will of God (or the Higher Self), then it is a pure act whether it utilizes physical means, prayer, or esoteric/magical means. However, if the act is impure (selfish) then no matter if it uses physical means, prayer or esoteric means, it is drawing our identity down into the spiral of the world.

Is it “wrong” to manifest a new computer? Some would say, “yes it is the result of a darkly colored soul, fixated on self gratification and its manifestation will further draw the attention down. This will cycle in the respiration field, contaminating every action and experience with this negativity – which becomes even more negative.”

Yet I look at the issue and think, “well is manifesting this new computer any different then organizing one’s finances to buy this computer?” I say, NO. If the desire is wrong, then it’s wrong no matter how it comes about. If the desire is pure then it is pure, no matter how it comes about.

Spiritual leaders often make their followers think something is “dangerous,” as a way of controlling them. Do not believe something because it was written by a leader. Feel it for yourself, without ego, in the state of the Higher.

The Problem of Forever Thinking

There are many mystical and spiritual groups who get caught up in a Forever Moment. That moment is a point in time that is, to their own minds, unreachable. It’s like saying, “once you have obtained enlightenment then you can begin the work.” Well that type of thinking will never reach enlightenment, as the steps along the way come up short every time.

From my spiritual path, I have come to a realization that I can tune in and reach the Great Depth within me. In these moments, the Guiding Force is not just a “good vibe” but an actual Guiding light. Meaning it speaks to and through. This is not an imaginary process, but a very real experience. It is the end-game state they all seek. The transfigurist looks to perfect that state to an eternal reality – and certainly I haven’t achieved that. But I have achieved the steps of communion, that so-called Knowledge and Conversation.

Some will think it’s impossible. How could I achieve this? But I’m not alone, I’ve met others who are also in tune with this same depth. Yet we have our moments where we slip out of this state and become worldly. I might fall into materialism for a spell, but in time when I take a breather, I can slip back into that state.

There are spiritual people who say, “this is impossible, one must transition into various degrees or states until you can do this.” Such people are caught in a Forever Problem. They are waiting until their spiritual path becomes perfected, and then BAM – Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy One. What happens (I think) is that they slip into pattern waiting for something impossible, and set their own level of expectation. They don’t achieve because they have programmed their expectation that it is impossible to achieve, until the forever problem is realized.

Don’t rely on others. Don’t let other set your level of expectation. Always be open to the Eternal One within. That spirit, force or by whatever tapestry you may call it, is always guiding – we just have to listen.

Physical Temples are Reflectors Only

Prayer

The main reason I pulled out of the 2nd aspect (Pupilship) of the Golden Rosycross, had to do with demands and expectations on my attendance to a Physical Temple. My experience has taught me that so-called sacred spaces themselves are not spiritual, but can trigger spiritual experiences. That is to say, they can act as reflectors of Spirituality, but only if one is inclined to receive.

In my own path, I’ve been in tune with the spiritual call and impulse for some time. For me the sacred space that triggers my depth of feeling is my “meditation room” (a room set aside for quiet contemplation.) However, when I attended the Golden Rosycross’ Bakersfield temple I never felt the sacred spirit. I had some prompt me to tell others about the feeling of Spirit or Energy about the place, but the truth is I never felt it.

The reason I never felt it in the Bakersfield temple relates to my non compliance with being there. I never wanted to take the trip there, so it was always somewhat tiresome or awkward. In short, I wasn’t in tune with the experience.

Not feeling the “spirit,” or “energy” that others might at a sacred space, is no indication of connection to said energy. In fact I felt the withdrawal of the school’s energy field when I internalized my withdrawal from the 2nd aspect. It was a physical sensation of pull out of their energy.

What really happens when people “feel” energy

People often claim they feel “the presence of God” at their church or temple. This can lead to erroneous conclusions, such that “my group is connected and that group isn’t.” I’m not saying that happens the GRC, but I’ve seen that sentiment in different religions and denominations.

What’s happens with spiritual feeling, is a person is feeling the presence of the Holy One within themselves! Something triggers that connection. It could be a person, or people. It could be a aroma, or a garden. It could be a physical space. These are simply triggers that bridge an inner connection, but they are not the thing itself.

This is important to understand this because one must not feel less if they don’t feel the “power” or “energy” of a place. People should refrain from putting others on the spot to explain the “power field” of a place, especially if one doesn’t really exist.

The only true power field is within each of us, and it is the energetic force within, bridging the gap between the Higher and physical self.

Esoteric vs. Exoteric

In my youth I would claim to have felt the “presence of God” in my father’s church. In my 20’s I felt it in an occult group called the Golden Dawn. Afterwards I felt the same Presence of God at a humble Buddhist temple out of someone’s house (it was then I felt something odd as buddhism has no view of God.) As I went through different faiths and groups I had this deep connection where I would feel the same presence of God.

A mistake is to think the experience is exoteric (outside of me). Gnosis came to me one night, while contemplating in silence. Gnosis explained that it isn’t that all these groups were connecting to a “God outside of them,” but rather I was carrying God/Source/Higher Self with me everywhere I went.

When I walked into a Christian church (as a believer), I felt the presence. When I wasn’t a believer, I lost that connection – but when I connected to the Golden Dawn, I felt it again! Then I lost it, and then regained that connection as a Buddhist… The connection I felt to the power field wasn’t “out there,” but always within me. I carry it everywhere I go. Sometimes I find something that tunes me into the field. It might be a sacred space, or it could be a plant. It could be listening to the sounds of life (cars, people talking, the sound of walking on gravel).

In other words, it is an esoteric principal (not an exoteric one) that makes the connection to the power field happen. No special building or place will create that experience. The experience comes from our harmonization with the field within us.

Tao te Ching – 50

Tao Te Ching – Verse 50

The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn’t think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day’s work.

Look Me

Today I was lost in my thoughts of internal arguments – where I contemplate the assumptions of others and debate them mentally. A fruitless task that pulls me down into mediocrity and materialism. As I was lost in my thoughts my 3 year old shouted, “look me.”

I looked over at my little daughter as she jumped in a trampoline, nodding my view of her actions. Again I was lost to my thoughts, and she shouted, “look me.” Now she was walking in place. Again I acknowledge her, to return to my thoughts. “Look me,” now she’s running around the perimeter of the trampoline. This cycle repeated until I had to just laugh.

What she was doing was pulling me into the present moment.

Teachable moments like this are around us everywhere. Be open, be watchful and all will be revealed.