The Emperor, the fourth arcanum of the tarot, indicates to us our innermost divinity, our inner Being, our innermost God, and as we have been discussing throughout this course, the Kabbalah, we have been speaking about the Tree of Life, which is a representation of our psyche, a map of consciousness.
In this image, we see that the fourth sephirah, or sphere, from the top of the Tree of Life is our Spirit, חסד Chesed, the Innermost. The previous three arcana, laws, cards of the tarot that we discussed, indicated with the exactitude the law of three above. The trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, which in Kabbalah is known as כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah. These three forces in nature create, give life, and from this top trinity emerges the Spirit, Chesed, the topic of our discussion today. Chesed amongst the kabbalists has been associated in different ways, but astrologically speaking, it relates to Jupiter, and also relates to Mars. Our inner Being is the one who must conquer our inner psyche, who must control the elements: earth, air, fire, water, that exist within our interior. The inner Emperor, our inner Spirit, Chesed, “Mercy” in Kabbalah, is our innermost divinity who is Martian in nature. He needs to fight within our soul to liberate our soul, to liberate our consciousness. He does it primarily through controlling the four elements and as we have been discussing, the number four, as well as the other arcana, are intuitive principles. These are laws in nature which are eternal, represented by Torah, the law, or tarot in Hebrew and in the Egyptian traditions. We also discussed how in order to receive help from our inner divinity, we must learn to become practical magicians in relation to the first card. We are initiating a new way of life, a practice, a discipline, by introspecting into our psyche and learning to understand the elements they are in. Likewise, with the arcanum two, we are working with the feminine principle, the Divine Mother, the priestess. For every priest has his priestess, in terms of magical ceremony, in relation with the three forms of magic, which are elemental magic, ceremonial magic, and sexual magic, in relation to the lower three sephiroth, or lower trinity of the Tree of Life
Mind, נצח Netzach; הוד Hod, emotions; יְסוֹד Yesod, vitality, in their respective order. A magician is a being that knows how to work with those three types of sciences in depth. He does so through his priestess, the Divine Mother, the divine feminine. With the unification of those two forces, we have the third force which is the Empress of the tarot. She is the Christified soul, a soul that is fully illuminated, divine, perfected.
That number three relates to creation, and from those three forces of man and woman, husband and wife, we generate our spiritual force. We generate the development of the Emperor within us. 
The Emperor is our inner Spirit, our Being, our divine spark that emanates from the top trinity of the Tree of Life. We, in our internal constitution, are represented by the Hebrew letter ד Daleth, on the top right corner of the image of the card.
We spoke previously about how ג Gimel, the third Hebrew letter, represents a rich person, a rich man, a noble etc. ד Daleth is the opposite, signifying a poor person, which is where we get words such as darvish, dervish, symbolic of a poor person, a fakir. We are ד Daleth. We are the poor person seeking the riches of divinity through meditation and through the three forms of magic we discussed: elemental magic, which is precisely the work with plants, working with the soul and creatures of nature through certain rituals and practices in which we command those souls to work for us. Likewise, ceremonial magic teaches us the Eucharist. To receive the forces of transubstantiation of the Christic force in the world of Hod. The previous form of magic, elemental magic, relates to Netzach, the mind. Hod to ceremonial magic and Yesod, the vital force relates to creative sexual magic between husband and wife. So, we are the poor person. We are destitute―if we are honest and examine our psyche, what we carry within our mind, our heart, our body. “What is our level of being?” we ask ourselves frequently. Who are we in a given instant? Do we know divinity directly? If we are sincere, we analyze that we do not have divinity developed inside. We are poor, and this is why Jesus said: Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall enter the kingdom of heaven. ―Matthew 5:3
It is necessary to be humble to receive knowledge.
Be humble in order to obtain enlightenment, and upon obtaining enlightenment, be humble still. ―The Voice of the Silence 
To access the Spirit itself, we work with from certain forms of magic. We work with meditation, as we discussed in the first arcanum of the tarot, the Magician. But here with the Emperor, we are talking about a Spirit that is in full command of His lower elements, the lower parts of Himself.
For the Tree of Life teaches us that we are in Malkuth, this physical body, the bottom of the Tree of Life. The Spirit is the seventh sephirah from the bottom to the top. From Him enfolds Geburah, which is consciousness, the divine part of our soul that is feminine, that never mixes with impurity. We are a part of Tiphereth, a fraction of will that has emanated and descended down these different levels of modalities of energy, consciousness and experience. We have mind of which we are familiar with, our thoughts, concepts, etc. We have Hod, our feelings, our sentiments, our emotions. We Yesod, our vitality, and we have Malkuth, our physical body. We are in this physical plane in Malkuth which means kingdom. We can also say it means “empire.” The Emperor above, the Spirit, Chesed, must learn to control through His consciousness exerting itself upon will, and that will power must obey divinity. It must learn to control thought, feeling, instinct, sensation, impulse, and our physical body. He must conquer this lower kingdom in order to become an Emperor. Being in full mastery of Himself. And by Spirit, to be absolutely clear, we mean God, divinity, who never mixes with any type of fault, who is perfect in Himself, but He wishes to acquire more knowledge of Himself by commanding these lower sephiroth, spheres. We as a soul in Malkuth, in order to ascend, we must first learn to descend, to comprehend our errors, to change them, to eliminate them, our defects, etc. For as the Book of Isaiah 40:4 states: Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain. ―Isaiah 40:4
Our Spirit precisely has all the qualities of richness, of beatitude, of peace, of wisdom, of knowledge, and experience Whom we seek to fully develop in us through practical works.
