This is the second in our series of the Gospels of Judas. We’ve already explained how Judas is an archetype. He is a character in a drama. Historically these figures were real people, but more importantly in a narrative, they represent qualities in us.
We all have Judas inside. We all have the robes of an apostle, of a religious person, a spiritual person, if we are attracted to these studies. But yet, we still betray divinity in our mind, heart, and body. We explained that Judas historically, the master, is a great initiate who played a role given to him by Christ that he did not want. He did not want to play the role of Judas, the betrayer, the ego, our pride and lust, which sells Christ for money, for pleasure. Judas in us represents, really, a part of our divinity as well. There is a multidimensional relationship here. Symbols are very compact. There are levels of interpretation. Judas in us is a tempter, but also there is a quality of divinity in us who gives us the ordeals we need, to be tempted so that we can change. This divine aspect of Judas really teaches us to go beyond good and evil, to transcend the worst in us. 
The Subjectivity of Good and Evil
But obviously this is very controversial, because the terms good and evil are very subjective, in accordance with our philosophies, our religions, our beliefs, and even our personal lives, our morals.
Good and evil is often a label for phenomena that puts us to sleep. We say, “this is good, and this is bad,” meaning, “this is convenient, and this is inconvenient.” But the reality is that those things which are good for us spiritually are often always the actions which are most inconvenient, the things we have to push ourselves to do because we have many faults. We don’t like friction, psychologically, emotionally, socially. Most people do not like conflict, and yet someone who becomes a spiritual revolutionary has to face it all the time with equanimity, with peace. This path we study in our school is to become a being that is truly revolutionary, not in the political sense, but spiritually, psychologically, to go against the grain―not merely in our daily life, in our jobs and careers―but in our mind stream, to go against what is easy. So, Nietzsche wrote a book called Beyond Good and Evil, and his primary argument is that these two terms are often very subjective and keep us enslaved―enslaved to the past, not able to see the present, and not able to act for the future. The Gospel of Judas is precisely the path of going beyond good and evil, in the subjective sense of the term. The term “superhuman” comes from Nietzsche, which Samael Aun Weor uses a lot (Übermensch in German), not merely a person who does whatever they want, but somebody who has divinity inside and is able to act for the welfare of humanity. This is what we wish to become, a superhuman, a Christ, a rebel. This path is not easy, to become like Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, or the initiates. It is very difficult to climb the mountain of initiation. But this is what we want to study in our school, and what we practice and what we aspire to. Samael Aun Weor made some points about this in The Great Rebellion, how we have to look at our own values. What is really good and what is really evil? Because in us those principles tend to be mixed. What we think is good is actually evil, what we think is evil is actually good. To become a Superhuman being, a Superman, is not easy. There is no doubt that the road which leads to Superhuman is beyond good and evil. A thing is good when it suits us and bad when it does not. Within the rhythms of poetry, crime is also concealed. There is much virtue in the villain and much evil in the virtuous. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
Nobody is ever just black and white. We are a mixture, and in fact, when we think we are praying, maybe for a car or for money or whatever it may be, in a superficial sense, as an example, we are really engaging in crime, because we desire things that are not good for us, or what we need, or what divinity knows we can get in accordance with the responsibilities of life.
Why Our Psychological Values Are Dangerous
Our psychological values can be dangerous in the sense that we take life for granted. We think that what we think and feel and do in life, in terms of our moment to moment awareness, we do not question our desires. We take life for a drama, comedy, tragedy, or whatever it may be, and we don’t question our agency in the midst of it.
