The Spiritual Aspect of Gerontology

Some will utter objections, stating that there are limits to knowledge and that ‘we will just have to wait until we reach the other-side to know for certain’. Many like to feel excited briefly as the next abstract video short streams into their perception, thinking they are being fed with a living knowledge and have acquired all that can be known on this or that topic. The human mind itself has been conditioned in some regards to crave these suitable skeletal summaries of all of life’s content. One truly believes they have understood a matter completely only after skimming a few of its major talking points. This is a tendency, a habit of thinking that needs to be put away if one wants to grasp the content of what is called ‘spiritual’ in life and see this ‘spirit’ as the foundation of existence, the very backdrop of our inner and outer world. The holy writings themselves supply many layers of meaning and until one has come at an issue from more than a few sides, even those that seem to offer nothing but rubbish, then one just simply has not risen to a fuller approach to life’s content as it exists for modern consciousness. It is not a popular idea that one must be patient, to actually maintain a posture of endurance in order for spiritual insight to manifest or in other words to live through specific stages or experiences of life, to actually reach definite ages in order for development to foster a proper assessment of oneself within the hierarchies of the earthly and heavenly realms. Many simply expect to and also believe themselves to know the essentials of life by the time they reach their twenties.

We are familiar with some of these stages of life, the first change of teeth or the first seven years where the child exists in a sort of hypnagogic state as it is still immersed in the worlds it inhabited prior to birth, the spiritual world.1 We also are familiar with the years in which puberty or sexual maturity sets in, but we may not see the more intricate modes of evolution belonging to the inner self. This maturing can be seen in an expression of threefoldness, in the growth of body, soul, and spirit. The forces within that first begin to act in building the physical body start to emancipate themselves. The forces and impulses that were more tied to processes of metabolism, digestion, and circulation when we were in infancy and adolescence begin to undertake new tasks to mobilize the spiritual organs of our anatomy. These impulses of thought or spirit that were responsible for the construction of the eye, the nerves, blood, and all that can constitute our material being begin to work on the soul, antipathies and sympathies arise, memories are now able to be held onto and only further in the growing up process do these forces move on from working on the soul into further freedom and independence, where ones thinking or thought life can now elevate itself above its usual dependence on bodily processes. Our spiritual anatomy- where one begins to assess life based on what is deemed good, beautiful, and true-starts to take form.

The individuality within designated at times by psychology with the title the ego 2, the part of us that can only say I to itself, is always at work with the perceptions arrived at by inward changes within it’s organism and the external phenomena occurring within the environment, albeit only a small fraction actually penetrates consciousness. Unraveling the mysterious nature of the I or ego has been done in other spheres of life particularly in religious contexts in regards to its higher or more spiritualized form of understanding. This apotheosis of the individual into its higher self or ego is the content behind the symbol of the white stone that Christ gives its recipients, in which only themselves know the name that is placed there 3, as well as the philosopher’s stone that the alchemists sought to transubstantiate within themselves, to truly feel it’s coming into being in the soul. In contrast in the east, the higher self assumes the name of Atman (highest principle in Humanity) or Atma (highest principle in the cosmos) found in the Upanishads and Vedas scriptures of the ancient Brahman traditions. There are specific phases in a person’s development in which this ego or higher self gains footholds over the soul, is able to further its sovereignty over its ideas, concepts, passions, what it values, even the impulses of will weaving within. The inner life gains independence as it is infused with maturity. In a very real sense this ego, or individuality splits off into two, in actuality there is a separating of multiple parts of what makes up one’s soul and spirit and as we move forward within time something indeed gets pushed out as self awareness achieves a supremacy over the perception of inward and outward reality.

Humanity over time becomes younger in the sense that at the individual level its development reaches its climax earlier and earlier as the centuries roll on. There are junctures in one’s evolution where certain limits are reached, where growth does not naturally happen in terms of these subtle bodies that house the organs of spirit unless there is a resolve within to bring them to fruition. The age of 27 is one of these major turning points, which will prick the ears of some who think of the legends surrounding that number. There are needs that the earth must satisfy not only for material progress but for spiritual advancement as well and this goes for the higher worlds in regards to its reliance on earthly phenomena for its continual evolution. Part of the substance that does not enter our consciousness mentioned earlier is what these higher worlds feed on. The beings that exist in soul and spirit live on what is bound up very intimately with us. These beings actually digest, truly chew and gnaw on impulses of soul and spirit, harvesting the residue if you will of the thoughts and feelings we have, assimilating what our inner life produces in a spiritual sense when an individual lives through these periods of rhythm – these periods of development – or doesn’t. It may cause a jolt to one’s psyche to realize that their very own current incarnation-their present life that they experience clothed with their unique personality has been made possible by impulses that were extended to them as they were approaching embodiment from souls that took leave of physical life early. It could indeed be true that you were given assistance to put on flesh and bone, to actually physically incarnate by someone that had died unexpectedly, especially in their younger years. 4 It is shocking to realize how much in fact we have no remembrance of- are simply unable to perceive – and in today’s culture one always wants to know of what is to come so we have words like eternal, immortal, or the afterlife. These concepts, the imagery that comes from the meaning that is traditionally prescribed to these words acts as a veil shielding one from a frightful experience of knowing of the countless distinctions and unrest that is in the spiritual world, especially when one first enters. So we don’t really have a word in modern languages that brings to light the immense struggle, the majestic wisdom and strength that is brought forth in pre-existence or the state of un-borness which makes possible the life on earth. This can shed light on some of the enigmas, the senseless events that occur so often.

