For the past few weeks, the Sacred Flame has been reignited in me to re-address my Friary Work. I've been writing a lot of material and emails and general musings, all about the Friary Work. And as I've been doing that, I've been thinking a lot about the language I use. As a magician, the words have meaning, and choosing them carefully affects the outcome of the process in which I'm engaged. That got me thinking about the word 'Work'. In English, the word work can have some bad connotations: Something you are doing that you must do, something that takes a great deal of effort, labor, something you do in exchange for payment or gain. And we know language shapes the way we think. The following video gives examples of that. Perhaps my efforts in the Friary realm should not be considered work, but perhaps the Latin source for the term, Opus. We are engaged in the Magnum Opus, the Great Work, after all. And Opus has totally different connotations in ...
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A gentleman that I had corresponded with a few years ago spoke about a preacher that was talking Johannine / Johannite Christianity and was a member of a breakaway mormon sect.
He inquired if this man was with us but he wasn't.
I'd have to dig through years of old correspondence to fish out the name of the minister specifically though.
+ Mar Iohannes IV
The Apostolic Johannite Church
The Widow's Son
The Burning Taper
Unfortunately, I don't know the fellow you're talking about, but Wisconsin is big. I'll keep an eye out for him.
Mar is Syriac for Master and is a prefix given to many Bishops in Eastern traditions.
Our usage of the prefix extends from two primary reasons-
To emphasize the Johannite tradition/mythos as being eastern in origin and to distinguish it from the many other Gnostic Churches which make use of Doinel's 'Tau' prefix from the French Gnostic Revival.
A third and oft unmentioned reason is that we view our clergy, especially our Bishops, as teachers, guides and facilitators, rather than ecclesiastical 'princes' etc and the Mar, I would like to think, helps reflect this role.
Thanks for your questions, I'll check out your blog in the days to come.
+ Mar Iohannes
Yes, I serve as Patriarch of the AJC