What is really compelling us to behave in the ways we do? To think, feel, and act in life the way we are, not understanding that we can change and that we are merely a seed in potential, spiritually. The values of good and evil, as described by Samael Aun Weor and also the Gospel of Judas, are really roadblocks: the concepts, the values, the ideas. This is a thorny road, philosophically, but also psychologically and spiritually, because rather than accept that such and such a behavior is bad or good, we have to know it in ourselves and for ourselves. We have to judge in our mind what good and evil really is. What is good for a demon is bad for an angel. What is bad for an angel is good for a demon. Unfortunately, we are all demons, not merely with pitchfork, horns, and a certain physical appearance, a black magician, a sorcerer. Really, a demon is a being with lust, pride, hatred, fear, vanity, attachments―all that we carry within. These senses of self hypnotize us into a slumber where we do not question the process. Morality for most people is often based on this. What is often good is based on our pride and anger. Superficially, you look at culture today, American media: what do people worship? What do religions worship now? Perhaps a statue, something dead, because the ideals of the religion are there, but the living spark of faith is lost amongst the community and in the high priests. If we wish to transcend good and evil, we have to be willing to give up what we think in terms of morality, in the sense that rather than judge intellectually that “this is good or bad,” we have to follow our conscience, our heart, because some actions produce suffering and some don’t. Some actions, even though, if we are awake spiritually and we give to the community, there may be friction, but it may be the right thing. It’s not a black and white issue. There’s nuance in every interaction and relationship. Therefore we often have a moral sense of “I have to do this all of the time, and this none of the time,” meanwhile situations depend on the context too. In some cases its relative―maybe I have to behave in this way. Maybe I don’t. Obviously, there are certain behaviors that spiritually speaking can produce a lot of harm, but here we are talking about social domain, knowing how to act and live. This is why Samael Aun Weor said in The Great Rebellion: The road which leads to the Superhuman is the path of the razors edge (because it is a fine line to walk the path of conscience, knowing what to say and do and think and be, and respond to ordeals in life). This path is filled with perils from both within and without. Evil is dangerous and good is also dangerous. The frightening path is beyond good and evil. It is terribly cruel. Any moral code can detain us on our way toward the Superhuman. Attachments to such and such yesterdays, to such and such scenes, can halt us on the road that leads to the Superhuman. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
So how can good be dangerous? If you study this tradition for some time, you hear about astral projections, dream yoga, jinn experiences, out of body experiences, meditative states. You may have that experience for some time and then we get attached. “Oh, I am spiritual because I have this experience,” and then we get stuck. We don’t change. We don’t grow. Attachments to yesterday is what keeps us asleep and in pain.
Discernment: The Power of Divine Justice
But a superhuman, a divine master, a master of oneself, is somebody who can distinguish good from evil and evil from good. Any circumstance, whether it is maybe appalling, challenging, or painful, there is good in evil and evil in good.
Perhaps we may encounter someone who is provoking our pride, maybe at work, our careers, our jobs, but yet we learn to take the opportunity of the challenge, the ordeal, and make something good of it. It’s a delicate process, knowing how to sift through the sands, the mud, and the dirt to find the gems. Discernment is like a sword. It cuts through illusion and arrives at truth. That sword is the Word, the Word of divinity, the superhuman whom we call the Christ-man, the Christ-human. Samael Aun Weor elaborates on these points, that our ideas, traditions, and attachments to such and such yesterdays can keep us in the past, but that we have to discern and extract what we need for our development. However wise norms and procedures may be, they can obstruct us in our progress towards becoming a Superhuman if they are bottled up in this or that fanaticism, and this or that prejudice, or in this or that idea. The Superhuman can distinguish good from evil and evil from good. He grasps the sword of cosmic justice and is beyond both good and evil. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
It does not matter the group in terms of fanaticism. It could be in Gnosis. It could be in any religion―the idea that we know, but we don’t. So, we have to be constantly reevaluating ourselves.
Renunciation and Transcendence
We’ll now jump into the actual Gospel of Judas now that we know some of the principles behind it that can help us understand this scripture.
Judas, as we explained, the master, represents our ego who betrays us moment by moment, but here we see the historical Master Judas approaching the prophet, the Master Jesus, asking for guidance. He basically wants to attain the highest divinity, but for that he has to be willing to give up what he thinks is good. Now obviously from the Gospel of Judas and the story of Judas, we know he was the master, or the apostle who betrayed Christ. He played a role, not because he wanted to betray his lord, but because Jesus commanded it. What is interesting is that Master Judas asked for consolation, “I wish to go to the heights with you,” to the highest divinity, the absolute truth, which is beyond and transcendent, beyond any value, and yet Jesus says, basically, “You will suffer,” because “you need to give up what you think is good. You have to be willing to renounce things.” Honestly, this is the very high level of mastery. Judas represents a very high level of mastery because he must learn to transcend even his own sense of piety, righteousness, and goodness, his love for Jesus, and that this involves renunciation. Renunciation is the path towards transcendence, to give up what we are for something beyond our current attachments and values. Jesus understood that Judas was contemplating the rest of what is lofty, and he said to him, “Move away from the others and I shall explain to you the mysteries of the kingdom, not so that you can attain it, but you will go through a great deal of grief. For somebody else will take your place, so that the twelve disciples may be complete once again with their God. ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
So again, as the most controversial apostle, he actually is the highest, historically, because he played a role that no one else was willing to do, and yet here, he says as a type of initiate, “I want to go to the heights,” he says. “Well, you must be willing to give up everything, and you will suffer for it, because it is not easy.” Jesus also instructs him that what Judas thinks is the height of development is not everything there is. Judas will not attain what he wants, because he is destined for an even greater state of enlightenment, unbeknownst to him, but to achieve it requires doing what he thinks is wrong.