In this card, we see that the Emperor sits upon a cubic stone. Our Spirit sits upon this perfected stone known as Yesod in the Kabbalah, the foundation of our spiritual temple. Within that stone we find a cat. A cat is a lunar creature. We know that cats like to prowl about at night. They are most active in the nocturnal hours. And therefore, this cat represents the creative energies of Yesod, because Yesod in Kabbalah is related to the moon. This power represented by a cat is the creative sexual energy, which the Emperor, the real Being within us, sits upon. That stone is cubic, perfected, chiseled; meaning that energy has been fully refined in the work of sexual alchemy between husband and wife. He sits with a hat that resembles an alchemical furnace from the medieval tradition with a still represented above, with that curvature of His hat, His bonnet. The base represents the Chakra Muladhara amongst the Hindus, which is where the sacred fire of Devi Kundalini rests in sleep and waits to be awakened between husband and wife. We have the curvature of the hat representing the furnace in which the fire of the creative energy rises and it is a symbol of our body as a chimney, as a temple that contains within it the sacred fire, which can be elevated from sex, up to the brain into a distillery, which in alchemical traditions, is the laboratory of the alchemist. A distillery represents the brain in which that refined element, that purified metal, that purified substance, illuminates the mind. The brain is the distillery in which it receives the creative sexual potential. The four corners of his bonnet represent the four elements, and in order for an Emperor to be seated upon His throne within our psyche, which is our spinal column, the Emperor must be in command of our air, our fire, our water, and our earth, which we are going to be explaining in depth today. Of course, to do that, we must become poor in spirit, humble. To be humble means to acknowledge our defects: how we use the elements of God in an impure fashion. How we use the air of our mind, for projects and plans, which are really empty of any spiritual end. Thoughts, concepts, ideas, which really have no actuality or foundation in reality. Negative thoughts. Wishing ill of others. Likewise, our fires of our heart. Emotions of anger, resentment, etc., inflame us and burn away our potential for genuine development. In the waters of our vitality, our creative energies, are usually wasted, expelled through futile efforts or futile engagements. We waste energy in many ways. Then physically, we must take care of this body, this earth. All those four elements relate to Malkuth, which is our kingdom. Our physical body is Malkuth, but we need to become kings of our earth. We need to be in control of these elements. The four corners of the bonnet also refer to not only the four elements, but the four gospels. Each of the gospels relate to the four elements of alchemy. They also relate to the four Vedas in the Hindu tradition. He carries a staff of power in his right hand, a symbol of the spine, and as we have explained extensively in this course, the spine is the seat of will power, the seat of our Spirit. Our inner Spirit can work through our spinal column if we know how to channel forces correctly from sex to the brain, and then likewise submitting it to the heart. That spinal column is the staff of life, the Tree of Life. We could not live and exist if it were not for our spinal column. Spiritually speaking, it is the same. We cannot exist spiritually. We cannot know divinity unless we awaken the creative fires and raise them up the spine. This is the power known as Kundalini or as alchemists state, אזות Azoth, which we will also explain in depth today. We also see the staff represented in the waters of the card, the bottom third, a symbol of the staff of the shepherds. The shepherd is a representation of anyone who is following the path to Christ. Who is working to teach the sheep, lead the sheep through the doorway, ד Daleth, that leads to genuine knowledge, genuine experience. We will talk about that at the end of this lecture today. We find some other interesting symbols in this glyph. We find the sign of Aquarius in the bottom right, which symbolically or etymologically hides Aqua / Aries. Aqua meaning “water.” Aries, signifying the God of War, Samael, who is the regent of Mars, the power of the fire of creative energy within sex. So Aquarius hides the symbol of aqua / Aries, water and fire. We know that the water represents our seminal matter, our semen: whether it be in a man or a woman. Aries is the creative fire that rests in that sexual power, that sexual element. But Aqua-Aries can also refer to aqua / aeris, meaning “air.” We find the sign of Aquarius, the sign of the water bearer, particularly pertinent to the study of this card. It is through the water and the fire of creation in which we give birth to our Spirit within us. We give birth to our development, psychologically speaking. Genesis: The Path of Initiation
The Book of Genesis, Bereshit, is a teaching of initiation. If we wish to enter the higher dimensions, we need to learn to be initiated, but it doesn't mean to follow any physical group, but to perform specific psychological works. We do so by working with the water and the fire, the waters of sex, transforming that energy through specific practices, especially through a matrimony; conserving that water and raising that fire within or within oneself, inward and upward to the brain. Then likewise submitting it to the heart.
This is the hidden teaching within Genesis. בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Bereshit Bara Elohim At Hashamayim Vay’at Ha’aretz בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit is typically translated, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." What are this heavens that the Lord is creating? It is not physical. It is not literally a history. It is a symbol of initiation. “In wisdom,” sometimes the Zohar translates of the Book of Genesis, "in wisdom Elohim creates." בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit can also refer to ברית אש Berit Esh. Berit means “covenant, pact.” אש Esh means “fire.” בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit is an interesting word. It can be really dissected in many ways. But in the way that I am giving it to you today, בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit can be acrostically, ברית אש Berit Esh: “pact of fire.” “The pact of fire created Elohim,” created the Gods, created the initiates, the spiritual illuminated masters. אש Esh means “fire” and a pact is a covenant. The sacred ark, arcanum, law of the covenant of God to humanity, is sexual alchemy. A husband and wife, by learning to conserve the waters of sex and transform it, can become Gods, Elohim. So: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים Bereshit Bara Elohim, or: ברית אש אֱלֹהִים Berit Esh Elohim “The pact of fire created the gods, the initiates.” אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם At Shamayim "The heavens" אֵ Aleph ת Tav is אֵת At and signifies all the principles of God: the first and the twenty second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first and last letters, Alpha Omega. As Christ said, “I am” in the Book of Revelations, “(Α) Alpha and (Ω) Omega.” All the principles of God are manifested in that person who is working with the pact of fire―all the Hebrew letters themselves. שָּׁמַיִם Shamayim means “heavens,” literally translated. But if you say שָּׁמַיִם Sha-mayim, and break down the Hebrew letters, you find מַיִם mayim, which means “water,” and ש Shin, which means “fire.” It literally translates as “fiery waters.” “By the pact of fire, Elohim was created” through all the principles of God, אֵת At: Aleph Tav, “and the fiery waters,” the heavenly matter, the spiritual work. What are these fiery waters? They relate to the science of דעת Da’ath in Kabbalah, the teachings of the Tree of Life, the hidden sephirah that is implied in the throat, because through the speech, we create. Husband and wife, through mantras and sexual alchemy, by pronouncing sacred vowels, create something spiritually within them. They work with the fiery waters. Those waters that are inoculated with flame is precisely when a man and wife are connected. Question: Wouldn't the fiery water relate to the semen itself? Instructor: It is the semen that has been inoculated in the sexual act. Yesod is our vital waters, which contain the fire, ש Shin, but when husband and wife are working in tantrism and pronouncing mantras, they are raising that fiery water up the spine through the power of דעת Da’ath. This is the heavenly waters, sometimes known as Akash, in eastern traditions. But we find that the spirit of God is the one who was hovering over the face of the waters, the רוח אלוהים Ruach Elohim mentioned in Genesis. He is the one in our spinal column who controls that energy and learns to circulate it within us. אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ (He created) the heavens and the earth. What is this earth? It is our body Malkuth, which contains all the archetypes of divinity which we need to work with and command. To obey the divine orders of our inner Spirit through the work of chastity within alchemy, so that we can enter as a humble person. As a darvish, dervish, a poor initiate, recognizing our misery and wanting to acquire more―that knowledge of more. That treasure is known in the Hadith Qudsi amongst the Muslims: I was a hidden treasure and I wished to be known, so I created creation, mankind, then made Myself known to them, and they recognized Me. ―Hadith Qudsi
This is the meaning of Allah speaking to humanity, who is a symbol of our Spirit, our Emperor. We can call him יהוה Jehovah, or better said אל El.
It is better if we say his name is אל El in Kabbalah, which means God. He is that wisdom and treasure we seek, who we contain within our body and whom we need to work with and transform, as represented by the serpent that is raised above the middle of his eyebrow, on His bonnet.
