The sincere student of Gnosis, of esotericism, studies and understands the nature and the functionalism of the mind, primarily with the purpose of controlling its impulses, its habits, its conditioning. We seek to understand the mind so that it can become a useful instrument of our Spirit, our Innermost God, our divinity. And a real esotericist, an occultist, someone who “cultivates the hidden,” precisely goes against him or herself, the mind itself, the intellect.
The intellect must serve the Spirit. It must not be of its own will. It must not act of its own will, and anyone who begins to meditate looks inside to see how the intellect is filled with thoughts, habits, desires, concepts, etc. These qualities are as the Book of Genesis teach, תהו ובהו Tohu Vay Bohu, “formless and void… for there is darkness upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2), which is precisely our psyche. Our psychology is that darkness, filled with ignorance, delusion, suffering. So we seek to generate light, יהי אור ויהי־אור Yehi Aur Va-Yehi Aur: “Let there be light, and there was light” (Genesis 1:3), as we explained in Arcanum 3: The Empress of the Tarot. So we have to go against ourselves, to study ourselves, and to wage a very difficult battle against our defects, but more importantly, our instincts, desires, habits, etc., which in these studies we denominate ego, self, “I,” etc. Arcanum 7 teaches us precisely this path of warfare, which the Muslims refer to as jihad, or better said, the Arabic مجاهده Mujahidah, which means “striving,” to strive against, to make effort against oneself. For as the companions asked the Prophet Muhammad, after the Battle of Badr I believe, they asked him “Oh Muhammad, what is greater than the lesser holy war, that against others?” He said, “War against your desires, your impulses.” So the intellect in itself is a useful vehicle that can store information necessary for our development and our potential. But the intellect is merely a machine. It does not know how to do anything except through the impulses or guidance of our ego, or our divinity. 
Arcanum 7 teaches us how to strive, how to fight against our own inner iniquity, in order to develop the qualities of the Spirit. Precisely we do that by conquering the mind, and in this image we see a warrior, wielding a sword in his right hand, and a staff in his left.
As we have expressly stated in this course, the staff is the spinal medulla, the spinal column, through which the power of the sword, the Kundalini power, rises from the Chakra Muladhara to the brain. Or in Hebrew we use the letter ז Zayin. We talked previously about the letter ו Vav, the spine, but we need to work with ז Zayin as well. ו Vav is man, ז Zayin is woman, male-female—also referring to the two energetic channels that rise from the Chakra Muladhara to our brain. We have the solar current known as Adam אדם in the Bible, we have the lunar current known as חוה Chavah (Eve) in the bible. So they represent for us qualities or forces that we need to raise up our spine, from sex, the sexual organs, to the brain. We do that in a matrimony specifically, as we teach, but individually we can learn to harness those powers and potencies, through specific meditations. So this warrior is our own Inner Being, our own Spirit, who through the power of the Kundalini in his right hand, he dominates his enemies, who are precisely all of the defects we carry inside: anger, pride, resentment, fear, lust, anger, gluttony, egotism, degeneration, etc. So he is our Spirit who wants to conquer the mind, to control it, to use it for the purposes of the light, our own inner divinity. He drives in his chariot of war two sphinxes, one white, one black, referring to occult masonry, יכין Jachin, בעז Boaz. The pillar of the right, יכין Jachin, mercy, man. The pillar of the left, black, בעז Boaz, severity, woman. So he drives his chariot, which is precisely our body, our vehicles that we also use in dreams as well, in the dream state, precisely through his will and by working with those two forces, masculine-feminine. So the body is a chariot, which we have to learn how to channel forces inside, so that our divinity can manifest in us, can work through us specifically. The sphinx also reminds us of Arcanum 4. We talked about the four elements. The sphinx is a creature with four elemental qualities: the face of a man, representing water, the paws of a lion representing fire, the wings of an eagle representing air, and the tail or the hooves of a bull representing earth. That Spirit must conquer all of the elements that we carry inside. Our physical body is the earth. Our mind with its aerial qualities is thought, which fluctuates like clouds, according to Padmasambhava in his Buddhist scripture, The Tibetan Book of the Dead [Introduction to Awareness]. We also find that the heart is a fiery quality, igneous quality. We can burn with passion, with emotional sentiment, with anger or with love. So the fire of the heart is precisely what power we have to control as well. And the waters of our energies, our sexuality, our seminal matter literally, is the waters of life, which we can use to create Genesis inside, to create light through the process of alchemy. This warrior, our inner Spirit, which we explained is חסד Chesed in the Kabbalah, he drives his chariot with four pillars in the background, which remind us of the four pillars of Gnosis, which we gave a course previously a few months past [Fundamentals of Gnosticism]: the pillars of science, mysticism, art, philosophy. These are the pillars or traditions through which this knowledge has been taught, and our own inner Spirit teaches us through these four pillars. 
These four pillars can also refer to the four lower bodies of our inner psychology, but also the Tree of Life. To skip ahead to the next image we find this famous kabbalistic glyph with its ten spheres or Sephiroth. We are speaking about our own inner Spirit, חסד Chesed, who is the seventh sephirah from the bottom of the Tree of Life, referring to the warrior of Arcanum 7: Triumph, the chariot of war.
So we find that the Spirit must work through גבורה Geburah, his divine consciousness, represented in Hebrew as ז Zayin, the woman, the feminine soul. He exercises his willpower, תפארת Tiphereth, as we have explained previously, through ו Vav, the spine, which is the sixth sephirah on the Tree of Life, but also the sixth Hebrew letter. The four lower bodies are precisely נצח Netzach, which means “Victory,” and it is interesting that this Arcanum relates to victory, to control the mind—specifically since נצח Netzach is the seventh sephirah from the top to the bottom of the Tree of Life, whereas חסד Chesed is the seventh sephirah from מלכות Malkuth to the center of the Tree of Life. But the Spirit must learn to control נצח Netzach, the mind, thought, in order to obtain victory, to conquer him or herself. Likewise we have הוד Hod, the emotional qualities of our heart, the astral body, known as הוד Hod in Kabbalah, “Glory.” נצח Netzach of course is the mental vehicle, the mental body. We use these astral and mental mechanical vehicles in dreams, when we travel many places in the dream state, usually without any cognizance of our experiences, but this is what we act in the world of dreams. We have יסוד Yesod, our vitality, our vital energies, our sexual energy itself, which descends in order to manifest within מלכות Malkuth, our physical body. יסוד Yesod means “Foundation.” This is the cubic stone of the Kabbalists, the cubic stone of יסוד Yesod, the foundation of our temple. And then מלכות Malkuth is of course is the physical body, the earth. So our inner Spirit, this warrior who drives his chariot, precisely accomplishes his mission, his goal, by learning to control these vehicles, mind, heart, energy, physicality. We see that above his head there is a sun, reminding us of the God Osiris-Ra, which is a symbol of Christ, the Christic energy. And this Christic energy is precisely at the heart of every atom, every molecule, every particle of existence, but also importantly in our sexual energy, our sexual matter, which is the water of Genesis. When husband and wife work with their energies themselves, when they learn to love one another with purity, with divinity, with remembrance of God, that energy gives birth to the soul, gives birth to the full manifestation of our potential. This is the meaning of: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Bereshit Bara Elohim Ath Ha-Schamayim Ve-Ath-Ha’aretz. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So the earth of course is our physical body, but also refers to higher vehicles we create in the perfect matrimony, where Genesis is precisely hidden within this act of striving. We talked very abundantly about, אלהים ברא בראשית Bereshit Bara Elohim, that meaning in Genesis in our former lectures. But here the warrior Spirit is the one who must conquer the lower qualities of himself, and what is the purpose of that? The Being, our divinity, as we have explained in previous lectures, emerged from that unknowable source known as the Absolute. So we can study the Tree of Life as a map of our consciousness to help explain all the levels of existence, but also our consciousness in materiality. 
So we have explained some of these lower vehicles previously, but from the Absolute, known as אין Ain, אין סוף Ain Soph, אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur—meaning the “Nothingness, the “Limitless,” and the “Limitless Light”—emerges our own inner כתר Kether, the Magician of the Tarot, the first card. From him unfolds חכמה Chokmah, which is “Wisdom.” כתר Kether means “Crown,” and then בינה Binah is representative of “Intelligence,” wisdom, “Understanding,” cognizance.
This is the famous trinity of Christianity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But it is not a reference to physical people, in an anthropomorphic sense. It refers specifically to forces in nature, energies, which we carry in our three brains. We have the powers of the Father in the intellectual brain, meaning our center that operates thought. When we use the term brain in esotericism, we mean functionalities of psychic and physical forces, a machine. So the physical brain is the vehicle of the intellectual brain, which is the way we process thought, ideas, concepts. We also have an emotional brain, because we have intelligences related to the heart, sentiments. It has been explored in science that the heart has certain qualities that can detect or intuit certain things that are very hard to explain by materialistic science, such as the capacity of intuition, specifically, to know something without thinking about it. So this is a very profound intelligence that we consciously develop in our studies. And then we have the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, which is our center of movement, impulse and desire, within our sexual organs, the top of our spine, but also at the base of our spine as well. The spine is the way that we act with willpower, and manifest the will of our inner divinity. So our motor-instinctive-sexual brain, the way we live, is precisely because of our spine, which is our Tree of Life, that which gives us life in our body. We could not exist if it were not for our spine. 
The motor-instinctive-sexual brain relates to the powers of בינה Binah, which is known as the Holy Spirit, which we will be talking about very extensively today. The image above, the sun of Ra, the Solar Logos, the Christ, whose wings of the Spirit unfold in us as we work in a matrimony.
We see an image of four points, and an image that looks like a maze. This is a symbol of נצח Netzach, the mind, and anyone who begins to meditate understands that the mind is a maze. It is a labyrinth, which in the Greek myths were symbolized by, I believe, Theseus, who sought to kill the Minotaur within the labyrinths of Crete.
So that labyrinth is precisely the winding pathways of our intellect, thoughts, ideas, concepts, which in meditation, we introspect. We see that we have really a chaos, a disorder, which needs to be organized. That element of air must be dominated by our inner divinity. We have to go inside of the mind itself to slay the beast, which is our own defects, desires, the Minotaur symbolizing our ego. This warrior wears precisely, according to Samael Aun Weor, armor, and the armor is the science that defends us against our own inner defects, but also the teachings that help to instruct us how to change, how to become super-divine individuals. That armor is represented by Achilles, who is the great warrior who battled at Troy, a symbol of how we as a warrior must go against all of our desires and defects, to strive against our own inner iniquity, our hatred, our anger, our fear, our resentment. All of those qualities need to die. We have to do it precisely by facing ourselves in meditation, and by working as husband and wife, working with Jachin-Boaz, the white sphinx and the black sphinx, the synthesis of those energies. We learn to dominate those elements to become magicians. Question: Those—you just talked about those—on the left and the right, those… what do you call them? Horses?... Instructor: Sphinxes. Question: Sphinxes... That’s what you’re talking about: Ida and Pingala… working with the spinal column? Instructor: Yes, and so the words Ida-Pingala, are Sanskrit terms for these two energetic serpents that rise up the spine, to form the caduceus of Mercury, and those energies rise from our Chakra Muladhara to our brain, as we have explained in previous lectures. But so this magician, this warrior, is precisely our Spirit, but also us, who needs to fight very hard against our animality, as we have explained previously. We have the Hebrew letter ז Zayin on the top right, which we will be talking about at the end of this lecture. Likewise some astrological symbols relating to Neptune and to Pisces, which we will be elaborating at the end. 
Egyptian Mysticism and Self-Realization
So we explained that the Spirit wants to gain knowledge of himself. He descends from the top of the Tree of Life, down into more complicated levels of matter, energy and perception, until reaching finally this body מלכות Malkuth, represented in the myth of Pistis Sophia, who descends from the Thirteenth Aeon, the unknowable divinity, and enters into levels of matter. But the purpose is that the soul must return inward and upward, back to the source, back to the origin, with knowledge.
We have in the middle of this image, this glyph, Horus, Osiris and Isis. So to talk about the Seventh Arcanum of the Tarot, the law of seven itself, we talk about the meaning or the myth of Horus, Osiris and Isis. Horus is precisely our own inner Spirit, חסד Chesed, whom we have been talking about extensively. He is Horus, אור Aur, the “Light”, for when the book of Genesis states: יהי אור ויהי אור Yehi Aur Va-Yehi Aur: “Let there be light, and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). אור Aur is precisely our own inner Spirit, חסד Chesed, “Mercy” in Kabbalah, to translate directly from Hebrew. Horus is the son of Osiris and Isis, and again Osiris-Isis is a reference to the polarity of בינה Binah, which is masculine and feminine. This is the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit is male-female, or if we look at the original Hebrew language, יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim, represents masculine-feminine, and as we talk about the creation of חוה Eve at the end of this lecture, we will see that יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim is masculine-feminine, male-female, represented by אלהים אב Abba Elohim and אלהים אם Aima Elohim, meaning male-female, Father-Mother. So it is the mistake of certain Kabbalists who associate חכמה Chokmah, Christ, as the father, and בינה Binah, as חוה Eve the mother. We find both polarities of אלהים Elohim, יהוה Jehovah, in בינה Binah. אל El means God in Hebrew, אלה Eloah means Goddess, אלהים Elohim means Gods and Goddesses, and as we have talked previously, when a husband and wife unites sexually, they are a divine אלהים Elohim, who can generate light, inside. אל El, אלה Eloah, אלהים Elohim—they are unified within that act. So Osiris-Isis is precisely above, representing the Holy Spirit, the Divine Father and the Divine Mother, whom we can experience in meditation, and through the practices of transmutation that we teach. And from that union of Father-Mother in בינה Binah, through the teachings of דעת Da’ath, sexual alchemy, we give birth to our Spirit, Horus, and our own inner Spirit Horus is the one who has to fight in us, to strive, to go against the grain of our habits. We talk about this trinity, we say, in relation to the Seventh Arcanum. Horus has to go against, in the Egyptian mythology, against Seth, who are the red demons who oppose his mission. So going back to the image of the, or picturing the image of the Tarot of the Seventh Arcanum, this Spirit has to fight against Seth, a representation of ego, egotism, our own individual defects, so that by destroying those defects we liberate consciousness, we free consciousness, and generate more light, so that all of those parts of the soul that have been dispersed in animality and defects can be unified, so that light is pure, individual, integral. That is the meaning of religion, religare, “reunion” with divinity. Osiris and Isis and Horus precisely want us to work, so the inspiration to want to study spirituality, precisely comes from the light, that wants us to study some type of knowledge that is going to help him to reunite all of the parts of the soul, or as Moses was accomplishing in the Middle East, to unite all of the people of Israel, Isis-Ra-El, all of the parts of Isis (the Divine Mother), Ra (the Divine Father), and El (which is Horus). So Moses represents our willpower, as we have taught previously, the spinal column, the sixth letter of Kabbalah. And so Moses was teaching a very profound Egyptian knowledge, about how Horus must fight against Seth, all the egos we carry within. Question: I kind of got mixed up here. Okay, חסד Chesed, the “light,” is that, did you say Horus, or is it… Instructor: Horus Question: H-O-R-U-S? Instructor: Yes Question: “The light”? Instructor: Yes, Horus is our inner Spirit, who is a spark of light that emanates from Isis-Osiris, Father-Mother. The Law of Seven
The number seven is interesting because it is the number of battles. Also, it is the number of organization, in principle. So we have the seven notes of the lyre of Orpheus, the seven chakras of the spinal medulla. We have seven colors of the solar prism, seven planets, seven Archangels, seven dimensions, seven bodies that we have to elaborate and create, represented by that Tree of Life on the left. We also have seven serpents of fire, Kundalini, rising up those seven bodies. We also have the seven sacred utterances of Jesus on the cross, relating to the lower seven sephiroth of the Tree of Life: 
מלכות Malkuth: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
יסוד Yesod: “I thirst.” הוד Hod: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” נצח Netzach: relating to, truly this day, the thief, speaking to the thief: “You will be with me in Paradise.” And then speaking to John and Mary in תפארת Tiphereth, “Mother behold thy son! Son, behold thy mother!” גבורה Geburah: relating to “It is finished.” And of course, חסד Chesed: “Into thy hands I commend my Spirit,” because the Spirit is חסד Chesed. So the path of Jesus was represented by Kabbalah, and if we do not study Kabbalah we cannot interpret his teaching. But that is something we will talk about in future courses, the seven utterances of Christ. But I just want to emphasize for you that the number seven is permeated within all religion, in every tradition. It is the law that organizes, which Gurdjieff taught is known as the law of the Heptaparaparshinokh, a very interesting language from the internal planes that is used to denominate that law of organization. Why does seven relate to the law of the Spirit, this battle against oneself? Precisely because the Spirit wants to organize the psyche, because if we look inside, as I mentioned to you, we are תהו ובהו Tohu Vay Bohu, formless and void. We do not have light. We are ignorant. We lack insight. We suffer a lot and we want to know how to change our problems, to solve them. We do that precisely by working with the law of seven, the law of the musical scale. So notice that we have seven notes, and on the right we have these notes listed in detail, in association with different types of human beings. So we can also organize all human beings in accordance with seven categories, relating to the seven notes, Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si. We talked about the three brains: the intellectual brain, the emotional brain and the brain of movement. Those brains, we tend to use one or another more than the others. We have a dispensation or crutch, based on our habits, that make us use one brain more than another. It is easy to see that some people are more intellectual, some are more emotional, some are more instinctual. So these lower three types of people, we could say, inferior types of people who are not spiritual, they either think too much, they feel too much or they waste their energy. They are disorganized. They are chaotic. So we have to look in ourselves and see, “Which person am I? Am I intellectual, more so, or am I more emotional, or do I abuse my energies, my brain of movement?”—such as people who play sports, emotional people who are actors and actresses, and academics who are intellectual. But these types of people do not really have light inside. To be brilliant intellectually does not mean to have divine intelligence. Neither to have strong sentiment, does it indicate that one is intuitional or divine. Because someone can control the body, physically, dominate the senses, such as with Fakirism, yet this does not signify spiritual willpower. Those austerities that monks or yogis in the East, such as, there was a yogi that raised his hand for ten years and never let it down, as a testament of his willpower, to show that he could dominate his body. To have that type of willpower does not indicate that one is spiritual, because we need to learn to use the three brains in balance, and when we learn to control our psyche, we work with the fourth type of human being, which is related to the note Fa.
So the previous notes, Do-Re-Mi, and then there is a shock here in this image, transitioning from the intellectual type of person to the fourth type, which is a human being who is balanced, who has harmonized all three brains, who is in control of his thoughts, or her thoughts, feeling and action.
We also have exercises such as the runes in which we face the East and we pronounce certain prayers in a yogic posture. “Marvelous forces of love, revive my sacred fires, so that my consciousness will awaken!” We pronounce mantras, “Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fu,” to activate the chakras, working with the seven notes, the seven mantras, to activate our spinal column and those energies. So we find that with the Rune Fah, is what it is called, you make yourself in the position of the letter F, the Nordic letter F, which is the basis of many alphabets in the world. We do those type of exercises in order to spark [snaps fingers] our consciousness. We work with creative energy so that our mind and our psyche become balanced. We awaken our perception. We begin to understand the source of our mental problems, our emotional anguish, and even heal many diseases of the body. Above that we have an individual who has created a solar astral body, someone who has a vehicle that they created in a matrimony. So most of us go in the astral plane at night. We fall asleep and dream at night that we are traveling in that dimension. We may have certain memories of experiences, but not really much cognizance. We tend to travel in those dimensions with lunar vehicles, as I have previously mentioned, vehicles that we receive from nature, which is why they are mechanical. They belong to nature. They are a type of matter or energy that is egotistical, not divine. So they look like phantoms: very black or dark, vaporous, not substantial. But if you meet a master who worked in a matrimony, who has created the solar astral body, they have light. A vehicle is like a light bulb that can transmit the light of divinity, as we have mentioned previously. So the solar astral body is a luxury that few people have, because one has to create that body in a marriage with certain procedures. The solar mental body is likewise a mind, a Christic mind that knows how to follow the concepts or the understanding of divinity, that does not rationalize, but is better said, intuitive. It can understand concepts instantaneously without having to deliberate or form a thesis and antithesis, good-bad, yes-no—mechanical type of thinking. And so the mental body is much more dynamic. Above that we have a solar causal body, a body of willpower, in the world of Nirvana. So we have to be born in those higher dimensions, to be “born again of water and spirit,” as Jesus taught (John 3:5). So the solar astral body is הוד Hod, the solar mental body is נצח Netzach, the solar causal body is תפארת Tiphereth, our willpower, a body, that a soul, that has reached mastery, can incarnate and manifest, a very divine body, very holy and sacred, made from a marriage, as we have said. So I do not want to go further into detail about this, but the law of seven organizes our psyche, our chakras, our bodies, who we are as an individual. We also see that there are seven lower sephiroth on the Tree of Life, and there is a trinity above. So the law of seven that organizes emerges from the law of three, the law of creation as we have mentioned. 
Evolution, Devolution, and Spiritual Revolution
So as I said to you, the law of seven relates to struggle and battles against the ego, but also against sorcerers and demons who try to attempt to stop us in our work. When we talk about the musical scale and how to enter those higher worlds, those higher levels of being, it requires a certain effort, because nature does not automatically guarantee this process through the cycle of evolution.
Many people believe that through evolution we will develop spiritually, mechanically, without any type of willpower. We just go with the flow, but people confuse evolution with the force of devolution, which means to degenerate, to be destroyed. If we have evolution, birth, life, sustenance, growth, you also have destruction, decay, degeneration, devolution. Most human beings are now in a state of devolution, entering to destruction, which is something we want to fight against very hard. Devolution relates to ego, anger, pride, resentment, vanity, all of those elements. 
So we have to go into a type of revolution, to make a war against ourselves, in order to ascend that musical scale. It requires effort through meditation and practice, learning these exercises that we teach in this tradition, so that we learn to maintain the notes of the musical scale, because you may find that it is difficult to practice. We may try to meditate, day by day, and lose the interest or the impulse, the inspiration to do so. So there is a type of willpower needed, represented by the Hebrew letter ו Vav, the spine, the Sixth Arcanum.
So we must learn how to fortify our Spirit. It may surprise some people to think that we have to empower God. It may sound like a blasphemy. If the Being is the Being, why does he need us? Because we are מלכות Malkuth, the physical body, the soul in the physical body, and we are part of the divine. We have to cooperate as the head tells the foot to walk, to obey, to act. And so the Spirit needs us. We have to do our part so that we can help develop the Being inside. So the Being is the Being, and is perfect, but we are part of him, and we have to learn to reunite with him, or her. This is the meaning of religion, as I said. So the number seven is ordeals, difficulties, challenges, struggles, but it always ends in victory, in success. To receive the number seven in a dream is very good. It indicates you are facing certain challenges, but will overcome them. Paul of Tarsus, I believe stated in, 1 Corinthians, Chapter 10 verse 13, about the nature of temptation and trial, and that you will face certain ordeals but with victory in the end. “But you can trust God. He will not let you be tempted more than you can bear, but when you are tempted God will also give you a way to escape that temptation, then you will be able to endure it.” —1 Corinthians 10:13 So you can refer to Arcanum 6, as we spoke previously. “Thou art giving me labor, O Lord, and fortitude with it.” —Transcendental Axiom of Arcanum 6 
Conquering the Elements
So the elements I said must be conquered in us. We study five elements, very famously we know, from alchemical tradition, which speaks about fire, air, water and earth, but also Akash. So these elements are known as:
These are Sanskrit terms. The Hindus, the yogis of the East, study this science very deeply, and use these Sanskrit terms to refer to the energies or modalities of forces within nature, which materialize into our physical elements. But more importantly for us, these elements are inside. We are composed of water, of fire, of air, of earth, and also most especially, the synthesis from which all of that emerges: Akash, the Ether. We have different elemental creatures that dwell within the elements themselves, which are studied in certain European traditions and folk tales. We have the Salamanders of the fire, we have the Undines, Nereids, Mermaids of the waters, very well cited within, or the Sirens mentioned in The Odyssey, the book of Homer. You also have the Sylphs and Sylphids of the air, and the Gnomes and Pygmies of the earth. These are elemental creatures or souls that are innocent, that have not reached the humanoid state yet through a process of transmigration. You can speak to the elementals in your meditations and have a face to face conversation in the astral plane, with plants or animals or elemental creatures themselves. They are innocent beings. They have not left עדן Eden yet, we can say. But of course in the Akash, which is the fiery Ether, permeates all of space, a substance that is divine, and which we also carry in the Chakra Muladhara, which we also call Kundalini, or the Alchemists call הזאת Hazoth. So we must learn to work with these elements. We do so by keeping the Sabbath holy. The Jews practice the Sabbath, observances on Saturday to worship divinity through certain rituals and prayers. But if we go deeper, we find that שבת Shabbat related to בת-ש Shin-Beth. ב Beth we talked about in Arcanum 2 and relates to “house,” the house that you inhabit. We also talked about the solar bodies that the soul must learn to create, so that God can inhabit us, to manifest in us. ש Shin as we said is “fire,” so שבת Shabbat is “house of fire.” So the fire that we carry in our house, our physical body, is our sexual energy, the fire which enlivens us to fulfill that act with one’s partner. That fire is the creative energy of the Holy Spirit, the power of Christ, the power of life, or חיה “Chaiah,” as the Jews say, “L’chaim,” “to life,” referring to that energy that can result in procreation or the development of the soul, the Spirit. The Salamanders are precisely also within our creative fires, and we learn to work with these elementals in sexual magic, alchemy. We have the fire within the sexual energy, the Salamanders, who help to burn and incinerate our defects, which are like cages or shells which trap our consciousness, which condition us. The Undines, Mermaids or Nymphs, the Nereids are within our seminal waters. They help to calm the waters of lust, to produce the equanimity of the soul. And of course the elements interact with one another. The breath, our mantras that we pronounce in a matrimony, in the sexual act itself, help to harness those fires and transform them, to raise them up the spine. We pronounce sacred sounds between husband and wife in a marriage, so as to create energy and awaken the chakras themselves, those centers of energy and consciousness that we carry within. And the Gnomes and Pygmies are precisely those elementals who are within the physical matter of our body, who help to extract that golden sustenance, those golden qualities of virtues, which are within the waters themselves, like jewels and gems. To have a dream about pulling out jewels and gems from the waters is very significant. It refers to virtue, truth, and developing the soul. So we work with those elements. Husband and wife must learn to control their breathing in the sexual connection itself, so as not to overstimulate too much fire, because they will end up getting burned, losing those energies, resulting in the orgasm, which in these studies we avoid. Instead we learn to conserve that power, so that the waters, the fire, the air and the earth become rejuvenated, because if you conserve that power and raise it up the spine, it will be like a fountain that flows to eternal life, according to Jesus (John 4). He was with a woman at the well, a Samaritan woman, I do not remember what specific verse or chapter it is, but, the woman was speaking to Jesus and confessing that she had slept with many men, and Jesus had said to her “Truly I can give you a water that will give you eternal life,” and she said “What is this water?” and he says, seemingly to interrupt her: “Go, call thy husband.” But that is the answer, “Call thy husband.” If you work in a marriage, you can work with those waters of divine love and create the soul. So we work with those elements in synthesis, in harmony. All of this is found precisely within our body. The mysteries of alchemy are within us. The mysteries of Kabbalah are inside of us, not outside. The mistake of many people in the past of Europe, of trying to find how to transform lead into gold, physically, is ludicrous, because the real meaning is that we transform the lead of our personality into the gold of our spirituality. Question: This is what Christ meant when said “the kingdom of God is within you”? Instructor: Yes, and the Gnostic Gospels speak abundantly about this too. 
Vitriol
We have a very famous axiom in the kabbalistic tradition, as explained by Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition. He says that, in relation to this image, an alchemical drawing, we have a famous acrostic, which relates to the process and science of alchemy as we are explaining, which are seven letters, Arcanum 7:
“Vitriol is one of the clues of the Gnostic Alchemist. The word signifies: Visitam Interiore Terras Rectificatur Invenias Ocultum Lapidum. Visit the interior of the earth, which through rectifying you will find the occult stone.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of Beelzebub So we see that this image comes from Viridarium Chymicum. It is an anthology of alchemical art by Daniel Stolz von Stolzenberg. It is from the 1600s. So the images of alchemy were symbolic teachings about how to work practically, which were given in a manner that was undetected by the fanatics, the orthodoxy, so that they, the initiates, would not be persecuted or killed. This image details for us a star of seven points, referring to the seven planets of alchemy, which we will be talking about. We also find here the three brains, represented by the manifestation of “Corpus, Anima, Spiritus,” meaning, body-soul-spirit. The sign of Saturn in this bottom arrow points towards Corpus, referring to the שבת Shabbat, the Sabbath, Saturday, Saturn-day, the Seventh day, because by working with Saturn, the Holy Spirit, which that planet relates to the Holy Ghost itself, is how we rectify the earth. We transform our earth. We give sustenance to the stone, which is the cubic stone of the Masons, but also the sacred Kaaba of the Middle East, the sacred stone of Kabbalah itself. By working with that acrostic, “Visit the interior of the earth, which through rectifying you will find the occult stone,” signifies how we, in meditation, go inside, and discover how to use our energies wisely, the stone of יסוד Yesod, which is the sexual energy. So going inside you learn to navigate the darkness of your own chaos, your cavernous mind, your defects, and see that there is an energy that can help liberate you, if you learn to use it appropriately. I had this experience in the astral plane many years ago where, when I was first studying this knowledge, I was directed by a master near my home in the astral plane, to “descend into the earth,” he told me. So I dove into the earth, and my Being transported me to the center, where I entered a cavern with many sepulchers, and of course, they were teaching me that you have to descend into your own chaos, your mind, to face all of the ugliness that you have inside, all of your defects, represented by all of the skeletons and bones and ghouls and remains that were there. In that experience they were telling me the mysteries of Vitriol. By visiting the interior of the earth and by facing yourself in meditation, your defects, you begin to see that, really, the work of the stone is essential, is our foundation—daily practice in mantra or transmutation of that sexual energy. We also, in this tradition, talk about the flaming sword. So Vitriol, the work of the body, the שבת Shabbat, the Saturday, the Seventh day, relates to the mysteries of ז Zayin, the Hebrew letter of the sword. And so ז Zayin is a sword of the Kundalini that rises and aids the warrior against himself. Remember that Achilles went to war against the Trojans, again a symbol of the ego, the war that we face inside, and that sword, and the armor he wears of course protects him, but the sword he uses is that Kundalini power, to face all of his aggregates, his psychological defects. Remember that when Adam אדם and חוה Eve were expelled from עדן Eden, the angels used a sword of fire to push them out, expel them. So it is a symbol of how, any master has that sword developed in their spinal column, perfectly and fully. I would like to relate to you an explanation by a certain alchemist by the name Estolsio, who talked about the meaning of this image specifically, and about the secrecy of the alchemical tradition that we are now unveiling: “That which was enclosed within many forms, now you see it included in one thing: the beginning is our Elder…” ―Estolsio Represented by the face of Saturn in the center of this image, the center of the seven pointed star. “...and he has the key…” ―Estolsio Remember that we talked about the meaning of the key of alchemy in Arcanum 6, how that key represents, that key that we use to unlock the door, ד Daleth, that leads to דעת Daath, sexual knowledge. That is the mysteries of Saturn, the Elder. “…sulfur with salt and mercury give wealth…” ―Estolsio Sulfur is the sexual fire. Salt is the semen itself. Mercury is the energy that we transmute by certain breathing exercises so as to enliven the brain. So mercury gives you wealth. “…If you do not see anything here, there is no reason for you to keep searching, for you will be blind even in the midst of the light.” ―Estolsio So many people look to this image and of course did not know the meaning of it, had many interpretations, but now we are giving you the explanation of what they were teaching here. Alchemically, there are many symbols and images relating to the mysteries of a matrimony. Samael Aun Weor explains in his book Alchemy and Kabbalah, how the Sun is a symbol of the phallus; the Moon is a symbol of the uterus. So male-female together, working with the wind, the breath, as we have said previously—the רוח Ruach, the spirit of God that hover over the face of the waters, רוח אלהים Ruach Elohim, that hovers over the face of the deep, that was filled with darkness, in בראשית Bereshit, Genesis—we work with the wind. And the earth is formed from the void and chaos, which of course represents not only the mind, but also those higher vehicles we talked about, the solar bodies. All of these elements, the sun, the moon, fire, water, wind, air and all of the elements emerge from what we call Akash. Those are different gradations of energy and matter that manifest physically. So we have to work with the chalice of the mind. We do so by working with our energies. We talked about the caduceus of Mercury, a very famous symbol of medicine, how the spinal column is surrounded by two serpents, and those two serpents are precisely Adam-Eve, ו Vav-ז Zayin, male-female. We raise those energies up the spine so that we can awaken the wings of the Spirit, specifically. The Seven Archangels, Planets, Metals, Vices, and Virtues
Let us talk more about the seven planets themselves. There are many correlations that are very interesting and practical, more importantly, to use these for our development. So we have the seven planets, referring to the law of seven, organization.
The alchemists did not strictly believe that there were only seven planets. They knew about all of the other planets of our solar system, but they talk about seven to teach the law of order, of organization, of all the elements that we have to work with. We have the Moon, governed by Gabriel, the metal is Silver. We have Mercury, governed by Raphael, which is Quicksilver or Mercury as a metal. Venus, Oriel, Copper. The Sun, Michael, Gold. Samael, Mars, Iron. Jupiter, Zachariel, Tin. And Saturn, Orifiel, Lead. The planets relate to metals or materials that we can use to fashion pentagrams. So we have certain talismans we create with the seven metals to help charge them with certain energies, to protect us. The seven metals relate to the seven archangels. These metals are like the nervous system of any planet, and those archangels are the intelligences of those planets themselves, and govern those worlds intimately. Practically for us, we also work with the transformation of certain vices and errors into virtues. So we have seven deadly sins, very common in Christianity. We must transform the seven vices into virtues. We must comprehend our defects in order to destroy them, and liberate consciousness, so that we develop those divine qualities within. Lunar avarice is turned into altruism: happiness for others. Mercurial laziness is transformed into diligence, effort, work ethic, willpower. Venusian lust is transformed into chastity, sexual purity, and as we have explained many times, chastity does not mean sexual abstention. It means purity in sex. We have solar pride, which is transformed into humility, humbleness, and faith in divinity. Martian anger is transformed into divine love, conscious love, sweetness, empathy, compassion. Jupiterian envy is transformed into philanthropy, work for others, sacrifice for others. Saturnian gluttony is transformed into temperance, moderation in diet. We have to look inside and examine: what do we carry within? What are our defects?—so that we can learn to develop the virtues that relate to their opposite. These seven planets also relate to kabbalistic symbols, which we will not go into too much detail, but if you want to explore this a little but further, you can access this material on our website. We will say that these symbols have profound meaning. I will mention a few. 
With mercury, we have the caduceus as we have been explaining, the spinal column with the two serpents and the wings of the Spirit, which flourish when we raise the Mercury of our seminal energy to our brain.
The cynocephalus is a creature with the head of a dog, which of course is a symbol of the sexual instinct. The dog in internal language or symbology refers to the sexual energy, which is why we have myths such as Cerberus, who would allow people to enter into the hell realms, but if they wanted to escape, he would fight against them. That is the nature of lust, sexual desire. It will coax you into wanting to enjoy the delights, the pleasures of sex, but if you try to transform lust, it fights against you. It is an animal.
So these symbols are very profound. Venus relates to the sexual lingam, the Hindu symbol of an alchemical marriage (Note the phallic, vertical beam, the Lingam, united with the horizontal, feminine chalice or Yoni).
Related to the Sun, the serpent with a lion’s head. We talked abundantly about the serpent, and the lion is a symbol of the solar divinities, the Lion of Judah, specifically.
The Hebrew Letter ז Zayin
Let us talk about ז Zayin. So ז Zayin is precisely the feminine sexual energy, which is the spiritual soul, known as נשמת Neshamah. We talked about three types of souls previously: נפש Nephesh, רוח Ruach, נשמת Neshamah. נפש Nephesh is animal soul. רוח Ruach is the blaming or introspective soul. נשמת Neshamah is the spiritual divine soul.
So we are נפש Nephesh. We are animalistic with our habits, our defects, our desires. We work with רוח Ruach, which is the spiritual forces in us, in order to control נפש Nephesh. רוח Ruach is known as thinking-emotional soul, the consciousness, our conscience, that tells us “This is right—this is wrong.” “I should do this—I should not do this.” But of course, we are helped by נשמת Neshamah, which is precisely known as the Kundalini power, and in the spirit of this course we have been talking about excerpts from the Hebrew teachings, specifically the Psalms, which in this, verses 49 through 56 all begin with the letter ז Zayin. Previous verses also began with א Aleph, some with ב Beth, some with ג Gimel, ד Daleth, ה Hei, ו Vav, and now we are in ז Zayin. From the Psalms of David: 49. Remember the Word to your servant on which you make me hope; 50. It is my comfort in my affliction: For your Word has given me life. So what is this affliction? It is precisely Arcanum 7, battles against the ego, against our defects. “Your word has given me life,” חיה Chaiah. 51. The proud have scorned me utterly. I have not turned away from your law. Your teaching, your תורה Torah, your Tarot, the Arcanum or the arcana. 52. I remember your judgments of old, Oh יהוה Iod-Havah (Jehovah), and I take comfort. 53. Hot zeal has seized me, because of the wicked forsaking your law. 54. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimages… …the house of ב Beth. 55. Oh יהוה Iod-Havah I have remembered your name in the night and have kept your law. 56. This was done to me because I kept your commandments. All this relates to Arcanum 7, war against the ego, and against the black lodge, which is that organization of demons who seek to divert students from Christ, the solar path. So “it is my comfort in my affliction: For your Word has given me life.” The “Word” comes from דָּבָר Dabar, speech, the Logos—“In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God” (John 1:1). This is a symbolic representation of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. ז Zayin begins all these verses, and it is interesting that “Hot zeal has seized me, because of the wicked forsaking your law,” meaning: not fanaticism for one’s religion, but concern and despair when seeing how degenerate humanity is, and the desire to change it, the longing to change it—the works of “the wicked,” the black magicians who seek to persuade one from entering the path, from pursuing the path. 
The Creation of Eve
So the Hebrew letter ז Zayin is precisely the Kundalini power itself, which we have to raise from the sexual organs to the brain, so as to be crowned. And as we will see in our excerpt from the Zohar, Arcanum 7 relates intimately to crowning, as we see in this image, or both images.
On the left we have William Blake’s Creation of Eve, ז Zayin, the feminine sexual power, the Kundalini force, arising from the androgynous Adam אדם, or אדם יהוה Adam Iod-Havah, who is a representation of many things. There are are many levels to read and interpret Genesis. It is not literally a history, but also a psychological, alchemical, kabbalistic teaching. In the past there was a race known as the Lemurians. They were an ancient humanity that existed many ages before ours, physically. That race was androgynous, and the Bible depicts and explains how the sexes split over the process of many millennia, in order to aid those souls to developing their mind, their brain, and also the sexual organs, and those respective sexes, so as to help generate more power. When they would reunite as male-female, they would have certain qualities that they could develop further, that they could not while being androgynous. That is one level of meaning, but Genesis also talks about how we, whether as a man, we need a wife, and if a woman, a husband, because as above so below. As we talked about the Holy Spirit being male-female, to unite with that we need male-female, both forces. So I will read for you a few excerpts from Genesis, and we will talk about some of the kabbalistic meaning of this, how ז Zayin, Kundalini force, emerges within husband and wife, a matrimony: “And יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim said, it is not good that Adam אדם should be without help.” —Genesis 2:18 In order so that he could obtain knowledge of himself. Adam אדם can also represent the brain as I have mentioned previously. חוה Chavah can also represent the sexual organs, Adam-Eve, Brain-Sex. So חוה Eve is the sexual organs whether a man or woman, that is one level to interpret it, because Adam אדם has to control חוה Eve. So those millennia of patriarchal discourse that derides woman as being the [inferior in the household] is wrong because they interpret literally that Ada אדם has to control חוה Eve, but the meaning is that Adam אדם the mind has to control sex, instinct. So יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim said that Adam אדם, the brain, should not be without help. “I will make חוה Havah, Eve, for him [the female sex], a help mate for him.” —Genesis 2:18 So that he can enliven his brain in order to provide it with the sexual energy. “And יהוה אלהים Iod-Havah-Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon [the androgynous] Adam אדם.” —Genesis 2:21 Or Adam-Iod-Havah, the former human being that was male-female. “And he slept, and he took חוה Havah [Eve] from one of those ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof.” —Genesis 2:21 And the rib which יהוה Iod-Havah had taken from Adam אדם and made into woman, and the Hebrew word for woman is אשה Ishah. And so he brought woman unto Adam אדם. “And Adam אדם said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, and shall be called woman, because out of man she was taken from.” —Genesis 2:23 It sounds very derogatory to say, when he is referring to his wife, “this is now bone of my bones.” “This”—that is the literal translation, but there is a deeper meaning to this. The Hebrew word is זאת Zoth, ז Zayin-א Aleph-ת Tav. “זאת This shall be called אשה Ishah.” Better said, if we look at the Hebrew, אדם Adam said, “זאת Zoth is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. זאת Zoth shall be called אשה Ishah, because הזאת Hazoth was taken out of איש Ish.” This is the literal meaning of the Hebrew. איש Ish is fire, that is a masculine energy. אשה Ishah is feminine fire, because if you look at the Hebrew letters, א Aleph again is the wind, the breath. If you look at איש Ish for man, א Aleph-י Iod-ש Shin, א Aleph is the wind, the breath, the prana, the spirit we talked about in Arcanum 1. י Iod is a dot, representing the ovum or sperm, of a man or woman, in this case it is the sperm itself. ש Shin as I said is fire. With woman it is א Aleph-ש Shin-ה Hei, again the breath, the fire, and ה Hei which is the Yoni, the feminine sexual organs. So man-woman, two fires were developed in that ancient epoch of Lemuria, a masculine fire and a feminine fire. But likewise in our psyche we have a masculine energy and a feminine energy, within the two serpents, ו Vav- ז Zayin, the two channels called Ida-Pingala, the solar and lunar currents of energy. But Adam אדם said, “this is now bone of my bones,” “זאת Zoth is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called הזאת Hazoth, because she was taken from out of man.” Again, what is that power that is taken out of the fire of sexual magic? It is the Kundalini. הזאת Hazoth alchemically speaking is a term we use, or the alchemists have used to describe that Kundalini power. As Samael Aun Weor states: “The four elements of alchemy are Salt, Mercury, Sulfur and הזאת Azoth. The Salt is the physical matter of the sperm, the Mercury is the Ens Seminis (the energy that we extract from it) and הזאת Azoth is the mysterious ray of Kundalini.” —Samael Aun Weor, Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot So the sword is precisely that power that we awaken in a marriage, and that through אשה Ishah, so we have איש Ish and אשה Ishah, man-woman, together they become אישים Ishim. One of our prayers in the Gnostic tradition is: “אישים Ishim assist me in the name of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai!” Meaning, “the fires of man and woman, help defend me through the power of שׁדי Shaddai,” and we talked in Arcanum 4 that שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai is the sacred name of god in יסוד Yesod, the sexual energy itself, the power of almighty God itself. 
The Purity of the Sabbath: Sexual Alchemy
So I have other things to talk about. I want to refer you to the Zohar specifically, but the thing to remember is that we have to keep the Sabbath holy, the body holy, the fires of our body, our ב Beth, by practicing the mysteries of Saturn, which when we work with a marriage, ז Zayin, we become initiated into the higher dimensions. As we see that נשמת Neshamah in this image on the right, of a woman knighting the hero, the warrior, the soul. We have here גבורה Geburah and תפארת Tiphereth, גבורה Geburah the divine soul, the feminine soul in the Kabbalah, on the middle trinity of the Tree of Life.
Likewise we have תפארת Tiphereth, the human soul, who really is our willpower, of which we are a fraction at this point, that must develop in order to enter into the path of initiation. So she is the one who knights the hero, who crowns him, who glorifies him for the struggles he faces against lust and temptation. This is represented in the book of Genesis by the temptation of Adam אדם and חוה Eve. So I will not go into too much detail. We will give some courses explicitly about that scripture, but in synthesis we find that חוה Chavah was tempted by the serpent. People think there was a literal man and woman in a garden (in Mesopotamia) that ate an apple from a tree and everything went bad. That type of reading is very superficial and very funny, but the meaning is much more deep. It is profound. חוה Chavah is the sexual organs, the “mother of the living.” Adam אדם is your brain. The serpent that is “the most subtle in the field” (Genesis 3:1) is precisely the sexual energy, because the word for “field” is שדה Shadeh, which is where you get the word שׁדי Shaddai, Almighty Living God, שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai, the Amighty Lving God. The power of life that God creates through any initiate is sex, and the serpent is that power that, between husband and wife, tempts husband and wife, whether to control the serpent, raise it up the spine, or to be bitten by the serpent by eating the forbidden fruit, which is the orgasm, to waste that energy, to expel it, because when you expel the powers of עדן Eden, which in Hebrew means “bliss,” “voluptuousness,” you cast yourself out. So Adam אדם and חוה Eve did not get kicked out of עדן Eden. They kicked themselves out, and we do this everyday when ever someone engages in lust. So that is a very simple way to look at it, but Adam אדם and חוה Eve are precisely brain-sex. Comment: Christ, there again said something like “be as wise as serpents.” Somebody in the lodge that I belong to… Jewish-American man… he said “I have a problem.” He said, “Because Christ spoke in parables to the masses, and to his disciples he spoke in the esoteric way.” More and more people today I think are starting to realize, “Wait, there is something even behind this, what Christ said,” and they want to go into that… Instructor: Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Be wise as the Kundalini power, to raise it up the spine, but be innocent as a dove. Be chaste. Be humble. Do not engage in the sexual act as an animal, because you must sanctify the שבת Sabbath, the body, ש Shin-ב Beth, the “house of fire.” To be innocent as a dove is precisely to not cause harm, and we harm ourselves when we ejaculate the energy. We get burned. That is where we get the word “furnace, fornication.” “Thou shalt not commit fornication,” the Sixth Arcanum of the Tarot. But let us talk about the Zohar. Question: I am sorry. So the original sin… does that exist? Instructor: The original sin that originates all of our defects is lust, because when you eat that, when you consummate the sexual act with expelling the energy, you get kicked out of עדן Eden, because that energy is what gives a husband and wife bliss, beauty, harmony, and so we have to control the serpent. Comment: When it is withheld. Instructor: When it is withheld and transformed, because to be abstinent does not help. You have to learn to circulate the energy, which we do through certain exercises. But husband and wife have that dilemma—whenever they connect sexually, if they know this teaching—is to spill or not to spill, to be chaste, harmless as a dove, and wise as a serpent—or not, because you see that in the myth humanity was expelled, and Adam אדם and חוה Eve represent all of humanity who were expelled from that primordial bliss. So the original sin of course is lust, desire. And so by conquering lust, desire, we are crowned, initiated into a higher way of life, represented by נשמת Neshamah knighting the hero. ז Zayin and Initiation in the Zohar
And to talk about the meaning of ז Zayin more in depth, I would like to read for you in synthesis some teachings from the Zohar, which help to explain these principles very well:
Rabbi Shim’on opened: “I have put my words in your mouth (Isaiah 51:16). How vital it is for a human being to engage in תורה Torah day and night! For the blessed Holy One listens to the voice of those who occupy themselves with תורה Torah, and every word innovated in תורה Torah by one engaged in תורה Torah fashions one heaven.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 25) They explain elsewhere that to work with תורה Torah is to work with water, Genesis, which we find in this section of בראשית Bereishit, an explanation of the opening verse of the book of Genesis, that talks about how to work with the creative waters of sex. So what does it mean “to engage in תורה Torah day and night”? People literally read and think it means to read from the Old Testament, but to engage in תורה Torah is to practice it its principles. So, such as through certain exercises we practice: runes, meditation, mantras, pranayama, sacred exercises of rejuvenation etc. We occupy ourselves in the day, and at night when we are married, we work as husband and wife in the darkness, because from the darkness emerges light. It is how you create the solar bodies, the solar vehicles, in a marriage. So those who innovate תורה Torah, “every word innovated by one engaged in תורה Torah,” the law, the great Arcanum, sexual magic, “fashions one heaven.” You create the heavens in yourself, precisely through working with that sacred Arcanum. “We have learned: The moment a new word of תורה Torah originates from the mouth of a human being, that word ascends and presents herself before the blessed Holy One, who lifts that word, kisses her, and adorns her with seventy crowns–engraved and inscribed.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 25) So someone who innovates a new word of תורה Torah, meaning: to mantralize, to pray, to speak, to connect with divinity in meditation. That prayer, that mantra is acknowledged by divinity and is empowered. As I said to you previously, we have to empower our Being. We have to work with certain exercises so that we help our divinity manifest in us, inside. This word ascends and presents herself before the blessed Holy One, and again, the word is sexual, that the lord kisses that word. When husband and wife are united and they are pronouncing sacred mantras in the sexual act, their mantras are empowered, because the sexual energy relates to דעת Da’ath, and דעת Da’ath, as we explained, is sexual magic, alchemy, knowledge. It relates to the throat. The throat is the womb, or the uterus of the verb. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). בראשית Bereshit means, when husband and wife unite, they create the heavens within themselves. So we have to lift that word up in alchemy so that He can “adorn her with seventy crowns, engraved and inscribed.” So seventy crowns relates to initiation, seven initiations of fire mentioned in The Perfect Matrimony. That sword that the woman is knighting this man with is precisely ז Zayin, the seventh letter. We have to face seven initiations of fire, which are engraved and inscribed, and as I mentioned to you in Arcanum 2, we have to inscribe in the stone of יסוד Yesod our energies, this work. We have to perfect them, chisel them, so that perfect stone is the foundation of our temple. “But an innovated word of wisdom ascends and settles on the head of Tsaddiq, the Righteous One—Vitality of the Worlds.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 25) So by working with chastity is how we ascend and become Tsaddiqim, the Righteous Ones, Holy Ones, Holy Beings. And that is the “Vitality of the Worlds.” We are referring to יסוד Yesod, the creative energies. 
“From there, it flies and soars through 70,000 worlds, ascending to the Ancient of Days.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 25)
70,000 refers to the seven lower sephiroth of the Tree of Life, ascending up to the top Trinity, to the sphere known as כתר Kether, which is the Ancient of Days, our Father who is in heaven. So our mantras help to ascend and reach influence from that sephirah itself. “All the words of the Ancient of Days are words of wisdom, conveying supernal, concealed mysteries. When that secret word of wisdom, innovated here, ascends, it joins those words of the Ancient of Days. Along with them, it ascends and descends, entering eighteen hidden worlds, which no eye has seen, O God, but You (Isaiah 64:3)” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 25-26) So what are these eighteen hidden worlds? We have nine heavens above מלכות Malkuth, and we also have nine hells below מלכות Malkuth, so these are the eighteen worlds. Nine heavens, nine hells. “Emerging from there, they roam until they arrive, full and complete, presenting themselves before the Ancient of Days. At that moment, the Ancient of Days inhales the aroma of that word and it pleases Him more than anything.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 26) What is that aroma that divinity is most pleased with? It is chastity, sexual purity. When husband and wife know how to connect but not to waste the energies themselves, the divine inhales that aroma, and of course perfume in the ancient temples was very symbolic of working with chastity itself. “Lifting that word, He adorns her with 370,000 crowns. The word flies, ascending and descending, and is transformed into a heaven.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 26) Because when husband and wife are mantralizing in alchemy, they give birth to the heavens inside themselves, the virtues of the soul. “So each and every word of wisdom is transformed into a heaven, existing enduringly in the presence of the Ancient of Days. He calls them new heavens, newly created heavens, hidden mysteries of supernal wisdom. As for all other innovated words of תורה Torah, they stand before the blessed Holy One, then ascend and are transformed into earths of the living (Psalms 116:9).” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 26) What are these earths of the living? It is precisely the solar vehicles we talk about: solar astral body, solar mental body, solar causal body—vehicles that we can give birth to so that God can inhabit our house, our psyche. So that is what it means to be a living being. Adam אדם was made into a נפש חיה Nephesh Chaiah, “a living soul,” because the spirit of אלהים Elohim, יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim, entered into him. People think it refers to just some physical man being created from the dust, but it is a symbol of how we create the soul, perfected, inside. That is what it means to be an earth of the living. “Then they descend, crowning themselves upon one earth…” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 26) One initiation we could say, of fire, depending on the sephiroth. “…which is renewed and transformed into a new earth through that renewed word of תורה Torah.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 26) So the earth is a new earth. Your body ceases to become sick, full of diseases, old or with problems, because we regenerate through the power of חיה Chaiah, the Holy Spirit, in order to be healed. And when a husband and wife learn to practice alchemy, they conserve their vitality for decades. They become young, healthy. “Concerning this is written: As the new heavens and the new earth that I am making endure before Me… (Isaiah 66:22). The verse does not read I have made, but rather I am making, for He makes them continually out of those innovations and mysteries of תורה Torah.” ―Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 26-27) “I have made,” you could say, relates to אהיה Eheieh, “I Am that I Am, אהיה אשר אהיה Eheieh Asher Eheieh”—“I will become who I will become.” “I will be within the soul who learns how to be.” Soאהיה אשר אהיה Eheieh Asher Eheieh, “I Am that I Am” is the acrostic there. “I have made or I will make,” that divinity will make the soul within us if we cooperate, if we work with our ז Zayin and our ו Vav, our spine and the sexual power of Kundalini. “Of this is written: I have put My words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of My hand, to plant heavens and establish earth (Isaiah 51:16). The verse does not read the heavens, but rather heavens (plural).” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 27) There is an alchemical teaching here that is very profound, because when we work with husband and wife, and work with sacred sounds, we are initiated. We are crowned when we learn to create the soul and eliminate defects. Conclusion: Battles of the Seventh Arcanum
And to conclude this lecture I will mention to you an experience that I had that helps to clarify some of the principles of Arcanum 7 with the Zohar. I mentioned to you that Arcanum 7 is struggle, ordeals, battles that you have to face against your own desires, but also against the influences of witches and sorcerers.
I remember many years ago I had an experience where I overcame a certain ordeal in the astral plane, and my Spirit showed me an instructional video. He was teaching me about Arcanum 7, and about certain people who enter these type of studies. He said that, “Out of 70% of those who masturbate, 5% of them have gender problems.” Of course it is not a literal statistic. It is something symbolic. Arcanum 7 means people who are learning to strive against their defects. Those who enter these studies but still struggle with the vice of masturbation, out of karma, Arcanum 5, many of them will develop gender problems, meaning: that is how you become homosexual. That is how you lose your sexual attraction for the opposite sex, is by copulating with one’s own sexual organs, copulating with the same sex. Masturbation we strictly speak against. Really, the word is from the Latin “manstuprare,” coming from “manus,” hand, and “stuprare,” meaning “defilement.” And as the Book of Leviticus teaches us, if you have an emission of semen, you must bathe yourself in water and be unclean until even (Leviticus 15:16)—evening, Lailah. You have to face the demon לילית Lilith, your own lust in those infernal dimensions, and until you are clean of that element you will continue to have that desire for masturbation, or lust. “Stuprare” also means, not only defilement, but “dishonor; to be dishonored by ones own hand.” Likewise “stupere” which means “to be stupid.” So we said that the power of the Holy Spirit, intelligence, בינה Binah, gives one divine cognizance. It illuminates the brain. But if we expel the semen then we are impoverishing our brain. The brain languishes for want of that energy. There are many people, many demons with very sharp intellects. They develop the intellect in that way, but it is really, in the spiritual sense, very stupid, because that is intelligence within hell, not in heaven. We have to learn to overcome those habits [See "How to Overcome Masturbation"], and so my Being was teaching me in order to teach other people that, out of 70% of those who are masturbators, 5% become homosexual, become gay. And by this we do not speak with hatred towards gays, but we are pointing out that, if you want to create spiritually, you need husband and wife, both polarities. You need them both (See “Is Gnosis Anti-LGBTQ?”) In this experience, later I was warned. I intuitively knew that I was going to be attacked. So I was walking up to my bedroom, and it was very dark. It was around four in the morning in the astral plane, and I sensed that there were some sorcerers outside my window who wanted to get in, who were about to attack me.
In that moment I grabbed my solar plexus, and I reached out my hand, and started reciting the Conjurations of the Four:
“Caput mortum, imperet tibi dominus per vivum et devotum serpentem! Cherub, imperet tibi dominus per Adam Iod-HaVah!...” These prayers that we pronounce in Latin to reject negative forces. So this is a big battle that happened in the astral plane, but I was helped. I was conjuring these seven or twelve men that were coming into my home. I do not know how many there were in detail, but there were many. So my Being was giving me power to reject those demons, because I was overcoming certain ordeals. That is why divinity helped me to fight back. And there were bombs and explosions going on as a result of the conjurations that my Being was using through me to reject these entities. So it was a very violent experience, and afterward I remember, I returned to my bedroom and my Being was there, who kept crowing me with laurels. So going back to the Zohar, “you will be crowned with 370,000 crowns,” so overcoming those ordeals against the black magicians, you get adulated. The Being praises you, but I do not take credit, because only the Being is powerful. So 370,000 crowns, again and again and again and again. So I was being knighted. It is something that you would experience when you learn to first be chaste, and then as you are working in yourself, the demons will come after you, because if you are fornicating then, they say, “Well, you are just one of us, so it does not matter.” So again, referring back to the Zohar, they quoted Isaiah 51:16: “I have put My words in your mouth.” The word of יהוה Jehovah says, “I put My words in your mouth.” So God was speaking through me, and I was, really, fighting these entities, rejecting them. So again, Arcanum 7 relates to the 370,000 crowns. Three relates to the Trinity, the power of the Holy Ghost, the three pointed trident of Neptune, which is the power of the waters. And seven of course relates to the ordeals and battles we have to face against the black lodge. So to conclude this lecture we will give you a few practices that you can use, so that you can develop your potential. We have the seven vowels that we use in our runic exercises, which are the vowels, I E O U A M S. So with the mantras you prolong the vowels so that you awaken the chakras of the seven centers in the spinal column.
The vowel I relates to the chakra of the crown, and the third eye, to give you the names out loud, Chakra Sahasrara in the crown, Chakra Ajna in the third eye.
The vowel E relates to the throat, the Chakra Vishuddha. The vowel O relating to intuition, the heart, relates to the Chakra Anahata. We have the Chakra Manipura in the solar plexus, the vowel U. And the vowel M relating to the prostate or the uterus in a woman, the Chakra Svadhisthana. And the vowel S, the sexual fire, relates to the base of the spine, the Chakra Muladhara. So you can pronounce those seven vowels:
Those are the seven vowels you can pronounce before you meditate, so that you will awaken the powers of the seven chakras themselves, because those mantras help to awaken those centers.
You can also pray the Pater Noster very deeply, and with a lot of cognizance. So this is a prayer that many people recite, and it is a beautiful prayer, but it is more important to do it consciously in meditation. Samael Aun Weor states that we should pronounce these seven petitions of the Our Father, for an hour long, so it should be very deep and prolonged, very concentrated. Seven verses: 1 – Our Father, Who art in heaven 2 – Hallowed be Thy name. 3 – Thy kingdom come. 4 – Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 5 – Give us this day our daily bread 6 – And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 7 – And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil You can also say: “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever.” Or you can even do the Latin, even more powerful, “PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum.” Latin as a mantric language is very powerful. You can invoke very divine forces that way. So you can pray that for an hour long if you want. Any questions? Questions and Answers
Question: Just something I might add when you talked before about retaining the semen. Max Heindel again said, “Keep the seed within.” I’ll never forget that. The other thing is, as far as technique to help raise Kundalini, can you pronounce a mantram together with pranayama?
Instructor: Some pranayamas are structured that way, like Christic Egyptian Pranayama in The Yellow Book, that Samael Aun Weor wrote. You pronounce certain mantras mentally when you are inhaling the air through the nostrils. TON, inhaling through the left nostril. You close the right with your thumb, inhale through the left nostril, inhale, mentally pronouncing the mantra TON. Question: Mentally? Instructor: Mentally. Hold both nostrils closed, send the prana down, the energy to your coccyx. Do the mantra SAH. Exhale through the right nostril, and pronounce the mantra HAM. And you can read more about the specifics of that. You inhale again through the right nostril. TON, close your nostrils and pronounce the mantra RAH as you send the energy down to the coccyx, and then exhale through the left nostril, HAM. Question: I thought it was just alternating, going back and forth. You are mentioning now about holding both nostrils? Instructor: Yes, because when you do the pranayama, you inhale the energy. You hold it. The retention is very important, because when you inhale you are sending the energy into your body. You close the nostrils and then you mentally pronounce that mantra, SAH or RAH, depending on which current you are working with. Question: While you are holding it? Instructor: While you are holding it. So TON, inhale. Hold: SAH. Send the energy down to the coccyx while mentally pronouncing the mantra SAH. Exhale through the right nostril, HAM, as you mentally pronounce that. And then inhale, TON, RAH, HAM. Question: This is in The Yellow Book? Instructor: Yes So pranayama is very excellent for transmuting energy, which we will be giving a lecture about that too. Do you have any other questions? Question: Why do you think, symbolic numbers and symbols and allegories used throughout all these ancient texts, instead of just coming out and just saying it? Are we here to just figure this out like a game? Is this what this all is, is to figure this out? Instructor: Well, divinity speaks in the language of parables. Like I gave you that experience, he said “Out of 70% of those who masturbate, 5% have gender problems.” So he was not giving a literal statistic, but symbolic. So the symbolism there, God speaks in symbols because you can get a lot more accomplished that way, rather than talking plain English. In past ages those scriptures that were given in that language for those initiates who already knew the science, who could interpret it correctly, and those who did not know, who were degenerate, would just be lost in the wayside. Like that image of the Viridarium Chymicum. I cannot remember the name of that, but it was the alchemical image I showed you previously of the seven pointed star, in where the man said, Estolsio said “If you do not know what any of this means, it does not even matter,” is what he was saying at that time. But the thing is we are in a different age now. We are in the age of Aquarius, the age of the dissemination of knowledge. So now this teaching has to be made explicit, for people to benefit, because the white lodge is opening the doors and saying, you know, “There really is not much time for humanity, but we want to help.” Comment: Yeah, the word apocalypse actually means the unveiling of truth, in Greek. Instructor: And we face our own inner apocalypse through going through Arcanum 7. So like that experience I gave you, you have to fight against yourself, because in that experience in the dream I had to overcome certain ordeals in the astral plane, and that is why divinity, my Being, my Spirit came to me and said, “Here is an experience to teach you more.” And then you have to fight against the demons who are against you, to try to stop you from changing. Question: So, like these religions that do not teach what you are teaching, do they just not know or?… Instructor: In most cases they do not know. Question: Are people purposely putting that out there, where it is like, it is kind of disinformation? Instructor: Well, there is a lot of ignorance, but there are people who are trying to cause a lot of confusion intentionally. Question: And then as far as symbols, if you noticed like, I learned this in the past, the symbol for the money symbol, are they mocking, you know, because the money symbol is the snake and the pillars, are they mocking it? The same with the number 7 they put in casinos. Are they mocking this? The dark occultists, they know this knowledge. Are they saying, and they use the word ISIS for different factions in the Middle East and all that? 
Instructor: There is a lot of correlation that is going on. Samael Aun Weor says that the number of the black lodge is 777, which if you add those numbers together you get 21, Arcanum 21, which is the Fool of the Tarot. We call it transmutation, but also it is the fool who is walking over an alligator in the card, who is being threatened to be swallowed. So that is his own lust and his own defects threatening to devour him in the abyss.