In long past ages people could continue an inner evolution well into old age but now this evolution of inward maturity stops around the infamous age of 27 or 28. An individual in the 21st century needs to pull from its own resources the abilities to continue it’s spiritual evolution, developing the ability to perceive with this higher ego or I am that has split off from the lower. In regards to what may be imagined as occurring in this splitting off which in many ways fails to express the actual nature. This higher self – our true eternal spiritual core- in a sense stays back in the upper realms of heaven. In the time spent on earth, in our life in the body, this remnant that has been held back is protected, not subjected or not put in position to bow down to the temptations of Baal or the lower forces of evolution and in a sense does not accompany us in this phase of life. Between birth and death we are coming to emancipate our perceiving of this eternal core that waits in heaven. We only really come to know our true selves or higher egos at a certain stage in the life out of physical corporeality. Through growing in life experience we are given forces that strengthen consciousness and in turn this acts as spiritual fruit for our higher I. In time we learn to perceive through this higher self that has in a sense come out of hiding. This allows the gradual emergence and transformation of memory which is the most significant faculty in experiencing the spiritual world. This becoming of a kind of cosmic memory, cosmic in the sense that it follows or is attuned with very real rhythms of spirit – the actual breathing of the earth itself in response to the spiritual nature, to the presence of spiritual beings of the other celestial bodies in the starry heavens- can give one the ability to experience the spirit working into consciousness, into one’s very perceptions.

This is especially the case if one has trained the soul to exist less entrenched in the world of the senses. If one can win independence for their thinking, feeling, and willing allowing them lordship over their habitual attunement to physicality, to an inner dependence on the world we experience in three dimensions.5 The evolution of consciousness then can be witnessed in distinct rhythms within the process of maturing when this enhanced kind of memory recalls past modes of thinking, even the quality of feelings long since gone. A rich tableau of one’s most intimate moments can be recalled and processed with newly developed abilities. This process cultivates self knowledge which will be a trustworthy guide acting as an unending force of enlightenment amidst the changes that occur as one gets older, of having to orient oneself within the ever evolving forces of existence. One that pursues enlarging their self knowledge, actually taking moments to bring one’s position before the world or before one’s god or gods taking an inventory of sorts to see if they are pleasing to their highest ideals, will in due time sharpen the spiritual perception of life’s content. This memory picture which appears acts as a journal of sorts where no longer is a pen and paper needed but our deepest intuitions and their expression are always captured in a certain unconscious part of the soul, once unlocked – past entries of real life are accessible in vivid detail. It is as if one can start building actual spiritual realities, or in other words, one possesses the ability to find familiar anchor points of this spiritual content, forces within the soul that can be held in consciousness just as close as we can when we use external objects or places of refuge to balance our inner selves. These places that can be entered into through a heightened thinking and feeling will be bridges for individuals to reach a place of healing for their souls and in these new perceptions of consciousness there are many mansions, new worlds await as one begins to experience old harbored mental images, imaginations, and intuitions that have returned after being resurrected, revealing worlds that simply were not there previously.

