Gnostic Esoteric Study & Work Aids

We can try to love the Being above all else with our pride, feeling that by doing loving the Being above all else, we are above everything even above having to be concerned for our fellowman.  Sooner or later such an attitude, as it is not truly loving the Being, because it hasn't been  it will 'shoot ourselves in the foot' and that pride will turn to bitterness. To truly do this, that is love the Being above all else, is not easy, and requires first much study to understand its value and then much work to do it. Even glimpses of it are enough to appreciate its power and how it sets us free and diminishes many wrong psychological attitudes and sufferings. End (3481).

Introduction I think that to understand "to love God above all else" a bit of analysis is very helpful. This post is a practical analysis. What Happens if We Don't Love God Above All Else Let's see what happens. Two major things happen among many other smaller things.  First The first thing that happens is that in the run of loving something more than our Being we end up forgetting our Being.  As our love, our virtues, our values all come from our Being, forgetting our Being means that we stop consciously feeding those values. When we stop remembering our Being we stop sending those values back to our Being, where they are strengthened and returned by reciprocity to us a little stronger and a little more stepped up in quality. As we stop feeding those values they begin to weaken and as always when something weakens something else becomes stronger.  That something that becomes stronger at the expense of our  values is a kind of a shadow which brings many uncomfortable...

This happens to be the first commandment, that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. It is really a great wise key and a solution to so many problems, all synthesised in one simple sentence, in one commandment: "Love the Lord thy God above all else". We forget this very often or we just don't really know about it. So many things come and go in our life. If we love any one of those things above our Inner being we are going to suffer mercilessly until we decide to not suffer and love our Being above all else. This seems so strange to do right? Yet at the same time it makes so much sense. We feel like this; confused, because we do not love our Inner Being above all else yet. But we can do it. Once we do - that is love our Inner Being above all else, everything makes sense and everything can be seen in the right way and taken in the right way.  Why not, why can't we try to get there and love our Being above all else? There's nothing stopping us from trying and actually...

Live one day at a time. One day we can manage. The future we may not be able to manage looking at it. But what this day has in store for us we can manage. The future looks bleak but the day certainly doesn't. There's something quite ok about the day. All the days we have lived one day at a time put together takes us through the difficult times. To be true we only live moment by moment. We don't live the future we live the moment. Wisdom is a balm for the soul. Seek out wisdom. Read from books that express wisdom; the esoteric and human wisdom of all times. Read from Master Samael, from the masters, from the initiates, from the bible, from people who have passed though and overcome difficulties etc. etc. Wisdom is chicken soup for the soul.  Seek refuge in the interior Divinity. Go quiet and travel intimately to the inner temple. Using imagination, concentration and relaxation, stay there, blending prayer and presence in the heart temple for as long as necessary for the requ...

Master Samael makes mention of something he calls: 'the logical confrontation of the Being". When I read that I went "what does that mean?". Here is a short explanation that gives a possible way to do it. It means basically as the term suggests, to bring two things face to face or side by side. That is one thing confronts another thing. A negative state confronts a positive state for example. It is not really contrast but rather a method of combat. Contrast provokes understanding and provides light but confrontation causes one thing to back off and the other thing to come to the front. We always want a negative state or negative thing to back off in our psychology. In the sense that Master Samael mentions it, we confront the ego with the Being, or better said with the relevant quality of our Inner Being. For example, we can confront any "I" of lust with the sexuality of the Being, pride with the balance and majesty of the Being or greed with the moderation,...

The person who lacks respect due to their large pride, in their depths does not respect their inner Being.  If we do not respect our Inner Being there is no way that we are going to respect others. If we don't have respect for the Inner Being in us, that which is most dear to us, that which is at the core of ourselves, that which gives us life, light and so many other essential currents of vital value to us, that which is the Law within us, that which is the most important to us, there is no way we are going to respect something outside of us which is not as important to us as our Inner Being is.  When we respect our Inner Being we can respect others because we will be well aware that they also have a real Being like us, and that respecting their Inner Being is the same as respecting our Inner Being. Because when I respect the Inner Being of others I will use the same respect that I respect my Inner Being with. We can not give what we do not have within us. If we respect other...