And the Hebrew letter associated with the fool is ש Shin, fire. So a Fool of the Tarot is one who gets burned by lust, symbolized by the bohemian, or La Bohème by Puccini. So in that opera, Puccini was teaching how, there were these poor artists who were in the cold freezing in winter time in Paris, or wherever they were, and they said “Oh, let’s get a few moments of warmth...” Rodolfo was working on a poem that he composed for many hours, and they said, “Let’s burn it for a few moments so we can stay warm.” So this is the idiot who takes his livelihood and is burning it away, and that is a symbol of how we kill ourselves with lust. Through ש Shin, you get burned. You become a fool, a bohemian. So in the end, if you watch that opera, it does not have a good ending. People love it. It is a beautiful opera but, they do not see the tremendous warning that it has for individuals. And we will watch that opera here too, and talk about it. It is very beautiful. Comment: Most people are not aware of the occult implications of these operas. Instructor: So we will be giving, we will be watching those here and talking about them. Puccini was a Freemason (See The Secret Teachings of Opera). Question: You speak of desire. There are some good desires right? Altruistic, and you wish good for people? But… Instructor: We could say it is a semantic thing really. We say, technically, desire is ego, because desire says, “I want. I crave. I want this. I want to have this,” but many poets like Rumi use the word, when they translate from Arabic, they use desire, or love, مَحَبَّة maḥabba in Arabic, which is where you get the word hubb, or you can get words for water. There are many correlations between love and water specifically. But desire is egotism, in strict technical language, but there are many people who say, “I desire, I long to know divinity.” So longing—we change the words, we say longing, yearning—is a conscious quality. But strictly speaking, desire is when you say that “I really want something. I need this. I want this.” Ego is desire. Comment: But you are talking about, you mentioned there is right and wrong desire… Instructor: Yeah, well the real, you could say, better desire is longing. You long in your soul to change. That is a yearning or aspiration in the heart. It is a very divine quality. We need that. That is how you work with your ז Zayin, face the temptations, and yearn to change, to keep your Sabbath holy. Question: So all of those teachings... “I am that I am”… and then you pronounce what you want to be so that you can get exactly that, that is not true? That is not accurate? Instructor: They can get what they want, for sure, but usually doing what the ego wants. Better said: “What I want… what I desire”—we call egotism. “What I want” is, or “what my ego wants,” is negative, is “I go against my soul.” For Gnostics, we “go against our own defects, our desires.” To say that “I want this, I want that, and then I am going to do this practice to get what I want,” we say is negative. We should instead work for other people. Let us help others with what they want. Let us help “us” instead of “I, me, myself,” because we have a lot of ego in these times. So those teachings that say “I am,” are negative—like Joel Olsteen or a few other people who say: “become a better you.” I am sorry Joel, I have to politely disagree. “I Am” only can be said by divinity. אהיה Eheieh, the Being, says, “I Am that I Am.” We are not the Being. We are just the soul who has to work. So “I am not, because my Being is,” and “I am filled with ego, therefore I am not.” “But when I die to all my desires, it is not what I want, but the Being will be manifest in me.” So I would not say, get lost in the language, but, those teachings that say, “get what you want” is really marketing to our desires, our defects. So “become a better you,” is mistaken, since you cannot get better, meaning: your egotism cannot get any better. You have to eliminate that. So if you as a soul want to be purified, be content with becoming nothing, so that your Being can manifest in you fully. That is the teaching of the Sufis. Sufis teach you that you must fulfill fana, annihilation of the ego, so that you can have baqa, subsistence in God. You cannot be in God if you are filled with ego, if you have desires that say: “I want this, I want that.” Comment: It is interesting you say that because I think Steiner said when you are doing that, emptying yourself of that ego, you are creating a space for divine force to come into you. Instructor: Great, because Samael Aun Weor says, “God searches the nothingness in order to fill it.” So your mind has to be empty so that the plenitude of divinity can manifest, and then there will not be “you” anymore. There will only be “Him,” and that is really the beauty and the bliss that we seek. Question: So you use that in the context of, for example, in meditation saying “I am blessed. I am full. I am content.” Is that also wrong? Instructor: Well, we have certain prayers that we use that are similar to that, except we say “We are strong. We are rich. We are full of luck and harmony.” Because Samael our teacher says, “I” has little force, but “we” has a lot. So you gain more power that way. “We” is a universal consciousness: “We are strong, we are rich, we are full of luck and harmony,” so that principle is the same thing. You are seeking to empower your consciousness, but, one is “I, myself,” but another is “we,” and to consider others is really the highest form of consciousness we can have. So that is an exercise you can look at in a book called Introduction to Gnosis… Question: Should we try not to, in conversation, try not to say “I”… Instructor: No, you do not want to be unnatural. You do not want to be unnatural. Just say, “Yeah, I feel this, I feel that,” but when you need to interact with people, and you are working with your meditations and you are working on your ego, you learn to see other people’s minds very clearly. And you learn to see how you interact with people. More importantly, you see how you interact with other people, and you find that there is a struggle there, because you will find that certain thoughts want to emerge to say something at the time, which you can sense are wrong. Therefore you are working with Arcanum 7. You are struggling against negativity. So you have to observe in yourself, what elements are pushing you to act in certain ways, and when you see them, when you sense that intuitively, “this is right, this is wrong,” then you know how to navigate the labyrinth of other people’s minds so that you can earn your daily bread. Do what you need to do, because we need to learn how to work in this physical plane and with conscience, with the wisdom of a serpent and the innocence of a dove. Comment: A lot of the new age books they say, only focus on happy thoughts, but you know, I think it is only, it is really, do not focus on thoughts at all, because a happy thought is going to come and then go, and then a negative thought is going to come in, and a happy thought. Just erase all thought! Instructor: Well, here is the thing, the Sufis have very interesting ways of analyzing this. They talk about different types of thought. There is some, I do not remember the Arabic that they use, but, khatir is the word for thought. There is thoughts that belong to the ego, and there are types of insights or intuitions that come from God—some that come from your consciousness, some that come from an Angel, some negative influences that come from demons, and you will sense that as you awaken your consciousness. But most of the thoughts we have are ourselves, 97% of what we go through is just our own mind churning garbage in the intellect, but that is why we say in meditation, stop thinking. Do not force your mind to not think, but just observe your mind, and as it is doing its thing, it is going to exhaust itself, like a person talking to a wall. The mind is like that. It just talks and talks and talks and talks. It does not stop. The thing is, do not repress it. Do not push it, but you strive against it by comprehending it. That is the meaning of Jihad, holy war. It does not mean to repress your mind or be violent, but in a state of equanimity and dispassion, you learn to see the root causes of your defects, and look in them, and see them, where it is coming from, and then as you comprehend more and more the mind settles of its own. Comment: Yeah, through my own experience I could say this, if you just take that drive out to nature, you will see your thoughts plummet. It is amazing. I went to a friend’s cottage in Wisconsin and it was like, “Wow, where did all my thoughts go?” Instructor: And when you are out in nature too, learn to do the runic exercises as we teach. So the yogic postures, sacred rites of rejuvenation, mantras in open nature, that is how you assimilate the power of the Undines, the Nereids, the Gnomes, the elementals. And that is how you can learn to empower and strengthen yourself, so when you come back to the city, back to the abyss, you could say, you can face all the chaos again. That is how you wage war with ז Zayin, working with your spine. Single people can work, awaken sparks of that Kundalini power, sparks of ז Zayin you could say. Only a husband and wife can fully develop that. Comment: You mentioned also intuition, like you are in these scenarios, like everyday, someone is saying something negative, and you know, you can rise above it. In other words—and I am going to explain it—you do not have to go into a dialectic. These things happen. If something is going on, an argument, a negative situation, you know, for way too long, you might go into a dialectic or something… Instructor: Well yeah, arguing. Question: Intuition helps, you know right away what to do, what to avoid, when to keep quiet, so we can avoid a negative situation, if you develop that intuition, right? Instructor: Yeah, and that is how you are successful in battle, by not fighting. So a real warrior of a spiritual type is one who has a mind that is fully in equanimity, because when your mind is calm and you are working with your intuition, then you can disarm certain situations very well. 
We see in this card of the Tarot a representation of how the disciple must face specific temptations when entering into the path of initiation, specifically. Those temptations manifest themselves in what we know as the three brains of Gnostic psychology: our intellect, our emotions, and our motor-instinctive-sexual centers, which we are going to elaborate upon in this lecture.
Indecision is a card, the sixth arcanum or law of the Tarot, specifically relating to the sixth sephirah of the Tree of Life, תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth: the human soul, who has we see represented here is within the waters of the card, in the bottom third of the major arcanum. He is facing towards a woman on his left, with his left hand over his right, indicating that he is fallen. He has entered into temptation, into sin, degeneration. Every disciple who initiates these studies must face precisely this problem. When entering to the path of spirituality, one faces the temptations of the psyche and of the flesh. And one realizes with crude observation of the facts, that one is filled with desire, with animality, with negative psychological qualities, which are destructive and which cause harm. The student who begins these studies and attempts chastity, realizes that he has many elements, that she has many desires, which are contrary to the will or the endeavor of the student entering into initiation. So in the first arcanum of the Tarot, we talked about the Magician, one who initiates, who begins a path, but while initiating that effort, after working with the Priestess of the Tarot (the second arcanum), entering into the third (the Empress), followed by the fourth (the Emperor, the inner-Being), the fifth (the Hierarch), and sixth, now, the human soul, Tiphereth—this sequence indicates to us a progression of forces that descend down the Tree of Life. The first ten major arcana of the Tarot can relate to the ten sephiroth themselves. 
We discussed the top trinities, especially, in depth, how a student of occultism must learn to work with the three primary forces: כֶּ֫תֶר Kether, חָכְמָה Chokmah, בִּינָה Binah: Father, Son, Holy Spirit—Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. We also work with our inner חֶסֶד Chesed, meaning “Mercy” in Hebrew, the Spirit, the Emperor of the Tarot. By working with our Spirit, we also work with גְּבוּרָה Geburah, the fifth arcanum of the Tarot relating to the law of Karma: cause and effect.
As we are beginning to understand these principles in ourselves and as we are understanding our own psyche, we face a great ordeal known as “Indecision,” the sixth arcanum of the Tarot, related to תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth, which is the very center of this Tree of Life, the center of the pillar of equilibrium. Tiphereth, the human soul, is in a dilemma of “to be or not to be.” To be pure or to be degenerate. To follow the light of Christ or to be a demon. And so that ordeal that the student faces is precisely within oneself. As one is generating light, insight, cognizance of the truth, one faces the ordeals and temptations in the mind, precisely through the original sin known as lust, fornication: which in these studies we specifically explain is the loss of the energies of sex, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Fornication comes from the word fornix, “to burn,” as in the oven, a furnace. Fornix also relates to the archways over streets in ancient Rome where prostitutes would wait to perform their services. The word fornication stems from that. It is the prostitution of the soul, because whenever a person loses their energies, willingly or not, one is committing fornication. One is lost and swallowed by the waters of these cards, as this neophyte is. He is facing towards his left, because the left-hand path signifies, in certain traditions, the lunar way, mechanical path: the path of devolution. The path of destruction. So animal ego, desire, is the path of left, in which the soul saturates itself with desire. The problem with desire that it is never satiated. One can never nullify the wills or wishes of desire, because desire is insatiable. It wants. It craves for more sensations, more experiences, more objects, more fulfillment, and when that is acquired, one desires more. The desire is strengthened. So it is the absurd thought of many schools the think that by fulfilling and feeding your desire, is how you will nullify it, destroy it. But this is ignorant. This is wrong, because the laws of Manu, one of the ancient scriptures of Hinduism, state that “Desire is never satiated by feeding it.” “Desire never rests by enjoyment of lusts, as fire surely increases the more butter is offered to it.” —Laws of Manu 2.94. It is never fulfilled. It always wants more, and so lust is primarily the main defect a disciple faces in this arcanum. The left hand path, the path of the ego, the path of desire, is mentioned in the Qur’an. But also we see that in this card, there is a right-hand path, which we will be talking about in depth today too. So the left hand over the right is a signification that the soul is fallen, is facing towards desire, and that his or her mind is so filled with desire that he does not turn or look towards his right, which is the Virgin, a Christified master, a chaste woman—as we talked about previously Urania-Venus, the Christified soul, the purified soul. She represents in this card, the path of the Divine Mother Kundalini, the path of purity, of cleanliness, of rectitude and love. The woman on the right is half naked, demonstrating her lewdness, her perversity. She also represents Medusa of the Greek myths, which whenever she would look directly into the eyes of any hero, would turn him to stone. That is a symbol of our own desires. If we identify with our anger, our lust, our pride, etc., we become frozen, habituated, locked in those habits. We become petrified. We no longer have any mobility, consciously speaking. We are stuck in that element. We are frozen by that habit. Many people live their entire lives addicted to sensation and desire, to lust. And so the student of occultism, of esoterism, who seeks to understand him or herself, faces this problem. He or she realizes that he is filled with these elements that pull him away from practice, from aspiration, from longing, from fulfilling the precepts of any religion, which is why Paul of Tarsus stated in the Epistles, "that which I would not do, I do, and that which I will to do, I do not" (Romans 7:19). And so “there is a war in my members,” he says. And the members, of course, relate to the sexual organs. That is the primary battle that any disciple faces: is how to be chaste. First, physically, to abstain from fornication, from the orgasm. And then afterwards, in a much more subtle level, in dreams, in the heart, and in the mind. We see that in this card the Divine Mother on the right, the solar path, the path of the solar initiates who follow the will of Christ, is beckoning unto the soul who is fallen, to enter Her way, Her path. Because, this teaching as we emphasize, many missionaries state, is not for angels, but this is a teaching for demons: beings like us who are filled with desire, who want to change. The Divine Mother always beckons and opens Her arms to the disciple, the student: “Come unto to me! Enter into my mysteries!”—She teaches us, in the world of dreams and in meditation. As the master Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī taught us, "Even if you have broken your vows a hundred times, join us. We are not a caravan of despair." So she is on the right-hand path, teaching the initiate to rise above the waters of the card, to transcend the waters of fornication. The Qur’an as I was alluding to briefly, is a beautiful teaching that teaches us the teachings of the right and the left hand paths. So the myth of how right-handed persons are more virtuous than left-handed persons comes from this teaching from the Qur’an. This is from Surah 56: Al Waqi’ah “The Event,” “The Inevitable,” which explains some of the promises made through Prophet Muhammad to his initiates about the path of the solar initiates, and also the path of the left. 8. So those on the Right Hand, who will be those on the Right Hand? 9. And those on the Left Hand, Who will be those on the Left Hand? 10. And those foremost, the foremost, 11. These will be those nearest to Allah. 12. In the Gardens of delight. 13. A multitude of those (foremost) will be from the first generations (בהבראם behibaram, by Abraham, the spirit). 14. And a few of those (foremost) will be from the later time. —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” The word generations reminds us of Genesis, which the Bible states, "These are the generations which created the heavens and the Earth." In Hebrew it says “בהבראם behibaram,” which is an acrostic for “By Abraham.” So Abraham, we mentioned previously, is the Spirit, Gedulah. And some initiates on this path will be much more developed of the first generations, meaning the top of the Tree of Life: Kether, Chokmah, Binah. Others will be from the lower generations, מלכות Malkuth, who are learning to ascend for the first time of the Tree of Life itself. 15. (They will be) on thrones woven with gold and precious stones, 16. Reclining thereon, face to face. 17. They will be served by immortal boys, 18. With cups, and jugs, and a glass from the flowing wine… —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” …we can say of transmutation, of Allah-Khemia (الخيمياء alchemy) to fuse oneself with Allah, with אל El in Hebrew, with God. 19. Wherefrom they will get neither any aching of the head, nor any intoxication. —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” Meaning they don't fornicate. They were enlivened by the wine of transmutation in a marriage, but they are not drunk by it. They don't get carried away. They don't go to excess, meaning: they don't eat the forbidden fruit, which is the orgasm. They don't reach that point. But they enjoy that purity of sex so that one does not have any ache of the head, meaning: creation of the ego. Because through desire, through fornication, is how the ego is born, and therefore no pain is known by these initiates. 20. And fruit; that they may choose. —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” …better said, fruit from the Tree of Life, a symbol of how those masters can access any dimension at will, and therefore they pluck the fruit from the Tree of Life and enjoy those experiences with consciousness. 21. And the flesh of fowls that they desire. 22. And (there will be) Houris (Nirvanis, Virgins, Urania Venuses) with wide, lovely eyes, 23. Like unto preserved pearls. 24. A reward for what they used to do. —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” So if you're not familiar with Islam, the houris are the woman promised to any mujahid, a warrior who strives in the path of Islam in order to enter the heavenly realms. So the houris or the Nirvanis, the chaste women, like we see in this card, those initiates, those female masters who are pure in sex, who have no lust, they welcome the male and also female initiates into the higher dimensions. But they are really inhabitants of those realms, you can say, who are pure and chaste. 25. No evil talk will they hear therein, nor any sinful speech. 26. But only the saying of: peace, peace” 27. And those on the Right Hand, - Who will be those on the Right Hand? 28. (They will be) among thornless lote-trees, 29. Among (banana-trees) with fruits piled one above another, 30. In shade long-extended, 31. By water (of transmutation, of chastity) flowing constantly… —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” In the internal planes, water is a symbol of the sexual energy, which flows and within the circuitry of the human body, which flows with purity, with peace. And so these trees, are again, symbolic of the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of Life, of consciousness, of the purity and virtues of the soul. 32. And fruit in plenty, 33. Whose season is not limited, and their supply will not be cut off… —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” Because that energy is a wellspring of life. As Jesus said, "Give me water and I will give you a fountain that flows to everlasting life (within myself or within yourself)” (John 4:14). And they will be: 34. …on couches or thrones, raised high. (these Nirvanis, these women of nirvana). 35. Verily, We have created them (maidens) of special creation. —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” Meaning, through בראשׁית Bereshit, through chastity. As we stated previously, בראשׁית Bereshit is an acrostic meaning ברית אש Berit-Esh, “pact of fire” בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים Bara Elohim: created Elohim, the Gods, the initiates—through alchemy, specifically. 36. And made them virgins (masters). 37. Loving, equal in age. 38. For those on the Right Hand. 39. A multitude of those (on the Right Hand) will be from the first generation. 40. And a multitude of those (on the Right Hand) will be from the later times (generations)… —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” …as we explained the meaning of that. 41. And those on the Left Hand. Who will be those on the Left Hand? 42. In fierce hot wind and boiling water, 43. And shadow of black smoke, 44. (That shadow) neither cool, nor (even) good, 45. Verily, before that, they indulged in luxury… —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” …in desires, in chasing after money and fornication… 46. And were persisting in great sin, 47. And they used to say: "When we die and become dust and bones, shall we then indeed be resurrected? 48. "And also our forefathers?" 49. Say (O Muhammad ): "(Yes) verily, those of old, and those of later times. 50. "All will surely be gathered together for appointed Meeting of a known Day. 51. "Then moreover, verily, you the erring-ones, the deniers (of Resurrection)! 52. "You verily will eat of the trees of Zaqqum. —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” So in Arabia, the trees of زقوم Zaqqum are very bitter. The leaves are very hard to taste, because they are so bitter themselves. It is a symbol of קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth, the tree of desire, the inferior dimensions beneath the Tree of Life, the internal dimensions. 52. "You verily will eat of the trees of Zaqqum (bitterness, pain, suffering). 53. "Then you will fill your bellies therewith, 54. "And drink boiling water on top of it, 55. "So you will drink (that) like thirsty camels!" 56. That will be their entertainment on the Day of Recompense! —Al-Waqi’ah, “The Inevitable” So the path of life and death are before any student of occultism who is seeking to be chaste. “To be or not to be,” said Hamlet. “That is the question” (Act 3.1.). Likewise it is stated in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses pointed out the path of life and the path of death: "I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you. That I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live." —Deuteronomy 30:19 So people interpret this seed to represent the physical people or generations of the Israelites, but that is not the meaning. The word seed refers to the sexual energy: the creative seed that can give birth to the Tree of Knowledge and Tree of Life inside of us. We are going to unpack a lot of the symbolism of this card. We find that we have many symbols associated with this, including astrological symbols. We have the symbol of Venus in the left and the bull of Taurus, which reminds us of the mysteries of Mithras, who slayed the bull through the power of his sword, his willpower. So the bull is a symbol of our physical earth, the body, but also lust, animal desire. So we as the great heroes must learn to conquer our own desires if we want to enter the path of the right, the solar initiates. We do that precisely through Venus, the mysteries of the Divine Mother Kundalini, the goddess of love. We also see the symbol of the Hebrew letter ו Vav, the symbol of the spinal column of which we are going to explain a lot in depth today. But in synthesis, we find the letter ו Vav hidden in the sacred name of God, in the world of Tiphereth. The mantra we did in the meditation before this lecture was אלוה ודעת יהוה Eloah Va Daath Iod-Hei-Vav-Hei. “Goddess of Knowledge, Iod-Havah” ו Vav is in the middle. אלוה ודעת Eloah Va Daath. דעת Daath means “knowledge,” alchemy. Allah-Khemia. ו Vav or Vau is what connects the goddess אלוה Eloah, the Divine Mother, with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. So we manifest those forces within our spine. This is how the initiate ceases to be caught within the waters of the card, but learns to stand upright as a perfect human being. Principles of Arcanum 6
So some of the synthetic principles of this card, philosophically speaking, relates to the path of love, husband and wife. Precisely in the matrimony is where one faces the worst and most difficult types of desire, because in the sexual act, those fires are active. One is inflamed with the energies of the Holy Spirit, but if one does not control that power, one gets burned by it. One loses those forces which are so essential for Genesis, בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים Bereshit Bara Elohim. בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Bereshit Bara Elohim At Hashamayim Vay’at Ha’aretz “In the beginning, Elohim created the Heavens and the Earth.” —Genesis 1:1 
We see that the top of this card, we have a hierophant or hierarch, again, reminding us of arcanum five, as we explained in depth previously, who is pointing an arrow at the whore of this card, the Medusa—symbolizing how the divine law aims itself against the ego, punishes the ego because desire can never fulfill the law. The statement of the Thelemites, I believe the teachings of Aleister Crowley, state, "Do what thou wilt. That shall be the whole of the law." This is mistaken, because we have to answer before divinity for all our deeds.
We see that the hierarch of this card was an angel aiming the bow and arrow at the Medusa. It also shows to us that the law punishes the ego. And until we have no ego, we will be punished. Likewise, it indicates to us that we have to slay the gorgon, the beast, the dragon, the whore within our psyche, in order to be enjoying the peace of the divine kingdom, as mentioned in the Qur’an. So these are the two paths: chastity or fornication, the virgin or the whore, Urania-Venus or Medusa. Samael Aun Weor states that in this card we find some interesting principles. One of them is “enchainment,” to be enchained. So long as we have lust, we are in chained to desire. We are slaves to desire and we will be weak. But if we enslave ourselves to our Divine Mother Kundalini, we can become powerful, chaste and pure, divine. It reminds me of a teaching given by Puccini in his opera Turandot, where Turandot, the Divine Goddess Kundalini, is putting the Prince Calaf into ordeals and asks him three riddles, that if he fails in answering either one of them, he will die. The third and final riddle, he answers. She had asked him, “If she gives you free rein to your desires, she will make you a slave. But if you make yourself a slave to Her, She will make you a king.” And of course he answers the riddle: Turandot is this woman “For whom I will make myself a slave, so that She will make me a king, a master, a bodhisattva.” But if we give free rein to our desires, our defects, she was enslave us in Klipoth, because that serpentine power of the Divine Mother, when it rises up the spine, is Kundalini, but if it descends, it becomes Kundabuffer: the tail of the demons, the tail of Satan. So whenever a person reaches the orgasm, they feed that negative serpent. The energy descends down from the spine towards the Klipoth, the tree of Zaqqum. This card also teaches us the path of equilibrium, because precisely by facing desire is how we get balanced. Many people, they dislike the fact that they have to face all these temptations and defects inside themselves. When they observe themselves and realize that they have a lot of ego, a lot of passion, it can be very disconcerting. Many students run from the teachings because they are afraid to face their own selves, their own defects, because the task seems so daunting, so heavy, so difficult. But Jesus said, "My yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30) if you really love your Being. The path of equilibrium is precisely by facing those desires. By facing temptation and learning to overcome them is how we generate light. Temptation is fire. Triumph over temptation is light, is cognizance. We need to face great difficulties and ordeals so that our egos and defects will manifest, will surge within our three brains, so that we can see them. Because if we don't see our own faults, we can't change. We can't enter the higher mysteries if we don't comprehend our lust, the monster of desire, of fornication, if we don't face those elements. We need to face them. So, seeing them, one shouldn't be afraid, because we created those elements, those egos, those desires. So we shouldn't be filled with fear, but instead, we should have comprehension, because we need to reach equilibrium. Equilibrium is established within Tiphereth, and as I mentioned to you, Tiphereth in the Tree of Life is the very center of the pillar of equilibrium, the very center of this map, because precisely through our heart is how we reach balance, the qualities of the heart: equanimity, understanding. We must learn to face great ordeals with a sense of patience and temperance, which is not distraught by facing those challenges. This is the path of equilibrium, which we can achieve by working with our Divine Mother. She is Athena, the Goddess Kundalini who can aid the warrior. So remember that Odysseus, the great hero, could not have achieved anything without Athena. Without Her, he would have been lost, but precisely because Athena is the one who guards and guides that disciple, one can't necessarily be diverted. Samael Aun Weor also mentions in this card that this is a card of amorous union between man and woman, and the struggle between love and desire. He also emphasizes that love is something terribly divine. It has nothing to do with desire. This may be very difficult to understand at our level, especially for those of us in relationships or having been in relationships. We see that a lot of our constitution is desire. We mistake desire and love very easily, attraction and genuine conscious compassion for our spouse. This is evident by the fact that at one moment, we may love our spouse and the next moment we may hate them. Certain egos emerge. This is a constant churning of defects, which in a relationship become very difficult, because in a marriage is precisely the most difficult ordeals that a person faces. The battle between love and desire is intense. One has to really extirpate desire from the psyche. In the beginning of practicing sexual magic, one should not expect to practice perfectly, because we have a lot of ego, desire. We have to begin at our level. But we can really understand divine love in certain moments of our life, if we meditate on them and really examine how in a given moment we have been willing to give our own life for our partner, for one's spouse. Truly, someone who has felt that, even a love for a child and willingness to sacrifice one's life, is an example of that type of divine love, but especially between husband and wife, it is much more amplified, because they are sharing the creative sexual energy. Samael Aun Weor states that this battle is precisely very terrible. Brain against sex, sex against brain. But more difficult and more arduous is heart against heart, and this is very enigmatic. He doesn't explain in the rest of his verses when he quotes this, but I have meditated on this and have come to my own conclusions that brain against sex, obviously, is difficult. When someone is learning to transmute for the first time, he or she faces that ordeal of trying to sublimate that energy and understand it, to know how to use it with equanimity, to find that equilibrium, that balance. Sex against brain is when those temptations surge from the mind to push one to fornicate, to indulge in lust. Of course, that type of struggle is very painful, especially for neophytes in the beginning who are like this disciple in the card, who haven't yet turned to their right to see the Divine Virgin Mary, מִרְיָם Miriam, or the mantra Ram-Io, the Divine Mother. But the worst is heart against heart, precisely since in a matrimony, heart is against heart. If the couple does not work on their self-love, their self-desire, their defects, they could be divorced very easily. That is the most painful ordeal one faces. But if the couple is working to transmute that energy consciously, they can transform desire into love and gain a lot of knowledge, especially if they are facing the temptations of the sexual act. 
The Seal of Solomon or Star of David
So Arcanum 6, as Samael Aun Weor states, is the supreme affirmation of Christ and the supreme rejection of the animal beast, which we find is represented in the symbol of Solomon, the Seal of Solomon. In this next graphic we see the Star of David, a very powerful and sacred symbol, which is not understood today. This Seal of Solomon represents Arcanum 6, precisely because it has six points, which are masculine, and six obtuse angles between each point, indicating the number six. But also six plus six is twelve, which reminds us of Arcanum 12―which we will talk about in the future—the Apostle, sexual magic, alchemy.
The Seal of Solomon is better known as the Star of Bethlehem, which is indicated in the Book of Revelations, chapter 22 verse 16: "I am the bright and morning star." —Revelation 22:16 
This is the star of nativity that blesses any initiate who enters into the Venustic Initiation, the path of Venus. So we talked about in our lectures on the perfect matrimony, how a disciple must learn to, through a marriage, raise the sacred Kundalini fire up the body of מלכות Malkuth, the body of יסוד Yesod, the body of הוד Hod, the body of נצח Netzach, and the body of תִּפאֶרֶת Tiphereth. So by reaching that Fifth Initiation of Fire, one becomes a master of Major Mysteries.
Each of these lower bodies constitutes one initiation. So we have five when we reach Tiphereth, the Fifth Initiation of Fire. If that student, or better said, that master, has sacrificed himself for humanity, he may be granted the incarnation of Christ and therefore, receive what is known as the Venustic Initiation: the initiation of Venus, in which Chokmah, Christ, as we see on the top right of the Tree of Life, descends down into Tiphereth, into the heart, in order to guide that initiate, so that they may learn to really fulfill Arcanum 6, which is overcoming indecision. But don't think that indecision is something that we face once and that we are done with, but masters face this ordeal. This is something we will see when we do a meditation, at the end of the today, on Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony, which is about Arcanum 6, the arcanum of the lovers. This is the star of בית לחם Bethlehem: בית Beth, meaning “house,” לחם lehem, meaning “bread”—the bread of Christ, the sustenance of the divine Lord who enters onto the heart of the penitent masters, whom have reached the Venustic Initiation. 
The Seal of Solomon also represents what we call the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur in the Kabbalah. So above the Tree of Life, above Kether, we have three secret sephiroth, spheres, which are above the Tree of Life, above Kether. אין Ain means “Nothingness.” אין סוף Ain Soph means “Limitless.” And אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur means “Limitless Light.” So Christ is the Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light, who can descend down to the initiate who has been prepared through working with alchemy, the path of the lovers.
The Ain Soph Aur is what we call the central sun, where all of the light of the cosmos emanates, physically, but also spiritually. All the masters in the higher dimensions are ascending towards that light, and if we have the blessing to invoke masters in the internal planes, if you wake up in the astral plane and call upon any master “In the Name of Christ, by the Power of Christ, for the Majesty of Christ,” if you look in the atmosphere, you can see the clouds part and you can see the Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light, which is tremendous, limitless. And all the Angels ascending towards that throne of divinity, which is the Absolute. You can invoke any master to come down from that light. In that case, in that experience, I invoked Samael Aun Weor. He came down and he taught me a few things which I never have forgotten, very valuable for my development. But that limitless light is the Ain Soph Aur, Christ, which is yet undifferentiated. It hasn't manifested into the physical plane, but that light as it descends down the Tree of Life, enters and becomes the different sephiroth when that light materializes, when it becomes manifest in those different realms, which we will talk about at the end of this lecture: the four worlds of Kabbalah, which explain this very well.
But the Star of Bethlehem, the Seal of Solomon, is a profound magical symbol which indicates to us the path of initiation. It also represents for us how the Zodiac is generated, because the six points and the six obtuse angles refer to the twelve zodiacal signs. The two triangles represent for us the union of man and woman, which we can skip ahead in the next graphic, is represented by the phallus, the two testicles on the right, as well as the ovaries and the vagina on the left. You combine those two triangles and you have the Star of David
דָּוִד David is an acrostic, as we have explained previously, but I would like to refresh your memory about this. דעת Daath is in the throat, related with the first letter ד Daleth of David. The letter ו Vav is in the heart, תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth. So I know in this Tree of Life, we don't have the sphere of דעת Daath mentioned, but Daath is in the throat, beneath the top trinity. We have ו Vav in the heart, which is the spinal column, the seat of willpower, the staff of the magicians. We have Yesod, the the final ד dalet relates with the last letter of יסוד Yesod. So that is an acrostic meaning of David: דעת Daath — תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth — יסוד Yesod. So if you want to become a king, work with sexual magic, with your spinal column, and control Yesod, your sexual energy. And that is how you become, you fulfill, better said, the Seal of Solomon. 
We know that from Solomon or better said, from David, emerges Solomon. So we have three kings mentioned in the Bible. You have Saul (Sheol), David and then Solomon. These are represented by the three magi who visited the Star of Bethlehem, the nativity of Christ. The black king Saul, is in a master who has ego, who is still working for his perfection. You have David, which is a master with no ego. He is a white king, pure. But the gold king emerges, Solomon, the solar man through the process of resurrection, which is much more advanced.
In the words of a master by the name of Hilarion IX, whom Samael Aun Weor quotes (this master was known as Paul of Tarsus. The sacred name of Paul of Tarsus is Hilarion IX) he stated that these two interlaced triangles are two shuttles with which the ineffable mystery of eternal life is woven or unwoven. It is easy to see that in certain images too, not necessarily in this one, how the two triangles weave into each other and constitute a continuum. A continuum is known as Tantra in the East in Sanskrit: a flow of energies, the conservation of that sexual energy, which flows within the initiate as a fountain of life which is eternal. Alchemical Significance of the Weaver
They Arcanum 6 also relates to the Star of David, but also to the 24th arcanum of the Tarot, which in our deck is known as “The Weaver.” 
It is interesting that the 24th arcanum, “The Weaver,” shows a woman who is weaving clothes in an Egyptian style and relates to Arcanum 6, the Lovers. Four plus two is six. You add the sum of the digits together. The 24th arcanum is precisely the work of creating the solar bodies, which are the vehicles of tantrism with which an initiate can be vested, so as to incarnate the Lord, of the divine.
The axiom related to the 24th arcanum states: "My loom is weaving net after net, a cloth for my honour and cloths for honour." —Transcendental Axiom of Arcanum 24: The Weaver Each card of the Tarot has its transcendental axiom: a summarization of its principles, what it means. Samael Aun Weor states that the 24th mystery contains the sixth mystery. The path of the Weaver, of creating the solar bodies, is a path associated with the Lovers, between husband and wife in a matrimony, alchemy. If you wish to create the solar vehicles in a perfect matrimony, between husband and wife, you must learn to conserve those forces, and your Divine Mother will weave the garments of the soul within you—much like a chick emerges from the shell of an egg, hidden in the dark, until those initiations are fulfilled; they become manifest. This reminds us of the story of Penelope in The Odyssey, how when the she was waiting for the return of Odysseus back to Ithaca, she was weaving and unweaving a garment. And there were many men, suitors, lustful men, who sought to cohabit with her and to marry her, stating that Odysseus was dead, being 20 years after the battle of Troy, in which he has not returned home yet. It is a symbol of initiation, how Penelope, our own soul, our Divine Mother, we could say, is weaving those garments and yet she unweaves them anytime the initiate falls, loses the energy. And of course, the soul faces this temptation too. So we have the Divine Mother weaving those garments and yet we have the soul too who is struggling, in which the suitors are tempting. The mind is tempting one to leave the path, just as the sirens were tempting Odysseus to go overboard and to shipwreck on the sea. 
The Three Traitors
In the Seal of Solomon, the top trinity, the upright trinity, represents Kether-Chokmah-Binah, as we said: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The lower trinity represents the three traitors of Hiram Abiff, the three traitors of Christianity, and these three traitors are something inside. They are not outside. They are within our psyche, within our mind, our heart, and our body.
In the Christian Gospel, we have Judas, the demon of desire, who is our ego of lust within our motor-instinctive-sexual brain, that desire or ego that trades the Lord Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Again, 30 relates to the three brains. Silver relates to the Moon, mechanicity—things that really are of no consequence, really meaning the orgasm, desire—to sell the Lord for money. This signifies the sensations of a few moments, which leave one depleted and spiritually empty. We have Pilate, the demon of the mind, who always washes his hands clean, saying, “I am just. I did nothing wrong. I am pure. I am not guilty of this man's death.” And we have all these defects of the mind that always justify themselves and never take responsibility. But the worst is, of course, Caiaphas, the demon of evil will. He relates to our heart. So again, going back to that statement of Samael Aun Weor, “Brain against sex and sex against brain.” It is difficult. But what is most painful is heart against heart, especially when you love your Being, and you have those experiences and know that your Being as guiding you—and yet, you have these elements which are destructive, which are blasphemous, which want to go against the light. You have to fight very hard to become purified of that, because Caiaphas, dresses himself as a master in a robe of holiness, of justification, but does not accept the Lord inside. It doesn't mean outside. It means in our psyche. So Caiaphas is that blasphemous evil will that always seeks to do its own will and does not want to follow the divine forces. We have those elements inside. 
The Passion of the Christ is something inside of us. While Jesus of Nazareth lived this doctrine in his body of flesh and bones, we have to live this within psychologically. These are ordeals we face. So you see in these images we have Pilate, saying Ecce Homo: “Behold the man” after his 5,000 flagellations, his whips, which again, remind us of Arcanum 5: to be whipped by Karma, to be punished. So Christ enters the soul in order to redeem it. And of course, the soul has to be lashed and beaten and to enter into suffering. Not physically, but psychologically. We face ordeals in which we suffer a lot, but Christ through Jesus represents for us how the Venustic power of the Lord, the power of love, enters Tiphereth, the heart, in order to achieve its salvation.
We have Judas, the image of the Garden of Gethsemane on the top right, and we have Caiaphas in the bottom. This trinity is also represented in Egypt as Apopai, Hai, and Nebt. But if you are familiar with the tradition of Freemasonry, we find Sebal, Orteluk, and Stokin: those who assassinated the architect of Solomon's temple. So that architect is our own Being, our innermost God, whom we have killed through desire. Now that Lord has to resurrect inside and we have to learn to resurrect the Lord within us.
The thing is that Dante in The Divine Comedy depicts the three traitors within the hell, being devoured by the mouth of Lucifer in the infernal dimensions. This is a direct correlation, all these examples with the Book of Revelations, chapter 16 verse 13:
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet." —Revelations 16:13 These are elements we have inside. As Friedrich Nietzsche, who I am going to read an excerpt for you today stated in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra: "That you will become a heretic to yourself and a liar and a soothsayer and a fool and a villain." Because you are going to look inside, you see you have all those elements that need to die, that need to change, that need to be eliminated. But he says, "How could you wish to become new unless you first become ashes?" (On the Way of the Creator). Meaning: you must die of all that in order to resurrect like the phoenix bird, pure, in its original pristine state, but also with gained experiences.
The top triangle represents Kether, Chokmah, Binah, the triangle point up. The triangle pointing down represents the Innermost, the mind, and the personality.
The Innermost is the power that governs, the mind is the power that deliberates, and the personality is the power that executes, that does. When the Innermost, the governing principle, our Spirit, cannot control the mind and the personality, that mind and personality, they fracture, they separate and they enter then into the infernal dimensions to devolve. But if we feel that longing inside psychologically to change, it means that our inner divinity, our Innermost God, is fighting, to push us to control the mind and the personality. The mind that thinks and learns to deliberate, to plan action, and the personality is the one who executes. So these are qualities within us that we have within, which have to be synthesized and controlled by, again, the Trinity pointing above. 
So when we think about the Seal of Solomon, we have to remember and visualize it in relation to two other symbols, which is the Tau cross, as well as the sign of the infinite, in the very center of this glyph. The cross of Tau or ת Tav in Hebrew is the Seal of the Covenant of God.
We talked previously in Arcanum 4 how א Aleph and ת Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Tao or Tau cross, the Egyptian cross, symbolizes, we can say, the Seal of the Covenant of Elohim with humanity. The sign of the infinite is also represented here and parallels the sign of the Ankh or the Tau cross. These two crosses, or better said, symbols, represent masculine creative energy, the masculine principle, the phallus. And we talked about the eyes of ? Ra in Arcanum 5, talking about the eyes of divinity that always see, the sign of the infinite. We also have Tau cross, which relates to our heart, sex, the shoulders, but also our mind. So we have sign of the cross we do in Gnosticism. We say “Father, Son, Holy Spirit”—the head, the heart, and sex. After pointing towards sex, we raise it to our shoulders, because we are sublimating the energy to our heart. Question: Isn't that the Venus symbol on the left? Instructor: It relates to Venus. It is the Tau cross. Question: The Venus symbol is very similar… Instructor: Yes, it is because Venus and the sign of the infinite can also be masculine and feminine. 
So we need two principles, two polarities, which again are represented by the symbol of Abraxas, who has two serpents for his body or his feet. These two serpents remind us of the power of Kundalini: the serpent of brass that healed the Israelites in the desert of the wilderness, בַּמִּדְבָּר be’midbar. But then we have also the tempting serpent of Eden, the Kundabuffer organ, the tail of satan.
So again, Moses, I like to remind you, was teaching the parts of his soul, the Israelite, the path of blessing and how to avoid the path of cursing, of degeneration, the path of death. He said: “I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you” (Deuteronomy 30:19) because anyone who enters this path for the first time, the law is against you. It says, “You have sinned. But you wish to return to the light? We welcome you, but first you have to pay your karma, pay your debts.” And Moses states that, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). 
Moses is a symbol of our willpower. He came, the physical Master Moses, to represent this principle within us. He must liberate all the parts of our soul, of ישראל IS-RA-EL. Isis, Ra, El. Isis, the Divine Mother; RA, the Solar God of the Egyptians; and אל El in Hebrew meaning God.
אלוה Eloah is the Goddess Mother Kundalini, whose power resides in the ו Vav, phallus of the man, and ה Hei, uterus of the woman. Together they form the potency of אל El, the Spirit, Chesed. So our willpower must learn to control our lust. It must transform the waters to create Genesis, to create life. As we see in this image of husband and wife with their sexual organs. And it is precisely through working with the sign of the infinite within a matrimony, is how one reaches the infinite. Because all the power of divinity is within the power of sex. We can also impose in the center of this Seal of Solomon, the symbol of Mercury. It would be appropriate because the symbol of Mercury, as we explained, represents the creative sexual energy, which we must learn to sublimate and control. These are the waters of life. But of course, the process of learning to control those waters is difficult because of what we call the dragon, the beast, the behemoth. So that dragon in many mythologies and many legends has been taught in children's stories as a form of entertainment, but it is something symbolic. That beast, the dragon, is a monster that controls the air, the water, the fire, and the earth. If you are familiar with our lecture on the Emperor, we talked about the four elements—and also in the Magician card. We must learn to control those four elements in order to become a dragon of wisdom. So our inner Spirit, our Magician, can become a white dragon. But our ego is a black dragon, because our desires also know how to control the fire, air, water, and earth. To remind you, the air represents the mind; fire represents the heart; water represents sex; and earth represents our physicality. These are the elements of alchemy that we want to learn to control and to give shape to within our own spiritual micro-cosmos. By controlling those elements, especially within alchemy specifically, it is how we give birth to the light. Because when a husband and wife are united, their three brains are joined. They are not two separate individuals anymore. They are one. אֵל El in Hebrew means “God.” אלוה Eloah means “Goddess.” אלוהים Elohim means “Gods and Goddesses,” man-woman. And as you remember from the opening verse of Genesis: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים Bereshit Bara Elohim “In wisdom” or “In the beginning, Elohim created…” אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ At Hashamayim Vay’at Ha’aretz “The heavens and the earth.” —Genesis 1:1 הַשָּׁמַיִם Shamayim is the heavens of course, relating to Da’ath, sexual knowledge, the fiery waters of sex, which we learn to control to give Genesis, to give birth to the soul. And the earth of course, is הָאָֽרֶץ Ha’aretz, as we talked about previously. And one thing I would like to relate to you is a quote from Samael Aun Weor. He states the synthesis of this card: "The alchemist must kill desire, even the very shadow of the tree of desire." —Samael Aun Weor, Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot So I am going to insert the Arabic words of زقوم Zaqqum. He didn't use the Arabic here, but he is talking about the tree of desire, which is our lust, which the mystics of Islam speak abundantly about in their commentary, but also we find in the Qur’an especially. We talked about fornication and its definitions. I would like to emphasize to you the importance of this, from a teaching that Paul of Tarsus gave in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6 verse 18: “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.” —1 Corinthians 6:18 Or as Leviticus teaches: "A man or a woman who has an emission of semen must” learn to “bathe themselves in water and will be unclean until the evening.” —Leviticus 15:16 Meaning: the night in which you face all of your defects that you created, through desire, in the internal dimensions. That is the night. Daytime, Kabbalistically speaking, represents experiences in the heavenly dimensions. But as we taught in the Magician card, if you want to ascend you have to descend first: face your own evilness and conquer them. Fornication not only occurs physically. Many students and people, lay people believe, that fornication only has to do with having sex with someone outside of one's marriage. But that is an etymological game that people play to avoid the real meaning. Fornication, as we said, is the orgasm. Why would Moses give the sixth arcanum, the sixth law, "Thou shalt not fornicate," relating to the heart, Tiphereth, and then the ninth law, the ninth commandment: "Thou shalt not commit adultery”? If it is as people think, then why would Moses give those commandments twice, the same thing? But they are different, because we commit adultery in the sexual organs, but we also commit fornication in the heart. When we look at a woman or man of the opposite sex, we feel and feed desire. That is the difficulty that any student faces, especially when they are learning to transmute their energies, which beautifully, in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche explains. Sexual Abstinence
He gives a chapter here called “On Chastity.” This is the translation by Walter Kaufmann, which I think is my favorite translation of this, but the problem was that the word chastity has many different meanings than how we teach here. So I am going to translate this to state “abstinence,” because many people hear of chastity, they think it means to not have sex. But in Gnosis, to be chaste means to be pure, even if one is in sex or out of it.
The definition here is abstinence, and many people have this problem, in many spiritual groups, wanting to be abstinent, thinking that it is going to take them to God, of which Nietzsche, who was an initiate, who knew the path of Christ very well, the path of the Superhuman, teaches. So he teaches many things here relating to the sixth arcanum, which I find very relevant to show you. "I love the forest. It is bad to live in cities: there too many are in heat. Is it not better to fall into the hands of a murderer than into the dreams of a woman in heat?" —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So who is that murderer? Your Divine Mother, the Virgin. 
So we can look back at the image of the card of the tarot. We have the Divine Mother to the initiate's right. And then we have “the dreams of the woman in heat” on the left (of the fallen initiate), the path of the left.
Our Divine Mother is a murderer. She murders the ego so that our soul can have life. So the ego must die if we want to have a spiritual life. "And behold these men: their eyes say it—they know of nothing better on earth than to lie with a woman. Mud is at the bottom of their souls; and woe if their mud also has spirit!” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So he talked about spirit in this book, meaning, people who develop the Spirit inside, who are initiates. And these men and women who engage in the sexual act with desire are filled with mud. They are filthy. If they have Spirit inside, meaning: they had some level of development in the past, but they fell, is even worse, is very bad. "Would that you were as perfect as animals at least. But animals have innocence." —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So in the animal kingdom they fornicate, but they don't have the intellect. They don't have the mechanism that will tell them that fornication is wrong. So in their level, they are evolving. They are still learning to become, progressing in the development of the soul, the transmigration of souls, to become a humanoid being, an intellectual animal. Because when that animal soul gains an intellect for the first time, it becomes an intellectual animal, which is all of us. We are animals with intellect. We think. We rationalize, which is why Jehovah Elohim in the Bible gave to Adam, the human being, the sixth commandment. You see all the trees of this garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you don't touch it. Don't eat the fruit of it, because if you do, you will die, meaning Arcanum 6, "Thou shalt not commit fornication." Animals are innocent at least. They don't know good and evil, but we do. We have the intellect which can rationalize. So Nietzsche says: "Do I counsel you to slay your senses? I counsel the innocence of the senses.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So do I counsel you to slay your senses? Many people think that they have to repress desire, like it is something filthy. Many yogis and practitioners and monks who read the gospels that state, “one must be chaste,” they think that it means to be abstinent. They repress their desires and don't address the issue. So Nietzsche says “I don't counsel you to follow that path,” and said “I'd counsel you to be innocent in your senses.” Meaning, if you are married, be chaste, be pure. Practice sexual magic with your wife, with your husband, but be innocent in your senses. Don't be lustful. “Do I counsel you to chastity (sexual abstinence)? Chastity (sexual abstinence) is a virtue in some, but almost a vice in many. They abstain, but the bitch, sensuality, leers enviously out of everything they do. Even to the heights of their virtue and to the cold regions of the spirit this beast follows them with her lack of peace.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” Meaning any initiate who is climbing the mountain of initiation has their dog, their lust, following them, because that ego belongs to them. You may be having experiences in the higher dimensions, but still you are dealing with lust, with egos of fornication. Comment: You brought up a point about people, say in the clergy and all of that. They try to repress it and it just builds up! Unless there’s an outlet like meditation and Kundalini and try to bring it up safely. Just when it builds up, and it causes problems. I believe you mentioned that, about the clergy… Instructor: Which is what Nietzsche talks about in these next few verses. So this beast follows them with her lack of peace. “And how nicely the bitch, sensuality, knows how to beg for a piece of spirit when denied a piece of meat.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So you deny the body the carnal satisfaction of lust, the flesh, but then the desires of the mind says, “Well, I want to look at the opposite sex to admire their beauty.” And of course, lust has many forms of logic that it gives, that pushes in the mind. This is why “I must learn to look at women with purity,” but there are desires there. If we really examine the sexual center, we can see that there is a morbid excitement there. Obviously it is that desire which is begging for a piece of spirit, the impressions that enter the mind. Jesus said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, but truly if you look at a woman (or man) out of lust, you have committed adultery in your heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). "Do you love tragedies and everything that breaks the heart?" —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” Meaning: the ego of lust creates so many problems in relationships. Nietzsche says: "But I mistrust you bitch. Your eyes are too cruel and you search lustfully for sufferers. Is it not merely your lust that has disguised itself and now calls itself pity? And this parable too I offer you: not a few who wanted to drive out their devil have themselves entered into swine.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So going to your point about the priest and clergy, they flagellate themselves. They want to overcome their lust. They are repressing desire, but not comprehending it. They get devoured by that element. They descend. They become swine themselves, like Klingsor in Wagner's opera Parsifal, which will be watching at one point and giving a lecture on. "Those for whom chastity (sexual abstinence) is difficult should be counseled against it, lest it become their road to hell—the mud and heat of their souls.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So people read this and then they say, “Well, does it mean that one gets married and continue fornicating?” It doesn't mean that. He is talking about something implicit here: transmutation, alchemy. That is the higher path, because to be married and fornicate is as bad as to be single and fornicating. So those for whom abstinence is difficult should be counseled against it. Meaning: like Paul of Tarsus states in the gospels: Those who are single should live like they are married, and those who are married should live like they are single (1 Corinthians 7:29). Get married. Get a partner and work in alchemy. Because of that fire, you have a lot of energy. You need to sublimate it with a lot of exercises like runes, pranayama, mantras, transmutation. Get that energy flowing and circulating so that it does not easily pull you downward (with passion: see 1 Corinthians 7:9). You have to control the waters. So Nietzsche says: "Do I speak of dirty things? That is not the worst that could happen. It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow that the lover of knowledge (דעת Da'ath, كيمياء Alchemy, γνῶσις Gnosis, the initiates of Arcanum 6: the Lovers) is reluctant to step into its waters.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So many people get scandalized, especially from Samael Aun Weor when he says his teachings of alchemy. He explained that “Many people are railing against me because they think I am degenerate, that I am too vulgar when talking about sex magic” (paraphrased). That is because all those people have in their mind is that lust. That is how they picture sex. Therefore, Nietzsche says: "Do I speak of dirty things? Do you think I'm being dirty?" It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow and superficial that the lover of knowledge doesn't want to enter that path. So people who who enter Gnosticism are those who don't want to be shallow anymore, but to step into the waters of profundity, of Genesis, בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, of alchemy. "Verily some are chaste through and through (or abstinent through and through): they are gentler of heart, fonder of laughter, and laugh more than you. They laugh at abstinence too and ask: What is abstinence? Is abstinence not folly (compared to sexual magic?) Yet this folly came to us, not we to it." —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So many people, they enter Gnosis and they are single. They have to begin where they are at. If they are married, then work with your partner. Work with your karma. So this abstinent people say, “This folly came to me, to us. We didn't willingly choose it, thinking it was a path to higher dimensions, or really, the highest attainments of initiation, but instead it came to us because we are not married yet.” Therefore: “We offered that guest hostel and heart: now it dwells with us—may it stay as long as it will!” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “On Chastity” So let it stay as long as it will, meaning: until one is given a partner, according to the will of divinity, which I would like to quote for from the Qur’an. Surah 24 again relates to Arcanum 24, the Weaver. This is known as the Surah of the Light, الْنُّور Al-Nur: “And those who cannot find a match must keep chaste until Allah grants them sufficiency out of His Bounty.” —Al-Nur 33 This is the 33rd verse. 3 + 3 is six. 33 relates to the 33 spinal medulla, the 33 degrees of Masonry. If you raise the fire up the 33rd degree, it means that you become a master of that level. But, the thing is that in order to reach that point, you have to control the sexual energy, because the sexual fire is dominated by the fires of the heart, as Samael Aun Weor states. Comment: In Masonry, they go through rituals, such as that of the 33rd degree, exoterically. But as far as the inner meanings, I have not heard from anyone in the Masonic order. They are not even aware! They don’t look into it. Instructor: The thing is, if you want to develop the light like Surah Al-Nur, you have to learn to work with your spinal column. Again: verse 33, the 33 vertebrae. If you don't have a match yet, a partner, then be single until God gives you one. Surah 24 again is the Weaver, because we weave the light, the solar bodies, through a marriage. 666: The Number of the Beast
Some other interesting relationships of the numbers, the number 6, are related to each of the three brains. The three brains, if you transpose the number six on each of them, it forms: 6, 6, 6–the mark of the beast, the mark of the animal ego. Because the ego that is caught within that desire is facing to the left, it is dominant in all our three brains. This is a symbol or that meaning from the Book of Revelations: the iniquitous ones received the mark of the beast, relates to that. The number 6, 6, 6 is when all three brains are identified with lust.
We have to learn to face temptation and to control the ego, especially within sexual magic, and to steal the fire from the devil, which is our own lust. Meaning: that we have that energy, that fire, inborn to the sexual act, but learn to transmute it into the light, cognizance. Question: You are saying that 6, 6, 6, refers to lust? Instructor: Yes, or the beast is number six in each of the three brains. Add 6 plus 6 plus 6 and you get 18. Arcanum 18, which is Twilight, which we will talk about in the future. So the brains are the intellectual brain, which is our mind when we process thought. We have the emotional brain related to our heart, which is the emotional center. And then we have the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, movement, relating to the top of our spine, instinct relating to the bottom of our spine, and then the sexual organs relating with sex. This is how our psyche is constituted, in which we process our thought, feeling, impulse. And so the three brains are the machinery of our body and of our psyche in which we manifest the forces of the top trinity of the Tree of Life. Psalm 119
Let's look at some mysteries pertaining to the Hebrew letter ו Vav, because we have talked a lot about the spine. The Hebrew letter ו Vav is profound. So in introducing each of these Hebrew letters, we provide an excerpt from the Book of Psalms.
So in this verse, I believe chapter 119, verses 41 through 48, each verse begins with the letter ו Vav. 41 Let your mercies come to me, oh Iod-Havah through your salvation according to your Word. 42 And I will answer the Word to my rebuker, for I trust in your Word. 43 And do not deliver the Word of truth from my mouth still; for on your judgments greatly I have hoped. 44 And I shall keep your law continually forever and ever. 45 And I will walk at liberty, for your commands I seek. 46 And I will speak of your testimonies before the Malachim, and will not be ashamed. —Psalm 119 Meaning: I will testify before the the initiates of the White Lodge saying, “I no longer have ego,” for at that point one is purified. “I will not be ashamed” (meaning, ashamed of one's actions): 47 And will delight myself in your commands, which I have loved. 48 And I will lift up my hands to your commandments, and I will meditate on your statutes. —Psalm 119 The Hebrew Letter ו Vav
Literally the letter ו Vav represents “and.” It means to conjoin, to join together.
Comment: Water too, you mentioned that! Instructor: From the base of the ו Vav we find the sexual waters, because the waters of life, מ Mem, rise up the ו Vav, the spinal medulla. The letter ו Vav also relates to the ability to hear the verb, the word, “to hear.” It comes to my mind an experience I had many years ago when thinking about this Hebrew letter, especially in this verse: “In hearing the testimonies of the Lord, hearing the word and then acting upon it.” I was a brought in the astral plane to Egypt where, I won't explain everything that I witnessed there, but I was invited into the temples of the White Lodge there in the Pyramids of Giza. I saw, they instructed me, through a group of young children, who were practicing sign language and were learning from someone, from a teacher. I didn't understand the experience at that time, but I meditated and I realized that they were showing me that: if you want to really work with this teaching, you must learn to pronounce the Verb, the sacred Word. Because at this level, we symbolically speak sign language. We don't really pronounce the Word. We may communicate with our language, but it doesn't mean we have Christ incarnated. We need to learn to become children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. We learn to hear the word precisely through the ו Vav, the spine, because it is through the spinal column in which we receive the Word of God. The Word rises up, the Son of Man rises when we practice sexual magic. Ibn ‘Arabi, he is a great Sufi Master. He is known as al-Sheikh al-Akbar, the greatest of Sufi teachers, who states in his Meccan Revelations, Al-Futuhat Al-Makkiyah, that the letter وَ Waw unites one with Allah. وَ Waw is better said ו Vav—the Arabic وَ Waw as well as Hebrew ו Vav are synonymous; you can't separate the two. Arabic and Hebrew are integral. Ibn ‘Arabi says that ו Vav or letter وَ Waw connects one from the earth to the angels. So your ו Vav is how you connect with the Elohim. Comment: It could be mentioning, in Masonry, again, the ladder of lights. If you ask any of the “brethren,” they just tell you, “Yeah, it’s the ladder of lights.” They don’t seem to know about the spinal column, the chakras, and spiritual perception… Instructor: And so remember that Moses wielded a staff, a ו Vav that transformed into a serpent, and this serpent devoured the inverted serpents of the black magicians of Egypt before Pharaoh. Question: Can I just say, you might not have known this in doing it—but in American Sign Language, you were saying: “This is true”—the way you did it. Instructor: To speak. So sign language is interesting, but as a symbol it is very profound too. So it is precisely through, as we mentioned, the ו Vav, the spinal medulla, or better said through the heart, that we control the fires of sex, because if you see in this Tree of Life, in this second to last graphic, Tiphereth is above Yesod, and through Daath, ו Vav, and Yesod is how is formed King David. Samael Aun Weor states that if the alchemist spills the cup of Hermes, the cup of science, the sexual matter, that energy descends down the spinal vertebrae, one or two vertebra, according to the magnitude of the fault. It depends on how intense that loss of energy is. But precisely through the values of the heart too, Tiphereth, we can raise that power, that energy And so Moses represents that willpower, Tiphereth, that dominates the lower bodies and follows the will of the divine above.
The Four Worlds of Kabbalah
The one thing I want to emphasize too is the four worlds of Kabbalah, especially in relation to the Hebrew letter ו Vav. So we have the Tree of Life represented by four sections. One way we can look at the four worlds of Kabbalah is mapped in this manner. אֲצִילוּת Atziluth is the world of archetypes, principles, a world of potentiality in which energies of Christ are not yet manifest within the initiate. So the top Trinity represents the world of Atziluth: Kether, Chokmah, Binah— Crown, Wisdom, Understanding or Intelligence—Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
In the world of בריאה Briah, of creation, the world of בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, we give birth to the soul. We begin to create. Briah is a world of alchemy. In Briah, בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, beginning with the letter ב Beth, can be translated as “In wisdom Elohim created.” בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים Bereshit bara Elohim. ב Beth means “wisdom” as well as “house.” Briah is the world of creation, in which we find Tiphereth is in the center of equilibrium. And Tiphereth is the six sephirah, relating to the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, ו Vav. ו Vav, the spinal column, is where we can give birth to the soul. As we find even in the name תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth, if you look at the Hebrew letters, you have ת Tav, פ Peh, א Aleph, ר Reish, ת Tav. It is missing the letter ו Vav in the middle, and if you add that letter, you spell אור Aur, תפ-אור-ת Tiph-aur-et. אור Aur means light, which is the light of God, which ascends up your spine, your ו Vav to your brain. א Aleph is the the wind or breath, the Prana of Arcanum 1: The Magician, which when husband and wife are united, they are controlling their breath, pronouncing sacred mantras in the sexual act, and raising the fire up the spine, the ו Vav, to their head, which is רֹאשׁ Rosh, אור Aur. That is how you make light. 
In Arabic, the word for light is النور Al-Nur, so similar. You have the ו Vav as well as רֹ Reish, the first letter in النور Nur is the letter נ nun. The נ nun is the sperm or ovum in which the fire originates, which relates again to this four worlds of Kabbalah, because in the world of Atziluth, we can represent this physically, this dynamic, like the sperm and ovum of a man and woman. They are the blueprints or archetypes that can give birth to a full human being, physically.
And then through the sexual act, Briah, the sperm and ovum unite in order to give formation, יְצִירָה Yetzirah, to the child. The child is gestated in the world of formation, Yetzirah, physically speaking, but psychologically it is the same principle there, because when you are giving birth to the soul, giving formation to the soul, you are creating a solar vital body, solar astral body, solar mental body, relating with Yesod, Hod, Netzach. You are doing it through your ו Vav, your willpower, in the sexual act itself. Then, in relation to our analogy, when a child is fully manifest in the physical plane, when they give their first breath, they are in the world of עֲשִׂיָה Assiah: the world of matter and action. So spiritually speaking, this is something profound, because in the world of Atziluth, we have all the principles and archetypes of God within the 22 Hebrew letters themselves. Mentioned in the first verse of Genesis, relating to the Hebrew letters א Aleph, ת Tav; or in Greek (Α) Alpha and (Ω) Omega. As Jesus said, "I am Alpha and Omega," the Beginning and the Ending (Revelations 22:13). When we create through alchemy, we work with the spinal column in the world of Briah, Tiphereth, specifically, so that the solar bodies are gestated in the world of formation, and we learn to walk on our two feet in this world of matter and action, Malkuth, Assiah. We also show that we have seven spinal medullas to work with, seven ו Vavs represented by the menorah, which we light on Hanukkah. Comment: On the tree, I’ve seen it in occult literature on the middle pillar, יהוה Iod Hei Vau Hei, and the Tiphereth is related to air to where they have it, and Yesod is water, and the earth would be Assiah. Here now we have Tiphereth, according to them, relating to air, in the world of Briah, which is water. Instructor: We could say that there is a lot of other correlations we can draw, but one of my favorites is that the letter א Aleph relates to Father, Son, Holy Spirit: Kether, Chokmah, Binah, because it has three י Iods,, three points that manifest the three forces. In the world of Briah, which is the sexual act itself, is fire, ש Shin, which also has three Iods, because we see Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth each constitute a wick on the Hebrew letter ש Shin, which we will talk about in Arcanum 21: Transmutation. 
(Menorah: Hebrew מנורה, from מין sex, and אור light)
And then Yetzirah relates with water, because through the waters of life is how the solar bodies are formed. Assiah is the Earth, as we know. But one thing I would like to point out is the Menorah, besides that it relates again to arcanum 21, the Hebrew letter ש Shin. There are seven ו Vavs, seven spinal medullas we must raise the fire up and within. We must raise the sacred fire of sex from Malkuth through Yesod, the spinal medulla, respectively. The spinal medullas of Hod, Netzach, Tiphereth, Geburah, Chesed. Seven major initiations, we can say—seven flames which are lit in our Menorah, which is represented in the Book of Revelations, chapter 1 verses 10 through 16.