The Thirteenth Aeon
Judas is destined to reach the heights, what we call it in Gnostic terms the 13th Aeon. So, if you’ve studied the Tree of Life in the kabbalah, we have an image that we are going to go into great detail. Especially at the top of this mystical glyph, we find levels of divinity and abstraction, from the highest above down to the most material below.
The Absolute is above this Tree of Life, above Kether, the crown of divinity. Beyond Kether is the Ain, the Ain Soph, and the Ain Soph Aur. There are ten spheres and three levels of abstractions above, for a total of thirteen: the 13 Aeons. The thirteenth is precisely the very source of all being, the Absolute, from which Jesus emerged. The Gnostics referred to the heights of divinity as Barbelo, the region of fire and light. Jesus came from the 13th Aeon, and Judas wishes to return to the 13th Aeon. Some may reach the 12th, but not the 13th, because there are requirements for each degree, and to go beyond the 12th Aeon, the region of the 12 apostles, one has to renounce ones good. But that’s obviously a very high level, very, very subtle to comprehend, but also to reach. Jesus represents that light which emerged from that source. He explained to the disciples who question him, the apostles, “Where did you come from? Where have you gone?” Because if you meet Jesus, say in an astral projection, he basically can go from any dimension at will, from the very heights to the very Earth. He’s like light, a bolt of light that can go from any dimension anywhere. He has a level of mastery that is really incomprehensible. He sees all the dimensions of nature at once, level by level, and he is able to navigate them at will, and can show you levels of truth and mysteries in the dream state, but he comes from that region. The disciples mention this to him. They ask him in the scripture: The next day in the morning, [Jesus] appeared to his disciples. They said to him, “Master, where did you go and what did you do when you departed from us?” Jesus said to them, “I went to a different generation, one that is great and holy.” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures 
Have you ever seen renaissance paintings of Jesus ascending, the clouds parting, and going in like a light to the origin, and all the apostles looking up in awe? They are not able to comprehend his majesty. That is something you can experience in the astral plane, where he goes up, and the clouds part, and that’s an accurate depiction of his level of mastery―showing that you can go from the earth to the heavens in an instant. Very powerful and divine!
אלהים Elohim and אאלהים Aelohim
He is teaching Judas that he came from this top unknown source. אין Ain means “nothing.” אין סוף Ain Soph means “limitless.” אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur means “limitless light.”
We talk about kabbalah to explain levels of mastery and levels of divinity. אלהים Elohim is a [Hebrew] term used to name God in the Bible, and אאלהים Aelohim is the unknown divinity. So Elohim are all the angels, masters, prophets, buddhas, saints, gods, spirits, initiates who have mastered the Tree of Life, they’ve developed even the top Trinity in themselves, and yet they are still waiting to enter higher levels of mastery within the Absolute. TheTree of Life, you could say, is like a manifested glyph. It’s like a map of the manifested universe. It’s the levels of nature and divinity that we can access in this state of cosmic manifestation, but the source is unmanifested. It is a divine potential which is not yet actualized in the Being. There’s a bit of a threshold there in order to go from the manifested to the unmanifested. That’s the difference between Elohim and Aelohim, or to refer to the Gnostic Gospels, you have the Demiurge who governs the universe (Elohim), and then Ἀγνωστος Θεός Agnostos Theos, the unknown God (Aelohim). So that generation the Lord Jesus mentioned is the Ain, the nothing, the cosmic space from which all worlds emerge. The disciples said to him, “Lord, what is the great generation that is exalted over us and is holy, but is not present in these realms?” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
Because, we have manifested reality / unmanifested reality. Remember that the apostles asked, “Where did you go?” because they can’t follow him, like a light that just goes to heaven, right? So, they can’t follow him because they are not at that level, but Judas seeks to follow in his footsteps in the Gnostic Gospel.
When Jesus heard these things, he laughed and said to them “Why are you reflecting in your minds about the generation that is powerful and holy?” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
You may long for it but why are you theorizing about it? Why do you think about it? Do it. But that’s the challenge, right?
The Direct Path
The way to approach those heights is through the direct path. “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it” from the Gospels (Matthew 7:14).