There are three general responses to the genuine tests that people are submitted to. 1.) Total unawareness of the test resulting in total failure. The ego is so strong that it reacts instantly and naturally, and because the person is so asleep in the area of the test, the person consequently finds it so right and natural to act with the ego. The person may not even be aware the has taken control. 2.) What test? The person is so developed in that area that they act naturally with the essence and pass the test with flying colours. 3.) A fight. The essence knows the right thing to do but yet the ego is so strong and there is a fight between the two. The result can be passing with difficulty and some delay or the result can be failing with much remorse to be felt later. End (4038).

Here is a rough idea. Take it on board if you like, and adapt it to your nature as you feel entirely necesary. One feels the love one has, however it may be. One then looks for the quintessence of that love. Which is that part that is noble, that is: fair, pure, honest, decent and well-meaning etc. That part is not: selfish, ill-intended, tainted with the senses and sensations etc. That part may be very small but none the less there will be something of it. Then take that quintessence up to the Inner Being. Breathe in deeply drawing that quintessence up the spine through the brain and into the heart where we can then surrender it, handing it over to the Inner Divinity.    Then from the heart extend it to the person silently giving them your blessing, wishing many Divine beings and angels descend unto them, to guide them, protect them and illuminate them. End (4031).

Introduction This is an interesting teaching from Master Samael. Not a bad talk topic. So here are my notes for one day, should I give such a talk. It is good to define what a church is first of all. Obviously the word 'church' has a Christian connotation. In this talk I am going to use it broadly, in the sense of a church being a temple and people that go to that temple.  Three Churches They are the: 1.) Failed 2.) Militant 3.) Triumphant The Three Circles They are the: 1.) exoteric 2.) mesoteric 3.) esoteric Failed The failed church is that which has failed in its attempts to fulfill the real religion. Which is to take its people back to God. A long time ago it was overcome by the inferior nature and powers within man (the ego) and all that remains is a doctrine which lacks the knowledge to return to God. The failed church represents humanity at large and belongs to the exoteric circle of spirituality. That is that which is outside - an entirely outside focus. The physical bu...

There is a teaching that says that all that one needs in relation to sexuality can be taken from the Third Logos, whether we are married or single. Anything that we can think of, it can all be derived or taken from the Third Logos, whatever it may be. Meaning that all that we need in relation to sexuality can be found within ourselves. Now days so much of sexuality is taken from outside of a person. From fashion, trends of many sorts, personality, impressions from movies, from the media, from other people etc. etc. What ends up happening is that all of these outside impressions gets imitated. Comparison, rivalry, desire etc. result and one begins to find a crutch in looking outside for solving sexuality. In order to take back one's sexuality one needs a kind of isolation from all of these impressions to be able to turn inwards. Once turned inwards one can then begin to look deeper inside for that which one needs. One will find that if they look down they will be thrown outside agai...

Respect has to do with pride in many obvious and subtle ways. Respect is about knowing and seeing certain lines and simply not crossing over them.  In keeping respect there are two things: seeing the line and keeping behind the line. For there to be respect, both of these elements must be alive and active. One may respect an elderly person. By not raising one's voice at them, by not hurrying them, by not mocking them, by being patient, by listening to them etc. etc. One may respect a teaching or the opinions of others. By not criticising it. Just by letting it be and allowing practicing, nature and time to verify its truth or otherwise.  We naturally respect what has value. We naturally respect elderly people because they have lived longer and because of that they are wiser, have given more, have seen more, have passed through more, have suffered more etc. It is their wisdom and experience that often wins respect and that they have contributed more to the world than we have. T...

Karma is another word for the Law of Backlash. The way this law works is that something is in balance and then we go and do something to it and what we do unbalances it. That thing now being unbalanced, to get back into balance moves against us. It is like a branch of a tree. The tree and its branches are in a state of equilibrium. Then a man comes along and bends a branch. All is fine until he lets it go. The branch will naturally want to retake its natural position where it was in a state of equilibrium. In the process of returning to its natural state it flings back against the man hitting him in the face breaking his nose. That is the law of backlash. We do this often - trying to change the natural course of things or the way something is when it is in a state of balance. The change we make comes back against us. So often when there is karma and we try to get involved, even to help, this law of backlash applies. Why? Because the karma itself does not want to be altered, a certain p...