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me (meaning through the letter ו Vav, the spinal medulla) a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last (Aleph and Tav): and, what you see, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Assiah (many people have translated as Asia, but in Kabbalah, it is Assiah, the world of matter and action)… And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle (meaning the control of one's sexual organs through chastity). His head and his hairs were white like wool (with wisdom), as white as snow (meaning chastity, purity); and his eyes were as a flame of fire (the sign of the infinite inflamed through the sexual power of the Holy Ghost); and his feet like unto fine brass, (reminding us of the serpent of brass of Moses, נחש Nachash), as if they burned in a furnace (of a matrimony, of alchemy); and his voice as the sound of many waters (the Akasha, relating with Daath, the heavenly waters above, the higher dimensions within the atmosphere of any planet). And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength.” —Revelation 1:10-16 The seven golden candlesticks relates to the menorah. מִין Min means sex. אוֹר Aur means light. מנורה Menorah is the light of sex, which you light sometimes seven, or you also can say nine, because nine relates to Yesod, alchemy. But seven relates to the spinal column of the seven bodies, the fire which we have to raise up the spine or the spinal column of the seven bodies. They can represent the chakras too, but also represent the seven bodies. We have to raise the fire up. So there are seven chakras in each of the seven bodies. But when you light the Menorah, it is because you are raising the energy. That is how you celebrate Hanukkah, which is a re-dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, which was during the Maccabean Revolt after the desecration of the temple by the Syrians. And for all of us, psychologically speaking, our house has been desecrated. So I talked to you in the Hebrew letter ב Beth, how our heart, our mind, our body is polluted with desire, with defects. And in that lecture, I gave an experience about in the astral plane. I was going to bring what appeared as my physical mother into the house, but there was all this rioting and chaos and children fighting, and adolescents drinking and getting drunk, and doing drugs, in this big mosh pit in this house. I said, “I am not bringing my mother in this house!” I woke up from my meditation and I realized that ב Beth was my own mind, and I wanted to bring my Divine Mother into that and I realized, I can't, because I have so many egos inside that I have to kill. ב Beth relates to our house, our psychological house. The temple is the same thing. So all of us, all of our temples, our bodies, have been polluted, desecrated. So we have to re-light the Menorah, symbolically or psychologically, especially. You also see that this Menorah has six branches and the seventh is the center, representing the Being, the Innermost—seven initiations, we can say. I quoted for you Paul of Tarsus when he said: “Flee fornication; every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body." —1 Corinthians 6:18 He elaborates here: "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and you have of God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." —1 Corinthians 6:19-20 So keep the body, the house, ב Beth, holy, which you can relate to the שַׁבָּת Shabbat, the Sabbath. ב Beth is the house of our body, our psyche. ש Shin is fire. שַׁבָּת Shabbat is really the fire that you carry in your body. You got to keep it holy, keep it chaste. Don't be a fornicator. Don't waste the energy anymore, but save it, because that is how you purify and light your Menorah, so that you have lights like the Christmas tree. This also relates to בראשׁית Bereshit, the Menorah itself, because you are creating through the spinal column. The word בראשׁית Bereshit is ב Beth, ר Reish, א Aleph, שׁ Shin, י Iod, ת Tav. Six letters—Arcanum 6. You create through love. But then the following letters after Bereshit are six in total. So again, you have the number 12, alchemy [the Apostolate]. And then I highlighted a few, the letter ו Vav in this verse, because you have this interesting phrase: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Bereshit Bara Elohim At Hashamayim Vay’at Ha’aretz “In the beginning, Elohim created the Heavens and the Earth.” —Genesis 1:1 So Elohim created the heavens and the earth, הָאָֽרֶץ ha'aretz. ו Vav, וְאֵת ve'at: א Aleph, ת Tav are the 22 Hebrew letters of Kabbalah synthesized. Alpha-Omega, as the Book of Revelation teaches. So the principles of God, א Aleph, ת Tav, are manifested in your spine, in your body, in your earth, הָאָֽרֶץ ha'aretz, when you are working with that power in your spine, specifically. בראשׁית Bereshit: Sexual Alchemy in the Zohar
I would like to read a quote for you relating to the sexual teachings, especially from the book of Zohar, my favorite scriptures. This is from the first volume, from Pritzker, especially, the English translation, which talks about the mysteries of בראשׁית Bereshit, a commentary of alchemy that explains Arcanum 6 very well.
Rabbi Yudai said, "What is בראשׁית (Be-reshit)? With wisdom. This is the Wisdom on which the world stands—through which one enters hidden, higher mysteries. Here were engraved six vast supernal dimensions, from which everything emerges, from which issued six springs and streams, flowing into the immense ocean." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 17) So what are those six dimensions? It is related to the Menorah, the six branches and coming from the center center column, which is the ocean of divine light. So this is Bereshit, the key, the wisdom on which the world stands, through Yesod, through alchemy. So this is Bereshit. You can separate בראשׁית Bereshit to be ב Beth, ר Reish, א Aleph (Bara) and שׁ Shin, י Iod, ת Tav (Sheet). You can split the words in half from the very center between א Aleph and שׁ Shin. That literally means “created six.” The number six is what creates the Lovers: This is ברא שׁית (bara shit), created six, created from here. Who created them? The unmentioned, the hidden unknown. Rabbi Ḥiyya and Rabbi Yose were walking on the way. As they reached the site of a certain field… —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 17) …which I will state in parentheses, is שדה shadeh in Hebrew, meaning the “field.” We talked abundantly about how the field, שדה shadeh is where the most subtle creature that exists thrives, which is the serpent. So שדה shadeh relates to שדי Shaddai, the almighty power of God, which is sexuality. As they reached the site of a certain field, Rabbi Ḥiyya said to Rabbi Yose, “What you have said―ברא שׁית (bara shit)—is certainly true, for there are six supernal days in the Torah, not more; the others are concealed." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 17) So the six days of Genesis are manifest. The seventh is the day the Lord rests, which we will talk about, those initiations of when you reach those heights, that type of development is hidden from oneself, concealed until one reaches that point. “But in the Secrets of Creation we have discovered this. “The holy hidden one engraved an engraving in the innards of a recess, punctuated by a thrust point. (This is very interesting). He engraved that engraving, hiding it away, like one who locks up everything under a single key, which locks everything (under or) within a single palace." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 17) So an engraving, the innards of a recess, was literally the uterus of a woman, which the thrust, the phallus enters. So that is how you engrave on stone, Yesod, the temple. You create stones for your God to build His pillars, His temple. So this is the key, a single key which locks everything within a single palace. And if you have the experience in the astral plane, entering into a palace or seeing a palace or a temple, it is a about entering into initiation, where they are inviting you to enter their temples, the White Lodge. So: “Although everything is hidden away within that palace, the essence of everything lies in that key, which closes and opens.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) So what is that key that closes the doors to all mysteries and also opens the doors to all mysteries? It is sexuality—chastity or fornication. If you are chaste, you open the doors of Eden. If you use that key in the wrong way, then you close the doors for yourself. “Within that palace lie hidden treasures, one greater than the other. Within that palace stand gates built cryptically, fifty of them.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) So fifty relates to Arcanum 5, the pentagram, the human being, the perfect man or woman made into the image of God. "Carved into four sides, there were forty-nine. One gate has no side." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) So 49 relates, according to Samael Aun Weor, to the 49 levels of the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, the infraconsciousness. There are seven levels related to each of the seven bodies, making a total of forty nine levels of the mind, in which if we meditate deeply and silence each aspect of the mind in those 49 levels, we can enter into samadhi, ecstasy, and experience, really, the Absolute and the higher dimensions themselves. "No one knows whether it is above or below; it is shut." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) So one gate has no side. No one knows whether it is above or below. It is shut to fornicators, since the divine mysteries are realized by alchemists in Yesod. “As above, so below.” "In those gates is one lock and one precise place for inserting the key, marked only by the impress of the key, known only to the key." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) So that key is sexual magic, alchemy. In the internal planes, I remember, again, relating to that experience in Egypt, when I left that temple, I was in the sands in the land of Egypt, and suddenly I saw a key leave the temple. It was dancing around. It was going on at a distance, and I knew intuitively I had to grab it. All of a sudden this jester came out and pulled the key up. He was dressed all in black, and he had a rose pinned on his chest. His face was hidden. He was laughing and mocking me, and I was like, “What the hell is this? I want the key!” He kept dangling it in front of me. There were a group of black magicians around him, all with bald heads, because to be bald in the internal planes is to be a fornicator. Not physically, but psychologically, to be bald means to be a fornicator. And so I meditated in that experience and I realized that that was my inner Lucifer, meaning: he was all black, meaning he is evil. I made him evil, but through him is how virtue, the rose, is born. Arcanum 15: Passion, represents the devil, whom we purify through sexual alchemy. 1 + 5 = 6, Arcanum 6: The lovers, wherein we face great indecision: to be chaste or lustful. Lucifer was dangling the keys, “You want to be in alchemy? You have to overcome these egos that you have!” So he was dangling it in front of me. So I read this verse from the Zohar and this is very deep. "Concerning this mystery it is written, בראשית ברא אלהים (Bereshit Bara Elohim), In the beginning God created. בראשית Bereshit is the key enclosing all, closing and opening. Six gates are contained in that key that closes and opens." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) Because through the path of lovers, Arcanum 6, is how you either open the doors of mysteries to yourselves, or you close it. So: "When it closes those gates, enclosing them within itself, then indeed: בראשית (Be-reshit)—a revealed word combined with a concealed word. ברא Bara, created, is always concealed, closing, not opening.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18) ברא Bara, “to create,” is an interesting acrostic too. What we create when we create the solar bodies, we don't see them physically, but in the internal planes you can see the creation of these vehicles in yourself. But that is a mystery that is hidden to the physical senses. So this mystery, you work with that key and it seems like the doors are closed, but you can see your progress in the internal planes. Rabbi Yose said, "Certainly so! I heard the Holy Lamp (Shim’on son of Yoḥai) say it so, that ברא (bara) is a concealed word, closing, not opening. As long as the world was locked within the word ברא (bara), it was not, did not exist. Enveloping everything was תהו (tohu), chaos." —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 18-19) The scriptures state the world was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. That darkness is your psyche, in which the Spirit, the ר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים Ruach Elohim, the inner Being, has to float above, to create spiritually. So, we are formless and void. When we sit to meditate, we see the mind is all over the place. There is no coherence there. That is תהו ובהו (tohu vay bohu), the chaos: void and formless. "..and as long as תהו (tohu) reigned, the world was not, did not exist (meaning our spiritual world). When did that key open gates? When was it fit to be fruitful, to generate offspring? When Abraham arrived, as is written, ‘These are the generations of heaven and earth’ בהבראם (be-hibbare’am), when they were created (Genesis 2:4), and we have learned: באברהם (be-Avraham), through Abraham.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 19) In Hebrew it says בהבראם (be-hibbare’am), which is, as it's written, an acrostic. And as we have learned: בהבראם (be-hibbare’am) is Abraham, “by Abraham.” We talked about in the Hebrew letter ה Hei, how the Spirit becomes an initiate. When the Being become an initiate, you add the letter ה Hei to אַבְרָם Abram. It becomes אַבְרָהָם Abraham. And so, Abraham is the Spirit who learns to control the sexual waters of Genesis. “Whereas everything was concealed on the word ברא (bara), now the letters were transposed and rendered fruitful.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 19) Meaning: those energies can manifest through the spiritual work that we are performing. "A pillar emerged, generating offspring: אבר (ever) (א Aleph, ב Veth, ר Reish. So ב Beth and ב Veth is just a difference in pronunciation. It is the same letter. אבר means), organ (sexual organ)—Holy Foundation on which the world stands.” —Zohar (Pritzker Vol. 1, p. 19) So a pillar emerged, the pillar of equilibrium in this Tree of Life, which is founded upon Yesod. That key relates to Bereshit, and Bereshit, when you create sexually in alchemy, is by the spirit: Abraham. By Abraham is how these generations of the Tree of Life are made, through your spiritual work, your innermost Spirit working upon those waters. That is how you give birth to Abraham אַבְרָהָם. ברא Bara, “created,” can also be read as א Aleph, ב Beth, ר Reish. So, ברא bara, the letters are switched around and use spell sexual organ, אבר (ever): the foundation of our temple. This is because we create the temple of divinity, the solar bodies, through sexual alchemy. רבא Rabba, where we get words like רַבִּי Rabbi, “my teacher,” signifies to be “Great,” רַב Rab, a “Master.” A real Master is one who has a solar astral, solar mental, and solar causal body, someone whom, in the words of Samael Aun Weor, has created (ברא bara) the soul through the Great Work. 
The Days of Genesis
The six days of Genesis hide many mysteries for us. We will be giving courses in the future about this, but I just want to highlight a few points here. In the first day of Genesis, it relates to the First Initiation of Fire. “Let there be light and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). For darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim, Chesed, the Spirit, hovered upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2) in order to give birth to the sacred fires of Malkuth, raising the energy of אדני Adonai or Adonia. אדוני הארץ Adonai Ha-Aretz is the sacred name of God in Malkuth. You raise that power by working with your Abraham, your inner Spirit.
The second day of Genesis, we divide the waters from the waters (Genesis 1:6). You create the body of liberation, the solar vital body, precisely through dividing the superior Ethers of the the vital body itself. We will talk about the four Ethers in a later lecture. The third day of Genesis says: Let the dry land appear, and let the vegetation sprout forth (Genesis 1:9-13). Relating to the dry land is Hod, the astral body, something tangible that you can experience when you create that vehicle for yourself. The fourth day of Genesis: Let there be lights in the firmament: מאורת me’orot (Genesis 1:14-19) relating to Netzach, the mind. Tiphereth, relating to the fifth day of Genesis: Let swarms of living creatures appear and the great sea beasts, the תַּנִּין tannin (Genesis 1:20-23), which are the whales, the great monsters of the deep, the serpents of the ocean, which can be literally translated. Some people translate it as “whale,” but it is תַּנִּין tannin in Hebrew. You add the word לֵוִי Levi before it, to be a priest of the tribe of Levi, you spell לֵוִיתַּנִּין, which is Leviathan. You become a Leviathan, a master of the Fifth Initiation of Fire. And the sixth day of Genesis, you have: Let us make Adam in our image. This is the man of the sixth day: male-female He created them (Genesis 1:27). יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim created the human being at that level. So the six sephiroth from the top of the Tree of Life is Tiphereth. But if you count the six sephiroth from the bottom of the Tree of Life, you have Geburah. We have explained previously how Tiphereth is the human soul. Geburah is the divine soul. The divine soul is pure. It never enters into defilement. It is holy. It is our inner bride. If we are men, our inner Geburah is a woman. If we are a female, then the inner Geburah is a man. But we state in certain legends that we have Arthur, the King, Chesed; we have Guinevere, Geburah; and we have Lancelot the knight, Tiphereth. The lovers is precisely these two sephiroth: how husband and wife, or we could say, Tiphereth and Geburah, need to unite. In the sixth day of Genesis, a master who has reached that level has incarnated the divine soul and the human soul. But we must learn to go higher, precisely because in each of the six days of Genesis, the Lord said, “And it was good,” (כִּי־טֹוב ki-tob) except for the second day of Genesis related to Yesod, since there is always uncertainty in relation with the sexual work. But with Malkuth, he says: “There was a day and there was a night.” And the Lord said: “This was the day and this was the night.” There was a day and a night for Yesod, a day and a night for Hod, a day and a night for Netzach, Tiphereth, and Geburah—meaning: there still is ego there. The word in Hebrew for night is לַיְלָה Laila, which is where you get the דְלִילָה Delilah, the temptress who tempts Samson and makes him give away his secret of chastity. They cut his hair, his purity. As I mentioned, black magicians are bald in the internal planes. They can symbolize that. To have long hair symbolically represents chastity in ancient cultures. So to lose one's hair is to become a fornicator. He gave away his secret, he became weak, and the Philistines blinded him, meaning: he lost his powers spiritually. So if you enter the heights, it means: don't give away your secret to Delilah, your lust: דְלִילָה De-lilith, the doorway, ד dalet, into Delilah, the night, the abyss, the infernal dimensions. There is a day and a night for each of these generations, up to the sixth sephirah from the bottom. The seventh, there is no night. It says in that day, God rested. It is a perfect day, meaning: the ego is fully eliminated. There is no imperfection there. So to reach that height is a very arduous work, but we do it through Arcanum 6: working with the spinal column. One final thing I'll mention in relation to the mysteries of ב Beth. Remember that David married בת-שבע Bathsheba. בת Bet means “house.” שבע Sheba means “seven.” We have seven houses, seven lights of the menorah in the bottom of the Tree of Life, leading from Malkuth to Chesed. שבע Sheba means “seven.” David marries Bathsheba, meaning: the house of the seven, of the seven houses. So in order to be able to become a king, we have to marry each of those sephiroth and make them purified, meaning: keep your שַׁבָּת Shabbat, your body, holy. Remember that temptation is fire, and triumph over temptation is light, as we find in the Hebrew letters for תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth. You have the letter ו Vav, your willpower, between א Aleph and ר Reish. You have אור Aur, “light.” And remember that the Lord said: יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Yehi Ha-Aur, Va-Yehi-Aur “Let there be light, and there was light.” —Genesis 1:3 יְהִי אֹור Yehi Aur… we pronounce those mantras, and then through a ו Vav: “And there was light.” וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Vav, yehi-aur. So the spinal column is where you carry your light inside. 
Some final comments is that for some practical measures, you can make magical circles of protection using the Seal of Solomon as you see here. If you want to protect yourself from lustful egos and elements, demons, black magicians in the astral plane, you invoke your Being. You say “My God, my Innermost, please command my Elemental Advocate to seal my bedroom, my home, in a circle of fire, in order to protect me from sorcery.” You do the mantras Helion Melion Tetragrammaton:
You seal yourself three times. You can create a space, a very small space, in which you can trace the Seal of Solomon and that seal will guard you from any negative influence from the outside. So the Seal of Solomon is exceptionally powerful for that.
One thing I will mention is that, when you are working with the Seal of Solomon, you can seal your homes, but also you can create medallions and rings to wear in order to protect yourself, to defend yourself against witchcraft, which you can consecrate and bless through the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and Ain Soph: the Tetragrammaton. Questions and Answers
Question: Before I started coming to this class, I was getting information about… it was similar regarding the Kundalini, Freemasonry, and basically it was saying about low-based consciousness. It never said anything about sexual alchemy. It basically talked about natural law, and low-based consciousness, that one should not kill. But it never really delved into this aspect of it, because it really just said, “Don’t harm others.” I totally agree with the information you’re giving me, but was this information given to me in deception or was there part truth to that? If you think about it, logically and most people do think about it logically. It's like, you know, as long as you're not killing others, as long as they're not stealing from others, and as long as you do not kill, do not steal, then it was very logical. As long as you're not harming others, you could partake in you know, fornication or whatever, but now I am starting to see the light as far as I agree with what you are saying. But was the information given to me just where they didn't know or was it deception?
Instructor: People who ignore the sexual aspect of Genesis, especially, one thing can stem from ignorance—not knowing it, simply. They weren't taught and they didn't practice it. Another thing can be people who intentionally lie, but that is only something you can judge, you know. I am going to give a lecture on types of spiritual schools at one point, to talk about how to discriminate between what types of schools there are: one that creates the soul, some that feed desire, some that are working with initiation, specifically. So there are different teachings. And so, some schools serve as a kindergarten, as a steppingstone to working more profoundly with one's Being. I wouldn’t say that certain things are bad… but only you can judge listening to those type of things. Question: It just seemed like the focus was primarily on low-based consciousness and rising above that consciousness by, basically, treat others as you want to be treated. That is the ultimate. That is in every esoteric teaching... Instructor: We need that. But the masters teach: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that you are not of your own?” So we have to give that. We have that fire, but we have to return it to God. So this teaching hasn't been made open until recently. Question: So by not partaking, whether it be fornication and all that, that creates the other defects within yourself which will also create, you know, problems with other people. Instructor: Right. There are different sins. The sins of the heart, against the Son, can be forgiven, but sins against sex, against the Holy Ghost, are not. Question: Obviously lust is, you know, we know what that is. How do you know as far as materialism is concerned? What is that medium? What is the line drawn? Instructor: Take care of your necessities, but don't be attached. You know, plow the Earth like a farmer. Do your job. Do you your duties, but don't get your hands dirty by it. That's the tricky part—a psychological teaching. Question: You said the inner light is in the spinal column, or is it at the bottom where the Kundalini begins? Instructor: The Kundalini is the light which you have to raise. So when you raise that fire, then you have light. That is how you generate light. You can get generate sparks through meditation practices as a single person, but when you are married, that fire is fully developed. Question: Who, before Samael Aun Weor, did all these translations and figured out all these allegories? It wasn’t done through meditation! Instructor: All those masters like Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, they knew the teaching, but they talked cryptically. So that puzzle wasn't solved by many people for a long time. But then divinity had to send a prophet down to teach it. So where I am getting this knowledge is from Samael Aun Weor. I personally know him, so I trust him, because I work with him in the astral plane. This is a symbolism that, you know, you can only interpret if you work with the fires in your ו Vav, because remember that the word ו Vav can also signify “to hear,” to hear the Word. So in order to read those scriptures and understand them, you have to work in the fire in you, so that when you astral project and have experiences, you can interpret what is going on here. Otherwise, you have people who make interpretations that are based on physical things or metaphysical concepts, but not intuition, when you experience it. So it's very different. A very different science. Question: Is this being taught throughout the United States? Like cities... Instructor: There are many Gnostic esoteric groups are teaching this. Question: The same as Samael Aun Weor’s? Instructor: Yes. There are many schools. There are many movements and groups out there. Comment: In relation to what you said about how this was kept secret and all that. I read some of the esoteric literature that “so-and-so”—Eliphas Levi was one—they said Dion Fortune were under oath. They intimated in their writing, in their books, “Sure, there is more.” All through the centuries up until this century. It’s been kept secret… Instructor: Manly P. Hall is an initiate. He was a great writer too. You can learn a lot from him. Question: No, but he never delved into this... Instructor: Because he wasn't a prophet. Question: You know it’s funny. It is like I was told that if anyone watches Seinfeld, the guy who wrote Seinfeld, Larry David, was definitely an occultist that knew about this, because some of these episodes in Seinfeld were about this. Instructor: There are tricklings of certain imitations of principles. Even like J.R.R. Tolkien borrowed many myths and he imitated very well certain teachings. But as he said of himself, “People think there is a hidden meaning to my books, The Lord of the Rings. I just wrote it. I just wanted to write about a young little guy who goes on a big journey, and entertain people.” Good stories, but not from masters like Moses. So I invite you to stay a little bit after. We are going to listen to the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, which precisely speaks about the law of Arcanum 6, the law of indecision, in which the disciple, the soul, must learn to fight the beast, the dragon, in order to conquer one's maiden. But of course, as you see from Tchaikovsky's piece, this has a very dismal ending. Tchaikovsky was going through a specific ordeal which he was failing at, conquering his lust in his mind. So you can hear in this piece a little bit of the beauty of the soul, the Lovers: Tiphereth and Geburah. But then you also will see how the soul needs to fight very hard to regain what he has lost:
So you can hear, in that music, the principles of Arcanum 6, whereby the human soul has to battle the monster, which is desire. After that loud boom comes the battle. Before that is the ecstasy of the soul, of Tiphereth united with Geburah, the divine soul, the harmony and love that the soul experiences. But then he has to descend down into Klipoth (hell) and face all the evilness that he carries in his psyche, in his mind, in his heart. Of course, that is the battle of the dragon.
But you see that Tchaikovsky was composing this for initiates who were failing certain ordeals, because Tchaikovsky himself was going through certain battles within his own lust in his mind that he couldn't comprehend at that time. He was very distraught, as you can hear in the music. When the dragon takes over, you hear the crescendo of music descending down into a low note, until his catastrophic fall. Every initiate has to face that problem: fighting with lust and needing to struggle with those elements. But there is always hope, of course. You hear the music, the ecstasy that Tchaikovsky composed, his love for his Geburah, the divine soul, his divine counterpart. You can listen to the rest of that symphony and really analyze, you know, what he is teaching there, but it is very serious. That symphony obviously has a dark ending, because it's the first symphony in its time in which it ends at a low note. It doesn't have this climatic end at the end of the 4th movement. Beethoven, however, depicts in his sixth symphony how to overcome the ordeals, the storms of the mind, in order to see the rainbow of promise: קֶשֶׁת Qeshet in Kabbalah.This is the rainbow after long storms that Nietzsche's speaks about, the highest hope towards the superman. Question: Didn’t someone relate how Sagittarius releases an arrow? The archer? Instructor: I haven't heard about Sagittarius, but it is an arrow from Malkuth to Kether. But you reach that point by clearing the winds, the mind, Netzach, so that with your willpower, see the higher dimensions. So in order to overcome the beast, work with your ו Vav. 
We have arrived to the fifth arcanum, the fifth law of the sacred tarot.
The word hierarch in Greek comes from ἱερός heiros, which means “holy” or “sacred.” Ark, which reminds us again of arcanum, of law, of teaching, is where we get words such as arcana, archangel, arch-magi, specifically, those beings who are enlightened and know the tarot in depth. So we have been explaining that the tarot in themselves are laws of nature, and therefore we have arrived at the fifth arcanum, the fifth teaching, of the Hierarch. A hieros-magician, a holy magician, a sacred being, a sacred ruler, is an angel, a master, who is in full command of all of the 22 archetypes represented by the major arcana of the tarot, and the 22 Hebrew letters of the kabbalistic alphabet, which we have been explaining in depth. If we are familiar with the Gnostic Gospels, specifically the story of Sophia, we know that the fallen soul seeks to aspire and return back to the height of divinity. On her journey forward, she must answer to the archons, the hierarchs, the masters of the law, who govern the law of causality. So in this lecture, we are going to talk about a very famous eastern teaching known as karma, the law of cause and effect, in relation with this card, because a hierarch, a holy being, a holy ruler, or sacred archon, is a being who is fully equilibrated all the forces of nature within him or herself, and therefore is in command of those laws: the law of causality, cause and effect. They are someone who has fully balanced their karma, meaning their debts, as well as their good deeds, as we will be talking about in depth. Sophia learns to answer to the archons when she is returning back up the Tree of Life, which is a diagram will be examining in depth today. She must learn to appease those rulers, answer to her own debts for having fallen into temptation, into lower states of materiality of nature, of condensation of forces, as well as entering the realm of desire, of defects, egos, selves. 
The hierarch is precisely represented by this glyph, and the chief hierarch of our solar system is a being known as Anubis. He is the chief of the law of karma, cause and effect, and he judges all souls within this solar system, specifically, as taught within the Egyptian mythology, which is not a fantasy, but a reality.
Anubis represented here in this glyph wears the mask of a jackal, because within the higher dimensions, when we are face to face with Anubis, and we are in the courts of the law, in order to negotiate and answer for our deeds, Anubis wears a mask of a jackal or wolf in order to symbolize the impartiality of the law. And what does this impartiality signify? Divinity does not look to us for our intentions, our good will, but rather on the effects of our actions—the results of our actions themselves. So wearing that mask is a symbol of how Anubis does not judge us based on what we intended to do, but rather, what are the results of our actions, or the consequences of our deeds, represented by the scale of the bottom third of this card and the waters of this fifth arcanum. We see a scale along with a feather and a heart in balance and equilibrium, which is a symbol of how the heart, our emotional center, and the feather representing our mind, must be in balance. We must have equilibrium within our thoughts, our words, and our deeds, because that is how we create action. As the Bhagavad-Gita teaches us, we must learn to act without attachment to our actions, the fruits of our results. We must find balance in this regard. We must be balanced in mind, heart, and body if we want the results of our actions to be beneficial to others. For this matter, we study Gnostic Psychology in depth, of which we have elaborated in our former lectures. But the heart and the feather must be in balance, because mind and heart that are in disequilibrium creates problems for ourselves, and more importantly it creates problems for others as well. Within the right hand of Anubis, he carries a staff of power, which we have been explaining is the spinal medulla—the staff of the magicians—the shepherd's staff by which the master leads his disciples towards the heights of spirituality, a representation of how the spinal medulla is illuminated by what we call the fire of Kundalini. A master is a being, a hierarch, who has raised the sacred fire of the Kundalini force from Muladhara Chakra, up the seven centers of the human body, the spinal medulla, up to the brain, and then to the heart. Any master is in full command of his spinal column, which is the Tree of Life as we have been explaining. We cannot live or have life if it weren't for our spine. Therefore, we will talk about the Tree of Life more in-depth today. The law of karma is the law of causality, and Anubis in his temples has a book for each individual in order to judge their deeds. Every human being has a material representation, within those higher realms, of a book of their karma, a book of their actions, of which the judges look, and they evaluate our actions, our deeds. This is very well known within Egyptian mythology, that Anubis judges through the book of the dead within the underworld, the inferior dimensions. Likewise, the Qur’an teaches us that there are two books, one for the righteous, and one for the sinners, which we will be quoting from today. 
The Three Pillars of Kabbalah: The Tree of Life
The law of karma is supreme mercy, but also it is supreme judgment, represented by the two columns of the Tree of Life of Kabbalah. On the right we have the Pillar of Mercy. On the left with the Pillar of Severity. In the middle, we have the Pillar of Balance or Equilibrium.
The Kabbalah is a tool we use to analyze our consciousness, who we are psychologically: the levels of our Being, the levels of expression, of matter, energy, and perception. Of course, we are in the bottom sphere, Malkuth, which is the physical body. Yet above, we have much more subtle forces and energies of which we must become knowledgeable of. We are this Tree of Life. This is the map of our psyche as well as the Being, our divinity—from the heights of attainment to the lowest depths of matter and perception. So, represented back in this card of the Hierarch, those three pillars must be in balance, represented by the scale. From the scale, we have the pillar of the left, severity, and then on the right we have the Pillar of Mercy balanced by the qualities of the heart. 
Those of us familiar with Kabbalah know that the sphere of תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth, in this Tree of Life, is the very center of this map representing the heart, because if you transpose this image on a human being, the top trinity, כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah, the top, manifest in the head—the forces of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—or, Osiris, Isis, and Horus in Egyptian mythology.
The middle trinity represents our heart: חסד Chesed, גבורה Geburah, תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth—Chesed being our spirit, our inner being, our inner divinity, our inner Buddha. The divine consciousness is Geburah, the feminine soul that expresses that spiritual principle. Then Tiphereth, which is really what we are, is a fraction of that particle or part known as the heart, the qualities of the heart, the human consciousness. This descends into נצח Netzach, which is the mind, intellect, thought. Heart, emotion, הוד Hod, is sometimes known as the astral vehicle. On the right we have the mental vehicle. Below that we have ethereality or vitality, יְסוֹד Yesod, which is our energy. Then lastly, we have our physical body, מלכות Malkuth, which is what we are present with today. These sephiroth (“emanations”) or spheres, integrate, manifest simultaneously, here and now. These are not something abstract and far away from us. We can see that in our present state of being, we have thought and emotion. Sometimes we can sense we have a certain level of energy, vitality, etc. This map teaches us who we are and which helps to explain the tarot in depth. Tiphereth is our heart, the human consciousness, the conscience that knows right from wrong, positive from negative, good from evil. This scale is teaching us that it is our heart that balances these forces: the balances are karma. Balances are actions. It depends on how we use our energy. How do we use our mental force? How do we use our emotional force? How do we use our vitality? Question: You mentioned that the feather is the mind and the heart is what again? Instructor: It is Tiphereth. We are analyzing it on two levels. We are saying that the mind and the heart need to be balanced. But also, we say that the left pillar of Kabbalah, the right pillar of Kabbalah, are balanced through Tiphereth, the heart in the very center. There are levels of meaning here. These glyphs are very dense, dynamic, as we will see. 
Martian Energy, Iron, and Spiritual Combat
How we use our energy determines our actions, determines our life, determines how we are judged by the law. We also see in this glyph the Hebrew letter ה Hei, of which we will talk about at the end of this lecture in combination with this card.
What is important to analyze about the number five is that it is a number of Mars, of war. Five is Mars, combat, strength. The fifth arcanum teaches us the law of karma, the law of how to change, psychologically speaking. It also provides us with explanations of who we are psychologically, and how do we change. All the prophets of humanity taught the fifth arcanum, taught us how to change psychologically. The Qur’an teaches us something very beautiful about this aspect of the teaching from Surah 57 verse 25. This is known as Al-Hadid: “The Iron.” "Indeed We have sent Our Messengers with clear proofs and revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance (represented by the balance of this card and waters of this card, the bottom third) so that mankind may keep up justice. And We brought forth iron wherein is mighty power in matters of war, as well as many benefits for mankind, that Allah may test who it is that will help him in His religion, (which is again religare in Latin, to “reunite with divinity,” whether it be through yoga, the Sanskrit yug, “unification,” whatever religion we are teaching from), and His Messengers in the unseen. Verily, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty, All-Powerful." —Al-Hadid (57:25.) The metal of iron, astrologically speaking, relates to Mars, and the fifth planet of our solar system, the fifth arcanum, relates to an angel by the name of Samael, who is the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition through his human soul, Samael Aun Weor. So iron is a metal of tremendous capacity through which the forces of the planet Mars channel that strength throughout the solar system, in order to acquire the balance of the worlds. All the planets have their specific capacities, abilities, and dispensations, in order to create a unity within the solar system. Mars is the force that channel strength of a spiritual type—not of violence and bloodshed—not of hatred. That is the inversion of that force. The positive aspect of Mars is love, compassion: the strength of a warrior who fights for his spirituality, for the liberation of his consciousness, and for others. Iron is a metal of tremendous power which, as we are going to explain at the end of this lecture, we can use for certain talismans to protect us from negative vibrations. The Qur’an teaches us that iron is a powerful element useful for his religion, which is interesting because it is not literal. We have to relearn, to read the scriptures with an informed eye, because the iron which people use for combat is not literal. Many people think of Islam as a religion of war, of jihad, which is mistaken, because the word jihad comes from mujahidah, which means “striving,” to strive, to fight against that which is negative. When Prophet Muhammad was asked from his companions, which was greater than the lesser holy war, the war against others, he said, "War against yourself,” against your defects, against your anger. “[Prophet Muhammad] said: ‘There is a means of polishing everything and removing rust; and that which polishes the heart is the invocation of Allah [Dhikr: remembrance]; and there is no act that removes God’s punishment as much as does this invocation.’ The Companions of the Prophet said: ‘Is the fight against the infidels equal to this?’ He replied: “No, not even if one fights until one’s sword is broken.’ And he said further on another occasion: ‘Should I not teach you an action that is better for you than fighting against infidels?’ His Companions said: ‘Yes, teach it to us.’ The Prophet said: ‘This action is the invocation of Allah [Dhikr: remembrance of divinity].’” —Frithjof Schuon, “The Quintessential Esoterism of Islam,” Sufism: Love and Wisdom That truly is the great holy war that we wage—the striving against our ego. Iron is the force of Mars that aids us, the potential of strength within our own spiritual nature that is a warrior, that knows how to fight for what is correct and upright. Five reminds us of this, arcanum five, and the angel Samael is the reagent or intelligence that governs the planet Mars, whose power is manifested within any individual who knows how to work with the Martian force. But of course, this is not a force of violence and bloodshed, but one of compassion and strength, to defend that which is pure and upright before the law. Anubis is intimately related with Mars, the planet of judgment, of severity, but also of compassion. This is not a blind law. Cause and effect are not a law of vengeance—if you do something wrong, you get punished. That is a very superficial way to look at karma, because karma is negotiable. We have procedures by which we can negotiate our karma, where we can speak to Anubis or even speak to the angel Samael to help aid us [study and practice the Rune Not in The Magic of the Runes]. In the Zohar, the mystical book of Judaism, the Kabbalah, teaches us a very interesting fact about Samael in depth. ס Samekh and the Zoharic Creation of the World
In the beginning of the Zohar, there were 22 Hebrew letters that presented themselves before Jehovah, or we can say Allah, whatever name we want to give to that source, that intelligence known as Christ. The 22 letters, each took their turn in order to present themselves and ask the Lord, "Can you use me in order to initiate creation? To create this universe?" It is interesting because the 22 Hebrew letters relate to the 22 arcana of the tarot in depth.
The letter ס samekh, the “S” sound which initiates the name of סמאל Samael, presented itself to the Lord. As stated explicitly in the Zohar: “The letter ס (samekh) entered. She said to Him, ‘Master of the world, may it please You to create the world by me, for by me מיכהס (semikha), support, exists for those who fall, as is written: (סומך יהוה Somekh Iod-Havah), יהוה Iod-Havah supports, all who fall (Psalms 145:14).’ “He replied, ‘So you are needed where you are; do not move! If you leave, what would happen to the fallen, who depend on you?’ She immediately left His presence.” —Zohar Samekh said, “I wish to initiate creation for you my Lord Jehovah.” But the Lord said, "You are needed elsewhere instead of creation,” because סָמֶךְ samekh literally means “support,” to help those who are fallen—those who are lost in temptation—those who are suffering in the abyss. “I cannot let you create creation above. You have to work down below” to help those who are trapped within their own anger, their fear, their pain. “Therefore, I cannot let you initiate creation,” the letter ס samekh (ס samekh is shaped like a serpent, as we'll talk about in arcanum 15, the 15th letter of the Kabbalah). But that Angel Samael is intimately related with that power, that force of Mars which is represented as a serpent. If you read the Zohar you will see that the serpent is a dual force. It could be good, or it can be evil, depending on how we use that force. We can either raise the Kundalini, up the spine to become a hierarch, someone who is in command of a laws of nature. Or, if we let that energy out of ourselves, if we waste it through anger and lust and desire, that energy descends down the spine and forms the tail of Satan. The tail of the demons within the astral vehicle is what we call the Kundabuffer. Arcanum 5 teaches us how to balance forces within ourselves, through the power of will, and iron as a metal represents willpower. How do we dominate our own will? Meaning: our lower desires or lower states of consciousness, so that we can elevate them and raise them to a higher state of being. Inner Balance in Kabbalah
In order to arrive at the state of balance and comprehension, we work with our willpower in combination with works of consciousness. Consciousness in itself, along with willpower, aids the practitioner of meditation in order to obtain wisdom, cognizance, understanding.
If we look back at the card, of the scale, of the Hierarch, when we look back at the scale of the hierarch, we find that the feather and the heart also can signify consciousness and willpower. In order for us to arrive at wisdom, what we call pranja, we need to work with consciousness and willpower, represented on the Tree of Life. 
We have Tiphereth, our willpower, the heart, and Geburah, consciousness, which is our divine soul that which never enters into impurity. Those two in combination work to achieve the third sephirah of the middle trinity, which is Chesed, our spirit, known in the East as prajna, wisdom, understanding. The prefix “Pra” means beyond. “Jna” is where we get words like jnana yoga, “knowledge yoga,” gnosis as well in Greek. Those forces help to equilibrate and help the initiates to balance their debts and pay what they owe to the law of the divine.
Cosmic Rounds and Root Races
The significance of the number five also relates to the fifth cycle of manifestation. There are different cosmic eras and rounds in which certain universes enter into more dense levels of materiality.
We are also in the fifth root race of this planet known as the Aryans. Now this term Aryan has been grossly abused by certain cultures. The word Aries relates to Mars or Samael, which indicates that this powerful being is responsible for the spiritual development of the souls of this planet, because everyone on this planet, in this world today, is of the Aryan Race, not necessarily the Nordics, or the Germans. There are different root races that exist on each planet in different eras. Every planet gives birth to seven races, which we will be talking about in the arcanum seven, the law of seven. But also in this lecture we can say that the first race was the Protoplasmic Root Race. The second race was the Hyperborean Race. The third race was known as the Lemurians. The fourth was Atlantis or the Atlanteans. Now we are in the era of Aries, the Aryan Race governed by the Angel Samael. If you are interested in that type of anthropology, you can read Gnostic Anthropology by Samael Aun Weor specifically. We are also related to the fifth sun from the Aztec calendar or the fifth sun of Tonatiuh, the solar deity. The Aztecs are depicting that our Aryan Race is the children of the fifth sun, which you can read more in depth too. The Significance of the Number Five
Five also relates to our five senses, the five lobes of our liver, which is governed by Geburah, the sphere of severity in the Tree of Life, which helps with the breakdown of impure elements in the body. Mars has that force, that nature, that power that breaks down negative elements.
Five also relates to the five aspects of our Divine Mother Kundalini, which we will be giving other lectures about that. The fifth arcanum is initiation. It is demonstration of the teaching, which is the Martian teaching, the teaching of strength, of compassion, and the spiritual war that any meditator needs to engage with in order to transform who they are psychologically. 
In order to talk about this, we will talk about the Tree of Life in depth. The Tree of Life is a map, as I said, of different levels of matter, energy, and perception. From the top, we have the most rarefied element known in different religions as the trinity.
As we talked about in arcanum three, this law of three creates life. It creates the Tree of Life. It creates the different manifestations of existence. We have the hidden sephiroth Da'ath, which relates to knowledge, because it is through specific knowledge and works by which we use the three forces in us, in order to create spiritually. The spirit manifests from the top trinity and unfolds into His divine consciousness, and then into His sense of will, the human soul, Tiphereth. It is easy to see from our experience what these lower four sephiroth entail: Netzach (Victory), the mind, is intellect; Hod (Glory), the emotions; Yesod (Foundation), our vitality; and Malkuth (Kingdom) as our body. These are different levels of condensation of matter, perception, and energy. These exist within us simultaneously. They are not separate. In us they tend to be very mixed, disorganized, and chaotic. If we sit to meditate, we often see that the mind is running off on its train of thoughts, its concepts, its beliefs, its ideas, its political affiliations, etc. Likewise, the emotions can be afflicted by moods of attraction, repulsion, craving, aversion. Likewise, with the vital force, with our instincts, with our impulses, etc. These tend to be in a very chaotic state without any type of order, organization. However, the teachings of the fifth arcanum allow us to understand how to create that order, how to balance our psyche. We understand from this teaching that all of life first emanated from the top of the Tree of Life down to Malkuth. Those energies now must return backward, inward and up to the Absolute, which is beyond the top of the Tree of Life, beyond the trinity, the unknowable divinity known in Kabbalah as אין Ain, אין סוף Ain Soph, אור אין סוף Ain Soph Aur: the Nothingness, the Limitless, and the Limitless Light, respectively. 
The Upright Pentagram and Spiritual Return
Sophia is precisely that soul trapped in Malkuth within the Gnostic Gospels, who wants to return up the Tree of Life back to the source, back to Pleroma, back to her home, we could say, her origin. We understand that in this journey, inward and upward, we seek to become what is known as the upright pentagram, which is a five-pointed star as we see in this image.
This image has been given a lot of misinterpretations. There is a lot of ignorance about the meaning of this symbol. It is a symbol of divinity, of Christ, the Greek name Χριστος Christos, the “anointing” fire, the energy of divinity within that we carry within our body, Whom we need to elevate up our spine to our brain and then to our heart. 
Many paintings given by master initiates often depicted Jesus holding his hand in the sign of the pentagram with the two inferior vertices (the ring and pinky fingers) facing down, and the middle finger, index finger, and thumb facing upward.
So what does the pentagram represent for us? This five-pointed star? It represents a human being made into the image of Christ, divinity. We are not here talking just about Jesus, but with any initiate who was incarnated Chokmah (Wisdom), the Lord, the top of the Tree of Life, and hopefully manifests that trinity at the top: Father, Son, Holy Spirit; or Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva; or Wotan, Baldur, Thor amongst the Nordics; or Kether, Chokmah, Binah in Kabbalah; the First Logos, the Second Logos, the Third Logos. 
These are energies that we need to work with, and so the pentagram represents a human being who is fully expressing that power, and like the Vitruvian man of Leonardo Da Vinci, it represents a human being whose spiritual reasoning is in domination of his sexuality, of his desires, of his passions. Such a being has fully sublimated that instinctual drive or libido, and transformed it into pure force of a spiritual type. He or she knows how to use that energy with consciousness and wisdom.
Right now, we are not this pentagram. We are actually inverted. That is a very well-known symbol in this humanity of evil, degeneration, of impurity. When the human being is governed by their desires, it means that their head is facing down towards the abyss. Therefore, this superior vertex is inverted, and the two feet are facing upward, which forms the very famous Male Goat of Mendes with the two horns, the ears, and the chin, which is a symbol of sorcery and black magic, of evil will.
This pentagram facing upward represents an initiate who is following the Christic power, who is in command of his sexuality, who is in command of his energies. The fifth arcanum teaches us how to become a pentagram, how to follow the law, how to be standing upright so that our spirituality is governing our desires—so that we learn how to consciously use the sex drive itself in order to harness it and control it. We are not the upright pentagram, as I stated. We are inverted, fallen, like Sophia in the (Gnostic) myth. We are the fallen human being, because anyone who has lust, anger, fear, resentment, hatred, and defects, is a demon. This mythology shows people with horns and a red tail and that sort of mythology is laughed at today. Well, those are symbols of internal truths. Psychologically speaking, we have many elements which are demonic, because anyone who is propelled by lust, by hatred and fear, who uses their emotions to harm others, is a demon. This teaching of the fifth arcanum is not for angels, because angels already are standing upright. They know how to work with the law of karma. They are in balance. But a demon is disbalanced. They have used their impure mind to cause harm. It could be someone who intentionally means to cause harm, or people like everyday individuals who don't really understand the causes of their own suffering and why they make others suffer. There is a lot of confusion in the world today. There are people who know how to work with the inverted pentagram, obviously. We call them sorcerers. Those who learn to work with the upright pentagram are positive magicians, white magicians who follow the Christic power. Alchemy, the Solar Bodies, and the True Human Being
Who is responsible for helping to raise the souls in Malkuth? To raise them up the Tree of Life, to teach them how to become a true human being, a spiritual human being? Because sadly, as I said, we are not human beings. We are demons.
A real human being is an individual who has a solar astral body, a solar mental body, a solar causal body—who has learned to work with the alchemical science in order to create superior vehicles that can manifest the energies of divinity. We talked about the solar bodies previously. The astral body is a vehicle that an initiate can travel within the higher dimensions known as Hod, the dream state. The mental body is a superior mind that knows how to obey the will of Christ, which is created through alchemy, through a matrimony. The solar body of will is a vehicle that knows how to obey the will of Christ, the will of divinity. That is a true human being, someone who has those bodies and knows that they have them—having worked in a matrimony for that purpose. That person, when they have entered into initiation, as we discussed in Arcanum 1: the Magician, has raised the Kundalini up the spine of the physical body, likewise the vital body, followed by the emotional body, the mental body, and then the body of will. Those are initiations. Each vehicle within those dimensions operates according to those laws. With Malkuth, we raise the creative energies of the Kundalini through matrimony, through a marriage. Likewise, with Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiphereth. Once one has raised that fire up those bodies, one can be said to be a human being, a Hum-man. Hum means “Spirit.” Manas means “mind”—so a mind that is united with the Spirit. That is someone who is a pentagram, who is upright, who is standing. Until we reach that point, we are not an upright pentagram. We are fallen. But the upright pentagram we use in our works of magic in order to command the forces of nature, because there is a very divine symbol, a very powerful sign. One thing I would like to mention about this upright pentagram is a teaching that Jesus gave in the Book of John. I believe chapter 3 in which he synthesizes and explains what the pentagram means. We explained that the pentagram represents a human being who is rising up from Malkuth to Tiphereth and even beyond. In past ages, when the energy of the Tree of Life was still manifesting, descending downward into its respective stages of materiality and manifestation, that force of involution, in which spiritual forces were manifesting materially, was represented by the pentagram facing down in those ages, because the spirit was descending down into Malkuth. But since we have reached Malkuth, which is really the synthesis of all the rest of the sephiroth of the Tree of Life, that pentagram now needs to go back up, to return, back to the source of the Absolute. This is the meaning of Sophia leaving the 13th aeon, or the higher heavens in order to enter materiality, and now must return. So the inverted pentagram now really represents black magic or sorcery, because if you descend from Malkuth down into more dense levels of matter and energy, we enter what are called the infra-dimensions, the inferior dimensions, which we can access through nightmares: states of perception which are very demonic and relate to the most infernal aspects of our psyche. 
יהשוה Yeshua: the Savior and Son of Man
Very famously Jesus said, or the Intimate Christ through Jesus stated:
13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world (Malkuth, we could say); but that the world through him might be saved. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name (י Iod ה Hei ש Shinו Vav ה Hei, יהשוה Yeshua the upright pentagram) of the only begotten Son of God (which we say the sacred name of God in Hebrew represented י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei, יהוה Jehovah. Or if we add the letter ש Shin in the middle, we spell יהשוה Yeshua, “Savior,” which is the word for Jesus, which represents a fire, an energy which can redeem our psyche)." 19. And this is the condemnation, that light (which we say in Hebrew is אֹֽור Aur: “Let there be light and there was light”— יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור yehi aur va-yehi aur in the Book of Genesis—this is the law of creation, the law of three, Arcanum 3: The Empress) is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light (that energy that power within the psyche), neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. –John 3 So what is this Son of Man? It is a symbol of the power of Chokmah, Christ entering the heart, Tiphereth, because the man is the manas, the abstract mind, willpower: Tiphereth of the Tree of Life that can learn to redeem the lower sephiroth of the Tree of Life: the mind, the heart, the vitality, and our physicality. That pentagram is the five letter name of God, יהשוה Yeshua: י Iod ה Hei ש Shinו Vav ה Hei. This is a fire, an energy, which we need to learn to work with so as to attain what is known as salvation or redemption represented in this pentagram. 
The Symbolism of the Gnostic Pentagram
We see the eyes of Jupiter represented at the top of the main apex, at the top of the head. Likewise, the eyes of Ra ?, symbol of Osiris Ra, the solar power of the Egyptians manifested in Jesus, who was Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, or Joseph and Mary. The Egyptian mysteries are synthesized within the Christian mysteries and cannot be separated. The eyes of the Father represent the eternal omniscience of divinity, that sees all our actions. In relation with the arcanum five, all our actions are observed. Our mental states, our deeds, are recorded by divinity. The sign of Jupiter relates to the supreme power of IO-Patar, which is the power of IO, the Divine Mother within Greek mythology, and Patar, which is the stone, the power of what we call Yesod in the Kabbalah. You see that the eyes of Ra are always open. I remember in the astral plane, I once was going downstairs into my basement in my house and I saw in the astral, in the astral world, a furnace, or a fireplace, better said, and two giant eyes of Ra above it, and I knew it was my divinity looking at me, and showing me that “I know everything you do.” 
And above a fireplace—because the fire represents, precisely, this bottom of the pentagram. We have above the letter A, which is Alpha (Α), and then the last letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega (Ω). Above we have the brain, the first letter, Alpha of the Greek alphabet, and then we have Omega, which is sex.
Sex is the fire of life. It has the power of creative life, spiritually, and physically. That energy can create a physical child. Likewise, it can create our spiritual, golden child of alchemy within us, if we know the procedures. When I was looking at that fireplace, I was seeing precisely a synthesized version of the pentagram. Just the eyes of Ra, the eyes of divinity, and the fire of Omega: the power of the energies of God, the Holy Ghost, which we carry within our sexual glands, which is the energy of Kundalini that can rise up the spine of the Caduceus of Mercury, as we see represented in this pentagram in the very center. The wings of pleroma, the wings of our spirituality, open and are based on how we use that force. How do we use creative energy? Do we conserve it and transform it through practice, or do we expel it? That is the main problem of alchemical science. When we conserve that power and transform it, we can raise it up the spine, up the two serpents we see represented here. I mentioned to you that the serpent can be a positive symbol, or it can also be negative. But here we have in our spine, in our body, three serpents. We have what is called the Sushumna canal amongst the Hindus, which is the spinal column, which is where the serpent Kundalini rises. We also have the serpent Ida, which is lunar, which channels the negative, or better said, the receptive feminine forces of the body, up from sex to the brain. Then we have Pingala, which is the solar serpent. These two serpents can also be represented as Adam-Eve, male-female, sun and moon, which we also see represented in this glyph. 
We have the moon striding the Hebrew word פהד pehad, which means “awe, reverence.” We have explained in our previous lectures that the moon is a symbol of our egotism and that we need to learn to purge ourselves of our defects, so that we can learn to shine with the sun, which is represented here in the left with the word כפר kafar. פהד Pehad means “awe, fear.” כפר Kafar means “expiation, to pay, to cleanse, to purify.”
We do need to pay our deeds, our lunar psychology, because these are not separate from each other. They are integral. They relate. We learn to fear, פהד pehad, in relation to the moon as well because פהד pehad is how we fear and reverence God. It doesn't mean egotistical fear. It means a reverence, a tremendous intention, an awareness of how one uses the energies of Yesod, the moon, which in Kabbalah relates to Yesod, the sexual force. One learns to be careful with that energy, to know how to use it, to give it to divinity, to conserve it and transform it, so that it could become a sun. By transforming it into a sun, in that process, we are working with כפר kafar, expiation. We are cleansing ourselves of our defects so that we can transform the moon of our psychology into the sun.
Kundalini and the Chakras
We learn to awaken that Kundalini force through the fifth arcanum: learning how to use that energy in accordance with superior laws, superior teachings.
When the energies rise up the spine, they form the wings of the angel, a master, an enlightened being. We learn to awaken what are called the seven chakras of the spine or the seven Churches of the Book of Revelation, which are centers of energy. Chakra literally means “wheel,” in which certain forces magnetize and manifest within our body and our internal vehicles too. We have the Chakra Muladhara at the base of the coccyx. We have the Chakra Svadhisthana, either in the prostate or the uterus. We have the Chakra Manipura relating with the solar plexus. We have the Chakra Anahata related with the heart. We have the Chakra Vishuddha, relating to the throat. Then we have Chakra Ajna related to the third eye… followed by the Chakra Sahasrara at the crown, which all have their respective capacities and powers. The Book of Revelation refers to them as Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, respectively. 
Closer Examination of the Pentagram
The chalice in this image, as we see in the top right, over the left hand of the pentagram is a symbol of the feminine sexual organs, or the mind likewise. 
A spear or a staff is a symbol of the phallus or the spinal medulla likewise. But a chalice represents the mind that receives the blood of Christ, the energy of the Lord, and a mind that learns to become Christified or purified is working with that power of the staff and the power of the cup, or the lance of Longinus and the Holy Grail, represented at Christ's Passion.
They are symbols of man and woman: how through a marriage, they can learn to use their matrimony, the sexual act, and to use it for divinity, to transform it into a sacrament, a sacrament of Rome, amore, love. I like to read for you an excerpt from the Zohar, which talks about the chalice specifically and how it relates to the pentagram. In the very opening of that scripture, they explained that the rose is a symbol of Israel. This is a symbol of the different parts of the soul—not the Middle East, but Isis-Ra-El. The power of Isis, Ra, and our Hebrew God אֵל El, our spirit, is Israel. The soul that manifests that is part of the assembly of Israel. They mentioned that in the inner part of a rose they have thirteen petals, which relates to Arcanum 13: Immortality, which we will elaborate in a future lecture. The outer part of the rose has five petals, related to the pentagram. Tiphereth, the heart, the human soul, is governed by the astrological sphere of Venus but also the Sun, which is very interesting because the Zohar states that the outer part of the rose has five petals, and that: “These five are called Salvation; they are five gates. Concerning this mystery, it is written: "I raised the cup of salvation” (Psalms 116:13). This is the cup of blessing, which should rest on five fingers—and no more—like the rose, sitting a five sturdy leaves, paradigm of the five fingers (or we can say the pentagram). This rose is the cup of blessing." —Zohar So when one learns to work in a matrimony, they can transform their body, their mind, their heart, into an upright pentagram—to purify the psyche. The cup of blessing is precisely that human being that knows how to follow the rights of Venus, the rose: a symbol of the blossoming of the soul between husband and wife, especially. The cup also represents the mind too, in which the energies of the light, the power of the Holy Ghost, which is in our sexual glands, rises up to the brain in order to illuminate it, to create what is called the halo of the saints. 
The sword at the bottom is the masculine phallus. Likewise, the staff is a symbol of the spinal column.
The key of Solomon on the left, the six-pointed star, is a symbol of tremendous magical potency, which we use in order to seal our home with and protect it from negative forces. The bottom triangle represents the two testicles and the vertical phallus, the upright apex. The triangle facing downwards represent the two ovaries and the uterus. The union of the two within holy matrimony, awaken the powers of David, the powers of our spirituality.
Lastly, written along the circumference of the pentagram, we have the symbol of the Word, the name Τετραγράμματο Tetragrammaton, which is Greek. Τέτρα Tetra means four. Gram or Γραμμα Gramma means letter. Ton symbolizes esoterically, force and power, manifested within the true human being. 
We have on the hands the symbol of Mars, which, to synthesize this image, we find that the hands, the symbol of our actions, how we behave in life, are governed by Mars—governed by the law—because what we do is how we will receive. How we act determines what will occur to us.
At the feet of this image, we find the symbol of Saturn, a symbol of death, because a human being who is walking on his two feet, spiritually speaking, learns how to navigate both the worlds of angels and demons—learns to die in himself, in his defects, in his impurities. The feet in Kabbalah can represent Malkuth, the physical body. It also means that one is dying to all the negative qualities of the psyche which exist in the infra-dimensions, below the feet, in the interior of the Earth. 
We were explaining that the human being must have their head in control of their sex. The brain, if we take the name Jehovah and transpose it over the human body, we find that י Iod represents the mind, the divine masculine, Adam, the head. Sex is הוה Havah (pronounced חוה Chavah, the Hebrew name for Eve, the divine feminine). יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah. חוה Chavah literally translates as Eve. The name of Eve in the Bible is חוה Chavah, which gives us names like חַיָה Chaiah, which means “life.”
We have life based on our creative energy and how we use it determines our spiritual life. יהוה Iod-Havah, is a being, is a Tetragrammaton. י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei: a sacred four lettered name of God, and the pentagram, represents that human being, that man or woman, who has fully incarnated that power. י Iod is also the head and הוה Havah or חוה Chavah means “sex.” If you invert that you spell have Chavah-Iod, which is the name of a demon, a sorcerer of the abyss, who's head is basically downward, and his sex is governing his brain. An individual who is dominated by lust has their sexuality controlling them, not vice versa, which is why we stayed in a certain prayer call the Conjuration of the Seven, "In the name of מיכאל Michael, may Jehovah command thee and draw thee hence, Chavajoth!" Because, Jehovah, as an angel outside, is a force that can reject that demon. But symbolically speaking, anyone who is not using the creative energy for their Being is a demon, is inverted. Their sex dominates their brain. 
The Tree of Life and Fallen Human Beings
Who is the one that is fallen? We have talked a lot about this, but let's talk about in relation to the Kabbalah.
Who is the one that enters into temptation? We see that Tiphereth is our human will, which is who we are, basically, in our depth. We are a fraction of soul from Tiphereth that manifests within Netzach, the mind, Hod, the emotions, Yesod, our vital energies, and Malkuth, our physical body, that we said is the human being. Above we have Geburah, the consciousness or divine soul. This is, we could say Guinevere in the Arthurian legends. The spirit Chesed is Arthur, the king who rules the spiritual kingdom. Then Tiphereth is Lancelot, the warrior that must fight for the redemption of his lady. The upper spheres of this Tree of Life teach us the qualities of divinity. We have the trinity above which is Father, Son, Holy Ghost, as well as the Monad: Atman-Buddhi (Spirit and divine soul) which never enters into sin, impurity. But the human soul, Tiphereth, can enter into the lower spheres of the Tree of Life. A being that is composed of Tiphereth, the human soul, and those lower four qualities is known as what is called a bodhisattva, in Eastern mythology, Eastern teachings. A bodhisattva is a being, a human soul, who is part of the Spirit and the consciousness above: the Spirit and the consciousness or Atman-Buddhi. Tiphereth is known as Manas as we explained. Atman-Buddhi is the master, the Being, the truth, who is never imperfect. He is perfection himself. He is the divine, represented within His spirit and the divine soul, Geburah. The bodhisattva (Tiphereth) is merely a vehicle, a person that can manifest the will of divinity, or his own personal will. In most of us, our individual will is enmeshed with many qualities relating to the lower sephiroth of the Tree of Life: different thoughts, desires, impulses, etc. A bodhisattva is a being who has once incarnated the top trinity of the Tree of Life. Bodhi literally means “light.” Light in Hebrew relates to Chokmah, which is Christ, wisdom, truth. Bodhi also means “wisdom,” likewise, and Chokmah in the Kabbalah represents the wisdom of Christ: that primordial root energy at the root of any cosmos, which is universal. A bodhisattva is a being who once incarnated that light, but not all bodhisattvas are standing upright, because the human soul, instead of obeying the divine will, can enter into temptation. Even masters and angels can fall. This is the myth of the fallen angels in Islam, Christianity, Judaism. There are certain masters who developed that higher aspect of the Tree of Life, but then entered into degeneration. So those beings fall because they didn't control the sexual energy. They let that energy tempt their mind. So many of these angels were told, “Do not take a partner because once you have entered into the higher dimensions, the higher realms, you don't need to have that opposite polarity to work with, to give you energy. Instead, you are united with God. You don't need to enter into a matrimony,” but some bodhisattvas, actually―many―entered into temptation. This is very common, and many people walking in the streets today, it is very easy to pass many of them who are everyday people now, but they once were angels in the past. These fallen beings are represented in the book of Isaiah Chapter 14 verse 12. “How art this fallen from heaven, O shining star (Lucifer), son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground?” ―Isaiah 14:12 The word given here for the shining star is Lucifer. Lucifer comes from Luci-ferrus. Luci means “light,” feros, “carrier,” or someone who carries light. This is a symbol of the energy of Christ that descends down to help the fallen souls. Lucifer is not an image of a demon, which has been popularized within our mythologies, but is a sunderable part of the Intimate Christ. That energy has to descend down into the soul to lift it up. That Son of Man must descend from heaven and enter into to temptation and face those ordeals. Lucifer is that light, who is a part of our divinity, our Being, that gives us challenges and ordeals to face in order to overcome temptation. But in us, Lucifer is blackened. He is a demon because we have used that light in the wrong way, and once a human being is fully upright once again, like this pentagram, the light of Lucifer shines and is united with Christ―is one with Christ. But in us that light isn't pure. It has been abused. 
The Balance of Karma
So how do we return, back to the light? How do we transform that impure element, our defects into purity? The Arcanum 5: The Hierarch teaches us this.
We see here an image of the temple of Anubis, in which he is officiating and judging a certain soul, balancing his heart and his mind as we have been explaining. The law of karma teaches us cause and effect, action, from the Sanskrit karman. Every effect has a cause. Every cause has an effect. Anubis is the one who governs this law of compensation, of balance. We learn to overcome our errors, to learn to become upright human beings, by understanding this law of compensation, this law of balance. “Let no man cheat himself. Whatever a human being sows he will later reap. And his actions will follow him.” ―Galatians 6:7 A very famous saying by the Thelemites, teachings of Aleister Crowley, state that, "Do what thou wilt; that shall be the whole of the law.” This is mistaken. What we do has effects and therefore we have to answer to divinity for all of our deeds. It is not enough to do what one wills, but rather, to do it according to the will of divinity. That is how we acquired balance, how we create harmony. We state in this tradition, "Do what thou wilt, but know that you will have to answer for all of your deeds," because, precisely, our deeds are judged within the books of karma. As the Qur’an teaches us: The record of the vicious is indeed in Sijjīn. And what will show you what is Sijjīn? The word Sijjīn in Arabic refers to the lowest depths of hell, what they call the seventh level of hell, the inferno, or the ninth sphere of Kabbalah. We can use the Jewish or the Muslim traditions interchangeably… It is a written record. Woe to the deniers on that day, who deny the Day of Retribution; and none denies it except every sinful transgressor. ―Qur’an 83:7-12 But also, its states in the same sura, verses 18 through 23: The record of the pious is indeed in Illīyūn. And what will show you what is Illīyūn? The word in Arabic refers to a mountain, the heights, the top of the Tree of Life. In a surah of the Qur’an (Al-Tur), it says in the opening, "By the mount (or by the mountain of initiation, we give this Qur’an, this teaching), and by the Book Inscribed" (52:1-2). Think of Mount Olympus. It is a symbol of the Tree of Life because the superior dimensions are represented by the peak, which any initiate must climb in order to reach…. It is a written record, witnessed by those brought near to God. Indeed the pious shall be amid bliss, observing, as they recline on couches. ―Qur’an 83:18-23 
Kaom: The Police of Karma
There is a part of our divinity―whom we carry within, amongst the many parts of divinity, parts of our Being―that help to guide us and orient us in this spiritual work. There is one known as the Kaom, relating to the sphere of Geburah, the law.
The Kaom in the internal planes, the world of dreams, are represented by the police. These policemen or policewomen, this part of our Being, is our divine consciousness: that conscience that tells us what is right and what is wrong. In our dreams we may be accosted by the police, perhaps sent to jail or just confronted. This represents that the divine law is watching us. I have personally had many experiences with my Kaom in the astral plane, where I had to negotiate certain problems and issues with the police, because they represent the law. Not in the physical plane, but in the higher planes. 
They appear as police officers and they are called the Kaom, which is a rune in the Nordic alphabet, and we will be talking about in other lectures. The Rune Kaum or Kaom is the rune of the divine law, which resembles both Dorn and Thorn, representations and exercises of Christic will. The Kaom is part of our Being goes to the divine hierarchies, to Anubis, and informs the divinities of our actions. If we commit something wrong, we can't run away from our action. Instead, the law will confront us.
