Trogoautoegocratic Law - (369)

Introduction

This law when studying Gnosis, mainly because it is hard to pronounce and remember name is usually put into the ‘too hard and just forget’ about basket. If we see past the name we will find a very important principle that we all actually I think anyway, will find makes good sense and is very important for our life and life in general.

Definition - Quote from Master Samael

“Since many people ignore what the eternal common cosmic “Trogoautoegocratic” law is, it is convenient to clarify the following. This great law is manifested as the reciprocating nourishment of all organisms.”

“This great law permits living interaction among the worlds. In this reciprocal nourishment of planets, in this exchange of planetary substances lies the balanced existence of the worlds around their gravitational centres. In other words, reciprocal nourishment exists among plants, animals and all kinds of species.”

“The functioning of this law would not be possible if we were to violate the equilibrium.”

Summary

So to give and take is balance, equilibrium and is within the harmony of the Universe. It is a law of creation and Master Samael says somewhere that it actually is present in the world economies and even in our own personal economy. Not only concerning money, that is what we spend and earn but in all that we give and take, even in the sphere of intentions, thoughts, affection, emotions, love and good or ill will, positive and negative.

If we take we have to give otherwise we will violate the balance and we will be forced at some later time to give! That is the law!

The egos in us that are ignorant of this law are the ones that violates this law.

End (369).

9th Circle – Neptune – 864 Laws - (368)

Traitors

After passing over the tenth or innermost concentric bolgia or ditch of the eighth circle Dante and Virgil arrive at the centre of the eighth circle to find a great well or pit. At the bottom of the pit is the ninth and final circle of hell, named Cocytus. Dante discovers that inside the pit are the giants and titans of the past standing guard over those in the ninth circle. Virgil persuades on of them to take them both down into the ninth circle.

The ninth circle is a huge frozen lake where those who were treacherous to those whom they were bound by special ties are fixed frozen in the lake. Dante describes the lake as having four concentric circles which represent four classes of treachery.

The four classes of treachery:

1.            Caina                     (those who were treacherous against the members of own their blood)

2.            Antenora             (those who were treacherous against their country)

3.            Ptolomea             (those who were treacherous toward their guests and friends)

4.            Judecca                 (those who were treacherous toward their masters)

At the very centre of the ninth circle Dante and Virgil find Satan or the Typhon Baphomet and they climb down his hairy back to leave hell.

Caina

The first circle of Caina is named after Cain who slew his brother Abel. Those in the circle of Caina are those who betrayed members of their own blood. They have their necks and heads out of the ice and can bow their heads to avoid the freezing gale and allow their tears to fall without freezing their eyes shut.

Antenora

The second circle or round of the ninth circle is Antenora named after Antenor who was believed to have betrayed troy, his city to the Greeks. Those in this circle are those who betrayed their country. They have their heads and necks above the ice but can not bow their heads.

Ptolomea

The third circle or round of the ninth circle is Ptolomea named after Ptolomaeus of Maccabees who murdered his father-in-law at a banquet. Those in this circle are those who betrayed their guests or were treacherous toward hospitality. They have their heads half frozen in the ice and their tears freeze in their eyes sealing them shut. The comfort of tears is denied to them. Here Dante says that this type of treachery is so grave that those who commit it are sent straight away to this circle even being alive. Their bodies remain on earth living but inhabited by a demon.

Judecca

Judecca is the last round or circle of the ninth circle and is named after Judas Iscariot, those who betrayed their masters. They lie distorted in very painful positions and completely frozen and sealed in the ice. They can not speak.

In this round is also Satan himself fixed to the ice at a position where all the rivers of guilt meet. He is there beating his wings trying to escape but the wind from his wins freezes him further to the ice. He has three faces, each with a different colour and each mouth there is someone being ripped constantly by his teeth. Judas Iscariot is in the centre mouth, Brutus and Cassius in the other two mouths.  

Summary

Before reading this from Dante and Master Samael I didn’t really think that treachery was so bad. But thinking about it, it certainly really is. It is the maximum of going against something or someone and it is so ungrateful because in all the cases of treachery, the person who betrays is actually receiving many benefits including the benefit of trust from the party that he or she betrays.