Here are some short points that may help you if you ever find yourself in the middle of a mental storm. In a mental storm the real priority is to get your mind quiet or be able to forget the issue! I know that it sounds totally like the worst thing to do, but it is the best. I know we believe so firmly that we must solve the issue with the mind, but that is not the best thing. I repeat that is not the best thing to try and do. So many times what we work out with the mind gets undone in seconds or contradicted so shockingly. The is to get both mind and heart to coincide and that is really done with the help of the consciousness. Anyhow, read on a bit... Persisting to be in our mind following all the different and opposing thoughts doesn't allow us to see anything that can really help us. We end up going around in circles, getting nowhere and becoming really tired and frustrated. With the mind quiet or quieter we can SEE! With the mind quieter and more at peace we can reflect properl...

Introduction Just some notes for these two lectures. All seven types of men look the same on the outside, but inside they are very different. Notes 🌟In esotericism there exists a very broad esoteric classification of human beings. 🌟This classification is the seven types of men.  🌟Repeat - it is not a human classification but an esoteric one. We all nonetheless find ourselves in one of these classes. 🌟The classes are man number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. 🌟There is a dividing line which is at man number 4. 🌟Before the work we are either man number 1, 2 or 3. The work produces man number 4, 5, 6 and 7. 🌟A person may have qualities that approach man number 4 and in fact maybe very much close what man number 4 is, but authentically man number 4 is the result of the esoteric work and is the bridge for man number 5, 6 and 7.  🌟Man number 4 knows that he or she is working to be man number 5, 6 and 7. 🌟Man number 1, 2 and 3 are: instinctive motor, emotional and intellectual. 🌟M...

We have a lot to do and we tend to want to do it all at once. But no.... The best results are when we chose something that we feel serious about and then we work on that deeply. Doing so many things all at once is a method that does not work. We get a bit worried thinking we will not be able to get all these things done. But somehow the quality of work is what counts more and helps us more and somehow we get more done than what we expect. End (4029).

What are the special magic elements that make us work seriously? Without these elements we don't really work. We work lukewarm and don't give anywhere near our best or what we are truly capable of. It is very much like the story of the Buddha, how he submerged a disciple under water and then after pulling the disciple out he asked him: "what were you thinking of when you about to drown?". The disciple replied: "air!". These magic elements are: emotion. When our emotions are touched deeply we begin to work. When are our emotions touched? When something real and of high importance to us is at stake. When we need to work to save that which is of high importance to us is when we really work.  What is of high importance to us is always what is very real and is what we take emotionally. The other magical element is need. When we really need to work because we are at the edge of the abyss or we are suffering so much then we really work. The magic of these elements ...

We all know that the answer is through the work and some of us will know that the highest payment rate is through mystical death, But that aside, lets look at some interesting points related to this.  Everything costs. Even spiritual things have their cost and require their payment. Nothing is for free. The essence pays via a very different currency. The currency of matter which is money, can not buy anything that the essence can buy. An essence can buy immortality but money will never ever buy that. Money can not buy anything of the spirit but yet the essence can pay to be awarded things of the spirit and also can buy things of the world - matter. Showing us that really the essence and the spirit are what rule over both the material and the spiritual. Human sacrifices have a value and earn capital for the essence. The effort that goes against egoical interests and is put into freeing up more essence is what counts a lot. When we are essence it does not hurt so much to pay, and it ...

One of the worst feelings that a human being can experience is after we have done something wrong and then seeing and feeling that all the doors are closed, that no way can we get back what we once had. This happens when someone falls. One is thrown out of the temple into the wild where there is 'only heard the gnashing and grinding of teeth' and one is left abandoned, thrown before the dangers of life, weak with the inner light almost out and the will of the soul taken.   Anyway if we have not done anything wrong esoterically but yet we have hurt others and we sincerely want to make amends and repair the damage, we still can. There will be a door open through which we can enter and work and make things right again. Often this door is painful. But it holds what we need to do. In any case we must find this door. Sincere prayer helps and moving our good will into making amends helps very much also. End (4026).

