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We have arrived at the ninth arcanum: the Hermit of the Tarot. When we discuss Gnosis in our introductory courses, we typically talk a lot about the level of being, the level of consciousness, the level of perception in which we are at, and specifically to discuss and to examine how to ascend to a higher level being, how to change, how to transform one's psyche into something radiant, something blissful.
In order to ascend, we must first descend as the magician card teaches us. By descending into the ninth sphere of the Kabbalah, the sphere of יסוד Yesod, we learn to reascend with power, with perception, with cognizance. We have to understand that there is always a higher level of being in front of us, moment-to-moment, instant by instant, second by second. As we began this lecture with the practice or the mantra Tum, we were invoking the three primary forces into our psyche, into our mind, our emotional brain, our motor-instinctive-sexual brain, and the intellectual brain. So that force descends. It enters our mind, our heart, our body, in order to radically transform us. The consonant T evokes the force of the Father, כתר Kether, into our brain, through the top of the pineal gland and the Chakra Sahasara, the crown. The vowel U crystallizes that power in our solar plexus, invoking the force of the Christ, the Son. The vowel M, as we mentioned, is the power of the Holy Spirit in which those waters of Genesis crystallize into the semen, which must again be transformed and returned, back to the source. So the mantra TUM is the descent of Christ. It is a very powerful mantra, because we are literally invoking our Being. The presence of God enters us. It descends from above. Now the work that we seek to perform with the ninth arcanum is about returning that light back to the source, and in order to ascend to a higher level of being, to return that light, we have to comprehend the obstacles, and we have to overcome our suffering, our mind. We have to understand what in us obstructs our development, our path. So arcanum nine is precisely suffering. It is a painful arcanum because we face all of our evilness, especially of a lustful type, of a sexual type. This arcanum is also initiation, to begin, to enter the higher mysteries, precisely through arcanum 9’s maxim, its teachings: that by entering and working with that energy, we can return to our light. Initiation as Samael Aun Weor said, is very difficult. It is painful, and so arcanum 9 is precisely the sufferings of repentance. We must repent not from some moral dogmatic sense that "I am a bad person and that I deserve to suffer,” but instead, it refers to seeing what inside of us creates our problems, our pains, our errors. This work is precisely about going against the flow of everything: society, political systems, but more importantly, our own intellect, our habits, our desires. We have to see in us these psychological depths for what they are, clearly, daily, cognizantly, because if we don't see what we are doing, we are not doing anything, and that is the difficult truth. If we are observing ourselves, or trying to observe the ego in action, but if our observation is unclear, we suffer certain psychological states, we have some understanding of our habits. But if we are not seeing into the depths each "I” in action, it means that we are asleep. Arcanum 9 is about awakening, working with that power of the ninth sphere, יסוד Yesod, but precisely in terms of psychological work, we are confronting our own suffering and seeing in us what needs to be eliminated, what needs to change. This is repentance. Real repentance is when we understand how we make others suffer, how we suffer, and what we can do to change. So in this arcanum, we are going to talk about Dante and his Divine Comedy, especially from the borrowed verses of John Milton who wrote in Paradise Lost: “Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads up to the light." As we talked about in Arcanum 1: The Magician orders us, כתר Kether orders us to descend into the ninth sphere, “Work with your energy every day. Comprehend your errors” because by working with that power and confronting all of our evilness, all of our degeneration, all of our excuses, we can radically change and return the light of Tum back to the origin, with wisdom, with power. The arcanum that we are discussing today is also the mysteries of alchemy, the ninth sphere, which in Arabic is Allah-Kemia or a conjunction of words from the Greek and the Arabic, “the chemistry of God,” the magic of God, which is also known as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, טוב ורע Tob Vay Ra, “purity and impurity,” which is deeply related to the hermetic wisdom, the science of Hermes. So we are going to look at the actual card. 
Description of the Card
The most notable feature is a hermit walking in the wilderness carrying a lamp, a candle in his left hand, as well as a staff of power, the staff of the shepherds, the staff of the masters, the spinal column. That staff is our medulla in which we have seven chakras, seven churches, seven centers of energy, which need to circulate the powers of divinity in a positive way. They do so precisely through the work of the lamp that the hermit holds in his left hand.
This hermit is any person who is diligently practicing chastity on a daily basis―never once in a while or occasionally, but daily, consistently, because the power of the hermit is the power of that energy which he carries in his left hand, the lamp. That lamp is a symbol of knowledge, the mysteries of hermetic wisdom, cognizance, insight. The lamp of Hermes or the hermit is precisely the conservation of that energy, because Hermes, as his name represents etymologically, relates to the science of hermetically sealing oneself. If we want to change, we need energy. We need to conserve that power, to transform it. It also is interesting that the hermit holds that lamp in his left hand, and if you remember from Arcanum 6, we talked about the left- and right-hand paths. The left-hand path is the work with the left serpent, Ida, the feminine creative sexual energies, which rise from our gonads up to our brain and then to our heart. The right-hand path is the solar path, the path of Pingala, in which the solar sexual creative current rises up the spine to our brain and then to our heart. We talked about in Arcanum 8: Justice as well, the need to control the left side of the Tree of Life because the energies of the left, of Ida, through fornication, they descend down the coccyx to form the tail of the demons, the Kundabuffer organ. The left-hand path is precisely when we hold the light. It is where we get the light. If you don't conquer evil in you, we have no light. You cannot have understanding, but by using the energies of Ida and raising them up the spine, controlling the mind and its temptations, the left-hand path, we ascend towards the right. The lamp of wisdom is precisely held in the left hand because it is from that power that is fallen in us that can raise us if we know how, if we practice this teaching. The lamp also reminds us of the Sabbath, which in this ceremony a woman lights it, the candles, a Jewish woman of the house. That teaches us that the feminine power is what guides us, the light of Christ through the power of Ida, precisely since the woman lights the Sabbath candles, passes her hands over the flame, and then to her eyes and then over the head. So that means that through that light, the creative energies, we cleanse our perception. Without that light, we cannot see in the darkness of our abysses. Also the fact that when the woman, the Jewish woman of the Sabbath, passes her hands over the head, performing magnetic charging of the of the brain, it also refers to how the Chakra Sahasara must be opened, must be illuminated. Sabbath reminds us of Shabbat, Saturday, Saturn-day, the mysteries of בינה Binah, the Holy Ghost. Hermetic Science in the Qur’an
In the Qur'an, Prophet Muhammad spoke about the lamp of wisdom, of Hermes, how he as a prophet had light, from Al-Ahzab, Surah 33 verses 45 to 46:
O Prophet! Truly we have sent thee as a witness, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner, as one who calls unto God by His Leave, and as a luminous lamp. ―Al-Ahzab 45-46
The word witness we discussed in Arcanum 8: Justice. In Arabic it is لشاهد al-shahid, to see, “to witness,” which is where you have the Muslim Declaration of Faith, the الشهادة Shahadah: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is His Prophet." So the two witnesses in us is Ida-Pingala―the sexual energy that rises from the solar and lunar currents, masculine-feminine, Adam-Eve―or as we talked about in Arcanum 8, ו Vav and ז Zayin.
So this light, this lamp that the hermit holds, represents how anyone teaches this doctrine, showing light to give to other people, because if you want to walk the path of the hermit, to be a disciple of your Being, to fulfill the will of your Being, we have to help humanity in some degree, in some way. We give light not necessarily by teaching Gnosis, but by fulfilling our obligations and responsibilities, some job or vocation that really involves some skill we have in order to benefit others, to help others develop, to change. We show a light in our mind and give it to other human beings based on our actions, our psychological qualities. So we may not be a missionary in Gnosis, but our sacrifice for humanity, our work for humanity, may be in our job, with our family, with our friends. We show light and teach others how to change by example, by being what we want to be in our intimate depth. This hermetic wisdom, the science of conservation of energy, was referenced in a very famous verse of the Qur'an from the Surah 24, known as the Light Verse. Many Muslim initiates have commented on this verse for centuries, but they haven't really explained or given the kabbalistic meaning of that teaching, but we will be explaining this today. The 24th Surah reminds us of the kabbalistic addition, 2 + 4 = 6. Six is the sixth sephirah of Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, תפארת Tiphereth, the heart. That light is generated in our heart when we work with the sexual energy. This is the Light Verse or verse 35 from Surah An-Nur: Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth (meaning your heavenly states of being and your body which needs to be charged by the light of Christ). The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp. The lamp is within a glass; the glass as if it were pearly white star lit from the oil of a blessed olive tree, neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light! Allah guides to His light whomever He will and Allah presents examples for the people (symbols, experiences, archetypes) and Allah is knowing of all things. ―Surah Al-Nur 35
That star, that light, is your consciousness, which emanates from God within you. The oil is of course very symbolic as we have discussed many times. The word for oil in Hebrew is שֶׁמֶן shemen, the semen. So the olive tree is also mentioned in the Book of Revelations, the two witnesses, the two olive branches that raise the oil of God from the chalice of our organs in sex to the mind.