I think that it is not treachery when we you betray the party that who belong to because they are going to do something very wrong. That is rather tricky if you do it and they do not know about it, that is a form of treachery but on the other hand you are working for a greater good. Certainly if you tell them before you do it, I think that it is not treachery. It is amazing how speaking, that is just a couple of words can change the whole situation from something belonging to the 9^th sphere to something belonging to the 5^th or 7^th sphere.

End (368).

8th Circle - Neptune - 768 Laws - (367)

The Fraudulent, the Seducers and the Flatterers

Dante and Virgil walk beside a boiling blood-red rill or stream that flows from the woods of suicide and across the burning plains of the seventh circle to a great cliff where at the bottom of the cliff begins the eighth circle.

While on top of the cliff Virgil commands Dante to drop a chord he had around his waist over the edge. There answering this signal comes the Geryon, the monster of fraud. Dante and Virgil jump onto the back of the Geryon and the Geryon flies them down to the eighth circle.

The Geryon had an innocent face yet a body of a reptile. Its back, arms and chest were all very hairy and it had a tail with a stinger like a scorpion. Tradition says that Geryon was a Spanish king that Hercules killed so to acquire his cattle. However tradition, gives another later version of the Geryon, as being a murderer and thief of strangers whom he lured into his realm thus defrauding his guests.

Dante gives the eighth circle a name Malebolge which means the evil ditches. Dante describes the eighth circle as being a great circle of black stone that is like an amphitheatre with ten concentric ditches. Each ditch represents a type of fraud and where souls who in life where guilty of that type of fraud reside. 

First Bolgia (Ditch) – The Panderers and Seducers

The panderers and seducers are in the first ditch from the top of the eighth circle. They have been assembled into two files where demons with large horns whip them so to keep them moving in a fast walk without rest. As these souls drove others in life for their own purposes they too here are driven against their own will.

Second Bolgia (Ditch) – The Flatterers

In the second ditch Dante finds the flatterers immersed in a river of excrement. One of those in this ditch said to “Down to this have the flatteries I sold the living sunk me here among the dead.”

Third Bolgia (Ditch) – Simoniacs

Dante finds here in the third ditch the Simoniacs, those who sold church offices and favours for money. This ditch or bolgia is lined with tube like holes where the souls that reside have been placed into the holes head first with the soles of their feet sticking out and on fire. The more guilty they are the more intense is the fire on their feet.

Fourth Bolgia (Ditch) – Fortune Tellers and Diviners

Dante finds in the fourth bolgia the fortune tellers and diviners. They have their head turned backwards 180°, so that they only look back and never forward. Their eyes fill with tears and they are compelled to endlessly walk backwards. As they tried to look forward in time by forbidden means (sorcery) which is against God they have their body deformed only to look backward and not even see in front of themselves.

Fifth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Grafters

Dante finds in the fifth bolgia the grafters. Who are those that trafficked with justice and abused their position as senators and magistrates. They are immersed in boiling tar, and demons stand over them ready to tear at them with claws and grappling hooks if they rise their head out of the tar. Being immersed in tar out of sight could be symbolic for the fact that all their dealings were hidden and behind closed doors. The hooks and sticky tar could indicate how the grafters were in life always trying to get their hands onto things so to corrupt.

Sixth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Hypocrites

Dante finds in the sixth bolgia the hypocrites. They march endlessly in a circle following a narrow track wearing robes similar to a monk’s habit. The habits are golden on the outside and lead on the inside. As the hypocrites appear to shine and even appear holy, their robes are golden on the outside and dark on the inside as is typical of a hypocrite. Their lead robes could symbolize the heavy debt that their deception has on their conscience and which they must pay.

In this ditch Dante and Virgil find Caiaphas, who is nailed to the ground with three stakes and in such a position that every hypocrite has to step on him. As he was the chief hypocrite, being the high priest and yet advised the Pharisees to crucify Jesus the Christ. 

Seventh Bolgia (Ditch) – The Thieves

Dante finds in the seventh bolgia the thieves. They are in a ditch filled with reptiles. The snakes coil around them binding their hands behind their back. Other reptiles move through the air and scurry through the ditch. Dante and Virgil see one reptile fly and pierce the jugular of one of the thieves. The thief bursts into flames and burns until only ashes remain, and then with great pain the thief resuscitates, only for it to happen again later.