That is the raising serpent Kundalini, the power of אזות Azoth, that is fully manifested up the spine, because the spine is precisely the staff of power in which a master commands. When that spinal column is illuminated with אזות Azoth, with the creative fire, one is a master. One who has raised that serpent Kundalini. On the left-hand side, we see the symbol of Uranus, and it is a Chaldean word. Ur means light, or fire. Anas means water. Uranus is a planet associated with Chokmah, Christ, but Ur-anas is precisely the fire and water of Christ that we carry within in our sexual matter. As the waters of Genesis that we work with, the Spirit works with, notice that Aqua-Aries, the water and breath, the wind, is the power of divinity that we work with in alchemy. When a husband and wife are connected, they learn to control the breath, to pronounce mantras, to love each other in a divine and pure sense, without any lust, but to be connected sexually and to enjoy the delights of love in complete harmony and unity with each other. So they work with breath, Aeris, the God Aeolus the amongst the Greeks, god of the wind―the prana, the א Aleph, as we talked about in our first lecture in this course, in order to dominate the waters. רוח אלוהים Ruach Elohim is the Spirit of God and Ruach, as we explained in our previous lecture, relates to breath as well. The breath of God, who hovers over the face of the waters, is precisely our Spirit who commands and raises the energies up our spine within us. The Kabbalistic Significance of Four
Some other interesting correlations is that the number four relates to four ages within any race or humanity, such as the golden age, the silver age, the copper, and iron age, the latter in which we are in presently. We also study the four pillars of gnosis: science, mysticism, art, philosophy, of which we give a course and you can access on our website [Fundamentals of Gnosticism].
Now in order to become an initiate, we work with the four elements. The waters, the fire, the air within our earth, our body. Meaning, our air which is our mind. The fire within our heart. The waters within our sexual organs, and our physicality our earth. The number four, psychologically, building off this alchemical and kabbalistic analysis, relates to the four ways. Or the Fourth Way, better said, by the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. Ouspensky spoke abundantly about four paths of spirituality. There is the fakir, there is the monk, there is the yogi, and then there is the path of the gnostic, the balanced human being. Our Emperor learns to conquer our inner kingdom precisely through the fourth path mentioned by Ouspensky and by Gurdjieff. The Four Spiritual Paths
In the first path, the fakir only develops willpower in relation to dominating instinct. Fakirs are people who learn to endure heat and cold living out in the in the open, sleeping on beds of nails, performing very severe austerities, in order to develop will to command the physical body.
They develop willpower, but they don't develop conscious willpower. They have a certain dominance over the instincts of the physicality, but it doesn't mean that they are awakening their consciousness in a spiritual sense, in a most objective sense. That is a type of severity or extreme practice that we don't recommend, and which, being educated, according to Ouspensky, we obviously see the pitfalls of that type of thinking that way. A monk solely develops their emotional center, their heart through prayer. They don't necessarily develop will or consciousness, but they develop a sense of sentiment and connection with divinity based on their heart. A yogi studies the mind through scripture and through meditation and develops powers relating with the intellect. 
Each of these former three paths relate to the three mother letters of Kabbalah. Aleph relates with the air, the mind, the breath, because our thoughts our aerial in nature. They are like clouds. They constantly shift, fluctuate, appear, and disappear. If you awaken your consciousness in the astral plane and invoke a master to ask them, "What is my level of being? What is the nature of my mind like?" They will show you the sky, because in the astral plane, that dimension is symbolic. They will teach you things relating to your psyche that manifest within the landscape.
The mind relates to the air, א Aleph. ש Shin, the fire, relates to the heart, our emotions. As I said before, we can be inflamed with love or hatred. It is a fiery element. The monks develop the fires of the heart, but exclusively only that center. They don't necessarily develop their intellect in balance. Normally they don’t work with מ Mem, water, מים mayim and מ mem relates again to our third center, related to sexuality, the creative energies, the semen. A fakir develops willpower to control הָאָֽרֶץ ha’aretz, the earth, our physicality. The monk develops the heart, emotional sentiment, (ש Shin, fire). The yogi develops the mind (א Aleph, air). But these three paths are not balanced. They are extreme. They only develop one center over the other. We have the intellectual brain, the emotional brain, and the motor-instinctive sexual brain. The intellectual brain is the center of our thought, or manifests our thought. Our emotional brain manifests our emotions and feelings, and our motor-instinctive-sexual brain is a conglomeration of intelligences, physical and psychological, that process our movement, our instincts, our impulses, and our sexuality. 
The path of the Gnostic is much more comprehensive, symbolized by this cross of the Rosicrucians. Within the cross, the Fourth Way, we work in sexual alchemy (the sexual waters, מ Mem). The cross is a symbol of a matrimony. The vertical beam is a symbol of the phallus. The horizontal beam is a symbol of the uterus. Within the crossing of man and woman, we work with all the twenty-two archetypes of God.
Notice here that we have the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and that these twenty-two letters each represent a principle of nature. A law of nature. An arcanum. So, these are the twenty-two arcana of the tarot, the Torah, the law, upon which the Book of Genesis and the whole Old Testament is composed. אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם
When men and women are performing ברית אש Berit Esh, the pack of fire, they are working with those twenty-two archetypes mentioned in the cross of the Rosicrucians.
אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם At Shamayim: The twenty-two letters, the twenty-two principles of God, the twenty-two arcana of the tarot―we are creating and working with the fiery waters of sex, of דעת Da’ath, of γνῶσις Gnosis.
The Kundalini and the Kundabuffer
Ouspensky and Gurdjieff knew these teachings, but they didn't give it openly and they made certain mistakes in relation to confusing the Kundalini with Kundabuffer. Kundabuffer is the tale of Satan, for when the energy of sex is expelled, the body assimilates, the mind assimilates, negative forces, atoms, energies, relating to the inferior aspect of the Tree of Life called Klipoth, which are the hell realms, and then that energy, instead of ascending up the spine, it descends. It forms the tail of the demons in the astral body.
But the Kundalini is worked with through husband and wife exclusively. We enter initiation precisely through working with the cross. Through the cross we work with the three mother letters of Kabbalah. The other letters have a lesser role we could say, but important to the organization of the different worlds of Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, etc. The Fourth Way teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky is about balancing the elements, becoming equilibrated psychologically speaking. This is how we enter initiation. As Samael Aun Weor states: Initiation is your own life, lived intensely, with rectitude and with love. ―Samael Aun Weor
Wisdom and love, two pillars of the Tree of Life: Jakin and Boaz, that hold up our temple.
Initiation doesn't necessarily refer to becoming part of a group, but learning to behave and comprehend how to live like an angel. A holy creature. A Chaioth Ha-Kadosh in Hebrew. We find that the three elements relate to our psyche, as we have been explaining, and in order to become a balanced human being, we have to comprehend our thinking, our feeling, and our ways of acting. Our three brains: mind, heart, body. How they exist physically, but more importantly, how do we exist psychologically in this body? This is the path of self-observation, of analysis, of understanding ourselves. 
