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The Holy Qur’an begins in Surah 29, verse 5:
Whoever hopes to meet with his Lord, the reward of God is nigh. ―Qur’an 29:5
Anybody who enters the Gnostic doctrine struggles with the reality of their mind, the struggles of the soul against the ego. It is never an easy thing to confront the sources of our problems, our psychological afflictions, our traumas, which originated within “me, myself, I.” Despite the fact that many people fail in the work, as relating to the previous arcanum, Fragility, when we face ourselves and take ownership of our own mental states, our own emotional states, our own traumas and problems, our fears, we realize that there is a way out.
There is a path. There is redemption. There is this salvation of the soul. We realize this from experience. When we confront this problem of “what I am, what I want, what I crave,” we gain hope when we annihilate the ego and when we see from our own experiences that there is a greater reality beyond the self, which only thinks of accumulating money, fulfilling desires, of hurting others. The ego must be eliminated: anger, fear, pride, hatred, gluttony, laziness, lust. When we see that these things can cease in us, we develop tremendous inspiration and hope. We realize that this work is possible, but what it requires is the fulfillment of the previous arcana, which if we studied didactically in this course, we find it teaches the entire path of alchemy and kabbalah, meditation, the elimination the animal “I.” The scripture known as the Qur’an speaks very abundantly about the mercy of divinity, and how without mercy, we would not gain progress. Each Surah of the Qur’an begins with بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Bismillah ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim: “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” with the exception of Surah 9, which we explained previously [in Arcanum 9: The Hermit]. But there is a famous saying in the Muslim oral tradition, the Hadith, which is also cited in a book called Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri: The Prophet said, “Your Lord Almighty and Glorious said, ‘My servant who has worshipped Me, hoped in Me, and not associated anything with Me (meaning not trying to willingly feed one’s desires), I have forgiven you for whatever proceeded from you. Were you to meet Me with errors and sins enough to fill the whole earth, I would meet you with the same amount of forgiveness and forgive you and not care.’” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
So this Arcanum is the Arcanum of aspiration, of hope, of joy, of victory, because when we see the results of our work, that our own actions produce our suffering, we see that there is the possibility for change, because we have the potential to radically transform ourselves and that this work is possible. If the prophets could achieve it, if the saints who have been crucified, martyred, ridiculed, blamed, spat upon, could change, it means that we can too. What matters is that we fulfill the laws, the requisites, the methods, the arcana.
This work of hope is about remembering divinity, to remember our Being, what the Being is, because if we remember divinity, divinity remembers us. As we find from Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri: The Prophet said, “God Almighty and Glorious said in a sacred tradition, ‘I am present with My servant’s thought of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I remember him in Myself. If he remembers Me in company, I remember him in a company better than his. If he draws near to Me by a hand’s length, I draw near to him by an arm’s length. If he draws near to me by an arm’s length, I draw near to him by a span. If he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.’” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
We speak abundantly about the need to remember the Being. Many students and even missionaries struggle with this dynamic, remembering the presence of God. A very basic way to know that one is remembering divinity is by questioning one's actions.
In the moment of a great temptation, do we act out of anger, out of lust, out of pride? Do we give into our fears and wallow in the mud of suffering? Or do we see ourselves separate from that in a state of equanimity, of calm? We find that we are fulfilling this arcanum, the remembrance of God, when we do not act on our desires, because the more we refrain from fulfilling what our ego wants, the more happiness we experience, the more joy and hope, that there is greater potential for us to change, and greater heights and realizations we can acquire. But that requires that we remember God. When at work, we are criticized, gossip about, lied to―do we respond with anger? With hatred? Or do we respond with compassion and understanding of their afflictions? Because we know from the Sufi tradition, the sayings of the great mystics of Islam, “even if you do not see Him, He sees you,” say the scriptures. We have to remember that God sees us even if we don't see Him, but we can see Him more and more as we would deny ourselves, bear up our cross of transmutation, and follow Him in our actions. When discussing the nature of this arcanum, we will touch on some esoteric, Sufi principles related to hope and its opposite. We have to remember that hope in divinity is positive, whereas desire for results, even spiritual ones, is an obstacle. Qushayri also explains how hope is different from expectation, that longing is distinct from desire: Hope is the attachment of the heart to something loved that may occur in the future. Just as fear falls upon future time, so hope arises because of something to which one looks forward. The livelihood and freedom of hearts is through hope… the difference between hope and expectation is that expectation causes laziness in the one who has it so that he does not travel the road of effort and endeavor (meaning, to meditate on the death of the ego), while the one who has hope is the opposite. Thus hope is praiseworthy, and expectation is condemnable. ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri 
Description of the Card
Let us look at the actual card.
In this image, we see the waters of life have two triangles: one light, one black―one positive, one negative―referring to both man and woman, male-female, Adam-Eve, masculine-feminine. We see a radiant star above this image of the Divine Mother, this female initiate. That star represents Christ. The eight-pointed image refers to the Venustic initiations, which we are going to explain. This naked woman represents the innocence and purity of the Divine Mother. Her nakedness is not a state of lewdness or perversity, because she has totally transformed, through the star of Christ, the sexual act into a sacrament. That desire for connection, the state of the ego, to desire after flesh, has been totally transformed, in which that nakedness is pure―nothing filthy or degenerate. In her purity, she holds two vases, two vials: one gold, one white or silver. This also represents the masculine and feminine principles, עד Od or עבד Obd, ו Vav and ז Zayin, the masculine and feminine principles, Ida-Pingala, the two serpents that wind up the spine of the initiate. These two vials, these elixirs, nourish the earth, the body. These vials are showing us that by working with the sexual energy, whether we are single or married, these two energies both solar and lunar, masculine-feminine, they nourish our body, the temple of God. The Divine Mother nourishes the earth, our physical body, with youth, with vitality, through the power of the creative force of the Holy Spirit. So whether one is married or single, when we practice the transmutation of our sexual energy, we attain youth, radiance, hope. It is interesting that Swami Sivananda wrote very extensively about the practice of pranayama for single practitioners. He explained that the exercise of pranayama, transmutation, makes the body young, healthy, strong, pliant, supple, flexible, youthful. Alchemy is even more profound because when a husband and wife combine their solar and lunar elixirs, their polarized energies, they can give birth to the star of Christ. Single practitioners work with pranayama, runes, transmutation exercises for single people so as to circulate the power of God in them and to work with those two elixirs to rejuvenate the body, to conserve the energies. But that fire that a single person generates is like a candle. But a married couple that can develop a sun, a star, and this woman, the Divine Mother, is showing us that by working in a marriage, by being pure in the sexual act, we can give birth to the star of בית לחם Bethlehem, the star of dawn, and obtain the Venustic initiations of which we are going to elaborate. That star of eight points is the dragon of wisdom, Christ. Many people are familiar with the serpents of fire, the Kundalini, but people are not very familiar or have heard that there are serpents of light that also must be developed. We have seven bodies: the physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal, buddhic, and atmic bodies, relating to the lower seven sephiroth of the Tree of Life. We must raise the serpents of fire up the spine on the first mountain, the mountain of initiation, which people can only follow when they are married. But if that initiate who is working in a matrimony incarnates Christ, takes what we call the direct path, he or she may work further to work with the serpents of light, in which Christ rises up the spine from Muladhara to Sahasrara―seven chakras, but again, at a higher octave. The serpents of fire are the Holy Spirit, the third logos, בינה Binah. But when someone works in the second half of the first mountain, he or she has incarnated Christ. The Son of Man must be lifted up. Just as Moses raised the serpent in the wilderness upon the staff as Jesus taught in the Gospels, so the serpents of light are much more profound, refined, delicate, but more powerful. Just as the Holy Spirit must be raised up the spine, we also must raise Christ up within the seven bodies and even the eighth body, within בינה Binah, which elucidates why this star is made of eight points, referring to the eighth initiations of Venus, the Divine Mother who gives birth to the Son of Man. 
