The Gnostic God

The Gnostic God

For the Gnostic, God can be known and experienced

God is the multiple perfect unity. Described in the polytheistic religious pantheons as many gods and rulers of creation, and in the monotheistic religions as the Holy One. The Gnostics also know God as an abstract nothing, Void, the sacred unmanifestation beyond and behind creation.

God is Father, Mother, and Son. God is within. God is love

God is by definition many faceted, shown so beautifully in the Kabbalist Tree of Life. God as masculine/active and feminine/receptive is the unalterable nature of creation. The Christic princple of sacrifice constantly renews creation. 

In the Tree of Life creation is series of dimensions or vibrations. Shown at times as concentric circles, overlapping spheres, or a sequence of cascading realms, from more rarified to more dense.

God is called the Being. A translation from the Spanish el Ser, The “To Be”. Just as Thomas Aquinas did not refer to God as En Summum- “the highest being”, but as Ipsum Esse- “To Be”.

God is the verb of being, God is the verb to love. God called Himself “I am” because the truth of His existence is beyond comprehension.

Creation is how we, the created, may understand and know God

The concentric circle symbol of creation is interesting for those who engage in the internal work of the consciousness. Each nested sphere is simultaneously more interior and intimate, more subtle, and less related to anything that the mind can possibly comprehend.

Our deepest interior nature is the divine Absolute, which connects our spiritual essence to all of creation and to the void.

For the Gnostic, God is both immanent and transcendent

Our true nature, individual and intimate, needs no external intervention for a spiritual experience. At the same time, this true nature connects us to that which is universal, objective, unifying, and being comprehension.

Agnostos Theos , the unknowable divinity, is the name of the Gnostic God. The gods, archons, planetary rulers, and all other rulers of nature and creation are also Holy, but they are subject to the cosmic laws of creation.

The God one worships is the God we are attentive to. Many people worship simple desires and the things of life. Prayer may even be toward an ego. The Being is a state of consciousness, the Void is a state of consciousness.

The Gnostics do not outright reject the so-called lesser gods of creation, but strive to raise their consciousness to vibrate with the highest aspects of the Being.

 

“Each delicious symphony of the ineffable cosmos, each note, each tender melody hidden within the very pure enchantment of the exquisite fragrant roses of the gardens of Nirvana, is the living incarnation of the Word.”
-Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message

 

Commentary on the Gnostic God

Awakening and the Initiatic Path

Awakening and the Initiatic Path

Awakening the Consciousness

Awakening the consciousness is freeing the essence from attachment. When the consciousness is free it is not subject to conditioning of the mind and ego. It is not bound by the dimension of time and space. The awakened consciousness is joy, serenity, insight.

Awakening can be achieved through dedicated practices of meditation and concentration, transmutation, self-remembering, prayer, and other practices and efforts. Profound events such as the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, or having a near-death experience can sometimes shock the consciousness to awaken to the present moment.

What is important to understand, especially in the gnostic work, is the difference between awakening and walking the initiatic path. In order to progress in a balanced way we need both.

Dead Water and the Great Life

Samael Aun Weor taught about two types of awakened consciousness which he called Dead Water and the Great Life.

Dead Water is temporary awakening, temporary enlightenment, but without eliminating the cause of the sleep of consciousness.

The Great Life is permanent enlightenment, which comes from working intensely in the death of the ego, the birth of the solar faciulties, and sacrificing ourselves for humanity. In other words, walking the initiatic path.

The Initiatic Path

The initiatic path opens up when we make serious efforts to dissolve the ego and to conserve and transmute the sexual energy. This path is intimate and will look different for everyone, but the fundamental requirements are the same.

Loving and cultivating the sexual creative energy opens the doors to initiation.

Eliminating the ego frees the consciousness from attachment and brings about gradual, but permanent awakening.

Sacrificing ourselves for others with love is the momentum that propels us along the path. Without love and sacrifice the work stagnates.

Awakening Without the Path

There are many people who practice and teach beautifully about the awakening of the consciousness. But awakening is only temporary without the path.

It is very possible to awaken the consciousness for selfish reasons such as wanting to escape obligations and difficulties in our lives, feeling superior to other “unconscious” people, and desiring special spiritual powers.

Even if the motivations for awakening are sincere, if the ego is still intact the consciousness will always go back into its conditioning. There will always be that small selfish desire behind our efforts.