So “neither of the East nor of the West.” In Kabbalah, the East is תפארת Tiphereth because that is where the sun rises, the Logos. Christ enters our heart. So תפארת Tiphereth is the East and astrologically, תפארת Tiphereth is associated with the Sun, as well as Venus. But “neither of the West”―so on the bottom of the Tree of Life we have מלכות Malkuth where the sun sets, when the energy finally descends down that Tree of Life and enters your body. That is the West, the darkness, the chaos. So the light must return up the spine, this staff of the patriarchs, which the shepherd or the hermit carries. The Hermit also wears a protective mantle, a mantle of Apollonius, which reminds us of Apollo: the god of the sun, the Solar Logos, a representation of Christ, the Christic power. As we have explained in our courses and throughout the writings of Samael Aun Weor, we must learn to create the solar bodies, the solar vehicles, which we discussed in Arcanum 2: The High Priestess, ב Beth, the house of God. We must create a solar mind, a solar heart, a solar will―solar mental body, a solar astral body, a solar causal body. These vehicles are means by which light can express in us, in which these vehicles are only created through a matrimony, through the power of sexuality. The Qur'an also speaks about these garments, these vestures, these vehicles that the initiate wears in order to express light. So think of these bodies, a solar mind, a solar heart, a solar wheel, as some type of light bulb. It is a vehicle through which your Being can manifest, can express. If you remember that quote from the light verse of the Qur'an, it is a niche. It is a lamp. Those bodies are that lamp in which the light of your Being can express. The Qur'an speaks about the garment of reverence, the vehicles of the soul, in a very implicit manner, which we will discuss in brief. This is from Surah Al-A’raf, verse 26: Children of Adam, we have bestowed upon you raiment to conceal your private parts and as adornment (of course to conceal one's private parts refers to chastity, to not emit the sexual power), but the raiment of reverence, that is best. That is from the signs of Allah (the Being, the Logos) that perhaps they will remember. ―Surah Al-A’raf 26
The word for raiment or garment of reverence is لباس التقوى libas al-taqwah. The word taqwah is reverence, respect for the commandments of the Being. It comes from the word attaqa, which means “to shield,” “to protect,” “to guard.” The Qur'an often references how the solar initiates must shield themselves from the fires of the demons, the hell realms. The way that we escape the fate of devolving in the lunar spheres of hell is by creating solar vehicles so that we vibrate with Christ above, the higher dimensions. Reverence is precisely relating to arcanum 9, to revere, to respect the power of sex and to use it for God.
What you see in the top of this glyph, the sun, the light, the solar energies, we see three hands emanating from the Christ, Osiris-Ra, referring to the three primary forces: כתר Kether, the Father; חכמה Chokmah, the Son; בינה Binah, the Holy Spirit. The moon in this card is ascending because when we perform acts of transmutation, pranayama, runes, sacred rites of rejuvenation, mantras, we are raising the lunar energies of sex to our brain. By circulating that power through our spine, the chakras awaken. They rotate positively, clockwise, as if viewing a clock in front of us. Our chakras spin in that same direction from left to right. As we are circulating that power daily, we are charging our battery, our spinal column, so that the three primary forces can descend inside of us―the powers of Tum, the Logos.
Question: You have the moon forces ascending and the solar forces descending. Do they meet somewhere? Instructor: In the heart, in תפארת Tiphereth, because the heart, תפארת Tiphereth, is governed by the sun. But also the power of יסוד Yesod, the moon, must rise to תפארת Tiphereth. We ascend that mountain of initiation by working with the moon. So the word transmutation, as we have discussed previously, refers to “mutation,” “to mutate,” “to transform,” “to change.” Trans means “to carry over.” So we are transforming the matter of semen into fire, light, wisdom. 
In this path of initiation, in this arcanum, the Hermit walks alone in solitude, in silence. When we are working in this path and we are diligently conserving our energies, we face many ordeals, many trials, many sufferings as a test to see if we will be faithful to what divinity is teaching us about what we need to do about our mind, the moon, our mechanicity, our egos. We discussed previously that the ego is the moon. It is suffering. The light of the sun is happiness, bliss, compassion. In us, typically, that power of the Logos is eclipsed by our habits, the darkness of our mind, our mistakes. When you enter the mysteries of this card, you see that for a fact―not something hypothetical, but something that you witness directly in yourself. As you are generating light, you see that, really, we carry so many defects inside which are quarrelsome, degenerate, very negative, and that these egos, when we are self-observing, create many problems for us, but also for other people. When you see that in yourself, when you as a consciousness perceive that―really, we have a multiplicity inside―we feel despair. It is very challenging. It is disturbing when we realize that our consciousness has been fractured. It is conditioned by multiple infra-human psychic elements: anger, pride, fear, lust, laziness, greed, avarice, and all that legion of demons we have inside. Hearing about it is one thing, but seeing it is Arcanum 9, perceiving it and knowing it for oneself.
I mentioned to you as we were greeting each other today that I have a new job and I was meditating and asking for guidance internally. Usually when I have something big coming up, obviously when we are afraid of certain new situations, we feel that urgency to do more work, to change. So I was meditating extensively, and I remember in the astral plane I invoked Samael Aun Weor. I looked to the sky. I asked him, “In my new job, initiating this new employment, what is going to happen?” I wanted to know. I looked at the sky and it was very clear because I was transmuting a lot. If the sky in the astral plane is cloudy, it means that the intellect needs more energy. We need to clear the cloudiness of our thoughts, the obscurations that inhibit us from observing ourselves and seeing our egos. When the sky is clear, it means your consciousness is very sharp. Your insight is very profound. You can see your egos as they emerge, and you don't identify with them. So what happened was I looked at the sky and I got my answer. I saw a giant sun with a lot of light, very beautiful, powerful, and then a moon came and eclipsed it. I could see the halo, or I forgot the term that you use, the limbus or light that emerges on the outside, and I remember the moon was blocking that light. For a second, intuitively, I knew the meaning. I felt that that light was obviously very positive, meaning my Being is very strong. It was trying to help me, but I realized my problem is my mind. The moon got in the way. It was eclipsing that light and I felt a lot of suffering for that, because before going on day one of my new job, I felt a lot of hesitation. I was fearing that certain problems were going to arise, which they did. But, I prayed a lot, and I realized that by working on my own defects and seeing at my job how certain egos emerge that cause problems, I was able to control the mind, see the egos as they are, and not let them mechanically pull me into mistakes. So obviously, we make many errors, even if we have light or if we are generating light. We still make mistakes. I was preparing this lecture and then I remembered that experience and I realized that the sun and the moon are in this card. The moon is eclipsing our sun and I was being shown through that experience that I was going to suffer a lot in this new job, this new place. But of course, that is good to realize that. That is Arcanum 9, to enter into initiation, because I was initiating a new job, a new employment, a new way to ensure that I can put food on my table. But the moon in us, our habits, our desires, tend to obstruct the light of our God. So, after this experience, I went to my work and of course it was a mixture of things. There were good things and there were bad. There was light and there was the moon, symbolically speaking. There were good and bad things mixed, and I realized that by refraining from acting upon my ego in certain situations, I was able to develop better relationships with new people, getting to know people, and working with them effectively. So by comprehending the lunar habits we have inside, we generate light. We have to destroy the moon, which is represented by Prophet Muhammad cleaving the moon in Islam. It is a symbol how, in Kabbalah, we have to go against our habits, our egotism, our desires. Arcanum 9 also relates to the nine heavens of Kabbalah, but also the nine hells which are within the interior of the earth, within the fifth dimension, the negative aspect of the fifth dimension. We see that this card is governed by the Hebrew letter ט Teth in the top right corner, which we are going to talk about at the end of this lecture. This card also relates to Mars and to Ares, precisely because ט Teth is the serpent. It is the serpent that rises up the staff of the spine. We spoke about ו Vav, the spinal medulla in Arcanum 6: Indecision. ט Teth is the serpent that rises up the spine through the power of Samael, Mars, the sexual strength of God. The Nature of Repentance
So I mentioned to you that this arcanum is an arcanum of suffering, of ordeals, and as Samael Aun Weor stated:
There is only one door left for the unworthy and that is the door of repentance. ―Samael Aun Weor
Arcanum 9 is repentance. So many students often write to us about certain struggles they have with vices, habits, qualities they want to work on. So I explained that repentance is comprehension, when we feel that integrity of the soul in responsibility for our mistakes, that we created certain egos that need to die. We feel sorrow. We feel pain in the heart. That is repentance. We acknowledge that we don't want to go back to those habits because we know that if we feed them, they are only going to get stronger, and they'll cause more pain.
Repentance, in its true sense, is about seeing it for what it is. We have to observe the fault, that certain ego in action with its thoughts, feelings, and impulses. When we see that we are not that ego, we can then learn to comprehend it, so that by comprehending it, we extract the soul that is trapped in that element in order to return it back to God. That is repentance. Without that, without seeing our faults, we cannot ascend to God. So there is a Sufi initiate, a female master by the name of Ā’ishah al-Bā'uniyya. She wrote a book called Principles of Sufism. She explains that repentance, توبة tawbah in Arabic, is the beginning of real Gnosis, of real change, which is what the quote from Samael Aun Weor stated. There is only one door left for the unworthy, which is the door of repentance. So I like to relate some of these quotes for you precisely because they are very practical, and they are very insightful. God the Exalted has said, “Turn to God together, O believers, that you might be successful.” The Exalted has said, “Seek forgiveness from your Lord, then turn to Him in repentance,” and the Exalted has said, “O you who believe, turn to God with sincere repentance.” The Exalted has said, "And those who do not turn in repentance, they are the transgressors!” and the Exalted has said, “Truly God loves those who turn in repentance and He loves those who purify themselves.” There are similar things in the noble verses of the Qur'an. ―Ā’ishah al-Bā’uniyya, Principles of Sufism
So what does it mean to purify? We meditate on the ego daily. We see an ego at work, in the car, in the bedroom, at home, with family, with friends, and then we seek to comprehend it deeply. We meditate on it. We retrospect our day, review it in our imagination, and then when we comprehend each ego in a certain scene or action, we ask for annihilation. That is how we purify ourselves.