We also see here the sign of Libra, the signs of the scale, of balance. The Sufis speak about hope along with fear, which relate to the sign of Libra, the sign of the scale, the sign of cosmic justice. As Al-Hujwiri says in Revelation of the Mystery:
Fear and hope are the two pillars of faith. It is Impossible that anyone should fall into error through practicing either of them. Those who fear engage in devotion through fear of separation from God, and those who hope engage in it through hope of Union with God. Without devotion, neither fear nor hope can be truly felt, but when devotion is there this fear and hope are altogether metaphorical, and metaphors are useless where devotion is required. ―Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery
We find balance by respecting the sexual energy, by fearing the loss of our forces. “The beginning of knowledge is fear of the Lord,” says the Book of Proverbs, I believe. We have to fear giving our ego what it wants. It is not an egotistical fear, a fear of God, of trauma, but profound reverence and respect for our body, because we do not fear our own mind. If we do not fear our divinity, in the sense that we do not have reverence or respect for what our Being wants for us, then we can make mistakes. This is the meaning of fear according to the Sufis, but not egotism. It is that trembling that the soul feels before God. It is the knowledge that in moments of great crisis, we have to define ourselves, because if we act on our mind, we will cause problems and deepen our karma, which relates to the scales, Libra. But also, there is hope in which we practice this doctrine and meditate and transmute daily, because we hope to see our Lord, our Being―to remember Him―and to change. That is how cosmic justice is fulfilled.
It is interesting that even the star above this woman's head, this priestess of the temple of Vulcan has eight points, reminding us of Arcanum 8, the scale of justice, of equilibrium.
We lastly have an image of Saturn, the sign of death at the very bottom left of this image.
So how is it that we acquire hope? We do so through death of the ego, annihilation of desire, because when we see that we die to anger, to pride, to vanity, we see the virtues that are born from that death, from that transformation, which is paralleled in the image of these two triangles, one white, one black. The virtues of the soul are born from the death of the shadow of the Tree of Life, the death of desire. We will talk about the Hebrew letter פ Peh at the top right towards the very end of the lecture, but let's elaborate a little bit more about what the star represents. 
The Eight-Pointed Star of Bethlehem
The Bible speaks abundantly about the star of ביתלחם Bethlehem in which Jesus is born in the manger amongst animals. That is a symbol of how Christ is born in us. That energy is enlivened in our heart. Once we have achieved the Fifth Initiation of Major Mysteries, we have raised the serpents of fire with מלכות Malkuth, יסוד Yesod, הוד Hod, נצח Netzach, תפארת Tiphereth.
That manger is our mind, because in us are filled with many animals, egos, defects. But even at the level of a master at that point, they still have a lot of ego, a lot of degeneration. But Christ is born in the manger within the heart of that bodhisattva who has chosen to renounce the happiness of Nirvana, the higher dimensions, in order to return back to מלכות Malkuth, this physical plane, in order to work for others, to die for others, to renounce oneself. Once Christ enters the initiate after he or she has renounced Nirvana and has decided by the commands of his inner Being to take the direct path, they return to this physical world and they incarnate Christ. 
In order to incarnate this star, Venus, the star of ביתלחם Bethlehem, we must be working in alchemy, as we see with this image of the priestess. The gold and silver cups, man and woman, must work together to give birth to the star of the dawn.
So, how is it that we can incarnate Christ? It is through profound death of the ego. Christ in esotericism is truth and has nothing to do with the distinct truths of people who believe in Christ, who think and feel that they know Christ. To know Christ is beyond thinking, beyond feeling, beyond action. It is beyond the three brains, but manifests in us through our words and deeds when we reach those heights. So that star of Venus is Christ because Christ is born through the star of love, the science of love, the science of alchemy. 
The Mysteries of Venus
But let us explain a little bit about the mysteries of Venus. This is an image of the birth of Venus, also known as Aphrodite among the Greeks.
According to Greek myth, Uranus, heaven, and Gaia Mother Earth, had a son named Kronos, which is time, or in the Roman mythology, Saturn. The parents fought because the heavenly forces fight against all the egos we carry in our body, that manifest through us physically, which represents the earth, because מלכות Malkuth is the earth, our body. Gaia created a stone sickle, a wreath or a scythe made of stone, which she gave to Kronos to attack his father Uranus. It is a very profound symbol. The scythe represents death because when we cut the harvest of wheat from the earth, we reap what we sow. Through death, we reap the benefits of the virtues of the soul. The death of desire gives birth to the harvest of God, the virtues of our Being within us. 
Kronos took this stone scythe and castrated Uranus. Uranus is heaven, and if you are familiar with the Tree of Life, the astrological sign of Uranus relates to חכמה Chokmah, the sphere of Christ in the Tree of Life. Uranus is Christ. He is the multiple perfect unity: that one light that manifests in all the angels or masters who have perfected themselves.
Why is it that Kronos, the Holy Spirit, בינה Binah, Saturn, castrates Uranus with a scythe made of stone? It is a symbol, not of a literal relationship between anthropomorphic figures, but something inside that happens now. The scythe is made of stone because it relates to יסוד Yesod, the stone of the great mysteries, the sacred Kaaba of the Muslims, שם המפורש Shem Hamphorash, the stone of the city of Heliopolis. That stone is our sexual energy, our creative force of יסוד Yesod in which we extract light. 
The Holy Spirit, by castrating Uranus, leads to the birth of Venus, because once his phallus and genitals enter into the sea, into the sea foam, Venus is born, Aphrodite emerges.
She is the goddess of chastity, of love, of beauty, of romance. But why is it that she is born from the genitals of Uranus? When we work in chastity with the stone of יסוד Yesod, when we annihilate our animality, we castrate our negative qualities: lust, anger, pride, fear, vanity, laziness, gluttony. When we annihilate the ego and conserve our sexual force, when we work with the waters of Genesis, our sexual energy, we give birth to love, Venus, Aphrodite―the Divine Mother who rises within the base of our spine up to our head. She emerges from the sea foam, which is literally semen, our energies. But we have to castrate our animality, which is the power of Uranus. The power of Christ is in sex. It is trapped in the ego, but by eliminating desire, we extract those elements and give birth to Venus, the Divine Mother in us. Venus is a profound and beautiful symbol of the birth of the Venustic initiations. Another layer to this myth is when Uranus is castrated―it sounds very violent and negative―the truth is that in order for Christ to incarnate within us, if we have reached the Fifth Initiation of Major Mysteries, it means that we have castrated our own animal desire to a degree. We have annihilated the ego to a point and we are working diligently in transmutation in a marriage. In order for Christ to enter us, it is profound sacrifice. It is painful for Christ to enter the manger of the world in order to be born, to live, to be raised, to enter the Passion, to be crucified. In a way, Uranus, Christ, is castrated, but it is a sacrifice He makes so that we can change, so that we can advance in the later parts of the work. Venus is a symbol of divine love, of chastity. She is dualistic, because obviously there is the fatal antipode or shadow of Venus: Lilith and Nahemah, which are the demons of desire and lust, fatal beauty, incest, degeneration. Venus was known as the goddess of prostitutes, but also the goddess of the initiates, because how we use the science of love, a marriage, sexual union, whether for chastity or fornication, will determine what aspect of that light we work with, whether in the positive sense or in the negative, or if you look at the light spectrum, ultraviolet, infrared. Light condenses in different levels as we have explained. So that light is Christ when it is pure, but when we condition it through our desires, it becomes infrared, negative, diabolic.
The symbol of Venus is a circle with a cross beneath it, a symbol of how the circle of the Spirit must govern the cross of a marriage. The sign of the cross is alchemical: vertical phallus, horizontal uterus. If the Spirit is in control of that act, if the couple is working to transform their marriage into purity, into love, then the soul is victorious. But if the Spirit cannot control the initiate, if the initiate is not obeying the rites of chastity, obviously, the sexual act dominates the Spirit when it is fulfilled for carnal passion alone. Then the cross is above the circle. It is inverted, negative.
The positive Venustic force is Christ. Its inversion is Lucifer-Venus, the tempter, and we spoke abundantly about what Lucifer is. Obviously the light of Lucifer, of Christ above, is very heavenly when it is purified within any master. But in us is filthy, diabolic, negative. Again, light can be more rarefied, refined, like ultraviolet, but when it is dense, it becomes more materialistic. When it is channeled through ego, it becomes the inverted spectrum of light, infrared. 
So Kundalini above is heavenly. Kundabuffer below is diabolic. The serpent that Moses raised upon a staff in the wilderness is the serpent of the Divine Holy Spirit. Brass is an alchemical symbol made of copper and tin. Copper is this metal of Venus, the woman, the divine, feminine. Tin is a symbol of Jupiter, the man, masculinity. Or, silver and gold, which can relate to, again, to those two jars that the woman is pouring in the opening of the card. So that force of Venus is channeled in us depending on what we do. If we give in to our lust, then obviously we feed Lilith and Nahemah. If we annihilate lust, we develop chastity. We castrate those forces from the animal ego. We use it for our spirituality.