The act of thievery is reptile like in nature – quiet and astute, so reptiles are the elements that punish those who were thieves. Because the hands are the main instruments of a thief the reptiles bind them, and as the thieves destroyed their fellowmen by making their belongings disappear over and over again their own body is made to disappear over and over again and only be returned to them with much pain.   

Eighth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Evil Councilors

Dante finds in the eighth bolgia the evil counselors, who in this ditch are hidden in great flames. They were the ones who abused the divine virtues for lower purposes. As they conducted their activities in hiding, they too are hidden from plain sight and as their tongue was the instrument that damaged the most they are continuously tormented by being licked by tongues of fire. Dante finds there Ulysses and Diomede who together planned many strategies which contributed toward the fall of Troy. That is why they are in a joint yet divided flame, to perhaps symbollise their joint guilt and to show that sooner or later a union made for the purposes of evil will split or break.

Ninth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Sowers of Discord

Dante finds in the ninth bolgia the sowers of discord. There a blood covered demon wielding a huge sword mutilates all those there in the ninth bolgia. As they divided and made schisms among things that were meant to be united they are divided (mutilated). They are compelled to drag behind them mutilated parts to have them heal and when meeting the demon again only to have them cut off again.

Dante classifies those in this ditch into three classes. Those who were the: sowers of religious discord, sowers of political discord and sowers of discord among kinsmen. There is one there that in life had separated father from son and has his head cut off and carries it by the hair.

Tenth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Falsifiers

Dante finds in the tenth bolgia the falsifiers, which he describes there being four classes of. The falsifiers are surrounded by all sorts of decay, stench, disease, thirst, darkness and filth everything  that afflicts the senses. 

The four classes of falsifiers:

1.            The Alchemists (the falsifiers of material goods)

2.            Impersonators (falsifiers of personal identities)

3.            Counterfeiters (falsifiers of money)

4.            False witnesses (falsifiers of words)

The alchemists suffer from all sorts of diseases, the impersonators run constantly seizing others and being seized by others, the counterfeiters suffer many a manner of diseases compounded by an intolerable thirst, and those who bore false witness suffer by fighting among themselves exchanging blows and words.

Summary

Neptune is the circle of fraud. Reading through what Dante said about this circle one gets quite scared. Partly because fraud is very common today in our society, it seems now with the internet that fraud is even more prevalent. We even may find ourselves while reading this post a little bit guilty of some of these frauds to a very minor degree. Well certainly in my case anyway, concerning flattering, hypocrisy and discord.

Well it is just goes to show that we really have to think twice about fraud because it is quite a heavy, it is the second deepest circle in the abyss. It is does harm always to others and this harm is what we usually underestimate and don’t believe that others should suffer because of our fraudulent actions.

End (367).

7th Circle – Saturn – 672 Laws - (366)

The Violent

Dante and Virgil scramble down an escarpment and enter the seventh circle of hell. There they are menaced by the Minotaur and once again Virgil successfully wards off the danger. Further on, they encounter the river of blood which marks the first sub-circle or round of the 7th circle.

The seventh circle has three rounds or sub-circles which are for:

1.            Those who were violent towards others.

2.            Those who were violent towards themselves.

3.            Those who were violent towards God.

In this circle Dante encounters many that he knew even his old tutor Brunetto Latini who was there because of having committed sodomy. There we find, Master Samael says: writers, many learned men and even doctors.

First Round – Violence Towards Others

In the first region Dante and Virgil encounter those who were violent against their neighbours, war mongerers, cruel tyrants, assassins, soldiers etc. all those who shed the blood of their fellowmen and lived off the blood of their fellowmen. As they wallowed in blood they are immersed in boiling blood according to the degree of their guilt. Alexander the great is there immersed in blood upto his eyebrows. Centaurs guard the river and shoot anyone with arrows who tries to rise up out of the river of blood more than what is allowed. The arrows symbolize the anger that those souls strengthened in their psychology. 