According to the lexicons, tawbah, literally means “to return” (this is an Arabic word). Tāba, āba, and anāba all have one meaning, which is “return.” Thāba is similar; people say, “The milk returned (thāba) to the udder.” ―Ā’ishah al-Bā’uniyya, Principles of Sufism
The word for return is tawbah. So what does this mean, this Arabic proverb or this saying, “The milk returned to the udder?” Of course, we know that milk is a substance that resembles semen, and as we discussed in Arcanum 2: The High Priestess, the milk of the high priestess from her breast is wisdom, hermetic knowledge, which is what we nourish ourselves with in meditation. So when that milk returns to the udder, it is better said if that milk never leaves the udder. We return, though, that energy, that creative matter up our spine, to our brain and into our heart. This is the mysteries of sexual alchemy.
She continues explaining some of the practical essence of repentance: Outward repentance is the return from blameworthy actions to praiseworthy ones and from foul words to righteous ones. Inner repentance, with which the Sufi folk are concerned, is to turn away from all things and toward God, mighty and glorious. Repentance is not valid without three things: remorse for sin, abstention from it, and the resolution not to return to it. When one of these conditions is not met, repentance is not valid. This is the rule for repentance for sin between the servant and his Lord. ―Ā’ishah al-Bā’uniyya, Principles of Sufism
We talked about in Arcanum 1: The Magician, that there are four stipulations, four requirements, in order to be a priest:
…which is something you see paralleled in this Sufi text. One must have remorse for sin. One must know how to suffer, to be patient, to recognize our errors and to realize that if we are going to change, it is going to be gradual. It doesn't happen overnight. When we see our sufferings and our egos and our defects, we learn to bear them patiently until we fully purify ourselves. One also must abstain and resolve not to go back to the defect, the habit in question. When we resolve not to go back, it means that we are dying to the egos daily, moment by moment. It is interesting that the word توبة tawbah, the return, the repentance, is the name of Surah 9 of the Qur'an. Each Surah of the Qur'an begins with بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Bismillah ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim: “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” However, in Surah 9, it is the only Surah in the Qur'an that does not begin with that blessing. There is no بِسْمِ Bismillah there, and the question is why? It is because in Arcanum 9, there is no guarantee that one will be successful. There is uncertainty. There is suffering. There is a certain Sufi master or a certain Muslim initiate who explained that the reason why this Surah does not begin with that prayer is because in this Surah, you have “the severing of a covenant and the declaration of conflict, which is the opposite of some state of certainty or security, of any blessing.” If you remember from the Old Testament, the second day of Genesis, there is no statement at the end of that day that it was good. All the days of Genesis have the statement, “And God created this and that and it was good.” In the second day of Genesis, relating to יסוד Yesod, the ninth sphere, there is no such statement. It means that through the work of יסוד Yesod, the sexual energy, there is no guarantee, because it is a very difficult path. The Ninth Surah of the Qur’an
I would like to read a little bit from Surah 9 to kind of preview some of the things we are going to be elaborating upon in this lecture. This Surah is very challenging precisely because the language of the Qur'an is very severe―severe for the ego. When the Qur'an talks about the unbelievers, the disbelievers, the unfaithful ones, it is referring to our mind, our egos, our defects, which don't believe in anything we are trying to do here.
We may come to class and we might want to change. We feel that longing, that sincerity, that hope, and yet, when we get in our car, someone cuts us off, we swear. We feel that that agitation, that anger―that anger does not believe anything about what God wants. So therefore, we look inside: we are not believers. We are unbelievers. We want to become believers, and as we talked about Beelzebub, he was a black magician and an unbeliever, but for his credit, he recognized his mistake. This is from Surah 9. I'll pause and explain a few of these terms because they have a lot of profundity. The Surah opens with a declaration of severance of connection between Muhammad and the black magicians of Arabia. So, if you remember from history, Prophet Muhammad fought many battles against the Quraysh or the Muslim tribes of Arabia who were the black magicians of that area who wanted to stop him from spreading his light, his teaching. So these few verses of this Surah go in between explanations of combating the unbelievers outside, but also combating the unbelievers inside. So it is mixed. It is dualistic. 1. [This is a declaration of] disassociation, from Allah and His Messenger, to those with whom you had made a treaty among the polytheists. ―Surah 9: At-Tawbah: The Repentance
The word polytheists in Arabic is مشرك mushrik, مُشْرِكُون mushrikun. The word مُشْرِكُون mushrikun comes from the word شرك shirk. That word means “to share,” “to associate,” “to confide in.”
So how do we associate with things other than the Being? This is very much a Muslim philosophy I am teaching here. People think that if you don't follow some strict observance of the Muslim tradition in an exoteric sense, it means that you associate with things other than God, instead of praying five times a day, doing certain rituals and prayers of that tradition. But the truth is that psychologically, when we respond with hatred, with fear, with lust, to any situation, we are associating with things other than God, because God are not those egos, those things. So we are practicing shirk, polytheism, when we worship all of our demonic egos in our mind. To worship God and the unity of divinity is precisely the Arabic doctrine of توحيد tawhid. Tawhid means the doctrine of unity, and this is a very common saying that in Islam they say, God is one. But having that idea is very simple. But psychologically speaking, we look inside, we see that we are not a unity. We are a multiplicity. To have unity inside is to kill every ego in holy war, jihad. That is the meaning of striving against oneself. So the way that we affirm the unity of the Being is by annihilating the ego completely, and we'll talk about this in Arcanum 13: Immortality as well relating to that prayer we did at the beginning of this lecture: Thirteen thousand rays has the moon. Thirteen thousand rays has the sun. Thirteen thousand times may the enemies I have within repent. ―Prayer to Gabriel
Of course, you see the moon and the sun here, referring to how we work with that energy. Arcanum 13 is the mysteries of death.
2. So travel freely, [O disbelievers], throughout the land [during] four months but know that you cannot cause failure to Allah (the Being) and that (the Being) Allah will disgrace the disbelievers (Al-Kafirin). ―Surah 9: At-Tawbah: The Repentance
كافرين Kafirin is the Arabic term for disbeliever. It doesn't refer to people who don't follow Islam. A disbeliever is pride, anger, hate, lust, fear, resentment. Those psychological elements don't believe anything we are trying to do.
3. And [it is] an announcement from Allah and His Messenger to the people on the day of the greater pilgrimage that Allah is disassociated from the disbelievers, and [so is] His Messenger. ―Surah 9: At-Tawbah: The Repentance
Again there is a political statement, how Muhammad was going against the black magicians of Arabia. That is one level of meaning that everybody knows―or in a superficial way―but psychologically, something else, because Muhammad in us is תפארת Tiphereth, our will, our willpower, as we discussed in our lectures on Sufism: The Sufi Path of Self-Knowledge.
3. So if you repent, that is best for you; but if you turn away―then know that you will not cause failure to Allah. And give tidings to those who disbelieve of a painful punishment (the devolution in the infernal worlds).
So what is this treaty? The word “treaty” in Arabic is عهد ahd. You can transliterate it into as the English letters [a-h-d] or the Arabic [عَ ayn- ه ha- د dal], عهد ahd, which reminds us of עד Od in Kabbalah. עבד Obd is the lunar serpent: Ida-Pingala, עד Od and עבד Obd. עד Od or עבד Obd is the solar energies. So to make a treaty with God is to be chaste, to raise the energies, circulate them. That is the treaty with God.
So we are disbelievers. We are black magicians because we have ego. We have elements that are destructive, and in order to make a treaty with God is by practicing chastity and the staff of the patriarch, whom we see by this hermit, is precisely the willpower we need to do that circulation of energies. When we circulate those forces daily, we are fulfilling the covenant with God, the treaty with God: عهد ahd in Arabic. It is interesting that the word عهد ahd has a Hebrew equivalent in א Aleph (or ע Ayn)-ה Hei-ד Daleth. If you want to spell the word “unity” in Hebrew, you switched the H sound in the middle. Make it a “Chhhhet” sound, the Hebrew letter ח Chet in Kabbalah. א Aleph- ח Chet-ד Daleth, אחד echad, means “unity.” So we talked about ח Chet, the eighth letter of Kabbalah, how it refers to the two serpents, Ida-Pingala, that rise up the spine intertwining to the brain. Now, the letter ח Chet is the power of חיה Chaiah, life. The Jews say לחיים l'chaim when they do a toast because we are raising the energies, esoterically, up to the mind, the chalice of the brain, and then to the heart. So when you are working with your breath, ה Hei, the fifth letter of Kabbalah and you are transmuting your energies with your breath, you are raising that power up ח Chet, the two serpents, up your spine. So عهد ahd [your covenant] becomes אחד echad [unity]. Question: ...temporarily you shut the nostrils. How long and what is the purpose of closing them at the same time? Instructor: So when you are inhaling through one nostril, you are raising the energies up that current through pranayama. When you hold it, the energy charges and crystallizes and saturates the brain. When you exhale to the other nostril, you send it to your heart. That is the procedure. Then with pranayama or any transmutation exercise, you are raising the creative energies up from sex to the brain, and to the heart with your breath. Remember in the first lecture we talked about א Aleph, which is the wind, the breath, prana. And ה Hei also relates to the breath as well, because the letter “h” is the wind. When you are using your breath through mantras, you are circulating that power. With the breath, when you raise that energy up the two channels of the spine, ה Hei becomes ח Chet, the power of life: חיה Chaiah, which charges the mind. So in Arabic language, there is something similar: عهد ahd becomes אחד echad. So the Jews pronounce the Shema, the Declaration of Faith, which is similar to the Muslim Declaration of Faith. The Jews cover their eyes in a synagogue and say “Shema Israel.” They should sayיהוה אֱלֹהֵינו Iod-Havah Eloheinu, יהוה אחד Iod-Hava Echad. They say: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד “Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad,” because they don't like saying Jehovah directly. It is a sacred name. But the word אחד Echad means “unity.” “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is One.” And the Muslims, in their Shahadah, their Declaration of Faith, say: There is no God but God and Muhammad is His Prophet.