The Hour of Lucifer-Venus
It is interesting that Samael Aun Weor mentions in a few of his books, especially in Tarot and Kabbalah, that the ideal hour of astral projection is 4 am, early in the morning, the hour of Lucifer-Venus, but he says that this is a very dangerous time for people too, because if our mind is not pure, if it is heavy with the ego, then we are going to be sucked down by the Luciferic currents that are prevalent in the atmosphere of the planet during those hours and enter into to the infernal astral dimension, limbo.
But if we are pure of mind and are chaste, then we have nothing to worry about. We will have very conscious experiences if we meditate at that hour. I have been in the habit of getting up at 4 am in the morning. Not always, but in the past I used to meditate at 4 a.m and let my body fall asleep after I pronounce some mantras, transmute. In that way have a lot of samadhis, where I have been able to be awake very consciously in the astral dimension. Unfortunately, the problem is that like many of us, we have ego. I believe I mentioned in one of our previous lectures on Turandot how I remember waking up at 4 a.m. in the morning, having a very beautiful experience, seeing stars in the atmosphere. I was invoking Samael Aun Weor and receiving help. They were showing me in the sky my state of being. But then I walked away and my ego took me and I landed back into the infernal astral plane. Above, I was in the superior dimensions, but because I have lust and anger and pride and desire, the Luciferic currents from קליפה Klipoth attracted me and pulled me down, primarily because whatever our level of being is will determine where we go. I do not claim to be very elevated. In fact, I proclaim the opposite, because we all have ego. As dedicated as I may be, you know, I still have defects to change, to work on. I remember being pulled in that dimension because that is my level of being. Any one of us who begins these studies begins there. We do not begin by going up to heaven and having a tremendous Mahasamadhi and talking with our Divine Mother first thing, and that everything is going to be okay. It does not work that way. It gets very difficult, because we may have certain experiences where they show us our possibilities in hope for change, and yet, we have to face the negative aspect of Venus-Aphrodite, which is a queen of the infernos, our own egos and lust in that dimension. I remember I was attacked by a demon at that point, a very big demon whose name I won't mention, but I emphasize this point that the best time for meditation and astral travel is 4 a.m., the hour of Venus. If we want to have stronger samadhis and greater clarity in our work, we can get up in that hour to practice prayer and transmutation and meditation. If we are very serious, we will get more light and more light. But of course, I cannot promise that we will not face the opposite shadow because that is where our center of gravity is. If you think of a magnet and iron fillings, magnetism attracts its own like, its own nature. If we are polarizing in the ego, then that is what we will attract. But there is nothing to fear from that. It just means that we have to confront ourselves because, by confronting ourselves, we change. The Divine Feminine on Earth
What is also interesting is that Venus, the star of love, the goddess of chastity, relates to four different types of people, two of which are initiates. So this term, Venus-Aphrodite is used by Samael Aun Weor to refer to many things. So we are giving an overview of how it works in our creative energies, but also in different types of people, mostly women.
There are four types of women according to Samael Aun Weor. He says there is Eve-Venus. There is Venus-Eve. There is Venus-Urania, and there is Urania-Venus. So again, we find the word Urania, Uranus, heaven, and Eve in the Kabbalah is הוה Havah, “mother of the living,” our sexual organs, our energies, whether we are masculine or feminine, because Adam is the brain and הוה Havah is sex: יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah, male-female. But, הוה Havah relates to sexuality, how we use the power of life, הוה Chaiah. Do we use it to procreate for animal pleasure, or do we transmute it, transform it? So Samael Aun Weor mentions in The Aquarian Message these four classifications of women, but also can apply to men as well. There exist various types of women; let us know them:
So notice that even in these terms we find Eve-Venus, Venus-Eve. Eve-Venus means the power of Venus is controlled by הוה Havah. The couple or people are lustful. They only look at sexuality for the culmination of animal desire. But Venus-Eve is when any couple, even if they do not know alchemy, they love each other certainly to a degree. They take the relationship seriously. Venus is in control of הוה Havah, Eve.
But there are superior types of initiates, of women and even men: Venus-Urania, meaning, a woman who is deeply involved in transmutation, in chastity, in love, who is working in alchemy and knows this science. They have the most profound spiritual and human feelings because they are chaste. The fourth, Urania-Venus, is the Mother of the Son of Man, the Virgins of Nirvana… ―Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message
…or according to the Qur’an, the houris, those vestals or virgin initiates who are promised to any soldiers of God who die in the way of الله Allah, who fight against their own ego and the Black Lodge. Those women are very elevated. Such a woman of Nirvana is like Master Litelantes, who was Samael Aun Weor's wife, his priestess. She was at that level of Urania-Venus, a great master, a great hierarch of the law.
This is the woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet. This woman is crowned with twelve stars, which are the symbol of the seven churches and the five senses, in other words, the twelve faculties. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message
There are other examples of a great woman initiates who are Urania-Venus, such as Blavatsky. She was married to Colonel Olcott, although many of the theosophists do not admit or refuse to accept that she was married to him, even though there was a lot of confusion about whether she was married, that they did not share more than just a platonic relationship. Samael Aun Weor mentions how he investigated them in the internal planes and discovered the truth of their relationship. Obviously, Blavatsky could not tell her followers that she was married because it would have created scandals.
Unfortunately, that is the mentality of infra-sexual people, people of inferior sexuality who look at it as something filthy. They do not see the transcendence of a matrimony. She built solar bodies through her marriage, and Samael Aun Weor mentions that the answer to their relationship is found in the internal planes. It is interesting that Blavatsky is also waiting to be born in a male body in order to receive the Venustic Initiation because she worked very diligently, created the solar bodies: astral, mental, causal, and wanted to reincarnate as a man so that she had the strength for the hardships of the path, a more strong body that can help her in that process. So she is waiting to incarnate Christ. We also have initiates like Joan of Arc, a Urania-Venus, a great master who was very revolutionary―a young girl who was already at the peak of her development, having done her work in past lives. But there are many women initiates like that who have reached that point, who are preparing or have prepared and have fulfilled the rites of Venus. So again, the Venustic Initiations are achieved once we have built the solar bodies. 
The Star of Christ
The crucified star that we see in many religious paintings of Christ on the cross is a symbol of how by working in a matrimony, we annihilate the ego. We enter the Passion. Jesus here has light behind him in the form of eight points, referring to the Venustic Initiations―the development of the Son of Man within the spine, for just as Moses raised the serpent of brass in the wilderness through the serpents of fire, so also must the Son of Man be raised up to another level, a higher degree, a greater octave (John 3:14). So don't think that by working with the sacred fire of Kundalini that one is done, because after the seven serpents of fire, if we take the direct path, we must raise the serpent of light, the Son of Man.
And he that overcometh, I will give him the bright and morning star. ―Revelations 2:26-28
So, who is that bright and morning star? It is Lucifer, Christ: Luci feros, “bearer of light.” That light has to rise up the spine of our eight bodies, the lower septenary plus בינה Binah, the eighth.
The Book of Revelations makes the connection between Jesus and Lucifer very clearly in chapter 22, verse 16: I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches (the seven churches of Assiah, the spinal column in the body, the world of matter and action, the seven chakras). I am the root and offspring of David and the bright and morning star." ―Revelations 22:16
Or, as I believe the Book of Isaiah says, "How art thou fallen from the sky, from the heavens , O Son of the Dawn, הילל בן שחר Hillel Ben Shachar, the glorified, praised one of the dawn, (Lucifer)?” (Isaiah 14:12). So Jesus is that light, that star, the star of dawn, the star Venus, which enters into us through the Venustic Initiations.
But first, to reach that point, we have to eliminate a lot of ego―not the totality―but to a degree. This is symbolized by the death of John the Baptist. All the stories of the Bible allegorize these truths that we must work with. John the Baptist is decapitated, meaning he dies to all worldliness. He dies to all of his problems materially, mentally, his mind. In that way, by decapitating the ego and receiving the baptism in the River Jordan, we receive the Christ.
The symbol of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan is a symbol of something we have to fulfill in ourselves. Remember that he was born in a manger. That is the beginning. But obviously, the Venustic Initiations, which are symbolized in the life of Christ, has to be fulfilled in us. His Birth, Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, everything is internal. But the Venustic Initiations occur when we are really working on ourselves.