The direct path is the path taken by masters who seek to renounce all that they are to go beyond good and evil. We call them bodhisattvas in Buddhism. A bodhisattva, an initiate who is the light of bodhi, Christ incarnated, and now is perfecting themselves in their mastery. But to really go beyond that point, obtaining mastery, we can say (if we study the Tree of Life) a master is some initiate who has reached Tiphereth at some level of development. The middle of the tree, they’ve conquered these lower spheres: Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiphereth―levels of nature that they’ve worked with through the perfect matrimony, and they have a level of understanding of these regions. Yet if they wish to go to the top, that beyond, they have to be willing to go beyond good and evil, because Christ, the Intimate Christ, our inner divinity, our inner light, is beyond our concept of good and evil. That light is very radical, which is why in the lives of the prophets, they were so controversial. Nobody understands them. Nobody understood them, and yet they had the power to lead, because their source comes from Barbelo. The way to behold that generation, that sphere, that emanation, that sephirah (singular), or the sephiroth (plural, the emanations of the Tree of Life), one has to really die psychologically. Die to pride. Die to anger. Die to lust. Due to fear. “I tell you the truth, no one born of this realm will behold that generation, no angelic host of stars will rule over that generation, no human of mortal birth will be able to accompany it.” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
Even the angels cannot go into the Absolute, unless it is the command of the highest. They have to work after many cosmic eras, after they’ve reached the level of self-realization to reach that point. But obviously they get to enter the heights when they have earned it, and that’s the path that Judas is taking to be able to reach that point.
“And no human of mortal birth will be able to accompany it.” We are all born through our parents, and really our parents gave birth to our body through lust. We may love our partner, or, our parents may have loved each other, but the act itself was not an immaculate conception (a pure act of procreation without organs,). In a sense they impurely used the sexual energy to create. Was it used just to satisfy passion? Or was it used to create the spirit? So, all of us, if we wish to go to the very heights, eventually our body must die, and that is a path that happens near the very end of the work as we are climbing the Tree of Life. Even our physical body needs to go the grave due to it being imperfect, born from fornication, so that we can, the soul after perfecting itself, can go up. No human of mortal birth can resurrect without death. We have to be giving birth spiritually. 
Liberation and Renunciation
To take the path of Judas, it begins, really, as I said, with mastery in Tiphereth, where upon reaching the middle of the Tree of Life, what is called the causal world, one has a choice, as depicted within the Mona Lisa of DaVinci.
The Mona Lisa is a representation of the Divine Mother. She appears before the initiate. “You’ve reached mastery. You are born again. You have created vehicles of the soul. You have the garments of the divine wedding, the wedding garments of the spirit, or in Arabic, in the Qur’an, libas al-taqwa, “the garments of reverence”―many names for the garments of love, according to Rumi. She, the Divine Mother, says, “You have two choices: stay in heaven (Tiphereth), or renounce heaven and go beyond. Go beyond good and evil.” Two paths behind Mona Lisa: one entering into the waters and one going beyond―spiral and straight paths. The spiral path is a slow path of development, staying within the heavenly regions, enjoying a beautiful vacation, which actually is much longed for, and it is very difficult to renounce that level of good where you’re happy. You have powers. You’re in heaven. You’re eating grapes all day, on couches of luxury in a spiritual sense, and even the Qur’an mentions many times that in the garden of bliss, you have women of divine origin, the Houris, and the Nirvanis, the gods, sitting with you on couches of silk, brocade, and much bliss (these are symbols, not literal). But to go beyond that is the next level. Two paths… the spiral path takes many cosmic eras to go to the source. Very little difficulty. But the straight path is to renounce everything we are, go beyond good and evil, deny ourselves and to go to the heights with expediency, very quickly. But it is very difficult because all of the past karma, the things that we owed, our spiritual debts come to us. That’s why you see the lives of the prophets are so challenging. They face one ordeal after the other after the other. With those challenges they gain mastery. 8. You are before two paths.
But that’s a choice that one makes when one is at that level. Obviously, this is very elevated, very, very profound, but it is good to know what will happen if we reach that point.
Death and Immortality: The Arcanum of Judas
The Gospel of Judas can also apply to us beginners and many elements in our current level. Judas is referred to as the 13th daemon in the Gospel of Judas―13th Aeon, 13th daemon, Arcanum 13 of the Tarot. The 13th Arcanum of the Tarot among the Gnostics in Immortality, death―death of lust to give birth to chastity, purity; death of pride to give birth to humility; the death of fear to give birth to confidence in God.
This initiate in the card reaps wheat. But to reap wheat we must use the scythe of death. Cut clean what needs to be cut clean, our defects. Judas in the Gospel basically asked, “I’ve had a vision. I wish to follow you to the very heights,” but the problem becomes, what needs to die? What do we need to renounce? What needs to change? So we see here that Judas represents the principle of death, the death of our defects. Judas said, “Master, just as you have listened to all of them, now also listen to me, for I have seen a powerful vision.” Jesus heard this, then laughed, and he said to him “Oh thirteenth daemon, why are you so excited? Speak your mind then and I will hear you out.” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
The daemon in this sense means “spirit,” kind of like Socrates’ Daemon, you know, his voice of conscience in Plato’s Apologia that guided him moment by moment. That voice is what helps us follow the path of immortality. The death of the impure gives birth to the soul.