This is the supreme mercilessness of the law, but we have to understand too that the law is mercy, because you can negotiate. You can talk with the police and say, “I am very sorry about what I did. Here is what I'm going to do to rectify and pay for my errors, from this life or from past lives.” I once had the Kaom came to me in the astral plane, saying “This woman is very upset with you because you stole from her.” I know from this life I haven't committed that deed, but I know from past lives, obviously, I did. The officer asked me: “Are you going to pay part of it, some of it, right away, or with time?” I said, “I am going to pay all of it right away. Take everything.” He didn't say a word. He was just smiling, and he walked away. He was very pleased, because we have to pay our debts radically, and we do so by doing good deeds. Karma is negotiable. It isn't a blind law. You do something wrong―you get punished. Instead, you can communicate with divinity and ask for help. Say, “I want to negotiate this issue.” If you are having a certain problem or situation, a certain conflict, and you want to resolve it, not with pain, or better said without pain―instead we want to pay it with good deeds, because that balance that Anubis judges us with, tends to be tipped against our favor. We tend to have a lot of bad deeds on our plate, which weighs us down. This is something we can verify when we awaken our consciousness in the higher dimensions, through dream yoga. So you can negotiate your karma. You don't have to pay mechanically. Obviously, people who don't seek to change themselves, to pay their debts or do good deeds for others, to pay what they owe, they have to suffer. Obviously, there is a Law of the Talion there: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If we were robbed in this life, it most likely means that we stole in other lives. If we killed in past lives, we will be killed. If we committed adultery in past lives, it means in this life our partner will commit adultery against us. That is the mechanical law of retribution, but it doesn't have to be mechanical, because those laws are governed by divinity. You can negotiate face-to-face with Anubis and ask for certain credits, saying "I am sorry for what I did, but I am not just only sorry for what I did, but I am going to show you the actions that I am going to do to pay my debts.” That is how you pay your debts. Question: Can that state of consciousness be retained when you wake up? Instructor: It is perfectly lucid. You know in that state exactly what you are doing. Question: Can you retain it? Some occultists say it is hard to do. Sometimes you forget what you were told. You have little memory, but is this possible? Instructor: We have practices and a certain diet you can even engage with to help you with memory. I'll mention that to you later. But these states of consciousness are very clear when you are face-to-face. You are practicing dream yoga. You meditate. You awaken your consciousness, and you are talking face-to-face with Anubis. I mean, I have worked with Anubis many times because I have had certain issues that I couldn't reconcile. So, I had to ask for certain credits, and you can ask for credit with the sole condition that you are going to pay what you said you are going to pay. You promised, “I am going to do this, this, and this if you help me with this.” They will look at your case and the lawyers, the defense lawyers, will say “Okay, if it sounds kosher we will do it.” But if you don't follow your word, if you don't follow through with your actions, you will pay with pain. It is a very serious thing, because if you say you are going to do certain deeds to help pay your debt, to pay for that credit, and if you don't pay for it, it's like the credit card company. If you don't pay your debts, they will haunt you. They will come after you, and in this case, it will be more severe, because spiritually speaking, it is much more effectual. Question: What if you wake up and don't remember your dream? Instructor: To remember your dream, we have exercises, certain mantras such as Raom Gaom, which you can read about in the book Dream Yoga. Likewise, there is a simple diet you can use in the mornings, mostly consisting of citrus fruit and ground almonds with honey to help with the atoms in the memory, so that you remember exactly what you are experiencing. But when I am talking about this case, when you are talking to Anubis, or talking to any hierarch of the law, you have to be very humble and sincere―to say that whatever you are going to pay, you will pay. It is not a blind law. These are beings governed by love. These are divine beings. They are not vengeful. They don't want us to suffer, but they have to fulfill the law because the law is the law: cause and effect. The process by which you can balance your debts and become an upright human being, a pentagram, is one that you can negotiate. Question: What about for all the people out there? There is a difference between genuine ignorance and willed ignorance. Ignorance is you have this information and are not using it. There are a lot of people out there that just don't have this occult information so they wouldn't know the same reasoning of someone living in an island that never saw the Bible. Instructor: In past times that was an excuse, a very valid one, but now that we have our website (gnosticteachings.org) which, according to the Alexa, is the top 1% of visited websites in the world, there is no excuse anymore. People have the knowledge. But whether they follow through with it is another thing. 
The Four Principles of Karma
The cosmic law of karma is represented by the teachings of Tsong Khapa, who said in his Lam Rim Chen Mo: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, the four principles of karma. This is from the first volume of his teaching.
1. Actions produce related consequences.
Every action produces consequences (or related consequences). If I become angry at another person and yell, that person could start shouting in retaliation. My rage therefore provoked this person and produced a related consequence: that of an escalating argument.
2. The consequences are greater than the actions.
Now this might seem a little bit counterintuitive, how we know from Newtonian physics that “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” But actually, the reality is much different. “
The results are greater than the action." It is very evident if we have a certain situation at work where someone gossips about another person and people believe it, it starts spreading and spreading and spreading and causing a big commotion, like a stone dropping to a lake and the ripples extending all the way out to the edges of the pond and even the depth of the water. So, the effects are greater than the actions that caused them. It is always a rippling effect, a magnification. I am sure we can think of other examples from our own experience that demonstrate this, but we have to remember that a negative action can cause great trauma for another person or other people. The words of one individual or politician from any time in history have been enough to destroy millions of human beings. So, think about that. One person can make such a massive effect on a negative scale but also on a positive scale. So, we can look at Dalai Lama. He is a great master of Tibetan Buddhism, but also of Gnosticism. He is an upright pentagram, a real human being. He stated that "If you think that you can't make a difference, simply think about a fly that is bothering you when you are trying to sleep." No matter how small our actions may seem, the consequences are always greater. If we do one good deed before divinity, that amplifies. Divinity rewards us in accordance with that, no matter how small the deed is. 3. You cannot receive the consequence without committing its corresponding action.
Meaning you cannot receive the karma of another person. If someone commits one action, say, commits murder, one's wife does not go to jail for it. The husband does. There is some confusion amongst esoteric circles that people can share karma or punishment from other people. That is mistaken. But one thing is, you cannot receive the consequence without committing its corresponding action. And then:
4. Once an action is performed, the consequence cannot be erased.
So, what we do is always enmeshed. It is permanent. The effects of our actions cannot be taken back. This is obvious.
Question: Does that include thoughts? Instructor: Our thoughts are actions too. The Fifth Principle of Karma: Mercy and Superior Action
We have to understand that in accordance with the higher laws and higher teaching, a superior law always washes away an inferior law. So, if we may have committed a wrong action in the past, if we replace it with a superior action, a real act of compassion and consciousness, we can wash away our debts.
If we said something wrong to someone and then we later apologized and really mean it, that is an example, of a small case, of a superior law washing away an inferior low. But even in the highest sense, when we recognize our past actions from past lives and see the things that we did, and witness them in the Akashic light, the Akashic Records, we can learn how to pay our debts by doing good deeds. We have the evidence that shows us that this is what we were in the past and now we have to change. We learn to change and help others based on our actions, based on our qualifications, as I said. But best said, the supreme way to pay our debts is to have upright thought, upright feeling, upright action. Psychologically speaking, we need to be an upright pentagram. We have to be in control of ourselves, in control of our impulses, so that we don't constantly gestate negative results―acting through ego, egotism, hate, violence, pride, etc. As the Book of Matthew states: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge (Anubis), and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” ―Matthew 5:25-26 So we can pay with pain or we can pay with wisdom. There is a superior method. The way that we learn to pay our karma is best by learning to work on our ego, our defects, as we teach in our practices of meditation: to comprehend our faults, and to pray to our Divine Mother Kundalini to eliminate them after we have comprehended them in depth. In that way, the soul is liberated. Of course, we will be giving courses and explanations and we have many resources available to teach you how to do that, which we don't have the time in the length of this lecture. [Study the course on Gnostic Meditation: especially the exercise of Retrospection Meditation]. Psalm 119 and the Hebrew Letter ה Hei
But at the end of every lecture on the Eternal Tarot, we also talk about the Hebrew letters. The fifth Hebrew letter isה Hei. From Psalm 119, verses 33 to 40, we find each verse starts with the letterה Hei. The previous verses of this Psalm talked about the spiritual law in-depth, the Dharma, the Torah, the teaching. Some of these verses began with א Aleph, others with ב Beth, others with ג Gimel, ד Daleth. Now, we are atה Hei, the fifth letter. Some of these versus really synthesize what we are teaching here.
33. Teach me, Oh יהוה Iod-Havah, the path of your statutes and I will keep it to the end. Meaning: when we have really verified for ourselves this path and have talked with divinity, and seen the crimes we committed in the past, and which we seek to pay for, and therefore “I will keep your statutes to the end. “ 34. Bestow me with your understanding, thus I will keep your law and observe it with my whole heart (Tiphereth). So through the heart is how we balance the law, the scale. 35. Cause me to walk on the path of your commands for in it I delight! Because through this path we obtain equilibrium, harmony, peace and real equanimity. 36. Bow my heart to your testimonies and not to unjust gain. 37. Turn away my eyes from seeing vanity; give me life on your path. 38. Substantiate your Word in your servant, who is devoted to you in awe. What is this Word? It is the pentagram, because the pentagram is the five lettered word―the expression of divinity―the word made flesh as taught through the life of Jesus. 39. Turn away my accusation which I fear (meaning the punishment I know is coming to me as a result of my poor actions.), for your judgments are righteous. We know that this law is not mechanical. It is given to us because we deserve it, and as a type of medicine for the soul, because if we don't learn from our past actions, we won't change. 40. Behold, I have longed for your precepts; grant me life in your righteousness. ―Psalm 119 
The Gnostic Symbolism of ה Hei
The Hebrew letterה Hei represents the womb, the feminine yoni. We have the sacred name יהוה Iod-Havah. As we explained in previous lectures, it represents י Iod, the man, ה Hei, the woman, וVav, the phallus, ה Hei, the uterus. Within the sacred name of יהוה Jehovah, we find the masculine and feminine principles manifest. So, the וVav is this is the phallus as we explained previously. The ה Hei is the womb from which our spirituality is gestated, not only materially, but spiritually speaking within the higher dimensions.
So the ה Hei is this cup of the Holy Grail. It is through the lance of Longinus, the phallus and the yoni, the Holy Grail, by which we obtain salvation, represented in the top left image of the woman holding the Holy Grail in her hand—which should be silver—but silver represents the moon, the feminine forces, the Divine Mother. She has a holy dove behind her representing the Holy Spirit. The letter ה Hei, with its three lines, represents those three solar bodies I mentioned to you previously. We can say that the horizontal line is the causal body. The vertical right line is the mental body. Then the separated ו Vav or transverse line represents the solar astral body. These are solar vehicles we create through the womb of alchemy. When man and woman unite and learn to conserve that power, they can create vehicles through that energy, which exists within themselves, which they can use to navigate the higher dimensions. Those are called the solar bodies. They are vehicles that can express the light of Christ, the energy of the Lord. The letter ה Hei is the womb that receives the seed, the energy of the Divine Father in order to create life. This is obvious. So, the letter ה Hei is taught in the Bhagavad-Gita in synthesis, as the womb of the Divine Mother, because every initiate is born within the womb of the Divine Mother Kundalini. That is a symbol of how in a matrimony, יה Iod Hei, man and woman, work with ו Vav and ה Hei, with spiritual purity, in order to connect and use that power to create the solar vehicles. The Bhagavad-Gita states in Chapter 14 verse 4: “The Great Prakriti is my womb (speaks Krishna or Christ); in which I place the seed; thence, oh Bharata (Arjuna, my human soul, Tiphereth), is the birth of all beings! Whatever forms are produced, Oh Kountreya, in any womb whatsoever, the Prakriti (Divine Mother Kundalini) is their womb and I am the seed-giving father (Christ).” —Bhagavad-Gita 14:4 
So these lines bear a sexual connotation associated with the myth of Abraham and the path of initiation, which I want to emphasize. From chapter 17 of Genesis, of בראשית Bereshit, we find that אברהם Abraham, better known as אברם Abram at that point, was 99 years old. He confronted and went into the wilderness and met with divinity by the name of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai, which translates from Hebrew, the Almighty Living God. We emphasized in our last lectures that this is the power of Yesod in Kabbalah, the creative potential.
Shaddai El Chai, we emphasized in the lecture related to ד Daleth, Arcanum 4: The Emperor, is the doorway to enter into initiation. So, Abraham was 99 years old, and if you add the numbers Kabbalistically: 9 plus 9, you have 18, then add 1 plus 8 equals 9 again. 9 refers to in Kabbalah, the ninth sphere of Tree of Life, represented by Yesod, the foundation stone. This is the cubic stone of the Masons, the foundation of our spiritual temple, how we use that power in order to become an upright pentagram. I'd like to read for you the mysteries of the letter ה Hei of initiation (in Chapter 17 of Genesis), of working in a marriage in order to give birth to the soul. 1. And when אברם Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord יהוה) Iod-Havah) appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the שדי אל (Shaddai El) Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. Meaning the soul, or better said Abram represents our Spirit. Chesed is Abram who becomes, through the knowledge of Da’ath (alchemy): Abraham. We talked about initiation in depth, in the past lecture on the Magician. A real initiate is the Being, divinity. The one who acquires powers and blessings and knowledge is divinity. We are instrumental in that process, but the Spirit is the one who acquires development, cognizance, powers, etc. Those things belong to God. We just have to do our part. Jehovah said, or better said, שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai (the Almighty Living God within Yesod, the sexual power) states: 2. And I will make my covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 3. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4. As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. We could say not physical nations, like the many Muslims and Jews believe, but it refers to the spiritual nations—the development of our soul. This covenant, we explained in our last lecture is ברית אש Berit-Esh, in the Book of Genesis. The beginning of that scripture states: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ Bereshit Bara Elohim At Hashamayim Vay’at Ha’aretz Bereshit, in the beginning, can translate as ברית אש Berit-Esh. We stated, it means “Pact of Fire,” which is the pact of a matrimony, because through the sexual act is how one awakens the fire of love. But one must learn to be chaste in that sexual act, to be pure. It doesn't mean to refrain from sex, but it means to be pure in that sexual act. This is when Shaddai El Chai speaks: 5. Neither shall thy name any more be called אברם Abram, but thy name shall be אברהם Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. So if you add the letter ה Hei to אברם Abram and you spell אברהם Abraham. So, this teaches us what the letter ה Hei signifies: the gestation, the creation of the soul within the womb of our Divine Mother. 6. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. Meaning: those upright pentagrams that emerge from your work, you many human beings, made in the image of God. 7. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. That seed is our sexual seed which can give life physically or spiritually, depending on how we use it. 8. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 9. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 
So what are these generations? The Tree of Life. So all the figures in the Bible can be mapped on this glyph. Abraham is the Spirit, Isaac is Geburah, and Jacob is Tiphereth—many interesting correlations that we can interpret from this Tree of Life. It is not literally referring to people in the history, but something symbolic.
Many Kings will be born from this work of אברם Abram, who has become אברהם Abraham, the Innermost Spirit who is working within the spinal column of any initiate who is practicing sexual magic. 10. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. Obviously, there is something symbolic here. It is not necessarily literal, for as Paul of Tarsus States in his Epistles, the physical circumcision doesn't matter. The physical removal of the foreskin of the phallus is an aid for the male practitioners in order that they do not stimulate so much fire in the sexual act that they lose their energy. The alchemist learns to conserve that power, to not expel it. So, these practitioners would remove the foreskin of the phallus so that they would not be over-stimulated in the sexual act. It also is a symbol, more importantly, of how one removes the animality, the animal flesh, this animal psyche, from that sexual act. That is the more important spiritual circumcision that Paul of Tarsus speaks. 11. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. This is how we generate, to create life. בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit means “genesis, generation,” and all the generations of the tribes of Israel are mapped on the Tree of Life, respectively of which we will be speaking about in other lectures. 13. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised… Meaning: remove the animality from your psyche. Remove lust and transform the sexual act into a sacrament of love, of purity. 13. …and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised (that soul that is not removed the impurity of the psyche), that soul shall be cut off from his people (the people of the higher Tree of Life, the spiritual congregation); he hath broken my covenant (which is again Berit-Esh, Bereshit: “In the beginning or in wisdom, Elohim creates heavens and earth,” which is a symbol of the our psyche, the heavens, which are created through alchemy.) 15. And God said unto Abraham, As for שָׂרַי Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name שָׂרַי Sarai, but שָׂרָה Sarah shall her name be. אברם Abram becomes אברהם Abraham through the letter ה Hei. שָׂרַי Sarai becomes שָׂרָה Sarah, through the letter ה Hei. Of course, they are old in this time and they complain to Shaddai El Chai,”How can I give birth, children, when I am sterile?” Meaning, symbolically, “How can I give birth to the soul when my mind is very weak from so much fornication: abuse of this sexual energy? How can I create something spiritually in me?” But Shaddai El Chai says: 16. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. The Bible also states, “בהבראם Behibaram: These are the generations of the heavens and the earth were created “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth—בהבראם behibaram—when they were created—in the day that Jehovah Elohim יהוה אלהים made the earth and the heavens…” —Genesis 2:4 The Zohar teaches us that בהבראם behibaram is an acrostic for “by אברהם Abraham,” that spiritual force, that Spirit who works within husband and wife to create the soul. 16. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. —Genesis 17:16 Paul of Tarsus in the Book of Galatians states: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ (the creative sexual energy.) --Galatians 3:16 Conclusion: Preparing Gnostic Talismans
To conclude, I will give you some practical applications that you can use for your own work. We talked about the upright pentagram, and if you are interested in acquiring a pentagram as a necklace, a medallion, a talisman, you can get one. I know a few people who do make these, but these are medallions that have the seven metals of our solar system, which are important for charging and manifesting spiritual forces from above. We learn to consecrate and bless pentagrams through a certain ritual, which is explained in the book The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled.
A pentagram can have the seven metals related to Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn: silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin, lead. Those are the metals that relate to the seven planets. You can learn to consecrate the pentagram by blessing it with the five perfumes, including sulfur, camphor, aloe, myrrh, and frankincense. Sulfur helps to remove impurities from the environment when you burn it together as a substance on a charcoal. It is important that we learn to cleanse ourselves of any negative elements by using any type of perfume of that nature. Sulfur is very toxic, so be careful with it. Use very little amounts [Editor’s Note: see the following article: How Should I Use Incense?] You can use sage which I have available here. You can learn to perfume your body, to remove any negative element that may attach itself to your physical body or internal bodies. Sage is excellent for that. But sulfur rejects tenebrous forces and camphor attracts success. Frankincense, aloe, and myrrh help to invoke the higher forces. You can bless your pentagrams. I have one myself, but you can get a hold of one with the seven metals and bless it with the five perfumes [You can also learn more here: How Should I Use the Pentagram?] My suggestion is that if you really wish to learn how to negotiate your karmic debts, learn to astral travel, so that when you are in the internal planes, you can speak face-to-face with Anubis and negotiate any debts that you have. Learn to pay them consciously, and that way they will teach you how to be upright—how to walk right as a true human being, a pentagram. Questions and Answers
Question: Is this recording the same as the Akashic Records?
Instructor: It is similar. Everything is recorded within the Akashic Records for sure, but there are books that divinity have in their temples, which they examine, in order to observe the conduct of the soul, that they show you what were your good actions and what were incorrect. Question: This is also universal, meaning not just this life but previous lives? Instructor: Exactly, in past existences, you can look up in your records. Likewise, in the Akashic Records too. You can see visually in that Astral Light, that astral dimension what you did in the past. Divinity will show you that. Comment: In Kabbalah, the best definition that I have heard is that Satan or the demon is a bad energy with a positive purpose. Instructor: That energy... we need to face temptation so that we can acquire light. Temptation is fire. Triumph over temptation is light, understanding, wisdom. There is a certain necessity for that power to descend from the Tree of Life above to enter into manifestation, so that the soul can gain understanding of those different levels and laws, which are represented in the arcanum five: the law of karma. Question: I got to ask you, just bringing up what you said. These people, they do not have the knowledge. But some light has to go on in their head, to tell them that, you know, the curiosity, whatever, and they go through life without even being aware that they should do it. People go from the cradle to the grave and nothing happened along these lines (without knowing any of this). Is that their karma that the light didn’t go on in their head? That they didn’t become aware of the necessity to do these spiritual things? Instructor: It is also the will of the Being. The Being may not be driving that person to work, to want to attain mastery, to obtain knowledge. Not all Spirits want to do the spiritual work, but in these times, this information is now very open, very accessible. People who want the knowledge will find it. So it is up to their individual drive. Question: Is coming to this meetup group good karma? Instructor: What you do with it is what counts. That's the thing. Your actions determine your results. Comment: Also, I read from Manly P. Hall that it's dangerous to talk about the occult unless really knowing it very well and Madame Blavatsky talks about that too. Instructor: Performing karma yoga is not necessarily about teaching. It doesn't have to be. But you learn to serve humanity in your way depending on your dispensation, your qualifications. You do what you can based on what you know, and what you verified from experience. That is how you help others. Question: So it could be as simple as planting seeds for people? Instructor: Exactly. You never know when someone will change. We have no idea. We can't judge another person, only God can do that, but you offer the help. If they change, great. If not, it is their business. Question: What is the best book to learn to astral travel? Instructor: We have a book called Dream Yoga, which is a collection of chapters and explanations that Samael Aun Weor gave from different writings. Comment: Just in general, a couple of things that Christ said...They are so allegorical, but they don't seem to mention what is behind for instance, “Become thee wise as a serpent.” Kundalini! We heard many people talk about it in lectures, but very few many know the meaning behind that. So much is allegory… “In my Father's house there are many mansions…” Instructor: בהבראם Behibaram—these are the generations that created the heaven and the earth. Those are the houses and mansions that the Lord inhabits. Question: Yeah, but how many preachers know what that means? They always quote these but that's it. It's like surface meaning. What is so important… what is really behind it... in these religious groups, you never hear about it explained the way you are doing it here. Instructor: Which is why I emphasize, if you really want to know these things, meditate and learn to astral travel so that you are investigating these things—you will know it. Comment: Apparently, they haven't. Instructor: Which is why Christ said, “Beware of false prophets because many will come in My name and will mislead many.” The Qur’an says there is nothing worse than an idolatrous imam. Or the heart doctrine teaches, it is one of the greatest sins to teach what you don't know, because then you will pay. The law of karma will judge you. They [the masters of the law] have told me: teach what you know. If that helps, great, because you can't teach what you don't know. Don't judge because they are at their level and they don't want to change. So, it's their business. What can we do? As the Qur’an says, “You [Muhammad] are merely a prophet”—and I am not saying I am a prophet, but anyone who is teaching is giving the doctrine—"Don't be concerned with them. You are not a watcher over them.” Let them be. If they want to learn, give them what can help them. That is how we balance our karma. We give accordance with our disposition, our ability. Not on what we think we can do, but what we can do, because the law judges us on the effects of our causes, our actions. If we can't help someone a certain way, then train and practice and then eventually, depending on whatever you need to do, you can do it. That is how you are helped when you go to court—when you are presented before the law, and they have to judge you, and say “You need to pay for certain things.” Question: Do you have a list of resources? Instructor: I do. We have many books. You can also access a lot of that material online. We have them available here too. But we have many courses online within Glorian.org [formerly gnosticteachings.org] as well as chicagognosis.org. I can give you some resources too. 
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.” 
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 At Shamayim And "the heavens…” ―Genesis 1:1 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." 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. “I have confessed my ways and you responded to me. Teach me your statutes” (meaning: your laws, your commandments, the arcana, the twenty-two Hebrew letters of Kabbalah, and the twenty-two arcana of the tarot). “Make me understand the path of your precepts and I will meditate on your wonders. “My soul (Nephesh) drops with grief. Strengthen me according to your Word (Chokmah, Christ). “Remove me from the path of lying and favor me with your law (your arcanum, which is the pact of fire, ברית אש Berit-Esh, the law of divinity works through sexual alchemy. That is the law, the arcanum, the teaching, which is now being made public). “I have chosen the path of truth (which we can say is ת Tav in Hebrew, the last letter of the kabbalistic alphabet, the seal of truth); “I have held the level of your judgments. "I have clung to your testimonies. O Jehovah (יהוה Iod-Havah). Do not put me to shame. "I will walk on the path of your commands; thus you enlarge my heart." 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. 2. But he (Chokmah the Christ) that entered by the door (of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai, this foundation stone of the temple) is the shepherd of the sheep (meaning: those people who are seeking to enter into initiation). 3. To him, (Chokmah) the porter (the initiates of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai) opens and the sheep (the souls of Malkuth who seek to become initiates) hear his voice and he calls his own sheep (or souls) by name, and lead them (out into the higher sephiroth). 4. And when He (Chokmah) puts forth his own sheep (meaning: the masters or shepherds of initiation who lead the flocks to the higher dimensions), he goes before them, and the sheep (the spiritual masters) follow him for they know His voice (meaning that Word has been made flesh in them through initiation). 5. And a stranger (meaning the ego, the black magicians, the fornicators) will they not follow, but flee from Him, for they know not the (fornicating) voice (or fornicator voice) of strangers (the strange ones are, of course, the demons of Klipoth, strangers to God). 6. This (kabbalistic) parable spoke Jesus (our Inner Christ) unto them, but they understood not what things which he spoke unto them. 7. Then said Jesus (the Intimate Christ) unto them again: Verily, verily I say unto you, I (Chokmah Christ, through the power of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai), am the door (the door into entering the higher sephiroth of the Tree of Life) of the sheep (or souls, Nephesh, who are still animalistic, imprisoned in Assiah, the world of matter, of Malkuth and of hell, Klipoth). 8. “All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers (meaning those false prophets and demons and black magicians who teach one to be an animal in the sexual act) but the sheep (the souls who are trapped in Assiah and Klipoth, Malkuth, in hell) did not hear them. 9. I (Chokmah Christ through Shaddai El Chai) am the door, by me if any humble person, (poor person, a darvish, through initiation) enters in, he shall be saved, and shall go out (and in through the door of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai) and find pasture. Again pasture relates to field, שדה Shadeh. Someone who has found pasture for the sheep is in the heavenly realms, through the power of שדי Shaddai. 10. “The thief (meaning the Ba’alim in Hebrew, the black magicians, the devils or fornicators) come not but for to steal ,and to kill, and to destroy (the soul): I (Chokmah Christ through שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai) have come that they (parts of the soul) may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. 11. “I (Chokmah Christ through שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai) am the good shepherd: the good shepherd (meaning through the initiations of the Tree of Life, through alchemy) gives his life for the sheep. 12. But he (the soul) that is a hireling (someone who only works selfishly) and not the shepherd (meaning a master of Major Mysteries) whose own sheep are not, he sees the wolf (meaning the black magicians) coming and leaves the sheep and flees: and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep (into hell). 13. The hireling who only works (selfishly) flees because he is a hireling (who only works for himself) and he cares not for the sheep (or souls who are in Assiah or in Klipoth). 14. “I (Chokmah Christ through שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai) am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. 15. As the Father (Kether) knows me (through Da’ath, alchemy) even so I, the Father: and I (through the initiation of Tiphereth) lay down my life for the sheep. 16. And other sheep (souls) I have, which are not of this fold (of initiates), them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice, and there should be one fold of masters and one shepherd (which is Christ). 17. Therefore as my Father (Kether) loves me because I (Chokmah as the Son of Man, the power through שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai) lay down my life that I may take it again. 18. No (selfish) man takes it from me but I (according to my initiation in Tiphereth) lay it down of myself, I have power to lay it down and (if the master chooses the fall) I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father (Kether)." ―John 10:1-18 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: gnosticteachings.org and chicagognosis.ors as well, 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.
In this course, we’ve been discussing the nature of numerology, numbers, and its mystical application within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and all religions. Numbers in themselves are intuitive principles; they express and elaborate the path of the soul in its unification with divinity. This path is taught, in a didactic manner, within the Egyptian Tarot, the Torat, the Torah, which literally means “law” or “laws.” Numbers describe laws in nature, the steps the soul needs to follow to achieve religare, religion, reunion. The knowledge of the path, based on experience, is gnosis, what we have verified through facts, what we know for ourselves.
There are two forms of nature: material and spiritual. Numbers govern the laws of both natures, both worlds. The number three is particularly important in relation to this, because the number three is the law of creation, the law origination, of genesis. We spoke previously about the first card of the tarot: The Magician. This is the masculine principle that initiates life, the force that begins any endeavor, whether material, economic, psychological, or spiritual. However, the masculine, positive, of affirming force cannot develop, unfold, or impact anything without his counterpart, his feminine unfoldment, the Second Arcanum: The Priestess of the Tarot. She is the divine feminine within our consciousness. She is the negative or, better said, receptive force of nature that receives the masculine impulse, but to achieve what? 
Man and woman in unison are represented by the holy name of divinity in Judaism: יהוה Jehovah, properly pronounced Jah-Chavah. Jah is the Divine Father, the masculine entity. Chavah is the negative or receptive force, the Divine Mother. Jah is represented by Adam. Chavah is represented by Eve, the “mother of the living” in Genesis.
As we've explained previously, the Hebrew letter ו Vav represents the phallus. The Hebrew letter ה Hei represents the uterus. Together, through the power of love, אל El, the spirit, Chesed in Kabbalah, they unite as the reconciling force of the divine mother, אלוה Eloah, the Empress. When man and woman sexually unite, they give birth to a child. Just as husband and wife can give birth to a physical child, they likewise can give birth to the golden child of alchemy, the spiritual force known as Christ, Khristos, in Greek; who is an enlivening, spiritual fire that radically transforms our psychology when we have been properly prepared through scientific procedures. Nature does not ignore the laws upon which it is founded. If we want to create life, we need a man and a woman. All of nature is governed by sexuality. This no one can deny. Life cannot exist for human beings, for animals, for plants, without the unity of masculine and feminine. Even chemicals, molecules, unite and join through sexual bonds, to create new substances, elements, or qualities, new compounds. The same principle applies to spirituality, for as Jesus taught: 
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
"Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." —John 3:3-6 Nicodemus was a literal man. Likewise, many people who read the teachings of Jesus. The prophet was speaking about the need to transform the sexual act into a sacrament, to not approach sex in the manner of everyday persons. He is speaking about the third arcanum of the Tarot: The Empress, how a man and woman can give birth to spiritual consciousness. For when the Magician works with his priestess, when the Divine Father, the masculine force, and the Divine Mother, or feminine force, work within us, they can give birth to the purified soul, represented by Sol, S-O-L, the Sun, the Solar Christic force, free of defect, blemish, or impurity. Spiritual birth or creation is the third force, the force of reconciliation. These three forces are well cited by Gurdjieff: the positive masculine force is Affirmation, the negative / receptive feminine force is Negation. When they join, they unify through the synthesis, the union, the force of Reconciliation. Sexuality is the force of Reconciliation, how husband and wife come to enjoy the conciliating forces of divine love. 
The Empress
The Third Arcanum of the Tarot is light, signified in Genesis 1:3, יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Yehi Ha-Aur, Va-Yehi-Aur: “Let there be light, and there was light.” The number three is precisely the life or light of comprehension, of spirituality, that is gestated, between husband and wife in the perfect matrimony and, more importantly, in meditation.
The woman represents the divine, feminine soul or consciousness. She is clothed in white garments, which represents the solar bodies. The Gospels speak about the Wedding Garment of the Soul, the solar vehicles (see Matthew 22), of which we spoke about in our lecture entitled The Solar Bodies, available on our website: chicagognosis.org. A vehicle is a means by which something is transferred. Therefore, for the light or energy of Christ, to manifest within our soul, we need to create the solar bodies. Just as light cannot function without a bulb, we cannot manifest the supreme energies of divinity without purifying ourselves and giving birth to the soul or solar bodies. We must have a mind, heart, vitality, and body that resonates with higher laws. Our mind, heart, vitality, and body, the lower four vehicles at the bottom of the Tree of Life, are afflicted with suffering, with conditions, with mechanical ways of behaving, represented by the moon. Netzach (mind), Hod (emotions), Yesod (vitality), and Malkuth (physicality) are governed by lunar desires. The moon governs mechanical forces or laws in nature. Therefore, our egos, desires, and defects are represented by the moon as well, because they are conditions, mechanical habits or behaviors. We must transform our psyche into a sun. This means that our willpower overcomes its conditioning so it can vibrate and transmit superior forces. This is accomplished in the perfect matrimony. The Empress is in white garments because she is pure in thought, word, and deed. She is the Christified Soul, a consciousness that only knows how to do the will of divinity. The Empress is represented by the Greeks as Urania-Venus. She is of the stars, of divinity. In Chaldean, Ur-Anas, signifies “fire” or “light” and “water.” That light is generated when we learn to work with our sexual waters, our seminal energy, and practice meditation. Light is created through harnessing the fire of sexuality. She sits on the cubic stone, referring to the stone of the Masons, the sacred Ka’ba of Islam, the power of Yesod: the Foundation Stone of our temple. This stone is shown resting above a crescent moon, demonstrating that the soul has conquered instinct, sex, and desire: the vital forces of nature. The symbol of Islam also shows the crescent moon with the star of Venus, indicating how the lunar energies are transformed through the star of love. Therefore, a true believer in esoteric Islam is one who works with Yesod and governs it in him or herself. The twelve stars residing above the head of the Empress signify the twelve faculties of the spiritual human being: the five senses plus clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, polyvoyance, omniscience, and other refined senses of the soul. The twelve stars also represent the Zodiac and the twelve tribes of Israel. The Empress is greeted by a bird, sacred symbol of the Third Logos, the Third Force known as Binah in Kabbalah. This is the white dove of the Holy Spirit. She also bears a staff in her right hand, indicating that through the work of the spinal column, of raising the power of the Holy Spirit or Kundalini up the medulla to the brain, one achieves genuine religion. 
Explanation of the Third Arcanum
The number three is sacred, the law of creation is divine, and is found in many scriptures and cosmogonies. But the law of three is best explained through studying the Kabbalah: The Tree of Life. This is a map depicting different levels of consciousness, in all levels of matter, manifestation, expression, and abstraction / potentiality.
The Tree of Life is governed by the law of three. We find three triangles. The top is the Logoic Triangle, constituted of Kether, Chokmah, and Binah in Hebrew: Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding or Intelligence. These are the First, Second, and Third Logos: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Christianity. It's important to understand that the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit are not people, but energies in nature. We find the holy trinity, this primordial root energy, behind every level of nature and experience. In the atom, we find the proton represents the Divine Masculine; the electron represents the Divine Feminine; and the neutron represents the Holy Spirit that binds these two forces together, to create an atom, a unity. The second triangle, in middle of this glyph, is the Ethical Triangle, constituted of Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth: Mercy, Justice, and Beauty. These constitute our Innermost God, known as Mercy; the divine consciousness, known as Justice, and the human consciousness known as Beauty, respectively. Tiphereth is the beauty of our soul that we develop through the application of willpower. This is a human quality. When we talked about the Magician, we spoke about how our own willpower must obey divine will, Chesed: the spirit, as well as the Logoic Triangle above. Kether, the Father, the Magician, must manifest in our willpower, Tiphereth, in our heart. Remember that when you transpose the Tree of Life on the image of a human being, Tiphereth resides in the heart. The spirit, Chesed, is divine, and is also represented by the First Arcanum of the Tarot: The Magician. There are levels of divinity. We say that our Innermost Being is Chesed. But even Chesed has His Innermost Being, known as Kether. These are levels upon levels of experience, for as the Qur’an teaches us in Surah Al-Nur, verse 35: “Light upon light!” Tiphereth is our willpower that is enmeshed in psychological impurity, in selfishness, egotism. Our present consciousness is a fraction of Tiphereth, an embryo of our full human potential and will. Parts of our consciousness are trapped in defects, vices, errors, represented by qualities of mind (Netzach, known as Victory in Hebrew), qualities of heart (Hod, known as Glory), qualities of vitality, instinct, or energy, known in the East as chi, (or Yesod in Hebrew, translating as Foundation), which all manifest in our physical body (Malkuth). 
The Law of Three and the Three Brains
You can see that the law of three permeates every level of existence, of nature. More practically for us, we can relate the law of three to our three brains.
A brain in esoterism does not exclusively refer to the cranial center, but to a psycho-somatic machine that processes material, psychic, and spiritual forces. The three brains are how we relate to life, and it is in this manner that the law of three becomes most practical for our studies. The intellectual brain processes thought and is a vehicle of the mind (Netzach) on the Tree of Life. It is how thought can express. Thought is a form of psychological energy that manifests within our physical brain, yet it is not limited to the physical brain. This is evident by a profound study of dreams, of awakening consciousness within the dream state, whereby we realize we are not in our physical body, Malkuth, but the fifth dimension: the astral and mental planes. The emotional brain is the machine that focuses and processes sentiment, feeling, like, dislike, love, hate, etc. The emotional brain is constituted by our physical heart and its nervous systems, which materially manifest the energies of Hod on the Tree of Life. The motor-instinctive-sexual brain is a machine that process vitality, the energies of procreation and life. It is the brain of movement, impulse, and sexuality. It can be said to be the brain of action, for it is our motor capacities, our impulses, and our sexual drives that push us to act. This is well known in media and advertisements, which use our most base impulses to try to get us to purchase their products. The motor-instinctive-sexual brain relates to Yesod in Kabbalah. The foundation of our spiritual life is based on how we not only govern our mind and heart, but also our body. Our body is the vehicle through which our egotism, our desires, act. We tend not to be very conscious of our impulses, because these operate in a very quick fashion. The energies of movement, instinct, and sex are very fast and hard to perceive and control. The heart is also difficult control, especially in moments of anger, because emotional energy functions on a very fast level, yet not as quickly as sexual energy. The intellect is the easiest to control, because it is the slowest of the three brains, despite what modern psychologists or esotericists may think. Sexual energy is the most powerful force we carry within us. It is the force that gives us magnetism, internal chemistry, metabolism, catabolism, and drive. It can be used for creating material life, or if we know how, spiritual life. So why study the three brains? Why study the Tree of Life in relation to the Third Arcanum? It is by studying ourselves and the dynamics of our mind, heart, energy / body, that we create spiritual life. We must learn to dominate our mind, heart, and bodily energies through willpower. Tiphereth is willpower and is in the very center of the Tree of Life. This graphic cannot function without the exercise of will. However, what willpower are we actualizing here and now? Is it selfish, egotistical, or unconditioned, pure? Is our willpower following divinity above, or is our will catering to our selfish thoughts, selfish feelings, and cravings and lusts of the flesh? We must learn to perceive with our willpower and divine consciousness how our defects of mind, heart, and body produce suffering. What are the thoughts and anxieties we experience? Where do they come from and why? What are our attachments and insecurities? What psychological qualities do we carry within that make us dejected? Frustrated? Vain? Proud? What are our defects that make us vibrate at a very low level of being? We need to know the psychological obstacles if we want to ascend to a higher level of being. We create our psychological experience based on our perception of the moment, which are conditioned and crafted based on our use of the three brains: thought, feeling, and will. If we want happiness, to create a spiritual life inside of us, we must intimately comprehend and control our thoughts, feelings and impulses, our three brains, using willpower, Tiphereth. This is the quality that can make us true humans, spiritual beings. Remember that the Magician of the Tarot needs to organize the contents of the table in the first card to be a priest, to conquer the four elements represented by the quadrature of the table. He accomplishes this by means of the wand, symbol of the phallus, of masculine or assertive spiritual will. The four elements are represented by the following Hebrew letters:
A practical magician has complete control over the aerial nature of his thoughts, to yoke the tempests of antithetical thinking to replace it with the calm, natural, flowing winds of a heavenly, serene mind. Likewise, he controls the fires of the heart, curtailing any explosions of anger, resentment, fear, etc., to replace it with the fire of cognizant love. And likewise, a practical magician controls his sexual waters, who never wastes them through acts of desire. All of this is obtained by managing the physical body, the earth. An explanation of these four elements will be forthcoming in our lecture for Arcanum 4: The Emperor. But you can see how the law of three organizes the Kabbalah. The three mother letters of Kabbalah constitute an important trinity, not only within our three brains, but in the Tree of Life. Aleph can signify the Magician, Kether; Shin, or the sacred fire or Menorah of Christ with its three wicks, represents Chokmah, the Second Arcanum. And the third force, the force of reconciliation, is found within Binah: the Holy Spirit, the Third Arcanum as the power of Mem, the waters of sexuality. 
When you transpose the Tree of Life on a human being, the Logoic Triangle governs the head (Aleph), the Ethical Triangle governs the torso and heart (Shin), and the Magical Triangle, constituted by Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, relates to Mem, how we use our waters. Aleph has three iods, signifying the three primary forces of nature. Shin also has three wicks or points, indicating the union of Chesed, the spirit, Geburah, the divine soul, and Tiphereth, the human soul.
In relation to the elements, the true gnostic seeks to comprehend his or her defects and overcome them, to become cognizant of their sources. We do so by analyzing our three brains and how they function. We must understand how our mind is in turmoil, storming between thesis and antithesis, positive and negative concepts. Constant thinking is an obstacle to genuine self-knowledge, of spirituality, of gnosis. Genuine experiential knowledge of the higher worlds, of divinity, is only accessible by the consciousness, when the mind is still and serene, when it is not blowing like a hurricane. The mind tends to be caught between two extremes of thinking: accepting or rejecting ideas. The mind, in its conflict, becomes peaceful as we learn to apply the third force: reconciliation or comprehension. Who is the one that must achieve comprehension? The silencing or serenity of the mind? The consciousness, through the application of will. Comprehension arrives when we introspect, when we learn to observe our mind, heart, and body with the sense of self-observation, with self-analysis, through the perception of unconditioned consciousness. Three forces apply to the psychological work: when we begin to affirm the work of self-observation, we encounter resistance. Resistance is the force of the ego, of our defects, that does not want to be discovered and removed. Therefore, meditation is essential, to sit quietly and examine the mind without external distractions. We learn to introspect and observe our defects, to comprehend them through the application of will, of concentration, through the power of perception, known in esoterism as imagination. The third force arrives when we comprehend the source of resistance by exercising our willpower and perception, our consciousness, for through perceiving the origins of conflict, we resolve conflict. This same dynamic applies to the rest of the other three brains. The motor-instinctive-sexual brain, or better synthesized as the sexual brain, is the machine of attraction and repulsion. Through sexual energy we are either attracted to a member of the opposite sex or we do not. We find desire or revulsion in this center. Despite the wisdom of this center, many people sadly do not comprehend how to use the sexual brain in a spiritual manner. They believe they must either indulge in sensual pleasures, in lust, or to run away from sex, to treat it as something filthy and disgusting. Both these approaches to sex are rejected in the Gnostic Tradition. We do not go to either extremes in relation to sex. We do not reject sex as something disgusting, nor do we glorify its lustful applications. We instead comprehend sexuality and govern it with wisdom, with temperance, with enlightened eyes. We do not dive into impure usages of sex, and neither do we repress sexual instinct. We instead comprehend it and use sexual energy in a synthetic way, with cognizance, with purity. You see the three laws here? Many people get stuck in either affirming or denying sex as something lustful, but not comprehending its actual function: how to create spiritual life, cognizance, and the development of the soul. Affirmation is the first force. Negation is the second force. Comprehension or conciliation is the third. Gurdjieff aptly stated that “humanity is third force blind.” People are indeed blind to the true purpose of sexuality, the force of conciliation. The gnostic scriptures speak abundantly about overcoming the flesh. This flesh is Malkuth, but also expressed as desires in Yesod, Hod, and Netzach. Desire is ego, defects, degeneration, impure ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. Remember that ego is Latin means “I.” The ego is multiple. Desires are multiple. Desire is a technical term or equivalent of “ego.” The ego says “I want. I crave. I desire.” This is selfish will, not pure will. Pure will is known as Tiphereth. Let us understand that willpower is very different from desire. Tiphereth or willpower way of acting and knowing in accordance with the commandments given by our Divine Father and Divine Mother in our consciousness. Therefore, we do not overcome the flesh by flagellating ourselves or rejecting the body, but using it appropriately, with the beauty of our pure willpower. This is well documented in books like The Perfect Matrimony and The Mystery of the Golden Flower. We must govern sex with willpower, and not let sex govern our will. This is how we become magicians. We work in the magic of love to create the Empress, the Christified or purified soul. Likewise, we control the other brains in this endeavor. The three brains can be used by our defects and desires, or by our soul, consciousness, known as Tiphereth. It is the heart that tells us which actions are wrong or right. It is the voice of conscience or intuition that states, “I should do this.” “I should not do this.” It is our willpower that knows how to govern the mind, heart, and body to create harmony within one’s psychological kingdom or empire. 
The Law of the Pendulum and Force of Equilibrium
It’s easy to see how the first two forces relate to the three brains. We affirm some concept, religion, or idea with the first force: Affirmation. We arrive at a different idea, the antithesis, through Negation. Affirmation and Negation place each of the three brains in conflict.
We may like a person at one moment but hate them the next. We may also be attracted to someone sexually and yet also be repulsed by them. This is the dualism of the emotional and the sexual brains, respectively. It’s enough to look at society to see how people constantly fluctuate between two extremes, two ends of a pendulum: positive, negative; affirmation, negation; thesis, antithesis; yes, no; good, bad. People don’t realize that these dualistic ways of thinking, feeling, and acting produce the hypnosis of the soul, the sleep of our consciousness. People are not aware of the psychological sources of their problems. Humanity simply likes to “go with the flow” of things. They do not like to comprehend the source of their sufferings, because to do so is to face a certain resistance in the mind, which tells them, “It doesn’t matter if I think or feel this way. I don’t need to change. The world needs to change instead.” The reason why society is in conflict is because we are in conflict. We bear the same habits we blame in others within our three brains. It is hypocritical to condemn others for the same defects we possess, as Jesus teaches in the Gospels. We like to affirm or reject things all the time in our psyche, habits, and dispositions. We believe in one religion with our heart one day, then reject it the next. People tend to change religions, political parties, or ideas like changing clothes. There is a constant fluctuation between extremes in the mind, heart, and body. Therefore, where is the authenticity of our desires and yearnings in thought, feeling, and will? All of this is vain, to assume things will get better in time once other people change. External changes are superfluous. What’s important is the make psychological changes. We have many conflicting desires that do not have any real sense of integrity, unity, or wholeness. They are separate, disparate, conflicting. So when we learn to look inside of ourselves, we face a difficult problem, which is seeing the mind, heart, and body exactly as they are, seeing the psychological contents of the three brains as they exist in the present moment. The third force, the Third Arcanum, is necessary for our spirituality. The third force is developed as we introspect, as we self-observe our psychological conflicts, when we combine our willpower and perception to understand the sources of our conflicts. When we achieve comprehension of conflicts in the psyche, those conflicts will disappear. This is the third force: equilibrium, understanding, or psychological balance, represented in the Hebraic Kabbalah as the Third Sephirah at the top of the Tree of Life: Binah. 
The Three Souls of Alchemy and Kabbalah
The number three relates not only to our three brains but to three types of soul in the Kabbalistic and Alchemical traditions. The three souls of Kabbalah are known as Nephesh, Ruach, and Neshamah.
All three of these terms signify “breath.” In our discussion of The Magician card, we spoke abundantly about the Hebrew letter א Aleph, that it signifies the breath, the wind, that initiates spiritual life. What is the relationship of the soul with breath? The Sufis state that the gnostic must guard his breaths against God Most High, to not use one’s breath or speech in vain. This is because the throat is the uterus of the Verb, the Word, the Logos, to Logoic Tringle. We create or destroy life based on our words. Yogis and gnostics work with breathing exercises to transform energies in the body, whether through mantras, pranayama, runic exercises, sacred rites of rejuvenation, etc. The word for breath or vanity, mentioned in the Book of Ecclesiastes, is הֲבֵל Habel, which is where we get the name Abel. “Vanity of vanities,” saith the preacher. “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים Habel Habelim. Remember that Abel, Habel, was killed by his brother Cain, symbolizing how our defects, our Sensual Mind, kills our soul through wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and wrong acting. Therefore, all of life is vain, because our spiritual potentiality has been nullified. The Kabbalists also state that the inhaled breath is Neshamah, which is still pure and unsullied by the body. Ruach is the breath prepared for exhalation. Nephesh is the breath that finally reaches another person through dialogue. All three souls are different modifications of א Aleph, the spiritual energies of God, but in different levels of purity or conditioning. Nephesh is the Animal Soul. It is constituted by our consciousness trapped in defects, egos. Nephesh is the origin of suffering. These are the lusts of the psyche and the flesh. Nephesh is animalistic and low, associated with different forms of violence. Notice how the animals within the animal kingdom follow the law of “kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten.” As the Bible states in relation to Nephesh, “Nephesh, Nephesh, Blood is paid for blood!” Or as Jehovah Elohim states to Cain, “The blood of your brother cries out to Me from the ground!” We can easily see Nephesh in our media, where our television shows are saturated with sarcasm, with mental violence, making fun of or belittling others. This is a form of bloodshed in the mental plane (Netzach). We also find Nephesh in our Hollywood actors who abuse the emotional brain, tearing their hearts open with shows of extreme grief, cursing, and hatred. This is violence in the emotional world (Hod). And when people makes pornographic films, everyone is abusing their vital energies (Yesod) and defiling their bodies (Malkuth). Remember the Fifth Commandment states: “Thou shalt not kill,” and yet everyone is killing the energies of divinity within their three brains and by violating the will of others. The Ten Commandments were given unto Nephesh in order that it can learn to stop being an animal. All of us are Nephesh without exception. We constantly repeat egotistical and animalistic behaviors, including hatred, pride, greed, gluttony, etc. These elements constitute our animal inheritance, which have only become more complicated through the forces of evolution, devolution, and our intellect. The only difference between us and the animals in the animal kingdom is that we have intellect. We rationalize. Nephesh-desire is one hundred percent lunar, mechanical. It is constituted by our habits. This is easy to see in Kabbalah, because Nephesh corresponds to Yesod, the vital forces, our instincts, as we see in this image on the tree of life. Our animality is defined by our mechanical, repetitive behaviors, our conditioning, associated with the moon, luna, which is where we get the word lunatic, someone who is depleted of reason and who follows degenerated, mechanical thinking. Nephesh is governed by the moon. You can see by this definition and by reflecting upon yourself in meditation that everyone has many mechanical habits that are engrained, that are hard to change. We have a strong sense of ego, of self, of desire, that rationalizes and justifies its behavior. You see the problem here? The ego uses thought to justify its degeneration. Therefore, Samael Aun Weor stated that the greatest weapon the demons or black magicians use to pull the aspirants from the path is the intellect. Because everyone fortifies and worships the animal mind. The intellect is not entirely bad. It is only bad when Nephesh, ego, desire, uses the intellect to propagandize its agenda. The intellect simply is a machine that can be used to process information, whether materialistic or spiritual. Therefore, in comparison with the animal kingdom, we have an advantage to use the intellect for divine purposes, to learn how to stop being an animal. When we acquire the intellect for the first time, divinity gave us certain commandments throughout the diverse religious traditions, to rationalize and demonstrate to us the path of becoming a true human being. And this is where the second type of soul, Ruach, comes into play. Ruach is the Thinking Soul. This is our conscience, that part of us that gives us a sense of right and wrong, a certain level of gnosis: how certain actions and psychological behaviors are proper or improper given the circumstances. We’re are talking more about a soul that reflects upon itself, that conceptualizes its habits and seeks to remedy them. Ruach relates to Chesed: Mercy in the Kabbalah, our Innermost God. Chesed is our Spirit on the Tree of Life, our Being, our divinity. This is our Inner Buddha. When we face conflicts and difficulties in life, we must learn to use our Ruach. In the spiritual work, Nephesh, the Animal Soul, and Ruach, the Thinking Soul, are submitted to ordeals. This is to give Ruach the opportunity to see the lower, animal soul, and to comprehend its errors. For when we face tremendous and unexpected difficulties, we have the opportunity to see our most hidden defects, egos which we never thought existed in ourselves. But of course, we must be in self-observation to catch them. Whatever defects we catch through self-observation must be wholly comprehended in meditation. Through comprehension in meditation we learn to transform the animal in us into the human. In a moment of anger, Nephesh pushes us to speak hurtful words, perhaps to a friend or co-worker. We must, in those instances, learn to reflect and rationalize with Ruach, to work with our conscience, to comprehend the source of that animalistic anger, so that we do not behave in mistaken ways. This is how we can transform our daily life. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, animals are at least innocent. We are not. Because we have the intellect, we have greater responsibility for our actions. Human beings as they are now are worse than apes, because they have the intellect but continue to behave degenerately. We should not justify the animal within us, but seek to become a human being and afterward a superhuman being. So what can make us into a human and even a superhuman being? Neshamah. Neshamah relates to the powers of Geburah, Justice, or our divine consciousness, on the Tree of Life. Neshamah is pure, divine. It is a soul that is not mixed with degeneration, with egotism. It is a power of tremendous spiritual caliber, with the power to create a true human being, as represented in Genesis. When Jehovah Elohim (Binah) created the human being into His spiritual image, He used his Neshamah to enliven Nephesh, to purify it and make it holy. Jehovah Elohim breathed the breath of life, Neshamah Chaiah, into the nostrils of Adam, and Adam became a living soul, a Nephesh Chaiah. A Nephesh Chaiah does not relate to common, ordinary persons like us, but to fully enlightened beings who have no defects. A Nephesh Chaiah is a Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, a Muhammad, etc. We must use Ruach to control Nephesh. When Nephesh in us is conquered, and purified by Neshamah, the spiritual soul, Nephesh becomes a Nephesh Chaiah, it resurrects, it becomes a new being: one without anger, fear, resentment, jealousy, etc. This process is accomplished through the path of initiation and psychological purification in meditation. The Three Kabbalistic Souls in the Qur’an
The Qur’an also refers to these three types of soul in the following manner:
Only Ruach, the thinking soul, with the help of Neshamah, can control Nephesh: the soul that commands to evil, our egotistical desires. When we face ordeals, our Nephesh is stimulated and comes to the surface, screen, and attention of our self-observation. If we are not in control of ourselves, then we will follow the animal in us: the soul that commands to evil. The Surah entitled: The Resurrection, speaks of the blaming soul, another term for Ruach. Ruach is the one that blames us for our faults, Nephesh. This is not a term of masochism, that we enjoy blaming ourselves for our faults, or that we are pessimistic people. The question is: who is blaming who? It is the spark of divinity we carry within that is helping to call us to attention for our faults. The Bible states: “God loves those whom He chastises.” We must self-observe and see our animal desires for what they are. This is a form of blaming or criticizing our own selves, so that we can transform the consciousness. This is positive and necessary, for remorse is good, not egotistical, morbid, and self-flagellating shame. That is not the meaning of the term “blaming.” When you look within yourself and comprehend how a certain action produced harm, you are blaming yourself with Ruach. You are becoming cognizant and remorseful for how your words of anger produced suffering. Suffering is always produced by animality. Remorse is a necessary emotional quality of the thinking / rationalizing soul. We must be responsible and take ownership for our faults if what we want is unification with divinity, with Neshamah. In the Surah entitled The Dawn, verse 27, the Qur’an states, “O soul at peace! Return to thy Lord, content, contenting.” It is very appropriate that the soul at peace, Neshamah, is associated with the Surah known as The Dawn, whereby we witness the rising of the sun, the Solar Logos, a symbol of the Christic energy. Neshamah, the spiritual soul, is what grants us peace, which allows us to return to divinity content and contenting others. Is our soul like this yet? Observe and be honest. Do we naturally irradiate light, happiness, contentment for others? Patience and fortitude? Compassion? Or are we self-wiled, self-centered, concerned for our self-image, the gratification of our senses? If we are honest with ourselves we can admit that our souls are not at peace, that we do not have Neshamah developed inside. What we tend to have are a lot of social, personal, psychological, and economic problems. Therefore, we need ordeals and difficulties. Ordeals are given to us by Neshamah, from the divine soul, by Geburah in Kabbalah, who signifies Justice. To be just and upright spiritual beings, we need to pay our debts, to pay what we owe. For if we spilled blood in the past, then we must pay for it in this life. It could mean that we are humiliated by the people we once condemned or shamed in past existences, or even in this life. To shame someone is to spill blood, to make blood flush a person’s face. If we harmed others, we will be harmed in return through the power of Justice. But this not a mechanical dynamic. Ordeals bring Nephesh to our attention, so that we can comprehend our faults. Without this conflict, we cannot arrive at genuine self-knowledge. Here the three forces are at work to create Neshamah within us. We begin to self-observe, to analyze our minds and hearts in depth; we affirm this teaching in practice. Then resistance of the ego emerges; our Nephesh-desire fights, it wants to continue being an animal. Therefore, Paul of Tarsus stated: "For we know that the law [of Neshamah] is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin [Nephesh]. "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. "Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin [Nephesh] that dwelleth in me. "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good [through Ruach] I find not. "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil [of Nephesh] which I would not, that I do. "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin [Nephesh] that dwelleth in me. "I find then a law [of Neshamah], that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man [the spiritual human being or superman, Neshamah]: "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members [sex]. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death [lunar vehicles]? "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the [solar] mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin [Nephesh]." —Romans 7:14-25 Right now all of us are enslaved to desire. We must wage a holy war, to purify the psyche. We accomplish this through ordeals and by overcoming our lunar, mechanical habits. Neshamah is only fully developed in us once we have passed all the tests and ordeals, once Nephesh and Ruach are fully purified. What’s also interested is that the Arabic word for Tranquility or peace is Sekinah or Shekinah, the Kabbalistic name for the Kundalini, the power of the Holy Spirit. For in the Surah known as the Victory, verse 4: “He it is Who sends own Tranquility into the hearts of the believers, that they may increase in faith along with their faith—to God belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth, and God is Knowing, Wise.” Just as the tongues of fire descended upon the Apostles in the Book of Acts, likewise the Tranquility, the Shekinah, Neshamah or spiritual soul, the Kundalini, comes down to us once we have passed the psychological tests and have been working diligently in a matrimony.
The Hebrew Letter Gimel
In relation to the three brains, the three Mother letters of Kabbalah, and the three souls, we can speak abundantly about the third Hebrew letter: Gimel, which is associated with the Empress of the Tarot.
Gamal is literally the Hebrew word for “camel.” It can also signify a rich man, which is a direct reference to St. Paul’s spiritual man. Remember that he speaks in his Epistles about the two men: one terrestrial, and one heavenly. The terrestrial man is poor, the human soul lacking virtue and development. He is made up Ruach. The spiritual man consists of the power of Neshamah, and constitutes the most divine within Kabbalistic psychology. We are Nephesh, which has nothing to do with human qualities. We are not human beings; neither are we Paul’s terrestrial man, which fully manifests the developed Ruach, the Thinking Soul. Many people read the Old and New Testaments and want to believe that they are true human beings, just as Adam was created by the breath of life, Neshamah. To become “a living soul” is to incarnate Neshamah, as I stated earlier. This is a very high level of attainment, achieved near the end of the path, at resurrection. We, right now, have animal mind, a mind that is poor, destitute, requiring assistance from divinity above, from Gedulah, Goodness, our Innermost Spirit, known also as Chesed: Mercy in Kabbalah. The truth is that we have a fraction or portion of Ruach in us at this moment, which is the small still voice of our conscience. This must be developed further through comprehending and transforming Nephesh through initiation. Until Nephesh is controlled and transformed by Ruach and Neshamah, we are not human beings yet. So why is the Empress, the three types of soul, associated with ג Gimel, the camel? ג Gimel is constructed of an elongated, erect Vav, symbol of the spinal column, but also the phallus. Remember that the distinctive feature of a camel is its spine, it's hump. The י Iod / Yod, the dot at the top can also represent a phallus, but also the sexual energy and potential of God that rises within the spine. Notice that there are three י iods, three types of soul hidden here, that we must work with alchemically. By working with the creative energy we aspire to reach our own inner Gedulah, Goodness, another term for Chesed, our Spirit, and to fully command the three types of soul within us. The Zohar, when introducing the teachings of the Hebrew, Kabbalistic alphabet, discusses the symbiotic nature of ד Daleth and ג Gimel, the terrestrial and the heavenly men. The Zohar explains how when Iod-Chavah, Jehovah, wanted to create the heavens and the earth using the Hebrew letters, he called upon them from last to first. I won’t narrate the entire account at this point of our course, but regarding Gimel and Daleth, we find the following emphasis: The Zohar states: “The letters ד Daleth and ג Gimel entered and made the same request [to initiate creation]. He replied to them as well, “It is enough for you to be with each other, since the poor will never cease from the world, and need to be treated kindly. ד Daleth is poor; ג Gimel, Gomel, renders, goodness to her. Do not separate from one another! It is enough for one of you to sustain the other.”
Who are the poor that will never cease from the world? Those souls who are filled with Nephesh, who are poor in spirit, who lack development, yet who want to receive the riches of the Innermost, Gedulah, Gimel, the Spirit. The Essence—which is us—is merely a fraction of the human soul known as Tiphereth. It is conditioned and animalistic, yet wants to become transformed by Gedulah, by Goodness, by the Being.
The Qur’an gives us a similar teaching in Surah 47 verse 38: “Behold! You are those who are called upon to spend in the way of God, yet among you some are miserly. And whosoever is miserly is only miserly towards himself. God is the Rich, and you are the poor. And if you turn away, He will cause a people other than you to take your place, and they will not be the likes of you.”
This is paralleled in the story of Pinocchio; a doll, a wooden boy, ד Daleth, who wants to become a true human being made into the image of God, of Gedulah, ג Gimel. ג Gimel in this story is the carpenter, Geppetto. See how everything is beautifully hidden within names and words? גאפטו Geppetto starts with the letter G, Gimel. He represents the Being who fashions ד Daleth, the poor human soul, from the wood of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Gimel also reminds us of Gnosis, Knowledge, since these words begin with G or a silent G-n, read as a “Neeyah” sound, such as with Jnana Yoga.
But of course, there are challenges to be faced and overcome for Pinocchio to cease being a Daleth, a poor puppet, to become perfected being, a Hebrew letter Gimel, as described in that fable. What’s also interesting is that our present word “God” is composed of ג Gimel and ד Daleth. ד Daleth represents and literally relates to a poor man, a fakir, or faqir. We need to reunite Daleth with Gimel in order to spell Gedulah, or גד G-D, God. All of this occurs through the help of the Blue Fairy, the Divine Mother Kundalini through initiation, hidden within Arcanum 2. So I hope the relationship of ד Daleth and ג Gimel is obvious now. We are also like a camel wandering the wilderness of initiation, seeking to be guided by our inner God. Nietzsche speaks about this in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, through a chapter entitled: “On the Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit.” We must become like camels, entering our own particular wilderness or states of suffering, our daily life transformed through the work of initiation. This is for us to become a lion of Judah, a Bodhisattva, a master who has incarnated Christ. Much later does a Bodhisattva, the lion, reach perfection, resurrection, to become a child, but that is a topic for another lecture. What keeps us alive in this search and longing for transmutation is the water in our hump, the transmuted waters of life ascending within our spine to nourish our brain, also signified by the top or head of the letter ג Gimel. Speaking of initiation, the camel is also associated with the serpent and the angel Samael, the divinity responsible for raising the fire of Kundalini within his initiates or adepts in this present epoch. This is textually based from the following verses of the Zohar: “Camels are the primordial serpent that was like a camel. When the angel Samael [the creative sexual energies of the sign of Scorpio] tempted Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, he was riding on a camel-like serpent [a Gamal or a Gimel like a serpent within the spine, the Hebrew letter Vav]. We learned that whoever sees a camel in his dream was punished by death from above but was saved from it. It is all the same, which means that the camel and the serpent that delivered death to the world are the same thing.”
The Zohar also explains how the Angel Samael is related to the power of the serpent in our spinal column, our ג Gimel or camel’s hump:
“When Samael tempted Adam to eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil, he descended from heaven riding on this camel-like serpent at that time, all the creatures saw his image and fled from him.”
Let us unpack this passage. Astrologically, Samael governs Aries and Scorpio, relating to the head and to the sexual organs respectively. Samael is an angelic intelligence who works with the serpentine power Kundalini, rising from Scorpio, in sex, towards the brain, Aries. Adam is the head, and Eve, Chavah, is sex, as we’ve explained many times. The unification of the two is Iod Chavah, Jehovah, the Superman.