Without the conservation and transmutation of sexual energy we lack the necessary force to create real internal change within ourselves. The result of this can be the delusion of mistaking ourselves for awake or enlightened but still trapped in ego conditioning. The danger is in leading ourselves and others astray, and causing harm through being partially awake but still ignorant. Awakening without the path is like driving a car in an unknown country without a map or compass.

Walking the Path Without Awakening

As strange as it sounds, we can work with transmutation practices, prayer, meditation, death of the ego, and sacrificing ourselves for humanity, all with the consciousness asleep. Samael Aun Weor reminds us of the need to practice self-remembering (awakening) while self-observing (working on ourselves).

Walking the path without awakening means we are not receiving inner experiences about our initiatic process. We are not feeling deeply connected to our Being, we are not conscious in the superior dimensions, and not achieving deep states of meditation. Sleep means feeling ourselves as the personality rather than our own true reality which is the essence.

This is a difficult and sad state because we lose hope and feel only the burdens of the path without the simple joy of Being. We may become rigidly dogmatic about what we think the path is, projecting our pain onto others in judgement and condemnation. We wander in the desert without ever finding an oasis until we burn out and leave the path.

The Solution

For those on the path and working in the three factors: practice awakening. Breathe, relax, take time to find serenity and to feel the consciousness flowing through you and flowing through your life. Find your unique way of walking the path in accordance to your own Being and particular ray. There will be times when it feels lonely and deserted but keep drawing from the fountain of life within.

For those dedicated to awakening: study and work with the three factors. Learn to die to the ego so that your process is integrated. Practice humility so that you can stay grounded even as your consciousness shifts and awakens. Incarnate the solar values so that you may find the Great Life.

The Fourth Way

The Fourth Way

The Fourth Way is a spiritual path first taught by Gurdjieff and continued in the gnostic teachings of Samael Aun Weor. In the fourth way the obligations of life are the path to internal transformation. The fourth way is a path of the “householder”, where the aspirant does not take vows of celibacy or poverty, but engages in spiritual discipline and practices while performing the duties of working a job, having a family, and living among normal people. The fourth way is also called the path of the balanced human, or the harmonious development of the human.

Three Paths

Historically there were three main paths to enlightenment or internal spiritual transformation: the way of the monk, the yogi, and the fakir. All of these ways are characterized by a retreat from life and typically renouncing marriage, family, wealth, and worldly attachments. Each focuses on the development of either of the three brains: the emotions, the intellect, or the physical willpower. Each can gain certain powers, disciplines, spiritual experiences, and spiritual values, but but also have drawbacks because of a lack of balance.

The Way of the Monk

This is the way of devotion and love and develops the emotional center. Through prayer, single-pointed devotion to God, and self-sacrifice, the monk is able to experience superior emotional states and a level of communion with the divine. This way neglects the intellect and physical development so the monk may not be able to teach this path to another who does not innately feel devotional love, and there may not be a physical discipline for the health of the body. This is a path that is difficult to teach or transmit unless the disciple also feels that particular devotion strongly.

The Way of the Yogi

The path of the Yogi develops spiritual powers, called siddhis, such as telepathy and clairvoyance. Yet without humility, love, devotion, and discipline this path can become unbalanced and never incarnate the true divine values. The yogi may be well-versed in spiritual scriptures and rituals, and have some psychic powers. This way neglects the sense of spiritual surrender and emphasizes psychic powers which may or may not be used for good. It can also rely too much on intellectual knowledge and not on raising the level of being.

The Way of the Fakir

Fakir is a term for ascetics often seen in India and the Middle East who develop their will to overcome the needs of the physical body. This is the way of generating strength of will. The fakir fasts from food, abstains from sex, goes naked, lays on a bed of nails, raises their arm above their head for years. This develops willpower over the body and a certain amount of willpower in general. This way neglects any kind of intellectual framework for understanding why they are doing this, and also any devotional practice. The fakir usually proceeds in these acts from imitating other fakirs and is not able to transmit any understanding to others of what they have gained.

They may obtain a degree of willpower but cannot teach this path to others and there is often complete neglect of the development of the emotions, of devotion, humility and other psychological development.

The Balance

The fourth way balances the development of the intellect, psychic powers, superior emotions, and physical discipline. This way requires a person who is not just a householder, but a good householder, someone who can meet the requirements of a healthy normal life. This generally means being part of a community, a family, and able to work at their vocation.

