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We have arrived at the 22nd arcanum, the last of the major arcana within the sacred tarot.
This card is the crown of life. It is the return to our origin. Many people within religions believe that by adhering to a group or following a tradition, that they are guaranteed the entrance, the reunion with the truth. Yet, as we have explained throughout this course, the path of the tarot, the path of initiation, is predicated on action, which is why Prophet Muhammad in the Holy Qur’an declared within the second Surah, Al-Baqarah, verses 45 to 46: And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah].
Patience and humility are the essential requisites of the path, as we stated in the first arcanum of the tarot [The Magician]. In order to ascend, we must descend. We must be humbled. We must face our own ego and work on our defects every day. To receive the crown of life, the return, we must have complete faith. Faith has to do with awakening, what we see, what we verify, what we know from experience. It has nothing to do with theory or belief, to think that one is saved by going to church or synagogue or one's mosque.
However, the Qur’an is for initiates. Every scripture in the world is for initiates. There is a literal meaning and there was an esoteric meaning about these truths. So, the Qur’an, as a beautiful teaching of the Gnostic wisdom, explains in its verses the realities of the secret arcana, especially the path itself as explained by Samael Aun Weor. This scripture alludes in a particular verse to what is known as the Three Mountains, which we are going to elaborate today. The Three Mountains mentioned by Samael Aun Weor in his books is a complete description of a path, which is synthesized in the Surah known as Yunus, from Surah 10, verses 55 to 56: Unquestionably, to Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. Unquestionably, the promise of Allah is truth, but most of them do not know (meaning from experience, from awakening in the internal planes).
This last verse is very interesting. Muslims believe that it pertains to physical birth as a child, physical death, and then by being a good practitioner of Islam, one returns to God. But the reality is very different to what people believe or interpret.
“He gives life (on the First Mountain),” meaning the initiations of Major Mysteries raise the sacred fire of Kundalini within the physical, vital, astral, mental, causal, Buddhic, Atmic bodies. We create the solar vehicles. We give birth to the wedding garments of Christ, or as the Qur’an states, “the garments of reverence”: لباس التقوى Libas al-Taqwa, a symbol of profound prayer, and traditionally in Islam, they wear white garments when they go on Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca. This is a beautiful symbol about creating the solar bodies on the First Mountain. But if that initiate takes the straight path of the bodhisattvas upon reaching תפארת Tiphereth, they can work with the serpents of light as we have explained. So, the serpents of fire within מלכות Malkuth, יסוד Yesod, הוד Hod, נצח Netzach, תפארת Tiphereth. If we take the direct path, after raising the fire within each of those bodies, we can work with the higher initiations: the serpents of light, again, within those lower seven bodies, the lower seven sephiroth. That is what it means that الله Allah gives life, because real life is within, חַיָה Chaiah, the Holy Spirit in Hebrew, working with that power. But also, الله Allah causes death, which means enter the Second Mountain. If we qualify through raising the serpents of fire and light, we must now work upon the complete death of the ego. We annihilate the ego within the inverted sephiroth of the tree of death, קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth, within the kabbalistic teachings. Or, in Islam the tree of زقوم Zaqqum, which is an actual tree in Arabia with leaves that are very bitter to taste, a symbol of hell, the infra-conscious realms. When we annihilate the egos associated with the lunar hells, we resurrect within the lunar heaven. We annihilate the egos of the mercurial hells, we rise to the mercurial heaven. Likewise, down to the nine sephiroth, now up the nine sephiroth above מלכות Malkuth, until reaching כתר Kether. At that point, if we pay all of our karma gladly, we can resurrect, as we explained in our Arcanum 20: Resurrection. However, that is not the end, because the resurrected initiates must enter the Third Mountain, which are higher degrees known as ascension, which is what Prophet Muhammad referred to as “To Him you will be returned,” the Third Mountain which relates to this arcanum. This Third Mountain is very difficult to comprehend. It is only known by experience. It is very elevated, which is why you do not find many initiates speaking abundantly about it in a very clear way. But if you work seriously in meditation, your Being can show you the entire path from the beginning (the Minor Mysteries) to the end. So the Mountain of Ascension is referenced in a Surah in the Qur’an known as “The Ascending Ways,” Al-Ma’arij from Al-Miraj, meaning “The Night Journey,” as we have learned about from the Prophet Muhammad traveling from Mecca to Jerusalem upon البراق Al-Buraq, the mystical creature of Islam with the face of a woman, the body of a horse, and the wings of the spirit. براق Buraq means “lightning” in Arabic. It is the Kundalini power that can take one from Mecca (יסוד Yesod) to دار السلام Darussalam, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Jerusalem, “the City of Peace,” which is the crown Chakra Sahasrara. So, this Surah 70: Al-Ma’arij, “The Ascending Ways,” explains this truth: Bismillah ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim:
Numbers within any scripture is kabbalistic. Samael Aun Weor mentions that we know where we are in the path based on how old we are internally. There are esoteric ages. Numbers relate to the Tree of Life. If we are in the Minor Mysteries (and there are nine), if we have entered the first initiation of Minor Mysteries, we are 10 years old. The second initiation of Minor Mysteries, 20 years old, up to 90, the ninth initiation of Minor Mysteries―the probationary path.
But if we are married, we could enter the Major Mysteries. The first initiation of Major Mysteries is 100 years of age. The second initiation of Major Mysteries, 200; likewise, up to 900, relating to nine initiations of Major Mysteries. This explains why in the Bible certain figures like Abraham or other figures like Joseph, many of the figures in the Bible, lived to a profound age, many years, sometimes 800, 900. People do not know how to explain these principles, but these refer to initiatic principles, esoteric age. If we are a thousand years old, that means we become a Logos, a Christ, referring to כתר Kether, the top of the Tree of Life, a very high level of development, which one only reaches through the Mountain of Resurrection, the Second Mountain. However, to enter the Absolute, beyond the Tree of Life, to enter the אין Ain, an initiate must develop 300,000 years of development. Many people become amazed that upon reaching resurrection, there is more work to do. So, after the ego is dead, the body and the soul resurrect, and that Master is self-realized, there is other work to complete. Those masters long to enter the אין Ain, but to do that they have to work countless times for humanity throughout many cosmic ages or eras, developing their soul and knowledge and wisdom until they gain the right to enter the אין Ain. When the Qur’an speaks that “Unto Him are the angels and the spirit and a day, whose measure is 50,000 years,” it is referring to those beings that are working to go up to reach 300,000 years of development. To us it may seem that it is a very far thing to achieve, but to those masters, the Being says truly, “We see it as nigh, close.” We develop the three souls we have mentioned in Arcanum 3: The Empress through the three mountains. We spoke about נפש Nephesh, רוח Ruach, נשמה Neshamah: the carnal soul, the thinking-emotional soul, the spiritual soul, which the Qur’an speaks abundantly about. נפש Nephesh in Hebrew can mean “blood.” It is the animal soul, which is mixed with ego. In Arabic, it is نَفْس الاَمَّارَه Nafs al-Ammara and is referencing the story of Joseph, Surah 12, verse 53: Yet I do not absolve my own carnal soul. For the carnal soul, indeed, prompts men to evil except in as much as my Lord has mercy. Indeed, my Lord is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful. ―Qur’an 12:53
So, mercy is known חסד Chesed in the Kabbalah, the Spirit, and the Innermost, which is associated with רוח Ruach, the רוח אלוהים Ruach Elohim that floated upon the face of the genesiatic waters in order to create the soul, the world. We have to work with רוח Ruach, the Spirit, in order to conquer the animal soul. This רוח Ruach is known as نَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ Nafs-e-Lawwama in Arabic. They call this the self-reproaching soul, which blames the ego, blames the self, takes responsibility for one's actions. If we are working with רוח Ruach, with our superior intellect, our superior emotions in order to control the animal soul, we are blaming ourselves for our own faults, not out of a sense of morbidity or repression, but through conscious action, remorse for our faults, so that we can change.
The Surah known as “The Resurrection,” القيامة Al-Qiyamah, states the following: And I swear by the self-blaming soul, the self-reproaching soul [to the Day of Resurrection]. ―Qur’an 75:2
It is interesting that this Surah is known as القيامة Al-Qiyamah, “The Resurrection.” It relates to ال Al-χημία khemia, alchemy, because if you work with alchemy, you learn to resurrect. Then finally, נשמה Neshamah, the spiritual soul known as نفْس المُطمَئِنّه Nafs-e-Mutma’inna in Arabic, “the soul at peace,” we realize the perfection of גבורה Geburah, the soul, נשמה Neshamah, through the end of the path, the heights, which is why in the Qur’an, in the Surah known as “The Dawn,” verses 27 to 28, states:
Oh, soul at peace, return to your Lord, content and contenting. ―Qur’an 89:27-28
On the First Mountain of Initiation, we work very diligently with נפש Nephesh. We control נפש Nephesh. We dominate it. We transform desire into comprehension, chastity, and love.
On the Second Mountain we work very diligently with רוח Ruach at a higher degree. The self-blaming soul is necessary to really critique every minute detail about the ego, because the Second Mountain is about death: annihilate all of the ego completely. We do that through a profound work of meditation, self-criticism, not from the ego, but from the consciousness looking into the soul―to critique every thought and desire of the animal mind so that it can be eliminated. It is very difficult work, but that is the way to enter the Third Mountain, which is the perfection of נשמה Neshamah, the soul at peace. “Return to your Lord, content and contenting.” 
These three paths are very beautifully described in The Divine Comedy of Dante. Dante describes in the first book of his poem Inferno: descend into hell, work with the animal soul, נפש Nephesh. Enter initiation by confronting your desires, and then in order to go up, he enters Purgatory, which is the Second Mountain. So, hell is often described in Catholicism as a place of eternal condemnation and suffering, while purgatory is a place of suffering for penance, going up towards the heights, because the Second Mountain is for initiates who are working to eliminate all of desire. That is the Mountain of Resurrection, which if you remember from the poem of Dante, he gets to the very peak of purgatory where he meets Beatrice, the divine soul, נשמה Neshamah. She takes him from the top to all the glories of heaven, which is Paradiso, paradise, the Mountain of Ascension. Three books, three mountains.