Another implacable law at work. If we made a person cry and we humiliated a person, one day they will see us at the hands of another seeing us to be made to cry and be humiliated. If someone made you cry and hurt you, no need to exact any revenge, just wait, at the right moment you will be compensated. Unless by the nobility of the spirit and heart you voluntarily and consciously renounce any possibility of compensation beforehand. Then you accrue for yourself some dharma. Some merit. The merit to be forgiven. End (4025).

Even if we did something and no one ever knew or no one knows now, we pay. Everything is always balanced out and accounted for.  If we did something and that would have hurt others a lot and they never knew or found out, later on we will somehow pay for it and they still may not ever know what we did but we still pay for that. Never no matter how smart or astute we are we will pay.  The Law is much more astute and clever than we are. Never can we out smart the Law, only by abiding by the Law can we outsmart it. That is have merit one day to negotiate with it. End (4024).

We all want the path, but not the trials right, not the patience, not the justice, not the suffering, not the endurance... How can we realistically expect not to suffer? Master Samael would tell us that the sufferings of the path are the most sublime moments, they are the best moments when we really get to know ourselves and we really grow! That is really why we want the path for that - to grow, to know ourselves, to change. We don't want the path to never grow or change, and at times we can't grow and change without pain. That's not the path, the path is also the trials, the difficulties, the tremendous efforts of the heart to overcome ourselves...to reach deeper for the Inner Being. In the trials the right thing to do is to practice more. To not go with that tendency to let everything go and dream away with our pain or difficulty. But turn to our Inner Being, look for Him-Her and pray, die mystically, quieten the mind, search, search and climb, climb within ourselves, gat...

There are three battles Master Samael says. Heart against heart, intellect against heart and intellect against sex. The worst is heart against heart. I'll explain a little bit why. Heart against heart is what costs us the most to resolve. Our heart divides, with forces deep in both sides coming out to battle. Both are noble and right feelings and the battle of one against the other hurts. Nobility against nobility is a fight that just should not be, but it happens in the heart against heart fight.  The worst fight to see is always two saints fighting, two mothers fighting, two priests fighting, two siblings... Because no one can understand it. Two drunkards, two criminals, two mercenaries, two boxers fighting - everyone understands that and no problems. Heart against mind is hard but not so costly. Because we know the heart holds the most noble, and it is just a process of the mind letting go and accepting the heart. Sometimes it is different, where the feeling is not very noble bu...

When the high image we have of a person is broken by their actions, we suffer moral pain. The respect, the trust, the admiration that we had for the person breaks and feeling such beautiful values in us break is what hurts. The heart hurts.  We may have done that to others. Sometimes we do something that really warrants that and we are responsible and other times we are not so responsible as it was certain concepts that they built up that were broken. We didn't build those concepts for them, but in some way we acted to help build them, so we are in a way responsible but not fully.  Bringing under questioning, bending, stretching, breaking etc. the highest values in a person is what always causes moral pain. Loyalty, trust, love... The values of loyalty, trust, love are the highest values. If we look at what Dante tells us in his book the Inferno we see that the worst crime in the world is treason and so by the law of opposites, the highest value is loyalty. One thing we should...

One drinks bitter cups. One passes through bitter moments. There are those two cups in life, the sweet and the bitter one... The gift while drinking one of those bitter cups is to be given the sudden image and feeling, like a special recollection of someone... Of someone who in the past we made suffer exactly as we are now. But only right now do we know how they suffered. before right now we scoffed and said, no reason that they should be suffering etc. etc.... This gift makes us to realise what they really felt. What bitterness they tasted at the hands of our blind self-centeredness...  This gift of bitterness of pain in the heart is a mini awakening, it makes us more conscious of how we hurt others and how a certain attitude or way of thinking, feeling and acting is indeed wrong. There comes a moment in that conscious comprehension of our errors that the shock is sufficiently strong to make us sufficiently conscious enough to not repeat it in the future. If we don't feel that in ...