There is only one God. Just differences in language, but the real meaning is the same. You declare the unity of God by annihilating the multiplicity of egos and by observing the covenant: chastity.
So in this Surah, the Prophet Muhammad continues and talks about waging a holy war against these defects. 5. And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists (defiant egos) wherever you find them (in your mind) and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush (vigilant as watchmen in time of war). But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. ―Surah 9: At-Tawbah: The Repentance
This verse has been criticized by many people as being dogmatic and hate inspiring, that if you are not Muslim as an exoteric faith that one must be killed. But these egos that you have to ambush, these unbelievers you must ambush are your own egos. You do it by being vigilant, watchful in times of war, moment by moment, as Samael Aun Weor explains.
6. And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection (meaning those black magicians who come such as through these classes and they want to change), then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah. Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know (who don't have knowledge, Marifah / Gnosis).
So this happens a lot. We get people who come to lectures who are demons, black magicians, and they say that they really want to study this doctrine, but psychologically, clairvoyantly, they are very defiant, very angry.
9. They have exchanged the signs (Ayati, Ayat) of Allah for a small price and averted [people] from His way. Indeed, it was evil that they were doing.
What does that mean? ― meaning to take our egos as our companions when really they are our enemies. We shouldn't be a friend to anger, lust, pride, etc. So this is the path of the severance of the covenant with the ego in order to work in repentance, to ascend like Beelzebub into the mysteries of initiation.
The Ninth Sphere of Dante
Dante discusses the path of initiation in his Divine Comedy, precisely through the three mountains he discusses. We have Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, and in his Divine Comedy, or better said The Inferno, he discusses the nine hells of Kabbalah.
So that poem is not just something to entertain people as a work of literature. It is psychological. There are symbols in that poem itself. Of course, Dante discusses how the soul descends into the nine hell realms after failing the covenant. Arcanum 9, again, is initiation. The ninth sphere of the middle of the Earth relates to the mysteries of יסוד Yesod, the Kabbalah, the creative energies, because your body is an Earth. In the ninth sphere of your body, you have the sexual organs, but also psychologically, we have nine hells, nine internal dimensions, relating to nine planets: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. As below, so above. You have nine heavens relating to those planetary influences, astrologically speaking. It doesn't literally mean that those hell realms relate to the actual planets. There is a correspondence, but those planets represent something psychological. Of course, Mars relates to anger, the Moon relates to lust, etc. The ninth arcanum or the number nine is the number of genesis, of creation. In mathematics, if you take the number nine multiply it by any other digit, the sum of that number equals 9. For example, 2 times 9 is 18. 1 plus 8 is 9. 4 times 9 is 36. 3 plus 6 is 9. 5 times 9 is 45. 4 plus 5 is 9. It refers to how the power of the ninth sphere, genesis, mathematically, relates to how the creative energies of God multiply incessantly when we circulate that power. The number nine also relates to gestation, the nine months we were in the womb of our mother, physically. Likewise, symbolically, we must be nine months, nine degrees, within the womb of our Divine Mother in order to generate the solar bodies. Initiation is obtained by descending into the hell realms, our own psychology, in order to work with the power of the ninth sphere, the power of Lucifer. 
If you remember, in The Divine Comedy, Lucifer is in the ninth sphere. I believe his chest is in a bed of ice and he is devouring the three traitors: Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, representing our own ego.
Judas is the demon of desire, lust. Brutus is the demon of the heart, evil will, and Cassius is the demon of the mind. Or we can say in Christian terms, Judas, Pilate, Caiaphas. Different traditions refer to those three traitors in different ways. It refers to how in our three brains, our ego betrays us, moment by moment, and so, in order to change that, we have to descend and work with that power, which is why Dante, in describing the path of initiation, always emphasized that in order to ascend up to paradise, you have to first descend into Klipoth, into hell. Question: Why did Dante say in The Divine Comedy, “Abandon all hope ye who enter here?” Instructor: That relates to, again, to the fact that in Surah 9 of the Qur'an, there is no Bismillah. There is no: “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” or in the second day of Genesis, God did not say “This day was good,” because it is uncertain whether one will succeed. It is dangerous. So in The Inferno of Dante Canto 3, verses 1 through 9, we find the following: Through me the way to the city of woe,
That means that when you begin the work with the sexual energy, those people who are fornicators, God says, “Abandon all hope,” because you are not going to succeed if you are chaste sometimes but fornicating other days. It has to be consistent.
So the nine spheres relate to initiation precisely because within the center of the earth we find the number of the Holy Eight. We talked about in Arcanum 8: Justice, how the sign of the infinite is in the center of the earth, the circuitry of God. The powers of divinity circulate in the form of the eight in the very core of the planet, of any planet in the solar system or galaxies.
Question: But also in our body, right? Instructor: Exactly, because that parallels our own physiology, our body. We have the symbol of the Holy Eight in our three brains, the circuitry of energies of the caduceus of Mercury. Ida-Pingala, the serpents, rise from sex to our brain. They intertwine in the heart forming the Holy Eight within our body. So in order to descend into the Earth as in the myth of Dante, we descend into our own Earth through meditation and the astral plane, through experiences. We meditate. We silence the body, the mind, the heart, the three brains when we meditate, in order to work with that energy, the caduceus of Mercury. We descend into our own inferno, psychologically. We confront hatred, laziness, gluttony, and the legion of defects we have. That symbol of the Holy Eight is in the ninth sphere within the internal planes, and symbolically, when you are doing this work of initiation, you may have the experience in the astral plane where, personally I have had this happen when I first started Gnosis. I found myself near a school yard by my old house and a certain demon was attacking me. I was still a novice trying to learn how to protect and conjure this entity. A master came and said, “Descend into the Earth.” So I obeyed him while he turned around and stopped this demon from harming me. I remember in the astral plane going into the Earth where I entered a crypt. This crypt was filled with sepulchers, dead bones, decay, and it symbolizes how in this work when we initiate this path, we descend into the Earth, psychologically. We confront our own degeneration as I stated earlier. But if you really abandon all hope, then you won't leave that cave, so to speak, but I wanted to go further and I exited out of that cave and I found myself in Egypt in the astral plane. I had other experiences afterward where I went to the Pyramid of Egypt, where they let me into their temple and they were teaching me things that are not relevant for this lecture, but I just want to emphasize that they invite you to the higher mysteries by first descending. So it is a symbol of confronting oneself. This path of descendance in The Inferno was represented by many mythologies. We have the Greek god Hephaestus, the Roman Vulcan, the god of forging, metal work, blacksmithing. He creates the armor and sword of Mars in order to help that deity to conquer the heart of Venus, Aphrodite, a symbol of how we work in sexual alchemy to create the solar bodies, the armor of God, the garments of reverence: لباس التقوى libas al-taqwa in Arabic. Heracles cleans the stable of Augeias, cleans it from all the animal filth that is inside of it, a symbol of the mind. Of course, in the ninth sphere, Kabbalistically speaking, we find two types of psychology which define who we are but also all of humanity. We find that in the nine hells, there are two different idiosyncrasies. There is a sphere of Lillith and the sphere of Nahemah. Lillith is the demon of homosexuality, pederasty, lesbianism, sodomy, sexual crimes against nature. The demon of Nahemah [from נעמה Naamah] is adultery and fornication. A lot of humanity really revolves within Nahemah, but you find that in these times it is very common to find gay people, people whose bodies are very degenerated. They are born that way because in past lives, they were fornicating with the same sex and that karma pushed them to create a new body that has, if they are men, they are effeminate; if they are woman, they are masculine. So you find that humanity switches between these two extremes, but there are people who really, psychologically, belong to the sphere of Nahemah, people who like fornication with the opposite sex and a lot of lust. Nahemah means beauty. It is fatal beauty, fatal desire. Question: Where do those transgender people fall in? Instructor: Those people are from Lillith because they are so confused what their sex is that they don't know who they are or what they are. So they identify themselves with some other label, but really the body is decayed. The brain is decayed because that they perpetuate those habits. So you see that in these times humanity worships Lillith and Nahemah. They put it on a pedestal. This is all infrasexual. Infrasexuality means inferior sexuality relating to demons. It's very rare to find people who have normal sexuality now because to be sexually normal means to be transmuting. That is what's normal for human beings, angels, or better said for people who are beginning this path. But then there are supra sexual beings, meaning those masters like Muhammad, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, who learned to create the solar bodies. They are superior in their use of sexuality. Of course, in order to work and achieve those heights, we begin with where we are at. So do not abandon hope, but be consistent. 
The Second Birth and the Tree of Life
So that experience I mentioned to you in the path of the ninth arcanum, you descend into the Earth in order to reascend. Samael Aun Weor explained in The Perfect Matrimony that there are different types of mysteries. There are nine Minor Mysteries, which is a probationary path.