These three paths are described as the paths of Peter, Judas, and John. 
In the path of Peter, we give birth to the solar bodies. We work with patar, the stone, the sexual energy. If you are familiar with the life of Peter, he was crucified upside down. His head facing the earth because he wanted to show that if you wish to enter the higher stages of initiation, you must descend into your own earth, as we explained in our course on The Secret Path of Initiation. So, work with your stone, patar. Create the solar bodies. Enter initiation. That is the First Mountain, the path of Peter.
But if you wish to go to the very heights, you have to work with Judas, the second path, the Mountain of Death and Resurrection. Unfortunately, Judas is a figure that is not understood at all. We explained in Arcanum 13: Immortality that there was a Master Judas who was one of the greatest disciples of Jesus. He did not betray Christ. He was given a role by Jesus to fulfill as part of a drama to teach humanity, how our own inner Judas, our ego, betrays our divinity, and if we wish to really return to the divine, we have to kill Judas, our ego.
One thing is the Master Judas who is very high. One thing is our own Judas inside who betrays Christ. It is an ego that loves religion, loves spirituality, but loves fornication more, worldliness, thirty pieces of silver, lunar values. Judas taught us how to die to the ego. That is the path of resurrection. 
But in order to enter the Mountain of Ascension, which relates to this arcanum, we have to become like John, with our head laying up on the heart of Jesus.
These are the three paths: birth, death, and sacrifice―Peter, Judas, John. There is even a book called The Flight of The Feathered Serpent, which has a lot of controversy in Gnostic circles, primarily because it is said that this book, or at least the latter half of it, was written by Judas Iscariot. If you know kabbalah and alchemy, you can see very clearly what the truth of this text is. So, in the verses of this book, it explains these three paths very beautifully. Peter offered his soul, but Judas gave it. ―The Flight of the Feathered Serpent
Remember that Peter denied the Lord three times, “Before the cock crows twice, you shall deny me thrice” (Mark 14:72), relating to your three brains when you are starting on the Mountain of Initiation. You are working to control your energies, dominate your passions, and your intellect, your emotions, and your motor-instinctive-sexual brain. But desire is there, tempting always, betraying. So, Peter denies the Lord. Peter offered his soul, saying, “I will follow you to the end, O master,” and then Christ said, “Before the rooster crows twice, you shall deny me thrice.”
Peter offered his soul, but Judas gave it. Judas did the one thing as a master that went contrary to his deepest feelings. He did not want to play this role. He wanted to have another role in the cosmic drama, but Christ said to him, “Only you could do this,” and he did it [See two lectures from The Gnostic Gospels to learn more about this initiate and his controversial role in spiritual history: Transcendent Betrayal in The Gospel of Judas and Beyond Good and Evil in The Gospel of Judas]. But what does it mean, that esoterically, Judas gave his soul? It means that we give everything to God by annihilating the ego. Without that, we cannot enter the heights. And because Judas gave it, John could remain with his head leaning on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. ―The Flight of the Feathered Serpent
It is impossible to enter the Mountain of Ascension, the Return, Arcanum 22, without complete death of desire.
Review of the Previous Arcana
So we will talk very briefly about the previous cards, especially starting from Arcanum 9: The Hermit, because only the hermits of the ninth arcanum obtain the return.
The return in Arabic is known as ٱلتَّوْبَة Al-Tawbah. This is repentance as well. We need to work with repentance in the ninth sphere, working in alchemy for the final liberation. So this card relates to sacrifices, sufferings, loneliness, solitude, so as to generate the sun of midnight, that Christic star that guides us symbolically in the astral plane when we learn to walk upon the moon, walking upon the lunar energies, controlling them. We have to work with the moon, יסוד Yesod, the ninth sphere. It is in this way that we work in the world, Arcanum 10: Retribution, the wheel of samsara with its evolving and devolving processes, with its good and bad, its yes and no, its victories and its failures. We must go beyond good and evil, says even Friedrich Nietzsche, who knew the doctrine at one point. 
We must conquer the mystery of the sphinx, which was given to Oedipus Rex: “What is that which walks on four feet in the morning, two feet in the afternoon, and three feet in the evening?” It is a man, a true hum-man, a child at first, then an adult walking on two legs, and then an elderly person with a cane. That is the traditional meaning.
First in the beginning, you work with the four lower sephiroth, your four feet as an infant, מלכות Malkuth, יסוד Yesod, הוד Hod, נצח Netzach. Afterward, you learn to walk on your two feet as a spiritual being, as תפארת Tiphereth, a man, by working with גבורה Geburah and חסד Chesed. When you learn to walk with two feet and a cane, you work with the three forces as an elder of days, an initiator, master of the heights: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah. That is the path of revolution. That is the mystery of the sphinx. To face our karma in this wheel of life, we must do so with rectitude and love, conquering ourselves. As we are becoming initiates, we work with Arcanum 11: Persuasion. We work with persuasion. We learn to dominate the jaws of the Lion of Katancia, the superior law of karma through the serenity and wisdom of our Divine Mother, who is opening the jaws of this lion with gentleness, because real power is through serenity and peace, not through aggression. This is what makes one an apostolate, Arcanum 12: The Apostolate: the hanged man. We are that apostolate hanging by a thread from the superior worlds, with our hands and arms almost touching the earth, almost interacting with identification with this physical world. We must learn to be in the world, but not of it. This is the mystery of ל Lamed. What you see in the top right of that card looks like the hanged man itself, the apostolate with the L-shaped figure in Hebrew. ל Lamed can also refer to the tongue, the verb, the speech. We learn, in alchemy, to pronounce mantras. Husband and wife vocalize sacred sounds in order to dominate the energies, to become apostles for humanity. Even the name الله Allah in Arabic hides the mystery of the apostolate, because الله Allah has two ل Lams in Arabic, the same as the Hebrew ל Lamed. ا Alif, ل Lam, ل Lam, ه Ha, or א Aleph, ל Lamed, ל Lamed, ה Hei. الله Allah synthesizes the work of these two letters: the ل Lams, the two ל Lameds. ال Al-له Lah. ال Al or אל El in Arabic and Hebrew is masculine. It is the indefinite article “the,” and لَا La in Arabic means “No,” negation. Literally, الله Allah is “The No,” “The Nothing,” the absolute abstract space, that which negates everything that exists because divinity is higher and above what we ascribe to Him. As the Muslims state: "Truly He is above that which they ascribe to Him,” because you cannot characterize or anthropomorphize space. Even in Hebrew, אין סוף Ain Soph is “The Nothing,” “The Limitless,” our divine Being, our supra-atomic star. That is the Nothing, the No, الله Allah. We have ال Al and لَا La, masculine, feminine, which is interesting. Man and woman work with ל Lamed, with ل Lam, with mantras, in alchemy. One man, one woman―they unite in order to form الله Allah, the God, the אלוהים Elohim. אל El is masculine. אלוה Eloah is feminine. אלוהים Elohim is “Gods and Goddesses,” which are not separate, but one unity―one perfect multiple unity, a Christic Being, the Army of the Voice. الله Allah is the best of creators, Muslims repeat within the Qur’an. الخالق Al-Khaliq, “The Creator,” and الودود Al-Wadud is “The Loving.” Where else do we find the power of God to create through love but in sex? That is the mysteries of bearing witness to God. As we find in the Declaration of Islam (the الشهادة Shahadah): لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ
لَا La is feminine, “No,” negation. ال Al is masculine, affirmation, the man. Together they form الله Allah, the unity, the perfection. That is religion, reunion, yoga. That is how you become an apostle. That is through a matrimony, because the two forces together perform توحيد Tawhid, which is the unity of God, the perfection of God. We have to negate the ego, desire, in order to affirm Christ. We do that through our speech, with our words. That is what it means to bear witness, to speak about what we see and know. That is the meaning of recitation: ٱلْقُرْآن al-Qur’an in Arabic.
So a martyr or an apostle is an alchemist. The word for martyr or witness is شاهد shahid in Arabic. This is where you get the term الشهادة Shahadah: “There is no God but God and Muhammad is His Prophet.” If you are really declaring that from the very core of your being, it is because you are an alchemist, not because you think or believe in a tradition with the intellect or the heart. But we demonstrate with sex, with our actions. That is how you bear witness of God, through the sexual energy, through transmutation, through alchemy. الله Allah-χημία Khemia is to fuse with God. We are like the Apostle hanged upside down, barely managing to survive in this world of suffering. However, ال Al, the man, the masculine, must be reversed, must go up. We find this in the syllables الله Allah. We find that we are upside down. We are negated by God because we have desire, ego. But you transform the negative into the positive, the moon into the sun, and then you switch that syllable لَا La to ال Al. That is how you create a perfect master who fulfills the will of الله Allah, the Being. 
When you work with the sexual energy, you learn to practice or Arcanum 13: Immortality, the death of the ego. That is how we become immortal.
We shall reap what we sow. When you work on the ego, you develop temperance, Arcanum 14: Temperance, balance, stability, degrees of work. Through our serenity that we developed by tempering the soul through chastity, through a marriage, we learn to confront the devil: Arcanum 15: Passion, the animal ego, Typhon Baphomet, Iblis in the Qur’an, who must be annihilated, transformed, so that we avoid failure, Arcanum 16: Fragility; the Fallen Tower. 
When we conquer our own weaknesses, we have Arcanum 17: Hope. We develop the hope of the soul because we see that this work is possible.