The Vision of Judas
What is this vision of Judas in the Gospels? Judas has a vision of life, really, beyond good and evil, of the heights, of the very highest degrees of mastery. I’ll relate this vision that he had and explain some points about it because it is very profound.
In synthesis, there are masters who achieve development of these top spheres of the Tree of Life, the Trinity of all religions, and even enter Ain Soph Aur, the “limitless light” of the Ain Soph, the origin―one more degree below the very heights. The Ain Soph, meaning “limitless,” in synthesis, is like a spark. It’s like a divine atom from the Absolute. So there’s the cosmic space, from which we all emerge, but all of us have a super divine atom, like a synthesis, a spark of light in Being, which is in the void, which emanates in the Eternal. It is called the Limitless because it is limitless joy, real being, real peace. So if you synthesize and extract everything that is superfluous from us, get rid of the fake and the artificial, layer by layer up the Tree of Life, you finally arrive at the light: the star of Bethlehem that guided the three Magi (Matthew 2:1-12). That star is the Ain Soph. There are masters who reach that level, and that’s very high and very beautiful. That is the level of an Elohim, of a real Angel. But even beyond that there is something more. Judas said unto him [Jesus], “ I have seen myself in the vision as the twelve disciples were stoning me and treating [me harshly]. And I also came to the place that… [some of the text has not been preserved] after you. I saw [a house]… and my eyes could not grasp its dimensions. ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
We know from kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, that the Ain Soph is ב Beth, the second Hebrew letter meaning “house.” בית לחם Beth-Lechem, “house of bread,” the bread of wisdom that gives spiritual life. The star of Bethlehem is the Ain Soph. That is our real house, our home from which we emerge. Even the Wizard of Oz correlates with this myth, symbolically, kabbalistically: “I wish I was home.” She comes from the divine origins, then goes through a whole journey, that folk tale. Bethlehem, House of Bread, and Judas wishes to go there. It’s really wonderful, beautiful, and peaceful.
I saw a house and my eyes could not grasp its dimensions. Important people moved around it. That house had a thatched roof, and within the house there was a crowd. Master, let me also come in with these people. ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
…because to return to our Ain Soph with wisdom and knowledge is beautiful, but Jesus warns him, “Don’t get stuck there. Go beyond.” This is the difference between Elohim and Aelohim. Elohim means “gods and goddesses,” the architect demiurge. Aelohim means “without, beyond” even the gods.
Jesus answered and said, “Your star has deceived you Judas.” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
Not that the light in a sense betrays us, but that there is more for you if you are willing.
Beyond Good and Evil: The Way of Judas
The way of Judas is the way of going beyond good and evil. Obviously in our level, our current state as beginners, we really want to overcome evil, especially, because we may have a lot of anger, resentment, negative emotions, pride, and behaviors that are harmful. In a sense, Samael Aun Weor mentions that as we are eliminating certain defects in our work, we usually go for the bad ones first, right? This is because they are the most destructive, and then later upon becoming a master, one has to annihilate the egos of good, right? Even the egos that know how to be altruistic and kind, but they are not divine.
Jesus explains to Judas the requirement of entering the Ain Soph, and that it’s meant for the saints. It’s a level of sainthood, mastery, perfection. But, in reality, “Don’t get comfortable.” No person of mortal birth is worthy
Sun and moon are alchemical symbols, male-female, positive-negative, masculine-feminine, light and darkness. At the level of being at the Ain Soph, it’s approaching the heights, a level of equilibrium going beyond our ideas of good and evil, but, the perfection, the absolute perfection is involved when we transcend even angelhood. I believe in Rumi mentioned in a poem, “I must sacrifice even my angel-self, for unto Him shall all return.”
Some principles we can wrap things up with are from Igneous Rose by Samael Aun Weor. Here are the qualities of discernment, knowing to distinguish and discriminate between good and evil, positive and negative, as beginners. Learn to separate the smoke from the flames.
Evil can wear the robes of a martyr. Anger can wear the robes of a judge. “I was right to get angry,” pride will wash his hands clean, like Pilate, and Caiaphas out of religious piety can tear his vestures in anger and blasphemy over a seeming infraction. Flames are lights, smoke we have to separate and distinguish good from evil, and that only comes about by following the path of meditation.