You want to begin these studies, they give you inspirations and experiences in the beginning in order that you are training your body, your mind, your energies, to circulate and to transmute, to be chaste. When the time comes, after passing the nine Minor Mysteries, or in accordance with karma, you find a spouse. With a matrimony, one can work in the Major Mysteries, learning to raise those serpents of the Kundalini, the Hebrew ט Teth, up the different bodies of the Tree of Life. When you raise the serpent of Kundalini up the first body, מלכות Malkuth, the physicality, you achieve the first initiation of Major Mysteries. With the second body, יסוד Yesod, vitality, the second Major Mysteries, the second major initiation of Major Mysteries. Likewise with the third, you raise the Kundalini up the vehicle of the astral body in its mechanical state, its lunar state, and you create a solar astral body. You achieve the third initiation of Major Mysteries. With the Kundalini of the mental body, we achieved the fourth initiation of Major Mysteries and create a solar mind, and lastly, we create the solar causal body relating to תפארת Tiphereth, when we raise the serpent up the spine of that embryonic body in order to form our human willpower, Christic will. So this is the path of the second birth, which is achieved precisely through the ninth sphere, a matrimony, a marriage. Symbolically speaking, to descend into the ninth sphere is to get married where one faces many trials, temptations, and ordeals in the sexual act because temptation is stronger when husband and wife are together, when the energies and fires of love are aroused, are inspired. The difficulty then is learning to circulate that energy up the spine to the brain and then to the heart, and not to build up so much fire that one loses that power through too much movement, too much passionate lust. In the beginning, students learn to transmute in accordance with their level, their degree, but with training, one learns to circulate that power, especially through cooperation within the couple. It is very common, and it was common in ancient times, in monasteries, for monks and nuns to practice individually for years, learning to circulate their energies through pranayama, runes, mantras, sacred rites, in order to get them ready for a marriage. Comment: It must have been kept very, very secret, since it’s the very opposite of what you hear… Instructor: Which is why this is called the Hermetic wisdom. It wasn't made public until the 1950s. So as I explained about an initiation, we learn to ascend the nine heavens, the nine sephiroth above מלכות Malkuth by working in a matrimony. Ibn ‘Arabi discussed the nature of the nine heavens and the nine hells in his writings. He is a Sufi initiate, considered the greatest of the Sufi lineage. He said Kabbalistically: When we compare all existence to what exists in us and God's Attributes manifest in the macrocosm (the universe) to what is manifest in us as the microcosm (our psychology), then we see that the enormity, almost the infinity of the 18,000 universes and the small, limited existence of the human being, who has a very short span of life. ―Ibn ‘Arabi, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom
Of course, 18,000 is not a literal number. Nine plus nine is eighteen. Nine heavens, nine hells. He is talking about how the universe is outside of us but also inside, and if we want to enter initiation, we must become very familiar with our own microcosmos, our body, our physicality, and to learn to use it with esoteric procedures.
We talked about the nine planets of alchemy relating to the nine heavens, but also the nine hells. In Kabbalah, as we explained in Arcanum 2: The High Priestess, we must return to Ain Soph, our supra-atomic star from which we emanated. That light had descended on the Tree of Life, the power of Tum. The Logos: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah―Father, Son, Holy Spirit―descend into descend into more complicated levels of matter, energy, and consciousness, entering מלכות Malkuth, our body, our ninth sphere, יסוד Yesod. So we must return that light in order to generate more understanding. In order to enter the heavenly realms, we must enter the door that we exited, which is sex, Eden. The word עדן Eden in Hebrew means “bliss,” “pleasure.’ Just as a child emerged from the door of sex after the seed entered it, so must we return to that same doorway. Instead of expelling the energy to the orgasm, we never waste that power. This is the law of the second birth. Now with the second birth, just as a man or woman cannot create a child without each other, likewise, we cannot create the solar bodies without a matrimony, which is why Jesus said: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ―John 3:3-5
Because the water is your semen. The spirit of God is your breath, the prana. With pranayama, you are circulating that energy in a simple way. You are training your body little by little, but with a matrimony, it is more profound because with the powers of husband and wife, you can create a living being. It is the power of creation of any galaxy in the universe. It is the power of sex. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, meaning through orgasm you have a physical child, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
The solar bodies are also known as To Soma Heliakon. Helios means "sun.” So the solar bodies are To Soma Heliakon. Helios is the Christ, the Solar Logos, Apollo, and Ikon means “image.” To be made in the image of God is to create the solar bodies. So if you are in the astral plane and you ask your Being, what is my level of being? Do I have these vehicles? If you see yourself in armor, it means you have those bodies. لباس التقوى libas al-taqwa. This means you created them in the past. So this path of creating solar bodies is the path of conquering the moon, as we have been discussing. The sun in the card of the hermit descends when the moon ascends. This refers to how we must conquer the lunar influence, the powers of the moon. We know that the moon, physically, relates to many forces in nature that influence us. We know that there is the sprouting of vegetables, ovulation in women, menstruation, the flux and reflux of oceans. Comment: These are positive forces.... Instructor: Yes, so the moon is dualistic, physically. There are positive influences and there are negative influences. So we have discussed in other lectures that we should learn to take advantage of the positive forces of the moon and working against the negative, psychologically speaking. Differences Between a Descent and a Fall
In the ninth sphere is something very important, a very important dynamic. Those masters or better said, those initiates who reach the fifth initiation of Major Mysteries obtain the title of master in the beginning level. When you achieve the fifth initiation of Major Mysteries, if you worked in a matrimony, you have created the solar bodies, solar astral, solar mental, solar causal, as well as the To Soma Psuchikón, the psychic body of יסוד Yesod, which Christifies the physicality, a certain path opens up for the initiate.
By reaching the fifth initiation of fire, certain guardians of the temple of תפארת Tiphereth presents a decision that the initiate must make: whether to follow the direct path to the Absolute, or to enter this path of Nirvana, the spiral path. In the spiral path, those masters remain in that dimension of Nirvana, relating to Atman-Buddhi-Manas, and they slowly ascend towards the Absolute with very little difficulty and challenge. They work on their ego little by little. They stay in the heavenly realms. They don't descend back into the Earth or מלכות Malkuth in order to help humanity. But there are those who enter the straight path and those who choose to renounce heaven in order to return to מלכות Malkuth, so as to provide help to humanity, to help those who suffer, and by that sacrifice, they incarnate Christ, the Lord. That path is very revolutionary because they are going to work to eliminate the entirety of ego in one life. So compare the nirvanis who work on the ego a little by little for many cosmic ages, but a bodhisattva who incarnates Christ, who has created the solar bodies and has renounced Nirvana, chooses to return to help humanity and therefore can incarnate the Lord and will work for the elimination of the ego in one life. Very radical. Those masters of the straight path who return to מלכות Malkuth, they may have a choice whether to return to the ninth sphere, or to be in abstention. Those masters reach that degree because they are communicating face-to-face with divinity. They have the ability to communicate with God, so they can receive answers easily. Therefore, those types of masters are more accountable for their actions. If God says, “I want you to cease sexual magic for a time,” then the initiate must follow that order. Or if the Being says, “I need you to work in alchemy further to help yourself with more power,” then the initiate must do so. This is the difference between a descent and a fall. Some masters are told, “Descend into the ninth sphere again. Work harder. I need you to follow the direct path.” Now, I mentioned that there are two different ways that a master can walk: in a marriage or by abstaining from sex, either to continue working in alchemy, as I said, or to abstain for a time, to be celibate. But this is not the type of celibacy that the many people advocate these times. If you have solar bodies, it is easy to see that those energies will circulate naturally, because one has trained oneself for many years. But people who don't know anything of transmutation, being celibate, get burned by that energy. You see what has happened with priests in the Catholic Church, specifically. So one thing we'll talk about is that the work in the ninth sphere is very difficult. If the Being commands that master of the straight path to descend, to return to a matrimony and to continue working, the bodhisattva must follow. But there are some monads or masters, Beings, that say, “I don't want you to work in alchemy just yet. I want you to pause, to take a break, do some necessary training.” You find that is the case with the present Dalai Lama. He is a bodhisattva. He has solar bodies, but he is not married. He is working, but he is following what we call the dry path, meaning, not working with a marriage as a husband and wife. The humid path is the work of alchemy. So those masters who don't know how to obey the Being, they fall sexually, because they decide to take a partner, even though the Being says, “I don't want you to.” You have to remember that those masters have a certain degree of knowledge and responsibility. They are told, “Since you have developed yourself and you know me intimately, I don't want you to return to sex anymore. I want you to abstain.” Those who disobey the commandments of God, they fall, because sex is easily tempting, manipulates. The Heavenly Jerusalem and the Second Birth
In relation to the second birth, we have the mysteries of the celestial Jerusalem, the Heavenly Jerusalem, which is where in the Book of Revelation, we find the teachings of Arcanum 9. So there are a couple lines I would like to relate to you from this text that discuss the nature of the human being in relation to יסוד Yesod.
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand (144,000) of all the tribes of the children of Israel. ―Revelation 7:4
144,000 is 1 plus 4 plus 4 again plus the 0's equals 9, the ninth sphere. To be chosen means to work with chastity, to redeem one's psyche by working with that power.
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. ―Revelation 14:1.
We often talk about these studies that the intellect is demonic and to have the name of God written on one's forehead is a symbol of how, by raising the powers of sex to the brain, we cleanse the mind of its impurities. The celestial Jerusalem is also discussed as being the perfected human being who works with the Arcanum 9, sexual magic, as stated in the following verses:
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
So the perfected human being who works in the ninth sphere also perfects all those zodiacal qualities in him or herself.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations (relating to Arcanum 12: The Apostolate, which we will be discussing in a future lecture), and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
So what is that golden reed? It is the spine. Or, the golden path that Dorothy takes to Oz, עֵץ הַחַיִּים Otz-Chaim: the Tree of Life; עץ הדעת טוב ורע Otz Ha-Daath Tob Vay Ra: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. So you are measured in this path in relation to initiation based on the work of your spine, how much gold you have raised up the spinal vertebrae―the mountain path of initiation.