Therefore, we are tempted through sexuality, Eve, Chavah, and the brain, Adam, experiences the fruits of desire, the pleasures of fornication, through the animal spasm or orgasm. When this occurs, the serpentine power descends within the spine and Nephesh is fortified. Demons make that energy descend towards Klipoth from the Chakra Muladhara, forming the tail of Satan. Because the power of Samael can elevate or destroy us, the Zohar often refers to this angel in a mixed way, as being demonic and heavenly. Right now, the Master Samael is risen, perfected. He was once fallen, but now he is resurrected. While Samael Aun Weor achieved perfection once more, the energy in us—known as Samael—is not. Therefore Samael, the serpent within our bodies, according to the Zohar, has tempted us and continues to tempt us. Let us not confuse the Master Samael with that serpentine power we carry in our sexual organs referred to as Samael, the sexual strength of divinity. Always remember that we are Daleth, the poor man, an initiate seeking to receive the riches of the spirit, Gimel, the camel. But if we expel our seminal energies, we will be poor and without spirit. As Proverbs 21:20 states: “There is treasure to be desired and oil (Shemen) in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.” The treasures of the spirit are in our semen, our י iod, sperm or ovum, hidden within the bottom of ג Gimel, the spine. But as I said, if we ejaculate the י iod from our bodies, from the bottom of the Hebrew letter ג Gimel, we become spiritually dead. Through fornication, our sexual energy, our י Iod, is expelled from the bottom of the Hebrew letter ג Gimel, leaving us spiritually destitute. Daleth, the terrestrial soul, then becomes separated from Gimel, the spiritual being or Innermost. As the Zohar states: “We learned that whoever sees a camel in his dream was punished by [spiritual] death from above but was saved from it [when practicing transmutation]. It is all the same, which means that the camel and the serpent that delivered death to the world are the same thing.”
Therefore, spiritual death occurs when we make the serpent descend towards the Klipoth, but saved when raising that power up the spine, our camel’s hump, through scientific chastity. The י iod above ג Gimel signifies chastity, and the י iod at the bottom expresses the possibility for fornication.
Regarding the psychology of this Hebrew letter, we have all heard Jesus teach, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven.” Who is the rich man, in this case? I just stated that we are poor, poor in spirit, lacking development. However, all of us are rich with ego, self-sufficiency, pride, anger, etc. Therefore, we cannot enter heaven in this manner, because the ego is not compatible with heaven. It is not by believing in anything, in anyone, that we will enter heaven, but becoming humble, like the Hebrew letter ד Daleth. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3). Remember that one must be poor in the spirit, not poor of spirit, lacking knowledge. As will be explained in the lecture on Arcanum 4: The Emperor, we must enter ד Daleth, the door, of initiation, through becoming humble. We must annihilate our ego and become poor in spirit, to recognize our misery, so that we can later ascend, as the Magician card indicates. We ascend only after descending into our own infernal worlds to work in sexual magic. A camel, ג Gimel, the Innermost, is humble, and therefore can pass through the eye of a needle. Why a needle? A needle is used for sewing, and can symbolize the sewing and weaving of the solar bodies. We weave the solar bodies through sexual magic, through raising the creative energies up our spine, our camel’s hump. Not only is this significant, but the needle has an eye, which is the shape of a hidden י iod, a point, or dot; this signifies the power of Kether, divinity, the height of heights, the top of the Tree of Life. It is the power of divinity, the sperm or ovum in potentiality that becomes elongated and formed within our spinal medulla, becoming the letter ו Vav through alchemy. When an embryo forms, what we see is the spine, initially. This physically parallels how the energies of our iod, our energies, rises up and elongates, becoming a ו Vav, the spinal column. Our ו Vav, the spine, is hidden within the calligraphy of the Hebrew letter ג Gimel. It’s easy to see here that ג Gimel has a ו Vav, a spine, with three different י iods. As we discussed the nature of Aleph in our first lecture, Aleph has three י iods, signifying the three primary forces. The Hebrew letter ג Gimel also represents, in its three י iods, the equilibrium of air, fire, and water, a direct reference to controlling the energies of the three brains. Remember that the mind is signified by א Aleph, the wind; the heart is signified by fire, ש Shin; and sexuality is represented by מ Mem, the waters of life. The throne of the spirit is the spinal column, Gimel, whereby the power of Neshamah, the Kundalini or serpent power of Samael, works, but always against and upon Nephesh and Ruach. We must spiritualize ourselves through working with Neshamah in sexual magic, and to be resolved to endure the initiatic ordeals through using our Ruach over Nephesh, being guided by divinity. Questions and Answers
Question: So would you say that Neshamah, I mean just because we're born into this, you know, we pretty much do everything wrong in these systems that we have and all that, that basically, we have Neshamah when we're born, because we are not born with sin, are we?
Instructor: Well Samael explains something interesting that a child is pure up until the ages of four to seven. So this is a blank slate. But the problem is that the egos of that child enter and manifest within that soul between four and seven years of age because that's when that child is developing what we call personality. Question: But isn't that really just our society? If you have a child that is born in nature, and lives in accordance to nature, without all these kinds of institutions and constricts that make us Satanic, aren't they, can't they be Neshamah if they do not have all of these things thrown at them? Instructor: One thing in Gnostic science and psychology, we talk about three influences upon a child. You have what's called the genotype, paratype, and phenotype. I may be mixing up the definitions of these, we do have genotype, which is karmic inheritance: our egos and defects that we created in past lives. So those are conditions and elements that we have to face eventually as becoming an adult. But there are influences from environment, relating to paratype and phenotype, and being educated in a certain way to receive certain influences. So there is that component. And it's good if a child can have a very good upbringing, a good education, a respect for nature, especially within gnostic matrimonies, where couples know how to raise a child in accordance with these principles, so they're given extra help. But it doesn't really mean that that child will be perfect when they grow up because of karma, the ego. I've known certain missionaries in this tradition who have children and their children don't follow gnosis. So they may be brought up in a very good way, or hopefully a good way, with spiritual influences, but still a gorilla is a gorilla. You can take a gorilla to a dining hall in Paris and see what happens. We have that ego that's really strong, which develops, or better said, enters into us between the ages of four and seven. Question: Getting back to numerology and astrotheology, So I've had my numbers done before. I'm a twenty (slash) two. Is it OK to have your numbers done? How do the gnostics feel about numerology, having your numbers done by someone? Instructor: Personally, in terms of numbers, we always work with astral projection, so that we communicate directly with our Innermost, our Gedulah. Audience: So you don't work with the whole name on the birth certificate, the time you are born... Instructor: We do. There's a reference to that in the end of Tarot and Kabbalah called the Keynote of the day, or better said, the Keynote of one's name. There's certain numbers, certain meanings that you can associate with your name based on a certain formula at the end of that book. I do not remember that off the top of my head, but there's a way to add the numbers of your name in order to get an understanding of the certain tonality of your existence, your present existence. And it relates to one of the twenty two major arcana, which you can relate to yourself... Audience: That's what she said. I didn't meant to cut you off. The woman that did this, I felt intuitively that she was authentic, that she seemed to be that way. She figured out my numbers based on my birth certificate, the time I was born, where I was born, and I came out to be a twenty (slash) two, which when I looked it up, a two (I'm definitely two); and then my other number, which was my karmic debt number was sixteen (slash) seven, and sixteen in the arcanum is very interesting: it's a building where it's falling... Instructor: Fragility. It's a very difficult number, because it means failure. But here's the thing: if you want to escape failure, Arcanum 16 = 1 + 6 = 7: which is the Triumph, the war that you have the wage against your defects. So there's a way to escape that tonality of that influence, easily. But in terms of the arcana, we always seek to as a ד Daleth, a poor person, to enter the astral plane so we can refer directly to our Innermost, because we can receive, do readings like that in the physical plane, but I've always found it more resourceful to ask a master in the astral plane: "What do I need to do?" And they show you a number and a situation, and that way it's much more dynamic, it's more direct, it's coming from God. Therefore, you can be absolutely certain that what you're receiving is coming from divinity, and that is always really what we need. Question: And that's just done through deep meditation? Instructor: We meditate, we learn to astral travel. Audience: Yeah, I haven't done that before, but I've never gotten back to that. Instructor: Well we learn through practice and experience. But that's how your ד Daleth, we, the poor person, enter and unite with ג Gimel to form God, the perfect human being. So the heavenly man and the terrestrial man as St. Paul teaches are joined together, and we learn that science through dream yoga. We get advice in the astral plane, in the higher dimensions, about what we need to do. Audience: Are there people here who do not have karmic debt, or do we all have karmic debt? Instructor: This whole planet is... I do not know anyone who does not have certain debts, because you can say we are all cut from the same scissors. Audience: It's a matter of degree, alright. Instructor: Some people have life that's worse because they committed a lot of wrong action in the past, and that's why they're suffering a lot in this current time. Audience: Yeah, I was going to say that as much as my karmic debt seems like it's a burden, I mean, I can't even imagine these people in third-world countries, what they're karmic debt is... Instructor: Which if we study the Bhavachakra of Buddhism, it teaches that there are six classifications of human beings. You have the gods, the demigods, the humans, the hungry ghosts, the demons, and the animals. People in Buddhism think that refers to literal animals, demigods, in another plane of existence. There's a certain meaning to that, but there are many people in life who live like a demon, who live like an animal, who live like a hungry ghost, always trying to acquire more and get things. The myth of the hungry ghost is that they would try to drink and feed themselves but their mouth is only the size of a pin drop or pin needle. Interesting analogy there to [the eye of a needle where only a camel can pass]... Question: It's more like gluttony? Instructor: Not just gluttony, but also... Question: Materialism? Audience: It's because they suffer... Instructor: Trying to acquire satisfaction, and comfort, and security. So it can be material. And trying to have the security but not being able to get it. But then you have people who live like gods and demigods who have a lot of wealth, but they're always afraid that they are going to lose what they have. So that's why it's better to transcend that wheel of recurrence, repetition, cyclical behavior we call Samsara. Samsara literally means "cycling," return and recurrence, to come back to. You have to cut through that to cease behaving as a Nephesh, as an animal, because an animal, Nephesh, rotates in that wheel, the Bhavachakra. Good, bad. Yes, no. Success, failure, Victory, defeat. Audience: Duality. Instructor: That's duality and we have go through the third path, which is equilibrium, which is the path of the Bodhisattva in Buddhism, to balance all those forces, to make Nephesh a Nephesh Chaiah, make it holy. Any other final comments or questions? Question: You said that the Empress relates to light? Instructor: Yes. Question: And to get that light you utilize the fire, there again, in the semen? Instructor: Yes, because יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Yehi Aur Va Yehi Aur. אֹֽור "Aur" means light, and you find אֹֽור Aur, light, hidden as a seed within the sexual organs. The Zohar teaches that in the opening of that scripture, how hidden in the fourth day of Genesis, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven," (Genesis 1:14) מְאֹרֹת Me'orot, you have the seed of that word, אֹֽור Aur, מְאֹרֹת Me'orot, אֹֽור Aur is light, which they say is a seed within a human being, which is of course the reference to the sexual matter. If you expel the אֹֽור Aur, the seed, you have left in those Hebrew letters, from מְאֹרֹת Me'orot, מות Mavet, which means "death" in Hebrew. We'll talk more about the Zohar later. But you work with that seed through mantra. You say, "Let there be light!" You're praying, your mantralizing, vocalizing sacred sounds, and then "There was light!" "Let there be light!" God says. "And there was light." So when we talk about the Hebrew letter ו Vav, "and" is ו Vav, the spine. That's how you create light in your spinal column. יְהִי אֹור Yehi Aur, "Let there be light," וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור Va Yehi Aur, "And there was light." Audience: It almost seems like the light is, for anyone, whether you're rich or poor, it's difficult as it is just because of a million... our thoughts going on in our head, but it almost seems that what I'm gathering by coming here every week is just we really have to control our carnal pleasures, our temptations, and if you just do that, then the universe, or God, or Tao, or whatever will kind of lead you towards the right path. It's really about controlling oneself, not worrying about all these other outside, you know, politics and this and that, and family matters. It's all about having control, about governing oneself. If you just that, then you will lead to a better path. Instructor: And that's why the Zohar states that one must engage with Torah day and night. Of course many Jews read this and they think this refers to reading the scripture, but the Zohar says that working with Torah is working with water, Mem, your energies. So God says, "Work with Torah day and night." Torah means law, the Tarot, the law. So if you want to work with the law, to receive help from divinity, and perform בראשית Bereshit, generation in yourself, work with your sexual energy. As soon as you do that, the angels say, "Let's help him." Question: You're talking about meditation? Instructor: And meditation too. But when you're working in chastity, that is how you get helped. That is the beginning. Because if you do not still the waters of sex, you can't control Nephesh. Audience: I'm noticing that and it's not only not spilling the seed, it's not thinking about that... Instructor: And that's why Nietzsche also talks about when people begin to become chaste, their lust, like an animal dog, he says in his book, a bitch, a female dog, follows them wherever they go. Lust looks through the eyes. Jesus said, "You've heard it said of old: you shall not commit adultery. But even if you look at another women with lust, with Nephesh, you've committed adultery with her in your heart." So first step. abstain from fornication, and then the real work begins by analyzing your dreams, lustful dreams, and looking at the other sex, because that's the difficult part. It is easy to control the energies. Transmute, that's the beginning. But then you have the extirpate the roots of that problem, and that's why we have to meditate. Go into subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, infraconsciousness to work with the animal soul at that level. And we get help from Neshamah who descends down in order to help us, which is symbolized by the play Romeo and Juliet. There's a part where Juliet, Geburah, Neshamah, the Divine Soul is trying to help her husband Romeo, Tiphereth. Tiphereth, Romeo gets exiled for having murdered Tybalt if you remember the play. Juliet is about to take a potion that is going to knock her unconscious and she fears taking it because she's afraid that she's going to wake up in the graveyard amongst the dead and the bones and the filth. Now of course this is a symbol of how Neshamah descends into our Klipoth, our hell, in order to help Romeo. And the of course the lovers are united through death. People get very sappy and sentimental about the play. It's very powerful, but that's one level of meaning that people don't know, that there's another meaning there. Through mystical death of the ego, Nephesh, is how Geburah, Tiphereth, unite. But of course, she has to descend into that graveyard, and that is something we get help with, but only if we are chaste, because chastity is the key to open the door to initiation. Question: Wasn't there a similarity there... where somebody went through the looking glass into the ground? Or what was it?... Instructor: Alice in Wonderland. Audience: Yes. Through the Looking Glass is a wonderful initiatic story, but also we have to descend down the rabbit hole to see how deep it goes. Question: OK. Who went down the rabbit hole? Instructor: Alice. She is the consciousness, the one who has to explore our Nephesh, which manifests as the Mad Hatter, the intellectual brain, which doesn't have any reason, it is a lunatic; the Queen of Hearts, which is the abuse of the emotional energy; and the motor-instinctive-sexual center represented by the White Rabbit.
Let us remember that the tarot were originally inscribed in stone. This is a symbolic as well as a literal statement given by Samael Aun Weor.
In the metaphorical level, we know that the stone refers specifically to Yesod, which is the creative sexual energy, the foundation of the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah. To provide a little more background on the nature of the tarot, I’d like to explain to you some little known reference within the Qur’an to the sacred arcana, the immortal laws of the eternal tarot, especially as it applies to the Divine Mother, the High Priestess, the second arcanum, the subject of our discussion today. We mentioned previously that the tarot are within all religions, including Islam. The Qur’an speaks about the tarot in a veiled fashion. The tarot are expressed in the Qur’an in an implicit manner, but after our explanations, this knowledge will be explicit. The Qur’an states in Surah 85, verses 13 to 22: "Truly it is He Who originates and brings back. And He is the Forgiving, the Loving, Possessor of the Throne, the Glorious, Doer of whatsoever He will. Hast thou heard tell of the hosts—Pharaoh and Thamud? Yet those who disbelieve are in denial. And God is behind them, All-Encompassing. Nay, it is a Glorious Qur'an, upon a Preserved Tablet." ―Al-Buraj: The Constellations The preserved tablet is precisely the tarot, since this knowledge was written upon stone and is preserved by the solar initiates in the superior worlds. The Sufi commentators explain how the preserved tablet is the origin of all scripture, the origin of all teaching, whether Judeo-Christian, Muslim, etc. This preserved tablet is precisely the stone of Yesod upon which the tarot are inscribed. 
We mentioned previously that the twenty-two arcana of the sacred tarot are precisely the twenty-two Hebrew letters of the Torah in Kabbalah. As the third book of Enoch states: “Receive [Kabbel, the root word for Kabbalah] the twenty-two [Hebrew] letters of the oath [of Sexual Magic].” The word kabbel means to receive knowledge from divinity directly, through awakening consciousness. Likewise, Muhammad received al-Qur’an upon Mount Hira, or Jabal Nur, the “mountain of Light.” So he received, kabbel, the scripture, the law, the Qur’an, the Recitation, which signifies “to speak,” “to pronounce,” “to convey.” Precisely the Qur’an, the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the world scriptures, whether from east or west, originate from this preserved tablet, which certain Sufis stated is called the Mother of the Book, or the High Priestess, the Divine Mother of the tarot. Al-Qushayri explains that this Surah 85, verses 13 to 22, the reference to the Preserved Tablet, is explained with Surah 29 verse 49: "Nay, it is but clear signs in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge (Marifah in Arabic, gnosis in Greek, Da'ath in Hebrew) and none reject Our signs, save the wrongdoers." So what is this preserved tablet upon which the teachings of all traditions are founded? The tarot are principles, archetypes, forces, laws of nature, which need to be inscribed in our own stone, our body, wherein we find the cubic stone of Yesod, the sexual energy. It is precisely Yesod that provides genesis, which generates every scripture, which gives birth to every prophet. This is why Gabriel, the angel and power of the moon, Yesod, announces the birth of every great initiate, since it is through the lunar creative sexual force that one accomplishes the genesis of the soul. We mentioned that the tarot can be presented in a deck, like the one we have available through Glorian Publishing. The tarot, however, are not limited to a deck, through a set of cards, because these laws are archetypes, experiences, blueprints for the creation of the soul, qualities of being, which are symbolized by the images of the cards. We do not find the real tarot within a physical deck, but in the higher dimensions, within the internal planes. In the internal worlds, divinity uses this symbolic language, Kabbalah, to convey profound truths about our spiritual development, the dangers, the warnings, the inspirations. Therefore, we study Kabbalah to be well versed in communication with the inner Being, face to face, just as Moses received the twenty-two arcana or commandments of God upon Mount Sinai. Some people say he received ten, but the truth is that he received twenty-two, in relation to the major arcana. Similarly, Jesus received the Verb within the Jordan when baptized by John. Likewise, Muhammad the Qur’an, the Recitation, the pronunciation, the Word, from Gabriel, Jibril. The word Gabriel is alchemical and kabbalistic: Geburah-El. Gibur means “strength,” “severity,” or “justice,” relating to the sphere of Geburah on the Tree of Life. Ra is the solar divinity of Egypt, and El in Hebrew means God, spirit. 
So what is this Gibur? The swastika, the cross in motion, the alchemical union of man and woman. From this cross of alchemy, the junction of the vertical phallus and the horizontal uterus, those energies, when conserved and never expelled, generate life; those forces enter into action, into movement, through breath, through spirit, through the Hebrew letter א Aleph or Arabic ا Alif. That spinning cross is precisely the Hebrew letter א Aleph that we spoke about previously.
When the wind, the prana, the breath, the creative energies of God, are in movement, they initiate and begin a new life. A prophet who proclaims the scriptures, who speaks, is using א Aleph, because he is initiating others into the teaching. So when Muhammad received the Qur’an through distinct revelations, he precisely embodied its principles, its arcana, through the descent of those forces and their subsequent return up the spine through the path of initiation, symbolized by the Arabic ا Alif. ا Alif is a straight line, symbolizing the spine through which the prana, the creative energy, ascends. Every master, like Muhammad, works with the creative energy in the spine. The same with all prophets, since they are all children of the stone of Yesod, the preserved tablet, the Mother of the Book. These arcana are inscribed upon a preserved tablet, which the esoteric Muslims or Sufis explain is a scripture that the angels, the masters, recite and study before the highest divinity, الله Allah. Every scripture in the world is based on a detailed understanding of the twenty-two arcana, which is a knowledge preserved and understood within the internal worlds. The knowledge is internal; the tarot are internal. They are symbols of forces. For today’s lecture we are exploring the Mother of the Book, the second arcanum of the tarot: the High Priestess, the mother of the tarot, who is inside of us. Her law and laws must be inscribed within the temple of our body, heart, mind, and soul. "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy תֹורָתְ law [is] within my heart." ―Psalms 40:8 The Two Forms of Kabbalah
Remember that Kabbalah is dual in nature and that there are two forms of kabbalists. There are the intellectual kabbalists, and there are the intuitive kabbalists.
The intellectual kabbalists are sorcerers, black magicians, fornicators, those who do not conserve the sacred waters of God within the sexual act, who perform Black Sexual Magic or tantrism. The intellectual kabbalists store a lot of scripture, knowledge, and teachings given by Moses, other Rabbis, etc., and yet they are exclusively limited to the intellect. That is all they know. They have a lot of book knowledge, lectures, teachings, etc., in the mind, but what distinguishes them is their lack of direct experience of what they have read. They have not verified the truths of divinity in those teachings. Those intellectual kabbalists who fill the mind with that information know nothing of God, since they have not received, kabbel, kabbalah, the wisdom of divinity directly within the higher dimensions. Those who receive conscious knowledge, Da’ath, Marifah, gnosis, are intuitive kabbalists. They know what they have read about through meditation and astral travel. So the Qur’an teaches us this principle very beautifully in relation to arcanum two: "He it is Who has sent down the Book upon thee; therein are signs [verses] determined; they are the Mother of the Book [the Tarot, the High Priestess], and others symbolic. As for those whose hearts are given to swerving, they follow that of it which is symbolic, seeking temptation and seeking its interpretation. And none know its interpretation save God and those firmly rooted in knowledge (marifah in Arabic, gnosis in Greek, Da'ath in Hebrew, the hidden sephirah on the Tree of Life, hidden within the throat whereby the verb is gestated, the power of the Tree of Knowledge). They say, "We believe in it: all is from our Lord." And none remember save those possessors of intellect." ―Al-Imran 7 The last phrase, “possessors of intellect,” is an inadequate translation. The original Arabic is ulu'l-al-bab, “possessors of kernels” or “seeds.” An intuitive kabbalist can see into the core of things, into their seed, their root nature. This is the nature of intuition, to perceive and interpret the experiences of divinity directly without the interference of the mind. We do so precisely working with the sexual seed, the seed of life. Intuitive kabbalists also see into and interpret the heart or core of any doctrine, any knowledge, any dimension, precisely since they develop the power of prophecy, founded upon Yesod. But those kabbalists who only study the exterior aspect of things, the shells or appearances of phenomena, are exclusively intellectual. These people are superficial; they don’t see the insides of their teachings, whether of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnosis, etc. We must learn to be profound, to learn to dive into the depths of any knowledge to extract its seed, its essence, through transmutation, meditation and direct experience. Those who possess the shells, and not the seeds, are the black magicians, the intellectual kabbalists who dwell in the Klipoth, the world of shells. Klipoth in Hebrew means “shells.” A shell without a seed is empty of nourishment, of spiritual sustenance, of any genuine reality. The hell realms are empty of spiritual being. In the infernal worlds, one can have knowledge, but only of the inferior aspect of things, through the shells of the ego. Every ego is a shell that traps consciousness in perdition, in the infradimensions, that we must learn to comprehend and transcend through the psychological work. The Divine Mother, the High Priestess of the tarot, helps us to eliminate the shells of the ego so we can extract the seeds, the consciousness, the intuitive principles or arcana of the soul, to know the Tree of Life directly from experience. This is how we are liberated from suffering. Through this work of joyful perseverance, of comprehension and elimination of our defects, we create the music of the soul. Now you can comprehend the basis of Tchaikovsky’s famous “Nutcracker” Suite. You must crack the shells of the ego to develop the beauty and symphony of the consciousness. In this manner you awaken consciousness in order to receive the knowledge of the superior worlds, synthesized through the twenty-two major arcana of the tarot. For as the Third Book of Enoch states: “Receive [kabbel, kabbalah] the [22] letters of the oath.” With the first Arcanum, we learn to descend in order to re-ascend. We must enter Klipoth and comprehend all the shells that condition our understanding. With arcanum two we learn to work with the Divine Mother, the occult science that liberates: "Have you considered the [sexual] Fire that you kindle? Is it you who brought into being the Tree [of life] thereof, or is it We Who bring it into being? We made it a reminder and an enjoyment for the desert dwellers [anyone who traverses the wilderness of initiation, be’midbar, through working with debar, the word]. So glorify the Name of thy Lord, the Magnificent! I swear by the places where the stars descend [the Magician orders the soul to descend then to return / ascend with glory]. And truly it is a magnificent path, if you but knew. Truly it is a Noble Qur’an, in a Book concealed [the tarot, which have not been unveiled until recently]. None touch it, save those made pure [through chastity], a revelation from the Lord of the worlds." ―Al-Waqi’ah, the Event [56:71-80]. The Book Concealed is another name for the Preserved Tablet, the twenty-two major arcana that serve as the basis for every major religion, without exception. This knowledge of the tarot, the Book Concealed, hidden within the scriptures and the higher dimensions, was not made public until recent decades, through the writings of Samael Aun Weor. Remember that it was forbidden to teach alchemy in public during the era of Pisces. But now we are in the era of Aquarius, the water carrier, whereby the tarot is now being explained for the first time. The Mother of the Book is the occult science, the Divine Mother Kundalini represented by the Second Arcanum, known as the sacred Cow or Heifer within the second Surah of the Qur’an, of which we will be discussing in detail today. 
The Tree of Life and the Absolute
The number two is precisely the feminine, receptive or negative force that unfolds from the masculine, projective or positive force within the higher dimensions. This difference in forces from the higher planes manifests also within our physicality through the division of sexes.
The Father could not create life if it were not for the Mother. Man and wife cannot be priest and priestess of creation without each other. As above, so below. We see here in this image the Tree of Life and a representation of man and woman with the image of the infinite, the holy eight, transposed over their bodies. Before speaking about the microcosmos, the human being, let us first discuss the macrocosmos, the universe at large. The universe emerges because of the Divine Father and Divine Mother, who are unified and described in the kabbalah through the unmanifested, the אין סוף Ain Soph, which in Hebrew translates as the “Limitless.” In Kabbalah, our Ain Soph is our supra-atomic star, a primordial and eternal point of supra-divine, uncreated light that shines within the Absolute Abstract Space. Ain Soph is the essential root of our Being, the root of our existence, which is profound, unconditioned and limitless supra-divine happiness. Ain Soph is referenced as the Star of בית לחם Bethlehem that guided the three magi towards the birthplace of Christ. ב Beth, as we are going to elaborate upon today, is the second Hebrew letter of Kabbalah, signifying a house, as well as wisdom. Bethlehem literally means “house of bread,” indicating that the light of Christ, the sphere of Chokmah, wisdom, is the solar energy manifested within the eucharist, the bread of wisdom that gives life to the soul. The house of wisdom is precisely the esoteric knowledge of the Second Arcanum, since through the power of the Divine Mother is how Christ is born in us. Our body is a manger or house in which the solar light of Christ can be born if we know how to practice this wisdom. Let us discuss how לחם Lechem, this bread of wisdom first emerges into the universe. Christ, the light of divinity, first emerges from the Ain Soph as the Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless Light. This undifferentiated, uncreated light, to create the universe, first manifests as Kether, a י iod or point of light, the tenth Hebrew letter and tenth sephirah from the bottom to the top of the Tree of Life. Remember that in the Magician card, Kether shows one side or aspect of his face. Kether is known in kabbalah as Arik Anpin, the Vast Countenance. This indicates that one part of him is knowable in this universe, through the Tree of Life. The other side of his face is obscured, hidden within the Absolute as the Unmanifested, the Ain Soph. Kether is the first manifestation of the uncreated light into the universe. 
This light, manifested as Kether, unfolds into Chokmah, His Son. From Chokmah emerges Binah. Behold Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to use Christian terms for the primordial forces of creation. The main trinity represented in this graphic is composed of Kether, Chokmah, Binah, or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, within the world of archetypes or splendors, Atziluth. This world in Kabbalah is a potential world, whereby the principles of divinity have not yet entered manifestation or creation. These forces constitute a unity in the world of archetypes, Atziluth, before these forces manifest as three in order to create life. Remember that within Kether is Chokmah and Binah. Within Chokmah is Kether and Binah. And within Binah is Kether and Chokmah. This unity is indivisible, but manifests in three ways. For the unity to create, it expresses itself as three, the number associated with genesis and creation. 
Binah, the Holy Spirit, has a masculine and feminine aspect, known as Abba and Aima Elohim, Father and Mother, synthesized in the sacred name of this sephirah: Jehovah Elohim, which means gods and goddesses.
From the masculine aspect of Binah emerges the feminine aspect of divinity, the Divine Mother, and through their union in Da’ath, Briah, the world of creation, produce their Son, Chesed, the spirit. For that light to create the Tree of Life in its totality, such a light must manifest through the power of Father-Mother in the world of Briah or Da’ath, the mysterious, alchemical tree of knowledge of good and evil, to create all things. 
Before the logos can create, Father must unfold into Mother within Binah. Behold a second form of the holy trinity: father, mother, and son, which has its center of gravity in Binah and which is empowered through the mystical sphere of Da’ath. Da’ath is the kabbalistic world of Briah, the world of creation, wherein the sephiroth, the worlds of formation or Yetzirah, emerge.
When Binah unfolds himself into the divine feminine, they create through the science of Da’ath, to engender the spirit, Chesed. The world of Da’ath is the world of creation, Briah, in Kabbalah, whereby Osiris, the Father, and Isis, the Mother, join to create the Son, Horus. In synthesis, all of this is contained and implied within the arcana. The Magician, unfolding into the High Priestess, forms the second arcanum of the tarot. Be careful not to mix up the trinities: one tri-unity in the world of Atziluth, splendorous archetypes, and another in the world of Briah, creation. This is a deep teaching that requires intuition to comprehend fully and deeply. Father, Mother, and Son create the Tree of Life, the lower sephiroth or world of Yetzirah, formation, and this light enters more dense forms of materiality, energy, and experience, down the Sephiroth or emanations of this diagram, until reaching the physical plane, Malkuth. Malkuth represents the world of matter and action, the fourth and final world of kabbalah: Assiah. The light emerges from the Absolute, and forms the Tree of Life, so that our supra-atomic star, our Ain Soph, can acquire knowledge and understanding of its own divine happiness by returning that light (from below) back to Itself. The Ain Soph of most people does not yet have comprehension, cognizance of its own happiness. Self-realization exists within the Ain Soph when the soul has performed the Great Work. An Ain Soph with cognizance of Itself is known as Ain Soph Paranishpanna. The word Paranishpanna signifies absolute cognizance of absolute happiness. But for this to occur, the disciple must return that light that is in Malkuth, their physical house, inward and up the Tree of Life, the different Sephiroth, through the work of the Divine Mother that we are explaining. To return up the Tree of Life, back to our Ain Soph, we must become מלכים Malachim or מלכות Melachot, “kings” or “queens,” priests or priestesses, practical magicians who harness the forces of the physical body, Malkuth, our house, or Beth. This is to acquire wisdom and enlightenment of each Sephirah, each level of creation, until returning to our source, which is our origin. Our Ain Soph is also a house, but empty, uninhabited, without realization. The Being is absolute happiness, yet lacks cognizance of this absolute happiness. It is an empty house. Our Ain Soph needs us to return, to reflect its own happiness through us so as to know Itself. It is uninhabited by the soul, the consciousness that can serve as a mirror for one’s supra-atomic star to perceive itself completely. The Sufis refer to the Ain Soph with the separated Arabic letter ا Alif in the sacred name of God, الله Allah. This ا Alif is the nothingness, the sacred breath, the cosmic space, as well as the Ain Soph, which is why in Islam, no statues or images can be made of الله Allah, because no one can anthropomorphize space and the uncreated light. This Limitless space or uncreated light is precisely the kabbalistic Ain Soph. The rest of the sacred name of God is Islam refers to the manifested expression of the light, the Tree of Life, signified by ل Lam, ل Lam, and ه Ha. The Arabic ل Lam or Hebrew ל Lamed refers to the tongue, to speech, to the manifested, creative Verb. The Arabic ه Ha or Hebrew ה Hei can also refer to the breath, but this specifically is in relation to the materialization of the cosmic breath into matter. Therefore, recitation within Islam is so prominent, because it refers to the manifested expression of divine light from the unknowable cosmic space, the power of the creative verb. This cosmic space is called Mulaprakriti in Hinduism. It is the universal space of the Divine Mother, within whom is the bosom of the Universal Cosmic Common Eternal Father. 
The Qur’an speaks of Prophet Muhammad’s night journey up the seven heavens or seven dimensions of the Tree of Life, towards the sacred house, the Ain Soph. We too must learn to perform Hajj, or pilgrimage to the sacred house, the Ain Soph, represented by the sacred Kaba, the stone of Mecca, which is obligatory for every Muslim or solar initiate to visit. This duty, hajj, represents the achievement of Self-realization or Ain Soph Paranishpanna. The Prophet’s night journey, al-Miraj, is described in Surah 53: al-Najm, the Star: By the star when it descends, Your companion [Muhammad] has not strayed, nor has he erred, Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed, Taught to him by one intense in strength – One of soundness. And he rose to [his] true form While he was in the higher [part of the] horizon. Then he approached and descended And was at a distance of two bow lengths or nearer (since the second letter of Arabic is ب ba, equivalent to the Hebrew ב Beth, signifying the sacred house and wisdom). And he revealed to His Servant what he revealed. The heart did not lie [about] what it saw. So will you dispute with him over what he saw? And he certainly saw him in another descent At the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary [Ain Soph] Near it is the Garden of Refuge [the Unmanifested Ain]– When there covered the Lote Tree that which covered [it]. The sight [of the Prophet] did not swerve, nor did it transgress [its limit]. He certainly saw of the greatest signs of his Lord. —The Star, verses 1-18. There is a limit how far the prophets and angels can go towards the heights, represented by the Lote Tree of the furthermost boundary, the Pass Not Ring cited by Blavatsky in her writings. Many initiates reach the Ain Soph, but further sacrifice is needed to enter the Ain, the Unmanifested Absolute. To enter the bosom of the Cosmic Common Eternal Father, the Sacred Space, the Unmanifested Absolute or Ain, is very hard to achieve. However, before we can worry about that, we must unite with our own particular Ain Soph. 
Regarding the path of self-realization, Ibn Arabi, a great Sufi Master, explained that only الله Allah, Ain Soph, our supra-atomic star, can comprehend Himself through the perfected soul.
From the Treatise on The One Alone, Kitab al-Ahadiyyah: "When one looks into a mirror one sees oneself. Whatever appears on you appears on the image in the mirror. When you look upon your image in the mirror, your image is looking upon you. Naturally the eye that looks at you from the mirror is your eye. Then, when the image in the mirror looks at you, is it not true that you are looking at yourself with your own eyes? If the name of the one who is looking in the mirror is Ahmad, and if the image in the mirror could speak and say, “I am Ahmad,” it would be telling the truth. Yet, as the image is reflecting, so would be the words. It would not be the image that calls itself Ahmad, but the one who is looking into the mirror. "So if someone says, “I am the Truth,” do not hear it from any other than the Truth Himself, for it is not a man who says it; it is the word of Allah. That man who utters these words is nothing but an image reflected upon an empty mirror, one of the infinite attributes of Allah. The reflection is the same as that which is being reflected, and the words of the image are the reflected words of the Real One. "The void [emptiness of the consciousness] is a mirror; the creation is the image in it. Man is as the eye of the image reflected in the mirror; the One who is reflected in the image is hidden in the pupil of that eye; thus He sees Himself. Then: "'He is the One who sees: He is the eye. He is the One who is seen.' ―Shaikh Mahmud Shabustari, Gulsheni-Raz "Only the one who has the eyes of his heart open will understand these words." ―Ibn 'Arabi If you want to understand what it means to reflect the light of the Ain Soph, you must develop your heart, Tiphereth, the beauty of the perfected soul. The Qur’an also speaks about the Ain Soph as the house inhabited, meaning: an Ain Soph with realization, Ain Soph Paranishpanna: "In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, "By the Mount [of Initiation], and by a Book inscribed [the Preserved Tablet or tarot inscribed in stone], on parchment outspread; by the house inhabited [Ain Soph Paranishpanna] by the canopy [of the sky] raised [the skies in the internal plane represent your level of being, the qualities of your mind], and by the sea swelling over, truly thy Lord's Punishment shall come to pass." —Al-Tur, the Mount 1-7 By climbing the mountain of initiation, we ascend the Tree of Life, towards higher and higher levels of Being, until finally uniting with the longed-for goal, the Ain Soph. Once we return to our Ain Soph, we have inhabited our house once again, our true home. As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz exclaimed, "There’s no place like home!" She of course represents our soul that has traveled the straight and narrow path, the yellow brick road of wisdom, gnosis, until reaching her true origin. She accomplishes this through the silver slippers, which are red in the film. The one who guides her in secret is Glinda, a reference to the science of the Divine Mother, who is the Good Witch of the North. The sacred mantra relating to the North is IAO, the sacred name of God in Latin, or Jehovah in Hebrew. Within the Divine Mother, signified by the mantra RAM-IO is the Divine Father, who is in secret. Slippers represent the mysteries of Yesod in kabbalah, since this is how we genuinely walk the path of initiation. Silver relates to the science of Mercury, Hermes, his winged boots that allow him to ascend and descend throughout the entire Tree of Life at will. Once we work with the science of mercury and the Divine Mother, we acquire the capacity to leave our egotistical dreams behind and return to our spiritual house, Beth, the Ain Soph. 
Duality, Genesis, and the Second Arcanum
Let us discuss the nature of the number two in relation to duality and the High Priestess of the Tarot. The sign of the infinite is the magical symbol of tantrism, sexual alchemy. The sign of the infinite unites all three of our psychological and physiological centers, what in gnostic psychology we call the three brains: the intellect, the emotions, and the sexual organs. These centers relate to Netzach, the mental body or mind, Hod, the emotional body or heart, and Yesod, the vital body intimately related with the energies of the sexual organs.
These three vehicles relate to what we call our three brains within our physicality. Let us remember that the Tree of Life is this map of divinity and ourselves. To talk about the Divine Mother, the feminine aspect of God, we must remember that this Tree of Life manifests, emerges, because of the first card of the tarot. The Magician initiates, creates, begins, but to do so, he unfolds into his divine spouse, Devi Kundalini. Man and woman, with their three brains united through the sexual act, can work to return inward and upward back to their own atomic star. If you take the two signs of the holy eight from both man and woman and cross them, one horizontal and the other vertical, you form a famous symbol of Buddhism, the dorje, a tantric representation of sexual union, the vertical phallus with the horizontal uterus. The bell in Tibetan Buddhism represents the feminine sexual organs, the yoni. Both bell and dorje form the foundation of all spiritual realization, or Ain Soph Paranishpanna. The science of the Second Arcanum is the path of sexuality, the Divine Mother Kundalini, who sleeps in the chakra Muladhara coiled three and a half times within this center, awaiting the moment of its awakening through sexual alchemy, white tantrism between husband and wife. Just as man and woman can create a physical child through sex, likewise we create the perfected soul through sexual union with the conservation and sublimation of the seminal matter into divine, Christic energy. If we want to return to our own particular unity, the Ain Soph, we must work with the duality, man and woman. Ain Soph is a perfect unity, whose light unfolds into a duality and also a trinity to produce the creation of the universe. If we want to return to our origin, we must work in the perfect matrimony, because to create spiritually, we need our sexual compliment, through a member of the opposite sex. Both masculine and feminine polarities are required for creation, both of a physical child as well as the soul. 
Description and Explanation of the Second Card of the Tarot
The most notable feature of this glyph, besides the feminine figure seated in contemplation, are the two columns of the temple, which in Masonry remind us of Jakin and Boaz, the white and black pillars. Jakin is masculine, Boaz is feminine. The pillars are reversed in this image in order to demonstrate that the Popess of the Tarot, the High Priestess, is looking out from within the temple, and that we, as disciples, are viewing her from the inside of the temple looking out. This is because Jakin, the white pillar of mercy, is the right hand pillar of the Tree of Life, consisting of Chokmah, Chesed, and Netzach, whereas Boaz, the black pillar of severity, is the left hand pillar of the Tree of Life, consisting of Binah, Geburah, and Hod. Notice also that the pillars Jakin and Boaz are in the waters, the bottom third of the card. The Divine Mother is the force that reconciliates, who sits within the middle of the temple, emphasizing to us the spinal medulla in our body, wherein She rises through the alchemical science. She manifests in the middle pillar through our works, the middle pillar consisting of Kether, Da’ath, Tiphereth, Yesod, and Malkuth. What do these two columns symbolize for us? Jakin represents the man, mercy. Boaz represents the woman, severity. These two columns support the temple of every mystery. Notice that with the image of this temple’s pillars there are four sections each, representing for us the four lower bodies of the human being, the lower four vehicles of the consciousness. Those four lower bodies are described in the Tree of Life as Malkuth, the physical body, Yesod, the vital body, Hod, the astral or emotional body, and Netzach, the mind or mental body. These two pillars must have space between them, as Samael Aun Weor emphasizes in his books, as well as the poet Kahlil Gibran, who explains the nature of these two pillars very beautifully in a work known as The Prophet. I’d like to relate to you a poem from this text, to emphasize how man and woman balance each other in their relationship. They must not be too close with sentimentalism and attachment, nor too far apart with distance, self-importance, coldness, etc. They must find balance within each other and themselves. The masculine, projective force finds his equilibrium and harmony through the receptive force, and vice versa. Here is the poem with some minor exegeses, commentary or explanation between the lines, since Kahlil Gibran teaches kabbalah and alchemy in a veiled form. On Marriage You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God (when submerged in the Ain Soph during the Cosmic Night, the Great Pralaya). But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds (the Aleph, the Prana) of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, (for as Paul of Tarsus indicates, those who are single should live as if they are married to their Divine Mother, and the married as single, chaste persons) Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of (The Absolute Universal Spirit of) Life (the Unmanifested Ain) can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow. Husband and wife must find their equilibrium in their matrimony on a physical, sexual, emotional, mental, and volitional level [volition relating to will] or there will be imbalance and unhappiness. In the Magician card, the Priest was standing. But with the High Priestess, she is sitting. Her posture signifies the feminine aspect of divinity, which is receptive, passive, nurturing. She holds an open book, the Preserved Tablet, which is the kabbalah, the mystical science at the heart of all religions. Here we literally see the Mother of the Book, the Divine Mother or feminine aspect of divinity, who is eluded to in the Qur’an. She has an Tao cross, of Venus, upon Her breast, indicating that She carries the milk of wisdom, spiritual sustenance, the nourishment for the soul. She is the kabbalistic Shekinah, the exiled power of Israel that can liberate and reconcile the true Jews, the intuitive kabbalists, with heaven, the divine. From Her breast is the milk of real knowledge, which is experiential. It’s what we verify. It’s what we know from facts. That sustenance that She gives to Her son or daughter emerges within us as a result of meditation, when we are face to face with our Divine Mother, speaking to Her, receiving the insights and symbols of dreams from Her directly. That’s how we nourish our soul. Milk, as wisdom, is a substance that resembles semen within man or woman, the seminal matter. The milk also represents the divine virtues we create through learning to transmute our sexual energies, transforming the base material or semen into the light of enlightened consciousness. This is accomplished through Venus, the goddess of love. Venus-Aphrodite is the beauty of our Divine Mother manifest in our hearts, Tiphereth. She provides beauty to the soul itself when we learn to work with Her intimately, cognizantly. Tiphereth, our human soul, or human consciousness or willpower, astrologically relates to both Venus and the Sun. The secret mantra of Tiphereth in kabbalah is Eloah va Da’ath Iod Hei Vau Hei, "Goddess of knowledge, Jehovah." Who is this goddess of knowledge that resides in our heart temple? Our Divine Mother, the Popess or High Priestess of the Tarot. She enters and manifests in our heart through sexual magic, white tantrism, the science of alchemy with its sacred mantras. Upon Her head is a serpent, indicating how She has raised that power of the serpent within us, to the mind, and that this feminine figure is a master. She has a veil over Her face, referring to the veil of Isis. This means that the genuine mysteries of God can only be known through meditation, that we must tear the veil through alchemy, meditation, and the death of our desires, our defects, our ego. 
Beethoven had an image of the Divine Mother, the divine feminine, above his desk where he would compose. Upon this painting was inscribed, in his own hand, the hermetic axiom of the Goddess Neith, the Egyptian Divine Mother, from the temple of this female divinity from ancient times: “I am all that was, is, and shall be, and no mortal hath lifted My veil.” So Beethoven was a Freemason, who knew this knowledge very well and depicted the tarot in his music, in accordance with his nine completed symphonies and the nine heavens or Sephiroth above Malkuth, whereby he slowly unveiled the mysteries of Isis in his compositions, for those who hath an ear to ear what the spirit saith unto the churches, the chakras of Revelation.
The veil of Isis can only be lifted through purification of our psyche. Sanctification and purity are the two essential requirements for knowing and experiencing the mysteries of the High Priestess of the Tarot. Sanctification signifies the death of the ego, through daily meditation. To purify means to be chaste, to not waste the sexual energy, to not expel it. To expel that energy is to be expelled from the temple of the Divine Mother, because the power of the Divine Mother is chastity, sexual purity. Upon Her head are the horns of the bull Apis, which relates to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Jehovah Elohim in kabbalah, is masculine and feminine, signified by the masculine-feminine suffix of the word Elohim. El is masculine. Eloah is feminine. Iod Mem, im, is the masculine plural ending of the word Elohim, which means “gods and goddesses.” The Divine Mother Kundalini Shakti is the feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit, the spouse of Shiva. The masculine aspect of the Holy Spirit, Shiva, is also known as Abba Elohim, and the feminine is Aima Elohim. Abba means “father,” as in Christ’s prayer before his Passion, “Abba, father, if it be possible, pass this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will, but Thine be done” (Matthew 26:39). The cup is a symbol of the yoni, the feminine sexual organs, the path of the Divine Mother, which is painful to the mind and ego, because through the alchemical work our desires must die. Aima means “mother,” and is signified by the holy grail, the cup of the mysteries, wherein is contained the milk or manna of wisdom. The unification of Abba and Aima Elohim, implied through the unity of the first and second arcana of the tarot, produces the third arcanum: the Empress or Christified soul, the perfected consciousness, the topic of our next lecture. 
The Divine Mother has always been represented by the feminine cow in many faiths. Milk, as referenced in the second arcanum, is an element abundant in cows, which we find represented in Hinduism by Krishna, the cowherd, a symbol of Christ nourishing himself through the seminal energies. We likewise find reference to the Divine Mother in the longest surah of the Qur’an, al-Baqarah, the Heifer or Cow.
This surah mentions how the powers of the sacred cow, the Divine Mother, can resuscitate the dead. This is a symbol of how the alchemical wisdom can bring those who are spiritually dead, filled with ego, back into spiritual life. In this passage, Moses is speaking before the unbelieving people of Israel and the need to slaughter a cow to achieve redemption. This does not make much sense literally, but if you understand that the cow represents the science of the Divine Mother, the real meaning is clear. The solar initiates must, of course, slaughter the animal ego, to be reborn spiritually. This is represented by the slaughtering of the cow in al-Baqarah, which is the second surah of the Qur’an, directly referencing the mysteries of Arcanum 2: "And [recall] when Moses said to his people, 'Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow.' They said, 'Do you take us in ridicule?' He said, 'I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant.' "They said, 'Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is.'" [Moses] said, '[Allah] says, 'It is a cow which is neither old nor virgin, but median between that,' so do what you are commanded.' [That the cow is neither old nor virgin, but a middle ground, represents us: to begin the alchemical work, we should not be too old, but neither too young, like adolescents who should be virginal, yet in today’s age are not. The proper age to begin sexual magic is 21 for men and 18 for women, since women tend to mature faster biologically]. "They said, 'Call upon your Lord to show us what is her color.' He said, 'He says, 'It is a yellow cow, bright in color―pleasing to the observers.'" [The color yellow, in esoterism, symbolizes objective knowledge, wisdom of the solar mind, the Christic path]. "They said, 'Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is. Indeed, [all] cows look alike to us. And indeed we, if Allah wills, will be guided.' "He said, 'He says, 'It is a cow neither trained to plow the earth nor to irrigate the field, one free from fault with no spot upon her.'" [To be free from fault indicates that the power of the Divine Mother is pure, chaste, without blemish]. They said, 'Now you have come with the truth.' So they slaughtered her [or better said, slaughtered the ego through Her power], but they could hardly do it [because the work against the ego is very difficult]. "And [recall] when you slew a man and disputed over it, but Allah was to bring out that which you were concealing. [All of us are guilty of slaying the image of the internal man, the true human being, through fornication. Afterward we constantly dispute about it, justify our degeneration, with excuses. Meanwhile we conceal our degeneration from others out of shame, when in truth the Being, Allah, knows how filthy our hearts and minds are]. "So, We said, 'Strike the slain man with part of it.' Thus does Allah bring the dead to life, and He shows you His signs that you might reason. [All of us are dead to the spirit because of our ego. Therefore, the power of the Divine Mother can awaken and liberate us. This passage also indicates that when we die to the ego, we resurrect within the Holy Spirit at the end of the Second Mountain. All of this is for people with reason: or better said, solar intelligence, those possessors of intellect or possessors of kernels, seeds]. "Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder [because despite being taught the science of alchemy, the followers of Moses remained fornicators]. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do. [What are the stones from which rivers gush forth? The stones of the testicles or ovaries, the stone of Yesod, from which the seminal waters of transmutation emerge. Remember that “stones” is slang for gonads]." —Al-Baqarah, the Heifer 67-74 "The cow" in Spanish is La Baca. Spell La Baca backwards and you spell kabbalah, the teachings of the cow, the mystical science of Judaism and of Shekinah, the Mother of the Book. La Baca can also refer to the Kaba, the sacred stone of the Muslims, which represents for us the mysteries of the stone of Yesod, the creative sexual energy. Baqa literally means "subsistence" in Arabic. To have spiritual substance, to subsist within the Being, to self-realize the Being, we must first work with what the Sufis denominate as fana, which means "annihilation." To be in the Being, you must first die as an ego. Regarding the horns of the bull, horns have dualistic significance in esotericism. They can refer to our egotism, our own satanic qualities, our animality. Horns in the positive sense can be represented by the horns of light, representing levels of self-realization within the Being. These horns of light were seen radiating from the head of Moses as he descended Mount Sinai, after he received the ten commandments from above. Michelangelo chiseled a statue of Moses to represent the horns of light, of wisdom, obtained by any solar initiate who completes the Mountain of Resurrection. We too must chisel the stone of Yesod, our sexual energies, with willpower and intelligence, to provide perfect cubic shape, to serve as the foundation of our inner temple, as represented by the Second Arcanum. We must ensure that the power of the two pillars, within the waters of the card, must be perfected. All four levels of each pillar must be perfected, signifying the purification of the physical, vital, astral, and mental bodies, the lower quaternary of kabbalah or the four bodies of sin. We accomplish this work through the hammer of willpower and the chisel of imagination, of intelligence and wisdom, to give shape to the soul. With the first arcanum of the tarot, we work with the hammer of willpower, concentration, the Magician. We initiate and begin this work. We direct our willpower in the spiritual endeavor. The second arcanum of the tarot is intelligence, imagination, the chisel of understanding by which we focus our willpower so as to give shape to our stone. The Divine Mother is the force of imagination itself, the capacity to perceive non-physical, psychic, or spiritual imagery within meditation and the higher planes. Imagination simply is the ability to perceive images in the mind’s eye, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Imagination can also be dualistic, either conscious, unconditioned, free and clear of subjectivity, or it can be mechanical, negative, conditioned or egotistical. Fantasy, daydreams, mental projections, are precisely negative imagination, conditioned perception. We typically experience negative imagination, fantasy, on a day to day, moment by moment basis. This is egotistical. We are hypnotized by our minds, imagining what we would have liked to say to that person who cut us off on the street during our drive to work, visualizing what we would have said if we could have pulled up to the side of the person, what revenge we can get, gratifying our anger, etc. We get lost in associative thinking, daydreaming about our family or co-workers and not paying attention to where we are at or what we are doing. This is all mechanical, subjective, negative, and constitutes, for most people, the daily state of affairs. Conscious imagination is the ability to visualize during meditation any object we have decided to concentrate upon, such as a statue, a candle, a mandala, a stone. We concentrate on the object with our entire attention, never losing our attention focused on the object of our practice, and thereafter imagine it in our mind, our consciousness. We learn to see with our imagination the qualities of the image with perfect clarity, color, and accuracy. This of course develops through daily discipline. Willpower, the Magician, helps us to concentrate on a specific task. Imagination, the High Priestess, grants us the capacity to perceive what we are doing. Together you achieve comprehension, the third arcanum, the perfected soul. The serpent biting its tail in the card can represent the moon, the lunar, feminine forces, but also the ouroboros, a middle eastern symbol of eternity and how the Divine Mother Kundalini serpent must swallow the soul. We must be swallowed by the serpent to become purified, so that our conscious imagination can be perfected. This is paralleled by Jonah being swallowed by the whale, since Jonah literally means "dove" in Hebrew, a symbol of chastity and the Holy Spirit. As described in The Perfect Matrimony, we must raise the serpent of Kundalini up the seven lower bodies of the Tree of Life: Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiphereth, Geburah, and Chesed, which are the physical, vital, astral, mental, causal, buddhic, and Atmic bodies. After raising the serpent up each body, we obtain an initiation of Major Mysteries, which are seven in total. The serpent in this card is also a moon, which has profound significance, because the moon relates to the ego, to defects and desires. This is where we get the word lunatic, someone who is influenced by the moon, by violence, hatred, mechanical forces in nature. The moon is the ego, sorrow, sentimentalism, pain and suffering. Our habits are one hundred percent lunar, mechanical, habitual, petrified in our psyche and body. We must go against mechanical, lunar behaviors to acquire solar intelligence, the powers of the Being. The moon is mechanical imagination, truly identified as fantasy, whereas the resplendence of the sun is the perfection of conscious imagination. There is also a positive aspect of the moon, which is the Divine Mother Kundalini, but She has nothing to do with our inverted, negative desires, the inferior aspect of the moon known as Lilith and Nahemah. Devi Kundalini is the power that can liberate us from the inferior influences of the moon, the mind, from the demons or egos of Lilith and Nahemah, which are two lunar aspects of degenerated psychologies. The serpent that ascends within the spine, to victoriously swallow the soul, is the Divine Mother Kundalini. The negative, devolving, degenerative and fallen serpent, the serpent of temptation that leads one into the infradimensions, into the hell realms, is the Kundabuffer, the tail of demons, which descends from the coccyx through lust and fornication. The fiery seraphim or serpents bit the Israelites in the desert as a result of their transgression and disobedience to Jehovah. These fiery serpents that punish the soul are inverted sexual fires of the Kundabuffer, the forces of the ego, the fiery elements of lust and sexual desire. But to be healed of their degeneration, their perversity, to redeem their soul from the ego, the Israelites looked upon the serpent of brass of Moshe, Moses. Brass is an alchemical symbol, the union of the metals tin and copper, representing man and woman. Through the fires of sexuality, of love, those metals fuse and produce the serpent of brass, the Kundalini, that rises within the spines of the initiates, husband and wife. This is how the moon is gradually transmuted, transformed into a sun. As described in the Qur’an, Muhammad performed the miracle of cleaving the moon in half, which people, of course, interpret literally. However, when you know kabbalah and alchemy, you see that any couple working in the perfect matrimony can cleave the lunar ego in half, to comprehend and annihilate it completely. This is a symbol of overcoming lunar mechanicity in order to be a solar adept through the power of the Divine Mother. The sign of Cancer reigns in this card, which astrologically relates to the powers of the moon, Yesod, vitality, conception, and reproduction, which are regulated by the cycles of the physical moon. Menstruation and feminine sexual cycles are deeply related to the lunar phases, alongside the fluctuation and tides of the seas. The second arcanum of the tarot therefore relates to Cancer because it is a water sign, a moon sign. The sexual energies relate to the moon. The white moon is the Divine Mother. The black moon is Lilith, demonism, degeneration. Those who abuse the waters of sexuality end up developing incurable diseases such as Cancer, which is intimately related with such a sickness. The sign of Cancer is the sign of the scarab in Egyptian terminology. This insect is said to be immortal because it constantly regenerates itself and creates new bodies, which break away from old shells. This is a symbol of the regenerative faculties of sexual alchemy, for the soul learns to break free from the shells, Klipoth in Hebrew, the ego. The symbol of Islam is a crescent moon with the star of Venus, indicating that we must work with the powers of Yesod, the lunar influence, through Venus, the star of love, the Divine Mother. As we mentioned previously, the supreme mantra of sexual magic is the Latin I.A.O., Ignis, Aqua, Origo, or fire, water, and spirit. These principles are represented by the three mother letters of kabbalah: א Aleph [air], ש Shin [fire], and מ Mem [water]. The sound of the air or breath can be represented by an "h," the letter ה Hei. ה Hei, ש Shin and מ Mem spell השם Hashem, signifying "the Name." Spell Hashem backwards and you spell משה Moshe, Moses. Moses is our willpower, our inner magician, who can raise the serpentine power up our spine through the merits and qualifications of the heart. By learning to control the air [mind], fire [emotions], and sexual organs [water], we give birth through the womb of ה Hei, the Divine Mother, to the solar bodies of esoterism. You can also use the Hebrew י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vau for I.A.O. The sacred name of God in Judaism is יהוה Jehovah, Iod-Hei-Vau-Hei. י Iod is the man, ה Hei is the woman. ו Vav is the phallus, ה Hei is the uterus. So you can see that the alchemical science of Hei, the Divine Mother, is absolutely sexual. 
The Significance of the Hebrew Letter Beth
Now we are going to talk about the Hebrew letter Beth and the profound meanings thereof.
We’ve included in this slide an image of the Hebrew letter Beth with Krishna, who is the cowherd, alongside the sacred Ka’ba in the Middle East. Beth simply represents a house, and its calligraphy represents the two columns of the temple that we discussed. Beth is also hidden in the Arabic tongue as Bayt Allah, "House of God," a reference to the Ka’ba or cubic stone of Yesod within Surah 22, verse 26 of the Qur’an: "And mention, O Muhammad, when We designated for Abraham the site of the House, saying, "Do not associate anything with Me and purify My House for those who perform Tawaf [circumambulations or circling around the Kaaba] and those who stand in prayer and those who bow and prostrate." What is the house of God? We can say it consists of the solar vehicles that we create through alchemy. We talked previously about creating the soul, vehicles within the higher dimensions wherein we can manifest the light of God, principally through the solar astral / emotional body, solar mental body, and solar causal body or body of willpower. Beth or the solar vehicles are the Merkabah that took Ezekiel up to the heavens. Notice that the letter ב Beth is composed of three ו Vavs. The letter ו Vav is a straight line, signifying a spinal medulla. Three lines means three spines, signifying the three solar vehicles we must create in alchemy: solar astral, solar mental, and solar causal bodies. Muslim circumambulate, circle around the sacred Kaaba in Mecca, seven times. This implies the work of raising the sacred fire of Kundalini up the spinal medullas of the seven lower Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, precisely through working with the House of God, the mysteries of alchemy, Allah-khemia, or Yesod. Al-Baqarah, the second arcanum or surah of the Qur’an, is the longest in that scripture. As we mentioned earlier, the second arcanum relates to the sacred cow, the Divine Mother who grants resurrection and life to the soul that has died to the ego. Krishna is the Hindu form of Christ, the logos, the divine, represented as a cowherd. There is a profound relationship between Krishna and the cow, Christ and the Divine Mother Cow, Baqarah. These aspects of divinity work together within us, especially in the advanced stages of the path. There are many other interesting kabbalistic words that begin with the Hebrew letter Beth, all which point towards the significance of generating and developing the soul: Beth-El, “House of God,” Bethesda: "house of mercy,” Bathsheba: "daughter of the seven," or seven bodies of the Tree of Life, Beth Din: tribunal of justice, religion, or karma, which exists in the higher dimensions, and Elisabeth, pronounced El-Isis-A-Beth, El signifying God, Isis the Divine Mother, and Beth the consciousness. Elizabeth was the mother of John, the sacred Verb, or IEOUAMS, the seven vowels hidden in the name Johannes; and Bethlehem, “House of Bread,” we discussed already. 
Beth and the Zohar
The heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelations, as we see in this final graphic, represents the perfected soul, a house or city built in a cubic shape, representative of Yesod in Kabbalah. The jewels beneath the heavenly house or city, Beth, are the virtues of the soul that are generated through meditation and alchemy.