Virgil manages to win a safe passage over the river of blood from Chiron the leader of the centaurs. Chiron orders a centaur Nessus to take them across the river of blood.

Second Round – Violence Toward Oneself

After taking Dante and Virgil across the river of blood Nessus leaves them at the edge of the wood of the suicides. Here they find those who committed suicide, those who destroyed their own substance.

The souls who committed suicide are sent by Minos to this region as a seed that grows into a tree whose leaves are constantly eaten by harpies (witches with bird bodies). As the harpies eat the leaves of the trees blood flows from the trees and only when the blood flows can the souls speak. As they destroyed their bodies they are denied human form and as the maximum expression of their life was self-destruction they can only speak or express themselves through their own destruction or wounds (blood and pain). The Harpies in Greek mythology were those who defiled and destroyed all that they touched so it is apt that they are the ones who harm those who committed suicide. 

While in the wood of the suicides Dante saw two famous squanderers and destroyers of goods that are chased by hounds and are overcome and ripped to pieces, with the hounds carrying off their limbs in their teeth. This is the punishment for those who commit suicide destroying their own flesh.

Third Round – Violent Towards God

Dante and Virgil find a great plain (desert) of burning sand upon which descends a continual slow rain of fire. There blasphemers those who were violent towards God are stretched out on the sand, the sodomites those who were violent towards nature run in endless circles and the usurers those who were violent towards art huddle in a group on the sand.  

The burning plain with raining fire symbolizes that blasphemy, sodomy and usury are all unnatural and sterile actions, as sterile as the desert. The burning of the sand represents the punishment from nature (below) and the fiery rain represents the punishment from God (above), where normally rain should be cool and refreshing, it is instead against them as they were against God.

Summary

Extraordinary, Saturn is the circle of violence, where all that goes against the correct order of things in relationships is prevalent.. This region is all about cutting, disintegration and breaking down.

There are three basic relationships, they are the one between us and others, the one with ourselves and the one with God. Relationships must be cultivated and strengthened using good will and love. When the opposite of these two qualities are present then we begin to break down relationships and align ourselves with this circle. Very importantly if we approach and act with good will and love in all three of these types of relationships we will travel far from this circle of Saturn and be more e and more immune to its influence.

End (366).

6th Circle – Jupiter – 576 Laws - (365)

The Heretics (Atheism and Materialism)

Before the gates of the city of Dis are opened to them, “three hellish and inhuman Furies”, “bloodstained and wild” whose “limbs and gestures hinted they were women” called Medusa from a tower to come and turn Dante and Virgil to stone. Virgil held Dante’s eyes closed until the danger had passed. These “three hellish and inhuman Furies” are the three furies or the three traitors. Virgil identified each fury by name as is common in every esoteric tradition; the three furies or traitors always each have a name. 

Once the gates of the city of Dis are opened by an Angel, Dante and Virgil enter the sixth circle and there they see the landscape like a cemetery littered with tombs of various sizes. Each tomb is like a barrel made from iron that is heated red hot by fires that abound in that region.

Here in this region Dante and Virgil encountered the atheists and the heretics. Specifically those who taught that the soul dies with the body and so they themselves as a soul, are laid in a grave for dead. The tombs also symbolize the passions, prejudices and limitations of those in this region.

Also present in this region are the great legislators of history and the tyrants, who governed with tyranny and only complicated and harmed humanity.

Conclusion

There are certainly people that believe that when their body dies they will cease to exist as well. These people do not know that they are primordially an essence that can not be lost or destroyed and has no ending.

Dante shows us here how negative such a belief really is and furthermore how negative it is to teach that to others.

Also it explains why we suffer so much when we identify with our body and our personality. We may actually descend to a very deep place in our own abyss and we get connected with quite a deep circle within the abyss of the planet as well.

End (365).

5th Circle – Mars – 480 Laws - (364)

The Wrathful & Sullen (Melancholic)

In the fourth circle Virgil and Dante come across a black, bubbly spring that has formed what is called the marsh of Styx. The marsh of Styx is the fifth circle which is the last region of upper hell.

Styx is a Greek word meaning hatred and sadness.

In the black slimy marsh Dante and Virgil see souls fighting, attacking and ripping at one another. These are the souls who were overcome with anger.