Take a sacred number from antiquity, let’s say seven, so central to the ancient Hebrew’s cosmology, to the representation of their world’s, signifying a completion of the cyclical nature of cosmic phenomena, even previous incarnations of our planet. We can orchestrate a tangible example of how one’s inner life can be broken into cycles of 7 years and begin to experience the spirit in a very personal way, in the process that Gerontology6 seeks to reveal – the process of becoming old- in a very direct way within our own bodies. Think upon this 7 and do not color its mental image with any tinge of the supernatural or superstitious. Just take the number as a symbol that connects spiritual meaning to our perceptions of the ordinary fully awake consciousness. These representations point towards the substance of the higher worlds so that this higher wisdom can have meaning on earth. Modern science offers examples of physical changes that occur in a 7 year period. Many types of cells within us on average regenerate over a 7-10 year period even though these rates vary with type. Many fail to take this rhythm , this 7 year cycle and apply it to the life of the soul. Take a moment to think about your inner life in 7 year increments. What was the condition of your presence of mind? What ideas were giving you sustenance? What kind of mood did you carry from day to day? What were the longings, willful plans that may have failed from one perspective? Are they actually still present, can you see them being reshaped after 7 or so years? Perhaps you may notice that in a previous septenary set, the general mood you held – your experience within reality was reflected in how your consciousness was centered more in the feeling or emotions that life brings. This is where enthusiasm was kindled and in these converging forces of soul there was set a certain direction of purpose where your passions were ignited or where your highest ideals were shaped and it is there that they found a certain completion in a state of emotional upheaval. This is where you pondered on the human condition. Can you see after a number of years that these ideas and their accompanying feelings have now taken on a new form, perhaps heightened, that indeed they have infiltrated one’s entire being, perhaps the center of perceiving is now most strongly in one’s thinking? A noticeable deepening has occurred with one’s thought life. One might remember a longing for a connection to the spiritual beings weaving amongst them. At this time they may have accepted the authority of the gospel as a matter of faith and were satisfied with limits placed on curiosity. The rigidity was soothing, the clear simple concepts of Christendom allowed them to be okay without knowing. Many evenings would be spent in pious devotion, as if these emotional upheavals, these longings often raised up for others, would nearly lift one out of the body. The intense pining for something higher, for a unity with the divine would then after or a near completion of a 7 year cycle permeate another soul faculty. These feelings imbued with drives of will could then be used by the maturing I to provide a means to overcome certain old ways of thinking, ideas that have never entered the mind now come to consciousness.

This person was in fact entertaining an angel they were not aware of. This guardian angel was feeding them the impulses that would eventually work their way through one’s inner sensations, taken in through the inhalation and exhalation of air, formed further as the cerebral fluid ebbs and flows, shaped in their ability to form metal pictures and then translate that cognition into thoughts, into human language and in their case an English vernacular. While this individual toiled, experienced the joys and sorrows, the chaotic along with the mundanity of life, this person’s angel prepared a landscape within that individual’s own bodily constitution in which new perceptions would take hold.7 Through these cosmic forces being implanted within while they slept, they were slowly becoming something new. The feelings this individual brought into the worlds of spirit after resting at night would be reworked in the dark nights of their soul quite literally while they lay beneath their comforter. The lack of perseverance found in so many, the absence of drive to bring an inner activity to enliven one’s thinking tends to darken the time we spend in sleep, in the state of dreaming. For many dreaming or remembering the souls experience when it takes leave of the body at night is not a typical occurrence and if it is it is shrugged off as insignificant and somehow simply connected to how the body gets rid of all it’s sensory experiences. Most simply do not know what truly happens when we set off into sleep. The ego we have been bringing to light is no longer bound to the physical body. It leaves and is truly set free to wander the expanses of the stars, to truly commune with the angels and archangels that so sacrificially care for our souls not only when we are in a sense within the body but especially when one is out of it or is much closer to actually weaving amongst these spirits that each have their own desires for the unrevealing of the day that will run it’s course when one awakens the following morning. We must never tire of refreshing our minds with such lofty spiritual facts, kindling an expectation of the wondrous moments that await as one matures with age. When one loosens it’s focus on the trivialities of life and begins to experience how one doesn’t simply lose consciousness at night only to revive bodily strength but one begins to experience the time spent in sleep as being in an actual tangible sphere of angelic activity, being fed the feelings and images that would be needed to continue one’s development. In a real way one begins to have a continuity of consciousness, one knows that life and consciousness continue even if the soul has no sensory impulses to work with.

It is said that Saint/Apostle Paul had 14 years or so of preparation from the time he was informed that he was to experience suffering for the sake of the divine worlds until he was to begin his missionary journeys for the preaching of the gospel to the gentiles.8 We can sense that he had an intense experience or vision of the Christ exalted, was able to perceive this being move up in ranks within the worlds of spirit, carefully taking account of the reality that he did not envision this in some abstract image but Paul felt the effects of what Christ instilled in world evolution within his own organism, of which he even claims he had an early encounter of.9 In his case we can assume he knew previously of the influences of the hierarchies within the cosmos but he had not experienced a heightening within his own consciousness that could reach these new Christ impulses that now permeated the spirit and soul of Gaia. Before his conversion-his Damascus Road encounter- he had perceived certain spiritual hierarchies, ones that lead various cultures into new ages – into new faculties of cognition-and had undergone certain initiation rites, received a specific training whereby a detachment from his body would take him into the third heaven, only possible through a progressing in experience or advancing in age in order for certain insights to become clear. The three days Journey or 3 days of blindness in Acts 9 when understood as an initiation experience gives much needed clarity on what is central to this passage- not the physical journey or time of fasting but the inward journey of three days – the length of time that the one being initiated into the mysteries would be induced into a death like sleep by the master or teacher and after waking from this temple sleep the now initiated could bear witness to what the spirits wanted to convey.10 This gives Paul the ability to carry needed evolutionary impulses further, the same forces Moses first perceived approaching earth more than a millennia prior in his burning bush- the I am the I am – as it was experienced prior to its birth and subsequent release into the earth after the incarnation and the death on Golgotha. This Christ impulse that makes possible humanity’s accession to loftier heights had not fully immersed itself within the body of humanity imbuing all human beings- not just those based on blood or cultural heredity – with new impulses to reorient themselves to the spiritual. In the revelations that followed we also have to imagine this process as the kind that unravels as the educational variety, has it’s seasons of growth and decay of, of doubt and clarity whereby these 14 years were also spent orienting himself not only within new ideas within what would be the intellectual sphere of that time but also the real impulses of growth and synthesis within his bodily nature. So From his encounter with the Christ in Damascus until he was to embark upon the first opportunity in crafting his art of missionary voyages we have a repeating cycle of 7, that is 7 years completed twice which we can behold a time frame that would include significant points within the aging of Paul allowing him time to mature, to sit with these budding spiritual perceptions.