Remember that Jesus received baptism in the River Jordan. Even the word ירדן Jordan in its original etymology means “descender,” the dissension of forces that come from the Tree of Life above and enter into the initiate. But now we have to return them inward and upward within us. We have to make those vital currents flow with greater clarity. 
Question: Is that why the woman of the card is pouring the two cups down?
Instructor: Yes, because those two forces of the currents are descending, but also they are nourishing the earth. The way that we nourish the earth is by working with our breath, transmuting as a couple or as a single person. So that is baptism, in which a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” because that initiate is working very high―has raised the serpents of fire and now is receiving the serpents of light, is developing that. The Nature, Truth, and Reality of Christ
But obviously, it is a very arduous work. So that is the truth, Christ, which Samael Aun Weor says has nothing to do with theory, with reading about in books, conceptualizing. We discover the signs of Venus, of love, by working with it practically. The truth comes to us when we decapitate Salome, Herod, Pharaoh, our desires, our ego, Shaitan (Satan), Goliath. These are all symbols of our ego, Medusa, the gorgons. We have to control ourselves and annihilate the ego, the Hydra―all these symbols represent the mind. We cannot discover Christ, what that truth is if we are identified with our thinking, our feeling, and our ways of acting.
However, according to by Bayazid Bastami: The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it. ―Bayazid Bastami
The mind cannot know Christ, but we can discover these truths for ourselves when we are meditating very practically, daily.
It is one thing also to have experiences about the path but to actually fulfill it is another thing. Obviously, we can have experiences in meditation where we experience the truth of these symbols. If I am relating this to you it is because I have had experiences about what this process entails. But being at that level is another thing, obviously. It is good to know the path, but we have to actually walk it. So the truth is the unknown from moment to moment and when we are working with the Venustic Initiations, we live the whole drama of Christ in the internal planes. Obviously, it is a very terrible experience to face all the suffering of persecution, of condemnation, of torture, because it is a symbol of how the initiate must pay his or her karma in one life. So that path is very radical. The work of the Venustic Initiation is very radical, but that is also not the totality of the path because there are other levels to acquire here. We are just summarizing some of the basic principles of the science of Venus. Christ is that light that manifested in many masters―the power of love, the truth, the unknown from moment to moment, profound being, limitless cognizance, eternal joy, profound strength and fearlessness. He enters any master who is prepared, after our inner Urania-Uranus has been fighting against Gaia (meaning heaven and earth in battle). Our Being is at war against our ego like the great solar heroes (Hercules against the Hydra and many myths about conquering oneself). Christ, as Samael Aun Weor states, has no individuality, but is that pure light that is universal, expansive within everything. He is the unknown, but we can only discover that by remembering that presence. So Christ has no personality or individuality. He is the Lamb of God symbolized by the fire of the lamb who eliminates all of the sins of the world, meaning our own mind, our own manger, our own egotism. But for that we have to work. He is beyond Nirvana. Nirvana is the sixth dimension in the Tree of Life: חסד Chesed, גבורה Geburah, תפארת Tiphereth, a very beautiful dimension, a plane of great happiness, but that is not the limit of the joys possible. Christ is even beyond that, within the top trinity the Tree of Life, but we of course have to incarnate Him to really work with those levels. 
Life’s Planetary Stages
When Samael Aun Weor explains the planets in relation to Venus, he talks a lot about how our own physical life is governed by stages, which are very interesting to understand and know. He says that the seven planets, primarily the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, relate to the distinct periods in our existence, which are essential to know, primarily because we find that in certain stages of our life, we have different astrological influences.
It is good to know these stages because as one matures or becomes older, one can predict certain qualities that one will encounter, which are significant. The planets rule different periods in our life. Fro, the ages of zero to 7, one is governed by the moon. With the Moon, the qualities of that satellite, that spiritual influence manifests in a child, which relate to birth, generation, growth, childhood, innocence. Samael Aun Weor says that we are brought into the world by the Moon and we were taken by the Moon, and we will explain the meaning of that.
If you are familiar with Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, “O Fortuna” the moon, birth into life brings us suffering and hardships, brings us into existence, but also takes us when the time has come. It is important to know these stages primarily because as we are preparing in our work, in meditations, we can also prepare for our next existence if we are working seriously, so that if we are single, we can prepare for a matrimony in a future life or prepare ourselves now for what must eventually occur.
The Moon governs the ages 0 to 7. The planet Mercury relates to the ages 7 to 14, which relates to movement, intellect, development of mind. This is when children go to school. They are intellectually stimulated. They always want to learn. They always ask, “Why, Father, tell me, what does this mean? What do you mean? Explain what you are talking about!” That is the intellect, Mercury manifesting there. Of course the age of Venus is very significant and very difficult for teenagers ages 14 to 21. This is when children start to fall in love. Hormones develop. The sexual organs develop. This is the most critical age for a child when the sexual energy begins to manifest. We can say that this period really determines everything else. Obviously, the Moon and Mercury are important. They develop essential qualities of youth, but the age or the period of Venus is very dramatic, obviously, for those of us who may be familiar with or have worked with youth. We find that it is a very critical era, a critical time. Unfortunately, because our humanity does not know anything about transmutation, children are filled with garbage by the media, by television, by shows, or by certain influences and popular culture. Children learned to masturbate and do other very negative things, where they are not taught how to use the power of love in a conscious way. They are not taught how to conserve that power, how to use it for God, how to wait until they are fully mature when they are 21. For women, 18, as they mature physically faster. But 18 and 21, when the body is fully developed, is the time for that person to be able to find a partner and to work maturely in a matrimony. This is the original meaning of confirmation in the in the Gnostic Church, in which children who were brought up in Gnostic families were taught the value of the sexual energy and they waited until their body was mature before they could be married. But unfortunately, you find children at 14 years old, even younger, who are copulating, and that is very disastrous for people, because the body is not fully developed yet. How can a seed develop other trees when it is still but a seed? That is the ironic part, that young women and boys are having sex at an age in which their body is not fully mature. So the energies are not fully manifest. It actually destroys many aspects of the psychology, physiology, mentality, and even emotionality of children. Rather than teach children how to be masturbate and be degenerate and to expel that energy, they should really learn how to conserve it and transform it and work with it―and wait until it is their time to be married. But unfortunately, the power of Venus-Lucifer is very strong. Of course, youth are very easily manipulated by their own psychological current and the current of humanity that is swallowing everything. It is pulling people down into degeneration. But at the age of 21 through 28, one is governed by the Sun. This is the period in life in which one enters adulthood. One has to conquer one's place under the Sun. We have three distinct periods relating to the Sun because the solar energy has the most predominance in our life. We have the first solar period from ages 21 to 28, the second solar period from 28 to 35, and the third solar period from 35 to 42. This is when an individual has to find a career. They may find a partner and become married and have a family. So this is an era in which the Sun is very active. The solar energy generates. It has to create. Unfortunately, youth who were squandering their sexual energy from an early age usually do very poorly in life. Swami Sivananda even said, "semen is money." If we are conserving our energies and regenerating our brain, we will have more intelligence, more reservoir of energy, more ability to work, to be successful. It creates magnetism, charisma, stronger interrelations with people. But because people have squandered that force, they deplete their mind through masturbation, and because they have abused their intellect so much, many of them develop sicknesses. They become crazy. This is why we find many youth are afflicted with so many problems even at an early age. It is because, whether in this life our past lives, they abused that energy of Venus. Instead of being governed by the Sun, it is like being governed by the Moon, eclipsed. But at this age and time, we have to find our place under the Sun. Afterward, from the ages 42 to 49, one enters the sphere of Mars in which one is preparing for old age and has to fight very hard to secure one's livelihood and be successful. It is a very decisive epoch, says the Master Samael Aun Weor. In the area of Jupiter from ages 49 to 56, those with good karma thrive economically. Those who do not, suffer, because it depends on what we have done with ourselves and our previous actions. The age of Venus defines everything. How we use that force is pivotal. The age of Saturn relates to 56 to 63. This is elderly age, retirement, an age of wisdom. But notice that at later ages after Saturn, there are recapitulations of the earlier phases, such as the Moon and Mercury, which occur in distinct periods of seven years. Notice that each category or each age follows under a septenary constitution, seven years of age. In relation to the age of 63 to 70, this is elderly age with the rebirth of youthful curiosity, 63 to 70, in which people who are older may feel an increase is impulse to want to study or to be youthful and curious again about life. Likewise, from the ages of 70 to 77, Saturn-Mercury, which relates to some elderly folks who are going back to school or wanting to learn more. It is because the relation of Mercury being an influence again in that cyclical pattern. So the thing is, if we want to have the most fulfillment in all of these periods of life, it all boils down to how we use the energies of Venus, because the conservation and sublimation of sexual energy produces our happiness, clarity of mind, strength. As we were saying, the abuse of that energy creates the ego. It creates suffering and all sorts of imbalances in oneself. 