Below the marsh is another region similar to a sub-region of the fifth circle. There reside the souls of the sullen or the melancholic, who were not happy in life under the sun but instead were sad and sullen when they should have been happy. They say “Sad were we in the air made sweet by the sun, in the glory of his shining our hearts poured a bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun, sullen we lie forever in this ditch.”

Anger, arrogance and sadness are the characteristics of this circle.

Dante and Virgil encounter Phlegyas the boatman of Styx. Virgil commands Phlegyas to take him and Dante across the marsh. Phlegyas does it and leaves them at the gates of the city of Dis. 

They are barred entrance into the city of Dis, and it is only by the help of an Angel that the gates of the city are opened to them. The entrance into the city of Dis represents the entrance into the lower and deeper regions of hell. The rebellious angels guard the city of Dis.

Notes:

Dis is the name for Pluto the King of the underworld. The first five circles are the upper regions of hell and the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th circles of hell are within the walls of the city of Dis.

Phlegyas was the mythological king of Boetia and son of Ares. He had a human mother, and angry at Apollo who had seduced his daughter, he set fire to Apollo’s temple at Delphi.

Summary

Dante shows us here that the states of anger are very heavy and can take us rather deep into our own abyss and the abyss of nature. Dante passes on a revelation here to us that when we should have been happy and we were sad and melancholic we even though we were not angry we incur some sort of punishment or karma for that and it is actually in its depth a type of anger that is really quite heavy and negative, even more negative that being visibly angry it seems according to Dante.

End (364).

4th Circle – Sun -384 Laws - (363)

Spendthrifts and Misers

In the fourth circle Dante and Virgil see something like a nation of souls divided into two parties. Where both parties heave and roll huge stones at one another, to only then roll the stones back towards themselves and then against each other once more, endlessly repeating the same.

One party is the hoarders and the other party is the wasters. The wasters shout “Why do you hoard?” and the hoarders shout “Why do you waste?”. They do this continuously without pause.

Dante sees that some of the hoarders were members of the clergy and that they are all so dim and without light. This is because excessive hoarding or squandering is a tremendous bottling of the consciousness and a denial of the light that will allow them to see their predicament. For example, gamblers lack the light to see that their squandering will lead them to complete ruin, and hoarders don’t see that they will die a lonely miserable death and will leave all their precious belongings behind. In fact many hoarders become so reclusive that they have no one to benefit when they die.   

  

Eternal Conflict

Hoarders and squanderers become so fixated in their position being a hoarder or squanderer that one can not understand the other, thus the eternal conflict between them. The clash of stones indicates that the extremes of both sides meet together in misery. The squander becomes the beggar and the hoarder becomes the lonely recluse. The heavy stones symbolize the effort and hard work both sides make to maintain their activities.

The mistake or error of the hoarders and misers is that they didn’t manage their goods with balance.

Plutus

Virgil and Dante are menaced by Plutus, however Virgil successfully silences him. Plutus is the Greek God of wealth and presides over this circle, see the image below.

Summary

“After deeply analysing this issue, we must solemnly state that squandering is as absurd as avarice. Within the common cosmic “Trogoautoegocratic” process we should always remain balanced. It is clear that the violation of the law of equilibrium brings painful karmic consequences.”

“The particular economy of each person, what each person earns and spends, etc also belongs to the great eternal common cosmic Trogoautoegocratic law.”

End (363).

3rd Circle – Venus – 288 Laws - (362)

The Gluttons

There in the third circle Dante and Virgil find a region where a putrid black snow, hailstones and rain, form a refuse-like icy slush on the ground. The souls in that region lie in the icy refuse-like slush all swollen and inert while the guardian of that region Cerberus the three headed dog, rips and tears at them with his teeth and scratches them with his claws.

This is the region of the gluttons, who abused food and drink and only produced “garbage and offal”. Here they lie in an icy slush like the refuse they produced in life and here Cerberus slavers over them as they slavered over food.

This circle is the antithesis of the heaven of Venus. The barks of cerebus represent the “violent animal sexual passions that are Luciferian and out of control”. The orgies, insatiable gluttony and drunkenness are the characteristics of this circle.

