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The greatest insanities and mistakes of our humanity have always been committed in the name of spirituality and religion. All traditions throughout the world have spoken abundantly about the principle known as the Fool of the Tarot, and there are countless examples throughout our history in which we have seen students and missionaries of the esoteric path have committed great crimes, purportedly in accordance with the rules of their doctrine, the principles of love, of brotherhood, of understanding. We have only to look at examples such as Hitler, who knew Gnosis, whose principles for saving Germany became the impetus and manipulation of his person by the black lodge.
So as this example, he had many aspirations, very sacred ideals, and because he did not discriminate his own mind, he failed and brought about the destruction of millions of people. He was manipulated by a man from Tibet whom Samael Aun Weor named “the man in the green gloves,” and it is well documented within the esoteric writings that when Hitler came to power, the black magicians of Tibet marched, celebrated his coronation. There are many people in Gnosis who have ended the happiness of many homes, people who study spirituality and esoteric knowledge, but who do not have ethics. It does not matter how great our principles are, our ideals are. If we do not work on our ego, we will continue to be, in our most subconscious depths, criminals, fools, and because our greatest longings, ideals, are so convincing, when they are not practical, they become dangerous. People have killed in the name of freedom, of liberty, of justice, which is why Shakespeare in his play Hamlet portrayed for the character Polonius, "Though there is madness, there is method in it” or “there is method to his madness.” All these ideals, when they are not grounded in experience, in actual works, end up becoming the labels by which one justifies inhumanity, foolishness. So, there are many students of occultism who believe that if only humanity had the knowledge, things would be different. If people only possessed the secret teachings by which to change, our planet would be different. Of course, this was in relationship to the Piscean Era, when Gnosis was not disseminated publicly, and yet, with our current Aquarian Era, which is characterized by the dissemination of the doctrine to the public, there are many people who take this knowledge and commit many mistakes, many errors. I personally know many people in Gnosis, many missionaries, who have used the writings of Samael Aun Weor to justify many crimes, spiritually speaking and even physically against the law of many countries, principally because they do not practice what they study. They do not apply what they say they know, and this is the great danger. We may know intellectually that certain behaviors are wrong, and yet like a drug addict, an alcoholic, knowing those behaviors produce suffering, continue to do so. This is because those individuals do not comprehend what they study. This applies to every field and level of social experience. When we do not have practical understanding or comprehension in the soul, then the intellect becomes our worst enemy. So, this is why Swami Sivananda and Samael Aun Weor wrote that Gnosis is the path of the razor's edge. It is the straight path, the delicate path which leads to the heights of realization and transformation. But because this work is so delicate, because the mind, the subconsciousness is so convincing, it is easy to identify with the ego, and this is the problem. People and spiritual movements who are fascinated by scripture, religion, spirituality, the ego, which was formerly only invested in material things, takes on a spiritual nature, which is why we find defects like mystical pride, leaders of groups becoming arrogant or feeling better than others, because they are leading a spiritual group and they wear certain regalia, yoga tunics, big beards, or turbans―any type of apparel which pronounces to the world, “I am spiritual… follow me.” So, the ego takes on a mystical dimension, a mystical flavor, ignoring that this is a defect, because God has no pride. A real initiate is humble, does not pronounce him or herself, but merely teaches others how to change. Unfortunately, in this era of information, we get denominated as an era of misinformation. Although people have abundant access to scriptures, unprecedented in the history of humanity, people easily become inflated by a sense of pride that somehow, “because I belong to this tradition, because I have studied these books, that I know, that I am wise.” Of course, there is this tendency in any spiritual group, this feeling that somehow it is because “I belong and that I study these books, that I know.” But Blavatsky, the great female Yogi, an initiate and master of Theosophy, wrote in The Voice of the Silence, that those who follow the Eye Doctrine, the doctrine of the physical, material, visual eye, say “Thus do I know." But the Doctrine of the Heart, of bodhichitta, of wisdom, of real understanding says, “Thus have I heard.” Confess with humility and lowness," she says, transcribing that verse. So even people in Gnosis who studied the writings of Samael Aun Weor can make many mistakes, thinking that it is because they follow this teaching or tradition, that somehow, they are saved. They believe they have passed beyond a great height and now are coursing across a plateau in which everything is given to them by God. We have to be very diligent about not entering that type of attitude because with knowledge comes responsibility. If we do not apply what we learn, we become the Fool of the Tarot, the idiot, the bohemian who wanders lifetime to lifetime, studying and learning, but never changing and never awakening consciousness. Of course, people believe they all possess wisdom, even in Gnosis, but sadly many students of Samael Aun Weor ignore what he wrote especially in The Major Mysteries, which is a guidebook for initiation. He said that real initiation is in the internal planes. It is not physical. Occult science is studied in the internal worlds; therefore, the one who does not know how to be willingly projected in their astral body does not know occultism. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries
You can learn from a school, but a person who is a real occultist knows how to travel in the astral body in the internal worlds, because that way we can verify. We can know for ourselves what is true and what is false. But again, it is always the mentality of the herd to want to belong, but when the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch, states Jesus (Matthew 15:14).
The Citadel: An Alchemical Allegory
The ancient alchemists depicted the entrance into the spiritual path in different ways. They explained that the real knowledge is very difficult to find. It is only explored and understood and witnessed through inner effort, through humility, through self evaluation.
This is an image by Heinrech Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, the Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom. This image or glyph is known as The Citadel. It is from his book of alchemical art. In that book, as well as in the images of many alchemists, depicted how the secret path is very difficult to find, or was very difficult to find, especially in the Era of Pisces, when the doors of initiation were closed to the public. But in this Aquarian Era, in which we find the knowledge openly given to humanity, we can easily go online to a website, especially Glorian.org and find the knowledge given freely to the public. However, even with the doors of initiation being opened, to actually enter the path is even more difficult, because people have books, they have lectures, they have scriptures, and yet people do not awaken if they are not serious, if they do not practice. This image depicts this truth. We see a castle surrounded by a wall, and the interesting part is that there are 21 entrances to this image. Notice that around the circumference of this glyph, this citadel, you find scripts, words, which are blocked off in small compartments, all leading to nowhere. The circumference does not lead to the center where you find a moat, a straight bridge, a path leading to a castle, and in the center at the very top of a peak, at the top of the spire, a dragon crowned, seemingly by a triangle, at the top. All this is very beautiful, symbolic, kabbalistic. What is a dragon in alchemy? It is a creature that conquers the air, the fire, the water, the earth― or, the mind, the heart, sexuality, and the body. A dragon is a master of initiation, a self-realized being crowned by the triangle, the trinity at the top of the Tree of Life: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah, which in Gnostic terms, refer to the energies of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit―a self-realized master, a resurrected Master. But of course, to reach those heights, we have to enter at the straight and narrow gate that leads to life, but few find (Matthew 7:13-14). At the entranceway of this straight and narrow path is a tree. We can even say it is an olive tree, a symbol of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That Tree of Knowledge is the creative sexual energy, which in Hebrew relates to ש Shin, fire―the sexual force―which we are going to elaborate upon towards the end of this lecture. But notice how many people, we can say allegorically, millions of people, wander around the circumference, looking to find the center of this citadel, but only find a dead end. Notice that there is script and knowledge in each area, each compartment, each antechamber, and yet, they are closed off. They do not go to the center. This refers to all the intellectual knowledge of the world that people worship more than God. Here we find all the public institutions of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism, philosophy, any type of science, any type of knowledge, and yet, they merely fill the intellect but do not get at the heart of the true human being, which is the Christ. So, people wander lifetime to lifetime, allegorically speaking, according to the doctrine of Transmigration of Souls, and never find the center, the knowledge that leads towards the entrance, the realization of the truth. This is because in this image, we see that there are 21 entrances. 