It is when we have a lot of energy and hope that we really battle against ourselves, Arcanum 18: Twilight: the battle between light and darkness, good and evil, the forces of Christ and Ahriman. Once you have really conquered yourself, you develop Arcanum 19: Inspiration towards the end of the path, and we prepare for Arcanum 20: Resurrection, the perfection of the soul. But even at that point we must not become the Fool of the Tarot. After having resurrected, we must enter the Mountain of Ascension. We are helping humanity through countless cosmic ages, but never give in to temptation, to fall through the mind, because while the ego is dead at that point, the mind, even a solar mind, can tempt. So that must be controlled. As Samael Aun Weor mentions in Tarot and Kabbalah, the danger of being a demon is never so close as one is very close to being an angel, an ascended master. So that is pertaining to our Arcanum 21: Transmutation. We must work with transmutation to cease being a fool, to overcome the dangers. But to enter the Mountain of Ascension is very dangerous. It is the heights, which is why Samael Aun Weor mentions in The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled, that those who have knocked upon the terrifying gate of the eleventh aeon, the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur, have come close to losing their lives. So, that path is very difficult, even for the resurrected. There are degrees upon degrees. “Light upon light,” says the Qur’an (24:35).
As we explain in our Arcanum 9: The Hermit, the dangers of this path are very overwhelming as we found in the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. In the fourth movement, there is a chorus that sings, "Joyfully as his sun speeds throughout the starry firmament, hasten brothers on your way, exalting as a knight in victory!”
Then finally the music, a great battle occurs in which the soul has to go to the end from the very beginning of the Minor Mysteries to the Mountain of Ascension. At the very end of overcoming those dangers, you hear the great chorus of angels welcoming that master again to their home with, “Freude schöner Götterfunken” [“Joy, beautiful spark of the gods”], the great Ode to Joy, the great chorus of that symphony. That is the return we seek. But of course, to reach that point we have to fulfill the requisites of the prior arcana. 
Description of the Card
Let us look at the actual glyph.
At the bottom of the plate, you see a swastika cross, the Chakra Muladhara with four petals. A woman, representing the Divine Mother, the truth, plays a harp, which is the sexual lyre with nine chords, nine strings. That lyre is the spinal column. But nine also relates to the יסוד Yesod. We can see that there are seven notes in the spine, seven chakras, seven flowers or lotuses, but we work with those chakras through nine strings, Arcanum 9: The Hermit, יסוד Yesod. She plays until she finds perfect harmony, which is the synthesis, the fulfillment of the path. In the superior part of the card, we find four gods of death in Egypt: Mestha, Hapi, Duamutef, and Kebhsennuf, which represent the four elements: earth, fire, water and air, the four holy creatures of alchemy. These four elements relate to the Four Gospels and to the animals of alchemy. The eagle relates to the air, נצח Netzach, the mind, as well as the Gospel of John. The lion refers to fire, the sephirah הוד Hod, the Gospel of Mark. The angel relates to water, the sephirah יסוד Yesod, the vital energies, the Gospel of Matthew, and the bull, the earth, relating to מלכות Malkuth, the Gospel of Luke. We see a sacred serpent around the sphere of Ra at the top, which is the Solar Logos, the אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur, the Absolute, which is above death beyond these four figures, beyond desire. What is beautiful about this is that the Sun is ال Al, “the,” the light, and then death below is لَا La in Arabic, negation, rejection of all that is impure. Divinity is الله Allah, the light of the אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur, which brings death to the ego. That is the power of י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei in Hebrew, the four-letter name of God. י Iod-הוה Havah, יהוה Jehovah, symbolized by these four gods of death, which are the four Hebrew letters of kabbalah, י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei. It is beautiful that as the gods of death, they carry the ankh cross in their hands. It is a very profound symbol because only through death can you have life. Only through negation can you have affirmation, and through reconciling the two in alchemy, you work with perfection of יהוה Jehovah within you, الله Allah, the truth. What is beautiful too is that Arcanum 22, kabbalistically speaking, is 2 + 2 = 4, which we find represented by these four gods: the four-letter name of God within any tradition. This is the Crown of Life represented by אין סוף Ain Soph, כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah, the perfection of God. The crown of life is not the Innermost, חסד Chesed, the Spirit, but is beyond―the top Trinity of the Tree of Life and the Absolute above. So, this is the crown of life mentioned in Revelations, in many parts of that book. We receive the crown of life through overcoming death, as it states in Revelations, chapter 2, verse 10: Fear not of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison (through karma, through ordeals, through suffering), that ye shall have tribulation ten days (related to our Arcanum 10: Retribution). Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life (work with death, these four gods, these four letters of Hebrew of alchemy in order to enter the אין סוף Ain Soph). ―Revelation 2:10
So, it is important to remember that our Innermost Spirit strives to enter and reach union with the Glorian: י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vav, ה Hei: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah, אין סוף Ain Soph. We strive with to reach our Spirit at our level, but there are levels upon levels of development to reach the Glorian, the Christ.
Arcanum 22 is the ark of the alliance. It is the sacred arcanum, the ark that contained the holy tablets of the law of משה Moshe, of Moses. So, this ark is often depicted as two cherubim touching each other with their wings and their sexual organs, a symbol of אל El and אלוה Eloah, forming אלוהים Elohim: male-female, אדם Adam-חוה Eve, the primordial Christic man, the superman mentioned by Nietzsche. So, this ark has the staff of Aaron, which is the phallus and a cup of omer, which is the uterus: male-female, אדם Adam-חוה Eve, the two tablets, two stones, two יסוד Yesods or two spines working in harmony, which form the lyre of Orpheus. Or-pheus―you find the word אור Aur in Hebrew, in the light, which is formed by the beautiful music of a matrimony, the perfect matrimony.
This card has the sign of Pisces involved with it at the bottom right, as well as Venus, the star of love. Pisces relates to the waters and Venus relates to the star of the Divine Mother, or Venus Aphrodite.
In the myth of Venus, of her birth, the titan Kronos―Saturn, the Holy Spirit―castrated Uranus, which is in the kabbalah, חכמה Chokmah. בינה Binah, the intelligence of God, took the Christic force, castrated it from Uranus, and it fell into the water in order to create foam, and from the foam emerged Venus, the Divine Mother, the beautiful symbol of how when you castrate your animality and work with your seminal waters, by working with בינה Binah and חכמה Chokmah, you give birth to your Divine Mother in your spine, the Kundalini, which is why in this card you find that the very bottom there is a four petalled lotus which relates to the Chakra Muladhara.
The key of entering into the return is to constantly remember your Divine Mother, to work with the Kundalini, whether from the very beginning or towards the end. I'll relate to an experience about this. I once woke up in the astral plane a few years ago and I asked my Divine Mother, “Take me to Egypt!” So, I felt her pick me up with Her magnetic pull outside my house and I flew across the continents. I remember landing in the desert near a lake or pool of water, and I saw in the distance, actually very close by, the Gnostic Church. At the top there was a spaceship that―if you have seen movies like Star Gate with a spaceship in the form of a pyramid going on top of that building―it was similar to that. But instead of a pyramid, it was a church, but at the top, a spire with a cross that was like a ship leading up, going up into space. I felt such awe of the beauty of that symbolism because I wanted to approach the Gnostic Church and to work with the cross at the time. At that time, I was single. I was not married yet. So, a spaceship in the internal planes is a symbol of ascension, spiritual elevation. You wish to be elevated. You have to accept the invitation that those masters give you. They were showing me, “You want to enter the Gnostic Church? Work with the cross. That is how you are going to ascend, go up.” After I returned to my body, I begged my Divine Mother again, “Please, help me go to the Gnostic Church in Egypt, to go back to that experience,” because I felt that the experience ended prematurely, and I wanted to return to that experience. Even in dream yoga, we have a practice called the return practice [taught within How to Consciously Enter Dreams]. So I laid down in bed and I visualized what I had just experienced, concentrated upon my Divine Mother and went to sleep, and then again, I woke up again in the astral plane. This time I was underground in a huge cavern. I looked around me and there was just this limpid pool of water, beautiful, blue, translucent waters, and I was on a platform in the very center which was illuminated at the bottom by a four petaled lotus in blue outlines. I saw that the light from the waters and this platform was illuminating the entire chamber. It was a big cavern underground, and when I looked down at myself, I was floating above this four petaled lotus, which is a symbol of this: the Chakra Muladhara. So, I was looking at myself and floating above this platform by my Divine Mother helping me, and then I woke up. I reflected and meditated and asked my Divine Mother to help me understand the experience because it was very beautiful. I remember reading about this symbol in The Aquarian Message relating to the Chakra Muladhara or the Church of Ephesus in his book The Aquarian Message, where he describes how when you penetrate into the interior of the earth into the Church of Ephesus, the Chakra Muladhara, you go underground. You enter the caverns of your own body, the earth. The church of Ephesus is a mystical lotus flower. This flower has four petals, and anyone who profoundly meditates on the church of Ephesus penetrates into the subterranean regions of the Earth. Then, the gnomes or pygmies teach us their mysteries. The tattva Prithvi shines with glory within the church of Ephesus.
I remember learning that Egypt, מצרים Mitzrahim in Hebrew, relates to the earth, your body. So, when you read about Egypt in the Bible, it has nothing to do with a physical place in the Middle East, but instead to your body. So here I was begging my Divine Mother, “Take me back to Egypt, physically, because I want to go into the church.” So, She was showing me, “Go into your body, into your mind, your cavern, your earth, and work with the four petaled lotus Muladhara,” which is symbolized here. I wanted to go to the Gnostic Church, the light of the אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur, but first you have to work with your spine. So, I was really amazed because I read word for word what the master described about that experience in The Aquarian Message. So, it was very beautiful.
Now, to reach that point we have to work with the cross and again in that prior experience. I saw the cross at the top of this church, and here we find the cross of male-female within the base of the spine, which is also beautifully symbolized by the Hebrew letter ת Tav, at the top-right. ת Tav in Hebrew or in ancient Hebrew (and I believe in Aramaic too) was originally depicted as a cross and gradually morphed over time to form this symbol. So ת Tav is the seal, the cross, that we have to work with in order to enter the return. Seriousness in the Spiritual Work
Samael Aun Weor mentions that it is very rare to find people who become serious with this work, primarily because most individuals enter religion or spirituality because they want to acquire power, usually at the expense of other people. He also states that people often think of spirituality as like playing tennis or golf, that it is an amusement. If you sincerely look at humanity, this is typically the state of any tradition, any group. It does not matter if they are spiritual or religious or exoteric or even esoteric. You find this problem even in Gnosis, so nobody is really exempt.