Beth in Hebrew and Arabic refers to the house of divinity, the heavenly Jerusalem, the solar bodies. However, Beth can also reference the sexual glands wherein are housed the creative sexual energies of genesis, the creation of the soul or solar vehicles. This creation of the solar bodies is the mystery of Genesis, generation. The creation of the soul is known as בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit in kabbalah. Notice that בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit begins with Beth, the letter of wisdom. Our body is a house with the energies of spiritual realization in a potential state. The mysteries of the second arcanum are hidden in the Hebrew acrostic Bereshit, or: (Bereshit Bara Elohim At Ha-Shamayim Vey-At Ha'aretz): בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ "In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth." The Zohar explains that "In the beginning" should be read as "In wisdom, Elohim created." Beth represents the house of wisdom from which all spiritual creation emerges. What wisdom does the Zohar reference in relation to the creation of the universe? The wisdom of the Divine Mother, the science of alchemy: to retain the sexual energies of tantrism and to never spill them. All of this is hidden in the Zohar’s teaching about the word בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, which discusses how through raising the creative energy from the sexual glands to our brain within sexual alchemy, we can create the soul. All of this is accomplished through chiseling and perfecting the heavenly house or city of peace, Jerusalem, the cubic stone of the masons: "זהר Zohar, Radiance! Mystery! בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, In the beginning, first of all. אהיה Ehyeh, I will be (Exodus 3:14), a sacred name engraved in its sides [more specifically, on the sides of the cubic stone]; אלהים (Elohim), God, engraved in the crown." —Zohar We spoke about the Magician, Kether, whose sacred name of in Kabbalah is אהיה אשר אהיה, Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh, "I will be what I become, " or commonly translated as "I Am Who I Am. " Eheyeh, I will be, is written on the sides of the cubic stone of Yesod, indicating the two energetic channels Ida and Pingala, since we enact the force of becoming, of transformation, through working with the caduceus of Mercury, as we explained previously in our first lecture in this course. Elohim is written on the crown of the cubic stone of Yesod, since when the sacred fires rise from sex to the brain, when the Kundalini reaches the pineal gland, the Divine Mother below unites with the Divine Father, the Holy Spirit or Jehovah Elohim, above. "אשר (Asher), Who—a hidden, treasured palace, beginning mystery of רֵאשִׁית (reshit)." —Zohar Asher is the Holy Spirit who puts into activity the creative principles of the Divine Mother in sex. This is the mystery of beginning, רֵאשִׁית reshit. "אשר (Asher)— רֹאש (rosh), head, emerging from רֵאשִׁית (reshit)." —Zohar Rosh and Asher have the same Hebrew letters, but in different order. This signifies that the power of the Holy Spirit, Asher, Who, must rise from the sexual glands to the brain, to unite in the head, to form רֵאשִׁית "reshit," the beginning of genesis. "When afterward point and palace were arrayed as one, then בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit comprised supernal רֵאשִׁית (reshit) in wisdom." —Zohar What is the point and the palace? The point is a י Iod, the tenth letter of Kabbalah, referring to Kether and the creative sexual energy within the point, the sperm or ovum. The palace is the feminine sexual organs of Beth, the house of God. Obviously, by combining the sperm with the ovum one creates a physical child, but in alchemy, the י iod is conserved and the solar house is built within oneself. This is how one creates in the beginning with wisdom, signified by the Hebrew letter Beth. Or as the Zohar more accurately translates the opening of Genesis, "In wisdom, Elohim created." "Afterward the color of the palace transformed and it was called בַּיִת (bayit), house, while the supernal point (the energy of the semen or ovum transmuted) was called רֹאש (rosh) [since one transmutes the energies of one’s house, one’s Beth or sexual organs, to the brain, the head], merging in one another through the mystery of בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit, when all was as one in one entirety, before the house [beth] was inhabited [by the Logos, the Being]." —Zohar You see that the sexual organs is our house, our Beth, wherein resides the creative energies? The word for house is בַּיִת (bayit). Combine that with רֹאש (rosh), the head, you spell בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit. Through the alchemical science of transmutation, the Divine Mother raises the energies from our sexual glands of our Beth, sexual glands, to our Rosh, our head, to spell "In the beginning." "Once it was sown, arraying habitation [when the solar bodies are created in alchemy], it was called אלהים (Elohim)—hidden, concealed." —Zohar אל El is God, masculine. אלה Eloah is Goddess, feminine, ים Iod Mem is masculine plural. Therefore, when man and wife unite sexually, they form a terribly divine god and goddess, אלהים (Elohim). In this way the house of the soul is created, "arraying habitation," to be filled by the incarnation of the Being. But all of this is "hidden, concealed," because one practices alchemy in secret and because the solar bodies remain hidden within oneself except to the sight of the spirit. So behold the mysteries of creating the solar bodies within Genesis and the Zohar! To receive the bread of wisdom, the Word, the Qur’an, the recitation, the Verb, we must build our solar vehicles; we must create a house in which the Being can manifest and inhabit. Through alchemy, the sexual act, in which the semen is conserved, transmuted, we give birth to the solar vehicles. We raise the Kundalini up the spinal medullae of these lower vehicles of the Tree of Life: the physical, vital, astral, mental, volitional or causal, buddhic /conscious, and atmic / spiritual bodies. These are vehicles of materiality that exist in higher dimensions. We must raise the Kundalini up each of these vehicles, which in us are lunar, so as to create superior bodies that can transmit the light of divinity within us. Nature gave us vehicles in order to exist in this physical plane and in the world of dreams, what is commonly called manasa rupa, mind-body, and kama rupa, body of desires, the lunar mental and lunar astral bodies. The lunar bodies are the vehicle of the ego and are controlled by the mechanical forces of nature. As we’ve discussed many times throughout our lectures, we must free ourselves from the lunar influence in order to become solar initiates, beings who are not controlled by the demonic forces of the inferior worlds, the lunar worlds, the Klipoth. Those beings who follow the lunar path of black magic also are swallowed by the serpent, because the Divine Mother in hell, as the Kundabuffer, swallows her own children, with a lot of pain, to help disintegrate the ego in those regions. This is the path of spiritual failures. But when we raise the kundalini in the perfect matrimony, we are also swallowed by the serpent, but in a positive way, in a revolutionary and Christic way. In the solar path, we acquire knowledge of ourselves. In the lunar path of the devolving serpent, we do not. If we do not free ourselves from the lunar vehicles by creating the solar vehicles, and thereafter disintegrating the totality of the ego, we will be swallowed by the moon, the lunar serpent, within the infernal worlds. So to escape that fate, we must create a house for God. We need to build the solar house in which the Being can live, because if the Being were to try to enter within us without solar vehicles, we would be annihilated. That is how powerful the vibration of the Being is. We cannot incarnate God now precisely because our psychological house is in disorder. We all possess many defects. Each defect is autonomous and in conflict with the others. There is no order within the mind as Gurdjieff and Ouspensky taught in the Fourth Way school. Our house is filled with many people, many minds with their own thoughts, agendas, and preoccupations. As the gospels state: “My house (the physical body) shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” —Matthew 21: 13 I remember when I was meditating on retreat, I fell asleep with my back to the floor, since I was performing the Viparita Karani Mudra from the sacred rites of rejuvenation. In the experience, in the astral plane, I found myself flying towards a house, holding the hand of my physical mother. I felt excited and urgent, to show my mother the contents of my home. As I peered through the window, I saw crowds of kids and people, listening to very loud music, getting drunk, cursing and screaming a lot of obscenities, pushing into each other so hard that the walls were shaking like they were going to break. It was such riot and disorder that I knew I had to go back. I thought to myself with horror, “I’m not going to bring my mother in here. This is nuts!” Thereafter I woke up, returned to my body. I realized afterward that the house in the experience was my mind, my Beth, and all those people in the house were my own egos, defects, and desires. I wanted to bring my own Divine Mother into that house, but realized I cannot when it is filled with such disorder. I must clean my house first, psychologically speaking. This also reminds me of another experience where I invoked the Master Samael Aun Weor near the side of a road in the astral plane. He came down as a lightning bolt, which terrified me tremendously. You know the power of a lightning bolt, when it strikes near you? Well this was more powerful, because the Being, the solar divinities, are overwhelming, terrifying, infinite. He spoke to me one sentence, with a lot of severity, “Your house is a mess!” He was indicating that I need to clean my house up of ego, to comprehend and annihilate the ego. That was it. I returned to my body, very humbled. So you see, in order for Christ to enter you, you must clean your house first of disorder, since that lightning bolt cannot enter within you without solar vehicles, and to create the solar vehicles, you must practice the perfect matrimony and work hard in the disintegration of your defects. Otherwise when Christ emerges as Samael Aun Weor did in the experience, you will be annihilated. Christ spoke in parables about the Hebrew letter Beth and the need to construct a solar house, the solar vehicles, through the path of initiation and resurrection: “We heard him (the Solar Christ) say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.” —Mark 14:58. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of (Beth) the temple of His body. —John 2:19-21 If the ego does not die completely, we cannot obtain absolute perfection and resurrection, when our physical body shall die and we shall resurrect within the Being, to be fully united with divinity. We must learn to build our house upon the rock of Yesod, to create our solar vehicles through the perfect matrimony, the science of Yesod. Otherwise we will end up as failures. “Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock [Yesod, the foundation]: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock (the Philosophical Stone of Kabbalah). And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand (of beliefs and theories): And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." —Matthew 7: 24-27 Practices
We are going to end this lecture with two practices you can use to comprehend and experience the mysteries of the second arcanum.
When you awake in the morning from sleep and still have time before engaging in your daily responsibilities, and especially when you’ve just come back from a dream, continue to lay in bed, and with your willpower, concentrate to remember your experiences. Perhaps you were in another country in the astral plane, in Egypt, or another planet, and you want to remember and even return to those places immediately. Imagine what you experience, the specific place or scene that you just left. Imagine it in detail. Imagine that you are actually there. As Samael Aun Weor wrote, don’t imagine that you are imagining, but actually do it. Be concrete and vivid. Actually see yourself hearing, seeing, touching, and walking in the place you were just at in the astral plane. Then when you fall asleep, with your willpower and imagination in vibrating harmony, you can experience samadhi; you can return to the place you just experienced, particularly if you stay still, relaxed, and unmoving when you first wake, alongside your strong concentration and vivid imagination. I’ve done this many times when I wanted to return to a specific place I just visited in the astral world, or to return to an ordeal the Masters were giving me that got cut prematurely by me returning to my body, and which I wanted to go back to and continue. Therefore, when waking, I lay in bed and concentrated on the experience, imagined it, and fell asleep, in order to relive and return to the experience I just left. Concentration is willpower, the Magician card. Imagination is clairvoyance, the High Priestess. Together you produce Arcanum 3, the Empress, or comprehension, insight. This is why, in this tradition, we work with many concentration and imagination exercises, so that we can also be skilled in meditation and dream yoga. Concentration and imagination can be developed by taking an object and focusing our attention on it, to thereafter visualize all of its details. This strengthens our capacities for perception and helps us to awaken consciousness, to make it strong, robust, trained for dream yoga discipline. When those faculties are strong, you will easily return to your prior experiences through this practice. Another practice you can do is a meditation and prayer for the Divine Mother. These are a series of prayers and mantras we will do together today. The prayer is as follows: "Be thou, oh Hadit, my secret, the Gnostic mystery of my Being, the central point of my connection, my heart itself, and bloom on my fertile lips, made Verb! "Up above, in the infinite Heavens, in the profound Height of the unknowable, the incessant glow of Light is the naked beauty of Nut. She reclines, she bends in delectable ecstasy, to receive the kiss of secret fervor of Hadit. The winged sphere and the blue of the Sky are mine. O.A.O. KAKOF NA. KHONSA O.A.O. KAKOF NA. KHONSA O.A.O. KAKOF NA. KHONSA
"Hadit" is the masculine aspect of the Holy Spirit, Abba Elohim, or Shiva. Nut is the Divine Mother, Aima Elohim in Kabbalah, Shakti in Hinduism, who receives the secret kiss and fervor of Hadit, Her Divine Husband. You can perform this prayer and mantras in meditation or in sexual magic.
The sacred arcana or laws of the tarot are universal to every religion. Arcana, in its specific definition, refers to laws. The singular arcanum signifies an individual law. These laws are specific to the creation of any cosmos, any universe and, more importantly, in relation to our own development as a soul, as a consciousness that strives to unite with that divinity.
Now the תורה Torah in Hebrew bares a profound relevance to the תֹורֹתָ Torat, which means “laws” in Hebrew likewise. And while this Torat has been expressed within the Judeo-Christian tradition through the mystical science of Kabbalah, this knowledge is universal. It is not limited to one particular culture, time, or place. And so every religion teaches through its symbols, its archetypes, its principles, the basic laws that guide the development of the soul in unification with the divine―whether we give that name yoga, from the Sanskrit yuj [pronounced “yug”]: to yoke, to unite, or the Latin religare, which means to reunite. These laws are synthesized in what have become known as the twenty-two arcana of the tarot. Likewise the fifty-six minor arcana, minor laws, which bare a profound symbolism which is valuable to study. But in this course, we will talk about the major arcana: the first twenty-two cards, precisely because in the law of numerology and mathematics, the law of divine principles, these elements synthesize within these twenty-two laws themselves, represented by the twenty-two letters of the Kabbalistic alphabet, the language of the mystical Jews. So I would like to read a quote for you from the founder of modern Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor, who explained how the tarot and the Torat are synonymous, and that to know the tarot cards is to study the Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah. But of course, this knowledge, קבלה Kabbalah, is within all religions, not just Judeo-Christianity, as well as Islam, precisely because the word קבל Kabel in Hebrew means “to receive knowledge,” not from any book or from a lecture, from a scripture, but from our own awakened experience, when our consciousness verifies directly the truths contained in religion. But the Jewish tradition is very deep and expresses this principle of the twenty-two arcana, and therefore it is valuable to study this aspect of religion in relation to our own development. Samael Aun Weor stated the following: "The Kabbalah is the science of numbers. "The author of the Tarot was the Angel מטטרון Metatron. He is Lord of the serpent wisdom.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah Anyone familiar with Hinduism knows that the serpent is the Kundalini power, and the Kabbalist refers to that energy as Shekinah. “The Bible refers to him as the Prophet Enoch. "The Angel Metatron, or Enoch, delivered the Tarot, in which the entirety of divine wisdom is enclosed. The Tarot remains written in stone. "He also left us the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. “This great Master lives in the Superior Worlds, in the world of Atziluth, which is a world of indescribable happiness. According to the Kabbalah, this world is the region of Kether, a very high Sephirah. All Kabbalists base themselves on the Tarot and it is necessary for them to comprehend the Tarot and study it deeply. The Universe was made with the Law of numbers, measurements and weight. Mathematics forms the Universe, and the numbers become living entities." ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah Intellectual and Intuitive Kabbalah
We can see there are two forms of Kabbalah. There is the intellectual Kabbalah, and there is the intuitive Kabbalah. There is knowledge we can learn from books, from writings, from lectures, from scriptures, about the structure of the soul about the path that leads to the divine, but that is merely intellectual. It does not equate with conscious experience of the truth.
Intuitive Kabbalah is the opposite. It is the verification of what has been taught by the great prophets of humanity, especially given by the Angel Metatron, who was the one responsible for giving to the Jews the symbolic language of Kabbalah: the twenty-two Hebrew letters, which we will be studying didactically with each major arcanum of the Tarot. And so this real knowledge, קבל kabel, to receive real קבלה Kabbalah, is what we receive directly from the angels, not from a book or scripture as we have been stating, but when we learn to meditate. By relaxing the body, letting the body fall asleep, we as a consciousness go into the world of dreams, but with awakened perception―not in an unconscious or dreaming state―but in an awakened aware perception. This is so we can communicate in those regions, known as heavens in religion, with the great angels, just as Moses received the commandments from Jehovah. Really he was talking about an experience that he had within those dimensions, not just physically. 
The Mystical Ascension of Moses
I would like to read for you an explanation given by the Book of Enoch the Third Book of Enoch, specifically, which scripturally emphasizes the origin of the tarot, so that we can look at a scriptural foundation for where these laws come from or when they were first inscribed and given to humanity. This is a Fragment of Ascension of Moses:
15.1 Rabbi Ishmael said: Said to me Metatron, the Prince of the Presence and the prince over all the princes and he stands before Him who is greater than all the Elohim. And he goes in under the Throne of Glory. And he has a great tabernacle of light on high. And he brings forth the fire of deafness and puts (it) into the ears of the Holy Chayyoth, that they may not hear the voice of the Word (Dibbur) that goes forth from the mouth of the Divine Majesty. ―The Third Book of Enoch: “Fragment of Ascension of Moses” So this is a symbolic experience that happened within those higher dimensions. When Moses was physically asleep, he was entering with his soul up what is called the Tree of Life, which we will be talking about in-depth today. And in those higher dimensions, those higher sephiroth, those spheres of being, he had communicated directly with Metatron and received the knowledge of the Kabbalah. 15.2 And when Moses ascended on high, he fasted 121 fasts, till the habitations of the chashmal were opened to him; and he saw the heart within the heart of the Lion and he saw the innumerable companies of the hosts around about him. And they desired to burn him. ―The Third Book of Enoch: “Fragment of Ascension of Moses” Meaning: that light, that intelligence of the divine is so intense, that to our terrestrial senses it is blinding. It is terrifying, but to the soul it is liberating, but to our lower animal qualities, our passions, our defects, of course, there is fear in relation to this direct communication with the divine. 15.2 But Moses prayed for mercy, first for Israel and after that for himself: and He who sitteth on the Merkaba opened the windows that are above the heads of the Kerubim. And a host of 1800 advocates and the Prince of the Presence, Metatron, with them went forth to meet Moses. And they took the prayers of Israel and put them as a crown on the head of the Holy One, blessed be He. ―The Third Book of Enoch: “Fragment of Ascension of Moses” And so as we talk about Kabbalah, Israel does not just mean the people in the Middle East, but the parts of the soul that are trapped in conditions and defects and negative psychological qualities. As we see: Isis Ra El. Isis: the Divine Mother of Egypt; Ra: the solar god of the divine, which the Gnostics call Christ, the light of divinity which was manifest in Jesus; and אל El in Hebrew signifies the Lord, “God.” So the people of Israel are all those parts of us that are conditioned and which seek to perform the Exodus, up that Tree of Life, which we will be talking about. 15.3 And they said (Deut. 6: 4): "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord" and their face shone and rejoiced over Shekinah and they said to Metatron: "What are these? And to whom do they give all this honour and glory?" And they answered: "To the Glorious Lord of Israel". And they spake: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord, our God, is one Lord. To whom shall be given abundance of honour and majesty but to Thee יהוה the Divine Majesty, the King, living and eternal". 15.4 In that moment spake Akatriel Yah Yehod Sebaoth and said to Metatron, the Prince of the Presence: "Let no prayer that he prayeth before me return (to him) void. Hear thou his prayer and fulfil his desire whether (it be) great or small". 15.5 Forthwith Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, said to Moses: "Son of Amram! Fear not, for now God delights in thee. And ask thou thy desire of the Glory and Majesty. For thy face shines from one end of the world to the other". ―The Third Book of Enoch: “Fragment of Ascension of Moses” This is a description of the beatitude of the soul, that is enlivened by the presence of the truth in those higher dimensions. But Moses answered him: "(I fear) lest I bring guiltiness upon myself". Metatron said to him: ''Receive [Kabel, Kabbalah] the [22] letters of the oath, in (by) which there is no breaking the covenant" (which precludes any breach of the covenant). ―The Third Book of Enoch: “Fragment of Ascension of Moses” The Zohar, which is the mystical book of the Kabbalah, explains some of the meanings of congregation of Israel. Who are these people of Israel specifically? "The expression, [heavenly host or] "Congregation of Israel," in the first instance, refers to the [archetypes] first born sons of Light, or, as they are termed in the Book of Job, the morning stars, who, along with the Sons of Elohim, sang their song of praise [as one―Ehad] at the creation of the world. In an extended sense, it includes [Metatron and any of] the true children of light [from any religion] who have attained unto the Divine Life [Kether]." ―Zohar So the Kabbalah is within our heart, what we have verified, what we have tested. For as the Psalms 40:8 states, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea Thy תֹורָתְ Torat, laws, are within my heart.” We will talk about what the Torat, the tarot are in synthesis. These are the laws that guide us. These are the laws that we must study first intellectually, then verify through experience, through meditation. 
The Purpose of the Tarot
As we see here, we have three tarot cards, especially as publicized by gnosticteachings.org: Glorian Publishing. And I would like to emphasize a couple quotes about the purpose of the tarot, as well as its relationship to each other, each individual principle.
“The Tarot cards must be considered (1) as separate and complete hieroglyphs, each representing a distinct principle, law, power, or element in Nature…” ―Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages So mathematics is intuitive. Numbers bear symbolic reference to a type of experience, when we awaken in the dream state, in those higher worlds, and we invoke the angels or the divine beings about a particular problem. We face a challenge, an ordeal, a state of suffering we seek to reconcile. We ask to that divinity, through certain invocations, in order to receive that help, asking with our mind and heart for the solution to that problem. Divinity, whether it be from our own inner divine truth our own Being or from an angel―they give us a number. They provide a number in specific relation to a situation that plays out in that dream world. This is the world of symbols, of archetypes, of images, living dramas, living art. When we receive a symbolic dream experience in relation to a number, they are teaching us what we need to do about our physical life, what we need to change, what the solution is to the problem. It is always involved with relation to a number followed by a situation. It can actually be an image of the card, but the truth is that the tarot are not just limited to a deck. The tarot themselves are represented by the images of the deck itself, but the tarot are not the deck. The tarot are the principles within those images, within those symbols. And so each number is separate and complete, distinct, profound, but also these cards work together. 
How to Use the Tarot
If we use the physical deck, we can fulfill a certain procedure which we are going to explain. So these cards also are:
“(2) in relation to each other as the effect of one agent operating upon another…” ―Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages When we use a physical deck, asking a specific question to divinity, what we do is we have an altar. It does not have to be very complex or sophisticated. It could just be a table with a white cloth, a candle, an image of the holy pentagram, which is a symbol of Christ, the Christic principle. We invoke divinity, asking for the solution to whatever difficulty we have. We meditate. We go deep. We reflect. We ask for the guidance we need. We shuffle the twenty-two major arcana. We pull out one card. Place it face down. Shuffle the fifty-six minor arcana. Pull out one card. Shuffle it again. Pull out another card. You will have a total of three cards: one is from the major arcana, such as Arcanum 19: Inspiration, followed by Arcana 47: Deduction and 29: Domesticity. When you take the card, you leave the major arcanum alone. You leave that number by itself, and you add the sum of the two digits of the minor arcana. For example, 47. You would add the two digits together: 4 + 7 = 11; and then synthesize that further: 1 + 1 = 2. So you want to get a number that is below 10 with the minor arcana. Likewise, 2 + 9 = 11 = 1 + 1 = 2, and therefore you add the sum of these two cards: 2 + 2 + 19, which gives you the Arcanum 23, known as The Plower. These numbers work together. They relate to each other. When you look for an answer or response within the decks themselves, you take into conjunction, into account, the different cards and their synthesis, as well as their relationship to each other. You have to look at the answer, which is found within not only Arcanum 19: Inspiration, but also Arcana 47 and 29―but then the synthesis: the numbers that are added together, Kabbalistically, give you the final answer, which 2 + 3 = 5, which is The Hierarch. So you can look at Arcanum 23: The Plower, as well as Arcanum 5: The Hierarch. This is just the practical explanation of how to use these tarot within a published deck. Now as Manly P. Hall also emphasizes in this quote from The Secret Teachings of All Ages, he explains that the tarot are: “…vowels and consonants of a philosophic alphabet. The laws governing all phenomena are represented by the symbols upon the Tarot cards, whose numerical values are equal to the numerical equivalents of the phenomena.” ―Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages So as I explained to you, the numbers are intuitive. Mathematics are highly symbolic. Numbers represent forces, experiences, qualities. And through this course we will talk about each of the twenty-two major arcana and specifically the intuitive meaning of those specific arcana themselves. And so as Manly P. Hall states: “As every structure consists of certain elemental parts, so the Tarot cards represent the components of the structure of philosophy [philos sophia: love of wisdom, Christ]. Irrespective of the science or philosophy with which the student is working, the Tarot cards can be identified with the essential constituents of his subject, each card thus being related to a specific part according to mathematical and philosophical laws.” ―Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages Eliphas Levi stated that very interestingly that if one gained only knowledge of the tarot, exclusive of all other subjects, he would be more competent in every spiritual study than a person who had not done such an endeavor. “An imprisoned person with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge, and would be able to speak on all subjects with unequaled learning and inexhaustible eloquence.” ―Eliphas Levi 
The Tree of Life: A Cosmological Map
We talked about the Tree of Life. This diagram with its ten spheres represents the entire universe, from the highest regions of perception, of being, of divinity, towards the most material, concrete, and physical forms.
We talked about the region of כֶּתֶר Kether, originally, which is the Angel מטטרון Metatron, which is the top sephirah (“emanation”) of the Tree of Life emerging from that abstract nothingness, known as the Absolute: אין Ain, אין סוף Ain Soph, אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur. That is the unknowable divinity from which every universe emerges. That is the unmanifested divinity. It is not knowable at this level, but when we learn to experience the Tree of Life, we can go beyond it. The first emanation of that truth is known as Kether. It is like a spark of light that emerges from the unknowable source. And from the bottom of the Tree of Life we have מלכות Malkuth, which is our physical body: our earth, our kingdom. Malkuth in Hebrew means “kingdom,” and it is the kingdom in which we must learn to conquer, so that we can ascend up this Tree of Life, back towards the origins, the source, the truth. The tarot themselves, the first ten arcana, relate to this Tree of Life, specifically. And I would like to read for you some emphasis from Samael Aun Weor, who explained in his book Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot, how the initial ten cards of the tarot relate to this diagram:
So these three Sephiroth (“emanations”) have been known in Christianity as Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amongst Hindus they are known as Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Question: Does the major arcana refer to the past? Instructor: Well the first ten cards relate to the specific sephiroth themselves, and we find that this trinity at the top is represented in every tradition. In the Nordic tradition: Wotan, Baldur, and Thor. You can use this image to interpret any tradition, the cosmology or the cosmogony, the pantheons. But in synthesis, these three spheres are a form of energy that emerge from that Absolute source and that descend, down into greater forms of materiality and experience. Beneath that to the right, we have:
While this is a lot of information, we will be breaking this down systematically, just to go step by step in relation to the arcana. But I wanted to introduce to you and emphasize that these ten sephiroth of Kabbalah cannot be separated from the Tarot. 
How to Interpret the Tarot
So each card is broken up into a series of symbols and images besides the plain numerical equivalent, within the Hebrew as well as the Egyptian.
We have a sigil or glyph at the top third of the card, followed by a magical symbol, which comes from Paracelsus, I believe, who was the great physician and doctor, great master of medicine who knew the tarot very well. You have a Zodiacal letter or symbol, followed by the name of the card and the planet. Notice that each part of the card is broken up into thirds. We have the top third, the middle third, and the lower third, followed by the body of the tarot, which is very significant in relation to Kabbalah. We can see that the four parts of that card are known as the four worlds of the Tree of Life. The four worlds of Kabbalah explain the makeup or the constitution of that Tree of Life in a much more profound manner. 
The world of Atziluth is the world of archetypes, principles, forces, which is that top trinity on the Tree of Life. It is Kether, Chokmah, and Binah: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
That tri-unity, that tri-force, emerges from the unknowable divine in order to create life and create it anew, to create the universe and to also create our own interior psychological universe. We use those three forces in order to create the soul, to develop ourselves. When those three forces unite, they create something. We know that in atomics, atomic physics, that we have the proton: the affirming force, the electron: the negative force, and likewise the neutron: the reconciliating force. Within the atom we find these three forces are present in order for any universe to exist. Whether from the atom or from the galaxy, these three forces are present. And likewise, we use these forces within ourselves in order to develop ourselves spiritually. So, these three forces create. And the next world below, Briah (the world of creation), is precisely related to the next trinity on the Tree of Life. So again, relating to numbers the תֹורֹתָ Torat, we find that numbers are very significant in the Tree of Life. We have three trinities followed by a fourth sphere, known as Assiah. Briah, the world of creation, relates to our spirit, Chesed: “Mercy,” our own Being, our own particular divinity, who we are going to talk about in depth today, followed by Geburah “Justice,” which is our divine consciousness, and Tiphereth, “Beauty”: the human consciousness, the human soul, willpower. Below that that energy of creation begins to take form in terms of the mind, the heart, and our vitality, respectively: Netzach, Hod, Yesod. Netzach means “Victory” in Kabbalah or in Hebrew, and it relates to the intellect, the mind. We have Hod, “Glory”: the emotional vehicle, the emotions themselves, the astral counterpart, the world of dreams, specifically relating to our heart. And Yesod, “Foundation,” relates to our vital depth, our vital forces, our vital energy. Below that we have Assiah: the physical plane, the physical body, the world of matter and action, which is our body that we possess, which contains all the forces of the Tree of Life in their synthesis. All that energy from the top descends down through creation of the universe and also creation of our own body, in which our soul enters in order to exist in this physical plane. 
These four worlds can be broken down further in relation the birth of a child. In the beginning there was an ovum and sperm. That principle that has yet to become actualized. It is an archetype. It is a blueprint for a human being. That is Atziluth. That is the world of archetypes. Those forces are not yet active. They are not present.
But through the sexual act, man and woman create. The sperm and ovum unite in order to form the child. Again, formation relates to the world of Yetzirah, which is the world of crystallizations, in forms such as mind, heart, vitality. We find this in a birth of a child. And when that child emerges for the first time in the world, he or she takes his or her first breath and is in the world of Assiah: matter and action. The Book of Isaiah, 43:7 states: “Everyone that is [1] called by My name, and [2] whom I created for My glory, [3] I formed him, yea [4] I made him…” ...relating to the four worlds that we see represented here. The Qur’an, which is the sacred book of Islam, states the same thing in Surah 82:6-8: “O mankind! What has deluded you with regard to your noble Lord, Who created you [Briah], then fashioned you [Yetzirah], then proportioned you [Assiah], assembling you in whatever form He willed [from Atziluth]?” –Surah al-Infitar, “The Cleaving Asunder,” 82:6-8 The tarot synthesize all this, so it is a very deep knowledge. Now we are introducing this type of wisdom in a simple manner, but we will be talking about these four worlds of Kabbalah throughout this course in relation to the twenty-two arcana specifically. 
The Magician
But let us talk about the first card of the Tarot.
This is the Magician. The word Magician come from mag, the Indo-European word for “priest,” or from the Persian magus, which means “priest” as well. Amongst the Persians, magus, magushan is a spiritual master, someone who has conquered him or herself, psychologically speaking. The word magician also relates to the word maha-atman, which is where we get the word mahatma in Hinduism. Maha means “great.” Atman means “soul” or “spirit.” So this is an image of a great soul or spirit, one who has fully mastered him or herself and is indicating the path to others. The word maha in Sanskrit could also be read as maga-atman, which is also the word for mage, priest, magician. In a Sanskrit, an “h” can be read as a “g.” Maha is maga, mage. In this image, we see a priest holding in his left hand a staff of power, ascending up, and his right hand pointing towards the earth, pointing towards the inferior part of the card. That staff is a symbol of our spinal column upon which the sacred force of Kundalini rises. This is the שכינה Shekhinah power of the Kabbalists, the power of the Divine Mother serpent of which the Book of Enoch speaks. In order to ascend up to those higher spiritual regions, represented by the stars of this graphic, one must learn to descend. The card of the Magician, the priest, is about entering into suffering. It initiates. It begins a certain type of development or struggle. But of course, this magician, by his perfect serenity, establishes and explains precisely this dynamic in order to ascend to the higher regions of the Kabbalah: the Tree of Life. One must face one’s own psychological iniquity. One must descend down that Tree of Life, entering into matter and form and into states of suffering, so that one can take those experiences and to return back to the source, to learn from those experiences themselves. This is synthesized by the image of the table in front of him. As Samael Aun Weor explains, these items are in disarray. We have a sword representing, again, the spinal column or the power of the Divine Mother Kundalini, the sword of the divine masters, which rises up the spine. Likewise, we have a vase, representative of the female sexual organs, the yoni. And then we have a moon on that table, which likewise represents woman. The magician must learn to use these elements on the table for his own development. That sword is the serpent power, the fire of God, the creative energies which reside in our body, specifically in the base of our spine. Through union and Tantra, when man and woman unite sexually speaking, and by conserving that power, can transform those energies and rise them up the spine to the brain. That is signified by the staff that the magician holds in his left hand, but of course, to reach those heights, one must first confront one’s psychological degeneration. We see that the sword is also a phallic symbol. Likewise the vase, the feminine yoni, the sexual organs, indicates that the magician, the real priest, is somebody who is married. Every priest has his priestess. Jesus of Nazareth had his Mary Magdalene, Mag-da-lene, the magician. He was a priest of Egypt and knew that science very deeply and taught it in his Gospels. By learning to work with that sword and that vase, when a man and woman know how to work in a matrimony, they can use that energy to ascend and create the heavens of Urania, which are the stars of this graphic. The moon on that table is also a representation of the mind, because the mind is the source of our habits, our problems, our difficulties. The moon indicates sorrow, pain, struggle, sentimentalism. It represents mechanicity. It’s very easy to see within nature that the moon governs much of our existence. Even looking at crime rates on a full moon, there are many instances of degenerated behavior as a result of that influence, the lunar influence. Likewise with menstruation, as well as the tides the moon, is a very impactful force upon physical and psychological nature. But psychologically speaking, that moon represents egotism, defects, which must be destroyed or transformed, so that that moon can become a sun. The sun is a representation of the solar Logos which the Gnostics call Christ, Son of God, S-u-n or S-o-n. Who is the one that grants us the ability, the magician, to organize the table? We see that there is a bird beneath, which is the Ibis bird of Thoth, the Egyptian symbol of the Holy Spirit. Any bird in any religion represents the Holy Ghost, which if we look back at the Kabbalah, we find that we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, represented by the top trinity: Kether, Chokmah, Binah. Binah is represented by a bird, the Holy Spirit, which is an energy. It is the sexual energy, that energy which can create life of a child, physically speaking. When it is harnessed in a matrimony, it can be used to develop our spirituality. That is the sacrament of Rome, amore backwards, which means “love.” That is the Gnostic Church. This is interesting that the word maga also relates to the word marga in Sanskrit. Marga means “path” and indicates the path of meditation, dhyana marga, specifically in certain scriptures. Marga also relates to mar, the sea, the ocean, which is the waters of Genesis. Those waters of creation, of Genesis, in which we give birth to the soul, are within our creative sexual organs, the gonads or the uterus of the woman. Those waters of life, the seminal matter, can be conserved and transformed into energy, into light, into fire, and it becomes the sword of that magician that he wields in order to conquer his own kingdom, to conquer himself. So, the path of the magician is precisely the path of a matrimony, the path of a marriage. 
Also, the table with its four sides represents for us the lower quaternary, the lower four sephiroth. We have Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malkuth. Netzach is mind; Hod is emotions; Yesod is vitality or sexual energy, Chi among the Taoist; and Malkuth, our physical body. The Magician is precisely our inner Chesed, our spirit, our Being. We have talked about how the soul needs to become a magician, to enter the path of spirituality, to initiate, to begin a new way of life. The one who does that is precisely our own inner divinity within us. So that image of the priest is a symbol of Chesed. This is our own inner God who is the only one who can help us to organize our own table: the psyche that we possess, that psyche, which is intellect, emotions, vitality, and our physicality. It is easy to sit in meditation and to observe ourselves, psychologically, to see that we have many elements that are negative, and that we want to change. Otherwise we would never feel that impetus, that yearning to want to study spirituality, to learn how to escape suffering. So there are negative thoughts. There are cruel emotions: resentment, fear, hatred, etc., which condition our consciousness, condition our psyche, trap our soul within perdition. Likewise, we have our vitality, which is usually squandered in a negative manner. We waste our vitality in many ways. It is easy enough to examine our life to see what habits we may have that drain us physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. And so the Magician, our inner God, is the one who must organize ourselves. We as a soul must learn to obey divine truth. We as a consciousness, as the essence of God, is precisely that staff that the magician hold in his hand. That staff, if you are familiar with the Hebrew alphabet, is a straight line looks like the ו Vav, the sixth letter of Hebrew, which is a symbol of the spinal column. 
If we look in the last graphic, we find that the Tree of Life, transposed upon a human being, we find that the heart embodies the third letter of the sacred name of God: יהוה Iod-Hei-Vav-Hei. י Iod at the top in the brain; ה Hei in the throat, ו Vav: the spine, the heart, relating to our willpower, followed by ה Hei in the sexual organs.
יהוה Jehovah is the sacred name of divinity, and we will talk about the meaning of those four letters soon. But we are that ו Vav, that willpower that God can use when it obeys His impetus, His command. We have free will to choose to follow our conditioned psyche or to liberate the soul from its condition, with the help of our inner Magician, our inner priest, our inner Being. So that is the path of the priest―learning to use our willpower in order to free ourselves from that which makes us suffer. We learn that science precisely through meditation: dhyana marga. 
The Three Priesthoods
We could say that there are three forms of priesthood that the Magician must follow in order to liberate the soul completely. Again this relates to the Tree of Life.
We find that the lower trinity: Netzach, Hod, Yesod: mind, emotions, and vitality, relate to three forms of magic. And again, magic, priesthood, is about exercising our own willpower upon our own inner nature in order to change who we are. We say there are other forms of magic, such as black magi,c in which the person, through their egotism and their pride, uses their mind to control the minds of others, which is negative, which is what we do not teach. Instead, we teach how to follow our own inner Magician, our own inner Christ, our inner Being, precisely by learning to follow the three priesthoods. Relating to Netzach, the mind, we have elemental magic [elementotherapy]: the work of helping the souls of nature, specifically through plants, working with the souls of plants so as that these elemental creatures, these souls of the plants themselves, can do beneficial service to others. This is also known as hermetic magic the science of Hermes in Egypt [Study Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic, as well as Igneous Rose, to learn how to perform elementotherapy]. In Hod, the emotions, we have ceremonial magic, ritual magic, relating to the Gnostic Unction, the Holy Gnostic Church―of which we are a part of in this school―in which the soul receives the bread and wine of the Lord. This Holy Gnostic Church is not only just physical, but within those higher dimensions we can learn to travel in the astral dimension in order to speak face to face with Jesus Christ, and receive the bread and wine from him directly in his temple. And Yesod, we have what is known as sexual magic, which is the work of a matrimony: where husband and wife agree to work in order to develop their spirituality. [See The Perfect Matrimony]. So those three sephiroth below are the triangle of priesthood. Relating to the work of the Magician, it is precisely through those forms of magic, of following divine will, in which we learn to organize our table. One thing I did not mention was that if we look at even at the cloth or vesture of this master [the Magician], it is formed by a trinity, which is facing up, and that again refers to the three primary forces of nature: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, which is how the Magician is empowered. Our own spirit is empowered by working with those forces. Those forces find themselves manifested within our physicality, as well as our vitality, our emotions, and our mind, which you could say form three centers of activity, as we mentioned previously: intellect, emotions, and our movement, our motor qualities. One thing we did not mention is that the inferior part of the card is the basis upon which the Magician works―if we find the cubic stone of Yesod, which Yesod in Hebrew means “Foundation.” And this is the famous stone, which the builders rejected, as Jesus said in the Book of Matthew 21:42: “Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and is marvelous in our eyes. 
The Freemasons are very well versed about the cubic stone of Yesod, the foundation stone of the temple of mysteries. That stone is a representation of our sexual energy, our creative potential, which in us is a blackened stone. It is blackened by desire, by passion, by lust, which in the Middle East, the sacred Kaaba of the Muslims is the blackened stone that the Muslims venerate. Their tradition state that, amongst the Sufis specifically, that stone must become purified, whitened, perfected, chiseled to its original and pristine form in a time before Adam’s fall from grace.
That stone is precisely the energies upon which we work, because without sexual, emotional, mental energy, we cannot function. Likewise, our spirituality is based, our development is founded upon the work of that energy, in a conscious and deliberate manner, because those forces can give life spiritually and physically. But if we learn to renounce the physical aspect of desire, of craving, of attachments, we can learn to use those forces for the truth. So that cubic stone is also the power that can destroy oneself as well, and we find that this stone is beneath in the third trinity of the card―which is known as the world of Yetzirah specifically. It is within the waters of this card beneath the Magician’s feet. Again, waters remind us of la mer, the ocean of divinity, the Divine Mother whose energies are manifested within our sexuality. And as Jesus stated, this stone can be the foundation of our temple, or it can be the means of destroying oneself. For as he says in Mark 9:42 “And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." Again, in this sense, the sea is our representation of passion, desires etc. This stone is within the bottom third, the waters of this card. It is interesting that Yesod is known as the Sophic Hydrolith, the stone of the water. Stones refer to the genitalia since a person’s “stones” is slang for the generative organs. Also, the Magician uses the power of these waters within the stones, to purify the consciousness. The magician, a real priest, is somebody who seeks to destroy desire, by comprehending it, to transform it, to transmute it into cognizance, into purity, into light. He does that through his willpower, which is us our soul, which can govern the intellect, the mind, the heart, and the body. But of course, that necessitates a training, a work with that stone itself at the bottom of the card. We also notice in this image the sign of Leo, the sign of the lion or the lions of Judah in Hebrew. יהודה Judah is spelled: י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ד Daleth ה Hei, five letters, which have an additional D sound, ד Daleth, in conjunction with י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei the sacred name of God [יהוה]. So a real lion of Judah, a real spiritual person, a real magician, is a Jew. But of course, we are not referring to the physical Jews in the Middle East, but those who follow יהו Yew the sacred name of God, which is synthesized as י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei: יהוה Jehovah. So a real Jew can be from any religion, not just from Judaism itself. But someone who has fully incarnated that light is a Jew, is a real master. And those who are degenerate are the גּוֹיִים goyim. Of course, these people who are full of desire and lust, are egotistical, but of course, the Jewish tradition has lost the meaning of this. But the truth is that Leo, the sign of the lion, relates to the stone, because that stone is perfected. Or when it is perfected, it becomes the light of the sun, and transforms the Being into a lion, a master. This is signified by the crown of this initiate, who has a serpent before his forehead. That serpent symbolizes how that Kundalini power has risen from the base of the spine to the mind, and has fully illuminated that power of Yesod, of sexuality, which has been raised to the mind in order to fully illuminate it. So, the serpent raised on the forehead signifies that this magician has entered initiation, has initiated this path, who has raised those forces completely. And so the stone, again, relates to the sun, as we see in this planetary symbol by a circle and a point. Again, the circle and the point not only represents the sun, but also represents Kether on the Tree of Life. This stone also receives the Kabbalistic, Hebrew name of שם המפורש Shem Hamphorash, “The Stone of the Name” or השם Hashem. השם Hashem, the appellation for the sacred name of God, יהוה Jehovah, is משה Moshe, Moses, backwards. Hashem is a name for the Solar Logos, the solar divinity, which if we work with Shem Hamphorash, the stone of the solar force, we can incarnate the Name of God in ourselves, our inner Kether―the point that emerges from the Nothingness. We see here that Kether is the first manifestation of the light of the divine into the universe, and manifests as a single point within the circle, which is obviously this unknowable divinity in which that light emerges. And if we know Hebrew, which we will talk about the letter י Iod in Kabbalah, relates with the tenth card, the tenth sphere, the top of the Tree of Life. But Kether is symbolized by a point in a circle. So, while this magician represents our own Spirit, Chesed―as we look at this image above our own divinity―our own inner Magician is also Kether, because there are levels to God, levels of development. For us, our own inner Father, our own inner Being, is our Chesed, our Spirit, our own inner Mercy. As the Qur’an states, Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” أل رحيم Al-Rahim, “The Merciful” relates to רוּחַ Ruach, Spirit, which is relating to Chesed, but of course, Allah amongst the Muslims is Kether, Chokmah, Binah and Chesed, because the four sephiroth are the four letters of the Arabic name: الله Allah. Arabic and Hebrew are really integral. We can study one alongside the other. They have the same meaning. We find that the circle in the point is the symbol of Kether, the Solar Logos, the Christ, emphasized at the top of the graphic with the eyes of Ra, the solar divinity of Egypt. Those are the eyes of omnipresence, of omniscience, of consciousness, of knowing. Divinity knows all and sees all. Question: So would you say that that relates to the Sun? Instructor: Yes Audience: Does Tiphereth also relate to the Sun? Instructor: Well, Tiphereth relates to the Sun, but we could say that Kether is that point that emerges from that abstract absoluteness, that space of the Cosmic Mother, as a point, as a י Iod, which is a dot in Hebrew. Tiphereth does relate to that sign of the Sun, because in this card we find Tiphereth represented by that spine, that staff, which is where the energies rise when we know how, when we use them. And so the eyes of Ra are the eyes of the Being, which are always present and knowing the present moment, which is the omniscience of our own divinity, because our own divinity knows all of our psychology, our mind, our heart, our body, our actions. Question: Does Kether relate to the Ain Soph Aur? Like many suns, is Kether like an individual aspect of that? Instructor: Well, Kether is the first manifestation of that light, and Ain Soph Aur is the limitless light of the divine. 
If we look at the Tree of Life, the Absolute, the unknowable divine, has three aspects. Ain, which is nothingness, space. Ain Soph, which is limitless. Ain Soph Aur, which is that light of the Absolute that has not yet manifested into creation. When that light, which is single, wants to create something, it manifest physically as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because those three forces help to create any cosmos.
The Ain Soph Aur is the spiritual sun from which that light is still unitary, but when it enters the universe, it has to create. Therefore, it divides itself into the three forces. So it reunites again to create life, specifically. And that is symbolized and implied within the symbol of the Sun.
Also, the eyes of Ra, we find that the eyes of Ra form the holy eight, which we imagine a sign of the infinite traced along these eyes. We will see that the eyes of Ra symbolize that continuity of consciousness, of knowing, of perception. The symbol of the holy eight is a symbol of tantra, a symbol of esoteric Buddhism, specifically as well as Egyptian mythology.
The word tantra means “continuum, flow, flux.” And so, the eyes of the spirit are opened when we learn to use our energies, creative, sexual, emotional, etc., in a continuum. We do not break that continuum by losing any form of energy in whatever manner. Instead, we conserve those forces so that energy becomes a flow in our psyche, which awakens powers, abilities, consciousness specifically, so as to serve God. Not ourselves, but the divine. 
The Caduceus of Mercury and Serpentine Energy
Also represented in this holy eight, we can transpose that image upon the spinal column. And then in this next graphic, we find the Caduceus of Mercury held by the Angel Raphael, representing Hermes, the science of Hermetic magic. So that symbol of the Caduceus is a symbol of the holy eight, the continuum of energies of tantra, which rise up the spinal column. That staff is the spine, and the channels are serpents, that entwine around that staff itself, represent two channels of energy that we have within our vitality; as well as our emotional body, our dream body, which we travel with in the astral plane; the mind, etc.; and our physicality as well.
These are not physical. These are more semi-etheric, not tangible to the scalpel, but they exist to senses that can be verified through conscious investigation. We find that we have two channels that rise from our sexual organs up to our brain to form these two serpents. 
We call them Ida, Pingala, in Sanskrit, and we call them Adam and Eve in Kabbalah. Adam is the solar serpent, where certain energies of a solar type rise from our genitalia to our brain. And then Eve is the feminine aspect of that form, which rises up the spine to the brain.
Of course, the analogies to the serpents are very prominent within the Judeo-Christian Bible, but that is another topic for another course. But we see that these serpents represent the holy eight, in which our creative energies can rise from sex to the brain, in order to elaborate the wings of the spirit, represented by this Caduceus. 
Our spirituality is developed by working with those forces. Likewise, we see in this image seven stars above the head of the Angel Raphael, which indicates for us the lower seven sephiroth of this master. The lower seventh sphere of this Tree of Life have been illuminated by that top trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So, the sign of the infinite is the Magician’s staff: the staff of power. And as Samael Aun Weor explains in his book Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot:
“The fire of Phlegethon and the water of Acheron unite in the Ninth Sphere.” Again, tying into Greek mythology, this Ninth Sphere is not just the center of the earth of our planet, but also within our own body, because our body is an earth. And in the very center of our body, we have the creative energy: the waters of life, which can flow within us internally in order to give life. But these two channels Ida and Pingala, Adam and Eve, the two serpents of the Caduceus of Mercury, have been known as the Two Witnesses in the Book of Revelation, for as it states: “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. As we said: “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” ―Revelations 11:3-4 So again, relating to numbers you add: a thousand two hundred and threescore days (1260) which is 1+2+6+0 = 9. The number nine is very prominent within, not only the Qur’an, but also the Bible. Nine relates to the ninth sphere: Yesod, the second to last sphere on the Tree of Life. And this ninth sphere is precisely the stone which we build our temple upon. So, this is the science of Mercury, Hermes. Related to Hermes, we find the teachings of the Emerald Tablet, which is a teaching of sexual magic, sexual alchemy, of how man and woman can unite and purify their spirituous earth through a gentle heat, with much attention―where the couple awakes that fire of love and harmony in order to control that fire and to raise it up the spine into the mind. And that awakens the wings of the spirit which is symbolized in modern day medicine. 
The Hebrew Letter א Aleph
Lastly, I would like to talk to you about the Hebrew letter א Aleph at the top right corner of the image. Each Hebrew letter relates to numerology, as a numerical equivalent, a numerical value. And so the letter א Aleph symbolizes the breath, the wind, the air. So we talked about the waters and the fire, but we cannot leave out the air, because it is by working with our own breath, our breathing, in which we learn to control the mind, meaning our mind.
And so the א Aleph is a symbol of the sacred winds of God, the force of the divine. The letter א Aleph is our own inner Spirit, because as the book of Genesis teaches, “The spirit of God floated upon the faces of the waters” (Genesis 1:2) and hovered upon those sacred waters in order to provide the first day of Genesis. That Spirit, that רוח אלהים Ruach Elohim of the Old Testament is precisely Chesed, our Spirit, our inner Magician, the א Aleph. That א Aleph is a profound letter that initiates life, spiritually speaking. If we take the letter א Aleph, its easy to see that it relates to the air when we transpose it upon the symbol of the body and the lungs. You find that there is a transverse line followed by two י Iods, you could say, two dots. When you take that image of א Aleph and transpose it on a human being, you have the spine, but also the two lungs by which we have life the wind the breath. א Aleph initiates the breath, gives life, for as we find in the birth of a physical child, the first moments of birth, the child inhales air and exclaims and cries. That is the א Aleph in action initiating a new life beginning. Question: You mentioned Ida and Pingala and then you have the central spinal column. How does that relate with pranayama? Instructor: Well pranayama is the science of yoking that energy. Now with pranayama, which is the science of interchangeable nostril breathing, we learn to use the א Aleph, the breath, the wind, controlling it in order to stimulate the sexual creative energy, so that it can rise up the spine. And we have many exercises of pranayama, specifically in books like Kundalini Yoga, as well as The Yellow Book. Comment: I forget what it says, but they say the breath is the billows of the sexual body. Instructor: It is because the fire is sparked by that א Aleph. Thank you for saying that because that elaborates on what I wanted to talk about. The fire of sexuality is enflamed by the breathing. It’s easy enough to see that if we control our breath, we also control our mind. Breath is the vital energy in the air, but also when we learn to use that spiritual air to hover upon the face of our own sexual waters, we can transmute that energy and bring it up to our mind, so that we can create the first day of Genesis. As the Hebrews state, יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃ Yehi Aur Va-Yehi Aur: “Let there be light and there was light.” The word light begins with א Aleph. אֹור Aur, as we look at the Tree of Life again, we have אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur, א Aleph ו Vav ר Resh spells out “light.” And that of course is generated when we learn to work with that breath. The letter א Aleph again is formed by two י Iods and a transverse line (ו Vav) which refers to the trinity the top of the Tree of Life. We have three points, three forces manifested in that energy, in that breath. So a magician is somebody who, in the sexual act, controls their breathing, is not carried away by passion, and uses the breath along with his wife, together, to transform that energy up the spine. And of course, that is allegorized in the Bible in many cases. 
The letter א Aleph, we find in a very famous name of God in Exodus. And it says when Moses was confronting the burning Tree of Life, the Burning Bush in which the fire of God was present there. And God saidאֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה Eheieh Asher Eheieh: “I Am that I Am,” and thus He said, “Thou shall say unto the children of Israel ‘I Am’ has sent you.” This is when Moses asked God to tell him, well, “By what name shall I call you when I go to Israel (to teach my soul who my master is)?” And the Lord says, אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה which means, “I Am that I Am,” but also means, “I Am Who Becomes,” “I Am That Becoming,” “I Am That Which Wills,” which initiates, which begins, which is symbolized by the letter א Aleph.
If you take that letter א Aleph and move it, if you spin it, it will form the swastika, which is the sacred cross in motion―which of course, certain people misappropriated that symbol for a very degenerated means. The swastika is the symbol of that א Aleph, the cross of sexuality in motion, because the vertical beam is the phallus; the horizontal beam is the uterus. And when a man and a wife unite sexually through that cross, and then they can serve that power, it spins. It becomes that א Aleph in motion, that swastika, which has been prominent in Buddhism and Hinduism especially. But of course, certain Germans took that symbol and really degenerated it for very evil purposes.
So, the Aleph is the symbol of the Magician, the wind, the breath. And it is that spiritual principle that we need to learn to obey, to follow within ourselves and in meditation and in our daily life, because that א Aleph is the power that is going to give life to our spirituality. To emphasize this point, I would like to relate to you an experience I had many years ago, in which I was meditating at home, where I physically fell asleep and I woke up in the astral plane, the world of dreams. And I wanted to speak to my Being, my divinity, my Inner Magician, face to face. But what happened was I was intuitively called to descend into the earth, go down into the earth towards center of the heart of the planet. This is a beautiful symbol of how we have to descend down like that Magician into the Ninth Sphere, to find that stone of Yesod, that creative energy. And as I approached my Being in the dark of those caverns, I felt His presence. I heard a heartbeat as well as a deep breathing of someone breathing very profoundly as if from exercise. And I felt that power emanating from my own divinity. So, my Being was showing me that “I Am א Aleph,” the Spirit, the wind, the breath, the presence which enflames every Tree of Life. Afterward, I suddenly saw myself standing in an open parking lot, and I saw a yellow car like a race car. It started up and it started to skid away, and I knew intuitively that I had to chase that car, because I knew symbolically this represented something profound, that my inner Being wanted me to stop that car from driving around. But of course, the struggle was very intense, because it was very fast and I was losing energy, but I was very determined. But eventually the car slowed down as I followed it and I went down to it. I realized much later how the car is a symbol of the mind, and the color yellow is a sign of the intellect, which my Being was showing me: “Your mind is chaotic and crazy and is wandering over all these places. You need to chase it by following the breath, א Aleph the spirit.” And eventually I caught up to that car, which is a symbol of taming the mind, becoming still within meditation. And of course, there is a man who in the car was a bald man, who came out of the car and I said, “Are you my Being?” And he said, “No, I am just a representation,” something to “symbolize something for you.” And then I woke up. A symbol of baldness represents a lack of chastity because long hair in ancient times was a symbol amongst many cultures of sexual purity. Those who are impure are prostitutes, or those women caught in adulterous activity would be shaved of their hair to symbolize their licentiousness. So that is a symbol internally of how the one that was driving that car was my own desires, my own egotism, which I had to catch, to stop it, tame the mind, control it. That is how you become a magician, a priest. So you learn how to control that energy through the א Aleph. The sacred name of God: יהוה Iod Hei Vav Hei, from top to bottom, represents this. We can transpose the Tree of Life on a human being. We find that י Iod is that dot that relates to Kether, the Crown, the truth. ה Hei relates to the breath, in the throat, which is what we actualize through sacred sounds like mantras, sacred sounds and vowels that we pronounce in meditation, and also in the sexual act when we learn to control the breath, the prana, the air. And the ו Vav again is the spinal medulla, but also is the sixth letter relating to the center of the Tree of Life: the willpower of our spirit, meaning ו Vav. And then last we have ה Hei in the sexual organs, a profound symbol. Jehovah you could say, in these four letters, is broken down into י Iod which is Father, ה Hei which is Mother, ו Vav which is the phallus; ה Hei which is the uterus. The sacred name of God is actualized between man and woman and they do that by controlling their א Aleph. 
We’ve also included in this final image the Hebrew letter א Aleph along with the lungs, which are represented by the first letter of Hebraic Kabbalah transposed over the body of a human being. We also see the serpent of brass of Moshe, Moses, within the wilderness in the Book of Numbers.
The serpent of brass in the Torah hides the mysteries of the science of Aleph. The Hebrew term for wilderness is מִדבָּר midbar. דבָּר Dabar means “Word,” which reminds us of the genesis of the solar Christic energies within us, for “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). We learn to work with the energies of the Father, the Magician, the solar divinity, through learning to walk with rectitude and love within the wilderness of our own life, our psychological states of suffering. The path of initiation begins with א Aleph, the wind, the pronunciations, the sacred sounds we vocalize in alchemy and transmutation. To raise the serpent of bronze like Moses, the Kundalini power, is only possible within a matrimony, by priest and priestess, represented by the alchemical metals within brass. Tin represents Jupiter, man. Copper represents Venus, woman. Together, through fire and heat, you create bronze. Likewise, man and woman, priest and priestess, united by the fire of love, can create the serpent of brass within the spinal column. The Magician teaches us to descend into the sexual act, the mysteries of Yesod. Afterward, through the mystical science of Kabbalah, the High Priestess of the tarot, we rise with the power of the serpent force through learning to control the sexual energies with our breathing, our breath. Too much erratic and passionate breathing works to expel the seminal energies within sexual alchemy. Learning to profoundly inhale and raise the creative energies up the Caduceus of Mercury, up our spine, is the science of the Magician. All of this is accomplished through א Aleph. As we mentioned earlier, the Book of Genesis depicts the emergence of light into our interior universe: “Let there be light! And there was light.” The word for light, in Hebrew, as we stated, begins with א Aleph, and is spelled א Aleph ו Vav ר Resh. ו Vav is the spinal column wherein we raise the Prana, the energies of א Aleph, from sex, up the spine, to the head, which in Hebrew is ר “Resh.” ראש Rosh signifies the brain or the head, which is where we get words like ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah, “head of the new year,” in Judaism. Esoterically speaking, Rosh Hashanah signifies initiation, the beginning of a new year, and new life, the accomplishment of spiritual initiation whereby the Kundalini has risen within the entire spinal column to the mind and then the heart. Many people who follow Judaism don’t know the meaning of this, but the tradition holds these mysteries in a concealed form. When we raise the light up our spine, we do so through א Aleph, the Magician, the real Being within ourselves. That serpent that the Magician raises is the second arcanum of the tarot: the High Priestess, the Divine Mother. The following passage from Mark, Chapter 12, verses 28-30, emphasizes the path of the Magician within our mind, heart, body, and will. “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord [Kether is the first commandment, the first law, the Magician whose Sephirah resides at the top of the Tree of Life]: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (Hod, the emotions), and with all thy soul (Tiphereth, human will, volition), and with all thy mind (Netzach), and with all thy strength (Yesod, sexual vital energy): this is the first commandment.” ―Mark 12:28-30 The mind is symbolized by the element air, and constitutes the aerial nature of thought, which fluctuates, flows, and changes like the clouds. The heart is symbolized by the element fire, wherein we either burn with passion, hatred, sentiment, or love. The sexual organs are filled with the seminal waters, wherein we find the element of procreation and spiritual life. And the earth is our physical body or matter that contains all of this. We must learn to love our internal Magician within all three aspects of ourselves, known as the three brains of gnostic psychology, intellect, emotions, and sexuality, which we will be discussing and explaining in more depth throughout this course. Mind, heart, and sexuality constitute our internal machinery wherein the forces of the Magician can act. As we indicated, the four elements are represented by the quadrature of the table the Magician must command, since it is precisely through his power that he can organize the contents of our psyche. The four corners of the table also remind us of the four Gospels through which divinity manifests and acts. Each gospel represents one of the four essential elements of nature that are symbolized by the four holy creatures mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. The Book of Mark represents fire, the lion. The Book of Luke represents the earth, the bull or ox. The Book of Matthew relates to water, an angel or human being. And the Book of John represents the air, the high-flying eagle. The table with its contents is the matter composed of the four elements, the matter or Mother, Mater Dei, material of God, in which we can elaborate the soul. Those elements are in a potential state for spiritual creation, which the Magician can act upon to generate life. Of course, he cannot originate the soul without the help of the Divine Mother, the High Priestess, the receptive force, the subject of our next lecture. Conclusion
To conclude I would like to relate to you an excerpt from one of Samael Aun Weor’s books in which he explains the nature of א Aleph in depth. So from Tarot and Kabbalah, he states the following:
The "Great Wind" is the Ancient of Days, the root of our Being, the occult of the occult, the mercy of mercies, the goodness of goodness. The hair of the Ancient of Days has thirteen ringlets. If we add thirteen among itself we will have 1 + 3 = 4 (again the four letter name of God, Jehovah) 1 is the masculine principle, fire. 2 is the feminine principle, water. 3 is the Son of creation. 4 is the unity of life. This is the holy Tetragrammaton. This is the name of the Eternal One, Iod Hei Vav Hei. The hurricane, the four winds, the breath, the Word is represented in the beard of the Ancient of Days. This beard has thirteen locks. The four winds are Iod Hei Vav Hei. The 13th Arcanum is the Ancient of Days. Only by defeating death can we incarnate the Ancient of Days. The funeral ordeals of the 13th Arcanum are more frightful and terrible than the abyss. In order to achieve the realization of the Ancient of Days within ourselves, we must totally accomplish the 13th Arcanum within ourselves. We need a supreme death and a supreme resurrection in order to have the right of incarnating the Ancient of Days. Only the one who incarnates him has the right of internally wearing the hair and the beard of a Venerable Elder. Only in the presence of the Angels of Death, after becoming victorious in the funeral ordeals, can we incarnate the Ancient of Days. Whosoever incarnates Him (The Magician) becomes another Elder in Eternity. The mantra PANDER permits us to reach unto the Ancient of Days. This is possible within profound Meditation. In the world of Atziluth there is a marvelous temple where the majestic presence of the Ancient of Days is shown unto us. The Ancient of Days dwells in the world of Kether. The chief of that world is the angel Metatron. This angel was the prophet Enoch. With the help of this angel we can enter into the world of Kether. The disciple who wants to penetrate into Kether will beg to the angel Metatron during his states of profound Meditation and he will be helped. The Aztec goddess of death has a crown with nine human skulls. The crown (Kether) is the symbol of the Ancient of Days. The skull (letter ר Reish, the head―because the word ראש השנה means head of the new year) is the microcosmic correspondence of the Ancient of Days in the human being. Indeed, we need a supreme resurrection in order to attain the self-realization of the Ancient of Days within ourselves. In the world of Kether we comprehend that the great Law controls all that is created. From the world of the Elder of the Days, we see the human multitudes as leaves hurled by the wind. The Great Wind is the terrible law of the Ancient of Days. "Vox Populi Vox Dei". A social revolt contemplated from the world of the Ancient of Days is a law in action. Each person, the entire multitudes look like leaves detached from the trees, hurled by the terrific wind of the Ancient of Days. People do not know about these things. People are only preoccupied by acquiring money and more money. This is the poor, suffering humanity, who are only miserable leaves hurled by the great wind, miserable leaves hurled by the great Law. Our authentic Being, in his essential root, is the Ancient of Days (we could say the Magician). He is the Father in us. He is our true Being. Our disciples must now concentrate and meditate very deeply on the Ancient of Days. The ecstasy, Samadhi, must be induced during Meditation. May peace reign in all hearts; let us not forget that peace is light. Let us not forget that peace is an Essence emanated from the Absolute. It is light emanated from the Absolute. This light is the light of the Ancient of Days. Christ said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." (John: 14: 27). ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah 
And in conclusion, I will give you a practice you can use in order to experience the nature of א Aleph. I will give you one in relation to this excerpt, but in the book Tarot and Kabbalah by Samael Aun Weor, he explains that one can meditate on the sign of the infinite.
First trace that image of the infinite, with your first finger and middle finger and thumb, around your heart. Trace it for a second, and then lay in bed meditate, relax, concentrate on that image in your mind. Fall asleep on that image, because that symbol will help to awaken consciousness in the astral plane, because that symbol represents the continuity of consciousness, vigil to dream states, symbolized by its open end and its closed end, which continually cycles eternally. You can ask to be brought to a temple in Tibet, which is a sacred monastery known as the Sacred Order of Tibet, which is formed by 201 members, 72 Brahmans or masters lead by Bhagavan Aklaiva. And by being very dedicated, we can travel to that temple and receive certain ordeals so that we can become initiated as magicians in that priesthood. It’s a very ancient order. And through certain works we wake up in the astral plane by imagining that symbol, and then we will be taken to that place so that we can be brought into that higher brotherhood and sisterhood of the divine. Of course, one thing that Samael mentions, and that one thing that I have verified, is that when they call you, they pull you by your feet in the astral plane. You feel a magnetic pull where they will take you where you need to go, and they will pull you out of your body. You will be taken to that place directly. So, you can invoke Bhagavan Aklaiva as a master. And that exercise is given in the book Tarot and Kabbalah. Questions and Answers
Question: Is that the infinity symbol or what?