After all pleasure comes pain and bitterness, and the tears produced by this pain is symbolized by the rain that constantly falls.

Summary – Questions to V.M Samael

“Q: “Master, can you tell us what the bacchanalia and orgies in the third Dantean circle or subterranean region of Venus are like?

A: “Ladies and gentlemen, such a question makes me remember the days of my youth. At that time, I also joined the great sparkling feasts. I was right in the midst of the revelry and feasting, in the midst of carousing and orgies. Afterwards, there was bitterness, pangs of consciousness, and similar feelings.

After one of these feasts, I was taken to the third Dantean circle. I was conscious and clothed in my astral body. I sat at the head of the table of destiny at the feast of the demons. Grievous beauty of great materiality, the memory of which moves the inmost fibres of my soul. The table was full of bottles of liquor and filthy viands specially for gluttons. In the centre of that table was a big tray with a pig’s head displayed on it. I was terrified before that macabre feast; I was horrified and in pain as I saw that place of orgy.

Suddenly, everything changed. My divine Real Being, my Intimus, that angel of the Apocalypse of Saint John, who has in his hands the key of the abyss, gripped one of my arms and dragged me, as if by magic, out of the room. He threw me onto a white mortuary sheet that was on the disgustingly filthy floor and whipped me with a big chain. At the same time, he said, “You are my Bodhisattva, my human soul, and I need you to give the message of the new Age of Aquarius to humanity! Will you serve me or not?” Then, my heart was moved. I answered, “Yes Lord, I will serve you. I repent forgive me.”

That was what happened, friends. That’s how I started to abhor liquor, feasts, gluttony, drunkenness, and similar things. The only thing that can come from all that filth is tears, symbolized by the rain of that horrible region, those pestilent waters of bitterness and horrible mud of misery.”

End (362).

2nd Circle – Mercury - 192 Laws - (361)

The Carnal - Lust

There in the second circle Dante finds Minos the semi-bestial judge whom the souls of the deceased come before. The souls of the deceased confess all to him and he then decides which place in hell the soul is to go to. Minos then curls his tail around himself a number of times, where the number of turns is the region the soul must descend to.

Hurricane Like Winds

As Dante and Virgil move through the second circle they encounter terrifying hurricane like winds which sweep up, spin and drive the souls without the minimum rest through the airs of the second circle. The souls swept by the tempest like winds are also black with passion.

The souls are punished in this way for having abandoned their reason to the tempest of their carnal passions. So they are swept up and driven here and there by the tempests of the second circle.

Lust

Lust is the major characteristic of the second circle. In this region are all the souls who lost themselves in their passions and in the pleasures of their senses. There are also those who were adulterous, Dante even calls and speaks with an adulterous couple (Paolo and Francesca) and seeing their pain he faints.

Punishment

Here the souls are punished for the various types of sins of incontinence (indulgence of the senses) which was represented by the she-wolf in the dark forest. The murky air in this region is symbolic of the clouding or abandoning of reason to the senses and the hurricane like winds are symbolic of their lust.

Summary

Master Samael says that within the human being is the fight between sex and brain and when sex wins there is the abandon of reason.

“The original sin is definitely fornication, and this is the foundation of the involutionary waves of the infernal worlds”.

“Clearly, inhabitants of the subterranean regions are never free of lust and suffer frightfully. We must specify, however, as does Virgil’s disciple, that certain defects that we carry within us are more evident in particular circles or infra-dimensions.”

End (361).

1st Circle – Moon-Prechamber of Hell – 96 Laws - (360)

Introduction

After crossing the river Acheron Dante and Virgil stand on the brink of hell where Dante sees hell as a circular funnel shaped bottomless pit with a series of ledges. These ledges, nine in total, are the Dantean circles. 

Limbo

Here Dante finds the souls that were sinless, however they are here because they were not baptized. Dante after passing through a citadel finds on a green meadow a group of souls surrounded by a radiant dome of light. He discovers that they are the great noble souls of the poets, philosophers, heroes, artists and scientists of history. Virgil says “The signature of honour they left on earth is recognized in Heaven and wins them ease in hell out of God’s favour.”