The Narrow Way of Love
The path of Venus is the path of Christ, the narrow way. This is the path of love, the science of alchemy. When Jesus was teaching on the mount, he taught about the straight and narrow path that leads onto life, which is הוה Chaiah, Eve, and few there be that find it.
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are… ―Luke 13:24-25
That is a symbol of how people do not enter into alchemy, the straight gate, the narrow way of the spine that leads them to Chaiah, that few find. Obviously, people who have an interest in esotericism, but do not really work effectively with the sexual energy, do not work with the narrow path. Eventually one who does not get married at one point to ascend to the higher degrees, will obviously, developmentally, be shut out.
Single persons can attain great progress if they are working with their energies, but obviously in the higher stages of the path, one has to get married if one wants to enter the Major Mysteries and even the Venustic Initiations. So obviously this quote is referring to people who are interested in gnosis or this knowledge, but who are fornicating, who are not conserving their energies, are not working with them, and so Christ will say, “you seek to enter My home, My household, but you have not worked with Me in you” because Christ is in our body, in our sexual glands, the power of Uranus. Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. ―Luke 13:26-28
Because the secret gate is the gate that leads back to Eden, and unfortunately we have expelled ourselves. We pushed ourselves out. So it is funny that humanity believes in a story that focuses on a little history, thinking that the Book of Genesis is about, literally, a man and a woman in a garden; they ate an apple in Mesopotamia and were kicked out of paradise. These literal interpretations do not really hold much weight. But symbolically, we are Adam as a brain and Eve as sex. If we eat the forbidden fruit, if we expel our energies of Eden, that bliss is lost. When the couple is united, they experience such harmony and beauty and bliss and love. That is the force of Eden, which is pleasure in Hebrew, because עֵדֶן Eden in Hebrew means “place of pleasure.” But when that energy is expelled, the couple ejects themselves from Eden, from that paradise, that bliss. It is a symbol, but it is important to remember that if we are working in this path, we have to be very careful with the work of the laboratory oratorium. This is the narrow way, the straight gate, the straight path, alchemy.
The Sexual Dangers of the Path
So what is a laboratorium? It is where one labors, one works. Oratorium refers to “oration, speech.” So the laboratorium oratorium refers to how the couple works with mantras in the sexual act, labors to control that energy in their breathing, their connection, without losing that fire, without expelling it, but fully sublimating it.
Unfortunately, people, even if married, they may engage in the work of alchemy, but there is a tendency in students and even missionaries, as we said in our previous Arcanum, to be tempted by desire. This is discussed in Arcanum 16: Fragility. Samael Aun Weor mentions that part of the dangers of the path is engaging in fornication after one has been practicing chastity for a long time. There are many who leave the path because they are tempted by the desire of a few moments of pleasure. With the orgasm it is important to remember that billions of solar atoms are lost. They are expelled with any ejaculation, whether in men or women, because the sexual energy is polarized as the waters of life, whether male or female. So, through the orgasm, the couple losses billions of forces of atoms of energy within oneself and they are replaced by, through the peristaltic movements of the sexual organs, by billions of satanic atoms, negative forces from קליפה Klipoth [the hell realms of our own psyche]. They enter in the psyche and then try to rise to the brain, but because of the forces of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit―which are within our brain: the atom the Father between the nose, the atom of the Son within the pituitary gland, and the atom of the Holy Spirit in the pineal gland―those forces reject those diabolic atoms and send them down the spine where they form the kundabuffer organ, the tail of satan, which one can see in the astral plane, in the astral body. Those forces develop the tail of the demons, and it is important to remember this. Obviously, couples who are working in alchemy, who are very diligent about their practice have to have that fear of losing their force, to really respect the energy so much and to control the mind and respect divinity so much that one does not let themselves be tempted. Question: So you called this once the razor’s edge, correct? Instructor: Swami Sivananda calls this the path of the razor's edge, and obviously in the beginning, couples who are practicing struggle a lot. They lose the energy easily because they are not trained yet, but with time, it gets very easy with discipline. But of course, all these practices have to be combined with meditation. The couple needs to comprehend the ego. It is not enough just to transmute and conserve the energy. One has to be meditating on the death of or comprehending the ego and working on it. This is the narrow way. You know, there are many people who work in alchemy, but they are not working on the elimination of their ego. Instead, they are conserving all that energy, and it is going to desire, and they become very big demons. But if the couple is very serious, the practitioners are serious, they meditate daily, comprehend themselves daily, and then when they are on the cross of a marriage, by working with Venus and with mantras, they work with the elimination of those defects that they have comprehended, as the Master Samael explains in The Mystery of the Golden Flower. The Hebrew Letter פ Peh
Let us talk a little bit more about the kabbalah. Psalm 119 begins with its eight verses, 129 to 136, with the Hebrew letter פ Peh, the 17th letter of the Kabbalistic alphabet:
פְּלָאֹות עֵדְוֹתֶיךָ עַל־כֵּן נְצָרָתַם נַפְשִֽׁי׃
“Your testimonies are wonderful, so my soul keeps them. The incarnation of your Word gives light; it instructing the simple ones."
It is interesting that the Hebrew letter פ Peh, which relates with speech, with the verb, relates to the serpents of light. with Christ. The incarnation of Your Word gives light, meaning the Venustic Initiations, instructing the simple ones, meaning, those who have become like little children, innocent, pure. “I opened my mouth and panted; for I long for your commands. Turn to me and favor me, as is the way to those who love Your Name (השם Hashem). Fix my steps in your word and let no evil rule over me. Redeem me from the oppression of man and I will keep your precepts (of alchemy). Make your face shine on your servant and teach me your statutes. Rivers of waters run down my eyes for they do not keep your law." So this is relating to the arcanum of hope, primarily because when we see our own defects and recognize our own psychological misery, we will weep, but also there will be tears of joy when we recognize that there is the possibility to change, which we find through the arcanum of hope, the Hebrew letter פ Peh. 
So, פ Peh as we see in the middle here has two forms. The initial or the closed פ Peh on the right, and then ף Peh sofit, which is the version of the letter that occurs at the end of any word that ends with ף Peh, which is very profound and significant. פ ף Peh is a duality. The verb can produce salvation or damnation depending on our speech, referring to the two forms of פ Peh.
The Zohar explains in its creation story how the 22 letters of the kabbalistic alphabet approached יהוה Iod-Havah and asked divinity, “may I create the world through me, through my letter?” Obviously, Bereshit in the Bible begins with ב Beth and and the Lord Jehovah rejects the offers of the other letters: The letter פ (pe) entered. She said to Him, “Master of the world, may it please You to create the world by me, for I signify the (פורקנא purqena), the redemption, that You will someday bring to the world, also called פְּדוּת (pedut) deliverance. It is fitting to create the world by me!”
Notice that the Hebrew letter פ Peh has like י Iod in the middle pointing in.
So פ Peh, the power of the verb, modifies our sexual energy. This is why mantras are so important and speech is so important in this doctrine. Socrates demanded precision in terminology. Samael Aun Weor explains that the Gnostic demands precision of the verb in any circumstance. He also explains that how we speak, how we communicate, uses sexual energy. The correlation between speech and sex is very obvious within teenagers, as their hormones within the age of Venus, between the ages of 14 to 21, their hormones are kicking in and their voices change. Children, young boys, become masculine. Women become more developed in their voices too. If we use our verb for negative things, negative speech, negative words, we are taking the energies of sex and we are abusing them. It creates ego, obviously. As the Buddha taught, “Mind proceeds phenomena. We become what we think.” If what we think is evil, then our speech will intensify that. It is one thing to have anger mentally or emotionally in a moment of crisis, but if we act on that ego in that moment, we say hurtful words. We take that ego and we fortify it very strong. So the mouth can represent or express the forces of divinity or the ego. 
