“Everything seemed to have a festive radiance, the splendour of some great, holy triumph attained at last. The caressing sea, green as emerald, splashed softly upon the shore and kissed it with manifest, almost conscious love. The tall, lovely trees stood in all the glory of their blossom, and their innumerable leaves greeted me, I am certain, with their soft, caressing rustle and seemed to articulate words of love.
The grass glowed with bright and fragrant flowers. Birds were flying in flocks in the air, and perched fearlessly on my shoulders and arms and joyfully struck me with their darling, fluttering wings. And at last I saw and knew the people of this happy land. That came to me of themselves, they surrounded me, kissed me. The children of the sun, the children of their sun – oh, how beautiful they were! Never had I seen on our own earth such beauty in mankind.”
–Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Everything Occurs in Cycles and Seasons
There are always times and epochs of great progress and development and times of great degeneration. In gnostic esotericism it is said there are four ages that humanity passes through in a cyclical manner, like four seasons.
Starting in the spring season, a time where humanity is deeply connected to the divine and existing in a state of harmony, and gradually losing that connection and entering into materialism throughout the cycle.
Spring
The Golden Age, or Satya Yuga in the Vedic tradition. This is a time of great peace and unity, divinity is close to humankind and harmony reigns on Earth.
During this time the Being is present within creation and distributing himself into the consciousness, and humanity acts on behalf of the will of God. All the ancient legends and stories that describe a paradise on Earth are deep internal remembrances of the Golden Age of humanity.
Summer
The Silver Age or Treta Yuga. Because this is part of a natural cycle some degeneration begins to occur. Now instead of the Being acting directly on Earth there is just the Essence, or seed of the Being, active.
This is still a conscious humanity and what we would consider a paradise of cooperation, love, and divine influence, but there is the beginning of selfishness, pride, separation.
Autumn
The Copper or Bronze Age, the Dwapar Yuga, the consciousness sleeps more in materialism and loses touch with God and nature. Here the connection to divinity is through magic, both white and black magic, rituals, mantras, invocations, alchemy, prayers etc.
The connection to the Being is much dimmer and these tools and activities are needed to access the consciousness in its sleeping state.
Winter
The Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, which is our current Age. Here we have degeneration and disconnection from God, and a complete identification with the personality and ego. There is the pollution of earth, air, water and fire, both internal and external, and materialism, selfishness, greed, violence, and hatred rules everything.
The Iron Age is characterized by war, and nearly all of the machinery, infrastructure, and weapons are made of steel (iron). The cosmic laws are denser and reflect in denser and more complicated earthly laws that inhibit true justice and true mercy.
“All became so jealous of the rights of their own personality that they did their very utmost to curtail and destroy them in others, and made that the chief thing in their lives. Slavery followed, even voluntary slavery; the weak eagerly submitted to the strong, on condition that the latter aided them to subdue the still weaker.
Then there were saints who came to these people, weeping, and talked to them of their pride, of their loss of harmony and due proportion, of their loss of shame. They were laughed at or pelted with stones. Holy blood was shed on the threshold of the temples. Then there arose men who began to think how to bring all people together again, so that everybody, while still loving himself best of all, might not interfere with others, and all might live together in something like a harmonious society. Regular wars sprang up over this idea.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
The Iron Age Is The Time We Are Living In
Even though it may feel daunting, it is magnificent to do the gnostic esoteric work in these challenging times. The darker the times the more opportunity to work for the revolution of the consciousness.
We can more readily sacrifice with love for others because we are surrounded by physical, mental, emotional and spiritual suffering. We can die within ourselves more because we cannot escape the ego from being revealed. In these times it is difficult to pretend that we do not have desire, fear, anger, etc.
And to elevate and sublimate the sexual energy is the best because the ecstasy of upright sexuality and intact sexual energy brings an internal joy and wisdom that lights our way in the darkness.
This is how we transform our internal iron, copper and silver into gold, creating an internal Golden Age within ourselves and within our lives.
“I moved about among them, wringing my hands and weeping over them, but I loved them perhaps more than in old days when there was no suffering in their faces and when they were innocent and so lovely. I loved the earth they had polluted even more than when it had been a paradise, if only because sorrow had come to it.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man