Purpose of Limbo

The first circle is the famous limbo or Orco where the shadows of the deceased reside. Here all the caves of the earth are astrally connected. Here the souls of the deceased reside until they are given a new body and life on the surface of the earth. If, however they have used up all of their 108 lives they descend further into the abyss.

Summary

In the vestibule of hell is the river Acheron and the ferryman Charon, who ferries the souls of the deceased into hell. ‘Acheron’ comes from the Greek meaning the river of pain. Once the river Acheron is crossed, begins the first circle of hell.

End (360).

The Vestibule of Hell - (359)

The Gate to Hell

Before entering the Vestibule of hell Dante and Virgil must pass through the gate of hell, and inscribed in stone above the gate is the following:

“I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.

“I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.

I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.

SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.

I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,

PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.

ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR

WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.”

After passing through the gate Dante asks Virgil about the inscription above the gate: “Master what is the meaning of this harsh inscription?” And then as initiate to novice: “Here you must put by all division of spirit and gather your soul against all cowardice. This is the place I told you to expect. Here you shall pass among the fallen people, souls who have lost the good of intellect.”

The Opportunists

In the vestibule of Hell, Dante encounters the opportunists, “those souls who in life were neither for good nor evil but only for themselves. Mixed with them are those outcasts who took no sides in the rebellion of the Angels. They are neither in Hell nor out of it. Eternally unclassified, they race round and round pursuing a wavering banner that runs forever before them through the dirty air; and as they run they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets, who sting them and produce a constant flow of blood and putrid matter which trickles down the bodies of the sinners and is feasted upon by loathsome worms and maggots who coat the ground.”

“They took no sides, therefore they are given no place. As they pursued the ever-shifting illusion of their own advantage, changing their courses with every changing wind, so thy pursue eternally an elusive, ever-shifting banner. As their sin was a darkness, so they move in darkness. As their own guilty conscience pursued them, so they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets. And as their actions were a moral filth, so they run eternally through the filth of worms and maggots which they themselves feed.”

Summary

In the vestibule of hell is the river Acheron and the ferryman Charon, who ferries the souls of the deceased into hell. ‘Acheron’ comes from the Greek meaning the river of pain. Once the river Acheron is crossed, begins the first circle of hell.

End (359).

The Descent into the Inferno - (358)

Introduction

On the brink of the descent into hell, Dante is overwhelmed with fear. Virgil says to him "I understand from your words and the look in your eyes,” “your soul is sunken in that cowardice that bears down many men, turning their course and resolution by imagined perils”.

Fear of the Abyss and Trust in the Divine

Virgil explains how Beatrice was sent from heaven by the prayers of the Virgin Mary (Divine Mother) and St. Lucia (divine light) to ask Virgil to help Dante out of their concern for him. Virgil says to Dante “Why do you lag? Why this heartsick hesitation and pale fright when three such blessed Ladies lean from Heaven in their concern for you and my own pledge of the great good that waits you has been given?”.

Conclusion

This is our situation, we feel fear for the work in our own abyss, why? Perhaps out of a certain skepticism or distrust in our divinity, we think out of ignorance that our Being may not perhaps want self-realisation and that it won’t happen, and because of that we do not allow ourselves the courage that we need to descend and face our own abyss. By thinking negatively in that way – that we don’t have the support of our Being or that we don’t trust that the support of the Being will reach us, we don’t allow the work and the Being to have their full effective power in us so as to help us.

End (358).

Outline of the Structure of the Inferno - (357)

Introduction

The objective of this post is to lay down an outline of the various levels and features of the Earth’s inferior regions. Seeing this outline will allow you to put the posts that are to follow into perspective.