Being a good householder requires a certain amount of humility, consistency, basic values of upright conduct, while responding to the constant set of challenges that life brings. When these challenges are transformed through application of the three factors and the awakening of consciousness then we are able to develop spiritually in a way that is natural and in accordance to our own inner needs.

The Fourth Way uses life as a school to awaken the consciousness, to develop, harmonize, and balance ourselves. The foundation of the spiritual path is a psychological maturity and responsibility to ourselves and others. This path teaches the techniques of meditation and transmutation to develop the basic physical willpower; devotion and prayer to access higher emotional states and have an intimate relationship with the Divine; and the development of the intellect with a coherent doctrine, spiritual discipline, and practices to awaken the latent faculties of the soul.

Lineage of the Gnostic Movement: Samael Aun Weor

Lineage of the Gnostic Movement: Samael Aun Weor

Founder of the Modern Gnostic Movement

Although still unfamiliar in the English-speaking world, Samael Aun Weor is widely known and respected as the founder of the modern gnostic movement in his native Latin America.

During his lifetime he wrote over seventy books and dozens of articles, and taught constantly, establishing gnostic centers throughout Central and South America. His writings cover a diverse range of esoteric topics, all written with his characteristic strength and conviction.

In his books Samael relates his conscious experiences in the internal worlds, and offers to the reader practical tools to achieve their own awakening. Practices include mantras, prayers, transmutation practicesrunes, zodiacal exercisesplant medicine, and dream yoga.

In recent years great efforts have been made so that his books and teachings are available in English, and there are now gnostic centers in cities all over the United States and internationally.

Many gnostic instructors today were his direct students in Mexico City where he taught until his death in 1977. The practical teachings of Samael Aun Weor continue to live through the lineage of students and teachers in schools throughout the world.

The Master

Samael Aun Weor is a Kabbalistic name. Aun Weor means “Word of Light”. Samael indicates the ego death of the man who did the internal work, and that his true Being is the archangel Samael.

Samael Aun Weor is considered a master by those who practice and live his teachings of how to work for the awakening of the consciousness. For gnostics, the master is known by their teachings.

The truth is verified by the fruits of the practices of psychological and spiritual transformation. Gnostic schools exists solely as a means to transmit these practical teachings, and through these teachings one can arrive to their own internal path.

 

Marriage and Partnership

Master Samael was married to Litelantes, a Columbian woman with a close connection to the wisdom of the indigenous people of that region. She was a spiritual master in her own right, and taught him the Jinn science- how to move the body within the fourth dimension. She also connected him to the wisdom of the native Columbian plant medicine. They had four children together and she was his partner in life and in every aspect of the Gnostic work.

“This Lady-Adept enjoys continuous consciousness and through innumerable incarnations has achieved the development and invigoration of certain occult faculties, which amongst other things, allow her to recall her past lives, and the history of the planet and its races. She has been the esoteric collaborator of the Venerable Master Aun Weor discovering the ‘states of Jinas’ mentioned by Don Mario Rosa de Luna and Arnoldo Krumm-Heller. She collaborated in the scientific investigation of the vegetable elementals, which are referred to in the ‘Treatise of Occult Medicine’
-Samael Aun Weor, Christmas Message of 1954

writing

Quotes from his Books

“The sun of truth rises in the human being and illuminates his world when he lifts his mind from the darkness of ignorance and selfishness into the light of wisdom and altruism.”
-Aztec Christic Magic

 

“Cruelty will continue existing on the face of the Earth as long as we have not learned to put ourselves in the place of others.” 
-Revolutionary Psychology

 

“Know thyself! This was written on the posterior part of the threshold of the temples of mysteries in ancient Greece. This is the only purpose of life, that the human being must know himself as a child of God, as a God himself over the Earth, so that the Earth can be transformed into a beautiful garden where liberty, equality, and fraternity is the law of love for all humans.” 
-Aztec Christic Magic

 

“The human society is the extension of the individual. Therefore, if we really want a radical change, if we want a better world, we need to change individually.”  
-The Revolution of the Dialectic

 

“Be gentle in order to listen; merciful in order to judge.”
-The Yellow Book

 