So, when people find that this path is very difficult, of course they leave. They do not like the difficulty of facing the mind. Facing the ego is very painful to the soul, very arduous. We often have this tendency to go from religion to religion, group to group, looking for the truth, searching―which is not a bad thing to search. The problem becomes if we approach Gnosis like any religion, in a superficial way, merely staying at the surface, but never really applying the principles, because when you apply the principles, then you can have experiences like some of the ones I have been relating to you that apply to all the religions, all the principles and texts themselves. We are imitatus, which means “one who imitates.” We are not yet adeptus―which I believe are Latin terms―“to be a child of one's own work,” “to become an adept of the path, an initiate.” In the beginning we learn the books, the teachings, the scriptures, the lingo, and so we imitate what we learned from other instructors or from the prophets we admire, the books in the traditions we study very deeply, and this is necessary. We need to be inspired, and because we are not yet spiritually strong, we learn to imitate. But there comes a time in which we really become serious in the path. We learn to define ourselves based on our own experience, our own work. So, it has nothing to do with, again, belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque, but it has to do more with our internal development. What are we seeing for ourselves? What are we awakening to?―because that determines whether we will return to the truth or not. “Faith without works is dead,” said James in the Bible (James 2:17). Of course, there are stages to the path as we have been explaining.
There are three stages or degrees to any esoteric school, any religion, any path, which is very similar to the description that I gave previously about the paths of Peter, Judas, and John. There is a beautiful correlation there, but we shouldn't be limited by those correlations exclusively. There is the path of purification, known in Masonry as the path of the apprentice. It is the introductory teaching. It is how we are introduced to the esoteric knowledge. We learn to listen to lectures or books or scriptures and we become Shravakas [“listeners”]. This is a Buddhist term that relates to the introductory levels of Buddhism. We learn to listen for the first time. We learn to imitate what we learn. But of course, there are other degrees. We learn to become companions of the path. We learn to illuminate ourselves by purifying the mind. We enter the greater vehicle, Mahayana. Yana means “vehicle.” Shravaka means “to listen.” It is the vehicle of listening, the vehicle of learning for the first time. Mahayana meets greater vehicle. It has more to do with how we work for humanity as we really applying these principles, and really working to live by them in every moment. This is the intermediate path, the intermediate teachings. But again, there are higher teachings relating to perfection, known in Masonry as the path of Masters or Tantrayana, the vehicle of tantra, which we know is alchemy. So, in Tantric Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, the scriptures that are now available to humanity, they explain these principles very beautifully, but it requires a lot of discrimination and study and experience to be able to interpret, because those texts were not meant for lay people: people who are not even practicing chastity. All these degrees build off each other and they are necessary. A lot of people, they think that “I can just skip the stages of purification and belonging to a group,” or better said, “applying the beginning level steps of the path… I could just skip all that and go right to tantra,” meaning, begin very advanced stages of work―which of course is not true. This assumption is not based on the realities of any tradition. Of course, they were stricter, whether in Buddhism or Sufism especially. They made their students in their groups train for years, learning very introductory levels of teaching until they graduated, until they were proving their worth, spiritually speaking. But of course, that had to do with the time in which masters were more abundant. I believe even after the time of Prophet Muhammad when Sufism was beginning to develop in the times of Al-Qushayri, who wrote a very beautiful sculpture called Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism. [Al-Qushayri] said that even in his time, Sufism was dead. You do not find many real Sufi masters around anymore, and that was more than a millennia ago. So, imagine today. But of course, we have to learn how to work with each stage and not skip or try to pass off what we think is superfluous. The beginning stages of the work has to do with ethics, our values: how we work upon our mind, because if we want illumination, astral projections, jinn experiences, we have to purify the ego first. That is how you generate light. Without that, we cannot see the path for ourselves. This is the emphasis we place in this teaching, that if you want to have those experiences, we have to really work hard. All the teachings are available for the first time in humanity, whether it be the books about tantra, sexual alchemy, teachings that are very elevated, and were not given to the public ever. In fact, there were initiates who gave the knowledge without permission in ancient times and they were killed by their own fellow adepts, because they were not allowed to teach this. We are now in the Aquarian Era where the knowledge is given openly, and so it is very different. But of course, these three stages are included in all the writings of Samael Aun Weor. 
We begin with ethics in order to develop illumination. We purify the mind so that we can begin to see the path for ourselves, like we see in this image of the hermit holding the lamp of wisdom in his hand, guiding a ship across a river. That ship is the ark, the arcanum, the law of chastity, which is illuminated by the spine and the lamp of wisdom, the hermetic science. Purification begins with hermetically sealing ourselves, never emitting the sexual energy ever, so that that fire can build, and that light can illuminate our mind.
The Crown of Life
That is how we enter and receive the crown of life. The Book of Revelations states:
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. ― Revelation 2:10
This is the Church of Laodicea, the crown chakra, the Chakra Sahasrara, which is a powerful element in us symbolized by the halo of the saints in every tradition, every cosmogony, every religion. This chakra has profound powers, which we can develop in ourselves when working with the sexual energy. This chakra has to do with omniscience, the capacity to experience the top of the Tree of Life, as we see represented in the middle here: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Or in Greek terms, the First Logos, Second Logos, Third Logos: the Crown, Wisdom, and Intelligence of God.
Those are spheres of being that are very difficult to comprehend, but if we experience it, we will know elevated states of cognition, the ability to travel within the infinite space in multiple dimensions without any vehicles of any kind. This chakra relates to the pineal gland, to omniscience, which grants us the capacity to experience the Absolute. So, I related to you that experience where I saw the Gnostic Church, and I saw this spaceship in the form of a cross and it was elevating up into the sky. I wanted to go up there to the cross, which is the symbol of אין סוף Ain Soph, כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah: the crown of life. I wanted to receive that crown, but of course, I asked my Divine Mother to take me there, and she said, “Go down,” showing me the caverns and that symbol of the flower, the four petaled lotus Muladhara. 
It begins in Muladhara, and then by raising the fires up the spine, we receive the crown of the saints in successive levels. We have to do so first in מלכות Malkuth. Raise the fire from sex to the brain and all the vertebrae of the spine to awaken all the seven chakras of that body. Likewise, with the vital body, the astral body, the mental body, the causal body, the buddhic body, the atmic body, the seven lower sephiroth. Of course, we do that by working with our sanctity and our chastity.
So, the pineal gland, this organ, relates with this crown, but of course in order to receive that light, the light of Resurrection like we see with the raised Jesus with the three crowns above his head, we have to first enter our own Passion.
We have to be crowned with thorns first. That is the path of purification. The crown of thorns is a beautiful symbol of Christic will, meaning we control our mind at all costs―never let our mind think evil thoughts or do evil things, but dominate it with comprehension. This is not repression, not seeing a wicked thought and then pushing it away and saying, “This is bad. I can't look at this!” That is the mind of the ego fighting itself, which doesn't result in anything. Instead, we have to comprehend with the soul that this is negative and then redirect ourselves. Later in meditation, go in and confront that self that we saw in action through self-observation. In that way, we learn to purify ourselves.
This crown is the resplendent dragon of wisdom mentioned by Samael Aun Weor. A dragon is a symbol of a master who has conquered the four elements in him or herself. Absolute sanctity is needed in order to incarnate this trinity, which is the truth. These are three forces, but one light. It is a perfect unity that is expressed in three ways.
Therefore, the conflict between Islam and Christianity can be resolved because the Muslims reject the trinity, which is very easy to understand when we remember that these three sephiroth are not people. They are not separate. They are not anthropomorphized. They are forces. They are one energy that manifests and expresses in three ways. So, this is توحيد Tawhid, the unity of God. God is intelligence, supremacy, and wisdom all together. 
If we wish to incarnate these principles on us, we have to conquer death. We have to annihilate the three traitors mentioned within every tradition.
We have the demon of desire known in Masonry has Sebal, in Egypt as Apopai, and in Christianity as Judas. We have the demon of the mind known in Masonry as Ortelut, known in Egypt is Hai, and known in Christianity as Pilate. Then we have the demon of evil will, in Masonry known as Stokin, in Egypt as Nebt, and in Christianity as Caiaphas. Judas, as I said, is a religious ego in us. Here I am talking about the symbol, the practical application to us, not the Master Judas. Judas represents a religious ego that attends lectures and loves religion, but loves desire more, lust. Pilate justifies himself. It is an ego relating to the intellect that always rationalizes and justifies mistakes. He uses the mind in order to justify all of its wickedness. Pilate is a figure that is abundant in government, in every political sphere or arena in the world, regardless. People who have power and authority love authority and power more than they do the truth, and therefore they excuse themselves. They wash their hands clean of culpability. Caiaphas is the worst. He is a religious ego that loves traditions and instinctual desires and habits more than God, and therefore hates Christ because Christ is revolutionary, destroys and overturns the tables of the moneylenders in the temple. Christ doesn't have anything to do with worldliness or beliefs but rejects everything that is degenerate. So, in order to reach the supreme crown, supreme wisdom, supreme intelligence, we have to kill these three traitors in us. Alchemy and kabbalah are precisely the sciences that help us receive the crown of life, that help us return to divinity. So, what is the truth in Hebrew? It is אמת Amet: א Aleph, מ Mem, ת Tav, three letters. When you get rid of א Aleph, which is a symbol of the Father, כתר Kether, you spell מת Mut: מ Mem, ת Tav, which means “death,” “dead.” So if we expel א Aleph, the vital prana, the sexual energy from ourselves, א Aleph leaves us, the Father leaves us, and therefore we have death of the soul, which is why in the Book of Genesis it states, "Truly, you shall not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for the day that you do you shall surely die (spiritually)” (Genesis 2:17). Of course, we have explained these symbols abundantly in our courses. Psalm 119
So let us continue to talk about the Psalms or the Hebrew letter ת Tav. We always conclude our lectures or speak about the Psalms because we find the verses 169 through 176 all beginning with ת Tav. Likewise, the previous verses always began with the previous letters, א Aleph. Now finally we are concluding Arcanum 22 with ת Tav.