The Law of Seven and the Balanced Human Being
This is important. We will be talking about this in the Arcanum Seven. The number seven is the law of organization, but I like to refer to Gurdjieff's and Ouspensky’s teaching about the seven types of human beings, especially in relation to the fourth type of human being, which is the topic of our lecture.
He refers to human beings being divided and organized in seven types in relation to the musical scale. From the lowest DO, to the highest TI. DO RE MI FA SO LA TI. That scale represents classifications of human beings and we'll talk about the fourth one in particular. The note DO relates to instinctive human beings. People who are only constantly on the move, don't rationalize, don't think. People in war are instinctive. They don't reason. They move, and if we are familiar with Alice in Wonderland, composed by someone who knew this path very well, the instinctive type of person is the White Rabbit. “I am late! I am late for a very important date!” He is always running around and has no control or understanding of him or herself. He is constantly on the move. You have the emotional type of person related to the note RE, which relates to the Queen of Hearts who is always angry, "Off with his head!" Then you have the third note, MI: the intellectual type of person who is related to the Mad Hatter. He has no coherence in his thoughts. His intellectual center is mad, insane, and the whole planet is full of them, even though they may seem like very reasonable people. But anybody who does not have the Spirit inside is a madman, a lunatic. Someone who follows the moon, mechanicity, habits, etc. These three lower types of people, the instinctive, the emotional, and intellectual relate to the lower three paths we discussed: fakir, monk, and yogi, but, there is a superior type related to the note FA, which is the psychologically equilibrated human being. A person who is fully in control of his empire. That does not get identified with thought, the air. That does not get identified with emotions, the heart. That does not get identified with sex, with lust, desire, the waters.
In our exercises of yoga, we practice what we call runes, which are positions where we place our body in certain postures in association with the Nordic alphabet. It is a very famous practice we do, or well known within the Gnostic Tradition.
The Rune Fah in which we praise the sun, the Solar Logos, the Christ energy within nature and beg that force to enter the chakras of our palms through the different nadis of our centers, entering our body and Illuminating us with light.
We do mantras associated with that posture that looks like the letter F. The mantras FA, FE, FI, FO, FU. Those mantras help to activate the chakras and provide it with Christic energy. FA, as a musical note, is very important. It is the awakening of the consciousness, as we say in the Runic prayer, "Marvelous forces of love, revive my sacred fires [my sexual energy], so that my consciousness will awaken!" A balanced human being works with the Christic energy, who uses his willpower to obey the Spirit, so that he becomes an Emperor in command of himself. Question: Fah raises what? Instructor: The Rune Fa transmutes the energies of sex, because all the runes are practices we use to transmute energy, alchemy. Again, that science of transmuting base material into refine materials: how we transform our semen, the brute matter of the sexual matter into fire and light. Ur-anas, or the sign of Aqua-Aries, Aquarius, is again the sign of the water carrier, which is a symbol of the dissemination of knowledge in an open fashion, but it also refers to how we carry our own waters. How we transmute them, transform them. A balanced human being is someone who knows this Fourth Way, who is chaste, who does not fornicate and does not waste the energies and does not expel them and has a full balance of the waters, the fire, and the air of the psyche. There are other types of human beings which are associated with the scale of seven notes. SOL, which is someone related to having created a solar astral body. LA associated with someone who created a solar mental body. TI associated with someone who created a solar causal body. If you are familiar with Kabbalah, you find that the Tree of Life explains this very well. We talked about giving birth to the soul. Jesus said, "You must be born again of water and spirit." מ Mem and ש Shin. To be born is precisely through the womb of the Divine Mother, which in Hebrew is the letter associated with ה Hei. ה Hei can also be pronounced as a mantra, as in the mantra HUM, which is the symbol of the breath, the Spirit, Chesed. Jesus said you must be born again of water and spirit. מ Mem and ש Shin. To be born again is precisely through the breath, because when a child is born, the first moment of their life, they inhale the air and they cry. These are the three elements manifesting in the physical body, of the birth of a child, but this is something symbolic too. To be born of water and spirit is to be born in a matrimony, spiritually, because that which is born of flesh through the normal sexual act, that is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit in the same sexual act, but through certain procedures, is Spirit. 
The Tree of Life, Initiation, and the Internal Bodies
We talk extensively in these studies that we need to create the soul or solar bodies.
Right now we have our physical body of which we are aware. We may have some sense of energy, of having certain level of vitality which relates to Yesod. We may become aware of our emotions or mood at certain points in time more than others, the heart, which is Hod, the astral emotional body. We may become partially aware or be constantly subjected to our thinking, thoughts, ideas, which churn and fluctuate within our psyche. That is mind. These lower four ספירת sephiroth [emanations or] spheres are called the lower four bodies of sin. Again, it is important to note that this map expresses consciousness in different levels of manifestation. We obviously have the more material bodies or vehicles at the bottom, and the most refined energies at the top, represented by the trinity. So, in the dream world, when we physically go to sleep, we leave our body and enter the astral world, Hod, the emotional plane. We may also exist in the mental plane, Netzach, the mind, in order to experience what we call dreams. Those are bodies or vehicles that belong to nature typically. Most people don't have what are called solar bodies. We tend to exist in those dimensions during sleep in vehicles that belong to nature. They are lunar, mechanical. If you awaken consciousness, you can see that the lunar bodies have a spectral ghost-like appearance, very dark, but solar bodies are luminous, light. A master has those bodies, meaning, by working with a spouse in Malkuth, the kingdom, they learn to conquer their empire. They raise the Kundalini power up the physical spine to the brain. Next, after reaching the height of that scale, the seven notes, the seven chakras of the spine, illuminating all those centers, one takes that energy and raises it to a higher octave, relating to the vital body Yesod. But raising the Kundalini up the spine of that material body, that is in the fourth dimension, which penetrates our physical body, we then achieve that initiation. Again, these are initiations relating to alchemy, marriage. The first initiation of fire of the Kundalini we achieve in Malkuth. When we raise the fire of sex up the spine of the vital body, we attain the second initiation of fire. With the third initiation of fire, we are working with Hod, the astral body which in us is lunar, but when we raise the fire of Kundalini up the spine, up that body, we create a solar body in that vehicle. Consider it like how a bird hatches from an egg. We don't see it from the outside, but psychologically, internally, it is gestating, giving birth to those vehicles in which one can travel consciously with awareness and full cognizance of oneself. When we raise the fire of the Kundalini up the spine of the mental body, the world of the mind, we attain the fourth initiation of fire. We give birth to the solar mind. A mind that the only knows how to follow the will of Christ, that is not an animal mind, a mind full of defects, vices, errors, etc. Lastly, by raising the Kundalini of the causal world, the causal body relating to Tiphereth, willpower, we create what is called the solar causal body, and these bodies are like a light bulb. If you want to transmit light, which is the Christic energy, fully and completely, you need to create these vehicles so that your mind, your heart, and your will can express Christ. Someone who has created these bodies, who has reached the fifth initiation of fire in Tiphereth, can be called a twice born: someone who is born again. So people in the Christianity who say, "I believe in Jesus and therefore I'm saved," who say, "I am born again" are ignorant, because you cannot be born except through sex, as Jesus taught. This is someone who has conquered their empire at the beginning levels, we could say. When we reach the fifth initiation of fire, we learn to obey our divine consciousness and our Spirit. One becomes a master, a מלך Melech, a king. Or, if one is a woman, a מלכה Melcah, a queen. But of course, the Spirit is the one who does all this work inside of us when we obey the orders of our divinity. 