If one spends enough time connecting with the thoughts of others, not in a superficial manner but truly dissolving the physical body, wishing away the transitoriness of the other they were beholding and practicing a more conscientious attention, a real empathy that involves a morphing into the other, a sort of merging into the other’s inner life to feel as they do something many don’t believe to be possible than a certain reciprocation is felt and one in fact grows with the other in evolution. If one has been able to cultivate this intimacy with another’s life of soul – of those that have reached their being out of traditional limits of experience and has personally lived through a few of these seven year cycles – one can come to see the variety of ways in which spiritual knowledge is fought for and as a result can start to witness the fact that spiritual development does not exist in one time visions or raptures. One cannot just escape to the higher worlds whenever they may choose even for those that seem so out of reach of our general cognition, a soul much too advanced to grasp, a being that of a Paul. I once met a man that sought answers to life’s deeper enigmas and he instinctively as if he knew the answer could lie in what is titled the Apocalypse of St John or the Book of Revelation. He tried to pull from its pages satisfactory answers but was unable to trust his own insights. This gentleman indeed 14 or 15 years ago had almost no understanding of what this document contained. He spent many days asking his acquaintances their opinion on what they have heard in relation to an interpretation of a particular passage or what this or that symbol may represent. This man desired to know what happens when the threshold is crossed, when one awakens to life in the worlds of spirit. He tries to sit with the thought of a person that has taken their own life and as a result had to experience an eternal separation from the divine. The specifics of a person’s destiny was a matter that an abstract deity was to be trusted for. There indeed was present the mental picture, the image of a fork in a road, one leading upward to a nebulous cloud of heaven’s light, the other downward, paving a path to perdition. These types of questions, after a time begin to lose their intensity as life happens. His mind pulls away from those existential pursuits and the previous curiosity so enamored is culled. In time he encounters hardships as each does as they progress through the walk of life, and is driven to his knees by a quite insurmountable obstacle that moves his soul once again to seek a higher satisfaction. He is as he recalls years later passing this significant age mentioned earlier, he is moving into his 27th year of his incarnation, when development has reached its end and the ego has unraveled itself naturally as far as was permitted within his bodily organization. His ego slowly becomes strengthened through the content and practice of religious life and he gains a certain confidence in his presence of mind which is often the case with the arrival of new ideas. We see many rhythms in the universe in this period of 28 , or these 7 cycles of 4. The orbit of Saturn, which behind this planet exists the mystery of the human physical body11, the cycles of the moon with its esoteric connections to our being in its bodily rhythms, even down to the number of vertebra that make of the spinal cord – both expressing these spiritual rhythms or cycles. Humanity is truly a microcosm of cosmic rhythms in its spiritual evolution. At the age of 28 or shortly before he is saved as the evangelicals express it, even immersing himself in the study of theology at a orthodox Christian university. In the years that follow he arrives at the reformed view of this scroll, this revelation of John. It is a comfort, a victory story for the faithful where good finally defeats evil and for the time being his conscience is left alone. He walks with increased vigor being lifted up by the sentimentality that the christian religion still can bring to the lost. Any details or hard questions aren’t to be pursued and he often thinks of the man named Luther and his personal struggles with making sense of it. In a real and true way this man I knew considered epistemological pursuits within the world of divinity more or less worked out by the time the reformation had concluded. Quite simply all that could be known of the deep mysteries of the Trinitarian godhead were finished by the end of the 16th century. He then lives in those dogmatic ideas as do those closest to him from which fundamental circles still thrive, which color his experiences with a definite illusion. An unfounded dramatic or emotional element has burrowed itself within and one can if sensitive enough feel this mode of perception as a real entity within, a being of sorts that is fueled when life is approached from onesidedness.