Instructor: The sign of the infinite is same symbol of the eyes of Ra, which is the Egyptian God. The holy eight which is again represented in our spine. Question: So do that laterally? Is that correct? Instructor: Yes, do it latterly around your heart, because the thing is you are working with your Vav, your heart. Because the letter ו Vav relates to the heart itself, which is the center of the spine in which we imagine, with our willpower and our concentration, that image, so that it enters into our consciousness. Do you have any questions? Question: Does the Magician have power over the archetypes? Instructor: Well the Magician is the archetypes, is those forces, because God is not something external, but is constituted by many principles and forces in nature. So those archetypes of the soul belong to God. And the Being or the Divine is not just some person. We represent them by an old man with a beard, as Samael mentions, but also by that symbol of the Magician, but that is a representation of a force that is universal. So those archetypes are the Being, and they belong to the Being. Question: So when actually performing a tarot reading… you take the… is it the minor arcana? Instructor: First one major arcanum, and then you shuffle the minor deck: the 56. Shuffle, it take out one card. Shuffle it again, take out another, so you have a total of three cards. Question: So fate is supposed to play, I guess, a large part in what is revealed to you at that moment, right? So if you get an answer are you then able to perform another reading and, say you get a different answer, is it that answer that is different, or is it that you are supposed to take both answers? Instructor: That is a good question. That tendency to want to get the answer we want is inherent to everybody, because the thing is, you know, what is essential to the practice, is that when you use the cards, the first answer you get is going to be the answer. Usually the mind does not like it. I mean I have done this many times where I have asked for help and I got a card like 12: suffering, the Apostle: I do not like this. This is painful, but then I kept wanting to change the answer, and then I really meditated on this and realized that no, God gives you a message―you keep it. The mind is what is stubborn and wants the message to conform to its ideas. But the answer will always elude the intellect, which is why when you get an answer on a card, sit on it for months if need be, until you understand that card in relation to whatever problem you are facing because as the Talmud states, “A dream uninterrupted is like a letter not read.” Same thing with the tarot. You know you got an answer. If you do not stick to it and really contemplate that response, you will be missing a very beautiful teaching, because the Being speaks through those numbers. Of course, those answers go against the mind, the ego, which wants certain things to conform to its will. Question: So like it might not be logical? But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that it’s not right? Instructor: Oh, it will be logical, but it is a superior logic, because our common logic from universities and scholasticism is very limited. There is a divine logic which Plato talked about called a Nous, a type of consciousness that is very elevated, in which you really you know things without having to rationalize about them and it can relate to superior concepts, superior ways of being. And you can read about that in The Republic, the symbol of the Allegory of the Cave, in which the soul escapes the cave of the mind in order to experience the light. But when that person comes back into the cave to help others out, people do not understand this individual, because they are chained next to the wall looking at certain images from the fire behind them, projected onto the wall in front of them, like shadows. And they only see according to their limitations. The mind is like that. Even when you escape for a moment, you lose that experience and you come back. But we learn to develop a superior type of logic through experience, which is Logos, which is a symbol of Christ. Again, the trinity relates to Kether Chokmah, Binah: First Logos, Second Logos, Third Logos. So it is a divine reason. So the answer will make a lot of sense, but it requires a lot of intuition, because it is intuitive logic, not intellectual logic, if that makes sense. Any more questions? We will begin to meditate. So, we will be continuing these lectures on the rest of the twenty-two arcana. Question: Does that mean should we keep on coming back to the cave and trying to bring more people out? Instructor: Well, you do that by your experience and your own understanding. You know, one does not have to become a teacher, but in fact, we learn through example more than our precepts, because the way you help out other people in the cave―yeah, giving the knowledge is very important. It is helpful. It can make a big difference―but of course, that requires sacrifice, because the people who are in that allegory trying to get out of the cave again were very resistant, very negative. They did not like being told, “No, I am egotistical, and I am wrong,” you know, and trying to get them to change is very hard. You receive the Kabbalah, experiences, based on how you sacrifice for others, which is an important factor in this teaching. We talk about three factors relating to the three forces. We have Holy Affirmation, which we could say is sacrifice for others: to affirm the truth, to teach unto others or to help others according with our skills and our disposition. We have Holy Negation, which relates to: deny ourselves, go against our own defects, to comprehend our errors, and to change them. And then we also have Holy Reconciliation, which is to bear the cross. So Jesus says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, bear up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). We have the factors of birth, the soul, to the cross of sexuality. We have death of desire, the ego, relating to the negation of our own defects. And then we have sacrifice for others: to affirm the truth. We all follow those three principles in our own way, but we do it in accordance with the will of our own inner Magician. We learn that through meditation, but of course, trying to help others is always very painful, especially when we have a lot of our defects, which get in the way. This is really the primary problem when we are trying to help another person. We have our own faults that we need to rectify, that prevent us from doing the best that we can―especially in difficult situations with difficult people, so to speak, if that makes sense, if that answers your question. Comment: There was another cave that I was thinking about, the cave that Dante… but that’s another topic. Instructor: Yeah, thank you for bringing that up, because Dante, the first book of The Divine Comedy is the descent into hell [Inferno]. First you descend and face your own defects, and then you purify yourselves in Purgatory and then you ascend [to Paradiso: Paradise]. So if you want to ascend, according to the Magician, you got to descend. Question: What about that caption that says, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”? Instructor: And it is interesting, because hope in the tarot, I believe, is the seventeenth card, seventeenth card of the tarot. In order to have hope, we have to be very strong, because that descent into facing our own evilness is very painful, very difficult, in which we will want to run away from the facts. But if we are those few people who are rarely remain true to their principles, then we can make the ascent like Dante did. Of course, with the help of his Guru, his teacher, not just a physical teacher, but in the internal planes―Virgil was his master. Question: Virgil? Instructor: Virgil. Question: Wasn’t he a Roman poet? Was he spiritual? Instructor: He wrote The Aeneid, which you can read about in the book The Magic of the Runes. Question: Was he an initiate? Virgil? Instructor: Oh yeah! A great master. The Aeneid is a very Kabbalistic text, which we can talk about at another time. Question: All of them say that he is a Roman poet. That’s as far as I go… Instructor: Well, he talked about the birth of Rome: Amore, the church or the city of Rome, which backwards spells love. So it is a symbol of the battles that any soul goes through against the ego, our defects, our own desires. Question: How far can people go without realizing that they are an initiate? Instructor: Well, here is the thing. Certain experiences may be kept from the soul, by divinity, to a degree, but certain initiations, which really belong to the Being, the divine, can be experienced. By special grace we could be given that experience. I know there is a case of Samael Aun Weor when he was entering into initiation at a certain degree. He actually was not aware of the initiation itself as it happened in the internal planes, but he was told later by his wife, “No you… we were in the temple and your Inner Being, Samael, was being initiated into the church.” And then he meditated and then he remembered. So, there is not necessarily a set limit, but I would say the more you awaken, the more you will remember; the more that you will know. And in the beginning, we are usually very unconscious, very asleep. We do not know what is going on psychologically. Question: So we could just be going through sufferings and transformations, but really the Being is going through the initiations? Instructor: It is the Being that is the initiate, because the Magician, the priest, the one who gains power, is our Spirit. Now we do our part, but we have to recognize that we are nothing, because the Being is powerful. If the Being is powerful up there, that means down here, we are the opposite. So we should not be proud, but instead, we should do our part. And that gives experiences and qualities of understanding to our divinity. So the Magician, the priest, is our own Being, and He is the one who receives the initiations. Question: So to Self-realize is to like be like the equivalent of the consciousness of the Being? Instructor: It is to unite with the Being, and therefore the soul is not the soul anymore. It is the Being. It is reflected. So, think of it like you are looking at a mirror. The mirror is the soul according to Ibn ‘Arabi, a Sufi Master. He said that God looks at the mirror, at Himself, to contemplate Himself. Self-realization is when the mirror has been polished through dhikr: remembrance in Islam, so that the soul reflects the image of God within. So the soul is lost in that Divine Being. Self-realization is when all that parts of the Tree of Life, the ten sephiroth, are integrated, so they are not separate anymore, but they are unified. Then they can return with knowledge back to the Absolute. But that is a very lofty goal. We first begin by initiation through overcoming our daily sufferings, by beginning a new way of life, in relation to the first arcanum of the tarot. 
"Know the truth and the truth shall set you free," stated Jesus of Nazareth, the Patriarch of the Gnostic Church, the great Master Aberamentho, according to his sacred name.
This is the final lecture in a course we initiated a few weeks past, discussing the nature of Sufism and Gnostic doctrine, how to know ourselves, how to know that which is within us that is divine. We seek to comprehend through practical works the very essence of our divinity within us, within our consciousness, and which we denominate the Being. Many names have been given to that truth, that source, that origin from which the soul emanates. No matter what name we denominate that truth, whether it is Allah, Buddha, Christ, Tao, INRI, etc., that divinity is within us, and which specifically in the Gnostic teachings we call the Being. To be, to know as a conscious quality. So we've been explaining the gradual steps that lead to that realization of the Being, of the truth. It is by practical works, learning to understand ourselves, our mind, and the obstacles within us that prevent our illumination, that we seek to comprehend how to change. We seek to comprehend the causes of our suffering and the obscurations to that light of that divinity within us. In the spirit of universality, we've been explaining the teachings according to Islam, which in Arabic is submission to God's will, and the Sufi doctrine, especially the mystics of Islam. Sufis are as much the mystics of Islam as the Kabbalists are the mystics of Judaism. In this lecture, we'll explain many aspects of this path in association with the Tree of Life of Kabbalah, the map of the consciousness. Likewise, we will examine many elements pertaining to the mystical teachings of Islam, the esoteric doctrine. We state that we seek to know the divinity and the Muslims speak of witnessing the divine as the Shahada, the famous declaration of faith, which states, "La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadun rasul-ul-llah." Meaning, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is His prophet." The word witnessing is Shahada, to bear testimony, to verify what one has known or experienced. Now, the Muslim teachings of Shahada, which is followed by many millions of people today, is merely the public doctrine; to say that where there is no God but God, and Muhammad is His prophet, is easy to vocalize, to affirm. The word Shahada in Arabic relates to the word Mushahada, which means contemplation, meditation, insight, comprehension of the truth. It is precisely by learning to meditate, go deep within our mind, our psyche, in which we know the truth for ourselves. We witness the divine through very concrete living experiences, known as gnosis. This word gnosis is Greek, meaning knowledge, signifying conscious experience. It is not associated with theory or belief, or scriptural knowledge, although those are useful in their place. Instead, gnosis, or the Arabic equivalent, marifah, is the direct knowledge of the divine, the truth. It is not by believing in anything that we will know that divinity. Instead, know truth and the truth shall set you free. The founder of the modern Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor, stated that, "The truth is the unknowable from moment to moment." When Jesus was asked, "What is the truth?" before Pilate, he remained silent. When asking the Buddha, "What is the truth?" he simply walked away. Many people have spoken about the truth, whether through scripture, books, lectures, etc. In these studies, however, we seek to be practical. We seek to know that truth for ourselves, to know the divine within us moment by moment, the unknowable presence which is within our consciousness, within our psyche. For our purposes, we'll talk about scriptures pertaining to Islam, especially in relation to knowledge of God, knowledge of that truth, that source, which cannot be labeled, but can be verified. There is a famous commentator, Abd al-Karim al-Jili, who commented on a scripture or a writing by a Sufi master by the name of Ibn Arabi: his book Journey to the Lord of Power. He stated that “The journey to God is short; the journey in God is infinite.” There are levels of being, levels of knowing, levels of cognizance, which we want to access here and now. Previously, we discussed the nature or the doctrine of momentariness, to be aware of our psyche moment by moment, and to be aware of the divine as a presence, as a force, and an intelligence, which we accomplish through observing our psyche, observing our mind, observing our heart, observing our body. That active observation is attention, an act of directed consciousness or directed will, directed attention within us. By learning to develop that alert novelty, alert perception, that awareness of ourselves, instant to instant, moment by moment, we in turn gain access to the truth, that direct knowledge. 
Of course there are infinite levels of consciousness. The 14th Dalai Lama stated that really the consciousness has the capacity to expand to an infinite degree. This is very well is illustrated in many religious paintings where you see the heavens or the angels circling the throne of divinity and taking their pilgrimage towards that light, that source. That's the famous meaning of Hajj in Islam, the pilgrimage which we're going to discuss in brief in this lecture.
God is the unknowable, the truth. As it says on the Quran surah 6, verse 91, “God the Most High said, ‘They honor not God with the honor due Him,’” according to the scripture of Al-Risalah, the Sufi teaching by the famous master Qushayri who lived in Persia or Iran. He stated the following: “According to the commentary, this means they do not know God as He deserves to be known.” Likewise, Surah Ta Ha, verse 110, "He knows that which is before them and that which is behind them, and they encompass Him not in knowledge," which is similar to Surah 2. This is Al-Baqarah, the Surah, The Cow, verse 285: "He knows that which is before them and that which is behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills." The truth can only come to us when the divine expresses of His will, of Her will within us, and we must learn to access that state by cooperating as a psyche, as a soul, as a consciousness. In order to attain that state, we must learn to be humble psychologically. Previously, we discussed in our lecture on the code of ethics, spiritual discipline, the need to train the mind, to not behave in negative ways, to not indulge in negative habits, and to destroy and comprehend those psychological causes within us that create conflict. Because, as the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor, stated, "Be humble in order to attain enlightenment. Thus after attaining it, be more humble still." Humility is not an attitude. It is a psychological way of being in which we comprehend how our own sense of self, we can say egotism, egos, qualities, defects, vices, errors, whatever name we want to give them—these in themselves are obscuring the full manifestation of our divine potential, and we want to remove those shadows within our psyche, those causes of suffering such as anger, pride, fear, et cetera. By removing those conditions, those cages of the mind, we liberate soul. We liberate consciousness and then we can truly ascend to the heights of the divine. As the Book of Isaiah states, "Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and the hill made low. The crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain." Meaning, it is a psychological work. Our own sense of egotism, our own negative sense of self must be conquered in order for the divine self, the Being, the truth to manifest. Now, there is some interesting commentary just to elaborate on this point about asceticism or spiritual poverty given by, again this writer, Ibn Arabi, from his Futuhat Makkiyyah, which is The Meccan Revelations, a very extensive scripture. He commented that the first caliph, Abu Bakr, was reported to have said, "The inability to comprehend God is comprehension itself." Then, this point is that if we feel that we have a certain level of knowledge, we must understand there's always something higher, something beyond that which we must access. As the Sufis state, the greatest position to follow is poverty, not physical poverty or austerities, but, psychologically speaking, we fast to our habits. We cease to feed our negative elements, our desires. Instead, we develop conscious qualities. We seek to overcome the conditions of our mind. There was one Sufi, I believe, who stated that a third of the stomach should be filled with food, while the other two thirds be filled with fasting and the Qur’an. While some people may take the symbolic language of the Sufis literally, symbolically-speaking, we must be in remembrance of divinity through meditation, scriptural study, profound comprehension… There's a very famous teaching given in the Surah Ta Ha, verse 114, where Prophet Muhammad was taught by his inner Being, his divinity. He said, "Be not in haste with the Qur’an before its revelation is completed for thee, but say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge!’" We must increase that knowledge, seek to understand what in us prevents us for accessing that, and to thereby deny our own selves, conditions, desires, through the art or path of consciousness, self-awareness, mindfulness. The Three Levels of Religion
In next graphic, we have the three levels of religion. We find the three levels of religion in any doctrine, any teaching, since religious instruction or esoteric instruction is always given in three tiers. We have what is known as the introductory level, the intermediate level, and the esoteric level. All religions have a gradation of instruction, of teaching, and of discipline, in which we train ourselves to be more open and receptive to the influence of the divine.
In Islam, they call the first introductory level Shariah, which of course has a lot of negative connotation today. In esoteric studies, Shariah does not refer to the punitive or harsh laws of Muslim countries. Shariah is really in its heart is the practical conduct we engaged with to train ourselves—to not be angry people, to not have fear, to not have pride, to not have desire or lust, to not commit adultery, to not steal, to not take intoxicants, to not cause harm, to not lie. These are basic laws given in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and whatever religion we study, since each has this code according to the idiosyncrasy of the culture it was delivered. Beyond that, after we've established ourselves with mind training, we can enter into the mesoteric level, the intermediate steps, which is Tariqah. The last lecture we gave was on divine love, which is the path of Tariqah. It is the path of selfless service in which our spirituality is not based on ourselves, but for others. Meaning: we work on our own sense of egotism so that we can develop compassion for those who suffer and those who are ignorant. In this selfless path, we overcome the conditioning of the mind. We train ourselves so that we do not cause harm to others with our speech, our thoughts, our words, etc. Instead, we want to overcome the conditioning of our psyche so that our divinity can really help us to create religion, which is in Latin, religare, in one sense to reunite such as in a congregation or group, to unite people through divine law. In Islam, the word “religion” is often called din in Arabic. Din more specifically refers to “judgment,” which is etymologically related with “custom, way, or affair.” Din refers to our conduct, our behavior, in how we curtail negative psychological states and eliminate them through inner judgment and comprehension in meditation. Din also has a strong relationship to the word dayn, which means “debt.” Truly, all of us are in debt before the divine law and must learn to pay our debts through conscious works, good deeds. Lastly, we have Marifah and Haqiqah which is knowledge and truth. This is the highest teachings of any religion and is the topic of today's lecture. Now, with Marifah (knowledge) and Haqiqah (truth), these have been associated with the highest teachings of any tradition—the secret doctrine, whether in theosophy or the Fourth Way schools, and in Gnosticism. The secret of the divine path, Marifah and Haqiqah, knowledge and truth, pertains to the practices of what is known in Arabic as Allah-kimiya', alchemy. Alchemy was associated traditionally with the transformation or transmutations of metals, a base substance into a pure substance, which many people in Europe were foolishly seeking to literally perform, to transform physical lead into gold, but that is not the meaning. The meaning is transforming the lead or the personality into the gold of the spirit, into the spirit of the divine, the truth. Alchemy is known as Tantra in the East, but the word alchemy also, Al-Kimiya, signifies chemistry (we have the similar origins or the root word). Kimiya also means to fuse or cast to metal. With the practices of a perfect matrimony or the perfect matrimony, the exercises of tantrism, man and woman in a marriage can unite to create spiritually and therefor fuse with the divine through the chemistry of God. I will talk about the specifics of this, but something important to remember with these three stages is that, according to Ibn Arabi, the law of Shariah can be summarized with the following maxim: "What is yours is yours and what is mine is mine." There's a sense of separation. Meaning, we work individually as practitioners for ourselves, for our benefit, to serve God within us. In a path of Tariqah, "What is yours is mine and what is mine is yours," referring to selfless love, a state of compassion. In the level of Marifah, “Nothing belongs to you or me,” according to Ibn Arabi. Then with the knowledge of Haqiqah, the truth, "There is no you or me. There is only Him, the divine." These are stages of discipline we train ourselves in and, of course, in the beginning we work with Shariah. In Buddhism, this is known as Shravakayana, the Shravaka path. Shravaka in Sanskrit means “to listen, to hear,” and Yana means “the way or path.” Anyone who learns for the first time how to change is a Shravaka, is a listener, to hear the truth and to practice it, and we will give more examples of this in relation to the intricate science of certainty according to the Quran. With the middle path, the mesoteric path, we find in Tariqah, its equivalent is Mahayana, the greater vehicle: Maha, meaning great, in which our work is for others. We are not concerned with our own personal well-being, but we work to help others develop spiritually, and we overcome our own egos, our own senses of self, which create conflict. In the highest path, Marifah and Haqiqah, is known as Tantrayana in Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism. In this Tibetan Buddhist teaching, Tantra is the vehicle of a matrimony where a man and woman, in the pure sentiment and inspiration of the divine, can cultivate their marriage as a means of experiencing the truth and working with the most potent forces we carry within our physiology, and also our psychology, as we will elaborate upon. Now, an important thing to remember is that with these steps, these are not something separate. Neither are they something that will go from one step up, a plateau, so to speak. Really Shariah, Tariqah, Marifah, Haqiqah unite; they are integral, meaning: one cannot know the truth without fulfilling the basic conduct of spirituality, meaning: to be good person, to be decent, to be humble and to help others. Likewise, we cannot know divine love if we are selfish, egotistically, psychologically speaking. All of us who begin any type of spiritual studies have to work on or become aware of what particular issues we have and change them so that we can really develop compassion for humanity and for its suffering. Now, there has been a teaching, and there have been some people who have wanted to associate with higher stages of teaching, such as people who proclaim to have spiritual knowledge or to know the truth, but they fail to fulfill the basic conduct of being a decent human being. There is a very famous teaching and I believe it's given by Ibn Arabi as well. In his scripture Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom, he explains that there were people who saw a man flying in the air, and they were overcome by this phenomenon. They were very fascinated, obviously. Ibn Arabi asked, "Does that man follow the Qur’an?" Meaning, does he follow the scripture? Does he know how to be a decent person, to be kind, to not be lustful, to not be angry, to not have fear, because if he does not fulfill those laws, then ignore him. Because there are people who can have powers and abilities, but through desire, egotism, which is a different path than we teach. Here, we seek to give all of our aspirations to God who has power, who has capability and we as the human vehicle can be of service to that, not for our own will. Dhikr, Remembrance of the Divine Self
So, what is the path we need to follow? Really, it is mindfulness, it is awareness and it cannot be emphasized enough. You need to be perceptive psychologically. In the doctrine of Islam, they refer to remembrance of God as dhikr. We talk about in these studies in relation to self-knowledge, the studies or the practice of Self-remembering, self-observation. What is the self we seek to remember? It is the divine Self. In Hinduism, they refer to it as Atman, the inner divinity, but we also want to become aware of our own egotistical self through the act of observing our mind, our heart and our body, our impulses, our desires, our instincts. Truly, to know the truth, we have to begin at this level and to be aware of our body, aware of our mind, aware of our sentiments. For as Dhul-Nun al-Misri, the Egyptian, very famous Sufi master stated the following, "The key to success and worship lies in meditative reflection (fikrat). Whoever persists in such reflection in the heart will behold the invisible realm and the spirit. Whoever contemplates God for keeping watch over the thoughts which pass through his heart will be exalted by God in all of his outward deeds." Again, we can refer to the three stages of religion even in this very brief quote which compacts a lot, meaning that whosoever contemplates God, who practices mushahida, witnesses God, understanding and knowing that God keeps watch over the thoughts that pass through his heart. This is the exercises of Shariah, to discipline our mind, to be aware of ourselves, to not act in inappropriate way according to the moment. Likewise, by doing so, one will be exalted by God, which is Haqq, the truth, Haqiqah. One of the sacred names of Allah in Islam is Al-Haqq, the Truth, which is where we get Haqiqah. It is in controlling our mind in which we will be exalted by the truth in all of our outward deeds, according to the path of Tariqah, one's actions. What does it meant to worship God? All religions have their own idiosyncrasies. We have our own methods and practices in this teaching as well, but one thing that's pertinent to all traditions is the deep connection of the heart to the divine, in which we seek to really only worship that which is true within us and not that which is false. It says in Surah Ta Ha, verses 98-99, “Your only God is God besides whom there is no other God. He encompasses all things and knowledge. Thus do we narrate unto thee some of the accounts of those who have come before (such as Moses and the other prophets) and we have given thee a reminder from our presence.” “The Reminder” is another name for the Qur’an, the Recitation, the teaching. So, there is no God but God. The Muslims make a very strict observance of worshipping only the divine, and they call worship of idols shirk, or to worship God as something multiple. This has a very interesting psychological application to us, because in a given moment, if we are mindful, we will perceive elements that seek to grab our energy, our attention. In a moment of anger, we want to speak harm, and if we give in to that element, if we give in to those words and we express that negative emotion, we are worshiping an idol. We are worshiping a psychological quality that is other than God. That condition of anger is a shell that has trapped the light of God within us and we need to learn to extirpate that from our psyche, to liberate the free consciousness, the free essence, the soul. Anytime we give into fear, other egos, other qualities, conditions of mind, and we identify ourselves with those elements, we are practicing shirk. That is a form of worship, because our love of being is how we worship God or how we turn away from him. The unity of God is very famous in Islam, the doctrine is called Tawhid, the unity of the Truth, because that light is universal, it is cosmic, whatever name we give to that. Within us, we have sadly, unfortunately, due to mistaken habits and will, wrong action, we have taken the light of the divine within us and caged it in what we call our pride, our fear, our anger, vanity, etc. These are conditions that we created that trap that light, and by breaking those shells, we free the genie from Aladdin's lamp as we were discussing previously. Truly, we need to remember the presence of the divine. That presence in Arabic is hudur which is where we get the word muhadara which means awareness of God. So self-observation, self-awareness, remembrance of God is the act of controlling our mind and remembering the qualities of the divine which is virtue, compassion, peace, etc. 
This psychological quality is beyond the intellect. Knowledge of the truth is beyond conceptualization, rationalization, etc. While we can gain knowledge or we can study this teaching and study any religion in an intellectual sense, it does not equate with the actual experience of that divinity. For as the Sufi Lāhījī stated, "One cannot behold God by the eye of ratiocination derived from reason for only through the eye of the heart which is known as the faculty of inner vision can one behold God."
Likewise, he emphasizes the path of Shariah, the discipline, the conduct we need to know the truth. “As long as you do not focus this eye (meaning this perception, this self-awareness, self-observation) so as to sharpen its vision with the collyrium of asceticism, spiritual conduct, purgation of the soul, purification of the heart, illumination of the spirit, you will be unable to witness the Friend's beauty and contemplation.” People associate that term ‘asceticism’ with monks in sackcloth whipping themselves in a form of self-flagellation and very morbid behavior, and that is not something we encourage. Instead, we teach to discipline our mind. Asceticism can be practiced in an esoteric sense, not physical austerities, but mental psychological training in our daily life and our daily occupation. It does not mean we have to go to a monastery or Sufi lodge to learn to meditate. Instead, we learn to meditate in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in and that is our discipline, our conduct. “The Friend” is the divine. The Sufis used this term for God, for the Being and contemplation again is mushahida, to witness God, whether through meditative experience or in the dream state, when one awakens in dreams to know that which is the truth, directly, with cognizance. 
The Perfect Human Being
“All the masters of the Path are in accordance that this reality can be realized only through the guidance of a perfect man who knows and contemplates God.” There have been many perfect men and women, many great masters and prophets and really, when we study ourselves and study esotericism, we should always rely on the prophets, beings like Jesus, like Buddha, like Muhammad, Krishna, those beings who fully exemplify the light of the divine and whose conduct has been tested and verified as true. We should not rely on theories or uncertain sources but our own experience and the scripture or the scriptures.
So what is an example of a perfect man? We find Muhammad, who of course, sadly, today is terribly denigrated and misunderstood. It is the effort of these lectures to help elucidate the spiritual roots and esoteric meaning behind his teaching, his doctrine. So we are going to talk about what he symbolizes for us, what he represents, because the perfect men and women, the prophets who came previously, in their very daily acts of kindness and expression and their discipline, came to symbolize a path we need to follow. There are many interesting things we can learn from the life of Prophet Muhammad which are symbolic for us and which he purposely played out, taking on a role to teach us something profound about ourselves. The Sufis emphasize that really, he is a great master, a very radical teacher and of course, all radical masters are very controversial, but if we look at the Hadith and examine the scriptures of the Quran from our own experience, we can verify the beauty of that teaching. “The outer law, Shariah, is my word,” he said. “The spiritual path, Tariqah, my actions, and the inner reality, Haqiqah, my inner states.” Whether in Islam or Buddhism, any master exemplifies and manifest those three paths simultaneously, in every action. The Buddha manifested Shravakayana, Mahayana, Tantrayana. Moses fulfilled the body, soul and spirit of his doctrine. Moses wrote the Torah but other scriptures associated with the higher teaching such as the Talmud related to the middle path, and then the Zohar is the esoteric doctrine of Israel. The Freemasons followed the paths of the Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. So again, these levels of religion are levels of being but also levels of instruction as we mentioned. Certain scriptures pertain to each degree. 
As we discuss previously, these three paths have a correlation to our three centers of activity. We have mind, we have emotion, we have movement. We can say we have three focal points, we call them “brains,” and a brain in esoteric psychology does not refer to the physical matter in the cerebrum. Instead, it pertains to a center of activity, physiological and psychological, which manages energies. Thought is a form of energy. Emotion is a form of energy, and will, desire, instinct, impulse, movement is another form. We must learn to comprehend these levels in ourselves, our own psychology, as a whole. Really, our heart relates to our words. How we feel, we express through our language. Likewise, our actions refer to the center of movement, and our inner reality is experienced when our mind is enlightened, when our consciousness is illuminated by harnessing those energies of Tantra which we will discuss.
The Sufis really emphasize the integral nature of this master and something we should follow in our own practice. The following was given by the book Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri. “If someone requires of himself the conduct prescribed by the divine command (Shariah), God will illuminate his heart with the light of realization (Haqiqah). There is no station nobler than the station of following the beloved (or in Arabic it is al-Mustafa, the beloved of God who is Prophet Muhammad) in the orders he gave (Shariah), the actions he took (Tariqah), and the character he possessed (Haqiqah).” Let us examine what he represents for us because his life is something symbolic and any figure in the Bible or the Quran who physically lived came to demonstrate something psychological for us, which is evident by looking at some of the etymology of Arabic and Hebrew. 
Kabbalah and Sufi Mysticism
This is an image of the Kabbalah, the famous mystical Tree of Life, symbol of the highest levels of consciousness, which descend through different levels of dimensionality down to the physical plane and into more dense regions of matter, energy and perception. In discussing psychology, we use this glyph. It is a map of consciousness. It is also map of the universe and the different dimensions we can experience in a meditation or in the dream state. In Islam, heaven is known Jannat or Jannah, and Buddhism talks about Nirvana. Likewise, we have different terms for heaven in different cultures and that is really referring to this Tree of Life. These are higher levels of being that we can access if we learn to meditate.
A very important sphere in this glyph is at the very center; we have included the title, Tiphereth, with the Hebrew letters included. Tiphereth means beauty. It is the very center of this Tree of Life, and to explain Tiphereth, we will elaborate on this glyph in its entirety. Notice that there are three trinities included here. The top trinity is referring to the highest forces in nature which the Gnostics called Christ, Chrestos, the anointed one. These three spheres refer to Father, Son, Holy Spirit in Christianity. Kether, Chokmah, Binah in Kabbalah, or Crown, Wisdom, Understanding. These are forces; these are not people. This is why in Islam, they strictly reject the trinity, because the Christians at that time were literally worshipping the trinity as three people, and that is wrong. The truth is that these are energies. It is one force, one light, one intelligence which can manifest in diverse ways. We call it Christ or the First, Second and Third Logos in Gnostic terms, in Greek terms. Below that, we have on the right, the Spirit, known as Chesed in Hebrew meaning Mercy. In the Qur’an, when it says, Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim, “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” it is referring to that spiritual quality known as Chesed, which is Mercy. The word Rahman relates to Hebrew Ruach, which means wind, breath, spirit, which is within us. To the left of that we have Geburah which is the Divine Soul, divine consciousness, which is not stained with impurity, and does not enter conditionality. Now, below that is Tiphereth, human will, Human Soul, that is really where we originate from. Our soul, our essence, our consciousness emanates from this middle sphere and really, when the soul is fully developed, it is beauty. It is pure and Tiphereth can also mean splendor, radiance, light. When we work with self-observation, we are working with this willpower to be controlling the lower aspects of our psychology. This unconditioned will, Tiphereth must conquer and control the lower spheres. You see here Netzach, which is the mind, intellect, thought. To the left of that, we have Hod, emotions, the heart. Below that, we have the Yesod, which is energy, vitality, sexual power which is used in tantric practice in a marriage in order to illuminate the other spheres ascending upward. Below that, we have Malkuth which is the physical body. It means “Kingdom.” Our willpower has to control mind, feeling, body, movement. That is the nature of Tiphereth and in us, it is undeveloped, but when we learn to observe ourselves and break the conditioning of the mind, we liberate more willpower. We free it. What is interesting about Tiphereth is that if you take this image and put it on a human being, the Kether at the top trinity relates to the head, the middle trinity relates to the heart and the lower trinity or quaternary including Malkuth related to the sexual organs and feet. Now, Tiphereth of course is associated with the heart especially in Islamic mysticism. As we find in the Hadith, the Muslim oral tradition, a very famous saying by Prophet Muhammad which emphasizes this point, the importance of developing Tiphereth. We will highlight for you the examples of how he is associated with that sphere of being, that he represents, Tiphereth. “There is an organ in the body that if it is righteous ensures that the whole system will be righteous and if it is corrupt, the whole body will become corrupt. This organ is the heart. There is a polish for everything that takes away rust, and the polish for the heart is the Dhikr, the remembrance of Allah.” 
Arabic Kabbalah, the Abjad System, and the Sacred Kaaba
The word for heart in Arabic is Qalb, and what is interesting about Arabic and Hebrew is that each letter represents a number. Kabbalah is the science of numbers, mathematics, which are divine. The universe is governed by math, and God is a mathematician. He works with the laws of nature and manifests them and operates them. Each Arabic letter, each Hebrew letter, has a symbol associated with a certain psychological and spiritual archetype, a blueprint for a soul that we need to develop. In the abjad system which is the Arabic Kabbalah, how you add numbers together produces very interesting associations. The same with Hebrew. The word قلب Qalb is made up of ق Qaf, ل Lam, ب Ba, respectively, with numerical values of 100, 30 and 2, respectively. In Hebrew, this is ק Quf, ל Lamed, ב Beth. When you add those numbers together, you get 132. If you take number the 1, add it to 32, 32 + 1, you get 33, a very interesting number in relation to the science of masonry in Europe. Also, likewise, you look at the name Muhammad, you break it down, م Mim, ح Ha, م Mim, م Mim, د Dal, respectively is 40 + 8 + 40 + 40 + 4 which is 132. Again, add 1 + 32 is 33. Masonry speaks often of the symbol of the 33 degrees of a master, which symbolizes the 33 degrees or vertebrae of our spine, our spinal column. Our spinal column is where the light of the divine can manifest. We talked previously about how, through the exercises of Tantra, a couple can raise the creative energies of sex up the spine to the brain in order to illuminate it, so the images of the prophets having halos is a symbol of having raised the creative energies of God from sex to the brain, up the spine. Someone who has successfully raised that Kundalini serpent force to the mind and is filled with fire in their intellect is a master of the 33rd degree, having fulfilled each step of that terrain, that path up the spinal medulla. Now, Muhammad represents this as we will examine in the story of his ascension and we will talk about that next. But what is interesting is that the word תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth hides and implies a lot, and a very interesting symbolism. Each letter as we said is a representation of a quality. The letter ת Tav, the final letter of the Hebraic alphabet, this 22nd letter, can mean “seal, truth, cross, path, covenant.” Notice that the word תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth begins and ends with ת Tav. Muhammad is often cited as the Seal of the Prophets, the Seal of the Truth, as given in the Quran, Surah 33, verse 40, Al-Ahzab. “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men but he is the messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets and Allah has full knowledge of all things.” Seal of the Prophets is khatim an-nabiyyin, and most Muslims associate this as meaning that he is the last of the major prophets to come teach humanity. But really, in a strict esoteric sense, seal of the truth, seal of the prophets is Tiphereth, because it begins with ת Tav and ends with ת Tav, “truth, seal.” If you are familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, we have Dzogchen, which is the great perfection or Mahamudra, the “Great Seal.” It is the same meaning. Buddhism is implicit within that name תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth. Notice also in the middle of this word if going from right to left because Hebrew's right to left: ת Tav, פ Peh, א Aleph, ר Resh and ת Tav. ת Tav begins and ends this word, and at the center of this phrase is the word אר Or: א Aleph, ר Resh. Or if you add the letter ו Vav in the center, it is אוֹר Aur, א Aleph, ו Vav, ר Resh, signifying light as the book of Genesis states, “Let there be light and there was light,” Yehi va aur vayehi aur. אוֹר Aur means light, and it is at the center of this word. If you add the letter ו Vav, the sixth letter of Hebrew alphabet, it spells “light” in the center. ו Vav is direct representation of the spine. You take the letter ו Vav as a straight line; it represents the spinal column. That is how the light emerges from our creative forces to the brain and illuminates us and gives us genuine beauty, spiritually speaking. תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth is beautiful, meaning splendor, light, radiance. If you add ו Vav in the center, you can see that it has light within it, and then the heart is enlivened, is saturated with those cosmic forces when a couple practices alchemy. Now, again, תִפאֶרֶת Tiphereth is truth seal, seal of truth, the heart, قلب Qalb, or the heart in Arabic. Many interesting parallels that really point with great emphasis that Muhammad is Tiphereth and represents for us, our willpower, the beauty of the soul we need to cultivate. In Islam, in relation to this topic, Muslims pray to the east, towards Mecca, the sacred stone Kaaba. To discuss Marifah, the highest knowledge of esotericism, the Muslims symbolize the secret teachings of alchemy, of a marriage, within the stone. The Kaaba in Mecca relates to the Kabbalah, if you relate to the Hebrew. Kaaba in Spanish is La Kaaba, take La and put it at the end, and you spell Kabbalah. Likewise, you spell “the cow” in Spanish, la vaca, which is the same root word for the word Baqarah, the longest Surah of the Quran, “The Cow,” emphasizing that there is really a great profound mystery there. So Muslims pray to the east towards the Kaaba, the sacred stone that was established originally by Adam and Eve in Islamic myth, and became impure or blackened as a result of the impurity of the psyche. All of this deserves analysis, since the wisdom of the middle east bears profound symbolism. The stone, this energy, this foundation of our temple, our Kaaba, spiritually speaking, has become impure and refers to our energies. It is the forces upon which we exist physically, but also spiritually. These energies have been corrupted by desire, by lust. The Kaaba is prayed towards five times a day. Muslims pray toward the Kaaba daily and the direction in which one prays is called قِـبْـلَـة Qibla. Again, you hear the word قلب Qalb, heart, implied there, and also, قِـبْـلَـة Qibla, Kabbalah. Kabbalah in Hebrew simply means “to receive.” It is knowledge that we receive consciously from God. It is not limited to what we read, but something we verify for ourselves. The Kaaba, the stone, is a symbol of the energies we carry in our body, which if we use for spirituality, can elevate us to the divine, to enliven our heart and awaken our consciousness. In Arabic Kabbalah, ق Qaf can signify the powers of the head, ل Lam the powers of speech, and ب Ba the House of God, Bayṫ Allāh, the Kaaba or stone of Yesod, whereby divine forces coagulate. Through controlling our mind, our ق Qaf, through mantras, sacred sounds through the power of ل Lam, the tongue, we invoke divinity into our house of God, our heart, ب Ba. Even the Arabic letter ب Ba appears, in its calligraphy, like a cup, chalice, or receptacle that receives the solar, divine forces. All of this signifies how divinity descends through prayer and recitation into the temple of the spirit, our heart. This is why the Sufi master Bayazid Bistami stated the following, “When you are separate from the Kaaba, it is all right to turn toward it, but those who are in it can turn toward any direction they wish.” This is a very radical statement from a Muslim, considering that this is very important to perform the canonical prayer Salat. The meaning of that is that if you know the symbolic meaning of the Kaaba and if you work with your stone, the creative sexual energy, the creative power, it does not matter what direction you pray. Instead, you learn to direct those forces from the base of the spine to the brain and into the heart. That is how you receive knowledge, Kabbalah within your emotional center, within قلب Qalb, the heart in Arabic. Likewise, as I mentioned, it does not matter what direction you pray but when you know the قِـبْـلَـة Qibla, you know how to redirect those forces within you, you are praying to the east symbolically, since in the Tree of Life, the east is Tiphereth, astrologically related to the sun when it rises. Your قِـبْـلَـة Qibla, your direction to which you pray is within you. Through alchemy, you raise the powers of Yesod to the east, up to the mind and then to the heart. This is very well-explained in Kabbalah. 
We mentioned in the previous lecture on divine love how the symbol of Islam, the crescent moon and the star, is a symbol of how we transform the moon of our psyche into the sun of the Spirit. The star Venus, the star of love, Venus-Aphrodite, is “beauty” in Greek, and she is the divine feminine within us, the serpentine power called Kundalini, which is asleep in us in the base of our spine, according to Hinduism, Hindu anatomy, Hindu occult anatomy.
The sexual stone hides within it the energy of Kundalini in the base of the spine, and the stone is called the Yesod in Kabbalah, the foundation of our temple, because how we use our energy determines our spiritual life. If we waste our energy, we cannot function, but if we conserve our forces and become hermetically sealed, psychologically speaking, we do not identify with life so much and do not waste our mental, physical or emotional energy, we will become much happier and elevated. How we use this energy of the creative power in us, the sexual power is that serpentine force that can raise us spiritually. Another interesting thing about this stone of Kaaba, is reported in pre-Islamic myth that there was a serpent sleeping at the base of this temple, of the stone, within the Kaaba itself in the earth. It is representing for us that creative power of the Divine Mother is in that stone. Many people are familiar with tantric yoga, raising the Kundalini force through sexual union up the spine to the brain. The stone is a very symbolic thing which we are going to elaborate with the myth or the teachings of Muhammad's ascension. 
The Ascension of the Prophet
The very famous teaching of Muhammad is that he was meditating at Mecca, meaning, he was asleep and reflecting on his inner divinity while near the Kaaba itself. He became drowsy (emphasizing for us that in meditation, we become sleepy physically but consciously, we are alert, we are aware, we are vigilant). At that point, he encountered a mystical creature called Al-Buraq. It is an animal with the body of a mule, the tail of a peacock and the face of a woman, which he rode upon towards Jerusalem in a few moments and afterward, he ascended the seven heavens mentioned in Islam. The Tree of Life of Kabbalah represents nine heavens but you can also say seven dimensions, so the Muslims and the mystics of Israel are in agreement.
But how did he ascend towards those higher levels of being up those different steps of the Tree of Life? Precisely through working with the stone in Mecca. If you look at the Arabic root of the name البراق Al-Buraq, it means “the lightning,” lightning bolt, and if you translate that into Sanskrit, it is Vajra. Vajra is a lightning bolt that the gods or the Buddhas wield, or Zeus wields to destroy the impure. That lightning is the creative Kundalini force of the spine that can help you to ascend up the heavens, the seven heavens or seven chakras of the spinal medulla up to the crown in order to connect you with the divine. The name البراق Al-Buraq contains the word Ur, the Arabic نور Nur, or “light” of chastity. Remove Ur from Buraq, and you are left with Baq, the root of the term Baqarah, the sacred Heifer or Cow within the Qur’an, a symbol of the Divine Mother. You find the name Buraq of course of our current president, but it also is a Muslim name and it relates to the Hebrew Barak in the book of Judges chapter 5, verse 12, which explains the exploits of the prophetess Debora or Deborah who was a judge of Israel fighting against the Philistines. Again, she represents something psychological, how our own consciousness needs to wage war against the infidels, which are not outside of us, but in us, our own fear, pride, worries, anxieties, hate, lust. These are infidels. These are something we need to be strict and to fight against consciously. It does not mean to go to war against someone else for their religion. Now, it says in the book of Judges, “Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake. Utter a song. Arise Barak and lead thy captivity captive, the son of Abinoam.” They were persecuted by Sisera and his armies, the Philistine armies, in which Deborah led a great war in the Bible against her enemies and the enemies of Israel. Again, Israel is not, in the Bible, representing the people of the Middle East, neither the Philistines. These are just symbolic representations. The names hide a lot of meaning. Israel is from Isis, the Egyptian goddess, the Divine Mother, Ra, Osiris-Ra and El in Hebrew which means God. The people of Israel are all the parts of our soul that are trapped in all the discursive psychological elements we carry within, which produces our suffering, and that which we call ego, negativity, self, infidels, defects which we have to fight against, those qualities that trap the divine light. Deborah is the judge of Israel, meaning she judges herself in meditation, that quality in us that helps to judge ourselves in which we combat those enemies to God, those unbelievers, so to speak. It says, “Arise Barak.” Barak, Buraq, “the lightning, arise from the base of my spine to my brain and then to my heart up that mountain range to illuminate my psyche,” in which Barak is that sword, that fire that emerges when we work with sacred sound, with mantras. The word Deborah in Hebrew comes from Dabar, which means “word, to speak, to pronounce.” The letter ה Hei which is the H sound at the end. You put it to the front of her name, it is Ha-dabar, the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was of God and the Word was God.” When a couple unite sexually, they can pronounce sacred mantras and awaken that fire that we will send up the spinal column to the brain and is that sword that will help us fight against the evil ones within us. Again, the word sword is the letter S, the vowel S (we say it is a vowel in an esoteric studies). The letter S, if you pronounce it as a mantra, ssssssssssssssss, is the power to awaken that creative power. It is a fire, it is the sound of a serpent, serpentine fire of Kundalini that rises within the spine. That is the sword, S + Word, which we can awaken within us. It says, “Awake, awake Deborah, awake. Utter a song,” meaning: pronounce mantras when you are with your wife or your husband in order to awaken that fire and to fight against the enemies of God which are within us. So, Prophet Muhammad represents that, the qualities of the heart that help to raise those forces and to wage difficult wars against the lower selves, the nafs, egos. One thing I will mention about again is the people of the Philistines. Literal people, of course, associate the scriptures as a history book, which is not the case. It is a symbolic text. You look at the word Philistine and it has many interesting relationships to the Greek language. You can say that the term Philistine sounds like Phila, Philadelphia, which is a Greek work meaning from Philos, “to love,” or Phileo, “to love,” and Adelphos, which means “brother.” Likewise, Philistine, if you break it down into Greek can mean Phile-Hestia, which means “tribe of the hearth” or “lover of the hearth,” someone who loves the fireplace. This is an interesting symbol. It really refers to those egos, demonic qualities within the psyche which love evil, love to do harmful things, who love the fires of lust, to use our creative energies in the negative way. Yesod is the stone where the fire of life emerges physically and spiritually. Those who love the hearth, the Philistines, signifies any person who loves that energy but in the wrong way. They like to abuse that power through lust, through fornication specifically, or adultery. They like to get burned by that energy, to not conserve it and use it for God. So, these are the Philistines, those who love those egos, those devil qualities within the psyche, the conditioning of the mind. Likewise, the people of Israel must really liberate all the parts of God, all the qualities and particles of the soul that are trapped in suffering. What we will mention is that to raise those energies, we must specifically work with meditation, which is allegorized in the Ascension of the Prophet. Muhammad's ascension represents at once how work with that power but also how to meditate, because he was contemplating God at the stone of Mecca. Then, in a sleepy state, he accessed that Samadhi, ecstasy, Satori, whatever word you want to give to it: a profound mystical state devoid of any subjectivity or limitation. Sufis explained what we need to do to acquire that in Al-Qushayri’s Principles of Sufism. He states the following: “In general, it is to the measure of one’s alienation from one’s own ego that one attains direct knowledge of one’s Lord… I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say, ‘One of the tokens of the gnosis of God is the achievement of deep awe and reverence for God. If someone’s realization increases, his awe increases.’ And I heard him say, ‘Gnosis requires stillness of heart, just as learning requires outward quiet. If someone’s gnosis increases, his tranquility increases.’” We emphasize meditation as the science in which we learn to understand the root causes of our suffering by using those energies for our spirituality. Selflessness and the Unity of God
In this graphic, we also include the Tree of Life. I want to emphasize the need to change. This Tree of Life is God, we could say, in His totality, the Being in all the levels of consciousness, from the highest to the lowest. We, of course, are in Malkuth, the bottom, this physical sphere, but we are still part of God, that needs to obey and to submit in Islam or to bow to the will of divinity. We do so by comprehending and striving against our own defects.
To understand mystical experience, the truth, we must overcome our conditioned mind, because, it is that sense of self which blocks us from accessing that mystical experience. As Abu Sa'id stated the following, “Wherever the delusion of your selfhood appears—there’s hell. Wherever ‘you’ aren't—that's heaven.” Sense of self, selfhood, is ego. That's really our hell, our suffering. That is the opposite of the bliss, selflessness, virtue, and ecstasy of God. Bayazid Bistami also stated the following, in relation to this quote: “I came out of Bayazid-ness as a snake from its skin. Then I looked. I saw that lover, Beloved, and love are one, because in that state of unification all can be one.” This Tree of Life, we represent as different modalities of consciousness, of being, but they are one tree. Just as we look at a physical tree, it has many branches. It is really one integral living being. Likewise, this Tree of Life and its many parts is really one whole. There's no demarcation between this teaching and the doctrine of Tawhid in Islam, because within God, all is one, but He manifests in different ways so that we can access him and gain knowledge. Of course, when Bayazid says, “I came out of my skin like a snake,” he is talking about the shell of our terrestrial personality to express that creative divine potential, the kundalini serpent, shedding the impurities of the mind in order to elevate those forces within us. What do we need to do? We need to seek. As the book of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 7-8 states, “Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, recieveth, and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” Sufis have a very similar parallel about this quest for self-knowledge, of knowing the divine. This quote goes towards the explanation of the three levels of religion that we discussed. “Search for what you are asked about in the sanctuary of knowledge, Shariah,” meaning, the books and audio lectures or whatever scripture you have an affinity toward to study, let that be your sanctuary where you study divine wisdom. It is also the conduct we need to develop in order to experience the divine. “If you do not find it there, then in the battlefield of wisdom,” is the path of Tariqah which, again, in Arabic, is the path of Mujahida, which is striving, or the path of jihad, path of war against the enemies of Israel, the ego, our negative sense of self. “If you still do not find it, weigh it with the unity,” Haqiqah, the truth, which you find when the body is in silence, in which the soul escapes from its material conditioning, its material shell, and ascends that Tree of Life that we are viewing. If it is not to be found in any of these places; if you're searching for the knowledge of the truth in yourself and if you don't find it in the books; if you don't find it in your daily life and your actions; if you don't find it in the highest levels of spirituality, in the unity, it says, “If you haven't found it in any of these places, strike Satan in the face with it.” This has to do with verification of teaching. We may read about a doctrine, study it, be very devout Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., but it doesn't mean that we've experienced God, the truth. We need to learn how to experiment, to test our knowledge of ourselves with scripture, and if we don't find it there, within our daily actions, then we must reject our methods. Then, seek the knowledge in the truth and the experience of the divine. If we are very attached to, maybe, a certain quality of ours or a belief, if we don't find that verified in anything we have read, experienced, whether in our daily life or in meditation, then strike Satan in the face with it. Meaning, you got to be very strict with your analysis. Meaning, do not believe or disbelieve anything, but experiment, verify. Buddha said, "Do not take my word or face value or because you have respect for me. Instead, test my words like gold." Scratch it. Burn it. Do what you will with it in order to verify that it is what it is. Likewise, anything we seek to verify, we should test it in accordance with these three levels of religion: Shariah or conduct, religious scripture; Tariqah, our actions, our daily life; and Haqiqah, the Samadhi experience, where we are united with the truth. We don't need to really conceptualize so much. We simply know, have the experience. If it is not found in any of those places, well, discard it. It is not true. That which is true is what you have verified, not what you believe, since it never leaves your heart. It is eternal. Now, to experience that, again, we emphasize mindfulness. Self-Remembrance, Spiritual Practice, and the Present Moment
In this image, we have a man performing adhan, the call to prayer in Islam, in which they pray five times a day, which is a beautiful discipline, if done consciously, with awareness, representing the need to be vigilant psychologically, moment by moment. In Gnosis, we seek to pray more than five times a day. We seek to pray every moment. For this, Sufis also teach the same thing. "The greatest form of prayer is watchfulness of the moments," is what one of the Sufis we quoted, stated. We need to awaken consciousness to be aware of ourselves, to remember the presence of the divine, hudur.
There are steps and grades to how we contemplate the divine. Probably, one of the most important quotes from this Scripture we've been citing, Al-Risalah, is the following, "Al-Jurayri said that, whoever does not establish awe of duty and vigilance in his relationship to God will not arrive at disclosure of the unseen or contemplation, mushahida, of the divine." Awe of duty means, to have reverence for one's practices, one's discipline. To meditate 10 minutes a day, 20 minutes, an hour, to mantralize, to pronounce sacred sounds or mantras, etc. daily. Whatever discipline we engage with, we must feel that awe in reverence of the divine in that act and make it consistent. Because if we don't practice one day, we practice every other day, we are not establishing awe of duty, which is a responsibility of the soul to work for God, for the Being. In that way, if one does not establish that, one cannot arrive at disclosure, meaning, the tearing of the veil, the experience, to perceive God directly, to witness the divine. That is in essence of contemplation, mushahida. Again, when we have experienced that, when we have tasted that, we in turn can orient ourselves in our daily life and guide ourselves to know how to live appropriately. Whatever problems we face, whatever difficulties or challenges we experience, the Being can solve that, will arrange the means for us to comprehend what in us produces our suffering and how can we eliminate that, and also, how we can resolve difficulties in life. It is by accessing this witnessing of God or practicing the shahida or mushahida, contemplation and meditation, in which we truly realize that there is no “I,” there is no me, there is no self, there is only Him. Ibn Karbala'i stated the following: “When the seeker realizes the station of contemplation (mushāhida), which is witnessing God’s Essence comprehending and encompassing all phenomena,” meaning, this whole Tree of Life. He is really in all aspects of this graphic, whether from the highest or the lowest. We are part of him but we are in the densest sphere. We have to learn how to ascend, to go up. “Does not your Lord suffice, since He is witness over all things?” (41:53) When someone fulfills this precept, meaning, remembering God in our mind, our heart, our body, we then witness Him and He through us. “He continually witnesses lights from the mundus invisibilis.” This is a reference to how in meditation, people who are remembering God may experience lights, clairvoyant images, experiences, whether in the dream state or when the physical body is at rest, when we are concentrating on God. “From such a mystic’s perspective, this world and the hereafter are one and the same. This can only be realized by a vision that is all heart and spirit, not a view bound by mere mud and mire.” What is this mud and mire? These are our own afflictions which we need to conquer. The vision of the heart and spirit is the work of Tiphereth, the Human Soul, that unconditioned will that can free the rest of the consciousness. It is the symbol of the knight saving the maiden from the dragon, which is in us. That maiden is our divine consciousness, Geburah. The Human Soul is the warrior, the spiritual fighter, the human soul that must work to be married with his Guinevere, so Lancelot with Guinevere, the marriage of the two souls. Arthur of course, is the king, the Spirit whom we have to work with. The Science of Certainty in Meditation
Now, we discuss in the Qur’an, the nature of developing certainty of the truth and knowing the truth. Many asked Prophet Muhammad and complained to him that they cannot experience the divine, that they do not know the divine. They do not know the unknowable. This is emphasized in Al-Baqarah, surah 2, verse 118: “Those who have no knowledge (Marifah),” or you could say ilm in Arabic as well. “‘Why does not Allah speak to us or come to us a sign?’ So said those who are before them, [words] similar to what they say? Alike are their hearts. We have certainly made the signs clear for people who have certainty.”
What does it mean to be certain? To verify. To know. That is the essence of Gnosis, of Marifah, spiritual knowledge. You could say that there are three degrees of knowledge as well, or three degrees of certainty in Arabic. You have ilm al-yaqin. Yaqin means “certainty.” Ilm al-yaqin means, the “certainty of knowledge.” You have ayn al-yaqin, the “perception of knowledge.” You have haqq al-yaqin, the “truth of knowledge.” Now, with the knowledge of certainty or certainty of knowledge, you could say, one receives that by studying scripture, by receiving a lecture, from hearing a talk or reading a book. We gain a certain level of certainty, intellectually speaking, where we feel, “This sounds right. I can verify this. I feel confident with this.” The next step is ayn al-yaqin. Ayn in Arabic or in Hebrew means eyes to perceive. It is what we consciously verify, what we consciously experience. Meaning, our soul is free of conditioning; we perceive beyond the mind, the intellect, and whether through an astral projection, out of body experience, or meditative experience, we come to verify something spiritual. Then, haqq al-yaqin is the truth of knowledge, or truth of certainty. That is when the soul fully unites with God and is one with the truth in which there is no “I,” there is only Him. The famous Sufi, Mansur Al-Hallaj, was executed by the Orthodox Muslims for saying, “Ana al-Haqq, I am the Truth,” which of course is blasphemous to them, considering that he was saying, "I am God." A way to remember it, it was not Mansur who was saying that. It was God in him. Of course, the orthodoxy had him executed, tortured. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” Meaning, Christ, through him, was speaking. God, through him, was speaking. When we have that level of certainty, it is because the soul is fully one with God. One perceives as God, temporarily liberated from the conditions of the mind. Of course, one thing is to temporarily experience that, another thing is to make that permanent. In order to permanently be in that state, we have to remove all conditions, and that is a long process, a path we have to follow. These three levels of certainty are emphasized in the Quran, Surah 102, “The Rivalry.” “Rivalry in vainglory distracted you until you visited the even graves. No indeed! Soon you will know! Again, no indeed! Soon you will know. No indeed! Were you to have knowledge of certainty, you would surely see hell.” Again, hell is, we mentioned, not just a place. It is a psychological quality. It is not a place of brimstone and fire. Those are symbols of how, in a moment of anger, we are consumed by hate, by fear, by pride. These qualities make us vibrate at a very low level of being, and make us suffer, make others suffer. That is what it means to be consumed by hellfire, the ego, you could say, our negative psyche. “Again, you will surely see it with the eye of certainty. Then that day you will surely be questioned concerning the blessing.” Then, the truth of certainty is represented in Haqaa, “The Inevitable.” Again, Haqaa, that which is “inevitable,” is Haqiqa, the Truth. This etymology signifies that we will inevitably have to come to speak to our inner Being and make account of our actions. “Indeed, it is a reminder for the God-weary. Indeed, we know that there are some among you who deny it, and indeed, it will be a matter of regret for the faithless.” It does not mean people who just believe in a doctrine, but people who do not want to change, psychologically speaking, who do not know the divine. “It is indeed certain truth, so celebrate the name of your Lord, All Supreme.” The Sufis emphasized this doctrine of certainty with the following quote: “Knowledge does not come about except by the prior fulfillment of its conditions. That is, one must examine things in a pertinent and relevant way.” Meaning, to meditate, to experiment and verify, to test it, to not either believe it or disbelieve it, but to be neutral and to work with these exercises and to see the results and to know for ourselves what is true, what is not. “Then, when hints of the divine become continuous and clear, demonstrative evidence has been obtained, the perceiver, through the succession of lights and his deep reflection upon them, becomes seemingly independent of the consideration of proof.” Again, these lights are experiences we can have in meditation, or when the body is at rest, the soul enters the dream world. In that state, we can awaken our consciousness and speak face-to-face with the heavenly beings. In that way, there is no intercessor, we simply know, from that state on that Tree of Life, those heavens; we verify the nature of heaven, those qualities, those levels of being. “It becomes seemingly independent of the consideration of proof.” Meaning, the more we verify, the less we need to read. Then, we simply know that the truth of the matter and from our conscious experience, or conscious work. Of course, we are Shravakas. We have to study and learn the teachings and the techniques so that we can ascend up those levels of path. What is a real Gnostic, an arif in Arabic? It is somebody who fully manifests God. People in these studies, we could say, are aspirants. We aspire to know the truth and to fulfill it. The Sufis emphasized these qualities in relation to the constitution of someone who really knows God, someone who has fulfilled Ma'rifah and has manifested Haqiqah, the truth. “The Gnostic is purified of base characteristics and the disasters of his nature. He stands patiently at the door of God and remains secluded in his heart.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism To stand at the door, as we see in this image, is the definition of a dervish, so the Sufi, the whirling dervishes, darvish, are those who stand at the door. In Arabic, it starts with the letter د Dal, or you could say ד Daleth in Hebrew: those who stand at the doorway of knowledge. The mystics of Judaism refer to Ma'rifah as Da'ath, the mystical creative knowledge of Tantra. “He enjoys the good graces of God and corroborates him in all of his states. He has cut off the whims of his own self. He does not permit a thought in his heart that would summon to other than God. He becomes a stranger to the creation and is liberated from the catastrophes of his ego. He is cleansed of attachments and distractions and, in his secret being, is always conversing with God Most High. His every glance returns to God Most High.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism This reminds me of a Sufi poem by Mansur Al-Hallaj. He says, “O, my eyes, O, my blinks, my stares,” referring to God, that God sees through him and guides him in his actions. Which is why, I believe it is in the Hadith, the Muslim oral tradition, where prophet Muhammad stated that, “The one who loves Him,” or his God speaking through him, “For the one who loves me, I become his eyes, his ears, his sight, his taste,” and the soul is immersed within that being, beingness. “Therefore, the truth inspires him with the intuition of his secrets, the secrets of the course of His omnipotence. This is why such a person is called Arif, a Gnostic, and his state is called Ma'rifah, direct knowledge.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufis Conclusion and Practice
We always conclude these lectures with a practice you can engage with to help you to experiment and to verify what we are teaching, and to test it, to know it. In this exercise, continue to practice mindfulness, self-observation. Be aware of your mind, your heart, your body, your three brains: thought, feeling and movement, impulse, instinct, desire. At the end of each day, simply take a comfortable posture. You can sit in the full lotus or half-lotus or in a chair, Western-style, whatever is comfortable to relax the body and to silence the mind. Therefore, go into your consciousness and observe yourself. Do not identify with thought, feeling, impulse, desire, etc.
There is a mantra you can utilize from the Chinese tradition, Chinese Buddhist, or Chan tradition (the Japanese equivalent is Zen), a mantra that is called simply W-U, Wu. Amongst the Chan Buddhists or even the Zen Buddhists, they refer to this mantra as a negation of self. It literally means “no.” When you are examining your mind, you could do this mantra, the mantra Wu. It pronounced like a long exhalation of a breath: wwuuuuuuu. The master Samuel Aun Weor explains, it is a hurricane, a breath. Again, it reminds us of the Ruach, the spirit, the wind. You pronounce that mantra. Relax your body. You can do this for 30 minutes, an hour. Let your body relax. Then, eventually, let your body fall asleep. You can pronounce the mantra silently and then mentally. When you examine your mind, look at the different qualities that emerge, memories, preoccupations, fears, etc., and simply negate them. Meaning, “Well, this is not my God. This is not my Being. This is not my true Self. Therefore, I am going to tranquilly ignore it.” Let it pass with the mind of intellect. Observe it. Let it go. Continue in the mantra: wwuuuuu.
In the writings of Samuel Aun Weor, he talks about this mantra in more detail, but a very simple way that you can silence the mind. When the mind is completely in silence and serenity, the soul escapes from the bottle and you temporarily experience the Truth, Haqq, your Being. Then, He can give you the guidance that you need for whatever issues or struggles you have.
Questions and Answers
Question: You were saying that we always need to be pretty much aware of what we are aware of.