We want to work with the fire in the water of creative energy to give birth to the soul. The solar bodies internally, when we see them, are filled with light, beauty. When you invoke a master of the higher dimensions, when you are in the dream state, you see that they can appear to you with their solar vehicles, and they emanate power and beauty that is really indescribable, impossible to define.
When we work in initiation, we want to become like that. We want to conquer the empire of light, for as the gospels teach us or the New Testament, teaches us (paraphrased), “Heaven is taken by force, and only the violent take it by force.” [Matthew 11:12] Heaven is taken by force by working with initiation. When we look at the three letters of Kabbalah: א Aleph, ש Shin, מ Mem, you can also say that א Aleph relates with ה Hei, an H sound, the breath. So you combine those three letters together ה Hei, ש Shin, מ Mem, and you spell השם Hashem which means the name. בורך השם אדון Baruch Hashem Adonai: “Blessed be the Name of the Lord,” say the kabbalists. 
You spell Hashem backwards, you spell משה Moshe, Moses. Moses is a symbol of a master who was taken from the waters, because Moshe literally means “Born of fire and water,” because ה Hei refers to the womb. If you look at the sacred name of יהוה Jehovah, י Iod ה Hei ו Vau ה Hei, the letter ה H looks like a womb from which a child is gestated.
We know from the stories of the Old Testament that Moses was taken from the waters, from a basket or an ark you could say. A little ship. A minor arcanum or, better if we say, major arcanum, or the great arcanum, the great law, which is the teachings of alchemy according to Samael Aun Weor. 
Moses is represented as the body of willpower and all the other bodies we created through alchemy, through marriage. Hidden within the name יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah, we also find the three elements of nature, as well as the earth. Better if we say the four elements. יהוה Iod-Havah in Hebrew is the holy name of God, which inappropriately, many Jews pronounce as אדון Adonai. Not the same meaning.
The sacred name of God and Chokmah in the Kabbalah is יהוה Iod-Havah. אדון Adonai is a sacred name of God in Malkuth. Each of the sephiroth of the Tree of Life have sacred names associated with God in the world of Atziluth, the world of archetypes, principles. So when we say יהוה Jehovah we referring to Christ amongst the kabbalists. Chokmah means wisdom and Christ is the energy of Chokmah. The wisdom of Chokmah, the insight of the Lord. You can also take this word יהוה Iod-Havah and break it down further. י Iod is masculine. הוה Havah is feminine. You could say Adam-Eve, man-woman. יהוה Iod-Havah is an acrostic which entails the teachings of alchemy, of a marriage. Question: Just getting back to השם Hashem. Wouldn’t that be Ashem? Instructor: You can say השם Hashem because the השם Hashem is the breath, the Spirit, which we pronounce in alchemy, but within ה Hei is the womb, is how the child is born, and then they take the first breath in order to live in that moment. But Jehovah also relates to the four elements. We find that if we take this name and pronounce it in Latin, we hear the vowels IAO, another sacred name. It is important to step back and point out that יהוה Jehovah is a Tetragrammaton, a sacred four letter name of God. In many religions or certain religions, there are four letter names of divinity. Amongst the Jews it is יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah. Amongst the Muslims it is الله Allah, four letters. Tetra means four. Gram means letter. Any four-lettered name of divinity in an any religion refers to Christ, Chokmah, but even if you pronounce that name Tetragrammaton in the astral plane, you can invoke divinity in that way. Any master of any particular interest you want to investigate. 
A very sacred word. When you say Tetragrammaton, the angels look down at you and you can see them directly in the astral plane, and you can invoke whomever you want to speak with. But יהוה Jehovah, Iod-Havah is man-woman. י Iod, man. ה Hei: woman. The ו Vav represents the spine. It also can represent the phallus. ה Hei represents woman or water, we could say, and represents the uterus.
Within IAO, we find: igneous, aqua, origo―fire, water, and spirit. When we work in alchemy, the supreme mantra is IAO, according to Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic Tradition. Within these three letters IAO are contained within the last ה Hei, because if you take the י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vau, and translate into Latin, you have IAO. The ו Vav, the letter V, can be translated as Vau and sometimes it is used as a Vau sound in Hebrew. So it can be an “O.” י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vau is IAO. Those three elements are contained within the earth, ה Hei, the body. The Elements of Alchemy
Alchemy teaches this tradition also very extensively too within Europe. In order to become an Emperor, we work with these elements. We work with the mantras IAO in sexual connection, with our wife, partner. Alchemy speaks abundantly about these principles.
The fire of sexuality, they [the medieval alchemists] refer to it as Sulfur. The water of sexuality the refer to as Mercury. And the Spirit, Origo, is the breath, the wind. As Samael Aun Weor states in Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot, he synthesizes for us the elements of alchemy, which are Salt, Mercury, Sulfur and Azoth. The salt is the matter, meaning the brute entity of our semen, the physical waters, literally. The mercury is the Ens Seminis. I believe is the term used by Paracelsus to refer to the entity of semen, the energies contained within those waters. Then Azoth is the mysterious ray of the Kundalini. Azoth is the Kundalini in the alchemical tradition. When you spell זֹאתה Hazoth you spell it with ה Hei, ז Zayn, א Aleph, ת Tav. ה Hei relates to the breath, the wind, the womb of the Divine Mother. ז Zayin, the seventh letter of Kabbalah, we will talk about in the seventh arcanum, represents a sword, looks like a sword, with a Z sound. ז Zayin, looks like ו Vav, but has an extended top and represents a sword, the kundalini that rises up the spine in order to aid the initiates in their battle against their defects. א Aleph again is the wind and ת Tav is the final letter, representing as the seal or covenant upon which one is initiated: the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the twenty-second arcanum. We work with the four elements with our practices of meditation, but especially in a matrimony. The fire, water, and air represent aspects of our psyche, but also our body that we need to work with, and when we learn to work with these alchemical principles in ourselves, we are working with the secret teachings of the four gospels. 