These ideas after a whole become a part of his being, he was born with a melancholy temperament- a sort of quality that the soul carries within from its heredity and karma, causing his drives for wholeness, his growing body of antipathies and sympathies to be ripened, to be deepened by his thinking. One must admit to how much moods, the feelings we carry each day are shaped by ideas even those that don’t seem to penetrate too deep below the surface. These dogmas of the church often place limits on what may be assumed by what proceeds after the discarding of the body and in his personal situation, in his own personal application of salvation it turned into heavy levels of introspection with no suitable outlets to better shape them. He finds himself living each day for a judgment of grace or one that was earned, or a combination- he can’t get out of his own limits of thinking. This mode of cognition, experiencing life’s many choices as unrecoverable sinful acts- this inability to rest in his most ideal thoughts has caused illness. He has bouts of insomnia and carries a nagging anxiety, finding how intense the hold of dogma from centuries ago can still have over someone.

More years pass with new experiences colored by new manna being dropped from his angel and when he least expects it, like a thief in the night – impulses from what he has gained become ripe and his mind opens to see the artistic side of the book’s composition. He begins to understand that there is substance in life that can’t be handled in clean and easy concepts but instead must be experienced, must be grasped with higher modes of consciousness. He has reached another significant milestone in an individual’s development, a stage that passes after another 7 to 10 years from that of 28. He enters the years of 35 and beyond when there now lies at his disposal much like a painter and their palette of colors or the philosopher with his storehouse of ideas, he now has reached a point where the ability is within reach to create his own world. So at a repeated cycle of 7 years or so, since he first gave a confession to identify albeit dimly with the Christ there is a notable vitality within, as the physical body progresses into old age and the soul begins to grow younger. Through the maturing of his ego by its connections to physicality- to the doing of life- along with ripening soul forces he is able to experience his higher self and is gaining a new found inner freedom, whereby he is now in certain respects able to overcome being moved in all sorts of directions by mere mental habits and ways of doing things. He finds an inner composure and reaches a fuller grasp of what it means to be human. This man starts to see how the words of the apocalypse with its signs, symbols, and turn of phrases are intended for the ears of modern humanity if they would tune them to its frequency. If one were perhaps clairvoyant and able to listen to the hidden activity in the nights that passed when he was in a certain sense, conscious of his spiritual transformation, one could see beings of soul and spirit, those of the host of heaven descending, weaving their substance into our very thoughts, finding incarnation in human thinking, in human gestures and speech. The dreaminess this individual exhibited in his youth, living in his own organism too deeply. At times such a defeating character trait of his soul becomes something new, is given new life and a certain strength is kindled, a competency it never had comes forth and a confidence to open itself up to new impulses emerges. It would go to much a far to touch on all the streams that flowed into him in his younger years that shaped how he thinks feels exist in his adult life like the times spent resting in the arms of his mother as she permeated his being with her warmth, her impulses of wisdom that she found difficult to express almost as if she had already experienced or fleshed out in some bygone life. The fruit of those lived experiences she had woven within, worked so courageously for would simply be something she freely passed into her middle child. Beneath the audible hymns she sang to sooth his worried mind, other hidden much deeper forces were at work between them.

We can’t forget to mention the social aspect in growing up where certain relations come and go and like it goes for so many there is a rather eccentric encounter with another and in that interaction certain seeds for new paradigms, novel ways of perception are sown amongst late night chatter. Where in such rare moments one’s life takes a new direction not even from guidance form a respected counselor or spiritual director but by someone who had an inner character or disposition that allowed a certain tone that would flow into the other where the content that was expressed would assert itself fully enough within to produce a transformation. One may not be aware of the less conspicuous inner senses like the sense of experiencing the ego of another where one in a sense is driven back or has to wrestle with the other that has entered his field of awareness. And it was in these reoccurring battles that new seeds of imaginative thinking would sprout. He begins to believe himself to be living within the pages of the Apocalypse, repeatedly discovering the events are in a surreal way happening in real time. The geopolitical headlines matching in some odd ways the prophecies of revelation. He wanders amongst what has been called conspiracy theories, where it seems that perhaps some are trying to manufacture their own sequence of trumpet blasts and broken seals. His new ideas, the ones that serve to prop up his worldview have in a very tangible way burst open the old wine-skins or his old-comfortable ways of apprehending life. He in fact frees himself from much of the dogmatic thinking of materialistic theology but his inner development is not balanced. His imaginations begin to go their own way or in other words he becomes a judge unto himself, he expresses a growing egoism which is so pivotal in the eventual perfection of our race but he has succumbed to Luciferic forces, to the forces that first gained him and all of humanity perceptions of spirit when it was much too early.12 He continues until he’s struck with deflation of his ego. Certain corrections are made to loosen the grip of that egoism that accompanies the beginning of a new form of consciousness. When enough time has passed, the ideas he used to run with begin to not sit well with other approaches that one encounters as they navigate the living content of life. He finds that he is still heavily one sided in processing reality. What he first emancipated years back, the first traces of spiritual intuitiveness continue slowly to take on new sharpened contours and many paradigms he once held are now leaving, simply evaporating. It gets difficult to exist in such an arrogance that he has always held when he applied his thinking to the realms of human endeavor, never able to see the blind spots that approach that can lock one into thinking they have reached the end of learning life’s secrets. He starts to see the content that touches philosophy, religion and art from a higher vantage point, one that has enlarged its scope. He sees this book that holds such mystery as the picture of not just the evolution of humanity but of his own evolution of which he has been a part of since times in memorial. In it hes sees the process of initiation in which the seeker of spiritual wholeness sought, which in the ancient world was held in utmost secrecy, a process of spiritual aging or evolution – of which those that are currently poor in spirit need. This ancient initiation science foreshadowed how each is to become an Osiris, a dying and becoming of a god disclosed in the pages of the Egyptian book of the Dead paving the way for Christianity to bring this once hidden work of growing in spiritual evolution,-in holiness- to the entire world.

