Did anyone catch that I skipped the Angel of the Evening on Day Four and rushed into Day Five?  Ooops!

It was easy for me to see the correlation between the morning (physical or natural) and evening (spiritual) angels up to day four: Sun and Power, Water and Love and Air and Wisdom.  I’ve been a bit challenged with the pairing of Day Five: Earth and Eternal Life. I’ll leave you to contemplate the connection; I have some thoughts, but will post those later (if I remember!)

So, the Angel of Eternal Life….  Here are excerpts from the shorter writing:

“… The Angel of Eternal Life,
Who brings the message of eternity
To man.
…. Do not wait for death
To reveal the great mystery:
If you know not your Heavenly Father
While your feet tread the dusty soil,
There shall be naught but shadows for thee
In the life to come.
Here and now
Is the mystery revealed.
Here and now
Is the curtain lifted…. “

If I get any readers for this blog, I’ll ask what understanding they come to about this. What I take from it is that we have the potential to know God (and it does say “know God” – which means have an actual experience of God, as you understand Him/Her/It.) This will unfold over time, so for those practicing this method of spiritual growth, “Truth” shifts with your insights. Yet this is how a personal relationship with your God develops – not one of listening to others read from scriptures, but one that occurs over time as you spend time in attempts to contact this higher power.

The journey to come to know your Heavenly Father is unique to each of us. Mine tends to feel like it’s taking an inordinately long time (not helped by this passage, which makes me think that “the mystery” should be “revealed here and now.” Then recently I re-read in the book, The Thirteen-Petalled Rose , by Adin Steinsaltz (yes, my other spiritual intrigue is Kabbalah – to the very limited extent this shiksa has read of this tradition): “The feeling of ‘behold, I’ve arrived’ could well undermine the capacity to continue, suggesting as it does that the Infinite can be reached in a finite number of steps…. At every rung of his ascent, like any person who follows the way of God, they perceive mainly the remoteness.”  (pg. 131, with my taking out use of the word “penitent.”)

What an awesome concept of a finite number of steps to take to reach the Infinite. How does one come to understand the Infinite? Man, as made in the “image and likeness of God,” may consider putting effort into understanding himself. At least, it’s a start…

If it were a bit more personal to each of us, perhaps we would understand better....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyBbYAb027o

Always encouraging more respect for the planet we live on...

It's Earth Day soon! Make it a good one -- for both you and the Earth. 

The Angel of the Morning on Day Four is the Angel of Earth.

The Essene Gospels views man (humans) as one with the Earth. It is stated in many different places, yet here is a pretty complete rendition:

“Blessed is the Child of Light
Who knoweth his Earthly Mother,
For she is the giver of life.
Know that thy Mother is in thee,
And thou art in her.
She bore thee
And she giveth thee life.
She it was who gaveth thee thy body,
And to her shalt thou one day
Give it back again.
Know that the blood which runs in thee
Is born of the blood
Of thy Earthly Mother
Her blood falls from the clouds….
…Know that the air which thou dost breathe
Is born of the breath
Of thy Earthly Mother.
Her breath is azure
In the heights of the heavens….
…. Know that the hardness of thy bones
Is born of the bones
Of thy Earthly Mother,
Of the rocks and stones….
….The light of thy eyes,
The hearing of thy ears,
These are born
Of the colors and the sounds
Of thy Earthly Mother,
Which doth enclose thee about….”   (pages 65-67 in the edition I have)

One thought that came to me when I read this was the light of our eyes being born of the Earthly Mother. Eyes tend to be brown, blue, sometimes green or gray/hazel. These are nature's colors! Brown of the earth, blue of the waters, green of the grasses and leaves, gray of stones.  We don't have red or purple eyes (though yes, I know colored contacts exist). Isn't that interesting?

Many years ago I had a Holotropic Breathwork journey in which I was birthing the Earth. I had not read the Essene Gospels at the time to see the connection, but now I am amazed! Here's the mandala I drew afterwards -- I am lying on the Earth (by the roots of a tree) with a baby coming out from my heart and an umbilical cord connecting the baby with the Earth. Pretty amazing for someone who wasn't conscious of this teaching at the time -- but who certainly was aware "unconsciously!"

And what do you think of the large red umbilical cord running from the Earth adjoining the baby, then touching the full length of the tree and returning to my heart? Everything is connected: my prone body, the baby, the Earth and the Tree. And that was on Earth Day.  What a profound experience. 

Namaste. 