The Four Gospels and the Mystery of the Sphynx
The four elements relate to the four gospels themselves. The four gospels, or the better said, the four elements, relate to the animals of alchemy. The Chaioth Ha-Kadosh: the holy creatures mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel, which are before the Lord of God, symbolize the elements that we are mastering in ourselves. The fire represents the lion. The lion, the fire, and is the gospel of Mark. The water, the mercury, represented by a man is the Book of Matthew.
Question: Excuse me, water is man? It’s amazing how, you know, in all the other teachings, relate man to the air in traditional decks. Instructor: We say it relates to man because a real human being, a Hum-Man, a mind made into the image of Hum, the Spirit, is born from the waters like Moses or any master. The eagle represents the air, the Book of John. Lastly, we have the Book of Luke representing the earth and the bull. These four animals are synthesized in what we call the Sphinx, which is a mythical creature associated with Egypt, which Oedipus the King answered his riddle in order to save Thebes in the famous play. That riddle that the sphinx asks any initiate or any poor person trying to enter initiation is, “How do you become a human being? How do you answer my riddle, my form?” Which is: the wings of an eagle, the hooves of a bull or an ox, the paws of a lion, and the face of a man. So how one become a real human being is by working with those elements in alchemy. Oedipus became king because he answered the riddle, so he became a master at that point. But of course, there is more work to be achieved by any Emperor or any master who is perfecting him or herself. The Elementals of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth
The salamanders, in correspondence with the elements, relate to the fire. There are elemental creatures in nature that exist and permeate all the elements, and any alchemist, any master, learns to work with those elementals in themselves and also outside.
As I said to you previously, a real magician is somebody who works with elemental magic, ceremonial magic, and sexual magic. Relating to Netzach, the mind; Hod, the emotions; and Yesod, vitality. The salamanders are the creatures that live in the fire, whether in the candle or in our sexual energy. They are innocent creatures of nature. They don't have any defect. They simply obey the commandments of the divine forces or intelligences that govern all the cosmos. The salamanders are the creatures of fire we have in the fire of sex which we enliven through husband and wife. The undines or the nereids relate to the water. They govern our sexual waters themselves. Then we have the gnomes that govern the earth, who live within the stones, but also within our physical body. Our physical body cannot exist without the help of those intelligences known as the gnomes that help to transfer certain substances in the body. Then we have the air, the sylphs or sylphids relate to the wind, the breath. In our breathing, our lungs, we work with them all the time but there is a way to work consciously with these elements, with a certain discipline. We need the four elements or elementals to work for us in order to become an Emperor. The nereids: we need them to be docile and tame the waters in our body; they have to be controlled, especially when one is sexually connected, because if one also builds up too much fire, one will lose the energy, lose the waters and the earth will become depleted, our physicality. The salamanders help us for heat. When a husband and wife unite and they are inflamed with divine love, the sexual fire is what gives them life or attraction, magnetism. Those are the salamanders at work. And when we say that the gnomes themselves, when we are working in a matrimony, are the ones that transform the lead of our personality into the gold of the spirit. The gnomes are the ones who learn to take the gold that is within the semen itself and transfer it up the spine, up the mountain range of the spinal column. In esotericism, a mountain represents the spine which we have to climb in the path of initiation. The winds must be controlled the sylphs. If we are breathing too quickly when we are connected sexually, the energy is not going to go inward and upward, but instead inward and out. People who are inflamed or too excited sexually with their breath, breathe too quickly. Their exhalations are more pronounced, meaning that the energy is going from in to out, not out to in. That is why they lose their energy very quickly. So, the breath has to be controlled. The sylphs have to work upon the waters of our sex through mantra, through prayer, and through full awareness about what one is doing. 
If we listen to the undines, meaning our lust that is enmeshed with in the waters themselves, we will be tempted and we will shipwreck ourselves like Odysseus was nearly shipwrecked in The Odyssey. He was riding a ship back to Ithaca after the battle of Troy and that is a beautiful alchemical teaching of how through the ship, the arcanum, the ark, he was traveling island to island, which is chakra to chakra up the spine, across the Mediterranean, symbol of our waters of sex, in order to return to Ithaca, return that energy back to the crown, which is the kingdom that he originates from.
But of course, Odysseus made certain mistakes, such as letting himself be tempted by the sirens. He commanded his shipmates to tie him to a staff, or better said to a mast and when they passed the certain area of the sea in which the sirens were well known, he heard their calls and was ranting and raving to be allowed to go overboard, and to take the ship over to them. That is how lust works. Question: But I recall, correct me if I am wrong, where he was tempted was off the shore of Naples, but that he had time to make it right. They had tied him to a mast… that part of Greek mythology, geographically I remember. Instructor: Geography is used psychologically. It is a representation of certain alchemical teachings. The Red Sea mentioned in the Old Testament is the waters of sex, which the Egyptians are drowned in, meaning our defects, our egos. But when Odysseus hears the sirens, he wants to go overboard, or better said, he wants to take the ship and go over to them. Meaning, he wants to shipwreck and that is the teaching of how lust, the "I,” tempts the mind and the heart in order to abandon the ark. The arcanum, the law, the teachings of chastity, of sexual purity. In the epic poem The Odyssey, Odysseus’ shipmates had beeswax in their ears so they couldn't hear the sirens themselves. But Odysseus was tied to his mast, meaning his spinal column. The only thing that kept him from going overboard was his willpower, his spine, and the help of divinity in the ship, the shipmates to get him out of there, to get past the temptation. So, the undines relate to the waters, and we need to work with those elements didactically. Psalm 119
Let us talk a little bit more about the ד Daleth. Psalm 119 speaks or begins with the letter ד Daleth through its verses 25 to 32, and synthesizes many of the things that we have been talking about and the path that is required for any initiate in order to enter into the higher mysteries, to become an Emperor.
My soul (Nephesh) is reduced to dust. Give me life according to your Word.
ד Daleth is very significant. It literally means door and relates to דעת Da’ath, which we have been explaining in depth today, the science of alchemy, sexual knowledge, conscious knowledge or experience of divinity.
It relates to darvish, dervish, a poor person and as we seek to enter initiation, we must become poor in spirit, humble. To recognize that only divinity matters. The letter ד Daleth is also hidden within the word שדי Shaddai or שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai, which means “Almighty Living God.” It is a sacred name of God associated with Yesod in Kabbalah, because the word שדה Shadeh means “field” and the field is precisely where gestates the vegetation, life, which we also find the most subtle of all creatures: the serpent mentioned in the bible. “The serpent that was the most subtlest of all is within the field,” שדה Shadeh, signifying the power of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai, the Almighty Living God, which is the creative potential, again, sexuality. On the doorposts of Jewish homes, and also institutions, they have the word written אל שדי El Shaddai, and they often times will kiss the lips and touch the symbol as they enter and exit out of the rooms. The door represents the door to enter Eden, into initiation, which is the narrow door of sex. A difficult path to control one's lust and to fully extirpate it. That door is the power of שדי Shaddai, the field, the serpent. Question: Is this why it said be as wise as serpents? Instructor: Yes, be wise as serpents with that energy, in control, and as harmless as doves, meaning the Holy Spirit, which is to be chaste, to be pure. ד Daleth also relates to סוד Sod or סודי Sodi, which you can translate backwards if you had י Iod at the end of סודי Sodi, you spell יסוד Yesod. סודי Sodi means “secret.” This is the secret teaching that was hidden for millennia, which is now made public in the era of Aquarius. 