The Solitude of the Revolutionary Path
This path, obviously, this fine refinement of who we are, is very difficult. It is very lonely because it doesn’t involve even if we are married. It doesn’t involve the other person doing the work for us. They help. A marriage can really bolster us and give us the necessary fire and energy to work, but that by itself is not enough. In the Gospel of Judas, they synthesize how, if you’ve studied the works of Samael Aun Weor, the creative energy itself that we’ve talked about again and again, working with the sexual force in a marriage. The seed, which can give birth to the soul, has to be used, transformed, with the conscience, the consciousness. So Judas, while going up the Tree of Life, wants to develop his soul, his seed, to that height.
Judas said, “Master, is it possible that my seed is subject to the rulers?” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
If you’ve studied the Gnostic Gospels, the archons or rulers are all the different divinities that govern the different sephiroth, levels of nature with different laws. They enact the laws of being in those spaces, and Judas is asking “Will my energy, will my soul be subject to them, these laws of the demiurge architect?”
Jesus answered and said to him “Come that I may… (some versus are obviously from the original weren’t translated as the scroll itself). But you will go through a great deal of grief when you see the kingdom and its entire generation.” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
Theres a myth in the Bible, when Moses sees the Promised Land and does not enter. It’s the same metaphor, where “You shall see that generation but you shall not go into it there at. You shall see the bliss of those higher regions, but you will not enjoy rest because as a bodhisattva you will sacrifice yourself for multiple humanities through great aeons of time, again and again, until finally earning the right to merge in the bosom of Aelohim, the supreme divinity.”
The Last Shall Be First and the First Last
This is why the last shall be first and the first last. Right? From the Gospels. Those who put others’ good ahead of them and not their own, those last persons shall be first, and the first, those who seek or maybe are attached to benefits and pride in the moment, will in turn not enter the heights.
So, Judas questions the whole utility of the highest, direct path, because “why should I follow this if it’s going to take such a long time…” Right? Or it’s going to be a difficult process. When Judas heard these things, he said to him, “What advantage is there for me since you have set me apart from that generation? (What will I benefit by being stoned, hated, and persecuted even by the masters who still have ego?) Jesus answered and said, “You will be thirteenth, and you will be cursed by the other generations but eventually you will rule over them. In the last days they will… up to the holy generation.” ―The Gospel of Judas, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
So you obviously see from the historical Master Judas that he was really persecuted and hated, because he had to play the role that no one wanted to do, and yet, Samael Aun Weor mentions that historically, this master is preparing to enter the Ain. He is currently serving the Klipoth, the hell realms, teaching the lost souls, the demons. Samael Aun Weor said, “I am not even worth kissing the sandals of the feet of Judas for the work he does, or is doing, and if anyone has the right to enter the Ain, it’s him.”
Resources
In conclusion, there are some resources we have on our website that teach how to practically apply the path of Judas.
I know I talked some abstract things, like what does it mean to go beyond good and evil? What is good and evil in our own lives? The way that we learn it is through meditation, discernment. By meditating and comprehending our own thoughts, feelings, will, desires, impulses, behaviors, actions, ways of being, we can discern what’s true and what’s false, and then we learn to comprehend and learn to eliminate what needs to go. The main practice we use is meditation, especially an exercise called retrospection. Retrospection meditation basically involves reviewing your day and visualizing what defects you saw in yourself, and systematically meditating, comprehending them, going deep. I suggest if you wish to learn more about it, and just for the sake of time here today, you can reference the course. We have it available in a PDF and slides which will be available on our website too. So, at this point, I’ll open the floor up to questions. Questions and Answers
Question: You mentioned the demiurge?