And the connection between thought and wisdom? Currently I think of Wisdom as a mingling of intellect and something higher. Wisdom often comes through due to inspiration or intuition rather than just our mere mental logic -- a higher level of thought. It opens more possibilities and solutions than just making a choice between one thing and its opposite.

Consider, for instance, Jesus’s response to those who were about to stone a woman who had committed adultery: “Let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone.”  (John 8:7)  If we were to respond from a strictly mental place, the reply would be either to simply agree or disagree with stoning the woman – with the obvious risk being that either side has its supporters and its naysayers. No matter which decision you make, one side will feel wronged. Jesus’s response begs personal reflection by each person there: Have I ever done something wrong – and, in my case, would I think severe punishment is the appropriate solution for me to have to endure?

Another example from the Bible would be the story of the two women who approached Solomon claiming that a baby was their child. Rather than fall into taking a position of one woman over the other, Solomon realizes that bringing in a higher perspective would put the problem in a new light.   He calls for a sword to be brought to him, then orders, “Cut the baby in half. That way each of you can have part of him.” This causes the distraught baby’s mother to plead, “Please don’t kill my son! I love him very much, but just give him to her. Don’t kill him!” The other woman says, go ahead, split the baby. Solomon awards the baby to the first woman who begged for the child’s life, knowing that no true mother would desire the death of her child. The end of the passage notes, “Everyone in Israel was amazed when they heard how Solomon had made his decision. They realized that God had given him wisdom to judge fairly.” (1 Kings 3:16-28)

Here are excerpts from the Essene Gospels for the Angel of Wisdom –  who is greeted on the evening of the Third Day:

“The Angel of Wisdom
Who maketh man free from fear,
Wide of heart,
And easy of conscience.
Holy Wisdom,
The Understanding that unfolds
Continuously,
As a holy scroll,
Yet does not come through learning.
All wisdom cometh
From the Heavenly Father,
And is with him for ever….

… But the crown of wisdom
Makes peace and perfect health
To flourish,
Both of which are the gifts of God.
O Thou Heavenly Order!
And thou, Angel of Wisdom!
I will worship thee and
The Heavenly Father,
Because of whom
The river of thought within  us
Is flowing towards the
Holy Sea of Eternity.”

“…The understanding that unfolds…. Yet does not come through learning.” This would support Wisdom as coming from somewhere above simple deduction – like the concept of the whole being more than a sum of its parts. It is not simply a question of seeing each part, or side. It draws on something above all of them.

This quality, apparently, draws us closer to God, as noted in the last sentence here that directly connects wisdom and thought: "...The Heavenly Father and the Angel of Wisdom – because of whom the river of thought within us is flowing towards the Holy Sea." Using wisdom provides us with freedom from fear and being of clear mind (“easy of conscience.”) When we approach the duality of any problem from a higher perspective, knowing that neither side will feel wronged, we are free from internal debate and potential guilt about the solution we may present. This, to me, is the way of wisdom.
 

Emotions occur in response to our thoughts. With the thought-realm being a higher level than that of the emotions, it is fitting that following the Angel of Water is the Angel of Air. Air is typically recognized as the element of the mental realm –  where our thoughts “live.”

Here’s some text from the short version of the Earthly Mother’s Angel of Air:

“…. We worship the Holy Breath
Which is placed higher
Than all the other things created.
For, lo, the eternal and sovereign
Luminous space,
Where rule the unnumbered stars,
Is the air we breathe in
And the air we breathe out.
And in the moment betwixt the breathing in
And the breathing out
Is hidden all the mysteries
Of the Infinite Garden.
Angel of Air,
Holy Messenger of the Earthly Mother,
Enter deep within me,
As the swallow plummets from the sky,
That I may know the secrets of the wind
And the music of the stars.”

Personally, I am still mystified by exactly what is meant by “in the moment betwixt the breathing in and the breathing out is hidden all the mysteries…”  I have read similar things in Kabbalah readings – and also hear a similar message in the Meditation on Twin Hearts visualization CD I use that was done by Master Choa Kok Sui. He pauses for a bit in the visualization to have us tone several “Oms,” and tells us, “Focus your attention on the silence between the two Oms.”

So… Do any of my readers have experience in the spiritual mystery of the silence between sounds and/or the moment between the inhale and the exhale?  Much further down the line I can post something from the fourth book of the Essene Gospels that addresses the sound/silence aspect a little, but I’m open to thoughts/experiences here. 

Thanks and Blessings