תִּקְרַב רִנָּתִי לְפָנֶיךָ יְהוָה כִּדְבָרְךָ הֲבִינֵֽנִי׃
Those judgments should be performed in meditation. We sit, close our eyes, perform retrospection. We visualize our day in which we observed certain defects in action. We concentrate on our Divine Mother, asking Her to help me to comprehend my anger, my pride, my lust, my laziness, whatever defects we saw through self-observation.
After we have observed, we learn to judge them in meditation. We critique them. We ask for understanding from בינה Binah, the Holy Spirit, our Divine Mother. When we have comprehended those egos by waiting in silence, asking for illumination and when we have understood those faults, we pray for elimination from the Divine Mother Kundalini. I’m that way, She purifies the mind, cuts off the heads of those egos, removes them. We have explained that process very extensively in a lecture called Retrospection Meditation, which you can access on our website but also our podcast, especially the course Gnostic Meditation at the very end. 176 I have gone astray as a lost sheep; seek your servant; for I do not forget your commandments. ―Psalm 119 The Hebrew Letter ת Tav: The Seal of the Covenant
There is a verse from the Song of Solomon that speaks abundantly about the Hebrew letter ת Tav, which is the seal of God:
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave… ―Song of Solomon 8:6
So, what does it mean that Solomon said, “Set me as a seal upon your heart?” Meaning, we purify the heart. When the heart is pure, it is sealed by God. It is perfected, and “as a seal upon your arm,” because the arm is a symbol of action. What we feel and what we think determine how we behave. This is the practical application of our Gnostic studies within relation to the three brains.
“Love is as strong as death,” because you cannot love your Divine Mother without dying to lust. …jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which have a most vehement flame. ―Song of Solomon 8:6
Those coals are the sexual matter. Our semen is a blackened force in the beginning. But when you light the fires, they become bright red, igneous with flames, internally.
Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be despised. ―Song of Solomon 8:7
…which it has to do with chastity. “Many waters cannot quench love” because when we are working with transmutation, we are never emitting the waters of life. Those waters cannot ever satisfy the longing of the soul in a permanent sense, because we must constantly regenerate those waters again and again. We are always constantly filling ourselves by transmutation, because the body develops its semen, its seminal matter, and after transmutation, those energies are redirected. The matter becomes energy and therefore that is the fountain of life that springs eternally within the soul.
…if a man were to give all the substance of his house for love (meaning to work in chastity), it would utterly be despised (by humanity who hates the stone of Peter, the rock of the Gnostic Church). ―Song of Solomon 8:7
ת Tav has a numerical value of 400. ת Tav is spelled ת Tav-ו Vav, 406. 4 + 6 = 10, מלכות Malkuth, the physical world, the physical body. Those forces of א Aleph-ת Tav, Α alpha and Ω Omega in Greek, descend from the Absolute down the Tree of Life and enter our body.
There are levels of that expression of God in the multidimensional nature of our being. The seal of God manifests itself within מלכות Malkuth, because even מלכות Malkuth ends with ת Tav. תפארת Tiphereth begins and ends in ת Tav, and כתר Kether has ת Tav in the middle: כ Kaf, ת Tav, ר Resh. The seal of God is within the spine, the spinal medulla. You are sealed with divinity based upon our sexual behavior. That is the pillar of equilibrium, the pillar of balance. ת Tav is the cross of the sperm and ovum within יסוד Yesod / מלכות Malkuth. Our sexual energy is deeply related to our physicality and vice versa. יסוד Yesod is the tetra-dimensional aspect of our body. Every atom of our physical body is impregnated by the vital force, and if the vital body leaves the physical body, we die. That is death in a physical degree because there is no longer any life animating that vehicle. 
We have to work with the sexual energy through the cross. All of the Hebrew letters are synthesized here in the cross of the Rosicrucians. We find the three mother letters of Kabbalah in the center: א Aleph, ש Shin, מ Mem. Of course, the Seal of God is perfected, all those letters are perfected in us through alchemy. As symbolized the opening of Genesis:
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא Bereshit Bara אֱלֹהִים Elohim, “In wisdom אלוהים Elohim created,” אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם et Hashamayim, “the heavens,” וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Vay’at ha’aretz, “and the earth.”
You find the letters א Aleph-ת Tav there: אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם et hashamayim. “The heavens” is ה Hei, שָּׁמַיִם Shamayim. שָּׁמַיִם Shamayim is “heavens” and הַ ha are the indefinite article, “the.” But you also find א Aleph-ת Tav there. Through א Aleph and ת Tav is how you create the heavens and the earth. אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Et hashamayim Vay’at ha’aretz. So how is it that through the 22 letters of God, we create the heavens? Because those Hebrew letters are associated with all the arcana, the 22 major arcana. א Aleph begins with The Magician, ת Tav ends with “The Return.” By working with all those principles, אֵת et: א Aleph ת Tav, we create הַשָּׁמַיִם Ha-Shamayim, the perfected man or superman within us, and “the earth,” וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Vay’at ha’aretz. We mentioned that ו Vav is the spine. וְאֵת Vay’at: “and the earth.” ו Vav means “and,” the conjunction in Hebrew. It joins words and phrases together. But notice that ו Vav is before אֵת et, again, וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Vay’at ha’aretz, “and the earth,” meaning through the spine, and by working with all the arcana of the tarot, you give birth to the solar bodies, הָאָֽרֶץ ha’aretz. The earth, your own spiritual earth, are your solar vehicles that we create in a matrimony. That is how you begin Genesis. That is the beginning of the entire Bible, which people don't understand because they don't know the symbols of the Hebrew letters, the 22 arcana, which are essential in order to interpret. 
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. ― Revelations 1:8
Α Alpha is א Aleph, Ω Omega is the last letter in Greek, which can also relate to ת Tav. “The beginning and the ending,” sayeth the Lord, which is Αβεραμεντω Aberamentho, the sacred name of Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth has his sacred name. It is mentioned in The Pistis Sophia, Αβεραμεντω Aberamentho, which begins with Α Alpha and ends with ω Omega in Greek, “which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
We develop the perfection of the soul through the 22 arcana. ת Tav is specifically the cross between the sperm and the ovum, as I said. It is a seal of God. However, there is a heavenly seal and there is a diabolic seal (in קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth), as stated in the Book of Revelations, chapter 13, verses 17 and 18: No man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that has (kabbalistic) understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man (תפארת Tiphereth); and his number is Six hundred Sixty and Six. ―Revelations 13:17-18 
The beast, 666, the seal of the devil: Arcanum 6 is Indecision. We have three brains. People who follow the animal mind, the ego, whether through their intellect, their emotions or their sexuality, form 666, the seal of the devil.
Likewise, 6 + 6 +6 = Arcanum 18: Twilight, battles between light and darkness.
תפארת Tiphereth is the sixth sephirah on the Tree of Life. It begins with ת Tav and ends with ת Tav, and תפארת Tiphereth also relates to the heart. Physically, we have blood that is filled with oxygen that circulates throughout the body, gives life. It carries א Aleph, the breath. That is the seal of God, but we also expel poisons from our body through venom blood, when the body picks up any types of poisons in the body, negative elements. We expel it through our breath. That is ת Tav as well, positive-negative, good and bad. So symbolically, תפארת Tiphereth, the heart, can relate to whether we are sealed by God or the devil based on the qualities of our heart, based on initiation. תפארת Tiphereth, again, is Arcanum 6, 666, but we have to learn to receive the seal of God by annihilating the ego. What does it mean to be sealed, spiritually speaking? The seal relates to hermeticism. It is like a stamp that you put on a letter with wax showing that you are consummating your work, your letter, your message. Symbolically speaking, if we are sealed by God, it means we are perfecting the work. If we were sealed by the devil, our own mind, the ego, it means that we have defined ourselves for the black lodge. The seal of God is mentioned in, again, the Book of Revelations, chapter 7, verse 4: And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand (144000 = 9) of all the tribes of the children of Israel (which is the children of the Stone of Jacob, יסוד Yesod, Sex, the Ninth Sephirah). ―Revelations 7:4
So there are a 144,000 sealed by God. It is a symbol. 1 + 4 + 4 = 9. If we wish to be sealed by God, if we wish to consummate the work of the path to receive ת Tav, we have to enter initiation and eliminate the ego, work in alchemy, and return to אמת Amet, the truth. ת Tav signifies the truth, which is why in the Book of John, chapter 8, verse 32 states:
And you shall know the truth (אמת Amet), and the truth shall make you free. ―John 8:32 
What Prophet Muhammad Represents in Us
We will conclude with a teaching that is not very well understood.
The Christian and Jewish traditions speak abundantly about the seal of God. You also find this within the Qur’an in Islam. Rumi and the Qur’an teach how all things must return to divinity, which is why Rumi stated in a poem: I died as a mineral and became a plant,
Meaning, if we enter the path of the revolution of the consciousness, we die to the ego and become an angel. We resurrect.
…but even from angelhood
Because even the resurrected masters acquire development that is difficult to comprehend. They go beyond angelhood on the Mountain of Ascension.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
What does is that non-existence? له La, the syllable in Arabic for the “No.” الله Allah is the Absolute that any resurrected master aspires to enter.
This return is the ascension demonstrated by the life of Prophet Muhammad in the story of Al-Miraj, the Night Journey as we explained previously. His physical journey, his experience with jinn science, symbolizes this truth for us. So, while Prophet Muhammad performed jinn science, traveling in the 4th dimension with his body, it also symbolizes something for us, esoterically speaking.