Hindsight often reveals occurrences in a much more artistic way and as we age we begin to achieve a heightened serenity in thought as the ideas that give definite and real expression to perception take time to develop over a stretch of 14 years or so. The man I spent so much exertion trying to learn from and in many ways have become, sees the world he now exists in and how he feels within that world to have both become so vastly different. This process had a peculiar coming about, where certain barriers within thought had to change. Just as one can never see with ordinary sight the becoming of the rose or the lily, however one can know in a certain fashion that the spirit is at work through the effects. Humanity in the past had a much more rich inner life, actually experienced the movement of spiritual processes within and outside them in nature, witnessed the beings responsible for the phenomena they experienced and it is this spiritual content that is in fact perceivable now. We can prepare ahead of time so to speak before a new type of perception is agreed possible within human existence that will occur gradually over the next 2,500 years or so.13 One will almost instinctively behold the spiritual evolution of a rose, to truly draw out of the rose a pentagram- its soul- into awareness due to their spiritual organs starting to quicken. Even if we don’t have these new faculties of clairvoyance one can still begin to take hold of the unseen substance of life by allowing these reflections to work on our inner life of thinking and feeling. One can begin to trust that there has been a change, that indeed there is a real transformation present in which the spiritual must be its source as a much brighter lens is used to view the domains of life, all of which was not possible prior when one was younger. It is certainly a grace from above – nothing that could be entirely explained by his karma, his environment, work in inner discipline or even in the years spent this far in the body acquiring knowledge by traditional means. The spirit can and must be a part of his further conceptions, his further intentions, decision making and satisfaction.

He now has another set of 7 years behind him of gaining wisdom but not in the sense as before but a kind that is tinged with devotion, sprinkled with a certain altruistic or a higher love for creation. He is now at an age when this grand 14 year adventure is now seen in all of its connections of meaning as he passes into the age of 42. He understands heaven, the lands in which we inhabit after leaving earth, or passing through the gate of death not so abstractly as a specific place, as some more subtle version of the physical world but a state of existence, a sphere of perceiving that he is growing into. It however does not remain nebulous or mystical but something that is definite. The new Jerusalem, the planet we will truly inhabit in a far distant time will not consist of the physicality as we know the earth to have today, It will be much more ethereal.14 What makes up the mineral substance of the earth will no longer be present as human beings come and go- incarnate and live life under much different conditions of which they themselves were part creators of. The new heavens and earth will consist in part of what they were able to bring forward with their inner life – the content of their soul. Those that have not in a sense kept up with the aging or evolution of the earth and humanity will be left in an outer darkness not able to participate in an appropriate manner as if disabled. They will not possess the faculties needed to continue in the goal of human evolution, and it wont be till much later that the opportunity may present itself – a chance to make up for time lost in a continual drifting into an animalistic nature – for mystery of evil will still be working itself out.