21 of course, according to the Gnostic Tarot, the Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, is the Fool, primarily because 21 is a card of insanity, of failure, because it is the failure of humanity, of people who are superficial, who never really search enough or be serious in themselves to find the straight path, which is the work of the olive tree. This is precisely the point of this doctrine that displeases many. In order to enter initiation, we work with the energies of sex: the Tree of Knowledge, the olive tree, because even an olive, in its physical characteristics, resembles the testicles or the ovaries. There are many symbols related to how we use that energy for awakening the consciousness. It is the fire of God, which can spark the awakening of the soul, and that is really what brings people into initiation, to initiate, to begin the work. It is one thing again to have books and lectures that teach this, but we have to do it ourselves. While this alchemical image does pertain to history and how the knowledge was never given to the public (and people had to wander again and again searching as the wandering fool from lifetime to lifetime), now our current era is a little different, because, as we said, now we have all the books, all the teachings available for free. Anyone can enter initiation, but to want to do it is another thing. People tend to be very satisfied with their level of being. People love to wander from school to school, from philosophy to philosophy, from book to book, being interested, being curious, being fascinated. But when they die after not having practiced at all, they go to the grave, and perhaps they will enter a new body to repeat again and again that same process. This, of course, according to spiritual knowledge, is stupid. It is foolish. We are asleep. We do not know where we came from, where we are at or where we are going. But the one who awakens the consciousness knows from where he or she came from and especially is aware of the present moment, is awake spiritually, is practicing self-observation, self-remembering, and knows in accordance with the path where they will go when they die. People tend to be very fascinated with what they have studied, feeling self-sufficient, proud that they are the participants of the elite, and yet the facts speak for themselves: profound suffering, ignorance, the inability to investigate the mysteries of life and death for themselves through astral travel, the awakening of the consciousness. So this is why in our tradition we state: “the dead letter kills.” Literalism, fanaticism, kills the soul, because if we interpret things literally, we will never experience or work to practice to have what those scriptures symbolized, to understand them from experience. So the dead letter has sent many people to the grave in a spiritual sense. There are many people in the realms of Klipoth, the infra-dimensions, who know the scriptures. There are people in the inferior astral plane, in the interior of the earth, who are devolving, descending towards the ninth sphere to be disintegrated, who can quote for you exactly the Bible, the New Testament, the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, everything that is so venerated today by all of our spiritual traditions, which is why Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice something very interesting: The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
So of course, knowledge and spiritual studies always become and appear very beautiful, very inspiring, very enticing, but if they lack the practical dimension of how to change, of how to transform the psyche, then they are incipient. They are a dead end. So Gnosis has been in every tradition, every religion, every path, but in an allegorical form, symbolic form, like you see here with this alchemical image (The Citadel). But the real, practical meaning has never been given except to those who have earned it.
But of course, as I stated, we are in a different age. Whether or not we deserve the knowledge is one thing. The opportunity is there. Falsity, Humility, and Realizing the Truth
Through the Eternal Tarot, we explain what all the symbols mean, what they represent. Of course, all these symbols are eloquent, beautiful, invigorating, but falsehood, or the Fool of the Tarot, takes on a beautiful appearance. Symbols take on beautiful appearances. But without the practical awakening of the soul, these symbols become a dead end, which is why Paul of Tarsus stated in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, about this truth. In the Gnostic knowledge, we may have practices and methods to change, but is not a reason to be arrogant or proud.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God (To be sufficient in God is to experience the Being; to know these principles for ourselves through awakening in the internal planes);
Again, Paul of Tarsus was a kabbalist and an alchemist. He spoke in symbols. When people read things literally, they do not understand how it applies to life, to the path of initiation. This is the path of the Hebrew letter ש Shin, the fire of life, the spirit which can awaken us and lead us towards and through the path itself that leads up the mountain. So again, this is a castle or citadel, but also is a mountain, which Samael Aun Weor had wrote about in his books, the Mountain of Initiation that we must climb.
So I would like to quote for you a few points regarding these truths through a very misunderstood scripture. It is the Qur’an, which is a very harsh scripture to the ego―the mind that wants security, wants assurance that somehow, because I belong to this group, "I am saved." بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
So the word belief in Arabic relates to believer or المؤمن al-mu’min. المؤمنين Al-mu’minin means “the believers.” Translated into English, it is very inaccurate to think that belief is a concept, to think of something as true or to feel something is true. But to believe means “to be through the power of love,” to work in the perfect matrimony, to be an alchemist―be-libido―to work with the sexual energy. That is Allah-Khemia, alchemy, the secret teachings of Islam that was never made public.
Also, those who believe, المؤمنين al-mu’minin, المؤمن al-mu’min, relates to מים Mayim in Hebrew, meaning the waters. Again, this is a symbol of the Tree of Knowledge, the work with the force of sex. This is the energy that gives us faith, that awakens us. Those are upon [right] guidance from their Lord, and it is those who are the successful.
This is an interesting thing that is happening today in the Gnostic movement. There are many self-proclaimed prophets and masters saying, “I am following the true tradition. I am uniting all the schools of Gnosis under one flag. Therefore, everyone else is a heretic, is a fool.”
Unquestionably, it is they who are the corrupters, but they perceive [it] not.
Because of karma, it takes tremendous suffering to want to enter the path of initiation. Some people need to mature, to suffer a lot, to want to realize that if we do not change, we will suffer even more. God, out of compassion, seals their heart, and this is a verse that frightens many westerners because they do not understand what this means. They think that the Muslim version of God is very hateful, but that seal of ignorance is out of compassion, saying these people are not ready for the knowledge, because if they were to try practicing or start when they are immature, they will enter into greater pain, develop in the negative way as black magicians, الكافرون Al-Kafirun, those who live in the caves, الكهف Al-Kahf, of the Earth.
This is why Samael Aun Weor wrote that curious people, foolish individuals, should not enter the path, because Gnosis is a double-edged sword. With it, it defends the righteous, but punishes the wicked. Therefore, stay back, nosy people!
There are only two outcomes of this knowledge: an angel or demon. We have to decide what it is we want.
Those are the ones who have purchased error [in exchange] for guidance, so their transaction has brought no profit (in accordance with the law of compensation, the dharma, the law of karma), nor were they guided (meaning, internally in the astral plane).
This is very interesting in relation to the Arcanum of the Fool, Transmutation.
The Hebrew letter associated with this card is ש Shin, the fire. If we expel our sexual fire through lust, we have no light to generate awakening. So God takes away the light if we fall, sexually speaking, so that we cannot see, like Samson in the Bible blinded by the Philistines, his own egos, when he gave away his secret to Delilah, the ego of the night. Deaf, dumb and blind―so they will not return [to the right path]. ―Qur’an 2:18
Samael Aun Weor corroborated the same points:
Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What are we living for? Why are we living? (the Fool is asleep, cannot awaken internally to know our origins). 
Description of the Card
But let us look at the actual glyph.