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
So 1 + 4 + 4 + 0 is 9. So to be a perfected human being is to work in the ninth sphere, to be born of sexuality. Remember that in the Greek myths, Medusa is killed in the ninth sphere. Perseus kills Medusa by working with the shield and the sword, not looking directly into the eyes of the ego, one's defects, but using the reflection of the shield, one's consciousness, with the sword of willpower to kill that beast.
Question: You said a shield? How is that spelled in Hebrew? Instructor: I don't remember what the Hebrew word is for shield. But again, the shield relates to the solar bodies, you know, working with that energy that you have accumulated in order to defend oneself [“Shield” in Hebrew is magan מָגֵן, which bears the word גן Gan or garden in Hebrew, since the armory of the soul, the solar bodies, are created in the Garden of Eden, Yesod, through מ mem, the sexual waters]. Perseus uses the shield, the power of his consciousness channeled through the solar bodies in order to fight against the ego, to fully eliminate it, which is all contained in the mysteries of Basil Valentine. 
The Ninth Key of Basil Valentine
We see Saturn falling and the goddess moon rising, a symbol of death and transmutation. This means that the terrestrial Adam, which is us, dies psychologically, and the heavenly Adam, Adam Kadmon, is born. It is a symbol of how by purifying the consciousness, through the work of יסוד Yesod, we transform ourselves.
We know from our studies that human beings return in different existences. People who achieve or use 108 bodies of a humanoid type, in order to exist, again relating to the twelve zodiacal signs, because 12 times 9 = 108. We return to each zodiacal sign 9 times, I believe, referring to how we gain experiences as a soul in different zodiacal influences, relating to the laws of return and recurrence, the transmigration of souls. Comment: Reincarnation… Instructor: What people denominate reincarnation, but we in the study is called return, recurrence. We see here that there are three serpents relating to the alchemical elements of salt, sulfur, and mercury which we discussed in Arcanum 3: The Empress. Salt is the brute semen, נפש Nephesh, animal soul, the brute material that can be transformed into energy. Sulfur is the fire, the creative energies of the Kundalini, also relating to נשימה Neshamah, the holy soul, the divine soul. Mercury relates to the energy of the semen itself, the metallic soul of the sperm, which is what we extract from each sperm or ovum in order to raise it up the spine. Mercury relates to רוח Ruach in Kabbalah, the thinking-emotional soul. We see also the sign of the phoenix, a symbol of how the soul resurrects through death. Through the ashes of the ego, the soul emerges and the solar bodies are created. We find also the eagle of volatility. An eagle in the internal planes refers to the Father, the Lord, to the Being. We also find the crow of putrefaction, referring to the death of the ego, because without death there is no resurrection. The soul cannot be born if the ego does not die. In order to be transformed into a swan of the Holy Spirit, an immaculate Soul, a נפש חיה Nephesh Chaiah, one must learn to eliminate the ego completely. We find that this circle represents the continuity of existence, of life, of the Being, the eternal now in which we exist. So without death and struggle against the ego, we cannot change, and Arcanum 9 is precisely the repentance we feel when we see every ego in action, and we feel remorse for having created it. Through consistent work, we eliminate those faults, gradually, which is accomplished through the work with the Hebrew serpent, ט Teth. טוב עשית עם־עבדך יהוה כדברך׃ Psalm 119
So the end of each lecture on the Tarot, we also talked about the Hebrew alphabet. ט Teth is the ninth letter relating to Arcanum 9. In the Psalms, Psalm 119, certain verses begin with certain letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The following verses 65 to 72 all begin with ט Teth as you can see on the very far right of each verse, read from right to left. Some of these verses really elaborate many of the things we are explaining in this course. In order to introduce to you the mysteries of ט Teth, I would like to read from the Psalms.
You have done good for your servant, Oh Iod-Havah according to your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge for in your commandments I have believed (meaning the commandments of chastity, transmutation).
So again, gold relates to Pingala, the solar serpent. Silver relates to Ida, the lunar serpent. But your law, meaning the Kundalini that rises up the spine to the brain, that is better than thousands of gold and silver, because when you work as an individual practitioner, a single person, you work with the gold and silver of your spine, the two channels. But within a matrimony, you work with the serpent Kundalini, the Great Law.
Question: Is there another channel, Sushumna? Instructor: Yes, and in Hindu yoga, Sushumna is the channel of the spine in which the Kundalini rises. 
The Hebrew Letter Teth
So in our last glyph, we see a few images. We find the Hebrew letter ט Teth transposed above Shiva-Shakti, referring to the masculine and feminine aspects of the Holy Spirit. We also find the Ouroboros, the serpent biting its tail, a symbol of the infinite and a symbol of the continuity of life as we mentioned. And on the right we have the Tree of Life with the two serpents, עבד Obd- עד Od, and אֹֽור Aur. עבד Obd is the solar serpent; עד Od is the lunar serpent and אֹֽור Aur is the light of Kundalini that rises up the spine in a matrimony.
We talked about the serpent נחש Nachash in our previous lectures. נחש Nachash is serpent in the original Hebrew. And so: The נחש Nachash (serpent) was the most subtle בהמות behemoth (beast) of the שָׂדֶה shadeh (field). ―Genesis 3:1
We talked about שׁדי Shaddai, the holy name of God, the Almighty One as being the sexual power of the serpent within the field. The field is where the wheat grows, the solar eucharist, the creative energies referring to יסוד Yesod. The serpent emerges from our sex, sexual organs, from the base of our spine, and ט Teth as a Hebrew letter, resembles the previous Hebrew letters we discussed: ו Vav and ז Zayin, or better said ו Vav and ז Zayin, right to left, looking at Shiva-Shakti.
ו Vav is Shiva, the masculine aspect of God. ז Zayin is the feminine aspect of God, Shakti. These are the two powers of the Holy Spirit, the two serpents that rise up the spine and which, resembling husband and wife physically, explain the symbiosis of male-female, Adam-Eve, in order to generate אֹֽור Aur, light. “Let there be light and there was light,” יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Yehi Aur Va Yehi Aur. The serpent, ט Teth, is dualistic. It can be positive or negative. When the serpent Kundalini rises up the spine, it is positive. When the serpent Kundabuffer descends from the coccyx, it is the tail of the demons. It is lunar, negative. We talked in our previous lecture that Samael, the angel of Mars, relates to the serpent, because the Zohar talks about that power of Samael riding upon a serpent. Samael inside of us is the power of Mars, the sexual strength we have, which typically tempts most people. But if you are like Jacob, who wrestles with the Angel Samael, one can conquer that angel. After conquering that power of sex, as in the myth of Genesis, one is renamed, we can say, יִשְׂרָאֵל Israel: Isis-Ra-El.
One attains initiation by conquering that power. So Arcanum 9, as I said, relates to Mars and Ares because Samael relates to Ares in the head and Scorpio and sex. When Samael the serpent rises, one becomes a warrior. He acquires the shield of Perseus, the garments of reverence, the لباس التقوى libas al-taqwa. ט Teth is also represented in ancient Hebrew as a circle, which is why we included the Ouroboros, the serpent biting its tail along with the cross of St. Andrew, which alchemically represents the mixture of salt, sulfur, and mercury. In a matrimony, we combine masculine and feminine elements in order for the brute salt to be transformed into mercury and fire. Then through the breath, one circulates that energy. It also refers to the crossing of Nephesh, Ruach, Neshamah, as we explained. The path of Andrew of the Cross is the path of sacrifice, which is Arcanum 9. Arcanum 9 teaches us that if we want to achieve initiation, we must sacrifice for humanity. We must help humanity in accordance with our disposition, our qualifications, our nature, our abilities. It means that we sacrifice certain comforts, egotistically speaking, in order to aid humanity. ט Teth also relates to the Tree of Knowledge of טוב ורע Tob Vay Rah. The word טוב Tob means “goodness.” It begins with the letter ט Teth. Purity and impurity, טוב Tob and רע Ra―to be pure, to follow the path of the tree of goodness, or better said, the good side of the Tree of Life, is to work in transmutation. But to work with impurity is to follow the degeneration, fornication. ט Teth relates to the Hebrew letters ז Zayin, which rises up the spine, the staff of the magician. The serpent ט Teth rises up our ו Vav, our spine, from our sexual organs, which is ב Beth. ט Teth, ו Vav, ב Beth. It spells טוב Tob. So the serpent that rises from your sexual organs, the house of your body, ב Beth, up the ו Vav, the spine, represents “goodness,” to be good, to follow the pure side of the Tree of Knowledge. But if one is a fornicator, one follows the path of רע Ra, not to be confused with Osiris-Ra, but the demon of degeneration, the demonic quality of fornication. You find that י Iod is contained within ט Teth. We talked about the tenth letter of Kabbalah frequently, how it is a point, and you see that these letters or this letter ט Teth represents a ו Vav and ז Zayin together, man and woman united. The Serpent Teth in the Zohar
I would like to read for you an excerpt from the Zohar. It is very brief, that talks about the mysteries of the Hebrew letter ט Teth as the power of the serpent, and how in the days of Genesis, we find the letter ט Teth involved. The word for goodness is טוב Tob: ט Teth, ו Vav, ב Beth, and in the initial day of Genesis we find:
God saw that the light כי טוב (ki tov) was good (Genesis 1:4). We have learned: Every dream enjoying the status of כי טוב (ki tov), that it was good, fosters peace above and below. ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol, 1, p. 184)
Through working with the serpent of ט Teth, one attains initiation, one generates light. “Let there be light and there was light,” goodness, אֹֽור Aur, the Kundalini. So when God says, “And that was good,” it refers to how that serpent has risen up the spine of our physical body and we have obtained the first initiation of Genesis, the first initiation of Major Mysteries.
