Gnostic Esoteric Study & Work Aids: Notes on the Law of Sacrifice

Introduction

This post presents some practical notes about the Law of Sacrifice.

Notes

A Law

To sacrifice is actually a law, meaning that it is something that we can not get away from.

When we study life on all levels, we see sacrifice everywhere. It is not possible for there to be life without sacrifice. Life will stop if sacrifices were to stop.

Every creature to have life, and to continue living has sacrificed, is sacrificing and will sacrifice.

Every human being in their life is making a sacrifice of some kind or another. To be a parent implies many sacrifices. To be married requires sacrifices, to have a career implies sacrifices, to work or live with others implies sacrifices, to live on the land or on the sea requires sacrifices, to live in a city requires sacrifice. Everywhere we look, every way of life requires sacrifices...

Life simply would not move without sacrifice.

When we look at life we see that everything has been built upon sacrifices and what keeps things going is continued sacrifice.

It is very rare to see a great building, bridge, tunnel or system of roads and hear that no one died during its construction. If no one physically died, tremendous sacrifices of long hours, time, energy and money were made to complete the project. To build and establish something requires sacrifice.

The law of sacrifice is related to life and death. Neither can happen without sacrifice.

It is said that to start and establish the Gnostic movement Master Samael and his disciples built it on all upon tremendous sacrifices.

It seems that sacrifice is a force or a power that gives things in life a push forward. Without this push, nothing would continue and be driven to completion.

The Law of sacrifice is intimately related to many important other laws such as the Law of Octaves and Reciprocity, life and death.

Relation to Us

Sacrifice being a law of creation and the cosmos, means that every creature is called without being able to escape to relate to the Law of sacrifice just as we are all called to relate to the Laws of Life and Death.

The question as always is how do we relate to it and how can we best relate to it. This article in many ways is about just that.

We have to know that we indeed have sacrificed, are sacrificing and will sacrifice and that there is no escape to to that.

Definition

Master Samael gives the best definition that I have ever found. With this definition everything makes sense.

Master Samael says that "sacrifice is the conscious choice of one good superior to another".

Just by understanding his words we can vastly improve our relationship to sacrifice and make it more conscious and therefore beneficial to ourselves.

Kinds of Sacrifices

There are many kinds of sacrifice. This is something worth knowing about. As it helps us in relating well to the Law of Sacrifice.

There are useless sacrifices, there are effective sacrifices, there are physical sacrifices, there are psychological sacrifices, there are esoteric sacrifices, ontological sacrifices, and there are sacrifices of varying intensity from light and weak to profound and super-powerful.

We could summarise the many types of sacrifices into two categories, conscious sacrifices and unconscious sacrifices.

Physical sacrifice is where we sacrifice our time, energy, comfort, money for more something superior in the physical Psychological sacrifice is where we sacrifice our attachment to beliefs, personality, concepts and the inferior values of our psychology. Spiritual sacrifice is where we sacrifice some kind of spiritual nourishment for something superior in the spirit. Physical and psychological sacrifices can also be done for the spirit and that is commonly how many spiritual sacrifices are done. Matter is sacrificed for the spirit and the spirit sacrifices itself to help those in matter.

Magical

Sacrifice really works, it gives results. It is magic. It is a law that is very visible, we can see the preparation, of the sacrifice, the action of the sacrifice and even the results of the sacrifice. What is magic is how the results are brought about.

What makes sacrifice so magical and powerful is that sacrifice draws on and activates the power of the consciousness which is what makes it effective.

Both sides of light and dark use sacrifice, to forward the interests of good or evil. It is a force that works in any direction and in any area.

If we make sacrifices in and for physical life we receive benefit in physical life. If we sacrifice in and for our spiritual life we receive benefits in the area of that life.

Everyone sacrifices in life for matter. All the parents and those working the daily grind do. That is what really pays in life is this sacrifice.

Everything is built upon sacrifices. It is a law of this world that everything that has been established has been built upon sacrifices.

Sacrifices activate the law of reciprocity. This is in many ways the magic of sacrifice, in that a sacrifice invisibly activates the very powerful law of reciprocity. Each sacrifice is a gift that is returned by the power that the sacrifice is made for.

Sacrifice Practical Wisdom

When we are working in the spirit and are yearning for the spirit to sacrifice the spirit for our family or career is an unconscious sacrifice.

It is not a conscious sacrifice when we give all for something that is not going to take us to progress.

To sacrifice all for a person is not conscious sacrifice. The great masters sacrificed for all not for a person.

The best sacrifice is the one for the unity, whereby the unity governs all.

The key of psychological work is sacrifice. The true meaning of sacrifice is the conscious choice of one good superior to another.

When we sacrifice we are not losing anything but gaining something superior.

There can be no awakening of the consciousness without sacrifice. For to be awakened means to sacrifice interior states of consciousness for superior ones.

There is no mystical death without sacrifice. To truly die in ourselves we need to sacrifice our pain.

There is also no psychological healing without sacrificing our pain.

Intimate Christ and Blood

Sacrifice is related to blood, to the Christ within us and the Christ of the universe.

Why is it related to blood? Because it is the substance of life. Blood is the intermediary between spirit and the body. It brings and carries substances from the spirit into the body and the essence.

The greatest sacrifice is that related to life, the most precious thing of the universe. Blood is our life, breath is our life and semen is our life. Blood brings the prana and oxygen in the breath into the body and the essence.

The Christ is the great intermediary between spirit and matter just as is the blood.

It is always the middle the intermediary that sacrifices the most. Because it sacrifices itself to serve two parties. It is pulled from both directions. It is the one that has to come up after much sacrifices with the third solution that serves all.

Necessity of Sacrifice for Ourselves

Sacrifice is needed for ourselves. To allow ourselves to spiritually progress.

Sacrifice is a dynamic forward moving force.

Sacrifice will always always be needed. There will be some rest but for periods but then sacrifice in one form or another will always be needed.

When something becomes mechanical we need sacrifice to bring progress.

Sacrifice breaks stagnation.

Sacrifice is not the same for everyone.

Not all sacrifice hurts, there are sacrifices made with love and joy.

All parts sacrifice, the one that sacrifices the most is always the middle. The top and the bottom sacrifice but the greatest sacrifice is called for the middle to make.

Sacrifice is impossible without the use of will. Good-will towards to the superior is what is needed for sacrifice.

Purification is sacrifice. To purify anything sacrifice is needed.

The greater the value that we sacrifice the greater the reward.

Octaves

To ascend an octave sacrifice is needed.

In the beginning sacrifices are very physical and later they refine to become psychological and spiritual.

Observe someone in life, in the beginning starting at the bottom in order to work their way up they need to work physically hard putting in long hours and doing their job extraordinarily. Once they rise up the ranks they sacrifice more psychologically to achieve their goals. Such as being patient, being prudent, improving their integrity, their communication skills etc. Later on those psychological sacrifices become even more subtle.