Here we see a white and a black moon juxtaposed with darkness over the light. This refers to the antitheses of the soul, referring to the spheres of Lilith and Nahemah in kabbalah, or to psychological qualities relating to our infraconsciousness, our unconsciousness, our subconsciousness. It refers to the animal mind, the ego in all its totality. We see a magician with the staff of the patriarchs in one hand and the Tau cross on the other. That staff in his left hand, the staff of patriarchy, of patar, “the stone,” the staff of the Father, is the spinal column through which the sacred fire rises in the perfect matrimony. The ankh cross is the Egyptian symbol of life. It also relates to the next card, to ת Tav: the seal of God, which we must perfect through the work of alchemy. This initiate stands upon a crocodile that is waiting to devour him. That crocodile is Set in Egyptian mythology, the ego, the Hebraic or Judeo-Christian Muslim Satan, שָׂטָן Shaitan, the mind. So, this magician, this initiate, wields the staff of the spinal column, of Christ's will, to obey God in all three brains, and the ankh cross in the other hand, the power of life, of חַיָה Chaiah, הוה Havah, Eve, in order to conquer and defend himself against his own ego. The magician is covered in a tiger skin, and the dog and the tiger have traditionally been associated with the death of desire. The dog is sexual fire, the erotic instinct, and the tiger is a symbol of the warrior spirit. There is even, in South America, many tribes associated with the Tiger Knights, who were great spiritual adepts who had many powers, and could transform themselves physically through Jinn science. They were able to do that because, like in the parable or myth of Moses, he conquered, or they conquered their own ego, annihilated the ego. When you annihilate the ego, you become like משה Moshe, Moses, able to perform miracles like he did to free the Israelites―a symbol of freeing all the parts of the soul, of Isis-Ra-El. Isis, the Divine Mother; Ra, Osiris-Ra, the Solar Father; and אל El, the Spirit. We need to have the fearlessness and sagacious of the tiger, the wisdom of the tiger in order to kill the ego and resurrect the dragon of our Innermost within us. So again, a tiger is an interesting symbol, primarily because the cat, a feline, is another symbol of sexuality. It is the Mercury of the wise, the Mercury of the alchemists. A lot of people confuse the 21st Arcanum with the 22nd. In some decks, the Fool in the Tarot is switched, but we clarify, and this makes sense that the Fool comes towards the end of the path, primarily because when one is entering or achieving the very heights of initiation, there exists the greatest danger of failing. This is the straight path of Jesus, and which is why Samael Aun Weor stated: The danger of being a demon is never so close as when one is very close to being an angel. ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah
…because with power comes responsibility. The Fool emerges after Arcanum 20: Resurrection, because many resurrected masters have fallen. Resurrection is not the end of the path. After a master resurrects, there is work to do on the Third Mountain: Ascension. But there are many who, even when that perfection of that level has been reached, still can fail, and so there are many resurrected masters in our Gnostic movement who fell and have returned again to recapitulate their work. It is very common. I personally know many people like that, but they are not special. In fact, they have really committed a great crime, have become fools, idiots, because they were up there, and now they are down here. So, they have to regain what they lost. While their Being is mighty, their soul is silly and stupid, foolish.
The Fool of the Tarot, traditionally, is depicted with the hieroglyphic of a man who carries a bag on a stick, which is a symbol of all the vices and egos and defects he or she carries with them at all times, from lifetime to lifetime. This is the bohemian, the homeless, the Fool, or even in some circles, the trope of the wandering Jew, a symbol of having been exiled from Israel, the holy city, the holy יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Jerusalem in Hebrew, دار السلام Darussalam in Arabic, the “city of peace,” which is the Absolute.
While the people of Israel in the Middle East are one thing, we are talking about the allegory, the kabbalah, the symbols of the soul that left that and now wander around lifetime to lifetime in many bodies repeating the same mistakes. This is the meaning of rotating in the wheel of Samsara, according with Arcanum 10: Retribution. The sexual nature of this card is demonstrated not only in this deck, but in some other decks where you can see sometimes the disarray of the clothes of the beggar or the Fool, in which the sexual organs are hinted at or shown. This is a reference to the shamelessness of that initiate that fell. It refers to lasciviousness, sexual desire, lewdness. In some other decks, the tiger is biting the leg of the fool, the initiate, because sexual passion is constantly biting that soul that is filled with desire, with animality, with lust. But because he is foolish, he does not try to push away the animal that is biting him. You do not see that represented in this glyph. But in some other decks, you do see that which carries some fragments or remnants of the Eternal Tarot as they were originally given internally. But Samael Aun Weor mentions this in Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot that to see the flesh of this initiate is a symbol of his worldly life, his materialism and lack of spirituality. As I mentioned, there are many fallen bodhisattvas in Gnosis. Up there, their Being as high, but in the material, physical plane, they have many mistakes and live like any other person. There is nothing special about them. You find that represented in this arcanum.
This arcanum also represents the inverted pentagram, the fallen man, the one who spills the cup of Hermes Trismegistus. In order to prevent a fall, we must eliminate desire, the ego, because without the removal of sexual desire, there will always be temptation.
The Wanderer in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra
But also, I want to reiterate some points given by one example of this principle. There was a German author by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche who knew the esoteric science, who knew Gnosis, who actually was a fallen bodhisattva. He was once very high, but he entered into temptation and fell. He became a fool, an idiot, but his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra is beautiful because he was going up at the time.
It is a very positive work, alchemical, kabbalistic book which emphasized these principles that we are explaining. This is from a chapter called “The Wanderer,” in which we learn about how after resurrection, one faces the greatest temptation, the greatest ordeals in relation to the Mountain of Ascension, the heights. The danger when reaching the heights is greatest as you will see mentioned here. So, these stories are a fictional account of Zarathustra, an Iranian Prophet who became the symbol of a master, a bodhisattva, really, referencing Nietzsche, his development at one point. It was about midnight when Zarathustra started across the ridge of the island so that he might reach the other coast by early morning; for there he wanted to embark. There he would find a good roadstead where foreign ships too liked to anchor, and they often took along people who wanted to cross the sea from the blessed isles. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “The Wanderer”
Again, the reference of the sea is the work with the sexual waters, to travel on the ark, the great arcanum. The blessed isles relate to the Germanic myths, Hyperboreas, hyper meaning “beyond” and boreas meaning the “north wind.” So, the land of Hyperboreas or the Hyperboreans were the former race, a former root race that existed on this planet, who was an advanced civilization, which became an inspiration for Nietzsche to write about.
To cross the sea, to enter the blessed isles, is to enter the land of the North, which in kabbalah relates to the head. The North can relate to our hyperborean nature because all the forces of God descend from the Absolute down into our head and through our body, and then we re-initiate that energy up by working with the sea, the water, the ark, the great arcanum. Through boreas, the wind, the breath, with our breath work, we take those energies, we circulate them inward and upwardly to our mind, to our heart. That is how we enter the blessed isles, the land of Avalon where all the great knights of the Jinn science, the great jinns or genii in the myths of Arthur exist, the great heroes who conquered themselves and obtained the Holy Grail, the mysteries of alchemy. Now as Zarathustra was climbing the mountain he thought how often since his youth he had wandered alone and how many mountains and ridges and peaks he had already climbed (because he was in an initiate).
So that is the very height of the path; to enter the אין סוף Ain Soph. But of course, to reach that card with Arcanum 22: The Return, you have to risk being a fool, to really sacrifice everything to go and reach that point. This is the revolutionary Aquarian knowledge. The path of Aquarius: Aqua-Aries, the water and the fire, or the water and Eros―Eros, the breath relating to boreas, the wind.
We find Aquarius is related to this card precisely for that reason. So, the symbol of Aquarius is the water carrier, the symbol of alchemy, which is the revolutionary zodiacal influence that aids us in our alchemical practice. We achieve this perfection by conquering Neptune, the trident, the work with the sexual energy.
The Causes of Foolish Desire
These three forces find their antitheses in the three traitors of Christianity, Egyptian mythology, and many other stories, which all relate to the inverted polarization of the letter ש Shin, the fires of sex.
So those three traitors of Christianity are known as Judas, Pilate, Caiaphas. They represent our own mind, our own negative emotions or evil will, and our own desires. So those figures in the Bible represent archetypes within ourselves as a guidance to teach us about initiation, how to walk the path, how to fulfill it. 
This image is of the bacchanalia, the great festivities and orgies of Bacchus, inebriation through wine and desire, fornication. This is a symbol of our humanity, which worships drugs, violence, fornication, adultery.