One sees letters corresponding to his ways, every single one. If he sees ט (Teth)― טב (Tav), [which is Teth and ב Beth together], good for his dream, for the Torah inaugurated it with כי טוב (ki tov) that it was good, radiating from one end of the universe to the other. ט (Teth)― טב (Tav), good, consummate radiance. ט (Teth), [the] ninth [letter] of all, a letter radiating from the Primordial One above, contained within, coming to be in the secrecy of the point, the mystery of י (yod), singular point. ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol, 1, pp. 184-85)
We mentioned that י Iod represents a dot, it can represent the sperm or the ovum. It also relates to the power of כתר Kether, who is the tenth sephirah of the Tree of Life, and י Iod is the first letter that emerges from existence, a point, a dot of light. So we find that power of Tum, the Logos, in our sperm or the ovum, the point, the dot. That serpent power of ט Teth emerges from that semen, or better said, the sperm and the ovum, that primordial point.
From its energy emerged ו (vav), whereby heaven came into being. ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol, 1, pp. 185)
This is very profound because if you take the letter י Iod, you extend it, the point into a line and you form ו Vav, the spine. When you take the power of the semen, the power of the sperm or the ovum and transform it through alchemy, it rises up the spine and heaven comes into being. You create the solar bodies. You enter the heavenly realms.
When it culminated in a single point and was hidden within a letter, ב (Beth) glowed. ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol, 1, pp. 185)
So when this path is culminated, consummated in a matrimony, your ב Beth, your house, your body glows with light, with purity, with energy.
From it emerged above and below―above, concealed (meaning the top trinity of the Tree of Life); below, revealed―in the mystery of the two (male-female, Adam-Eve, Shiva-Shakti, husband and wife), existing by that (Christic) energy above (we can say). This is (טוב tov), good (or goodness). These three letters, טו"ב (teth, vav, beth), later emerged into the Righteous One of the world, who embraces all, above and below, as is said: Say of the righteous one כי טוב (ki tov), that he is good (Isaiah 3:10), for a supernal radiance is contained within him, as is written: YHVH is טוב (tov), good, to all (Psalms 145:9)―to all, unspecified, illuminating one day illumining all, supreme above all. Until here, obscurity of words. ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol, 1, pp. 185)
So again that language is very dense, symbolic, but it refers to how through working with your physicality as a man or woman, husband and wife, the ב Beth, the body of the house of God, is elevating those energies up the ו Vav, the spine. That serpent rising up the spine along with the ו Vav in your body, your ב Beth, is טוב Tob, goodness, to develop purity.
So ט Teth in this sense, the word טוב Tob, goodness, is mentioned throughout the days of Genesis. In the first day of Genesis, the Earth was formless and void, relating to מלכות Malkuth. Our mind is still undeveloped. Our consciousness is too weak, filled with darkness. Darkness was upon the face of the deep and God said, “Let there be light, and there was light!” and saw that the light was good (כי טוב ki tob, one initiation of fire). In the second day of Genesis, “the waters separated from the waters, above and below.” In this second day of Genesis, God does not say, “And it was good,” precisely because in יסוד Yesod, there is still uncertainty. Through sex one can rise, but through sex one can fall. In the third day of Genesis relating to הוד Hod, the astral body, God says, “Let the dry land appear (meaning the solar body of the astral vehicle) and vegetation with seed in it.” God said, “It was good כי טוב (ki tob),” (another initiation of fire). That serpent ט Teth rose up the spine in the astral body through that ב Beth, that body, that vehicle. And God said it was good. In the fourth day of Genesis, we find נצח Netzach, the solar mental body. “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky for days and for years,” referring to the heavenly states of consciousness of the mental vehicle. God said, “It was good.” In the fifth day, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, great sea monsters, תנין tanin (meaning the whales, the serpents of initiation, the masters who have conquered the waters), those creeping things from the waters, the swarms of every kind,” and God said, “Be fruitful and increase.” פרו ורבו Be fruitful and raba, which really literally means “Be fruitful and rabbi, master, control oneself.” And with the fifth day God said, “It was good.” In the sixth day, “Let the Earth bring forth creeping things of the earth, beasts and cattle,” and “God made man into His image, male-female, He created them,” and God said, “It was very good.” So the word “very good” in Hebrew is טוב מאד tob meod. So why is that very good? Because טוב Tob reminds us of the serpent Obd in Hebrew, the solar energy that has been fully perfected in the initiate. מאד Meod reminds us of Od, relating to the feminine creative sexual energy. So a perfected man made in the image of God, someone who has reached the sixth sephira on the Tree of Life, גבורה Geburah, is one who has raised those serpents within him or herself. ו Vav and ז Zayin are manifest, male and female. God said, ”It was very good” because those two channels are circulating the energies properly, completely. On the seventh day, God rested, the Sabbath, Saturn day, Saturday, the holy day, relating to חסד Chesed, the Spirit. But with the serpent ט Teth we can say that the power of ט Teth is the power of שָׂטָן Shaitan, the word for Satan, the devil. ש Shin is fire, as we explained. ט Teth is the serpent Kundalini or Kundabuffer and נ Nun is the sperm or ovum. The power of Satan, the adversary, is in sex, שָׂטָן Shaitan. That energy, if it's not tamed and controlled, produces damnation. That fire can be controlled and harnessed to create light, or it can burn oneself. When a person fornicates, ejaculates the sexual energy, they are burned by the orgasm, spiritually. The fire is expelled and, better said, the נ Nun, the sperm or ovum, is ejaculated as well. Therefore, that serpent, ט Teth, descends. The word for sin in Hebrew is ח Chet as we discussed in Arcanum 8. The word ח Chet is literally spelled ח Chet-ת Tav-א Aleph. We explained that ח Chet is the power of life, of sex. If one ejaculates the power of ח Chet through the orgasm, then the serpent, ט Teth, instead of ascending, it descends. Samael Aun Weor gives the following explanation I'd like to read for you in order to relate the Hebrew Kabbalah to his statements. He explains that: During ordinary sexual contact, the intellectual animal spills millions of solar atoms of very high voltage (The solar atoms of Chaiah, life, ח Chet). These are immediately replaced by billions of Satanic atoms from the Secret Enemy, and these are collected from within the atomic infernos of the human being by means of the process of contraction (orgasm) of the sexual organs after the coitus.
So what are these three Akashic breaths? It is the power of the Logos above: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but also refers to the powers of חסד Chesed, גבורה Geburah, and תפארת Tiphereth. So Ida-Pingala are the masculine-feminine currents, the solar-lunar energies or serpents, the currents up our Sushumna, our spine. When someone reaches the orgasm, the negative atoms of Klipoth are assimilated through the contraction of the phallus or the uterus in order to send those energies back up the brain. But the Akashic breaths, the three primary forces from our Being, prevents those negative lunar atoms from ascending. Instead, it projects them down. That is why the demons form the tail of Satan.
These types of malignant seminal atoms are precipitated through Ida and Pingala. They violently struggle in order to reach the brain; however, all of their efforts are useless because the three Akashic breaths (the three י iods of the Hebrew letter א Aleph) cast them down against that region of the coccyx where a malignant atom has its habitat, and also the power to place the abominable Kundabuffer organ (the inverted serpent of ט Teth) into activity. ―Samael Aun Weor
So these types of malignant atoms or seminal atoms are precipitated through Ida and Pingala. They violently struggle in order to reach the brain. However, all their efforts are useless because the three Akashic breaths cast them down against that region of the coccyx where a malignant atom has its habitat and also the power to place the abominable Kundabuffer organ into activity.
So what are these three Akashic breaths? It is the three י Iods of the Hebrew letter א Aleph and the word חטא Chet, which means “sin.” So, as Samael Aun Weor explains, if you ejaculate your semen, the power of life, ח Chet, that serpent, ט Teth, instead of rising up the spine, is stopped by the three akashic breaths which is א Aleph: the three י Iods of ח Chet. That serpent, instead of going up, it descends, forming the tail of the Kundabuffer. So it's interesting that Samael Aun Weor didn't use the Hebrew letters, but obviously the kabbalists correlate his affirmations. Within any ordinary person, the igneous serpent of our magical powers remains enclosed within the coccygeal center; it is coiled up in a marvelous way, three and a half times.
We have some mantras relating to sexual magic, the ninth sphere that one can use. The very famous mantras from The Perfect Matrimony: I-A-O. Referring to Igneous, Aqua, Origo―fire, water, and spirit. For one must be born again of water and spirit. When husband and wife are sexually connected, they can pronounce the mantras in separate breaths:
Those are the supreme mantras of sexual alchemy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that the path of the ninth sphere has been taught by many initiates in secret, especially by Beethoven. The ninth sphere is represented in the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, his magnum opus, which, before we take some questions, I would like to play you a short clip from that piece in order to talk about and summarize, really, the main points of this lecture.
So that brief clip we heard the famous choral movement of Beethoven where the music began right before the chorus, before the first male singer begins, I believe the bass. He says:
O friends, not these tones rather. Let us sing more cheerful and joyful ones! ―Ode to Joy
So again, the beginning of that piece was the sufferings of the ninth arcanum, the ordeals that the initiate is facing and suffering with. So the initiates, the gods, say to that soul, “Don't be despairing, without hope. Instead, remember your true nature.”