The Symbol of David in the Old Testament
Lastly, we have דוד David, דוד David who is the king of the Old Testament, and his name literally means “boiler” in Hebrew. David killed Goliath with a stone, which is a size of one's hand. A sling and a stone and his faith in God.
Goliath is represented as his lust, his desires, his defects, and through the stone of Yesod, the secret teachings of alchemy, he conquered his inner beast, and became king of Israel. דוד David is a symbol of ד Daleth, ו Vav, ד Daleth. ד Daleth can signify דעת Da’ath acrostically. ו Vav, the sixth letter, relates to the sixth sephirah of the Tree of Life, which is תפארת Tiphereth and then יסוד Yesod ending in ד Daleth is hidden in also in the last letter of דוד David's name, and it literally means “boiler.” To boil alchemically the impurities of the psyche within the sexual matrass. The word crucible, crux, cross in alchemical terms, is where we get the word cross. Crucible is a metallurgical element or machine in which you melt impure substances in order to get pure substances. So that the fire of the sexual act, one can remove the impurities of the psyche, of the soul. Likewise, it is on the mattress, the bed, where the couple forges the soul, working in the alchemical matrass to destroy impurities and awaken Kundalini. 
דעת Da’ath in this image of the Tree of Life relates to the first letter of David. ו Vav, תפארת Tiphereth, willpower, is the work of the spinal column. Through the work of the spine and with knowledge gained from alchemy, we learn to control יסוד Yesod, the final ד Daleth. That is how David conquered Goliath, his inner beast.
Conclusion
To conclude will leave off with a beautiful teaching from the Book of John (1-18) with some Gnostic exegesis explaining the alchemical and kabbalistic significance of this passage, which relates to what we have been discussing.
Jesus speaks to His disciples: 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door (of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai, the power of God Yesod into the sheepfold of Malkuth) but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
In every lecture we give certain practices in order to help you digest and apply the principles we teach. To become an Emperor, we learn to work with conjurations and prayers, as well as the four exorcisms of the elements. There are exorcisms or prayers we perform which will be doing today at the end of this lecture in order to invoke divinity and control the elements. The exorcisms are related to fire, air, water, and earth which we will be explaining after the lecture.
Questions and Answers
Question: It's amazing when you mention Alice in Wonderland and I thought about The Wizard of Oz and the spine may mean the...
Instructor: Wizard of Oz, עץ החיים Otz Chaim, Wizard of the Tree of Life. And of course that the movie does a very good job of this; it shows the three coils at the beginning of the road that leads to the Emerald City, which is Ithaca for Odysseus, the crown chakra, the kingdom of the Wizard of Oz, the Magician, or the priests of Oz. Question: The Scarecrow as you think, and the Tin Man, as you feel.... Instructor: The Magician is the only one who is going to give Dorothy, the soul, or better said, the Tin Man, a new heart, a solar astral body. The Scarecrow, a solar mental body, a new mind. The Lion, representing will power, a new causal body. The Magician is the one who is going to create the solar bodies by walking up the path, the golden path of the spine that leads to the City of Emeralds: the Church of the Saints. Question: That being said, all of this allegory, you were mentioning the mythology and there was mention that Shakespeare was an occultist. Is there anyone in our present time that is an occultist that is giving out information, whether it be Lord of the Rings?... Instructor: Lord of the Rings. Even Tolkien stated as a preface to one of his books, specifically, and “People think that there is some type of hidden meaning to my stories.” He said, “I just wrote to entertain people.” But he was a very good philologist, a philosopher of language. So, there are certain things that he imitated that were very accurate. Question: Kind of like Star Wars, did they do the same thing? Instructor: Actually, Lucas' films were based off the teachings from The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Those were works of imitations, those are works of imi-ta-tus, the one who imitates, but to find works of initiates, one has to become an initiate and to understand it from experience. Question: Why do you think like Carlos Castaneda... why do you think they use allegory? Obviously, this information if of the utmost importance, why isn't it just thrown at us and say, “Hey look... we have to figure things out...” Instructor: Many writers of the Piscean era were marked by conservatism. So the Age of Pisces, which ended at the beginning of the Era of Aquarius, in the 60’s, was an era where this type of knowledge was meant to be hidden, not given openly. The sign of the water carrier of Aquarius, of how to become an Emperor, by following the work of Aqua-Aries, was only given just recently in the writings of, specifically, Samael Aun Weor. There are other writers who knew this teaching very well and talk about it in an implicit manner, because they weren't authorized by the White Lodge to give it openly. So it is good to read those writers like Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Alice in Wonderland, many Piscean teachings, with the Aquarian doctrine, which we are teaching now openly so that you can see that there is really a whole teaching here. There is nothing separate that this knowledge was given many times, but in a veiled form, because they weren't authorized to teach openly. Question: How come they weren't authorized? Instructor: They weren't authorized by the White Lodge because this knowledge is powerful. You either create an angel or a demon, based on what you do with your work. So, it's a matter of will. Comment: We are creating a lot of demons... Instructor: No, have faith. Have faith in Jehovah, as David did, because David, through the power of Yesod, and his will, killed Goliath. Killed the giant, and many of the myths of great heroes killing the beast was very prominent, and so they are teaching that it is very possible, and you will do it if you learn to become humble, to enter that doorway. To be humble like a dervish or a fakir, a poor person, to enter that narrow door. It is difficult, but if you want it, you will do it. If your Being wants you to do it, you will do it no matter what the cost will be. Question: Relating to postures, you mentioned the Runes and yoga postures, and feet on the wall [the Viparita Karani Mudra], will that help with bringing the Pranic force down the spinal column into the brain and reciting a mantra at the same time?
Instructor: Yes, when you work with the Viparita Karani Mudra, which, for those not familiar with this exercise, you place your legs against a wall and lay your back on the floor. You can simply concentrate and visualize certain energies in fluctuation, such as the practice of the Holy Eight, which we teach in the book called Sacred Rites of Rejuvenation, or you can pronounce mantras or transmute in order to continue the circulation of energies. You can work with exercises like Ham-Sah as well when you are lying on your back.