The three traitors in Egypt are known Apopai, Hai, and Nebt. Judas, of course, is that the ego of desire who betrays Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Judas is a type of mentality the loves religion, loves spirituality, loves Christ, but loves fornication more. To expel the sexual energy is more important to Judas then to follow God. Pilate is the demon of the mind, of authority, of pontification, related to Pontius Pilate, one who pontificates, who orders other people around. These are all the people of spiritual movements or philosophies and politics who believe in their authority and wash their hands clean of culpability, that they do not deserve judgment or retribution. Caiaphas, the demon of evil will, is the worst, because Caiaphas is the mystical figure who really condemned Christ to the cross, how our own evil will, which does not want anything to do with God, betrays Him through hatred, through violence, through sarcasm. Caiaphas is a very instinctual type of ego who wants to preserve religion and traditions that have been followed for thousands of years, and yet are empty and dead. So, Caiaphas is an evil will that rejects anything revolutionary or Christic. So we possess a kama rupa, a body of desires, Judas; a manas (manasa rupa), a body of mind, Pontius Pilate; and Caiaphas, which is evil will, the causal mind, the causal egos, the seeds of desire, which we must incinerate upon the path of resurrection. Desire in strict esoteric terms is ego, “I want. I crave. I need. I desire. I must get what I want at the expense of others.” While some people and poets like Rumi have used the term desire to refer to a desire of God, longing of God, in strict language, we could say desire is the mind, ego. Longing and yearning for divinity is one thing, but here we are being very specific with terminology, although there are different interpretations. So the consciousness or Essence longs to know God, but the Essence or longing for God is very different from desire. That is something that we can only know for ourselves in meditation, to discriminate what in us is negative, what is positive. So this is the beginning of real wisdom. Theosophy mentions how these three bodies: the astral body, the mental body, the causal body, are already possessed by humanity, but this is based on ignorance of what the internal vehicles are from experience. We have been spending a lot of time talking about the lunar bodies and the solar bodies. Kama rupa, desire body, is what we travel within the lunar astral plane, where we typically dream at night. That is Judas. Everybody has Judas inside, but to have a solar astral body, a Christ solar vehicle with which we can investigate the superior astral plane, is different. That is something we have to create in alchemy. But a solar mind is very different from a mind of desire, which is Pilate, because the mind, the intellectualism we know of today, may have a lot of theories and justifications for doing things, and yet, they are egotistical. We usually like to use our mind to justify our mistakes. This is of course how we wash our hands clean and justify ourselves. But of course, that has to be eliminated if we want to develop a Christ mind, like a chalice, a vehicle that can receive the wine of Christ, which is an energy, a fire, that is very high, very pure. But in order to have a will of Christ, the Intimate Christ, we must eliminate Caiaphas, that ego that feels that it is justified because it belongs to a certain tradition: Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Gnostic, whatever it is. There are many people in our Gnostic movement and other traditions who justify persecution and excommunications and other such types of silliness, gossip, whatever, because their Caiaphas is very big. They are Pharisees. They think that they are the only ones who should have the knowledge―everybody else is wrong. So every tradition has faced this struggle. 
These three traitors are also known as the three furies amongst the Greeks and the Romans. We have to annihilate these three traitors in order to cease becoming a fool, and as Samael Aun Weor mentions, the cause of desires is found in our senses: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory (relating to smell), gustatory (relating to taste). The ego is fed through the five senses, the sensual mind, and whenever we identify with sensations, we create ego. Meaning, we have a sensation that is pleasant, we become attached, we identify ourselves with that impression, but we feed a false sense of self related to that impression itself.
We have to learn not to justify or condemn impressions. When we experience pleasant things, for example, drinking a Starbucks coffee, one can enjoy it without identifying, without feeding gluttony, or not run away from unpleasant impressions. Something bad happens. We get into an argument. We feel anger and resentment surge up and want to retaliate. Well, if someone is criticizing us, it is actually a good thing because they are showing us our ego that we need to work on: pride, self-esteem, fear, vanity, resentment. We have to learn to receive the impressions of life without getting stuck in the moment. We all have that impression when we are doing this work where certain situations make us feel identified. We lose energy when we feed anger or desire or gluttony or whatever. 
The Tool of Self-Observation
We have to experience life without feeding that self, which we do so through self-observation. Observe your three brains. What are your thoughts? What are your feelings? What are the impulses we experience in the moment? We have to observe all that in relation to the senses. What impressions are coming in? Who wants to act in us and why? We have to learn to see that in ourselves, because anytime an image of lust, whether it be pornography or advertisements or the opposite sex, we see those impressions, they come in to us, but if we identify, we invest our energy, our self, into that. We become petrified as a soul.
This is the myth of Medusa. If you look into the eyes of Medusa, the ego, we become stone, stuck, and then it becomes very difficult to break out because the more we feed desire, the bigger the habits become. Even songs we hear on the radio, which tend to be very vulgar relating to lust and desire, enter our psyche, and if we do not transform those impressions, we become sick mentally, because those songs and impressions feed negative emotion. We explain this principle very extensively in our course on The Secret Teachings of Opera. Even touch becomes lust if in touching another person there is desire in the moment, even towards one's partner. One has to learn to see lust in all the senses, see anger through the senses, how it feeds in that way. We cannot just run away from negative impressions or feed good ones. We have to learn to see them both in balance. This is the path of the middle way, so that we do not go to extremes like the pendulum. If you are familiar with hypnosis, they use the pendulum to put people to sleep. It is a reference to our consciousness going asleep, which is negative. We need meditation and creative analysis in order to comprehend impressions, transform them, and to work on the mind, because the ego always wants certain impressions. These are our habits. We always want to chase after good feelings and run away from negative ones. That determines all of our situations in life. We go towards the good, run away from the bad, and yet, this is the churning of the ocean of our mind that keeps us asleep. We have to look at bad situations with a conscious eye, and not to run away from mistakes because they are going to teach us something valuable about ourselves. Maybe we work at a job we hate. But whether or not it is a good decision to move on, it should not be based upon a sense of inadequacy or fear or paranoia or pride, that “I'm not good enough. I need to get a better job. They do not appreciate me here. I don't like the environment.” Regardless of what those emotions are, we have to do what we need to do, but seeing the relationship between our internal world with the external. 
The Transformation of Impressions
When you change your internal states, the external changes. This has to do with what we call the transformation of impressions. We have to learn to transform what we experience. This is an image of, I believe a Sufi woman in dance, or an Arabian dance, which has its connotations, perhaps a lustful image.
We must learn to see life without translating what we see. So, whenever we see an image of a person, we have to learn to see it without translating in our mind, meaning you see the opposite sex, the mind will take that impression, that impression will strike the senses, the consciousness, the ego, and then the mind will start to react. You can only see this interaction in yourself if you are observing. If we are not observing ourselves, that means we are asleep. The Essence is not active, because typically we go through our day, impressions enter the psyche, and we just do things mechanically. How many times do we go through life driving our car thinking of our friend or fiancé or family members, and then we miss our stop? We are on the train. We suddenly realize, “Where am I going? I don't know where I am!” You know, we have those moments where we forget. That is a brief glimpse of our chronic condition. Every time we take in impressions that we do not work on or observe, they become ego, or pornographic images in the astral / mental planes. I know one instructor mentioned how he was just walking through the grocery store briefly and for half a millisecond, he saw, as you see towards the cashier lines, magazines of a lustful type, women or men of provocative images, which are very common. He did not think anything of it. He saw it for a second and moved on. He didn't even think twice. Later that night, he had an ordeal where he was facing an entity his mind created with the image of one of the women that he saw. Any time an impression enters that we do not transform and comprehend, it becomes more desire, and then we have to fight twice as hard to fix that. This is why we need death moment by moment, says Samael Aun Weor, the death of the ego, which means observe. Do not give desire when it wants. Comprehend it. See it for what it is. Do not let the mind make a transaction where it translates what we see and deepens our state of desire. We have to work on our minds. The mind is a bottle, and if you are familiar with Middle Eastern doctrine, they talk about the myth of Aladdin in the lamp. It is an interesting myth. The lamp is the ego, in which the genie or the soul that can perform miracles is trapped. It is the same myth as Moses freeing the Israelites. You break the lamp; you open it based off comprehension, and the soul is liberated. This is the teachings of علاء الدين ‘Alāʼu d-Dīn, الله دين Allah-Din. الله Allah the Being, the divine and دين Din in Arabic means “religion,” “discrimination,” “judgment.” So, you free your soul through the judgment of God, which is psychoanalytic [retrospection] meditation. The Sufis speak beautifully about how to overcome lust in a book called Revelation of the Mystery, which explains many principles that we have been relating. I recommend that you study some of the following verses. We will give some in brief, in which they talk about the lower soul, the mind, the ego, which is in Arabic: نَفْس nafas, desire. In short, the devil cannot enter a man's heart until he desires to commit a sin: but when a certain quantity of passion appears, the devil [or black magician] takes it and decks it out and displays it to the man's heart; and this is called diabolic suggestion (waswás). It begins from passion, and in reference to this fact God said to Iblís [Satan] when he threatened to seduce all mankind: "Verily, thou hast no power over My servants" (Qur'an XV, 42), for the devil in reality is a man's lower soul (ego) and passion (fornication). Hence the Apostle [Prophet Muhammad] said: "There is no one whom this devil (i.e. his passion) has not subdued except 'Umar, for he has subdued his devil [in sexual magic]." Passion is mingled as an ingredient in the clay of Adam; whoever renounces it becomes a prince [a Malik, Melech, or King of תפארת Tiphereth] and whoever follows it [through fornication] becomes a captive [of Klipoth]. Junayd was asked: "What is union with God [religion, religare, yoga]?" He replied: "To renounce passion [fornication]," for of all of the acts of devotion by which God's favor is sought none has greater value than resistance to passion, because it is easier for a man to destroy a mountain with his nails than to resist passion [fornication]. I have read in the Anecdotes that Dhu 'l-Nún the Egyptian said: "I saw a man flying through the air [through Jinn science], and asked him how he had attained to this degree. He answered: 'I set my feet on passion (hawá) in order that I might ascend into the air (hawá).'" It is related that Muḥammad b. Faḍl al-Balkhí said: "I marvel at one who goes with his [Christic, volitional] passion into God's House and visits Him [in the superior worlds]: why does he not trample on his [sensual, egotistical] passion that he may attain to Him [through self-realization]?" 