If you look at the name محمد Muhammad in Arabic, you find that each letter represents a number, just like in Hebrew. This is known as the Abjad system. You also find the word for heart in Arabic, قلب Qalb, which is broken down as follows: ق Qaf (100), ﻝ Lam (30), ﺏ Ba (2). Or the numerical equivalence of a 132. Add those numbers together through kabbalistic addition: 132 can also equal 32 + 1 which equals 33. This also reminds us of the 32 paths of kabbalah, the Tree of Life that we have to walk in order to obtain self-realization. There are 33 vertebrae of the spine, 33 canyons in which the sacred fire of البراق Al-Buraq rises. This is the creature known as البراق Al-Buraq that took Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem, in which he ascended the seven heavens. It is interesting that as we explained, Mecca is where you find the stone, the Kaaba, the sexual force. He rode on البراق Al-Buraq, “the lightning,” all the way to دار السلام Darussalam, “the city of peace,” יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Jerusalem, which is the crown chakra, Laodicea. It is from Jerusalem that he entered the seven heavens, from the crown up. So, while it symbolizes the seven chakras, but in a more profound sense, when you have raised the sacred fire up to your crown chakra, and you project from your Church of Laodicea, the Chakra Sahasrara, you could enter in samadhi into the Absolute. So that is the Mountain of Ascension symbolized in a microcosmic way, an individual way. قلب Qalb has the same numerical equivalence as مُحَمَّد Muhammad: م Mim (40), ح Ha (8), م Mim (40), م Mim (40), د Dal (4) or מ Mem, ח Chet, מ Mem, מ Mem, ד Daleth. 40 + 8 + 40 + 40 + 4 is 132 = 32 + 1 = 33. So مُحَمَّد Muhammad is a representation of תפארת Tiphereth, the heart. He represented this archetype that we have to follow and develop through our own work in ourselves. We, of course, raise the sacred fire of البراق Al-Buraq, the Kundalini, by working with the powers of the heart, which is תפארת Tiphereth, مُحَمَّد Muhammad. قلب Qalb is ق Qaf, ﻝ Lam, ﺏ Ba or ק Quf-ל Lamed-ב Beth. Samael Aun Weor mentions extensively that, really, the Kundalini only rises in according to the merits of the heart, the qualities of your heart, which is why مُحَمَّد Muhammad stated in the oral tradition of Islam, the Hadith: There is an organ in the body that, if it is righteous, ensures that the whole system will be righteous; and if it is corrupt, the whole body will become corrupt. This organ is the heart.
So, the fires of the heart control the fires of sex. When we know how to polish the mirror of our heart through meditation, annihilate the ego, remember God, that removes the rust of our weaknesses so that we can polish and reflect the Being within us, within our soul.
The Seal of the Prophets
Prophet Muhammad is often referred to as the seal of the prophets, from Surah al-Ahzab, verse 40:
Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but [he is] the Messenger of Allah and seal of the prophets (خاتم النبيين Khatam an-Nabiyyin). And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing. ―Qur’an 33:40
Traditionally, this verse is interpreted as Muhammad being the last of the prophets. Some verses have stated, or some traditions have stated, or related his words:
No prophethood shall remain after me, save for true visions. ―Prophet Muhammad
As well as:
Messengers and prophethood have ceased. There will be no messenger or Prophet after me. ―Prophet Muhammad
And the following:
My likeness among the prophets before me is that of a man who has built a house, completed it, and beautified it, yet left an empty place for a brick. Then the people come to the house, are amazed by it, and say, “If only you were to place this brick, your house would be complete!“ I am this brick. ―Prophet Muhammad
However, this is an error in interpretation. The seal خاتم Khatam is ת Tav in Hebrew. This is signified by the two ת Tavs of תפארת Tiphereth. תפארת Tiphereth is spelled ת Tav-פ Pei-א Aleph-ר Resh-ת Tav. ת Tav in Hebrew means “seal” or “truth.” Therefore, Prophet Muhammad represents תפארת Tiphereth in us, within any disciple who is working with the Kundalini, البراق Al-Buraq, the light ofبر Ur (Hebrew אור Aur) within our spine so as to work and unite with الله Allah.
Muhammad is the brick that completes ב Beth, the house of God, the sacred Kaaba, the solar house of the אין סוף Ain Soph, परिनिष्पन्न Paranishpanna. This is the complete self-realization of the Being, the return to the Absolute where we reach our supra-atomic star within the heights. This is pure Kabbalah: “I am the last of the prophets.” Prophethood is within תפארת Tiphereth. Even Samael Aun Weor made statements of this nature, and we know that Samael Aun Weor is a prophet. So, many Muslims get confused. How is it that Prophet Muhammad said, “I am the last of the prophets. There will be none after me,” and yet we have the Master Samael Aun Weor who is the prophet of the Aryan Root Race. So it is incongruent. It is a literal interpretation that does not hold much weight. We can say that Prophet Muhammad was the last of the Semitic prophets, the last among the Arabs or even the Middle Eastern races or sub-race of that continent at the time. But Samael Aun Weor is the prophet of the Aryan Root Race, the Aquarian Era. So there are levels among the prophets. Samael Aun Weor stated near the end of The Gnostic Bible―when he no longer provided commentary of that text―when people were asking him to interpret the rest of that scripture, the words of Jesus. He stated the following: We, Samael Aun Weor, tell ye, in the name of the First Mystery of Pistis Sophia and the Savior of the world, that I will unveil the remaining part of the Gnostic Bible in the half of the half of the time. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled
First off, why does he say “We”? “We, Samael Aun Weor.” If he is one prophet, why not say “I”? But because when you are united with the heights, with all the אלוהים Elohim, one is a perfect multiple unity. Even in the Qur’an, the divinity refers to Himself as “We.”
And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to you than your jugular vein. ―Qur’an 50:16
So, there is often a confusion and Islam where they reject anything that resembles polytheism, any notion of “we” or multiplicity in God. It is true. It is a true fact. However, divinity says “We are closer to you than your jugular vein” because divinity is one light that expresses in millions of masters.
One unity, many masters. One harmony, one perfection, represented by the Army of the Voice in Beethoven's 9th Symphony: the choral movement. All the gods sing in unison, one harmony, many angels. So, Prophet Muhammad said that "I am the brick that seals this house" because without תפארת Tiphereth, you cannot perfect ב Beth, your solar bodies by eliminating the entirety of the ego.
So, “We, Samael Aun Weor, tell ye in the name of the first mystery (כתר Kether) of Pistis Sophia and the Savior of the World, that I will unveil the remaining part of the Gnostic Bible in the half of the half of the time." He is prophesying that this book will be unveiled. It is the seal of prophecy.
When you think of time, how many hours are there in a day? It’s 24 (the Weaver, the 24th arcanum in the minor arcana). This is the work with the Divine Mother who is weaving cloths of the solar garments of the initiate.
The half of 24 is 12, the apostolate, the initiate. Half of 12 is 6, תפארת Tiphereth. “I will unveil the rest of the Pistis Sophia in the half of the half of the time.” That reduces to six, the sixth sephirah (תפארת Tiphereth), because when you reach תפארת Tiphereth, no other prophets will come. Everyone is always looking for a prophet in the physical world. No more prophets will come to humanity because the doctrine is now available to everybody. If you wish to receive visions of the truth, you must reach תפארת Tiphereth, which is why Prophet Muhammad said, “After me, no other prophet will exist except for true visions,” because everybody wants to find a physical master. You find this in every tradition, whether in Islam, Judaism, even in Gnosis. There are many people who only want to join a group because they think that their leader is a master, is a prophet. But even Samael Aun Weor and Prophet Muhammad said, "No other prophets will come after me," basically. You want prophethood? Reach תפארת Tiphereth and then you'll understand everything. That is how you seal the truth in yourself, the seal of the covenant of God. The Qur’an states in Surah Yunus, Surah 10, verse 47: For every community there is a messenger, and when their messenger comes, judgment shall be rendered between them with justice, and they will not be wronged. ―Qur’an 10:47
Or Surah 17, verse 15:
And never do We punish till We have sent a messenger. ―Qur’an 17:15 
So every race, every people, every root race, every sub-race, received its prophets. So, as we stated, Prophet Muhammad is the last of the prophets among the Arabs, the Middle Eastern sub-race within Arabia, and there have been many prophets and many more who will come in future ages, future root races.
It is also important to develop our own abilities to prophesy than to rely on anyone outside of us: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease (prophets give the doctrine, then return to the Absolute); where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part (for each community receives its book), but when completeness comes (through the return, the seal of prophecy, the completion of the Third Mountain, the path, and through the clarification of the Fifth Gospel: the writings of Samael Aun Weor), what is in part disappears. ―1 Corinthians 13:8-10 The Six Qualities of Muhammad’s Prophethood
What is interesting about the symbology of Prophet Muhammad is that he said there are six qualities that distinguish him from other prophets. Six is תפארת Tiphereth, the seal of the truth.
I have been favored above the prophets in six things (again relating to Arcanum 6: Indecision, the work with chastity, the alchemist). I have been endowed with consummate succinctness of speech (which is the perfection of the Logos, Arcanum 11: Persuasion, to persuade others by controlling the lion, the jaws of the lion through serenity). I have been made triumphant through dread (مفزع Muf-zian, Arcanum 9, dread at the temple doorway; dread in Arabic can also mean “sanctuary,” the entrance of the temple. No door is left to the unworthy except repentance). ―Prophet Muhammad
…which in Arabic can relate to a word that is مفزع Muf-zian relating to Arcanum 9, dread, because even that word in Arabic مفزع Muf-zian can also mean “sanctuary.” It also means “dread.” Where else do we feel dread and awe and reverence than before the temples of the White Lodge in the internal planes? So, we are triumphant through dread by working with alchemy, Arcanum 9. That is how we enter the doorway of the temple. So also remember, according to Samael Aun Weor, no door is left to the unworthy except for the door of repentance, ٱلتَّوْبَة Al-Tawbah.