“All the diverse ideas that emerge and that make us believe that we have the necessity of something exterior in order to be happy are an obstacle for our perfection.” 
-Cosmic Teachings of a Lama

The Internal Crossroads

The Internal Crossroads

 

All things, all circumstances that occur outside ourselves, on the stage of this world, are exclusively the reflection of what we carry within us. With good reason then, we can solemnly declare that the “external is the reflection of the internal.” When someone changes internally and the change is radical, then what is external – circumstances, life – also changes.”
Samael Aun Weor

 

Everyone has an external life and a spiritual or inner life. These two lives intersect at every moment in a cross formation: the horizontal line of external and temporal life, and the vertical line of internal reality and being.

cross

Horizontal Line

What is thy life? It is a vapor, which appeareth for a little while.”
-Saint James

 

The line of life, time, external existence, kronos.

The horizontal line is time and entails all our the external actions in time. What we generally understand to be our life: we are born, have a family, a home life, are educated, go to school, have relationships, a career, all the ups and downs, sicknesses and health, social activities etc are of the horizontal line, which inevitably ends in death.

The horizontal line is not the total truth about reality, because there also exists the vertical line of being which teaches us that life is not an end in itself, the things we are looking for in life can never be found on the horizontal line: True happiness, peace, serenity, freedom.

The Tibetan Buddhist teach that life is a preparation for death. Our lives will end and we do not know when that will happen.  What does life teach us about the reason for our existence?
Is the reason for our whole existence material security, pleasure, prestige?

Vertical Line

The line of eternity, the inner world, our inner spiritual life, the line of being, kairos.

The vertical line is happening every moment and can only be found in the present moment.

The present moment is accessible through our consciousness, our Essence. We may have noticed that time moves slow in childhood and faster in adulthood. Time truly is relative, but eternity is constant.

Our inner state may be full of dissatisfaction, conflicts, worries, recurring patterns. We feel that if only the external circumstances would change then we can finally be happy. The truth is that only with an internal change can we be happy. Increasing our level of being is about valuing the content of our character or inner values. 

Everyone has a level of being, everyone has a spiritual life. That might mean a materialistic set of inner values, or a more elevated set of values, or some combination, but we all have some inner life. What might the level of being be of someone who no matter what the circumstances of suffering, can find a way to have an inner strength, to have compassion for others, kindness, generosity, patience, humility.

What might it say about the character of someone who regardless of circumstances is always miserable, selfish, putting themselves first and making everyone around them miserable? A certain level of psychological immaturity, lack of inner values, or we could say low level of being.

We all have the most immense capacity for patience, wisdom, generosity, love inside of us, but these qualities are often hidden within our own selfishness and greed. We have the light of the divine hidden within the egoic nature that the Tibetan Buddhists call the “psychic aggregates.”

We use meditation and self-observation to discover our level of Being at every moment.
Gradually we change our level of Being and our life changes.

The Cross

The cross is found in all religions, not just Christianity. Native American uses the medicine wheel with the four directions, the Mayan god Quetzalcoatl is seen carrying the cross, the Aztec, Buddhist and Hindu swastika, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the Nordic cross, the Celtic cross, the medieval and Greek alchemical symbols use the cross, even the the Taoist yin-yang symbol and the Jewish star of David are types of crosses.

The cross is a profound symbol, depicting the universal intersection of all opposing forces which cooperate in creation. The crossing of the negative charged electron with the positive proton is the basis of all matter; the interaction of positive and negative charges is what creates our world.

Time and eternity are within the cross, it encompasses up and down, heaven and hell, male and female, good and evil, active and receptive, and within the center of the cross we reflect, to find our true nature. The cross of the present moment.

The Internal Crossroads

The internal crossroads means our life in this very moment, the intersection of time and eternity. A mathematical point that does not depend on the past or the future

Practicing cultivating Being makes us live our lives very differently. We can raise our level of Being in this very moment by being present, which raises our vibration. Practice global, relaxed awareness. Not getting identified with negative emotions.

Ascending Via Sacrifice, Descending Via Attachment

One person’s transformation and inner peace can change lives all over the world.
Our lives can be guided by higher influences when we make room for them.

Viktor Frankl, a philosopher and concentration camp survivor wrote, “We who lived in the concentration camps can remember those who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread… They may have been few in number but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from us but the last of human freedoms: the freedom to choose our spirit in any circumstance.”