Coexistence
This all ties into our work with the psychological gymnasium.
Life is a gym. It is not an end in itself. Life should not just be, “I go through my job, earn my paycheck, and then go home and relax,” although that is typically what makes up all material life in general. In this work, we take life as an arena, in which we battle against our mind. We have to learn to take the impressions of life that are difficult and transform them for spiritual growth. Initiation is our life. It is not found by going to Tibet, going to some sacred temple, some space, attending a school. Those things are beautiful and wonderful, but you really enter initiation when you work at a job that you hate and people are against you and they are pushing your anger out and showing you yourself―and if you transform your mind and state in those moments, you gain knowledge. Then, with serenity and knowledge, the external settles. Situations change. We move on to the next ordeals. Ordeals are means of facing ourselves. If we do not face ourselves and take upon an attitude of introversion, learning to see the mind for what it is in the greatest hardships, then we end up making mistakes, because if we repeat things mechanically, behaviors again and again, lifetime to lifetime, those situations will get worse, spiraling down. But when you transform impressions and eliminate the ego, you eliminate those actors in those dramas, then those situations resolve themselves of their own. 
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Through this work, we cease being The Idiot, which even Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote a book about. He was a great Russian author, considered a philosopher and a psychologist and a literary giant. One of my favorite books by him is precisely of this title.
See Dostoevsky on the right, and on the left of him, you find the Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, who is the central protagonist of this drama. This book was inspired or inspired by this image you see above, which I believe is the death of Christ [Han's Holbien's painting, “Christ's Body in the Tomb”]. I do not remember what particular image it is, in what museum it is, but Dostoevsky saw that image and became fascinated, but also afraid. He depicted in his novels Gnostic principles, initiatic principles that are allegorical, kabbalistic, profound. This book The Idiot is about a prince, Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, who is in his mid-20s. He is one of the last of the noble lines of Russian nobility. He travels to St. Petersburg to return among people after his absence. He was living in, I believe, in Switzerland or in a Swiss Clinic because he had epilepsy. There is a relationship between the author having epilepsy that inspired his character. We know that epilepsy in Gnosticism is caused by mediumship, black magic, because the people who incarnate the souls of the dead, dislocate their mental and emotional bodies and become sick physically. So Dostoevsky was a very spiritual person, although he did not practice mediumship in that life. But the Prince was living in the mountains, living in the air, the cold air, to receive benefit for his health, which is a symbol of him being an initiate. He descends down to Petersburg, Patar, Peter-burg, the city or stone of patar, the sexual work. He goes to be among some relatives and also to collect a large inheritance. He is going to visit a family member when he gets caught up in the 19th century aristocratic social circle, which people are fascinated by his kindness, his compassion, his simplicity, his beauty, but they recognize that he is a fool because he doesn't know how people manipulate him. They play and toy with his innocence, his ignorance of how to navigate the social realm. It is at that time that he becomes infatuated with a woman, a scandalous figure by the name of Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova. He sees her portrait first and then he later meets her at a party where he proclaims his love for her just randomly. He fell in love and acts like a fool, giving himself away to this woman who people in those circles know is not a good person. This woman also goes back and forth between the Russian figure Rogozhin, who is a dark figure, a merchant, who is a criminal deep down. So Nastasya is related to as a fallen woman. She used to be the concubine of the aristocrat Totsky, against her will. So, she is innocent, but she is fallen at the same time, which is interesting. Her fallen nature goes towards Rogozhin, which pleases, of course, this figure. Rogozhin is also in love with her too. But she also is in love with Myshkin at the same time, going between the two men, back and forth. So, she can't reconcile those two distinct drives: her innocence and her impurity, which is a symbol of anyone of us, the soul. So at first, she goes to Myshkin, which of course infuriates Rogozhin and Rogozhin later takes this woman and Myshkin is left in sorrow too. These are all symbols. These characters are allegorical. They represent a drama in the soul. In this book particularly, we find how Myshkin, a bodhisattva, a master, becomes a Fool of the Tarot. So Myshkin is given an opportunity by the law to marry a woman who will help him and not chase after Nastasya, this concubine, this dark figure. Myshkin falls in love with Aglaya Ivanovna, and Aglaya is a young innocent girl who actually would be a good match for him, but he cannot decide. He becomes an idiot. This forms a very fatal love triangle that drives the plot (and makes for an 800-page book). I do not recommend necessarily taking the time to read it all (if you don’t have time), but the principles, when you break them down, are very simple. The names are very symbolic. Lev is a “lion.” Mysh from myshkin means “mouse.” He is a lion and a mouse at the same time. He has the highest ideals in himself, the lion of Judah, a master, a Being in him, and yet, he is fallen. He is like a rat. A mouse makes mistakes. We call this figure a hasnamuss, from:
What is a hasnamuss according to Samael Aun Weor? It is a being or a master who was once up there, but then fell. Their inner God is a great master of the White Lodge, but the ego is a master with the black lodge. They are split. Lion above, mouse below. It is an abortion, a failure, a fool. There are many hasnamussen in the movement. On a simple level, whether we entered initiation before, we have the being above, but we also have ego. Therefore, we are hasnamussen. We are split between heaven and hell. Dostoevsky even wrote Crime and Punishment to portray the same principle with Raskolnikov, who his name literally means “split, schism,” raskol, split between heaven and hell, not knowing what to decide. You can read those books too if they interest you. But what is the thief? Someone who steals the energies of God, but through lust―to voraciously devour a stone, the sexual force, with pain. So, Prince Myshkin could have been with this girl Aglaya, which in Hebrew is AGLA: אַתָּה גִּבּוֹר לְעוֹלָם אֲדֹנָי Attah Gibor Leolam Adonai, “You are mighty forever, O Lord.” Ivanovna―IAO: Igneous, Aqua, Origo; Fire, water, Spirit. She is the soul that could have liberated him, Myshkin. But he fell in love with Nastasya, and in Russian, Nastasya reminds us of anastasis, which in Greek means “resurrection.” Barashkova means “sacrificial lamb.” So why is it that the fallen woman relates to resurrection and the sacrificial lamb? Because there are many masters who fell intentionally. They were resurrected, but then they became Fools of the Tarot. They intentionally fell. They lost their energies and entered devolution because they knew that if they were to rise again, after having fallen, they would gain more light. But it is a very particular path that does not apply to many people. Those beings are very dangerous. They are very hypocritical, split. They have a split personality―solar / lunar―at the same time. Therefore, they cannot be trusted. 