…war booty has been made lawful for me (meaning the spoils of war relating to Arcanum 7: Triumph; we receive the spoils of our battles against the black lodge through the seventh arcanum of the tarot, which means initiations, coronations in victories). The whole earth has been made a place of worship for me and a means of purification (relating to מלכות Malkuth. We purify our earth, our body, by overcoming the law of retribution). And I have been sent to all created beings (as an apostle of Arcanum 12) and the succession of the prophets has been completed in me (which means Arcanum 22: The Return). ―Prophet Muhammad
So one thing is Prophet Muhammad, and one thing is his symbolism. People easily confuse the two and don't understand that any prophet is an archetype. In here, Prophet Muhammad as it with the rest of the Qur’an, spoke in kabbalah. There are verses of literal meaning and there are verses of alchemical, kabbalistic meaning, says Surah al-Imran, Surah 3, verse 7, which we have explained earlier:
He it is Who has sent down the Book upon thee; therein are signs [verses] determined; they are the Mother of the Book [the Tarot, the High Priestess], and others symbolic. As for those whose hearts are given to swerving, they follow that of it which is symbolic, seeking temptation and seeking its interpretation. And none know its interpretation save God and those firmly rooted in knowledge (marifah in Arabic, gnosis in Greek, Da'ath in Hebrew, the hidden sephirah on the Tree of Life, hidden within the throat whereby the verb is gestated, the power of the Tree of Knowledge). They say, "We believe in it: all is from our Lord." And none remember save those possessors of knowledge. ―Qur’an 3:7 The Straight Path of Islam, Tantra, and Tibetan Buddhism
So, “the seal the truth” or “truth seal” is Mahamudra in Buddhism, Dzogchen, upon which Padmasambhava commented.
It is the secret, unexcelled cycle of the supreme vehicle of Tantra, the true essence of the definitive meaning; the short path for attaining Buddhahood in one life. ―Padmasambhava
This is the straight path mentioned in the opening of the Qur’an, Al-Fatihah. Again, the lightning, البراق Al-Buraq in Arabic can mean Vajra, “lightning” in Sanskrit. Vajrayana, Tantrayana: the vehicle of the lightning, the diamond vehicle, the perfection of alchemical knowledge.
Vajra relates to Dzogchen, Mahamudra in Buddhism, the “truth seal,” “the seal of the truth,” the seal of the prophets, because Surah Al-Ahzab, which is Surah 33, refers to the 33 vertebrae of the spine.
So, the Surahs of the Qur’an are alchemical and kabbalistic. You wish to become a prophet, a seal of the truth? Perfect your spinal medulla. That verse, how Prophet Muhammad said, "I am the seal of the prophets,” is verse 40. This is very symbolic. 40 in kabbalah relates to م Mim in Arabic or Hebrew מ Mem. The seal of the truth is perfected in you when you work with your waters and your spine, מ Mem and the 33 vertebrae.
Arcanum 33 is the "Alliance.” It is similar to our Arcanum 19: Inspiration, which depicts a couple holding hands. What is interesting is that the alliance between God and man is represented by the alliance between husband and wife. That is how you work with your 33 vertebrae, your fires.
Even the name יהוה Jehovah, י Iod-הוה Havah, Jah-Chavah, you find י Iod-ה Hei, in the beginning. י Iod is 10 in kabbalah. ה Hei is 5, which is woman. Male-female, phallus-uterus. Together they make 15, the devil, the serpent, ס samech. Husband and wife must control, through their sexual organs, the serpent, the Kundalini, the fire, and not be tempted and let it pull them down. That is the mystery of alchemy. י Iod-ה Hei, male-female; ו Vav-ה Hei, phallus-uterus. Same meaning there.
That is the alliance of human beings with God. It is the original ark of the covenant. That is the seal of the prophets, the seal of the truth. So traditionally, Surah 33 is known as “The Parties” in the Qur’an. It is usually associated with the confederacy of the Quraysh, the Meccans, and other Arabs and Jewish tribes who fought the Muslims in the Battle of the Trench or Hijra 5 or 627 A.D., Islamic calendar years. So, one thing is the battle, what is usually associated with that verse in the Qur’an, but symbolically, it refers to the battle we face against the ego in order to obtain an initiation. We have to remember divinity. We have to work with البراق Al-Buraq, the lightning: Vajrayana, tantrayana teachings, a perfect matrimony, because that light of البراق Al-Buraq is the lightning that rises up the spine. This is allegorized or hinted at in the word תפארת Tiphereth. You find the word for light in Hebrew implicated here: ת Tav-פ Pei-א Aleph-ר Resh-ת Tav. You put ו Vav in between א Aleph and ר Resh, you spell אור Aur, light―תפ-אור-ת Tiph-aur-eth. The light of your heart is perfected by controlling the fires of sex.
That is how you ride upon that creature of البراق Al-Buraq. It has the face of a woman and the body of the horse, wings of the spirit, the caduceus of mercury. That is how you ascend and return to God. That is how you seal your initiations. This is the straight path mentioned in the Qur’an. The Hebrew letter ו Vav can relate to the Arabic و Waw, same principle in the letter, but in Arabic, the sixth letter. That is how البراق Al-Buraq rises in us so that we can take the direct path.
Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads unto life and few there be that find it. ―Matthew 7:14
Or as it states in the Qur’an itself:
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Do you have any questions?
Questions and Answers
Question: The crown chakra is directly related with the arising of meditation of the heart chakra and purification? Is it directly related to the rising of the Kundalini?
Instructor: In a marriage. When you are married and working with the sexual energy and meditating on the death of the ego, the qualities of our heart determine initiation. If our heart is impure, we act upon our ego without fulfilling ethical discipline. We give in to our defects. We fortify them. Therefore, that is why The Perfect Matrimony was never taught openly until as recently as the 1950s, primarily because humanity was not ready for it. In any stage of meditative discipline or any tradition, you have introductory, intermediate, and advanced teachings. You cannot possibly begin alchemy if we are not working ethically, and neither can we work with alchemy without developing the Mahayana tradition, the heart, compassion for others. So we have to develop the Kundalini if we are married, by meditating a lot, developing our heart. Alchemy was never given until those who were not ready, which is why many disciples traditionally had to prove themselves for decades in a group, in ancient schools of mysteries, until finally the master said, “I am going to seal my knowledge upon you and give you the doctrine so that you can return,” meaning, get married, work in alchemy. Question: Who is going to apply mastery of the erotic element? Instructor: Of course, that mastery takes degrees and years of work. In the beginning, the couple struggles. It is not easy to control the energy in the beginning, but with practice it becomes easier and easy. If you are controlling and meditating on your lust and annihilating your lust, then the energy becomes purer. Your heart becomes purer, and therefore based on the merits of our hearts during ordeals and how we react to life, respond to life, we raise the fire, because every vertebra of the spine must be conquered. The 33 vertebrae of the spine must be conquered. We do so through meditation. If we are practicing alchemy, but not annihilating the ego, it becomes problematic, because those energies are not being directed well. The Divine Mother does not reward thieves, murderers, culprits. Of course, we have all those egos inside. So, if we are not eliminating those, then alchemy is not going to help. In fact, we will empower our ego. But if we are meditating seriously and really renouncing our own negative states of mind, working ethically for humanity, the fire rises. That is how you seal yourself within God. That is how you become an initiate. Of course, learning to master that energy is difficult in the very beginning especially, and then it gets more subtle towards the end because the ego fights more and more to hide itself, which is why the Second Mountain is very necessary. We have to really meditate and work to kill Judas in us, and that is how you enter the path of John. But first, enter the path of Peter, which means we have to get married. But all of that is arranged by the law in accordance with the merits of our heart. So if we are not married in this life, or if we are too old to get married at this point, the solution is to meditate and work diligently so that by the grace of the law, one could be reborn into a new body, in a gnostic home, and then be taught at an early age about these principles and then remember what one learned, be awake. Learn to astral travel so that you can investigate these things and do not forget them. So that when you are reborn, you can pick up where you left off, and then when you are young, get married. That is the solution that Samael Aun Weor gives in The Aquarian Message. If you are already an elderly woman, if you can no longer have sexual contact, if you are already an old man, if you are sick, if you comprehend that your physical vehicle is no longer worthy in order to work with the Arcanum A.Z.F., then you must train yourself for astral travel, that is to say, you must learn to consciously travel in the astral body.
But of course, the path is predicated upon our ethics. Without that, we can't seal anything but pain.