Karma is more than just debts to be paid by a person or a family or a group or a nation etc. It is a power that surrounds the person, group, family or nation who has karma. It sends waves and hooks out to people who pass by.  It sends waves that impact, out to those who may help lighten the load, and hooks, to bring in those who could be good to help pay what is owed. It is also a magnetic power that attracts difficulties. It has to have these properties as a power, as it needs ways to exact what is owed. It is really an implacable power. It can be defeated and sometimes it can't be. End (4019).

We have the masters and the guru to learn from, to listen to, to respect, to obey, to be instructed by... Right? Yes right! Not: to rebel against, to not listen to, to not learn from, to not take heed of, to disrespect and to ignore... A sleeping consciousness would do that.  But if we are trying to awaken and do the best thing for our path, because they are the ones who are on the path or who have finished the path, it makes total sense to trust them and be guided by them. It does not make any sense to want the path and not listen to or disrespect or disobey those who are on the path or who have finished it! End (4018).  

Balance is always a perfect equation. Here to balance things perfectly physically is always very difficult. We often fall into doing another injustice trying to balance things physically. For example, someone gives us an apple and to balance that we have to give them the exact same apple back but that is impossible. How can we find an apple that looks the same, tastes the same, feels the same and weighs the same? Impossible right, and in trying to do that we would spend hours upon hours trying to do that. So yet balance is always done, it is always made perfect and the way it is made perfect is by the invisible component of balance. If we can't balance perfectly physically an invisible credit or debt appears in our accounts. That invisible credit or debt is what makes things just or what completes balance. So in the end we should give more than we take and even though that is unfair or unjust the invisible part of justice will work it out for us so that it becomes fair.  A teacher ...

Human beings don't really use the sexual energy for intelligent purposes. They just use it to experience sensations that's it. The very typical situation is that when the sexual centre is aroused (intentionally or unintentionally), the sexual energy becomes active and the person feels the different sensations and emotions that arise. The emotions mostly come from our psychology through interpreting the sensations and superimposing (usually egoic) thought and emotion over these interpretations that then feedback to the sexual centre provoking more intense sensation and feeling etc. Then that is it, the person just stays there. Burning or consuming energy and not experiencing much other than sensations and emotions to no real useful intelligent end.  This is an instinctive or animal use, sort of like a brute unintelligent cave-man use of  the sexual energy. One ends up in a vicious circle this way. A bit like a drug user junkie mentality.  In such a mentality one drives tow...

The tools of self-remembering which is the act of going to our centre and to highest point inside of us are meditation and prayer. There are no other tools or methods really. Any other method or tool is really a derivation of these two tools: prayer and meditation. During the day when we are busy, we can't do extended periods of meditation or prayer but we can do five minutes here and there. And this we must do to keep and strengthen our movement towards the centre, which is the central Sun in us. End (4015).

Even our emotions that we have, we have to try to lift them up an octave. That is an octave above and out of reach of any ego. To sublimate feelings is not easy at times, but at least we should try. To do it well we need to find the eternal in them. To look to find the inner Being in them or of we can't find much in them we have to take them to the inner Being. Or offer them to the inner Being to be of use to It, that is for It to take them and do something or not with them. End (4014).

Sometimes this happens at various moments, stages, events, days etc. of our life. Whatever we do, even trying to make things better and do the good, things just get worse... Why is that? Because we are covered in mud and whatever we touch we make muddy. This mud is not physical but it is energetic, it is vibration, it is subconscious, it is many invisible things... but with very tangible effects on ourselves, on others and circumstances etc. It’s just like a person has something in their eye and we have mud on our hands and we try to remove the thing and we just put mud in their eye. Making it all so much worse.  The best thing to do is to step back then clean ourselves. Once we are clean then try and do something. You'll see how much a difference that makes. Then you will discover what that mud is all about and what it does. End (4013).

There are two sides. Giving more and taking less and then there's giving less and taking more. Obviously any missionary is the one that gives more and takes less. Students take more and give less. That’s natural and normal. That is why the natural order of things is that students are respectful and listen. Students causing unnecessary trouble in a class is unfair that turns counterproductive. This because students are in the situation of receiving - to take, to learn, yes, and also in the situation of injustice where they are in debt. A person who is in debt is smart to not go against the one that he or she owes right - because the debt gets bigger. Any missionary that has the idea of giving and taking in equal amounts won't last long and any missionary that has the idea of taking more than giving won't last long either. Sometimes though a missionary can unknown to him or her take a lot more than what he or she gives. Then somehow through some means, difficulty will come to...