In gnosis, through our alchemical transmutations, we have to be careful with our verb, because when we are transmuting and conserving power, we have more force with our speech to affect others. It is interesting that in the Book of Revelations, the fifth angel, Samael Aun Weor, was riding on a white horse, and from his mouth emerged a sword in order to smite the nations. It is a symbol of how his doctrine, his speech, his written word, is going to war against the degeneration of humanity.
It is interesting that the word sword even sounds like “word,” but the letter S, combined with the Word. The letter or mantra S, which is the fire, the serpent, he is the power of ס Samech the serpent that through speech, is punishing humanity by pointing out to people that they are degenerate. Obviously, there are many people in this day and who are really angry against Samael Aun Weor and his teaching, because he has no sympathy for the ego. He doesn't pat people in the back and applaud their perversity, but is very confrontational and says, “This is demonic.” The power of פ Peh is significant, and we have to be careful with what we say because what we say creates results. For as Jesus taught in the Book of Matthew, chapter 15, verses 10 to 20:
10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
It refers to the hypocrisy of people who think that by not following certain rituals or procedures, washing one's hands before prayer, that they are saints. Meanwhile, they go home and they argue with their loved ones and their spouse with anger, with violence, with their speech. So that defiles a person.
What we say creates. The throat is a womb of the angels who create with the verb. If we are negative and we say hurtful things, then obviously the result is suffering. That is the power of פ Peh. For as it says in the Book of John, chapter 3, verse 11: Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak (through פ Peh, the mouth) that we do know (in Daath, Alchemy) and testify that we have seen (with the eyes, ע ayin) and you receive not our witness. ―John 3:11
Or as the Qur’an teaches in Surah Al-Nahl, Surah 16, verse 40:
Indeed, Our word to a thing when We intend it is but that We say to it, "Be," and it is. ―Al-Nahl “The Bee” 16:40
This is a very beautiful teaching from the Muslim doctrine. What does it mean that God says to a thing, “Be,” and it is? It is interesting that there are two names for God in the Arabic: الودود Al-Wadud, meaning “the Loving, the Kind One,” and الخالق Al-Khaliq, meaning, “The Creator.” So where else do we find in a person the power of love and creation except in sex?
When a couple is united sexually, they can conserve their power and mantralize, transmute the fire of their sexual organs. That is how God says, “Be, be present, be awake, and what will come with it will be the will of the Being” if we are present. If we are not present in the sexual act, then obviously desire kicks in and then it is just animal lust. الخالق Al-Khaliq, the Creator, الودود Al-Wadud, the Loving, the Kind One, we find represented and Surah, Al-Mu'minun, the Believers, verse 14, which refers to the birth of the solar bodies: Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators. ―Surah al-Mu'minun, "The Believers," verse 14
Obviously, people, Muslims, believe that this refers to physical birth, that الله Allah is the one who creates a physical child. Obviously, there is one level to that, very literal. But even in a deeper sense, when we work in a matrimony, we are developing the solar bodies. We are creating in alchemy, giving birth internally. So that is another creation. “We developed him into another creation.” So, one thing is to be an embryo growing in the womb of a physical mother, but even deeper, it refers to the birth of the soul.
Comment: Abortions, as I’ve come to understand, is infanticide… Instructor: And people who follow abortions are following the path of Lilith, crimes against nature, which we can talk about a little later. 
How to Generate Spiritual Light
We find in this image the quote from the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 3, "And Elohim said, let there be light, and there was light." We see a couple holding hands, man and woman, and two triangles referring to the phallus and vagina, as well as the ovaries and testicles. If you remember the beginning of the lecture, we showed the card of hope, two triangles, one above the other, referring to the masculine-feminine sexual organs. But why include the couple holding hands when Elohim said, "Let there be light, and there was light”?
What is אלהים Elohim? אל El is God, masculine. אלה Eloah is Goddess, feminine. ים Iod-Mem constitutes a masculine-plural ending. When a couple, husband and wife are united, they are one God, one Elohim with the power to create. When they are mantralizing, they say, “Let there be light.” They do mantras:
IAO, Kandil Bandil R, INRI... many mantras, which you can read in books like The Perfect Matrimony how to perform. So the couple is saying, “Let there be light,” or divinity through the couple is saying, “Let there be light” in the spine of these initiates, and there was light. The word “and” in Hebrew is ו Vav, meaning, “Let there be light,” they are pronouncing their mantras, AND then in the spinal column, there was light.
Question: I-A-O means, “let there be light”? Instructor: It is a mantra of light, yes. I-A-O refers to Igneous, Aqua, Origo, fire... Question: Let there be light... Instructor: Well, it doesn't mean “Let there be light,” but I am just saying that in a literal sense, it doesn't mean that, but symbolically, yes. I-A-O. Igneous, Aqua, Origo. Fire, water, spirit. When you work with those three elements in the earth of your body, you are generating light. Then that is the form of transmutation. So Christ, as the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur, the light of Christ, descends down into the brain, Adam, into the pineal gland, goes to the spinal column ו Vav, into יסוד Yesod through the regeneration of our sexual energy. When we go to sleep at night, the body regenerates through the vital forces. Christ, the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur, enters us, enters our nervous systems and charges us, enters our sexual through everything that we eat, breathe, drink, and the impressions we take in and transform. Question: Would you polarize that through meditation in the morning, otherwise on the solar light, The Magician, I understand, bringing in that solar light in a relaxed state and using that mantra? Would they work better mutually together, in conjunction with the mantra? Instructor: Yes, those mantras, especially early in the morning, will attract a lot of force, and when those forces coagulate in the sexual glands―meaning our sexual energy is formed by what we eat, think, say, speak, do―the quality of our semen is determined by what we eat and what we drink, what we breathe, but also what impressions we understand and transform, meaning, comprehending our own ego and working on it. Obviously, by annihilating the ego develops greater sexual potential, virility. Question: And also it will make the sexual libido? Instructor: Yes, it helps it quite significantly, and then, once that energy is prepared in the sexual glands and the couple is working in transmutation, all that fire that has been built up is transmuted in the sexual act again, and it returns up the spine. “And let there be light.” “Let there be light,” Christ enters us, rejuvenates the couples through the creative magnetic pause, and then when they work together, “And there was light.” I know we mentioned in previous lectures about the creative magnetic pause. It means that a couple can only practice alchemy at least just once a day, at most. Not all couples will practice every day depending on their energies and their rhythm, but the body of the husband and wife need to be able to recuperate after transmuting the sexual energies. They have to rebuild and rejuvenate their forces so that when the couple is stimulated again, they have the energies present. “Let there be light,” meaning all that energy is descending into you, in the couple, and when the couple is ready to practice alchemy, “and there was light,” the ו Vav, the spine, which controls, through will power, we control through our will, our creative potential. This is how we create light within ourselves. We transmute our נ Nun, our sperm, our ovum, into ז Zayin, the sword of the Kundalini. This is how you form Surah Al-Nur, the Surah of the light within the Qur’an. It is also a very beautiful, interesting teaching relating to the Sufis that relate to this letter of פ Peh. You don't find a “p” sound in Arabic, but you do find the “f” sound. פ Peh could also be pronounced “fay” in Hebrew. Sometimes פ Peh is a hard “p” and other times in Hebrew it is an “f” sound. So words like אין סוף Ain Soph end with פ ף “fay,” and in Arabic, you find ف fa. So Arabic and Hebrew have similar roots. You find words like אין סוף Ain Soph, meaning the super atomic star of our divinity within the Absolute. אין Ain means “no” or “without,” none, negation. סוף Soph means “limit,” and אין סוף Ain Soph means “limitless, no end.” That is our true Being, or as the Sufis and Muslims teach, it is الله Allah, the Absolute. Question: אין סוף Ain Soph is the limitless, and אור Aur is light? Instructor: Yes, and the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur is the Limitless Light. It is interesting that the word סוף Soph even sounds like Suf, like the Sufis, who put an end to their own egotism, their own desires. סוף Soph means “end” or “limit.” Even the word صوفي Sufi in Arabic is ﺹ Sad, و Waw, ف Fa, ي Ya which you find in the Hebrew equivalents of ס Samech ו Vav פ Fey and י Iod. You find those Hebrew letters even relate and sound like יסוד Yesod, Yusuf, IO-seph, Joseph. We explained in our previous lectures that Joseph was thrown into a well, Yusuf. The power of יסוד Yesod is the well of our body, our creative energies. We have to get Joseph out of the well, meaning, transmute. Work with your energies. Yusuf, the power of IO-Soph, the power of I-O, the Divine Mother within יסוד Yesod. אין סוף Ain Soph, the forces of the divine, descend down the Tree of Life, enter יסוד Yesod, because you find סוף soph has the serpent (ס Samech) as we explained previously in Arcanum 15: Passion. That serpent descends into יסוד Yesod, the serpent that coagulates in the sexual glands, and then through this work we are transforming our sexual energies. ס Samech, ו Vav, פ Peh, י Iod―Sufi. A Sufi is one who works with the purity of their sexual energies, who is working with יסוד Yesod. Question: Do all the rune practices lead to purify your subconscious mind? Instructor: Those energies make it possible so that you can see your mind, so that you can work on them. Yes, so they do purify the mind to a degree, but meditation and comprehension are essential. That is how we purify ourselves, or as the Qur’an teaches, “God loves those who purify themselves,” who become safa in Arabic, “pure.” The word Sufi reminds us of the Arabic suf, which means “wool,” like wool garments that they would wear, and this reminds us of the solar bodies which in the Qur’an are لباس التقوى libas al taqwa, “the garments of reverence.” "For truly the garments of reverence are better for you, if you but knew," says the Qur’an (7:26). Meaning, for those who don't know alchemy, if you want to really revere God, create your solar bodies in a marriage. تقوى Taqwa relates to attaqa in Arabic, meaning “shield,” to defend oneself from hellfire, from passionate lust. So that is it what it means to be a Sufi, to be pure, to work with the powers of אין סוף Ain Soph, the Sufis, within יסוד Yesod, the powers of Yusuf, Joseph. So when we make vocal remembrance of God in the sexual act, it is the most profound form of prayer. Divine Remembrance in A’isha’s Risalah
I would like to read for you an excerpt from a very beautiful Sufi scripture called Risalah (Principles of Sufism), but this is from a female initiate known as 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya―a little less known book than Qushayri's seminal Persian text. She quotes a master who talks a lot about alchemy and how the couple, when they are working with their marriage, are vocalizing sacred sounds so as to work with the wine of light, of Venus.