Instructor: Yes. Question: And… its different than Yaldabaoth? Instructor: Yeah, Yaldabaoth is an interesting symbol too. I mean, that name Yaldabaoth is a composite. Question: Yaldabaoth is different than what created the world? Or the demiurge did? Instructor: Yaldabaoth literally means “children of the void.” In one sense, Yaldabaoth, above, the host above is the demiurge, the angels that created the heavens and the earth. But there’s also hell, and there’s a region of nature, the inversion of the Tree of Life. When all those forces go down into more levels of complexity, you have the hell realms, the inversion of the Tree of Life, which Islam calls the tree of Zaqqum, the tree of death. Yaldabaoth, when those forces of divinity are channeled through hell, you have the children of that void, which are all the demons or archons of the infernal worlds. It’s a dual symbol. Question: So Yaldabaoth is the son of Sophia? Instructor: Yaldabaoth is in some myths as the demiurge architect which created the universe, which is the Tree of Life. But the problem becomes when interpreted in the Gnostic Gospels, which Yaldabaoth are we referring to? Yaldabaoth is a composite symbol with dual meaning. Because some people conflate the two, like they look at the scriptures and see all the archons or the lord archons or the demiurge sounds evil because it is suppressing Sophia. Sophia is the soul, and the soul wants to return to the 13th Aeon. Sophia is the consciousness which must awaken. But Sophia is obviously troubled. But the problem is too, when Sophia is ascending up that journey of initiation, the archons exist, meaning the hierarchs, that relate to the higher world, say “no.” Meaning, the heavenly archons of these higher spheres of the Tree of Life are basically saying, “If you wish to enter those regions, you have to renounce yourself. You have to pay what you owe,” and they block the door. They resist. There’s that level of meaning. But sometimes when we see Sophia being oppressed by these lustful, degenerate archons, it is referring to the lower hell realms. So, it’s nuanced. You have to discern, which archons are we talking about? The archons of heaven? The hierarchs of heaven? The hierarchs of below? And Yaldabaoth is that symbol of all those beings, whether of heaven or of hell, in all levels of nature. It depends where we are at. Question: When you are talking about the great architect, or Elohim, are we considered at some level of ego, like, they have some percentage of ego pertaining to the Ain that doesn’t have anything? Instructor: Right. So, obviously there are masters who are at the beginning, and the beginning of mastery one still has a lot of ego―a lot of pride, a lot of fear, a lot of anger, a lot of lust―and what happens is that, those archons, maybe those masters of that level may have some purity, but they still have work to do. Obviously, at the higher levels, there is no ego, but in the beginnings of mastery there is. This is described in the Bible as the three kings or magi: black king, white king, yellow king. Or to use the Book of Kings: Saul, David, Solomon. Black psychologically refers to ego. A black king is a king of nature, a master, but still impure. You see in the bible that Saul had many problems in Israel. David maybe less so, because he conquers his enemies, his own ego. No defects, and then the perfected resurrected mater, Sholomah, solar man, Solomon. But yeah, I mean there’s levels of application. The higher you go, there is less ego to the point that there is none, but sometimes yeah, you hear in the Greek myths of the gods that go to battle with each other, who constantly fight. It is because they have pride. You see this in the gnostic movement, or in any religion, really, where people have some position where they are leading, and yet there is different egos and defects involved. Sometimes the gods fight among themselves, the masters fight among themselves, but the perfected masters, really, they’re beyond that, and they can guide effectively, because that’s why we have hierarchy, levels of development, and that’s mapped out by the Tree of Life. Question: So the Gospel of Judas was written from the original text. Now why was it revoked like this? Because this knowledge is very controversial for Christians who, lets say, they see Judas as the scape goat disciple. I’ve always wondered about this because how could Jesus choose someone who does not have a role to play? Instructor: That’s the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy. In the early Christian movement, there were many gnostic groups, many gnostic Christian groups, or many Gnosticisms. Even Martin Meyer in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, his commentary, says its actually erroneous to say that there’s only one gnostic movement at the time. There were many groups with competing intentions, and it kind of reflects what’s going on today, you know, with any movement. What’s interesting that as Catholicism gained ground, or the orthodox Christian tradition, meaning, the more mainstream Christianity was forming, you found that you had a group of people who are not initiates who are selecting texts, who are discerning, “will this fit what we understand or believe about Christ?” and obviously with a level of interpretation comes a level of judgment. Dion Fortune explained very beautifully that the underground Christian movement, really the Gnostics, had to flee from the public life because as the orthodoxy formed, they were being persecuted, or were persecuting the Gnostics, which is why the Gnostics basically went underground. They kept their scriptures hidden, and only by the grace of God do we have them now. However, even then what we have is a minor fragment of what actually was available. I mean, Marvin Meyer mentions something like, really, what we have available is almost nothing compared to what existed. So people eliminate what doesn’t fit the narrative. So that is the problem. You have to think people obviously don’t accept Judas as a master because it requires basically one interpretive move that the Gospels themselves are a story, not merely literal history. Even though those figures existed, they taught through their life what we need to do. The problem is that, if you can’t disassociate Judas from the historical with what he represents in us, really, that’s the first hurdle from going from mainstream religion to initiation. It is understanding that these symbols represent