At the very end of this novel, Prince Myshkin is going between Aglaya and Nastasya. He cannot decide. He even says that he wants to marry both. He wants to love both women at the same time. But of course, the people around him are saying, “You are insane!” So, Arcanum 6: Indecision―he has the virgin Aglaya who could help him, but then the whore Nastasya who is going to pull him down and that leads him to insanity. He ends up in the insane asylum, a fool. A lot of symbols are present in that myth.
Samael Aun Weor mentioned in a lecture called Matrimony, Divorce, and Tantrism about this principle, how if we look at sexuality with lust or if we hate sexuality, it ends in lunacy. Death levels everything. Any living corpse without Solar uneasiness gradually degenerates terribly until it is devoured by the Moon.
This is because the solar force, the seed of life, is in our sexual glands. To not work with that is to be castrated, to be insane, because those energies, if they do not go to the mind, the mind is impoverished. It becomes lunar.
He who listens and does not do what in the silence of the real quietude the lineage of his Maya blood speaks, will suffer that the slave will kill the master and the servant will put freedom in jail, and the slave will suck the blood of the master and will also die, and the servant will tyrannize freedom and will not live, but will degenerate for being a sucker.
I will mention one other brief fact of that book. Even the figure Rogozhin who intentionally tries to kill Myshkin because he is with Nastasya, Rogozhin lived in a house that was owned by a group of castrates, celibates, who remove their sexual organs. It is a symbol of Lilith, hell, people who hate sexuality, who hate the Holy Ghost, and Myshkin becomes friends with him, even though Rogozhin is going to kill him because he is an idiot. A master who gives in to their lower nature becomes the Fool of the Tarot, gets devoured by hell, becomes a castrate. So, if you are going to read, you are more than welcome. A lot of principles that are very beautiful.
Psalm 119
We always mention the Psalms in our lectures. Verses 161 to 168 all begin with the letter ש Shin:
שָׂרִים רְדָפוּנִי חִנָּם ומדבריך פָּחַד לִבִּֽי׃ The Hebrew Letter ש Shin
ש Shin is fire, sexual energy, transmutation. ש Shin is the fire, the light of our sexual waters, which is where you get words like שמים Shamayim. The opening verse of the Bible in Hebrew is…
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים Bereshit Bara Elohim, “In wisdom אלוהים Elohim created,” אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם et hashamayim, “the heavens or fiery waters” and “the earth,” הָאָֽרֶץ ha'aretz or וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ ve'et ha'aretz. That sexual fire can be polarized in heaven or in hell. We call that energy Fohat in the writings of Samael Aun Weor. That Fohat is the force of Samael, the angel of strength, which can empower our spirituality or our diabolic nature. Fire is of a positive force, a positive nature, but when it is misplaced, it becomes dangerous. So, the fire in the kitchen is good. Fire in the living room is negative. That fire is positive and conscious when it is controlled, but if we feed our lust, it empowers the worst nature in the human being.
We always talk about a story from the Zohar when relating to the Hebrew letters because each of the Hebrew letters approached יהוה Jehovah and the creation of the world in order to initiate the Bible. Of course, the letter ב Beth, from בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, initiates Genesis, but in this allegorical myth: The letter ש Shin came before Him and She said, “Master of the worlds, May it please You to create the world by me, for by me You are named שדי Shaddai and it is fitting to create the world by a holy name.” He replied, “You are seemly, you are good, and you are true, but since letters of deceit take you as their accomplice, I do not wish to create the world by you. For a lie cannot exist unless ק Quf, ר Resh (two negative letters we mentioned earlier) take you. So whoever wants to tell a lie will first lay a foundation of truth and then construct the lie. For ש Shin is a letter of truth, a true letter of patriarchs, who were united in it. ק Quf, ר Resh are letters that appear on the evil side, left pillar (of the Tree of Life). In order to survive, they entangle with ש Shin, forming קֶשֶׁר Qesher, conspiracy.” Seeing this, she left His presence. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 12
So again, relating to Arcanum 21, spiritual doctrines can be beautiful, yet if they lack the fire of chastity, they have no life. שין Shin or ש Shin, י Iod, ן Final Nun, gives us a sum of 360. 360 degrees relates to the Hebrew letters ס Samech, which is the serpent, the Ouroboros, the dragon swallowing its own tail, a symbol of the eternity of שכינה Shekinah, the Kundalini.
נָחָשׁ Nachash ends with ש Shin, the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve. When that serpent is controlled in the garden of a marriage, in the primordial bliss of a matrimony, that serpent, instead of tempting and leading down to devolution, becomes the bronze serpent that Moses raises upon a staff to heal the Israelites. ש Shin with its three prongs refers to the solar astral, mental, and causal bodies we create in initiation. That relates to the Chariot of Ezekiel, the Merkabah, the chariot of fire mentioned by William Blake in his poetry: 
Bring me my Bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire! ― William Blake, “Jerusalem”
So, we have earth, air, fire, water. Those four elements are synthesized in the Merkabah, which are the solar vehicles, the chariot of God that drives the master. When ש Shin animates the solar bodies, when we have those bodies created and the fire active in them, then יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah, the four-lettered name of God, becomes יהשוה Yeshua: י Iod-ה Hei-ש Shin-ו Vav-ה Hei, which is where you get the word Jesus, “the Savior.” יהוה Iod-Havah can relate to the four lower bodies on the Tree of Life that are perfected―four letters, four bodies.
When you incorporate ש Shin, you involve מלכות Malkuth, יסוד Yesod, הוד Hod, נצח Netzach, תפארת Tiphereth, and that becomes יהשוה Yeshua, the savior fire. ש Shin is also the מנורה Menorah: מִין Min-אור Aur-רה Rah. מִין Min means “kind” or “sex” in Hebrew. The מנורה Menorah relates to the enlightening of those inferior bodies with the fire of sex, ש Shin, so that אור Aur, the light, shines in that master.
Those three prongs of ש Shin refer to the three primary forces as well: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We included the three mother letters of Kabbalah: א Aleph, ש Shin, and מ Mem, because they relate to the most essential principles of the Hebraic alphabet. Without these three forces, we cannot create. א Aleph is the wind, the air in the head. ש Shin, the fires of the heart, help control the waters of מ Mem, the sexual glands. Behold, I will send (ש) my messenger and he (יהו) “IAO" shall prepare the way before me (אל). ―Malachi 3:1
י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vau: I-A-O―Igneous, the fire; Aqua, the water; Origo, the spirit, or ש Shin, מ Mem, א Aleph, respectively. Those three forces are synthesized with ש Shin because you find the fire within all the elements. There is fire in the air. There is the fire in the waters. There are fires in the earth and the fire within the fire. That fire is most deeply embedded within our sexual matter, which is the oil of the temple of God.
Christ is therefore the Universal Fire of Life. Much can be said about Christ, and I will tell you the following: Christ is defined with the four letters that are written on the top of the cross of the Martyr of Calvary, namely INRI (Ignis Natura Renovatur Integra): The fire renews nature incessantly.
You find that the Hebrew word שמן shemen, “oil,” relates to semen. So when all the scriptures talk about anointing your head with oil, it means that you are conserving that matter, transforming that fire, and being baptized with the creative force internally. That is baptism. That is a work within. As the Book of Proverbs states:
There is treasure (אֹוצָר o’tsar) to be desired and oil, (שמן shemen) in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man (בַלְּעֶֽנּו balenu) spendeth it up. ―Proverbs 21:20
So, אֹוצָר O’tsar is א Aleph, ו Vav, צ Tzadi, ר Resh. You find the word אור Aur, light. It is the treasure of God, which you find in צ Tzadi.