Joy, beautiful spark of the Gods, daughter of Elysium (meaning כתר Kether)
So what is that worm? It is us. We have desire. We have egotism, but we have the potential to become a dragon, a master. So the cherubs, the Germans is “Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.” and the chorus repeats, “Für Gott!” in a very prolonged way, which reminds us of שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד Shema Yisrael Iod-Havah Eloheinu Iod-Hava Echad: to be blinded by the light of God. One covers one's eyes when one is directly with the Being, to not look directly at that source of any initiate.
I remember one experience in the astral plane where I invoked Samael Aun Weor and I was with him in a group of Gnostics. I asked him telepathically to show me his light, which he did, but it was so overwhelming that my ego reacted. I felt terrified. So that reminded me of the saying of the Shem. You cover your eyes in respect, instead of looking directly at that light. So, you hear in that chorus: “And the cherub stands before God,” “Vor Gott,” prolonged like a mantra. The power of divinity is overwhelming. We have the tenor after this chorus and a tube instrument begins with a pace... That is us, the soul that is awakening for the first time and is beginning to march on the path of initiation or approaching the path of initiation. The tenor joins: Gladly as his suns fly throughout the heaven's glorious plan...
And of course, after that course of male singers, you hear the music, the path itself, which begins very easy, with a lot of excitement, but then there is all these ordeals and pain and suffering, and it gets difficult and more difficult and more difficult the further you go. But if you are determined and you want the goal, in the very end, one obtains the chorus of reuniting with divinity, the “Freude Schoener Gotterfunken,” “joy, beautiful spark of the Gods!” You have returned to your source. You have obtained Arcanum 9.
Do you have any questions? Questions and Answers
Question: The practice related to pranayama, what do you concentrate on? The mind or a part? Or both?
Instructor: The thing that really concentrate upon is visualizing the circulation of energies and when you are raising them to your brain, such as with Ham-Sah. You are focusing on the mind. But with pranayama, again, you send it to the brain and then to the heart, respectively. Question: Respectively… to the brain first, then to the heart? How should you concentrate the energy in the brain? Instructor: With those type of exercises, use your will. You direct it. Question: But you use your will first to bring it to the mind and then the heart? Instructor: Yes, to the mind and then to the heart. So it all involves willpower. Question: Is there a connection between pranayama and the Christic force? Instructor: Well, the Hebrew letter א Aleph is Christ, because the three dots of א Aleph are the three primary forces. Question: And that’s related to prana? Instructor: Your semen is prana condensed, Christic energy. Question: You’re circulating the prana, which comes from the outside, which you take in through the breath. What’s the connection between that and whatever the force you already have in your prostate / uterus? Instructor: So that seminal matter is condensed prana. Its sexual energy. It is the Christic power that is in a material state, and transmutation is mutating that matter into energy. So with pranayama, with the wind, you are circulating the air of your breath with the waters of sex in order to produce Genesis. Question: You’re activating what you have already in what’s accumulated there? Instructor: Yes, exactly. It’s part of transmutation. Question: I think if you do your own Gnosis, knowledge to experience, you live in accordance with nature, meaning, without nature as opposed to these urban cesspools... that is really what this all is about, because we have lost touch with nature. So as far as what is leading us to all our defects. There is a book that is based all on this and Gnosticism. It talked all about this and it is because we are not living in accordance with nature. Instructor: The nature we want to follow is Christic, but there is also mechanical, lunar nature relating to the mind, the ego. Question: I am talking about the technocratic society that we are living right now. Instructor: And that society is followed by the negative aspect of the moon, Lilith and Nahemah. That is the mechanical, devolving, degenerative nature people follow. But the solar path is something different―solar nature, divine nature, which is harmony, peace. Question: (paraphrasing) When you read about the Gnostic Vedas, in all these ancient cultures they talked about the same thing that you are talking about, where they were able to procreate just on one sperm. So the more you look into this, it's all about us not being in touch with nature. Even Samael talks about this is one of his books, that a lot of this has to do with the slaughterhouses that we have and the killing of animals. That is the bestiality that comes in us, the amount of meat we are eating. Leo Tolstoy said as long as we have slaughterhouses, we will have war, which is also war within ourselves. When you go to a vegetarian diet and kill only what you need or you have sex only just what you need, just like the animals do, we are the only animal that has sex everyday. What other animal does this? This is all about us not being in touch with nature. Instructor: And the nature we need to be in touch with, as in the poem by Schiller and of course Beethoven, both the evil and the righteous ones follow the path of roses. They both follow after nature. You remember that quote? “The good and the evil, the good and the bad, follow her trail of roses,” because the Divine Mother can be positive nature, above and heavenly, or demonic, animalistically, below. Question: But wouldn't you say for anyone who lives in N.Y., Chicago, L.A., these technocratic societies, we are going to struggle as long as we keep killing the earth and keep killing animals and killing each other? Comment: Rudolph Steiner said the earth is a living being. Comment: China and America are tumorous, that is all they are. This goes back to everything you talk about, but in order for us to do anything, we are going to have to coincide with nature, meaning: growing our own food, meaning getting back to basics. As long as we have the internet, the TV, and all this demonic stuff, we can do this as much as we want, the earth is going to die. Or we are going to die. The earth won't die but we are going to die. Instructor: Samael Aun Weor mentioned that the Earth is going to go through a great cleansing, which it already has, as we saw with hurricane Irene. Comment: Yeah, we are going through it right now. Instructor: So that is nature cleansing the tumor of this cancer and those forces are going to get more extreme because our society is too evil. Comment: We kill eleven million animals a year just in America and we put them in a slaughterhouses. If you look at the Hopi Indians they talk about when you take in that fear of that animal, you eat its meat... Instructor: That is why it is important in these studies to eat as healthy as possible, because you want your intestinal system, your tract, your digestive system to be clean, because if your stomach is clean, you assimilate more prana better. Comment: Throughout this summer I have gotten a lot better. I give credit to become a vegetarian and spending as much time in nature because I feel the difference. You feel your psyche, the amount of worries when you are in this urban society and then you go up to Wisconsin and you are like, “Wow!” Instructor: This is why Nietzsche said, “I love the forest. In the cities, too many are in lust and heat and passion.” Question: As far as meditation, do you hold it in? Instructor: So with pranayama, you concentrate on your heart as well as your mind. With this pranayama (Egyptian), you close your right nostril with your thumb. Your three fingers should be in your palm. Inhale through the left nostril and imagine the creative energy is rising from the opposite gonad up the spine to the brain. Hold that energy by closing both nostrils. Imagine that light saturating your brain and then when you exhale through the other nostril. You imagine the light descending to the heart. You start with the left, inhale, hold, exhale to the right. And then you do the same process with the other nostril. Hold it as long as is natural for you. You want it to be prolonged, but you don't want to force your lungs to strain itself. Pranayama is very gentle precisely because our greatest strength in transmutation emerges through gentleness. So with our imagination, we visualize the energy circulating. You hold your nostrils, the breath, to retain that energy in the brain, then you exhale through the other nostril, send it to the heart. So it should be very quiet and very relaxed. You pray the whole time. You ask your Divine Mother to help you transmute. You can read about it in The Yellow Book , where there are a few exercises, but we will be doing those practices here too. Comment: Sometimes when you try to do too much you hyperventilate and that kills it. It has to be smooth. Comment: (paraphrasing) Besides lust which is everywhere, it is being thrown at us, this “pride” that has turned into something that sounds good for societies. But you have these transgender groups and you make it into a culture when it is just a tiny, less than 1%. So they have this transgender pride, gay pride, etc... Instructor: Those doctrines are the doctrines of infrasexuality, of Lilith. Question: But what about no pride? What about “Let's just leave each other alone”? Instructor: Instead, one should have dignity, which is a conscious quality, meaning the soul, through transmutation, through normal sexuality, one obtains virtue, but people in these times follow the doctrine of either Lilith or Nahemah, which is the degenerated use of the ninth sphere. Comment: There are people who want to sell products related to this... Instructor: The thing with our society, we talk about the slaughterhouses of animals being killed in a brutal manner, what people ignore is that the way that we identify with our hatred and our fears, our egos, we are going toward the slaughterhouse, meaning: the infernal dimensions, where if you don't willingly meditate on your egos and work on them, mechanical nature will do it for you. That is the path of the abyss. The path of roses, of sweetness, of fatal beauty, of Nahemah, leads one down and further and further and further. That one that will disintegrate you slowly. But if you want to follow the positive path of the Kundalini, the Divine Mother above, the heavenly worlds, as a man, one should get a wife. As a woman, one should get a husband. That is what Beethoven was teaching. That chorus of the Ninth Symphony is precisely the ecstasy of the soul united with God, that one has returned. The return, again, توبة tawbah in Arabic means “to return,” and we do so precisely through repentance, through sincerity.
3 Comments
Adam
10/4/2021 04:37:22 pm
If my memory serves correctly, we have 72,000 chakras.
LL
1/9/2022 12:53:34 pm
Some other initiates who renounced Nirvana, like the Dalai Lama and Krishnamurti, decided not to take a wife and that is their will. In this case, Joseph, upon reaching the 5th 1/9/2022 01:32:33 pm
Tiphereth, the human soul, has some degree of autonomy. However, the goal of our studies is to follow the will of the Being more and more, to fully integrate the human soul with the divine. Therefore, masters like the Dalai Lama or Krishnamurti, while they might have chosen the dry path after the Fifth Initiation of Fire, must eventually be commanded by Kether to continue with alchemy in the future. This is because alchemy is needed to perfect the work. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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