our own life, but that’s the challenge. People like easy interpretations, they don’t like friction, you know. It’s not comfortable for people to be challenged. Right? Even in our beliefs, even in gnostic beliefs, no matter what religion, because it requires us to really reflect in ourselves, “what do we really know? What have we experienced?” Question: Is Judas and Jesus the only people that have reached the 13th level? Have there been other masters who have been able to get to that level? Instructor: Yeah, there are many, but, we know of Jesus and from Samael Aun Weor that Judas is on his way. I believe he even mentions in the end of the book The Narrow Way [the last chapter] about “The Passion of Mansur Al-Hallaj,” that he was marching on the diamond path, going to the Absolute. Yeah, beautiful story. He gives a whole excerpt in the end of that book The Narrow Way. He says Al-Hallaj is marching on the angelic path. He is ready to go. Great Sufi, and obviously there’s more, there’s many more. We don’t know their names. You look at the stars in the sky―do we have names for all that? It’s hard to put a finger on all that. But there’s a few that we know of. Question: Is there a way to recover the initial texts from the Akashic Records in a way that is credible? Instructor: Yeah, if you are a competent enough and capable enough meditator you can put your body to sleep, go into the astral plane, and ask your divinity, “Show me what I need to see about Judas,” or Buddha, Moses, or Muhammad, and you’ll see. You may even take on the role of those figures, because what happens is that you, even more so than the akashic records, can have that experience in Chokmah, which is the world of universal Being. In our terms, we call it Christ, the Second Logos. What happens in that level of nature is there is no individuality there―super-individuality. I remember one instructor mentioned, from Glorian, who was meditating, and he saw himself as Krishnamurti teaching students, and returned to his body, and said, “What was this? I’m not Krishnamurti! Let me go back again.” Did it again, found out he was the students―a different perspective. Then he realized he was having a vision in Chokmah where he was one in everyone. Also the Akashic Records too, in the astral plane you can literally see it play on like a movie, where you may even be a participant or a spectator at the same time―living out what happened in the Middle East. The Akashic Records are like an office, like a filing office, where you can ask that question… What are the Akashic Records? You can see it’s like going to an office. You want to extract a certain file? “Here’s what happened,” and you live it. You see it. Question: In the Akashic Records, does that mean that you can ask for a record of whatever you wish to inquire about or do you submit a request and a higher level of being gives you what you need at that time? Instructor: The term Akasha comes from Sanskrit. Akash is a substance that permeates the astral plane It’s like a light of some sort that gives the dream state its reality. It’s kind of has an oneiric or powerful emotional impact, like the light we perceive in dreams, or the kind of depth and color when our dreams are very vibrant. It is the astral light, Akasha. Akasha is like a film. Every action we perform physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, is imprinted. If you’ve ever done photography, you know basically you expose light to the film, it makes an imprint, and you can see it played out. So, what happens is the Akashic Records is like, you can experience it through a vision. Sometimes it can be facilitated by a master. They may come and tell you certain things but, more importantly, you suddenly… you ask to see life of Jesus, suddenly you might be in a room and Jesus is teaching. You can live it, see it, and you are face to face. So its better than going and reading a book because the book can be wrong. Historically there’s just so much gap between time and then, you know, materialistic scholarship is good as a baseline, but Akashic investigation is much more profound. You actually can see what things that were never written about, which are very deep. Samael Aun Weor gave some examples in his book The Major Mysteries, The Narrow Way as well. In The Narrow Way he mentioned what happened to Jesus in between the ages of his teenage years and when he was 33, described his life because he actually saw in the Akashic Records and documented it. Question: Where was this written? Instructor: The Narrow Way, formerly titled The Doomed Aryan Race [Christmas Message 1967-1968]. Question: We were talking about getting the Akashic Records. I have heard that it’s better to do it yourself then go with someone who can help you, provided by meditation, because sometimes you can, especially if you’re a beginner, you can face meditation with demons who they show you what they want you to do. So, I don’t know if its better to do it by you own or go with someone… because it doesn’t make sense to me because they charge for this. Instructor: Yeah, obviously that’s the red flag, and honestly, we want to encourage investigation for ourselves. We want to teach ourselves to be self-reliant. We don’t want to be dependent on anyone spiritually. We want to be independent investigators of this phenomenon. We don’t want to rely on other people, because we don’t know their qualifications or if they are telling the truth. So the only way to know is to do it oneself. Question: So this is done by mediation? Instructor: Yeah, dream yoga. You are meditating. You enter a meditative state. You fall asleep. You go into the dream world, and you ask divinity, “Show me what I need to see,” and that can help us to see the history even of Judas, which clarifies the path for us. In that way we don’t have to really rely on books. I mean books are good. They have their utility and purpose, but its better to become conscious investigators. Comment: Let your intuition be your guide. Instructor: Conscience, and going back to the lecture, intuition, conscience, knowing right from wrong in your heart. I mean, people can tell you, “believing in our church, our tradition, our school, is good, and if you don’t follow this you are evil.” I mean this [Judas] is a character, not just a person, but some people really do feel like this is just literal history. So, going beyond good and evil, how do you really know? Your heart.
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