The inner Being is worth our attention and does not depend on the external circumstances of life.

Gnosis: the Perennial Philosophy

Gnosis: the Perennial Philosophy

“I advise you, whoever you are, who wish to explore the mysteries of nature,
if you do not find within yourself that which you seek, neither shall you find it outside.
If you ignore the excellencies of your own house, how do you intend to find excellence elsewhere?
Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures.
Oh, man, know yourself and you shall know the Universe and the Gods!”

-Inscribed at the entrance of the ancient Greek temple of the oracle of Delphi

 

Gnosis is direct knowing, direct internal experience. Gnosis is the eternal truth that elevates the human experience and brings meaning and purpose to life.

Gnosis is found within all religions, mystical teachings, philosophical systems, within the science of the Earth and stars, within medicine and healing, within art, music, and all expressions of beauty and transcendence.

The gnostic teachings and organizations exist to transmit the methods and clarify the doctrines that help each person awaken to their true purpose. To see beyond the apparent form of things and into their true nature.

Two Greek Words for Knowledge

Episto is what we learn at school or university. It is information found online, in books, the knowledge based in memorization and concepts, learned and applied exclusively externally.

Gnosis is experiential, internal knowledge, internal truth, arrived at with the consciousness.
Gnosis is beyond the thoughts and feelings, it is something natural and spontaneously arising, a hunch, an intuition, a dream, a meditation experience. But more than that: gnosis is something truly objective, of the consciousness, for the consciousness.

Gnosis is also related to the words: chan, zen, jain, jhana, yana, gnana, all indicating a certain type of knowledge, or meditation in the sense of a meditative state of mind or awakened consciousness. To really know oneself in this way takes a certain kind of effort, of learning and cultivating awareness in every moment.

Gnosis is the Perennial Philosophy

Gnosis may be associated most closely with Gnostic Christianity and the gospels not included in the New Testament, including the gospels of Mary, Thomas, Phillip, and Judas, collected in the Nag Hammadi library, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other sources. Yet gnosis is a universal teaching, a universal truth, found in all religions.

The word religion is from the term religare, “to reunite”. Religion in its truest sense is to give us a way to reunite with the divine, to reconnect with all beings, to not see ourselves as separate from everyone and everything.

Religion in this way allows us to regain our lost unity within ourselves, beyond all our internal contradictions, to reunite within ourselves and to be organized internally.

All Religions Contain the Same Essential Wisdom

Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Kabbalah, Islam and Sufism, the religions of the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Aztecs, Mayans, Nordics, Celts, etc. contain same universal wisdom but modified within that particular time, place, and culture.

All religions at their heart express the same eternal values: faith, reverence, forgiveness, compassion, remembering that which is sacred, development of the human self, of the human culture, appreciation of what is best and most beautiful in everything.

The medieval European alchemists called gnosis the perennial philosophy, the invisible thread that links the essence of all religious, mystical and philosophical pursuits.

Philosophy means to ask the big questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is our purpose? The answers to these questions have been sought as long as humans have existed, and the answers are glimpsed in all aspects of expression of the human experience.

Gnosis is an intimate and internal process, the relationship between one’s own consciousness and the truth. Gnosis then can be defined as truth. It is also ethics, because truth always points in the direction of goodness, compassion for others, sincerity. Gnosis is beauty, harmony, wisdom. We all have this gnosis inside of ourselves, accessible through our awareness, our consciousness.

The gnostic teachings are structured to bring the seeker in touch with their own inner realities, to have their own gnosis, and to understand it in the context of many mystical and religious traditions.

The Balanced Path

The spiritual path typically falls into one of three broad categories: development of willpower, of mystical devotion, or of intellectual spiritual powers. These three paths always require the seeker to abandon normal life to pursue the spiritual. They must leave family, jobs and home to live and work in an isolated way.

The fourth way is the balanced path and incorporates all these components to be able to function in normal life. The fourth way uses life as a school to awaken the consciousness, to develop, harmonize, and balance ourselves.

The foundation of the spiritual path is a psychological maturity and responsibility to ourselves and others. This path teaches the techniques of meditation and transmutation to develop the basic physical willpower; devotion and prayer to access higher emotional states and have an intimate relationship with the divine; and the development of the intellect with a coherent doctrine, spiritual discipline, and practices to awaken the latent faculties of the soul.