Question: At some point in this lecture, you talked about a dragon being a symbol of a master because of the mastery of the four elements. Why do St. George and other heroes had to kill a dragon? Instructor: Because that dragon is dual. There are white dragons and there are black dragons. There are dragons of the white lodge and their dragons of the black lodge. We can seal ourselves in heaven or in hell. A dragon of the white lodge controls the fire, which is הוד Hod, the air, which is נצח Netzach, יסוד Yesod, which is the waters, and מלכות Malkuth, which is the body. He controls those elements and uses them for Christ. But we know as we gave in our previous lecture on the path of initiation, there are initiations of the black lodge. A dragon can be of the black lodge because the ego also knows how to manipulate fire, air, water, and earth. He can influence, through telepathy, the minds of others, control people, steal energy, knows how to work with matter and forces in an egotistical way, in a demonic way. So there are many dragons of the black lodge. There are many of them. They are very common even in our movement. Question: So, are we supposed to kill a black dragon? Is that where we are supposed to kill a master of the black lodge? Instructor: No, not physically, because the dragon symbolizes our own ego too. We could be on this path working diligently in Gnosis, and yet we discover through our work that while we have really noble aspirations and intentions, our own ego is very fat. We could have been masters of the black lodge at one point, and therefore if we recognize that, it is very painful. I know many missionaries and students who have recognized their past with the black lodge. Therefore, they have to be like Saint George fighting really hard to kill their own inner dragon. It does not mean that we go out [and kill people]. That would be a horrible thing. We do not promote violence. Just like in Islam, they had two forms of holy war: Jihad al-akbar, which is the war against your own ego, your desires, and Jihad al-asgar, which is against people who are trying to harm you. So obviously, Muhammad at that time was told, “protect yourself physically and internally, because the black lodge wants to physically kill you.” Even Samael Aun Weor had his life threatened, but he always redirected them with peace. He was very compassionate towards them, and he was protected by the white lodge, so he was not harmed, even when he was arrested and put in prison. He survived those ordeals. Now for us, Jihad al-asgar, the lesser holy war, is when we are meditating, and we are having experiences internally in which the black lodge attacks us in the astral plane, and we have to defend ourselves with conjurations [see the course Spiritual Defense]. That is a form of holy war. But we do not condone, even the behavior of some gnostics and certain groups, physically, who blame others of being sorcerers and black magicians and cause conflict. That is just slander, even if it is true. I have personally known people in my group who have come to my classes for a decade, many years, who have been sorcerers, but I never publicly announced them or condemn them. I just said, “You are welcome to learn. I hope you will change,” and leave it to them. That is the way. Now we have to be more concerned with holy war against our own ego. That is how we develop ourselves for God. Annihilate, anger, pride, fear, laziness, resentment, hatred, gluttony [learn more about the essence of striving or holy war for divinity in the Sufi Principles of Meditation]. Question: The seven deadly sins. Is that what you are talking about? Instructor: The seven defects and also the legion of “I's” we have that we have to eliminate. So, we have to be very patient. With patience possess ye your soul (Luke 21:19). You work on those defects, and you generate light. But that never comes about by accusing others of witchcraft [or justifying physical violence and persecution], even though sorcerers are extremely common. We do not go around publicly announcing, “So-and-so is a witch or sorcerer… Excommunicate them!” I personally get emails from groups that say they are excommunicating so-and-so because they say they are a witch. I just say, “Why are these people bothering me?“ I have no interest in what they are doing, so far as just giving the knowledge and helping people. That's it. You know Prophet Muhammad exemplified in his life a kind of war that we have to go through, which is not physical, but internal. Very difficult. This is even well accepted by many Muslims. The majority preach that it is a peaceful doctrine. We do not promote violence, but if someone's trying to harm you, then defend yourself. Very logical. But we do not go out over way to commit insanities. Comment: Just going off what you were saying. I think that it resonates with me because I feel like when you get on to the spiritual path, you know you have the fire of the dragon, basically. You have to fight really hard also as you feel like you are becoming this awake person, to not let it swell your head or judge others. You are not equal to God or above others spiritually, and you know I think that might be the black or dark dragon you were talking about. It is the same energy, but its duplicitous. Instructor: And it could be polarized in the wrong way, which is why the Qur’an says that this path is easy for those who are humbly submissive, who have no pride. The greatest masters are always the most humble. So, if we are developing powers in ourselves, we have to be very careful not to judge other people or even talk to other people about what we see. As I mentioned to you before, I have had people come into my group who were black magicians, and I have seen things that they are doing, but do not take it personal. I do not identify with them. I do not think that I am better than them because I can see that they are on the wrong path. They want to devolve. But have compassion for them. The best solution to overcoming pride is having compassion for them, but also recognizing where we come from because we can not be proud of anything. One is always a fool until one resurrects, and even after resurrection, one can be a fool again. So, humility is the best virtue. Question: So, the humbly submissive. The submissive part of that means to submit our gifts or powers to God? Instructor: Yes, because all the power comes from Christ. Even Prophet Muhammad, after he performed the night journey, he said, "I was taken from Mecca to Jerusalem," and one of his greatest enemies was his own uncle and his family who heard about what he said happened to confront him and said to Muhammad, "Raise your right leg up" and he did. Then he said, "Raise your other leg up," and Prophet Muhammad said, "I can't." “If you can't lift up both feet at the same time, how is that you said you can travel from Mecca to Jerusalem?” Ans the Prophet said, "I didn't say that I left. I said that I was taken." That power comes from the Divine Mother. All power belongs to God, and really to be sealed in a positive sense means to eliminate all pride, to not take any credit, because really, we are the worms of the earth. Samael Aun Weor even said many times, “I am just a miserable slug in the mud of the earth. I am not worth the ashes of a cigarette before my own inner Kether. I kneel before Him, but I am not worthy to kiss His sandals.” Even Samael Aun Weor said that about Judas, the master. So Master Judas, as we mentioned, is a great master. He is very high, and this initiate is currently working in the internal planes in hell to save the lost souls, in the same manner that Samael Aun Weor was working to redeem Beelzebub. The Master Samael mentioned in a lecture that Judas Iscariot is an incredible initiate. He is hated by humanity. He is slandered and judged and spat upon and condemned every day, and yet, he still works anonymously for humanity regardless. If any one initiate has the right to enter the Absolute, the אין Ain, it is him. “I am not worthy to kiss the sandals of the Master Judas Iscariot,” because he fulfilled a role in a drama that people do not appreciate, respect, or understand, and yet he did it anyways for those who are knowledgeable, who will know. That is the kind of humility we need, really, to be like Judas―not caring whether the whole world condemns us and calls us a traitor, to do the right thing, as painful as it is, and we annihilate all of our ego. That is incredible will, high level. This is why Judas is associated with the number 13, the arcanum of death. Of course, nobody likes this arcanum. It means the complete negation of everything we hold onto as dear to us. So, you want to be successful while you are developing more power? Then the more you are going to be tested, because it is a very dangerous path. There are many masters who developed powers and then abused them, who become very proud. I have heard many stories from other missionaries too. One in particular, there was an Arab master who was practicing jinn science, and he used his powers in order to keep eating. So, he would be eating all this food in front of his disciples and be consuming and consuming all this food for gluttony. He was using jinn science so that he could keep on eating, transferring the food. I mean, it is silly. It is crazy. But, you know, people abuse their powers, and those kinds of masters fail, because the more power you have, the more responsibility you have. If we abuse that power then divinity takes it from us, which is why even in the Qur’an states, "Truly Muhammad, if you were to tell one lie, we will sever you from your neck." I believe one of the verses says, “We will cut you off,” basically, like cutting your jugular vein. [That] indeed, the Qur'an is the word of a noble Messenger.
This is a symbol of your Antakarana thread, that thread that unites you with the superior worlds, your Being. So, when you astral travel, you have a thread that connects you to your physical body to your astral body. But also, there is a thread that connects us to our Innermost. That connection can be lost. So even divinity told Prophet Muhammad, “If you make a mistake at your level, we are going to end you.” So be serious, be careful, and really make smart decisions through meditation, because that is the way that we guarantee that we receive the seal in heaven―not in hell.
Any other questions or comments? Question: Does the temporal also represent Jesus as well? Instructor: Jesus represents חכמה Chokmah, archetypically. He represents the sphere of Christ, the Second Logos, who descends within תפארת Tiphereth, the human soul. So, while Prophet Muhammad was obviously a bodhisattva as well, he was a master who incarnated the light of divinity, who had light within him. Obviously, he represents another symbol. All the prophets represent different principles in us. Even Samael Aun Weor, who is the prophet of the Era of Aquarius, the Aryan Root Race, the fifth race of this humanity of this planet, he represents Mars in us, גבורה Geburah, Justice. So, every master has his or her qualities that relate to the Tree of Life. Jesus, חכמה Chokmah. Prophet Muhammad, תפארת Tiphereth. As you see even from his name. It is interesting too that even with the name of Prophet Muhammad (مُحَمَّد), you have three מ Mems or م Mims: م Mim, ح Ha, م Mim, م Mim, د Dal. Three waters, three מ Mems. You have waters or energies in your mind, your heart, and your sex: three brains. When you work with those waters, the fluids of the waters of your heart (the blood, literally), waters of your cerebrospinal fluid, and your sexual fluid, you are working with قلب Qalb, your heart, תפארת Tiphereth. Work with those forces together, you enter initiation. All the names hide something beautiful. Abraham in the Bible, the Innermost, חסד Chesed. Isaac is גבורה Geburah. Jacob is תפארת Tiphereth. So, all the people, figures in history, represent truths, archetypes in us that we have to develop, which are very profound and elaborate. So, I invite you to continue studying because it is a lot to digest there. Question: The reason I ask is because maybe as the chakra system overlays the Tree of Life, I was associating Jesus with the heart chakra too, which I thought it was equal. But I also understand that Jesus was part of the trinity as well. Instructor: Yeah, that are a lot of connections. I mean, with Jesus you find the images of the sacred heart with the crown of thorns and light: תפארת Tiphereth, Christ within the heart. Question: Didn't he also say the Father, creator? 
Instructor: Which is why חכמה Chokmah, speaking through him, said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). You wish to reach כתר Kether, you have to work with חכמה Chokmah. You want to reach כתר Kether on the Third Mountain or even go beyond, you have to work with חכמה Chokmah, the heart. First, you work with Peter, בינה Binah, the Holy Spirit in sex. Then you work with the annihilation of the ego, through negating your ego through the heart, חכמה Chokmah, developing Christ in you, and then, perfection and union with כתר Kether through the ascension is with the path of John. Peter, Judas, John correlates there. “None can reach the Father but through Me.”
Of course, many Christians read it literally and think you have to belong to a church, to believe in the physical personality of Jesus to go to heaven, and that is why they are warring against Muslims and other faiths, because they do not understand. It is sad. But when you know kabbalah and alchemy, you see how it all connects. But we do not get confused. Comment: Some occult authors concentrate mainly on the crown chakra and work down. Five major centers from what I have seen from one author. So, it may be another way of doing it, another form of meditation starting from above, but also supposed to be very good at healing. They say the light, the solar force, especially, when the body begins to vibrate, your whole body, you begin to feel it. Raising your vibrations from your physical body can be used to heal some diseases according to some schools. Instructor: And those schools have value. Those teachings have value. Here we are discussing, literally, the whole path.
So, if at one point we need to heal the body, you can imagine the descent of those forces entering your chakras, down from heaven above to sex, like we do with the runes. Seven vowels, invoking Christ down your Tree of Life, which is your body. Doing the seven vowels and then at the end, you do “Ssssssss…”
All the energy accumulated from [the mantras] I E O U A M (I as in “tree,” E as in “bet,” O as in “boat,” A as in “art,” and M as a hum, “Mm.” That force descends down your chakras, and then you bring it back up again, Sssssss. Comment: Yeah, and once you do that, certain techniques, they circulate that energy through the body... Instructor: Yeah, that is one method. It is useful. But to reach the seal of God, we have to walk the three mountains, which is a long work, but achievable if we rely on God.
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