Outline

The inferior regions of the Earth are structured according to Dante and Master Samael in the following way:

·         The Descent

·         Vestibule of Hell (Opportunists)

·         1st Circle – Moon-Prechamber of Hell – 96 Laws (Limbo)

·         2nd Circle – Mercury – 192 Laws (The Carnal – Lust)

·         3rd Circle – Venus – 288 Laws (The Gluttons)

·         4th Circle – Sun -384 Laws (Spendthrifts and Misers)

·         5th Circle – Mars – 480 Laws (The Wrathful & Sullen (Melancholic)

·         6th Circle – Jupiter – 576 Laws (The Heretics (Atheism and Materialism)

·         7th Circle – Saturn-672 Laws (The Violent)

o    First Round – Violence Toward Others

o    Second Round – Violence Toward Oneself

o    Third Round – Violent Towards God

·       
  8th Circle-Neptune-768 Laws (The Fraudulent, the Seducers and the Flatterers)

o    First Bolgia (Ditch) – The Panderers and Seducers

o    Second Bolgia (Ditch) – The Flatterers

o    Third Bolgia (Ditch) – Simoniacs

o    Fourth Bolgia (Ditch) – Fortune Tellers and Diviners

o    Fifth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Grafters

o    Sixth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Hypocrites

o    Seventh Bolgia (Ditch) – The Thieves

o    Eighth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Evil Councillors

o    Ninth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Sowers of Discord

o    Tenth Bolgia (Ditch) – The Falsifiers

·        
9th Circle – Neptune – 864 Laws (Treachery)

o    Caina (treachery against family)

o    Antenora (treachery against country)

o    Ptolomea (treachery against guests and friends)

o    Judecca (treachery against Masters)

Conclusion

Each post from here onwards will describe each of the Earth’s inferior regions with as laid out in the outline above. The descriptions come from Dante and Master Samael.

End (357).

The Dark Wood of Error - (356)

Worldliness

Midway through his life (35 years old) Dante woke up to find himself alone in a dark forest. This forest symbolizes worldliness with all its passions and vices. Dante recounts that he being “so drugged and loose” with sleep entered that forest after deviating from the ‘true way’ - the path.

Leopard, Lion and She-Wolf

Dante searching for light, saw at the end of the dark forest a little hill glowing with light. As he began to climb the hill he was confronted by three savage animals: a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf, who symbolizing human weakness blocked his way and prevented him from climbing further.

She-Wolf

The she-wolf was the animal that drove him to despair the most, she was also the one that he could not surpass. To his aid came Virgil who offered to show him the way back to the light, which is the long, narrow and straight way of the Christ.

Leopard and Lion

Note, the three animals are symbolic, the leopard symbolizes malice and fraud, the lion violence and ambition and the she-wolf incontinence (lust, fornication, gluttony etc.). These three animals represent the broad structure of the infernal worlds.

Virgil tells Dante that he will lead him through the abyss where he will later ascend to the heavenly light. There is no remedy other than descending into the 9 regions of hell (the abyss) in order to ascend.

Conclusion

Dante at this point has not yet started his Epic journey through the inferno of the Earth and then to the Earth’s Heaven. This part of his book “The Inferno” is to inform us of how one deviated from the path and the obstacles that one finds. This was a stage at the very beginning of his path, perhaps before he began his initiations.

We say this based on what Master Samael says about Dante, in that he was an initiate and his trilogy the is really an initiatic text or map of the initiatic path left behind for the benefit of humanity or those amongst humanity that can understand it.

End (356).

Heaven and Hell are for the Psyche - (355)

Certainly not for the Body

Certainly heaven or hell are not for the body. The body dies and becomes dust but the psyche lives on. Neither is evolution and involution for the body they are for the psyche as well.

Our Psyche has a Weight

What is really determinant in us is the atomic weight of our psyche. If our psyche weighs down from heavy and strong psychic aggregates or elements and heavy karma our psyche can not go up so easily. It has a very great tendency to slide downward to the heavier regions of nature which atomically are similar in nature and have the same weight.

The lighter our psyche the more essence and less karma we have and so our psyche can levitate the to the superior regions of nature.

Basically though heaven and hell are all in our psyche when awe are very angry and upset we are heavy in our psyche and we are close in vibration to the inferior regions of nature. Because of that we mechanically and by the laws of physics and nature our psyche descends there.

Conclusion

The secret of the abyss is that it is Physics it is law and each inferior region of nature has a certain nature and a certain weight and because of that a certain gravitational attraction for elements of a similar nature and weight. As the regions of nature outside of the physical are not for the body something in us expressly our psyche gravitates or levitates to these regions.

End (355).