We explained in Arcanum 18: Twilight the meaning of צ Tzadi, which is עץ הדעת טוב ורע Otz Ha-Da’ath Tob Vay Ra, the Tree of Knowledge. צ Tzadi looks like a tree or a cross. So, the treasure of God is the light that you find in your צ Tzadi, your tree of knowledge, your sexual glands. Oil is in the dwelling of the wise, meaning the seminal energy is always conserved, but a foolish man or woman בלע bala: ב Beth, ל Lamed, ע Ayin, a foolish man or woman spendeth it up, meaning, expels it so that there is no light in the temple. Even the word בלע bala: ב Beth, ל Lamed, ע Ayin, is how you spell the name of a demon: בַּעַל Bael, whom we conjure in the Conjuration of the Seven. “In the name of Gabriel, may Adonai command thee and draw thee hence בַּעַל Bael!” So, a demon, a בְּעָלִֽים Baalim, is someone who expels the seminal matter. This is well explained in the story of Elijah fighting the בְּעָלִֽים Baalim in the Book of Kings 18:17-40. The Mysteries of ש Shin within the Zohar
I'll relate to you one quote from the Zohar that talks about some of the principles we see in the very center of this glyph. The chariot of God is formed by the three mother letters of Kabbalah. The Zohar refers to those as principles, images, that are synthesized with the work of the creative energy. So the Merkabah is a chariot that drives the initiate, the solar vehicles within the internal planes.
All images are comprised in the human face (Ezekiel 1:10), for it is a large face, traced with tracings, engraved with engravings of the explicit name (י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei, the forces of man and woman united in alchemy) in the four directions of the world: East, West, North, and South. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 143-144
So the four directions relate to the four bodies, symbolically speaking, the four elements that we explained in Arcanum 4: The Emperor.
Michael is described in the South (relating to the fire). All faces gaze at the human face: face of a lion, face of an ox, face of an eagle (ibid.) A human is a male and female (a true man or spiritual initiate is made from man and woman in alchemy) and is otherwise not called human. From it a trace figures of the chariots of God, myriads upon myriads, as it is written: The chariots of God, myriads upon myriads, thousands of שנאן (shin’an, which is a word for angels) (Psalms 68:18). ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 144
So, all those masters in the superior planes, which you can invoke and speak with, all have the solar bodies perfected. So if you invoke in the astral plane using your invocations, you can see those masters with a lot of light coming down to you.
שנאן (Shin’an: ש Shin, נ Nun, א Aleph, ן Final Nun)―totality of all those figures: שור (shor), ox; נשר (nesher), eagle; אריה aryeh), lion; ן (final nun)―the human. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 144
So שנאן Shin’an is an acrostic. It contains the four elements, the four holy creatures of alchemy. As we say, “Chaioth ha Kadosh, cry, speak, roar, bellow! Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh!” within the Invocation of Solomon: the four, holy creatures of the perfect matrimony, which are the four bodies of alchemy created in a marriage, but also the three brains in the body that are in balance.
…the human, an extension merging as one through the mystery of male and female (of the perfect matrimony). All those thousands and myriads emerge from this mystery: שנאן (shin’an). From these images, each one spreads out fittingly. These are the ones interlaced, interwoven, included in one another: ox, eagle, lion, human, conducted by the mystery of four engraved names, ascending to be guided and to gaze. Ox ascends to the human face.” ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 144
We find that the four elements relate to the Hebrew letters. The ox relates to the earth, the eagle with the air, the lion with the fire, and the man with the waters of sex.
A name ascends, crowned and engraved in the mystery of two colors: אל El. Then it turns back―is inscribed and engraved on the throne―designated to be conducted by the mystery of this name. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 144
So what does it mean to create the throne of God? Your spinal medulla is your throne in which God sits. If the conduit is clean, full of purity, circulating the Christic force, then your Spirit can manifest in you through intellect, emotions, sex, and physically. What does it mean to inscribe and engrave on the throne? To embed stones and virtues of the Being through a marriage. Those are symbols of creating the conscious qualities of the spirit in us.
Eagle ascends to the human face to be guided and to gaze. Another name ascends, crowned and engraved in the mystery of two faces, radiant colors, ascending in the ascent of the crown above: גדול (Gadol) Great). Then it turns back―is inscribed and engraved in the throne―designated to be conducted by the mystery of this name. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 144-45
So again, this is talking about the perfect matrimony, the sacred name of God, which we imprint on our stone, יסוד Yesod. It is י Iod-ה Hei-ו Vav-ה Hei: יהוה Jehovah. י Iod is the man. ה Hei is the woman. ו Vav is the phallus. ה Hei is the uterus. With that principle and working in a marriage, we engrave the virtues of God. We create the throne of God, the Merkabah.
Lion ascends to the human face, to be guided and to gaze. Another name ascends, crowned and engraved in the mystery of the two faces, bold colors, aligned in power: גבור (Gibbor), Mighty (relating to גבורה Geburah, Justice, the left pillar of the Tree of Life). Then it turns back, is inscribed and engraved on the throne, designated to be conducted by the mystery of this name.
You find Nora is another acrostic. Nora means awesome. You find the letters נ Nun, ו Vav, ר Resh, א Aleph [since the light, אור Aur, is present within the seed of נ Nun, the sacred sperm or ovum]. To receive or experience the awesomeness or grandiosity of God is to work at alchemy.
So it is written of them: The image of their face was a human face. They are all comprised in this image, an image comprising them. Because of this mystery, the blessed Holy One is called the great, mighty, and awesome God. (Deuteronomy 10:17), for these names are engraved above in the mystery of the supernal chariot, comprised of four letters: יהוה (YHVH) י Iod-ה Hei-ו Vav-ה Hei, the name comprising all. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 145
This is only possible through working with the vital force and the Zohar and makes an explicit reference to how the chariot of God is formed through working with the Tree of Knowledge, working with the seed.
Lastly, we will conclude with that verse. Once [the energy of God] descends, these four images emerge, traced their tracings, engraved, radiant, sparkling, flashing, scattering seed upon the world (like a Tree of Life, meaning when a master is perfected with the seed of sex, they become a like an oak tree, a Tree of Knowledge that can disseminate the teachings of transformation). The human image emerges, embracing all images. Then this verse applies: fruit trees of every kind, bearing fruit with a seed in it upon the earth (Genesis 1:11). It emits seed only purposefully, upon earth. With the seed in it. Precisely! From here we learn that one is not permitted to emit seed in vain. ―Zohar, Pritzker, Vol. 1, p. 146
Of course, many rabbis traditionally interpret this to mean that one should not reach the orgasm in vain through masturbation, but that for them it is ok to procreate children. But in alchemy, one does not emit the sea at all. It is vanity to reach orgasm.
"Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, all is vanity," says Solomon (in Ecclesiastes 1:2, I believe). Practice for Intuition
To defend ourselves from making tragic mistakes, from becoming irredeemable fools of the Tarot, we can develop intuition. Here is a practice from Samael Aun Weor to aid us:
The pineal gland is the center of the intuitive polyvoyance. Intuition manifests within the heart as presentments; yet, in the pineal gland such presentments are converted into intuitive images. The student submerged within a perfect meditation with his/her mind in blank, must be inundated by the silence, and then must mentally vocalize the former sacred mantra. This mantra can be chanted as many times as one wishes to do so. After about ten minutes of vocalization, the student must cease vocalizing the mantra and continue with the mind in blank for an indefinite period of time. When the great Silence is inundating us, then the experience of the great Reality comes to us. ―Samael Aun Weor, Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot 
The Rune Olin
So in order to work with these principles, we practice the runes. We will not explain all these steps at the end of this lecture but we will practice this together. So we include this PDF or slide for those who want to learn how to perform the Rune Olin. Samael Aun Weor gave this rune at the end of the chapter on transmutation, this Arcanum specifically.
The Rune Olin helps us to transmute the fire of our sexual glands so that we can redirect it through yogic postures like the Runes Fa or Olin. Olin relates to Othilla, Thelema, willpower. When you work with that fire, you develop your spiritual will to work for the benefit of humanity and on our own path. The Rune Olin relates to the Rune Fa. The Rune Fa, the rune of the Father, has the hands facing upward towards the East, where we receive the solar energies through our chakras of the palms into our body. Then we pronounce sacred mantras. The Rune Olin is opposite. It looks like the Rune Dorn, which is a rune or posture we perform for accumulating solar force, Christ will. Then you breathe, transmuting those forces, directing them with movement into your heart. We will perform the Rune Olin together, but we include this slide for those who are interested in following step-by-step with this practice: 1. Our single disciples of both sexes can practice the transmutation of their sexual energy with the practice of the Rune Olin: while standing with a rigid position, the disciple will make various rhythmic inhalations and exhalations. 8. Place both hands on your waist and repeat the exercise. Observe very carefully the two diagrams of the Rune Olin in order to understand the correct postures.