Just as his own experiences, his knowledge of himself and his universe have been mobilized, have indeed become malleable again, the words from the document that imprinted such rigidity before now houses an invisible script, one that is shaped by ideas that take note of humanity’s evolving consciousness. It is said that there will be no sea15 in the age to come which used to paint nothing but strange apprehensions of the life to come but is now a symbol that represents nothing having to do with what we think of as a body of water or even a nation of people but as a symbol for material existence. The dying and rising of the Christ as the image of our individuality, our holiest of holies, our higher ego or the I am and its evolution has been the content of innumerable forms since ancient times. This spiritual transformation or initiation of the human individuality is in the gospels too. It may have been unnoticed or may well have been consciously worked in by the scribes that articulated the following event – that even in the specific names that were involved were hidden insight into the a deeper understanding of the most profound occurrence in history. It is recorded that Christ – the highest I am or Ego is to suffer or be put to trial under Pontius Pilate. With the removal of the i in Pontius it would form Pontus, a word with connotations to a Roman sea god showing its connection to the idea previously noted- the esoteric symbol of the sea not signifying physical water but the inner life of soul and its decent and accent into and out of material existence. The scribe or the apostle if you prefer was articulating that Christ, this image of our own personal ego had to suffer through the process of experiencing physical life- material existence- of incarnating in a human sheath thus passing through the various states of consciousness – of maturing in wisdom and love through the varying conditions of life including death to achieve continued spiritual evolution.16 The drama that each passes through in life, each participating at a level that is reflective of their current state of development and conditions that would induce the most suitable for its future evolution. Life itself is a spiritual initiation preparing us for mobility in spiritual lands when we are out of the physical body. Putting aside any over emphasis on surnames or tribal names with this Pontius Pilate, we need to remember that etymological pursuits can never arrive at the fullest revelation possible. This and many of the scenes that make up the Bible are to be experienced, not only dissected with tools of the intellect, and certainly with the ability to relinquish the sort of thinking that the current culture practices. One must take heed to try to approach the consciousness of thousand of years ago and follow its evolution from a state of experiencing phenomena or events in a pictorial manner versus our way of living in thoughts or concepts . These may well be happening in the pages of external history but they are also taking place within the consciousness of the characters. In the name Pilate there is an association to the word pillar or pile, so we see here again a deeper spiritual meaning or content behind this enigmatic name of this roman governor. When viewed esoterically Pilate is perceived as a pillar at sea – a true turning point in time where consciousness would turn in the pendulum swing from a downward decent from a spiritual body and an inward intuitive connection to nature and to spirit into a condition of physicality, of possessing a body not only of soul and spirit but of the mineral substance and its corresponding cognition that embraces materialism, back up into the realms of the spirit. The word Pillar might also bring to mind the journeys of Abraham and the wife of Lot turning to a pillar of salt as a result of a ”looking or turning back”. We see the significance of the water or the sea and now salt – a symbol for resurrection or new life – two substantial symbols are now made alive and mobile- these both being held onto by Christianity and other spiritual threads marking the process of spiritual transformation. There are many interpretations and meanings to be drawn from not only this passage but all of Genesis, Whereby it might be advantageous to approach it with a similar vantage point like that of a Philo of Alexandria. He was suited very well, indeed was trained to see the allegory within the OT – where the physical historical account, any outward forging would fall to the wayside if you will and the inner development or journey of Abraham would be expressed. Where it can be uncovered that there have been many deluges, multiple destruction’s of our earth- some more physical than others and it was Abraham who was the progenitor of a new mode of existence. Men would than carry within a novel way of perceiving, hence the pillar of salt- a boundary separating the old and the new. Many would fall into a sleep like state never to regain consciousness and life would be left to those strong enough to carry on the new way of life, to be able to use the physical brain in a way never done previously. The maternal element so often esoterically represented by the soul, symbolized by Lot’s wife was to harden- to become dull of hearing. The female instinctive clairvoyance was to fade – was to be murdered- awaiting its eventual resurrection after man’s freedom was fully realized within space and time. Christ and his trial under Pontius Pilate is not only an outward historical event but much of the richer content is found in the fact that the old earth did in fact pass away [spiritually] and this transition was marked by the death and rising of Christ. In a true and real way the world began again at his resurrection and subsequent returns up to Pentecost. The trial of the Christ both inwardly and outwardly marked a transition from east to west and in so many ways – most unnoticed – Christ comes into view, fully seen as the creator – his essence within the spiritual nature of the earth has truly made things new and one can begin to place themselves appropriately within the growing up of humanity which is so young when viewed with these revelations.

There was a very special happening occurring in the cosmos after this high spiritual being the Christ took on flesh. The spiritual world would then possess the ability to show such a beautiful development of existence, to impart the spiritual axiom found in such hermetic sayings as ‘that which is above is like to which that is below’.17 We can see that it is often the case that material happenings hide a spiritual event, that indeed behind the often assessed linear causality of life always has a spiritual cause or corresponding event. We have a historical personality Pontius Pilate who participated in the trial of Jesus but also we can see the spiritual content, the lofty initiation process of bygone humanity, what had taken place within the inner life of the initiate was on display in external form within an external historical personality as his deeds were inscribed onto the corporeal stage of the world. From this we see how reality has many sides from which it is pieced together – is sewn in spiritual tones of divine meaning.

Much is at work in the imparting of truth as forces and impulses stream from unseen dimensions and also from earthly forces and the beings that work there. In somewhat modern scholarship, a trait still present in some that do not come from any mystical or esoteric position and are actually quite materialistic but are still able still to touch on significant truths of higher order. We see in Josephine Ford’s commentary on revelation that a different John than the one that is usually thought of to have penned it could instead be the author. She proposes that John the baptist is the original author.18 It may be because she sees in the philiogoical or linguistic content used, that it indeed could have been introduced by the Baptist, and in light of this she offers her evidence to support why readers might consider that the one who prepared the ways for the lord was the same that gave the world the visions on the island of Patmos. In today’s world with regards to deeming something true, it must be this or that and we have no inkling in how spiritual truth is to be grasped, how it gets worked up in someone. We have examples of great spiritual teachers from church history that were influenced prior to their addresses to the faithful often by mysterious figures. Whereby just sitting at their feet caused intense moving of the soul where the teacher could then let loose his vision causing it’s listeners to fall as if dead. We see in the scriptures and also in our personal lives that certain tests often associated with entrances into certain ages are required before one reaches their calling.

