Parting the veil
The physical senses form a veil which separates us from the true, absolute, spiritual reality of the world. We are blind and do not see. We do not have ears to hear, and we are denied the thoughts no human as thought before.
It is possible to over come this.
This is incredibly hard. Why should we love our neighbor, when the guy's a jerk and yells at our kids and bitches at us all the time? Why should we turn the other cheek, only to get hit again?
This first step is the hardest, because it as if a blind person is taking a step forward, on the say so of their friend, teacher, inspiring words in a book by an author long dead, who guarantees there's a path there, and not a cliff.
But once you know that path is there, once you see that there is something other than darkness, don't you want to see where it goes? Doesn't your intellectual curiosity, your longing for that interior light, drive you on?
Echoes of Saint Paul:
But the first step, the step that begins all this, is the step of purification, revelation, and of faith. The stories of the death and resurrection of the Most Holy Logos, the travails and triumphs of the saints, the Restoration of the Gnosis, the battles of the Templars, the sacrifice of the Cathars: All of these stories are revelations of others' gnosis, hooks of Faith upon which to hang our Hopes.
Even in the gnostic Church, where we prize knowledge of the divine, the Sacred Flame: even there Faith is the starting point, for the darkness of our ignorance, that flame is first lit by the stories of a clear path, shining for all to see. And we, with our eyes closed, hear that tale, and for a moment, a glimmer of light shines in the darkness.
It is possible to over come this.
Every man, says Councillor d'Eckarthausen, meaning every human being, can access that spiritual reality, if they have recourse to the Illuminated Church, the community which has access to the Spirit of Wisdom. However, it's not an instant process:This natural envelope is a truly corruptible substance found in our blood, forming the fleshly bonds binding our immortal spirits under the servitude of the mortal lesh.This envelope can be rent more or less in every man, and this places him in greater spiritual liberty, and makes him more cognizant of the transcendental world.
To my mind, this means a purification phase. The moral plane, recognizing the divine in our fellow humans, inspired to do the work of the Divine on Earth. To live with not only passion, but purpose, inspiration, the breath of the Spirit of Wisdom working through us. Not as something we know or understand, but something that others have told us: Revelation and Faith. We accept, because we have faith in and trust our teachers, that we are on the right path, even though we cannot see or feel it for ourselves yet.There are three different degrees in the opening of our spiritual sensorium. The first degree reaches to the moral plane only, the transcendental world energizes through us in but by interior action, called inspiration.
This is incredibly hard. Why should we love our neighbor, when the guy's a jerk and yells at our kids and bitches at us all the time? Why should we turn the other cheek, only to get hit again?
This first step is the hardest, because it as if a blind person is taking a step forward, on the say so of their friend, teacher, inspiring words in a book by an author long dead, who guarantees there's a path there, and not a cliff.
Once that faith is there, the senses start to open up. You begin to see why loving your neighbor, why turning your cheek, is on the path. Our eyes start to open, and we see the path for ourselves. We see it dimly, and not where it ultimately leads. We sometimes go back to our old ways of reason, of shutting our eyes and feeling the comforting darkness and stagnation surround us. If we can't see where to go, we don't have to walk, right? We can avoid the difficult and narrow path in front of us, right?The second and higher degree opens this sensorium to the reception of the spiritual and the intellectual, and the metaphysical world works in us by interior illumination.
But once you know that path is there, once you see that there is something other than darkness, don't you want to see where it goes? Doesn't your intellectual curiosity, your longing for that interior light, drive you on?
The third degree, which is the highest and most seldom attained, opens the whole inner man. It breaks the crust which fills our spiritual eyes and ears; it reveals the kingdom of spirit, and enables us to see objectively, metaphysical, and transcendental sights; hence all visions are explained fundamentally.
Echoes of Saint Paul:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.The interior light shines brightly, the path is clear, even if the will to walk it is sometimes lacking. The Kingdom around is spread over the whole of the Earth, and we see it when we seek the divine in the person of our fellow human beings.
But the first step, the step that begins all this, is the step of purification, revelation, and of faith. The stories of the death and resurrection of the Most Holy Logos, the travails and triumphs of the saints, the Restoration of the Gnosis, the battles of the Templars, the sacrifice of the Cathars: All of these stories are revelations of others' gnosis, hooks of Faith upon which to hang our Hopes.
Even in the gnostic Church, where we prize knowledge of the divine, the Sacred Flame: even there Faith is the starting point, for the darkness of our ignorance, that flame is first lit by the stories of a clear path, shining for all to see. And we, with our eyes closed, hear that tale, and for a moment, a glimmer of light shines in the darkness.
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