We have to fabricate faith. We all come with a bit of it. To get more we have to put in work. We really develop faith in difficult circumstances. In situations where we have exhausted all our human resources and we can't do anything else but put everything into the hands of a higher power. Such as God, which we Gnostics know as our inner Being and the Divine Law. We really develop faith as a power in our Divine Mother when we have fought and comprehended and separated an ego all that we can and yet it still bothers us, we then put everything that we have into our Divine Mother to dissolve it and with our faith as a power - she does work on it to definitely dissolve it. That is one of the many ways that we can develop faith as a real power. End (4011).

Somethings are only possible or can only be done while we are bathing in the qualities of our essence.  For example, while we are in trust we can do things. As soon as we step outside of that trust and self-remembering, things all close up again... well, until the karma is paid. End (4010).

Lust in the mind is just a ideas of what to do with the sexual energy. Those ideas appear because there is sexual energy and the role of those ideas is to provide a use. All those ideas are defeated with transmutation. When the sexual energy has been transmuted the ideas disappear. But still the egos that project the ideas have to be dissolved by the help of the Divine Mother. End (4009).

I have been thinking and really injustice is what we live in. Take it easy though, read on before getting upset. Justice is such a fine line. Such an exactitude. So mathematical that we have no way really of knowing if we are exactly just. We can be just with money. A mango costs $3 and we pay $3. Perfect that's justice. But if someone helped us, advised us, taught us, smiled at us, how can we pay that back exactly? We may try and we may pay back too much or too little. Anyway injustice is a huge spectrum on either side of the line of justice. On one side of the line of justice there is the negative injustice, the abuse, where we take much more than we give. On the other side there is the positive injustice, where we give more than we take. The above is something very important to know in the way we relate to justice. Really that is where we as Gnostics live. Turn the other cheek is exactly that. Mystical death is exactly that - living on the positive side of injustice. Mystical de...

To get the best out of ourselves we need to be relaxed. Tension does not allow ourselves to give or receive the best or the maximum. Once we make the conscious effort to relax we can actually come into the moment and then in the moment we bring our consciousness. Then with our consciousness closer we appreciate where we are and who we are with and we feel much more at home. This state energises us, enlivens and repairs us. If we don't relax we can't be conscious and then we are just normal, where we don't notice really where we are, we don't appreciate the significance of the place and we don't appreciate the people in front of us, and time goes so quickly and then we have to rush off again and we don't feel energized or refreshed by it. End (4007).

When it comes to sexuality or sexual energy, we get the best for ourselves when we apply inwards and upwards. Any kind of energy buzz or impulse, can be taken inward and upward. That is attention, will and imagination steering that energy inwards and then upwards. End (4006).

Moral laws in their true immutable sense can be said to be the same as cosmic or universal psychological laws.  What morality is, is the cosmic laws extending themselves into our psychology. We may also say that they are the laws of nature in our psychology (psychological reality). These psychological laws are the same that are in the physical world governing nature and in the higher worlds governing the heavens. 'As above so below' really means that the laws that govern up on high also govern the middle and the below, that is the laws in heaven also govern the psychological and the physical. There exist psychological laws, there are laws governing our psychological world. What are they? I'll start to write about them. End (4005).

Introduction The common person does not know about this at all. Yet it is so important, it answers so many things about our life.  There really exist cosmic psychological laws. Because we ignore this we are in the strife that we are in. There are really really three realities or worlds. The esoteric, the psychological and the physical. We think that only physical laws exists. But we are wrong, we are ignorant. This post talks about these laws in general and hopefully later posts will deal specifically with some of these laws.  The ignorance of these laws makes us to live an animal kind of a life. Yet we all want to live happy and wonderful lives, yet not knowing these laws of happiness, causes us to break them all the time, and happiness and beauty all become illusions. Cosmic Psychological Laws We know all about the physical laws, and sometimes, they don't really matter if we break them or not. for example, if we go through a red light it does not matter to nature at all. Nat...