The drink is the light shining from the Beloved's beauty, whereas the cup is grace bringing that light to the mouths of the hearts. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
What is that drink of light? Again, the sexual energy, but controlled, transformed, transmuted. It shines from the Beloved's beauty because when the couple is really in love and when they are in remembrance of God, the Beloved of Christ is manifest in them and the husband and wife love each other more profoundly, more beautifully. So that is the cup of grace bringing that light to the mouths of the heart, פ Peh.
The Cupbearer is He who cares for his special elect and righteous worshippers; He is God, who knows the destinies and best interests of His beloveds. The one to whom that beauty is revealed (through meditation, through ecstasy), such that he enjoys something of it for a second or two before the veil is drawn over it, he is the craving taster. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
Or in this case, the one to whom that beauty is revealed, but if they enjoy it for something of a second or two, meaning if they orgasm, they throw a veil over themselves, and they are craving and tasting after the sexual sensations of lust, but they lose everything. They are veiled. In Sufi terminology, to be veiled means to be ignorant of God, to not see the Being.
If you are awake in the astral plane, you look in the atmosphere, you can see if it is a cloudy sky, it means we are veiled from the Being. But if it is stars and planets or galaxies or whatever, the heavens, it means that there is transcendence. But when we enter in fornication, we veil ourselves. So, to enjoy the pleasures of sensations of lust for a second or two, the veil is drawn over it and he is just but a craving taster, lusting after that experience. Whoever can maintain that for an hour or two (meaning the sexual act), he is the true drinker. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
Because obviously, couples they unite for few seconds and enjoy their carnal passion and they expel the energy from themselves. But those working in White Tantrism, connect for an hour, two hours, if they are trained. But not out of lust, but of love.
As for one to whom the matter occurs continuously, and the drinking lasts until his joints and veins are full of God's precious lights, that is the quenching. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
So, the body is rejuvenated between the couple. The joints are filled with light, with vital prana, with solar force and the couple of feels quenched. They are satisfied. People tend to be or say that they are satisfied with the orgasm, but the sad reality is that they keep on engaging in that again and again and again and they are never satisfied. They have no peace. But a couple working in a matrimony, they transmute their energies and they feel satisfied. They feel peace, love.
It sometimes happens that one loses all sense and reason, such that he does not understand what is being said and what he is saying; that is intoxication. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
That term is very technical. It is a Sufi term, and it refers to being inebriated by God, but sadly many Sufis in this time, they ignore the sexual teachings that one feels the greatest intoxication with one's wife or one's husband.
Sometimes, as they perform recollection (meaning mantra recitation) and pious acts of obedience, the cups are passed round to them, and their mystical states differ (because the sexual act can produce samadhi when it is performed with purity). They are not veiled from the divine attributes despite the overloading of their faculties. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
So, obviously union is very beautiful when there is love, when it is founded on יסוד Yesod. So they feel great ecstasy, divine attributes, and they see God and they transmute the energies and are aware of Christ, but they are not veiled even though they are enjoying the delights of love. This means to enjoy the fragrance of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but without eating its fruit.
That is their time of sobriety, expansive vision, and increased knowledge. ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah
So this is how we are really sober headed. To be drunk on the wine of love in a Gnostic matrimony or work with the sexual energy in that way is to be sober-headed, reasonable―not inflamed with lust, so that we are of expansive vision and increased knowledge.
Thus, by the stars of knowledge and the moons of divine oneness, they are guided in their night (the spiritual night meaning in meditation) and they are illuminated during their day by the suns of mystical experience and knowledge. “They are the party of God! Will not the party of God be successful?” ―Al-Shadhili in 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya’s Risalah 
So by working with that energy, we work with the Fire of Pentecost as we see in this image. It is on the Book of Acts, I believe, the apostles and saints were crowned by tongues of fire. By working with the letter פ Peh, by raising the fire, the serpents of Christ and the serpents of light, we are inflamed with the power of tongues, which of course in these times people think refers to speaking gibberish. But that is not the meaning. Those people who are saying nonsense on the internet that they are speaking the power of tongues is nonsensical, because the Divine Mother is not gibberish. The power of tongues is the ability to speak any language, because when one has the fire fully developed in them, they can speak and communicate in any way. They have intelligence manifested in them because בינה Binah is intelligence in kabbalah.
It comes to my mind a story of the Master Samael Aun Weor who towards the end of his existence, he was very sick in the hospital and the doctor, one of the doctors I believe, was a Japanese man, and at least I have heard that he took his hands and held them, the Japanese man’s hands, and then he started speaking Japanese to him. So he had the power of tongues, obviously. He was preparing for resurrection, very high. He knew those things without having to read a book because that is the power of tongues, not gibberish like Monty Python, in which you see people doing silly things, saying very absurd things on the internet that they have the power of tongues, that they have the serpents of fire or the serpents of light in them. Obviously, it is very hypocritical. So, we have to annihilate the ego. We have to transmute our energies and we have to sacrifice for humanity if we want our פ Peh to be purified; our speech. In this way, when we are dying more and more to the ego, we allow the Being to express in us more intuitively, more spontaneously. Conclusion
So there is a beautiful quote from a book called Revelation of the Mystery by Hujwiri, a great Sufi Persian initiate. He explains the following:
It is Man's glory that, while his actions exist and mortification is possible (meaning the work of the death of the ego), he should escape by God's goodness from the imperfection of his own actions, and should find them to be absorbed in the bounties of God, so that he depends entirely on God and commits all his attributes to His charge and refers all actions to Him and none to himself. As Gabriel told the Apostle that God said: “My servant continually seeks access to Me by means of works of supererogation (meaning meditation, extra prayers, more discipline) until I love him; and when I love him, I am his ear and his eye and his heart and his tongue; through Me he hears and sees and speaks and grasps,” i.e.- in remembering of Me, he is in rapture by the remembrance (dhikr) and by his own “acquisition,” is annihilated so as to have no part in his remembrance, and My remembrance overpowers his remembrance, and the relationship of humanity is entirely removed from his remembrance: then My remembrance is his remembrance, and in his rapture he becomes even as Abu Yazid in the hour when he said, “Glory to me! how great is my majesty!” These words were the outward sign of speech, but the speaker was God. Similarly, the Apostle said, “God speaks by the tongue of Umar.” The fact is that when the Divine omnipotence manifests its dominion over humanity (meaning within our three brains that are charged with the solar forces and when the ego is dead), it transports a man out of his own being, so that his speech becomes the speech of God (like Samael Aun Weor was able to speak many languages. He knew that science. He knew those languages from his profound works of alchemy). But it is impossible that God should be mingled with creative beings or made one with His works or become incarnate in things: God is exalted far above that and far above that which the heretics ascribe to Him. […]
So either God can speak through us, the Soul, or the ego. It depends. We have to purify our mind so that we can purify our speech, and, in that way, we advance and develop hope, because it brings great inspiration when in our jobs, our work, or wherever we go, and from our meditations, we find that we act more intuitively, more awake, more aware, more compassionate. It means that we are working with the Hebrew letter פ Peh. We are becoming Sufis, pure, pure in God, and we become inspired and hopeful for our path.