So, we'll conclude and open the floor to questions.
Questions and Answers
Question: You mentioned one point that initiation is having a job that we hate and learning to overcome that role. What if we love our job?
Instructor: It means that our karma is less severe, but regardless of any type of position, any type of occupation we have in life, there is always going to be hardships. So, for some people it might be at their job. For some it might be their marriage. For others it could be family life. Or for some people, it could be all of that. It depends. Each person's karma is different. Some people have very easy circumstances but have hardships in other areas. We all are struck in the area where we are weakest so that we can change that, overcome that. Comment: Some people on tv, like Children's hospitals, show kids dying of cancer...They don't even have a chance for the spiritual work. Maybe their karma wasn't as good. Or people dying of diseases at young ages... Instructor: It's intense, and if those people are serious about changing their situation, they have to learn how to bear that hardship with gratitude. Very difficult to do, but one shouldn't protest against God. We receive what we have earned. But at the same time, while people have faced those situations, terrible circumstances, if they are serious about investigating their own psyche, they will be reborn in circumstances and can earn that right to receive the doctrine. Now, it is interesting that in these times, the knowledge is open for everybody, but you can see how many people really want it or really want to practice it. So regardless of what people want, if they really want it, they will find it. If they really want to continue with it, they will. "Out of the thousand who seek me, one finds me. Out of a thousand who finds, me, one follows me. Out of a thousand who follow me, one is mine," said Krishna or the Hindu Christ (Bhagavad Gita 7:3). "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads into life, but few there be that find it. While broad is the way and vast is the path that leads to destruction and many go in there at" (Matthew 7:13-14). It is easy for the seed from a tree to die. You are in the forest preserves; you see pine trees where thousands of seeds are given to the earth, and how many of them actually germinate to another plant of the tree? It is a terrible reality, but a true allegory. Those who want to really change will, and if we obey the commands of our inner Being, we won't end up like the Fool, being left at the wayside, like seed scattered to the winds. Question: Question about when you get to that stage you know, you see the lights so to speak. You are at that point where you can go up or down. Are you talking about this or is there even a difference between when you have the knowledge and know this experience, but you choose to use it in malicious ways, and/or, is it that you fall because of the ego unwillingly or unknowingly? Instructor: It is a good question. When I am talking about the Fool of the Tarot, especially, I am talking about people who were resurrected. Those individuals are very different. They had knowledge. They were self-realized. They had an immortal body, and so with knowledge of God comes responsibility. So they knew at that level that they were forbidden to be married again because having conquered sex through alchemy. They had to renounce it. But some of them make the mistake, being still a human at that level. They fell in love like Zanoni. Zanoni fell in love in France. He was a resurrected master and had an immortal body. He fell in love with an actress from Naples and he made the mistake of forgetting his Divine Mother, consulting her. He just went on his own whim. He was with this woman and then he couldn't control her sexually and he fell. So he had more knowledge, which means that the consequences for him were very severe, which ended up in him being killed in the French Revolution. They took his body. But for people like us who are just perhaps starting for the first time, for most people, you know, we have accidents. Of course, when you are trying to work, you may face certain ordeals or temptations. If you are married or have a spouse where it is difficult to control your energy and then one has an accident―that is one thing―but intentionally falling or you are being at the level of a master at that height and choosing to enter into a relationship when it was forbidden, that is totally different. The more light you have, the more responsibility you have. To make a mistake at that level of that type is very severe and ends with a great tragedy, which is the purpose of the Fool of the Tarot. But when you are falling into the mud already, like every one of us and not up there, we are still trying, striving to get on our feet, so to speak. Question: What about the Fool of the Tarot... usually many decks put the Fool at the beginning before the Magician. Would that be the case what is being described here where we finally have the chance to enter into Arcanum 1: The Magician, initiation? But then, whether by our will or not by our will, we fall out of that. Is that the Fool before the Magician? Instructor: It could be. There are a lot of decks. As Hamlet would say in the play of his name, "There's more to Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, Horatio." So I'd have to look into those other decks to really comment. I mean, I am familiar with a lot, but the one system that has really helped me internally has been this deck. But yeah, possibly because they put the Fool at the beginning, there could be a number of explanations for it. One, those decks were compromised, because we explained in our website that the Tarot that was given to the public was done so without permission from the White Lodge, and so people would take certain aspects of that tradition, put it together, and it became adulterated. Comment: I think those people who were initiates too were using that type of deck... Instructor: And some people could have given a little bit of a knowledge, but not all of it. What people have today is borrowed. It was not given explicitly or openly until as recently as the 1950s. Obviously, at our level we are fools who have not reached resurrection, but to really be a resurrected master and to fall is the greatest stupidity. But it happens to many people because even Samael Aun Weor who was resurrected at one point, he fell, but in this lifetime he rose again. Question: So basically the lesson is that at any stage or path, we have to be vigilant? Instructor: Yes, and work with the fire, the sexual energy, because that is what is going to determine everything. Even to enter the path, you have to work with ש Shin. Work with the olive tree, like in the image of the amphitheater of cosmic science of Heinrich Khunrath. But when you are on the path, work with ש Shin. The fire is how we enter Eden. The fire is how we leave. But you know as Samael Aun Weor, if you want to go to the very heights, you need to be very defined. You have to really know what you want, which is why he said curious people should leave. Do not even enter, because if you try to reach those heights and are not very dedicated, if one falls, it is very severe, very painful. Comment: You talked about reaching these heights, but from what I understand, the feedback I get from some of the metaphysical groups I attend, and also what I read―people have a hard time just going from Malkuth to Yesod. They say it’s a salutary matter, a spiritual matter. They have the work on that to have a lucid spiritual experience, with complete lucidity. With that type of faith, based on experience, it is unshakeable. That’s another thing! Instructor: Which is why the Qur’an says, “this path is for those who believe,” who know how to be through love, who are alchemists. Whereas the disbelievers are the fornicators and they all circulate, they study Tarot and they go in a circle and have these discussions and are very intellectual. You can learn a lot of things, but who is actually working with the light of ש Shin is another thing, because you cannot have that experience if we do not work in that force. It is just the reality. Of course, nobody likes to admit that they are the Fool of the Tarot. If we are giving these lectures, it is not because we know better than anybody else. We are doing our best. We do not claim to be better than anybody, but we have to speak the facts. Personally, I am a big fool, a big fool of the Tarot, but I am working with ש Shin in order to go up. So far, internally, that is what they have been showing me, “is that you are going up.” Question: What you are raising up is the spiritual, solar fire? Instructor: Sexual fire is the spiritual fire, but also you find that ש Shin emerges from sex, the mind, and then to the heart. You also receive fire through prana, the Christic breath, the air, which enters your nostrils through pranayama. You are working with the breath to circulate the fires of sex. Pretty much everything you eat, think, feel do, and breathe, has to do with the quality of your sexual energy. So I know we have spoken many times that if you want your seminal energy to be strong, eat well, sleep well, exercise, transform impressions, especially. In that way, the quality of your energy is going to be more profound, and in that way you feed your spirituality. Question: Is that through pranayama? Instructor: Yes. So with pranayama, we work with the sexual energy. Or if you are married, even better. Question: When you’re eating, should you use the mantra Krim to circulate that energy?
Instructor: Yeah, so when you are eating food, break it down mentally, consciously by the mantra krim, which is pronounced as krrrrriiiiimmmm. When you pronounce mantras when you eat and you eat in a prayerful attitude, you are digesting those forces and assimilating them with greater concentration.
Question: You pronounce it mentally? Instructor: Yeah, you pronounce it mentally. Obviously when you are eating, your mouth is full, or you are at a restaurant… yeah, people are going to think it is pretty funny. But yeah, it is mental. Any final questions? Comment: As always, we covered a lot. Instructor: And there's a lot more to go. Thus have I heard.
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