So it happens to be on pg 28 where she begins to offer her basis for why one should consider John the Baptist as the author and by simply proposing him as the author she touches on the secret of how those not in the body, these egos or individualities can still influence those that they walked with while they were still on earth but now from much higher worlds. We can reasonably accept that both the baptist and the apostle that Jesus loved worked in tandem so to speak to procure the revelation that was given to the 7 churches. One of these more so after his beheading, as he still lived within the earth’s spiritual fabric. The apostle John would have received certain impulses from the departed ego of the Baptist instilling forces of growth that would allow him to hone his clairvoyant capacities to look upon the universe in such an exalted manner which he wrote down in the scroll. The content of the apocalypse has come about through countless streams, some more visible than others just like our own personal visions or the scenes that we often frame together and hold in such a light that we can call it the epic of our life. The apostle as a result of his esoteric education, his initiation- sought to show the logos , the creative impulse of the world manifesting itself in the cyclical rhythms of life. He understood how this mystery knowledge, the secret teachings, had to be instilled in the human race in cycles or rhythms in order to actually act as the mechanism of instilling the ability to bring the will of higher worlds into conscious human perception. What was developed in mystery temples was a language that cultivated a perception of true spiritual images, real imaginations of the unseen dimensions was developed where one could follow the cosmic word that was before all creation as it descended and unfolded its impulses in the development of the universe. These secrets were held close and never were fully revealed in writing. While there are other streams at work in the imparting of truth like that was mentioned prior, that of the baptist working in a sense directly into the apostles after his crossing of the threshold. The work that would fall under theurgic in certain circles, those that work within the fabric of the worlds that lie behind the physical. Where one works with and experiences higher beings, those human and those that wish to remain concealed to ordinary vision never desiring the experience of physical incarnation. We also have those that take these spiritual impulses, not always from the same origin and certainly not used with same end in mind, where one might use these higher impulses for social change, for the enrichment of culture, in pedagogy- for the education of the human race. This is seen in the work of Paul who was in a very true sense patiently crafted and untimely born to handle the immense burdens of what is known as the social question.

One comes to seek out and enjoy patterns in phenomena, in the occurrences with inner and external history and no doubt finds satisfaction in the world about them in a litany of ways, so the above limited, often choppy sketch was presented to attempt to show how much the life of the soul, one’s faculties of the psyche, the very things that one thinks upon so directly in fact inspire the way one feels in the world. One may not see these often unnoticed advancements in perception and in a matter of years a new world has opened. It is not always welcomed to hear that the best things in life must be waited on. This goes for those that desire to fill their soul with content that is actually living that can ignite enthusiasm. Think of the kind of life giving enthusiasm that would be kindled within society, the kind that can give real stamina to face the forces that arise in the world today if these ideas having to do with the spiritual gifts of growing up were talked about and thought upon. That indeed when I was 22 and could think that in another twenty or so years when I approach middle age that I could expect to see a certain maturing, a certain ability to be more cognizant of what goes on in my own soul thus gaining me access to the worlds of spirit. That when I do reach certain older ages that earlier cycles or rhythm of my life become available to dissect to actually understand, giving strength to continue to feel satisfaction- to be productive. When there seemed to only be suffering and uncomfortable growing pains there were ideas also present just budding, not noticed that have now become life’s clearest commodity and most prized possession. Where in one incarnation one can say in all truth that nothing is impossible with God. Life can offer one many illusions due to the very nature of our souls and this man I once knew may have experienced the temptation to fantasy, to believe in some deeper connection to a saint much like how one hears of various reincarnations of Mary Magdalene or some other influential figure. Fortunately, in no way does he place himself anywhere near a high initiate like that of Paul but he does wonder if he is in fact experiencing the birth pains of what Paul did experience which was the ability to perceive the second coming- the Parousia. For the beings that stood near his ascension told us that he would return in the same manner as he left- as he permeated the soul of the earth-much like a modern geometry could assert an image of the cyclical nature of time – the infinity of a straight line returning upon itself – as he became one with his father. This would not lead a limitless embark but would desire to return from the other side. After Christ’s departure he now remains there in the substance of spirit and soul that moves all around and weaves within us and we have to meet him in the air as Paul suggests- to come to the Christ in the worlds that sustain and transform the physical hence the warning to not look here nor there, for it is the etheric return of Christ we wait for in eager expectation.19