Questions and Answers
Do you have any questions?
Question: Is the female physical body suitable for the Venustic Initiations? Instructor: Well, I have heard, and I don't really know the answer, but I have heard that in the case of Blavatsky, she wanted to be incarnated in a male body mostly because of the strength she would need. Maybe perhaps because of her karma and her situation, but I don't know the answer to that because I know that Joan of Arc was obviously very high. She had Christ inside of her, but she was an 18 year old girl going to battles killing the English to defend France and free it from its tyranny. So I don't know the answer, but it would seem maybe Blavatsky was planning ahead. Comment: You mentioned a manger. Rudolf Steiner related that too. He said that it was called the House of Bread because it is critical for physical and spiritual development. It is related to diet and digestion. As far as energetic vibrations are concerned, a natural diet has higher vibrations. He said something about converting food during spiritual training. It turns the chyle, very spiritual he said―like a catalyst, in that it could activate the chakras too. It is very important. He called it the House of Bread, the intestinal and abdominal area ruled by Virgo. There is a connection to Mercury he said, the mind and the abdominal area. They work together. There is a relationship... Instructor: There is a connection with physical nourishment and the house of bread, but in a profound level. Your body is ב Beth, the house and Lehem is Christ. So your body and your heart and mind and soul can incarnate Christ through the Venustic Initiations if we are working. Obviously our physical health needs to be nourished with good food, good elements. Question: ב Beth...it's related to your body? Instructor: Yes, because your body is a house that can incarnate God, or can manifest dvinity, or the ego. Your house can be filled with ego or can be filled with light. It depends. Comment: I think of that Magician card where you bring the light into the body. Instructor: Yes. There's that relationship. Even more profoundly is Arcanum 2: The High Priestess that we talked before, because your house, your mind, is a ב Beth, and if you are working with Christ, whether through the Eucharist or as we explained Arcanum 14: Temperance, or in alchemy, we are learning to develop that light little by little. Question: Could it be that the mind and the intestines, even on the spiritual level is, are we digesting and dying psychologically? We are digesting impressions and allowing the ego to die, then we have a healthy mind and body? But if we are holding on to the ego and following desire, then our life and health will be affected as well? Instructor: Yeah, we just don't want to be psychologically constipated. You know, in the book The Revolution of the Dialectic, the master explains that we have to digest impressions every day, meaning, you study yourself. You self-observe. You self-remember. You gather data about your ego that you saw in the day and then go home. Obviously in the moment you act the best you can. Try not to feed the ego. Then you go home and reflect on what impressions came to you. Like at work, someone criticized you and said something negative. Look at concrete details and then examine: what were your reactions? What thoughts came? Was the ego present there? When we comprehend the ego and pray for annihilation fully, we transform that impression, because the ego is a lack of digestion, psychologically speaking. Meaning, someone or something happened in the past where we were confronted or treated poorly, and we develop a trauma or ego relating to that moment. So that anger and resentment and pride and negativity, those defects churn in the psyche and subconsciousness as a type of indigestion, and make people very bloated and sick to the point that they can't respond to life in the present moment clearly. So that is a transformation of impressions. Even in a more basic level, in the moment, in which say, for instance, you are walking down the street, and then you see a person of the opposite sex walking by and there is that lust in it, desire in the mind to want to ogle or look with the eye, but one has to transform the impression and comprehend and realize well, “why feel that desire in oneself? Why should I feel that way when this person at one point is going to die? So why be attracted to this person when they are going to get old and sick and eventually become a corpse?” It is a way to think or contemplate in the moment and say, “I really shouldn't feel lust in that moment.” That is the very beginning of the transformation of impressions. Comment: You have to get out of the box say, later on in the day, when you are reflecting back, and look at yourself objectively, as far as your reaction in that situation, to really set aside your subjective mind and concentrate on the objective once you are out of your body. So, it is not easy. It is something you have to work on. Instructor: Yes, it takes years and the more we work on that process of transforming those impressions and seeing that we are not the mind, and that the ego can die. We feel great hope and that is how we develop this arcanum. Question: How is patience related with this card? Instructor: We develop hope through patience, meaning, patiently working on the ego. Arcanum 8 relates to justice, which is the patience of the soul, meaning, we are working with the scales of the the heart and the mind. 
In the Eighth Arcanum, we studied how a female initiate, a Urania-Venus, was kneeling on an altar or three steps, holding a sword in her left hand and a scale in her right, or a scale levitating above her right hand, referring to the scales of Libra, of justice. We develop justice in us through patience, for as we know from the great masters of humanity, we develop patience through facing ordeals―the eight years of Job, symbolically speaking, and we develop hope as we are patient. One who is patient has hope because they understand that these ordeals are temporary, that no matter how difficult our situations are in life, they can be conquered and transformed if we are patient with ourselves and are transforming impressions daily.
Comment: You have to bite the bullet sometimes. Sometimes it's not easy… Instructor: Of course, because the logic of the ego says, “He hurt me. She said this. He did that. I deserve better… blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!” It is the gibberish in the mind. That is the Hebrew letter פ Peh inverted. That is Pharaoh. Remember that even פרעֹה Pharaoh in Hebrew starts with פ Peh or starts with פ Fey, is the power of Fah, the Father, the Pharaoh. The mantra related to Egypt is FARAON, a Pha-Ra-Oh. But, obviously, that ruler of Egypt, our body, can be ego or divine. It depends who is driving the car, because Egypt is your body, is מלכות Malkuth, symbolically speaking, מצרים Mitzrahim, “the place between the waters.” So we have to control our gibberish, you know, and that means that in the moment we are being criticized, we do not react and try to be as polite as possible, respectful as possible, and go home and meditate on that reaction. Question, what does this ego want? We must really work and try to comprehend and ask for a lot of forgiveness. It requires a lot of patience in that work. The ego cannot be annihilated in one day. It takes even lifetimes. It depends. Comment: Moses has to overcome the Pharaoh. Instructor: Yes, and the way that he overcomes Pharaoh is with the serpent. Moses is our willpower, but you notice that Moses was doing all these incredible things, and he wasn't dejected. He is very hopeful, but obviously, it is a very difficult process, but one that can be done. Comment: You have heard of Carlos Castaneda. His teaching wasn't really that spiritual or he never mentioned Christ or anything like that. He was very much into this plane and forces. But he said the human being, we all have these defects. The predator he called it. It's preying at you constantly to distract you and torment you... But Carlos said not only get rid of it but it's constant. It's very hard but you have to silence the mind. That is something that prayer cannot really tolerate. They will keep coming back to distract you, but in time, it will disappear, but it's discipline, and will be achieved with merit over time. Instructor: So the beginning of the work of the death of the ego is, obviously, we have to be calm in mind. It is the beginning. We have to develop serenity to the point that you are not disturbed by what we see mentally or even physically. So we can transform those impressions clearly, but serenity of mind is the beginning. To really eliminate the ego, we have to develop insight. So serenity, insight, joined, creates comprehension. Or Shamatha, Vipassana, creates Samadhi. Vipassana means “insight, special vision.” The term serenity is Shamatha, meaning, the mind needs to be calm to the point that you can see clearly. But just having a calm mind is not enough. We have to really go deep at the roots and see psychologically what in us needs to die. That is a war that occurs in the soul, which the Muslims called Jihad, not a war against other people, but against one's desires, one's faults. Thank you for coming!
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