So I invite you to reflect. At the end of this lecture we will do the exorcisms of the elements. But learn to become poor in spirit by analyzing the elements of the psyche. Our thoughts, our feelings, our body, our impulses, because that is the entrance way to enter through a matrimony, especially, but we begin this path by learning to control the elements, as we taught in the Magician card. Question: I know we’ve talked about this last week, but the Catholic Church, obviously the priests practice abstinence and this and that, why is it that they are having those defects of, you know… because they know that they are not supposed to spill the semen… Instructor: Because if you conserve the water, but don't transform it, there is no Genesis there. Question: But aren't they transforming through prayer and meditation? Instructor: They are not, obviously, if you look at the results. By their by their fruits you will know them. Certain people, they like to pray and like I said, with the path of the monk, they can develop certain qualities of heart, but it doesn't mean that they are transmuting. It doesn't mean that they are eliminating their defects. Question: So, they could be drinking and doing stuff... Instructor: I really don't know what they are doing, but I know that in my encounters with certain priests, they are very degenerate. Not all of them, of course. But people who abstain from sex and don't circulate that energy inward and upward, become homosexual, or they degenerate. They lose their soul, you could say. Abstention is not enough. You have to learn how to create with that force because if the waters accumulate, obviously the energy, the fire has to go somewhere. If it is not being directed up the spine and just being contained, that fire becomes pestilent. It ferments and develops what we call in esotericism poisoniooskirian vibrations [the forces of extreme fanaticism and sexual perversion], which I believe is the term that Gurdjieff used. It is an objective language. But the thing is abstinence is not enough. You have to circulate the forces because fire has to act. If you don't control the fire, you'll be burned by it. Question: But that could also be through physical activities, or music or acting? That is the creative energy. Instructor: There are many ways to channel that energy. Transmutation is the most important, but we can learn to transmute by listening to good music, like the classical compositions, the Operas of Wagner, works of Puccini, Tchaikovsky; initiates who knew this teaching and were teaching how to elevate the soul from Malkuth to the Spirit. So their music conveys that path and can teach your consciousness something valuable [See the course: The Secret Teachings of Opera]. It also elevates the heart and you can learn to transmute energy while listening in ecstasy to Beethoven, especially. Question: The downside of that, you talk about the accumulation, how energy builds up. You talk about the clergy and books talk about certain monasteries in Europe where there were outbreaks of sensuality [homosexual behavior]. I am wondering if this could have been one of the causes of it, this energy that is building up… Instructor: If that fire is expelled then it is expelled, but if it is conserved and not transformed, it will develop a lot of problems. But there is no harm in transmuting, and actually, transmutation is the natural way for the body to exist. It is abnormal for us to have the energy expelled in a manner that it is common for animals. Animals procreate in that manner, but angels don't. So if you want to follow the path of an angel, you have to learn to engage with sex as an angel would. Comment: The problem is even my friend, or I try to mention this to other people, then they automatically call you, “Oh! You’re racist or discriminative against gays!” This is all new to me, since I used to say, “Oh, this is how they were born.” No one ever has this knowledge that such behavior is degenerative. It’s not evil, just animal-based… Instructor: We don't judge anybody here, because if we point the finger at someone, we have our thumb pointing to God saying, “Look at me,” and I have three fingers pointing at me for my own faults. Homosexuality is condemned in all religions. It is not something that you can practice if you want to unite with your inner Spirit, your inner Christ. Because man and woman, Jah-Havah works in a matrimony. So members of the same sex can't create a life. Same thing physically and spiritually. It is a matter of: as above so below. Comment: Just to add to that, I think with Dion , and Gareth Knight, who was a prominent occultist, he wrote that the polarities are the same. It’s like a charge; it repels. It not’s natural, really. You need a positive and a feminine. Comment: No, I agree. But now with the liberal movement, it’s like “Do as thou wilt,” so long as you don’t harm anyone. Instructor: They have their beliefs and it's their way of thinking. What can you do? Question: I am really learning stuff that I never knew, which I always thought, like the seven deadly sins and running amok in all of it. Just pure self-indulgence. The point is really what's ruining. It's not politics. It's not this and not that it's really that what happened in the sixties and what's happening now; pride is what's ruining the world and now you explain to people and suddenly they are like, “Oh, now you're in the religion now” all of a sudden. Instructor: People only have their concepts, preconceived notions of what spirituality is, and they may have certain traumas associated with a certain upbringing that make them repulse to esotericism, specifically, but we always respect the will of others, such as Prophet Muhammad taught in the Qur’an. He said that there is no coercion in religion. If you want to offer someone this knowledge, you can. If they don't accept, that it's their business. Don't worry about it. Mohammed was very concerned about the black magicians. He was trying to teach in Arabia at that time and the Lord, his inner Being said to him, "You are not a watcher over them. You give the knowledge and if they work with it, great, if not, it's their business." That is what the Qur’an teaches, and the Quran is very beautiful. It says, “Don't worry about people who are not believers,” المؤمنين Al-Muminin in Arabic. مؤمن Mumin, מים mayim, people who work with the waters, and the symbol of Islam, to submit to God, to enter that narrow doorway that leads to heaven is to submit through Islam, which is where you get the word peace Salam. So you find peace, through submission to God, by working with the moon, the crescent moon of Yesod and the star of Venus, love, which is a matrimony. A symbol of the alchemical teaching. You can give the knowledge and if they benefit, great. If they don't, it is their business. You know don't have to concern yourself with people who don't want to change. If they don't want to, it's on them. So, in an ancient time, when this knowledge was given only secretly, there was certain excuses made that, well, they didn't know any better. But now we are in the Era of Aquarius, you can look on our websites and you find the knowledge is given openly. People have access to this teaching now in a way that is unprecedented. So there is no excuse anymore, but you do what you can and don't fret over them. Question: I have one about transmutation. Recently I sealed myself back up, but I find that I’m having a hard time transmuting. It’s almost like I’m using energy to become other faults, internal faults. Is that a bad thing? Instructor: Well the energy, when you transmute it, that fire gives you light, and the best and the most reliable way to know that you are transmuting is if you are gaining not physical quality, but psychological. You have more insight into your anger, your fear, your pride, lust, desire, etc., and you are seeing your mind as it is, because when you work with that fire and that water, you create light and life. You start to become more sensitive. You understand how certain habits are negative, not just physical, but psychological, and you can gain a better sense of equanimity and compassion too. Question: What I have been learning is that every little thing counts. Like what you pay attention to. Every little thing, what you watch on TV, what you listen to, what you read, what you pay attention to on the internet. There is not only one thing, it's every tiny moment... Instructor: You feed your soul with the impressions you give it. Whether in books, movies, television, and practice especially. So feed your mind and your heart with good impression, such as good music that is from masters, specifically. Especially the European classical tradition has a lot, but you can find a lot of indigenous music, too, from Tibet which is very common and popular now, which you can listen to as well. Aztecs, Mayan, etc. But the best way to feed your soul is in meditation [see the courses on Gnostic Meditation and Sufi Principles of Meditation]. Learn what you are feeding your consciousness with and reflect on your own psyche every day.
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