Instructor: Yes. Question: Meditation is a big step in that focus? Instructor: We say that meditation is the daily bread of the Gnostic. “Give us this day, our daily bread.” That bread of knowledge is what we receive in meditation. That knowledge that we receive from the divinity within us is Kabel, Kabbalah. We will receive it within our qalb, our heart. This practice of this mantra, Wu, is a preliminary step. We do mantras and sacred sounds to work with positive energy, to accumulate those forces in our interior in order to develop serenity. When the mind is perfectly in serenity, we forget our body, forget our mind, forget our sentiment. Then, the soul can reflect the divine qualities from above, in much the same way that a lake, when it is undisturbed, can reflect the stars of heaven, far away from any city. Meditation is how we cultivate that knowledge. It begins first, observing ourselves. In daily life, we observe our mind, our heart, et cetera. Then, in that way, as the Sufis mentioned and we have mentioned in this lecture, "It is by developing awareness that God can exalt us in our daily life, in our daily deeds." Of course, meditation deepens that awareness. Question: I always think of praying is we are talking to God, and meditation is we are listening. Instructor: Meditation is listening. Also, when we pray, too, we do not need any formula. We can use many formulas such as the Ave Maria or Pater Noster, the Fatihah, the Opening of the Qur’an, which are very excellent for lifting our mood. I recommend that when you begin any meditation session, pray. You do not need to follow any specific formula. Just as a child approaches his mother, “Mother of mine, father of mine, help me.” God will respond if your mind is silent. Pray in the beginning and then silence your mind and then receive that knowledge. To pray is to strive, to conquer ourselves. Question: It is just talking to God. It is just talking, right? Instructor: When the mind is perfectly silent, then we can talk to God even in a deeper level. When the physical body is asleep, the soul escapes its shell and we can enter into the higher dimensions. Then, we can talk face-to-face. Then, we can conversate just as we are conversating here. Very vivid and real experience, God will make a form or image to teach us something. Question: What is the context you used ‘hermetically sealed’? Instructor: From the hermetic tradition. Question: I only know the everyday meaning of that. Instructor: Well, the science of hermeticism is the science of Hermes, which relates to the God Mercury. Hermes is associated with how we use our energy. We say Mercury to refer to, not just the physical element, but to our creative energy. The power of Yesod, the moon, that sexual force is Mercury. How we use it is how we illuminate our mind. Mercury relates to the mind as well. When we work with that power, we can illuminate our mind. Hermetically sealed means we do not lose any energy. We discussed previously, in Tantrism, the couple should not reach the orgasm, specifically, that it is forbidden for those students to have any emission. The Dalai Lama states that the creative energy must never be let out. Likewise, with our heart. Likewise, with our mind. It is the renunciation of that habit, in which we conserve energy and transmute it, transform it. Where, we continually are filled with that water of life, which is the seminal matter, specifically. Hermetically sealed means, do not waste your sexual energy, but also, do not waste your emotional energy and your mental energy. Your quality of the mind is determined by how we use that creative power. You look at people in the world today in relation to pornography or sexual addiction; that is all they think about, because, they are driven by that energy. We need to learn how to sublimate it, to direct it to more creative and spiritual purposes, which again, elevates our level of being, as we are discussing. Question: Is there any Quranic interpretation that you would trust? I tried three of them years ago. You do not know which one to trust, because you cannot read Arabic, and you are reading somebody else's thought form. Do you know of any that are good? Instructor: I know some English translations which are commended. Saudi Arabia commends the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation. There is also a newer one, from more Western academia, which I believe is called “The Study Quran.” It is an English translation of course, but the good thing is that they explain some of the original Arabic, transliterated. That is very useful for people who only speak English and do not read Arabic to interpret certain words, such as some of the words we were using, refer to some of those resources. Very useful. Question: Getting back to as you think, feel, and act, what is, as far as being in unison with all of it, does that have anything to do with it? I mean, how do you help others with that, with people? It seems there seems to be, what I have researched, is the cremation of care which is, no one really cares, hence skull and bones. Another Speaker / Comment: Think of it like when you put two pianos together. You play a note on one piano that's side-by-side, the other one will pick up that note, will respond. Question: It is like the 99 monkey syndrome, or the hundred monkey syndrome? Instructor: I'm not sure. Question: That just by being yourself, you just rub that off on others. Instructor: If you have a higher level of being, it can help another person to rise to a higher level of being. Because, if you are vibrating with negative qualities, such as anger, you speak angry words, you are going to provoke anger in that person. Someone who has no training, they are just going to react. Question: Isn't anger part of our dynamic though, the sadness, happiness, anger? Instructor: Wrath or anger is an ego, a defect. Question: No. No. Are we supposed to get, with all the atrocities and slavery, war, etc.? Another Speaker / Comment: Yeah. Well, there is indignation. Yeah. That is the soul that says, "This is terrible." That is a justified sentiment. Remember in the book of Judges, judgment, in which God judges humanity, not out of hate but out of realization that people are corrupt. Question: Jesus was angry at the bankers. Instructor: He was very radical. People think of him as this very emasculated, sexless figure with no will. He is the whip of willpower to drive out those moneychangers, which is the symbol of all the egos we have who have taken the temple of God in us and prostituted it. He comes in with the whip. Christ, our inner Christ, rejects them. Just as Muhammad said, “Kill the unbelievers.” Kill your ego, but it does not mean kill anyone outside your religion. The thing is, when Muhammad came to Mecca, after taking over the city, he went inside the Kaaba and took all the idols that were there and knocked them over and destroyed them, as a symbol. He is representing how in our own physiology, our energies, our mind, our psyche, we have to take all of those egotistical elements and remove them. Question: From the Gnostic teachings, are you familiar with John Lash? Instructor: No. Question: Okay. He says that Jesus was a demigod. Instructor: Well, in Gnostic and Buddhist terms, a demigod is a Bodhisattva, a master who is the essence of Bodhi. Sattva means essence or incarnation. Bodhi means wisdom or light. Wisdom in Hebraic Kabbalah is Christ. He was the incarnation of the Lord. Just as Muhammad was an incarnation of the truth, the Lord. Moses, Buddha, they all incarnated that light which the Christians called Christ. The human person, Jesus of Nazareth was a Bodhisattva, a great master. He is very diligent and he is helping humanity today, although, anonymously, because, you see what they did to him. But he is very active. Any Bodhisattva is someone who works selflessly. He is a being with divinity fully illuminated within him, like Mansur Al-Hallaj. He said, “Ana al-haqq. I am the Truth.” Those beings are very hard to comprehend at our level. If you awaken in the internal planes, in the dream world, the heavens, you can talk to him face-to-face. Personally, I know Jesus. I talk with him. I invoked him in the astral plane, and he has given me certain teachings that have helped me. He is a being that is very hard to comprehend. We say he is the head of the Gnostic Church. He governs countless trillions of souls. He has omnipotence, omniscience. He can help many people in many places at once without any confusion. That is the symbol in Buddhist doctrine of Avalokitesvara, the god with the thousand hands: that is Christ. All that light is everywhere and nowhere, or you could say, is not limited to any place. A Bodhisattva is a being that incarnated that. He is a demigod, part God, because he has incarnated the God but still, he is human soul. He is Tiphereth, the physical person. Question: Personally, how are you gauging what is going on right now in this third dimensional reality that we're living in? In terms of what is going on in the world. Instructor: Well, humanity has precipitated itself on the path of destruction. It is very bleak. We are giving these lectures and teachings to help save the hat from the drowning man. Because, as the Qur’an teaches, humanity is going to be judged, has already been judged in 1950, I believe. Samael Aun Weor says that the Elohim, the gods, judged humanity and said humanity is worthless. It is really devoid of value. Therefore, since people no longer want to change individually, then the rest of humanity has to get cleansed. There is a big cleansing that is going to happen. When religion talks about hell, it is really just taking those souls that do not want to change, and nature does that for them, purifies them in the center of the earth, in the internal dimensions. When they physically die, the soul goes to those regions to be purified of those ailments, those shells. That is like a recycling plant. They will be cleaned at the end, but it is a very painful process. I do not recommend it. Question: What about the Elohim, the lowercase gods? Instructor: Well, we say Elohim, are masters, or any being that has fully perfected him or herself, is an angel. That is an Elohim. Question: Really? Even Lucifer? Instructor: Lucifer is a symbol of a quality or an aspect of our divinity, a very controversial one too. Luci Ferros, the bearer of light. Again, that light is Bodhi, Christ, but it is the shadow. It is that element of Christ that enters into imperfection in order to tempt us. He is the tempter. He gives us ordeals in life for us to conquer them, not to fail, but to conquer them. Therefore, he gives us hardships so that we can psychologically train ourselves. Of course, since the writing of Paradise Lost by John Milton, people took this term, Lucifer, and totally misconstrued it. Question: Well, there is Lucifer and there is darkness, just like light in Catholicism. Instructor: Well, yeah. We say that, that energy, when it is impure is the blackened Kaaba: impure soul, impure energy. When it is purified, that Lucifer shines as light. He is a ladder to ascend or descend. He is that creative energy itself, the sexual power. He is the power of the Holy Ghost, you could say, the sexual energy we have been discussing, Kundalini. That energy can either liberate you or, if it is channeled through the ego, destroy you. People who use that energy in a negative way, obviously, create harm. You see humanity today, people are perpetuating their suffering because they are addicted to negative habits. Question: Getting back to the negative habits, whether it is the sexual thing or drinking or whatever your past karma is, what is the best way to get rid of that karma? Instructor: We have three steps in terms of psychological work: discovery, judgment, execution. The book Revolutionary Psychology explains that very well. You can also read The Great Rebellion. It builds off of that. First, we have to discover our defects. Then, we have the judge them in the meditation after. Question: All 2,000 of them? Instructor: Well, there are a lot of egos obviously. You look at the Bible, how Saul destroyed his thousand, and then David killed his 10,000. Levels of a master that, first, in the beginning, kill a thousand egos, this is a symbol of a lot of egos, not a literal number. Obviously, if you have annihilated that many, you would be pretty pure. To be at a higher level, of course, eliminate 10,000. Ten refers to those 10 spheres of the Tree of Life. Meaning, you are purified in all those levels. Of course, we have to start where we are at. Of course, the thing is not to get discouraged, because the reason why we have this teaching or any esoteric scripture is that there is a lot of hope. For those who want to change will change. For those who do not, they will not. You look at how the Qur’an talks about how people, when they are presented with the truth and the knowledge, they just rejected it, like Jesus, Buddha, etc. Christ was assassinated. Buddha was supposedly poisoned. Socrates was given hemlock. He did not want to be exiled from Athens. Many masters were persecuted. It does not surprise me that people do not like this knowledge. Obviously, we do not have many crowds. Those who want to change will change and will be benefited by the divine. God really helps those who help themselves. First, work on your ego. Eliminate fear, anger, pride, all those conditions of mind. You will see, little by little; you will have experiences in the internal planes, where they are guiding you and they talk to you face-to-face about your work. They can help you. I have had that for a long time. 
(The awakening of Psyche, the soul, by Cupid / Eros: the creative sexual power of divine love)
It is good, for the purpose of our studies, to discuss the nature of divine love and its practicality, its need, its importance. Simply look at the world today, at the news, and you find acts of destruction that are unprecedented, crimes that are beyond comprehension. The world is in a state of calamity that precedes a much greater state of global crisis, of which the prophets of all religions have warned against.
It is through the recognition of suffering that the student of genuine religion seeks to understand how to change oneself. If we do not change our negative interior psychological states, we cannot hope to produce the changes that we seek among other sentient beings. It is precisely through overcoming the afflictions of our own mind, its conditioning, that we can learn to transmit the light of the divine, which is within us. The thing to remember and comprehend is the nature of the self. The real self, the Being, does not pertain to any individual, any person. The Being, the self, is not our fears, our anxieties that cause so much distress and confusion; neither is the Being our self-esteem, our pride and vanities that fluctuate and change like the wind. Our education, titles, diplomas, which we wield as intellectual arsenal to substantiate and defend our pride, does not constitute our true self either; our book knowledge really accounts for nothing when confronting the fundamental problem of psychological and spiritual transformation. The Being is universal, cosmic. There is no individuality there, in the sense of “me,” “myself,” “I.” Within the Being is the supraconscious understanding of all things in the eternal present, beyond the projections of our worries, fears, preoccupations, ambitions, and terrestrial baggage. By learning to access the divine potential and presence of divinity, known in Arabic as hudur, we awaken to our genuine self-awareness, muhadarah. By learning to pay attention, here and now, we discover the very obstacles to our own development. Through recognizing the conditions and faults of our mind, we learn to become truly transformative in a very practical sense. In this awareness, we do not simply wish for a better state of humanity, but actualize it, here and now, for the betterment of others. This is something we can practically manage, and see its results. Therefore, this work is not something ambiguous, not vague; it is not suppositional. It is concrete, factual. For as Samael Aun Weor wrote, “Gnosis is lived upon facts, withers away in abstractions, and is difficult to find even in the noblest of thoughts.” Through this work, we can see the clear effect of our actions upon others within our daily life, either to our benefit or detriment. There is no need to believe in spirituality, some vain utopia that someday things will get better. Instead, we learn to produce positive results for the happiness of others, serving divinity in every thought, word, and deed. As we are going to explain in this lecture on divine love, faith is conscious knowledge. It is experience born from energy and action. It is what we know. To believe in something is really useless. To not believe in something is also useless. To invest our mental or emotional energy into a concept does not change the daily reality of our suffering; it does not help us to acquire cognizance of the purpose of life. We may really believe in Jesus, Buddha, or Muhammad with our hearts, yet we continue to feed anger, resentment, and all the degenerate qualities of the psyche that cause harm. We use the very energy that can give birth to the soul for our defects. To believe or not believe in a tradition, guru, or sheikh, is mistaken, because it does not address how to consciously control the energies that can awaken our perception, so that we do not need to believe, but can seriously know. We must learn not to wash our hands in justification, as Pilate allowed Jesus to be crucified, whereby he stated, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” All of us have Pilate inside, washing our hands clean of culpability, while in truth we allow our most destructive habits to crucify divinity within our hearts. It is also not in believing in some prophet or deity that we will be saved. As the Apostle James taught, “Faith without works is dead.” Believing in Prophet Muhammad, with our intellect or heart, as a concept or emotional quality, will not redeem the soul, the consciousness. To have genuine faith in a tradition is to know from experience the principles it contains. So, if we have consciousness of what Muhammad taught, what the prophets taught, and if we practice their teachings, we will develop the consciousness thoroughly. But belief is another thing; to think something is true or not is irrelevant. Attending a church, mosque, or synagogue does not make one spiritual. Having direct experience of divinity does. Being part of a physical group is insufficient for objective self-knowledge. We need practical and transformative knowledge applied to daily living. But not only that, we need to apply what we learn. Therefore, the tradition we study here is filled with innumerable practices geared to awaken the consciousness. But if we just read the knowledge and don’t apply it, we won’t have real faith. We will be stuck in belief. 
The Definition of Divine Love
Many people toss the term “divine love” around in so-called spiritual circles, and have many concepts about it. All of this is very sentimental, like hallmark cards. Many people have a lot of ideas about what love is, and can write very beautifully and convincingly about it. Yet if we go very deep within meditation and awaken our consciousness within the superior worlds of nature, which we access when we dream, we will find that people write about love in accordance with their psychological conditioning, self-esteem, fears, and insecurities.
Genuine love is selfless. There is no ego, no “I” present. Love only gives of itself for others, without any concern for how one appears, one’s self-image. This is essential in our study of self-knowledge, as especially presented within Sufism, because it is the universal sense of Being, wujud, that connects us with all beings. This is most important within the perfect matrimony, the sexual union of two beings, one who loves more and the other who loves better; sexuality is the full manifestation, inspiration, and expression of Allah, divinity. Sexual union is the science of Alchemy: Allah-Khemia, the chemistry of God. In love, there is no concept or reasoning. Love simply is. A true marriage, before divinity, therefore, is between husband and wife, when man and woman sexually unite. Paperwork means nothing. In most cases marriage papers constitute legalized prostitution and have nothing to do with love. Marriage exists when a man unites with a woman in sex; this is a literal, psychic, and spiritual communion of souls. The Sufis poets have always utilized sexual and erotic language to describe the soul’s unification with the divine. Yet few people realize that this language is also literal; that when husband and wife connect sexually, they become a terrifically divine being, capable of creating life. If the couple knows how to conserve that sexual energy and not expel it, they remain in Eden, a Hebrew word for bliss. Their love remains intact, pure, and chaste. If the couple is sensual, carnal, and animalistic, they will be kicked out of paradise. As Christ spoke through the mouth of Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” Only divinity can say this word, “I Am.” But when a married couple unites out of selflessness, compassion, and true remembrance of divinity, then the Being, Allah, is fully manifested there. Mansur Al-Hallaj, the great Sufi master, once stated, “An al-Haqq!” or “I am the truth!” in Arabic. This got him in trouble with the orthodox authorities, who were scandalized that a terrestrial person would refer to himself with one of the sacred names of Allah. It is the equivalent of saying, “I am God!” Jesus said the same thing and was thereafter crucified. What occurred in both cases was that divinity, whether named Jehovah, Christ or Allah, manifested within those initiates. Both Jesus and Al-Hallaj became vehicles of divine love and being, and had reached the heights of mastery through working in the perfect matrimony, in the science of Alchemy. Through sexual union, Jesus and Mansur could develop their complete divine potential. Sadly, Mansur was tortured and executed. However, like Jesus, he was completely free of ego and conditioning before his physical death, which is why his poetry and light were intense during his final hours. Only the Being can say, “I Am.” The Being is divine love, the intelligence of all creation, of all the cosmos. But we can become vehicles of Allah when working in Alchemy, the chemistry of God, which is the perfect matrimony. This is how we can fortify compassion and eliminate many defects from our nature, so that our consciousness irradiates with selflessness and abundance. The Sufi-Christian mystic poet known as Kahlil Gibran spoke beautifully about the sexual nature of divine love in his book The Prophet. Even the name of this poet deserves reflection, since Hillel in Hebrew means “Praised or Glorified One,” a reference to the star of dawn, Lucifer, the sexual potency. Gibran reminds us of the Rune Gibur, the swastika or cross in motion, emblem of sexual alchemy, whereby the energies of sex inflame and illuminate the chakras of the body, causing them to spin as the swastika in movement. The cross is also a sexual symbol representing the vertical phallus and the horizontal uterus. This forms Gibur, the strength and chastity of God, known as Aun in Hebrew: Gibur-Aun, Gibran. The following quotation is from the chapter “On Love.” I will provide some comments in between the lines to provide understanding, since this poet is a great Kabbalist and psychologist of the Sufi tradition. Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of (Conscious) Love." And he (Almustafa, the Chosen and Beloved of الله Allah) raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said: When love (גדולה Gedulah, the Spirit, the Innermost) beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep (through the path of the spinal column, the reed or staff of initiation). And when his (solar) wings (that open upon the Caduceus of Mercury) enfold you yield to him, Though the sword (of Kundalini) hidden among his pinions may wound you (your ego). And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice (the Voice of the Silence) may shatter your (egotistical) dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love (גדולה Gedulah, the Spirit, the Innermost) crowns you (with a crown of life, כתר Kether, the Father; Revelation 2:10) so shall he crucify you (through initiation). Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning (of your inner tyrant, your egos; Isaiah 25:5). Even as he ascends to your height (of the Tree of Life) and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun (the Solar Logos: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah in Kabbalah), So shall he descend to your roots (at the tree of زقوم Zaqqum, the tree of death in Islam, the Klipoth of Kabbalah, the inferior worlds) and shake them in their clinging to the earth (מלכות Malkuth). Like sheaves of corn (plants which assimilate the Solar Christic Force) he gathers you unto himself (He strives to unite all the diverse parts of the Being, to achieve tawhid, unity of God). He threshes you (provides you ordeals) to make you naked (innocent, like Adam and Eve before the fall). He sifts you to free you from your husks (egos, Klipoth, shells). He grinds you to whiteness (through the wheel of Karma). He kneads you until you are pliant (in contemplation and meditation); And then he assigns you to his sacred fire (the Kundalini awakened through the perfect matrimony), that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast (the sacred initiations within the temples of the Superior Worlds). All these things shall love (גדולה Gedulah, the Spirit, the Innermost) do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart (the Universal, Abstract Absolute Space, the Spirit of Life Free in its Movement). But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness (your shame born from fornication, as Adam and Eve were after the fall) and pass out of love's threshing-floor (the ordeals of a matrimony and of initiation), Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love (גדולה Gedulah, the Spirit, the Innermost) gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love (גדולה, the Innermost) possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love (for "my God is God," אליאל). When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God (the Absolute Abstract Space, الله Allah)." And think not you can direct the course of love (the straight path of the Bodhisattvas), for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love (גדולה Gedulah, the Spirit, the Innermost) has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love (consciously) and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night (the Divine Mother Space). To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully (to die to the animal ego with happiness and contentment). To wake at dawn (for runes, meditation, and esoteric exercises) with a winged heart (or the longing to know divinity) and give thanks for another day of loving (through a perfect matrimony); To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved (الله Allah, the divine) in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. —Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet To obtain the supreme heights of initiation, we must work in a matrimony, which is the path of sacrifice, the cross. This is how our inner spirit, Gedulah, the Innermost, receives powers, and riches, and glories, through the work of His human soul or bodhisattva. A true matrimony is one born of selflessness. There is no desire that says, “I want,” “I crave,” “I need.” Love does not demand ultimatums of the other. Conscious love only knows how to provide for the beloved, and is willing to provide even the last drop of his or her blood for one’s partner. This is the type of consciousness between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, Rama and Krishna, Muhammad and A’isha, and other sacred matrimonies. So if we’re married, we aspire to those heights of spirituality, because most of us are selfish. Yet through training this can change. It is easily obtainable when there is some degree of love and comprehension between the couple, since love grows the more it is nourished and fed, and the more our animal ego, desires, and conditions are annihilated. The Trainings of Sufism
So, we previously discussed the demarcations of instruction as given within religious traditions, specifically within Sufism. Religion can be divided into three classes or categories of instruction and practice, whether introductory, intermediate, or advanced, otherwise classified as exoteric, mesoteric, and esoteric.
The Sufis denominate the first level of teaching as Shariah, which in spiritual studies does not pertain to the punitive or repressive laws of Muslim countries, but pertains to our conscious psychological discipline that we engage with to curtail negative thinking, negative feeling, and negative action. Likewise we talked about Tariqah, the intermediate or mesoteric aspect of religion. Tariqah simply means “path.” It is the way that follow and practice, a path that winds from oasis to oasis within the desert of our life, the wasteland of initiation. It is our practical work that we fulfill day by day, moment by moment, for the benefit of others. Marifah means knowledge, and is the Arabic word for gnosis. We also have Haqiqah, which is the truth. Marifah and Haqiqah can be described as two aspects of the same dynamic, since for the truth to be realized, we must have knowledge, expedient methods for transforming the psyche, and to have knowledge, we must comprehend and realize. Buddhism divides these three categories as the Shravakayana, Mahayana, and Tantrayana, the introductory, greater, and supreme vehicles. Shravakas are those who listen to the spiritual teachings for the first time. Such persons practice spirituality for their own well-being. But with the Mahayana, or greater vehicle, one works less for oneself and more for others. In Tantrayana, one works solely for all sentient beings. The same in the Sufi model. In Shariah, the practitioners work to stop their own suffering and to cease causing harm because such actions produce harm within them. In the path of Tariqah, that of divine love, we work on ourselves for the benefit of others. We can then say that the last two degrees or trainings of Sufism, Marifah (knowledge) and Haqiqah (Truth) are combined as one and constitute the highest aspect of any teaching, the most expedient methods of transformation, and also the highest levels of understanding and knowledge. So these trainings entail their own forms of discipline, in varying degrees. Shariah is ethical discipline, mind training, whereby we comprehend and eliminate defects so that we don’t harm ourselves. We are taught to not lie, to not steal, to not commit fornication and adultery, to not ingest intoxicants or drugs, alcohol, etc. We avoid taking in elements that are contrary to our spiritual work. We clean the temple of our body, heart, and mind so that the Being can officiate. We learn not to kill, not only physically, but with speech. When we speak sarcastically and humiliate our neighbor, we make blood rush to his face. This is a form of bloodshed and killing, whereby we are killing a person’s self-image. This is wrong. All religions teach us against negative behaviors of this type. As Prophet Muhammad taught, “The strongest among you is he who controls his anger.” Each religion has its own set of commandments that it gives. Again, these laws are not punitive: “Do this or be punished!” That is something very superficial and does not produce real development in the soul. Following external laws is one thing, but being a law unto oneself is another. This does not indicate that we can do whatever we want, but that we follow the internal law of divinity, which is harmony, peace, and health. We simply depend on no one to do this work, only the Being. This training is known as ethics. Ethics is different from morality. What is moral in one country is immoral in another. Simply look at the differences between North America and the Middle East. Ethics is knowing how to act appropriately for the benefit of others in any circumstance. Compassion is within all religions, all ethical disciplines, especially Islam. The punishments for adulterers and fornicators in Surah Al-Nur, “Surah of the Light” within the Qur’an, for example, is a symbol of how to work against the ego. Flagellation and the removal of thieves’ hands is a representation of what we must do to our ego, for as Jesus taught, “If your left eye offend you, pluck it out, lest your whole body be dragged into hell.” By denying our ego, by waging a holy war against our desires, defects, vices, etc., we generate light. Scripture is written in symbolic language for the consciousness. If people take these punishments literally and physically harm others, this is something else and different. The Qur’an has many allegorical verses which we need Kabbalah, alchemy, and intuition to understand, as indicated in the following Surah al-Imran, verse 7: "It is He who has sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book; in it are verses [that are] literal―they are the foundation of the Book―and others allegorical. As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is literal, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation [suitable to them]. And no one knows its [true] interpretation except Allah. But those firm in knowledge (Marifah, alchemy and Kabbalah) say, "We believe in it. All [of it] is from our Lord." And no one will be reminded except those of understanding (Binah, Intelligence in Kabbalah)." —Qur'an The other two degrees of these trainings are based on Shariah, the law, and mutually support each other. If one has no ethical discipline, one cannot follow the path, Tariqah, and achieve understanding and knowledge (Marifah) of the truth (Haqiqah). All three trainings integrate and constitute three aspects of one whole. However, the path is presented in these degrees due to the capabilities, dispositions, and needs of their practitioners. Marifah is sexual knowledge, alchemy, known as Tantra in the east, the principle of Tantrayana. A matrimony is not only the basis of physical life, but spiritual life as well. When we work in a marriage we can harness the most potent energies of the universe for the development and awakening of the consciousness. The Sufis use erotic language to describe union with God, whereby the soul is lost in the ocean of love. When a couple is sexually united, husband and wife lose their identities and become lost within the ocean of the creative sexual energy. There is no “me,” “myself,” within two practitioners of sexual magic who deny their egos, who learn to annihilate egotistical desire (through fana in Arabic) to be, to subsist (through baqa in Arabic) within the creator (Al-Khaaliq). Who is it that creates in us? The sexual energy, the power of divinity. But how we create depends upon whether we follow divine love and will or our own egotism and desires. While the Sufis used clear, erotic language to describe the path of alchemy, many people do not realize that this love is also physical, literal. Divine love is manifested through husband and wife in sexual cooperation, in sexual magic or Alchemy. This is the power of Baqarah, the sacred cow, a symbol of the Divine Mother in Hinduism. She is the serpentine power of Kundalini that the tantric practitioners work with. Therefore, with great respect and veneration, Muhammad became the vehicle for transmitting the second surah of the Qur’an, “The Cow,” or “Heifer,” the longest Surah of the Qur’an. The Qur’an means “The Recitation,” the mantralization of the sacred verb. The power of speech esoterically refers to the power of the bull or cow. When couples pronounce mantras in sexual union, they are learning to unite with divinity completely, to remove the conditioning of the psyche and the mind to liberate soul from conditioning, through the power of love. To understand the trainings of Sufism, we can refer to the Sufi master Ibn ‘Arabi. He explained that in the path of Shariah, “Yours is yours and mine is mine.” That which belongs to you is yours. That which belongs to me is mine. There is a sense of separation whereby we are working individually for our own spiritual benefit and goals. In the path of Tariqah, “Mine is yours and yours is mine.” There is a shift of perspective, whereby we focus on the spiritual community and the benefit of others. There is a degree of selflessness and compassion present whereby we can help one another in a genuine sense, without major interferences from our egos, nafs, or defects. Regarding Marifah, knowledge, Ibn ‘Arabi states that “Nothing belongs to you or me.” In truth, we don’t own anything. All abundance belongs to divinity. Regarding Haqiqah, the truth, Ibn ‘Arabi stated, “There is no you or me.” Meaning: there is only God, divinity, the Being, Allah. Remember when we said earlier that “Wherever your sense of self is, that is hell. Wherever you aren’t, that is heaven.” There is no egotism, self, or sense of “I” within the Being, as we presently know in ourselves. The Being is as different and incompatible to the mind as oil is to water. Divinity, the real Being, is the Absolute Abstract Space, the emptiness of enlightened cognizance, the pure light of Adi-Buddha, Ain Soph Aur in Kabbalah, which to our present sight is darkness, but for the self-realized masters is the uncreated light of the unknowable divine. This divinity is selfless, but constitutes the true universal individuality, or better said, supra-individuality of any master who learns to incarnate and develop that force in themselves, so that there is no self, only the truth, al-Haqq, as proclaimed through Mansur Al-Hallaj. Divinity is one and absolute, as proclaimed through the Muslim Shahidah or testimony of faith: “There is no god but God.” Anyone who wants to comprehend divinity must fulfill the three trainings. Again, these are not something rigid and dogmatic. These are practical steps. We must begin where we are at, with Shariah, ethical discipline, since we have a lot of selfishness and desires that keep us from knowing divinity. As we develop light, we can then provide that light of compassion for others in the path of Tariqah. By serving others completely, we follow Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, on the path of Marifah and Haqiqah, knowledge and truth. In Shariah, we serve divinity in ourselves. In Tariqah, we serve divinity in others. In Marifah and Haqiqah, there is only divinity everywhere and within ourselves. There is no “I,” but only the awakened state of consciousness free of conditions. 
The Three Brains
In the path of self-knowledge, we deeply study what in gnosticism is called the three brains. These are three centers of psychological, energetic, spiritual, and physiological activity. The term brain in gnostic studies does not simply pertain to the physical matter within our skull. But a brain, esoterically speaking, is a machine that process certain psychological states, or qualities. It’s a type of mechanism.
We have an intellectual brain, which is where we process thought, mind, concepts, reasoning, ideas, theses and antitheses, and hopefully synthesis. With the emotional brain we process sentiment, like, dislike, feeling, hope, longing, fear, etc. It pertains not only to just those psychological states, but to our heart and its nervous systems. The heart is a very sensitive organ and has intuitive capacities that are unlocked through the science of alchemy. We have a third brain all throughout our spinal column, the brain of action, and which is divided into three principles, dynamics, or qualities. We have the center of movement at the top of the spine, whereby we process all our movements in our body. We have the instinctual center relating to the base of the spine, relating to our impulses, will, actions, desires. The most potent center pertaining to the spinal column is sexual, the sexual center or sexual organs. The sexual energy is the most potent force we carry within our body. The third brain can be therefore synthesized as the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. Why discuss the three brains in relation to Sufism and divine love? Because to love the divine, we must become fully conscious of all these aspects of ourselves, and to give everything to God through renouncing negative habits and psychological states, whether through thought, feeling, or impulse. We can only learn to transform our psyche when we become conscious of our three brains. We become conscious of divinity likewise through the management of these parts of our body and psyche. The three brains are a machine, a car that we must learn to handle and drive, if we want to safely arrive at our spiritual destination. Dreams of driving a car can symbolize how we use the mind, heart, and body appropriately or inappropriately. See how you drive in your dreams to know how you are doing! Jesus taught us about the three brains in the gospels when a Jewish Pharisee tried to discredit the master before the public: "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? "He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? "Jesus said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." —Luke 10:25-27 The heart is the emotional brain. The soul is willpower, the human consciousness beyond thought, feeling, and bodily sensation. This will must dominate our thinking, feeling, and action. Our human consciousness or willpower is mostly conditioned by nafs, egos. But there remains a free portion of this consciousness, which we call the Essence, that must liberate the conditioned consciousness, as we explained previously. We also must love God with all our strength, meaning: all our vitality or sexual energy. When we wake in the morning, we are rejuvenated by our vital energies, renewed through the process of physical sleep. This depends upon how we use the sexual force, because if we squander this energy, we will become weak, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Sexual energy gives us life. This is easy to see physically. The physical birth of a child is contingent upon the union of man and woman. By using the virile force, the sexual energy, husband and wife can create a human being. Likewise, the spiritual human being can be created in us through that same energy. We would not be here if it weren’t for the creative force, the power of the Holy Spirit as denominated by the Christians. It’s interesting that the root word for virility is virya, warrior, someone who is spiritually and physically strong. Likewise, virtue is born from virility. How we use our sexual, emotional, mental, volitional, and conscious energy can grant us union with divinity, if we know how. Therefore the gospel states, “Love thy God with all thy strength.” By conquering the sexual force, we become virya, warriors, mujahidin, strivers in spiritual warfare as taught within the Muslim tradition. This is a war against the ego and desire, against our nafs, defects. Through transforming the sexual energy within us and giving it to divinity, we acquire divine virtues and develop self-knowledge.
Faith and the Solar Force
By working with the sexual energy, we develop genuine faith, since this energy awakens consciousness and gives us direct knowledge of the mysteries of life and death. This is the science of transmutation, from the prefix trans, “to carry over, transport,” and mutation, mutate, “to change dense material forms into energy,” into spiritual force. Transmutation is the alchemical science of transforming our conditioned psyche into liberated consciousness, by transmuting the seminal matter or waters into cognizance and light.
We’ve included in this image the famous symbol of Islam, which is the crescent moon and the star of Venus, the star of love. We have juxtaposed with this image the Assumption of Mary, who is standing on a moon with her head crowned with twelve stars. The power of the warrior, the virya, born from one’s virility, is in itself symbolized by the crescent moon. In Kabbalah, the moon relates to the sphere of Yesod, the second sphere from the bottom of the Tree of Life. Yesod means “Foundation” and is constituted by our sexual energy. It is the foundation of spiritual life. The Tree of Life is literally our spine, and Yesod is the sexual organs, since without our spine we would be invalids, incapable of functioning in life in a complete sense and not without special assistance. We can likewise transpose the image of the Tree of Life on a human being, where the first trinity relates to the head, the second trinity to the heart, and the lower trinity to the sexual organs and thighs of the human being. This diagram relates to the three brains in many interesting ways. With the moon, we think of lunar cycles, mechanicity, and forces in nature, as well as repetition. The moon is also a symbol of the mechanicity of the mind, the ego, the nafs. Our psyche is a moon, meaning: our habits are very ingrained. Whether we like to smoke or drink, to engage with specific types of conversations or discussions, we are habituated and fixed on certain behaviors due to the sleep of our consciousness. These habits and ways of being, some harmful, some not, constitute the conditioning of our psyche. They are mechanical and lunar, not belonging to the physical moon, but to our egotistical psychology. The mind is a moon; it only knows how to engage with its own conditions and desires. But of course, in this image we have something very beautiful. The star of Venus above the crescent moon relates to love. Venus is the goddess Freia amongst the Nordics, which is where we get the word “Friday,” the holiest day of the week for Muslims. Likewise. sundown for Jews who celebrate the Sabbath, or Saturn-Day, Saturday. This Freia, this Venus-Aphrodite, this goddess of love is the Hindu goddess Kundalini. She is the Divine Mother, the feminine aspect of our inner divinity. As we mentioned the Hebrew word Elohim, El is masculine, God; Eloah is feminine, Goddess; and Elohim, with Iod and Mem added to the end of Eloah, is Gods and Goddesses: Jehovah, or Jah-Chavah. Jah is the Divine Father. Chavah is the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother is essential for our spiritual work, whom we must comprehend and experience very deeply to achieve self-knowledge. She is the power that can help free us from our defects. She destroys our defects after we have comprehended them completely in meditation. She liberates the soul from conditioning through wielding the powers of the moon, the sexual energy. She is the sacred heifer, the Cow, Al-Baqarah, immortalized through the longest Surah of the Qur’an. Surah Al-Baqarah relates how the leg of the heifer has the power of resuscitating the dead to bring them to life. This is highly symbolic, of course. She also transforms the moon of our mind into the sun of understanding. She is Mary, Miriam in Hebrew, which literally means “to raise.” She raises us from spiritual death into the heights of spirituality. She is the energies that rise from the moon of our body, the sexual organs of Yesod, up the spine to the brain to produce the halo of the saints. In sacred art, we often see the prophets and saints with halos like the sun, because they’ve transformed the lunar energies of sex into the solar energies of the Christ force, to saturate their minds completely with that power. This is the Kundalini of Hindustan. The illumination of the mind relates to the mysteries of Halloween, Hallowed Evening. For this holiday, we take the pumpkin gourd mentioned in the Book of Jonah, clean out the muck, the guts and filthiness of the gourd itself. This represents how we must purify the filthiness of the mind. This is to place a candle, the light of understanding, inside that mind to illuminate it. This is how our evening, our darkness, is hallowed and enlightened. But first you must go through all the visitors at the doorstep, dressed as ghouls and goblins, our own defects or nafs, who ask us, “Trick or treat?” In reality, you don’t want to be tricked by your own mind, but to treat yourself to the divine mysteries. Miriam is the one who cleans our mind, our gourd. She is the one who gives us faith, and faith is a solar force. This solar force is born from our seminal waters, the waters of sex, the sexual matter, from which the energies rise within the spine to our mind. The Hebrew word for water is מַיִם Mayim, relating to מרים Miriam, since if you add the letter R, ר Rosh in Hebrew, to Mayim, you spell Miriam. The word believer in Islam is al-mumin. The plural form is al-muminin. The resemblance of this term to מַיִם mayim, water, is striking, since a true believer works with the power of Yesod, the seminal waters. This is how we generate faith. Faith is a force that guides us when we work with Miriam, our Divine Mother, to transform the moon into a sun. To be a true Muslim or believer is to be through the power of love, to be through lieve, love, the libido. You see this hidden in the symbol on top of every mosque. Very cryptic, but clear when you know alchemy and kabbalah. We must be through the power of love, to be conscious to transform all our mechanicity into love, into consciousness. All conditionality must be transmuted into liberated consciousness; everything must be performed and given to divinity. This is how we awaken and know divinity for ourselves, developing conscious knowledge, real faith. The term belief, as it is used now, has no meaning or purpose in esoterism. To think or feel something is true does not signify consciousness of that given thing. Therefore, we like to use the term faith in this tradition to be clear about our meaning, which is energy and will applied to action. "Here we think a note upon faith should be of interest. Initiates say that its meaning has been misunderstood. Faith, as the world uses it, possesses no spiritual nature; though in the secondary system [the work with sexual energy] it means power and energy applied to action. All success in Yoga [religion] comes from this application; for the true quality of faith is a Solar force that illumines the mind and attracts to it atoms of power and energy. More human wrecks have resulted from the misconception of this quality than man realizes." —M. The Dayspring of Youth People just sit on their couch and think that by believing in divinity, everything will be fine. One must learn to be conscious through the libido, the creative power of Yesod, and to apply it consciously. This is how we submit to God (perform Islam, submission). Jesus provided the parable of the mustard seed, which is small, but has the potential to become a great tree. All that is possible for the fruition or development of a giant tree, a tree of life, is within the seed. Also, we are in a potential state within our sexual seed, the sperm or ovum, to become complete spiritual beings who are not influenced by the moon, by mechanicity. That seed can only develop when masculine and feminine matter are united, when the virile force of man and woman are combined; this will help to generate consciousness and solar faith. The moon can therefore become a sun, a solar entity. 
"When Jesus used this word in the sentence, 'If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,' He meant that one could work miracles if one possessed the atomic energy contained within a mustard seed. But in this world of illusion this is reversed, and the weak man sits still and believes that all will be applied to him if he has faith. It is not a force that should only be applied to religious belief. It is the power of the Innermost [the divine, Allah] working through the densities of our bodies, and the more we respond to it the greater will be our powers." ―M. The Dayspring of Youth
All our psychological, emotional, psychic, spiritual, and physical action is generated by the seed, the seminal matter. If we learn to take that force and transform the seed into Christic energy, we can give birth to the purified soul. Sex is the power of religion and divine life. Therefore Samael Aun Weor wrote in The Perfect Matrimony: "It so happens that people think that by belonging to this or that faith, to such and such religion, or to one or another sect, that they are already saved. Naturally, this is false. A seed never germinates because of what a person believes or stops believing. An insect is never born because of what a human being thinks or stops thinking. A man is never born from the parchment of theory. This subject matter is sexual and in this, the Angel is no exception." ―Samael Aun Weor This is the meaning of the second birth, to be born again as Jesus taught to Nicodemus. We must be born again of water and spirit. People think that one simply gets baptized by physical water and then believes in Jesus and then one is done. He said that “That which is born of flesh,” through the common sexual act, “is flesh.” A physical child is born from the animal orgasm, the sexual act culminating with seminal emission. “But that which is born of spirit,” through the sexual act with seminal retention of the waters, “is spirit.” If the couple knows how to conserve that water, that energy and redirect it, they can give birth to awakened consciousness and eliminate defects. This is how the moon is transformed into a sun. This is the path of the cross, the vertical phallus joined to the horizontal uterus. It is upon this cross or within this crucible that we can die to our defects, that we can be cleansed by the fire of Christ, the fire of sex, ignited through divine love. When the couple unites, the fire ignites, inflames the mind, the heart, the psyche, and provides the capacity to unite with divinity, to create spiritual life. The Muslims of course use different symbols for their religion, the crescent moon and star of Venus, but the same alchemical meaning is there. Ritual cleansing with water (wudu) is a common preparatory act before performing salaat, (daily prayer). This signifies that the initiate is transmuting their sexual energies to awaken the capacities of the heart. The Symbolism of Water
Water is a prominent symbol in many world cosmogonies, particularly the Book of Genesis, the Bible, and the Qur’an. The creation of the earth and its emergence from the seas of creation, as told in Genesis, is allegorical. It represents the birth of the soul, new vehicles that the soul can inhabit as it rises upon the Tree of Life. Each Sephirah represents a new land that we must conquer, that we must create within ourselves, through alchemy.
The waters symbolize the power to generate, to create. Within us, our capacity to create physical and spiritual life resides in our waters. It is the source of pleasure, redemption, and the elevation of the soul to paradise. As the Qur’an teaches us in Surah al-Waqiah, the Inevitable, about the fate of those who transmute their waters: In the Gardens of Pleasure, A [large] company of the former peoples And a few of the later peoples, On thrones woven [with ornament, the solar bodies or garments of reverance], Reclining on them, facing each other. There will circulate among them young boys made eternal With vessels, pitchers and a cup [of wine of transmuted sexual energy, Kundalini] from a flowing spring (of Yesod)― No headache (suffering) will they have therefrom, nor will they be intoxicated (with fornication and adultery)― And fruit of what they select (from the Tree of Life) And the meat of fowl, from whatever they desire. And [for them are] fair women (Nirvani woman) with large, [beautiful] eyes, The likenesses of pearls well-protected, As reward for what they used to do (for being chaste). They will not hear therein ill (fornicating) speech or commission of sin (lustful desire)- Only a saying: "Peace, peace." The companions of the right - what are the companions of the right? [They will be] among lote trees with thorns removed And [banana] trees layered [with fruit] And shade extended And water (of transmuted sexual energy) poured out And fruit, abundant [and varied], Neither limited [to season] nor forbidden (as the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge were forbidden), And [upon] beds raised high (wherein the sexual act is treated with respect). Indeed, We have produced the women of Paradise in a [new] creation And made them virgins (Venus-Uranias or Urania-Venuses, female initiates), Devoted [to their husbands] and of equal age, For the companions of the right [who are] A company of the former peoples And a company of the later peoples. —Qur'an Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi was a famous Sufi poet and mystic, a profound kabbalist and alchemist, who taught in his writings the path of yoking the waters through tantra, or Marifah. An example of his initiatic work is the following cryptic postulation: "From the heart of the lovers, blood flows like a vast river. Our body is the windmill, and love, the water. Without water the mill cannot turn." ―Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, Hidden Music 
Marifah or tantrism teaches that when a couple is engaged in sexual union, the different energies or seminal waters of the divine are active in the body. The sexual force then circulates throughout the physicality and psyche as well. There is a profound movement of forces through the chakras or energetic centers of the spinal medulla. The chakras rotate positively like the swastika when the couple is chaste and pure, avoiding animality in the sexual act. The body has seven main mills, seven main chakras, which are well documented in Hinduism and within Sufism as al-Laṭaʾif as-Sitta, the seven vortexes or centers of spiritual and psychic power. These are the seven churches of the Book of Revelation. These centers of power spin as the couple controls their breathing, their ruh, so that the sexual energy rises within the spine. When breathing is erratic and impassioned during the sexual act, the sexual energy flows outward and results in the orgasm. Remember that if there is no water, the mill cannot turn. If you ejaculate the waters, those chakras or mills cannot spin, but will remain still. Those chakras grant powers and spiritual abilities, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, omniscience, etc., so if they are inactive, then the consciousness lacks force and energy to be awakened. But when the breath is harnessed through sacred mantras and vocal remembrance of Allah in sexual magic, that energy rises inward and upward to the brain and then to the heart. Again, we emphasize that the chakras can only spin when there is water, transmuted sexual energy, within them, to circulate and provide energetic movement. Hence the importance of sexual purity within every religion, especially Sufism. Al-Qushayri also provides an interesting explanation of the esoteric symbolism of water in the path of love in his Risalah: Principles of Sufism: "Some say that hub, love, is a name for purity of affection, because the bedouins when speaking of the pure whiteness and regularity of someone’s teeth use the expression habab al-asnan." —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri Why the purity of teeth? In Kabbalah the mouth signifies Da’ath, Marifah, sexual knowledge. To be pure in speech is to handle the sexual energy wisely, since sex and the throat connect through the spine. Everyone knows that adolescent boys acquire deep voices due to puberty, and likewise adolescent girls develop their voice further due to the maturation of the sexual organs and the development of hormones. Al-Qushayri continues to explain the nature of divine eroticism and water: "Others say that since hubab is a word for the excess water that results from a heavy rain, mahabbah came to mean the heart’s boiling and stirring with the thirst and excitement of meeting the Beloved. Still others say the word is derived from habab al-ma, the greater part of a body of water, because love is the object of most of the heart’s concerns." —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism 
Who is the Beloved? It is the Being. Yet a husband finds the Being present in his wife, and vice versa. In Christian terms, every man views his wife as the Divine Mother, Miriam, while every woman views her husband as the Divine Father, Joseph.
Here the waters overflow and saturate the heart when the couple knows how to conserve those forces, raising them from sex to the brain and then to the heart. You can see that the Sufis use a sexual and erotic language for describing union with God, precisely because union with God occurs in the sexual act. Sadly, many people ignore this fact and come up with many superficial interpretations of the Sufi writings that ignore the necessity of sexual magic. And sadly, people only see sexuality as something filthy and disgusting, to be indulged in or repressed, even though sexual magic serves a much more profound function than animal pleasure. As Rumi explained to his disciples regarding alchemy: “If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see Allah in it. Those who are not in love with Allah will see only their own faces in it.” ―Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī The cup is the holy grail, the feminine sexual organs, within which is filled the waters or manna of the desert, the creative energies that will arouse and satisfy our spiritual thirst. 
In relation to this topic, Iranian mythology speaks of the cup of Jamshid, a holy grail filled with a divine elixir that grants the soul the capacity to perceive the seven heavens (the superior dimensions of the Tree of Life, as well as the seven chakras of the spinal medulla). The word Jamshid is an interesting acrostic: Jam signifies a gathering together, which is sexual. For husband and wife to be close to each other signifies intimacy, closeness, a gathering together. The cup or yoni is also the sacred emblem of Christianity in which the solar initiates gather around.
In the past, solar initiates would gather within the temples or mosques to celebrate the path of the Lord through prayer and ritual, which is the general etymological significance of the word "gathering." The word "church" in Greek, Εκκλησία Ekklisía, refers to a gathering place that belongs to divinity, kyriakos, the Lord. A church in esoterism is where the creative energies congregate within the spine, as with the seven churches or fully-developed chakras of the Book of Revelations. There are alchemical meanings hidden within the Arabic language. Shid, pronounced “Sheed” reminds us of Shahid, “witness.” Therefore, Jamshid is the cup of gathering and witnessing, since none can witness or experience divinity without the sacred yoni, without working with the creative waters of life to awaken the powers of the spine and the mind. As Al-Qushayri explains: "The expression ‘jam and tafriqah [or farq] is often used by the Sufis. Abu Ali al-Daqqaq used to say, 'Separation (farq) is what you are given a share in. Gathering (jam) is what is removed from your power.'” —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism All of us are separated from our Being because of the original sin: lust. All of us fornicated and expelled ourselves from Eden, bliss. This occurred precisely because in the past, we did not respect sexuality or transmutation. Due to our own will, we separated ourselves from divinity. Gathering is a term used to signify how one approaches divinity through the will of divinity. The disparate parts of the soul, once fractured and conditioned by ego, nafs, become unified and integrated by divine decree. Through comprehending, judging, and annihilating the shells or defects that condition consciousness, the Being achieves tawhid, unity within our psyche. And what higher way exists to reach divinity, according to the Sufis, than the sacrament of sexuality, a marriage, whereby the Being descends and helps us to tame the fires of love? Through the fires of love the egos are annihilated completely. Al-Qushayri explains the alchemical meanings given by his teacher, Al-Daqqaq: "His meaning was that whatever pertains to servanthood [submission to divinity in sexual magic] and is attributed to the servant [the alchemist], whatever is linked to the conditions of being human [as a fornicator], is a form of farq, the separation between worshiper and Worshipped [because through the orgasm, we separate ourselves from the Worshipped, the divine]. Whatever proceeds from the Truth [al-Haqq, Haqiqah, the realizations born from Marifah, transmutation]—the generation of spiritual meaning and experience [since every true spiritual experience is born of the Genesiatic waters], the gifts of grace—is a form of gathering [jam], the coming together of worshiper and Worshipped." —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Therefore, people who are filled with a lot of sexual passion and animal desire will obviously look at the sexual act, the waters, as something carnal, bestial, as Rumi indicated. They see their own faces in it; they separate themselves more and more from divinity through fornication. Yet if the couple works to eliminate desire, egotism, nafs, from the psyche, to deny, comprehend, and annihilate lust, then the sexual act becomes something pure and holy, through which the Being, the divine, is present. Through scientific chastity, Marifah, the Being gathers us in worship of his presence, hudur, within the flames of love. This is the meaning of the Sufi technical terms awe and intimacy. We will speak about awe now but come back to intimacy in a short while. "The true nature of awe is absence [ghaybah], absence, being carried beyond oneself. [In sexual magic, one is no longer an separate individual, but united in the Being, for man and woman form one terrifically divine Elohim]. Everyone in awe is lost to himself [his animal ego, lusts, and desires]." —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri Remember the teachings of Proverbs, chapter 1 verse 7: "The fear [awe, Pechad] of Iod-Chavah is the beginning of knowledge [Da’ath, Marifah], but fools [fornicators] despise wisdom and instruction." —Proverbs 1:7 Awe and fear have the same meaning, to respect the creative sexual energy and never waste it, because to fornicate is to be a fool, to waste the sacred oil of the temple. "There is treasure to be desired and oil [שֶׁמֶן shemen, semen] in the dwelling [body or temple] of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up." —Proverbs 20 :21 "What is more, Sufis in a state of awe differ in degree according to their detachment from or attachment to ordinary [egotistical] awareness [during sexual transmutation in a matrimony]. Some of them are greatly detached [from lust] and some of them are less so [because they are beginners in alchemy]." —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri 
All of this is represented by the lance of Longinus and the holy grail in Christianity. The lance is a symbol of the phallus, the masculine force that pierces our egos and annihilates them in the sexual act after we have achieved profound comprehension of such defects in meditation. Here we see the path of redemption for the soul: the union of husband and wife in the perfect matrimony.
Jesus taught alchemy very clearly in other verses, especially in his teaching the Samaritan woman at the well (a symbol of Yesod: the waters in our earth, Malkuth): 
"Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this (physical) water shall thirst again:
"But whosoever drinketh of the (sublimated sexual) water (turned into energy) that I shall give him (in sexual magic, alchemy, tantra, Marifah) shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. "The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. "Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither." ―John 4:13-16 The waters become a wellspring of eternal life when we conserve them. The water regenerates and provides life continually and therefore helps us to remain young, virile, and strong. Many people think Jesus was dismissing the woman to go get her husband, as if he was ignoring her, but the answer to her question is clear: call thy husband if you want to learn how to use the waters that will give you eternal spiritual life. Beautiful, no? But cryptic. The Sufis, along with the gospels, explain the bliss of a marriage, although in a Middle Eastern way, through a heightened alchemical, kabbalistic sexual language. "Ali ibn Ubayd said, 'Yahya ibn Muadh wrote to Abu Yazid, ‘I am intoxicated with how much I have drunk from the cup of love.’ Abu Yazid wrote back to him, ‘Someone else has drunk the oceans of the heavens and the earth and his thirst is not yet quenched. His tongue is hanging out and he is asking, “Is there any more?”’ —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri It is one thing to have an insatiable sexual desire or lust, animal passion, carnal attachments, it is a completely different thing to develop the genuine bliss and ecstasy of the soul during the same sexual act. Remember that in Hebrew, Eden means “pleasure” or “bliss.” It was the bliss humanity, symbolized by Adam and Eve, once enjoyed. Sex was once practiced in observance and remembrance of Allah, the Being, but when humanity indulged in the orgasm, in sexual desire, they expelled themselves from Eden, that blissful state. Those who practice alchemy transform the seminal matter, the sexual waters, into conscious love, chastity, purity, light. When practicing alchemy once per day, no more, the couple rejuvenates the body, heart, and mind. In this sense, the soul’s thirst for divinity is not quenched no matter how much one transmutes from the cup of alchemy, the feminine yoni in sexual magic, because these waters constantly generate within our sexual organs. Because we receive the sexual energy anew every day, it is necessary to sublimate it daily. 
Christ’s first miracle was the transmutation of water into wine. This again is symbolic, of how the couple transforms the seminal energies into the wine of the spirit. Such a wine inebriates the soul, as described within Sufism and Christianity.
"And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there (again referring back to Miriam, the Divine Mother, who is going to be present at this miracle): And both Jesus (the Inner, Intimate Christ) was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come (the Lord has not fully manifested within the spinal medullae of the married couple yet, since they are learning to transmute for the first time). His mother [Miriam] saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." ―John 2:1-11 Even though it is forbidden in Islam to drink alcohol, the Sufis use the language of intoxication and drinking to talk about experiences with God in alchemy. It signifies being drunk on God, being intoxicated with love. These initiates always treated sex with respect, as something sacred, unlike our humanity today. The Sufis treated sex with balance, neither something to repress or indulge in as something filthy, but through a comprehensive, middle way, by utilizing sex in its true purpose and function: to generate the soul. Many of these Sufi masters were, of course, married, since every man needs a wife, and every wife needs a husband. These masters did not make alchemy public, but practiced Marifah in secrecy, since this teaching was not explained openly until recently, in the 1950’s with the publication of The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor. Intoxication and Sobriety
In gnosis, we seek to become drunk on the love of the divine. We previously spoke about gnostic and Sufi psychology, how the consciousness must become inebriated by divine energy, so as to awaken from its slumber. Now we are delving into the physiological and alchemical aspects of this knowledge, the secret path of Marifah, some practical components for sexual magic.
In Revelation of the Mystery by Al-Hujwiri, a Persian Sufi master, he explains that there are two kinds of intoxication. His teaching is in relation to Persian and Arabic kabbalah, the symbolic mystical language of the consciousness within Middle Eastern discourse. "There are two kinds of intoxication: (1) with the wine of affection (mawaddat) and (2) with the cup of love (muhabbat). The former is “caused” (ma’lul), since it arises from regarding the benefit (ni’mat); but the latter has no cause, since it arises from regarding the benefactor (mun’im)." ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery The “wine of affection” is caused, brought about by the couple’s individual desires, lust, animality, nafs or egos. They provoke the sexual act because they are filled with lust or passion. They do not unite out of dhikr, remembrance of divinity, to remember the presence, hudur, of divinity, as they sexually connect. These types of people do not comprehend what the cup of love signifies, because they are fornicators. To drink from the cup of love is to practice chastity. Chastity does not signify abstention from sex, but purity in sex—to not reach the animal spasm or orgasm; to not fornicate, to not be burned by the fornix, furnace of the body through the emission of the sexual energy. It also signifies restraining lustful thoughts, feelings, and impulses in the three brains. This is difficult for beginners, but something gnostic matrimonies learn through practice and discipline. The cup of love, sexual magic, is not caused by one’s own will, but by the will of the Innermost Beings within husband and wife. This signifies consciousness of divinity within the sexual act, the Benefactor, mun'im, which etymologically relates to the Arabic word for believer, al-mumin, a term for an alchemist. "He who regards the benefit sees through himself and therefore sees himself (meaning his desires, egotism, lust), but he who regards the benefactor sees through Him (the Being) and therefore does not see himself (as ego), so that, although he is intoxicated (drunk on that pleasure of sexual union), his intoxication is sobriety (there is control and transmutation of the sexual energy; one is sober-headed and rational because the couple are not slaves of desire)." ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery 
To be sober in Sufi terms is to be in control of one’s energies in the sexual act. One dominates sex with the consciousness, redirecting the animal impulse of desire and transmuting it up the spine. Those people who let themselves be carried away by the pleasures of sex culminate in the orgasm. Thereafter their sexuality governs their mind and they fall downward into the abyss, forming the inverted pentagram.
We are five-pointed stars, with two hands, two legs, and one head. When we control sex, we stand upright, made into the psychological image of the divine. If sex governs our head, we precipitate downwards towards the atomic infernos, the hell realms of Islam, so as to eat the bitter leaves of the Tree of Zaqqum as mentioned in the Qur’an, a symbol of spiritual death and suffering of the consciousness. This is the left-hand path of sorcery and black magic, the path of demons. The right-hand path is the path of the initiates, the solar way. Therefore, we must transform the moon into a sun! 
In the image of this slide, the Goddess Luna is extending her hands towards the moon or lunar power of Yesod, the sexual energy. The sexual energy is a lunar, creative force that we must transform into a sun through alchemy. It is by working with this energy that we learn to comprehend the enigmatic language of the Sufis, since this energy opens the door to comprehension for us.
Remember that psyche was asleep and later awakened through Eros, Cupid, the god of love, the erotic energy. When that power is utilized by a couple, then they begin to understand the mystical meaning of sobriety and intoxication. Sobriety also is classified in two ways, according to al-Hujwiri. "Sobriety is also of two kinds: sobriety in heedlessness (ghaflat) and sobriety in love (mahabbat). The former is the greatest of veils, but the latter is the clearest of revelations." ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery What does it mean to be sober in heedlessness? To be heedless is to act as an animal, to not follow the sixth commandment of divinity: “Thou shalt not fornicate.” It signifies a lack of practice or spiritual discipline, to not work against the ego, but to fortify it through mistaken habits and the sleep of our consciousness. It means to feed pride, anger, lust, greed, vanity, etc. To not work with the spirit, ruh, is to be reckless, careless in genuine spiritual terms. If we have no consciousness of divinity, if we do not meditate, then we are heedless. Therefore, all of us fall in this category until we learn this science and apply it. Those who are sober in divine love practice alchemy and know how to conserve the seminal energy and never lose one drop of it. This energy therefore produces the clearest of revelations, since as Samael Aun Weor explains, many initiates know how to enter into the ecstasy of the spirit, to manifest God within, through mastering the sexual act. "The sobriety that is connected with heedlessness is really intoxication, while that which is linked with love, although it be intoxication, is really sobriety." ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery Obviously, the language is tricky. The Sufis were always playing with donkey-headed intellectuals who have no intuition. But their wisdom is clear to other initiates. They wrote in this manner to evade persecution and scandals. Anyone who gives into fear, pride, envy, hate, lust, desire, is heedless. To give into those negative psychological qualities is to be drunk in a very bad sense. Many people are drunk off their ideas, theories, beliefs, and more importantly their sense of self, their ego, the “me,” “myself,” and “I.” This is the state of identification, fascination, and sleep of the consciousness. The heedless hear about esoterism and rationalize, ignoring instruction. They are heedless and drunk off the opium of theories, which Samael Aun Weor stated is worse than death. But that alchemical experience that is linked with love, although it be intoxication through the sexual energy, is really sobriety, sensible. To use that power for spiritual life is really the most sensible thing. This is what it means to be sober-headed, to not be carried away by passion. But lunatics, idiots, fornicators, enjoy expelling the energy of Eden from themselves: "The fear of the LORD (respect for the sexual energy) is the beginning of knowledge (Marifah), but fools despise wisdom and instruction." —Proverbs 1:7 "When the principle (asl) is firmly established, sobriety and intoxication resemble one another, but when the principle is wanting, both are baseless." ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery So what is this principle (asl)? Sexual alchemy, scientific chastity, to connect sexually with one’s partner, as husband and wife, and to never lose one drop of semen, that precious energy, but to transmute it, elevate it. Through transmutation, one is continually intoxicated by that light generated through the sexual cooperation of the couple. As the couple practices sexual magic, husband and wife never lose their attraction for one another, because the energy of attraction and magnetism is never expelled, but sublimated. The couple then charges one another with divine power. Through this principle of sexual alchemy, husband and wife remain intoxicated by love for one another, and also remain sober-headed. They comprehend that the ego is the source of disorder and divorce. So, couples who practice sexual alchemy are better off for preserving their union, because fornication leads to suffering and expulsion from sexual bliss. This is how marriages can succeed, rather than end in divorce, which is very common nowadays. A matrimony can be one’s heaven or one’s hell. Here we are teaching how couples can continually magnetize and charge each other, so that they remain in happiness. When the principle of alchemy is not present within a couple, sobriety and intoxication are baseless, meaning: they have no foundation in the science of Yesod: the Foundation of Kabbalah. Marriages founded on fornication, the orgasm, are pointless, baseless in a spiritual sense. When people know nothing of transmutation, the terms sobriety and intoxication take on different meanings. The sobriety of fornicators consists of all the degenerated theories in this day and age that adamantly defend the orgasm. Humanity does everything it can to explain why fornication is healthy and necessary. People also speak a lot about feeding one's desires at all costs, being intoxicated not only by alcohol and drugs, but by anger, lust, pride, and greed. This is what it means to have no foundation, to "build one's house upon the sand of theories," which, after the first provocation of a storm or consequences of karma, will tumble and fall into the abyss. We must become true believers and followers of divinity through learning how to be through the libido. Chastity is essential and constitutes our foundation. As the Qur’an teaches us in Surah Al-Nur, the “Surah of the Light”, verses 30 and 31: "Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do. "And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed." —Qur'an In synthesis, the Light Surah indicates that you cannot have spiritual light if you are not chaste. Many students who begin our gnostic studies complain about lust. Whenever they walk across the street in the cities, their eyes are bewildered by the sight of attractive men and women. The work of transforming lustful impressions is always most difficult for new initiates, which is why women in Islam, initially, wore their hijab or headcovers to prevent the lustful eye. Whether this tradition is really being practiced well after the time of the Prophet is another thing… But let us continue elaborating on the language of the Sufis: "In short, where true mystics tread, sobriety and intoxication are the effect of difference (ikhtilaf)…" —Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery The word mystic comes from the Greek root word myein, to close the eyes. This signifies a person who meditates. In this case, the meditators, husband and wife, have been initiated into the sexual mysteries. For true mystics, sobriety signifies sexual purity, chastity, not in the form of abstention or celibacy, but by being pure in the sexual act. For beginners on the mystic path, intoxication refers to fornication, since people get drunk on the orgasm. When people think of sex, that is all they think about, ignoring that sex can be founded on purity and spiritual love. Sobriety for the mystic therefore is the opposite, to be rational, controlling the sexual energy. "…and when the Sultan of Truth (the Being, Allah, the divine) displays his beauty, both sobriety and intoxication appear to be intruders (tufayli), because the boundaries of both are joined, and the end of the one is the beginning of the other, and the beginning and end are terms that imply separation, which has only a relative existence. In union all separations are negated, as the poet says— 'When the morning star of wine rises, The drunken and the sober are as one.'” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery When the Being expresses Himself within the couple, the beauty and love that husband and wife feel during the sexual act is the truest consubstantiation and fulfillment of divine love. As Fyodor Dostoevsky once stated, “Human love is a reflection of divine love.” For the couple that unifies in compassion and selflessness, out of virtue and purity, of genuine conscious love and understanding, the terms “intoxication” and “sobriety” become concepts and intellectual terms that miss the meaning: since the couple is so lost in the ecstasy and compassion of the Being. The intellect becomes an obstacle. The consciousness, usually hypnotized by the duality and relativity of the mind, becomes absorbed within divinity, the perfect unity, thereby transcending creation. In sexual union, all separation is negated, because husband and wife become one angelic being with the capacity to create divine life. There is no difference between them, since the egos, the intruders or infidels, are not present, the nafs are absent during the ecstasy. "…as the poet says— 'When the morning star of wine rises, The drunken and the sober are as one.'” ―Al-Hujwiri, Revelation of the Mystery This is a beautiful teaching by Hujwiri. Who is the drunken one? The soul that is drunk on God, being united with divinity through one’s wife, as a husband, and one’s husband, as a wife. Who is the sober one? The Being, the Real, the Truth, al-Haqq. The morning star is Venus, the Divine Mother, wherein the waters of sex are sublimated into spiritual wine, the Kundalini up the spinal medulla. When the sexual fires rise from the base of the spine and illuminate the brain, then the two aspects of Jehovah, Jah-Chavah, are united, Kundalini Shakti—Chavah, the intoxicated from below—marrying Her divine husband, the masculine aspect of the Holy Spirit, Jah, the sober one, the real, in the brain. Together they signify Jehovah. This is the esoteric Sufi meaning of intimacy. For as Al-Qushayri explains: "The true nature of intimacy [sexual magic and union with God] is rightly sobriety [sahw]. In truth, the condition of balance after mystical experience [samadhi with one’s wife or husband in tantrism, Marifah]. Everyone who becomes intimate with God becomes sober and clear. Such people vary according to the strength of their experience [in chastity, being able to restrain animal desire to a specific degree]. About this the Sufis say, 'The lowest stage of intimacy with God is that if one were thrown into a blazing fire [when the fires of sexuality are active between husband and wife, which they must dominate and control], one’s intimacy [concentration and chastity, sexual purity] would not be disturbed.'” —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri Therefore, if you are lustful, you will only see lust in sex. But the great alchemists know how to see divinity and the seven heavens within the cup of gathering and witnessing, Jamshid. Sufi Dance and Intimacy with God
Many Sufi dances signify the path of intimacy with God. In the film Meetings with Remarkable Men (a biographical drama about Master Gurdjieff), there is one dance in particular that depicts these alchemical concepts. At the end of the film, Gurdjieff finds a Sufi school of initiation wherein he witnesses a group of turbaned initiates dance and perform the runic alphabet, which are a series of yogic postures used with mantras in order to accumulate energy. Eight men dance in the same spot as they position their body in the form of runic letters, so as to attract the powers of divinity and perform sexual transmutation. Two other men meditate on the sides with their arms crossed in the Egyptian style, with the right arm over the left. The most notable of the dancers is in the center, the ninth man moving in a clockwise circle, demonstrating the positive rotation of the chakras. His arms are crossed since he is not performing the runes, and his centrality and firmness in the dance illustrates his universal role as the Being.
The ninth figure among the dancers, the center initiate, also refers to the strength, solidarity, and power of Yesod, the ninth sephirah of the Tree of Life, which is the creative power of divinity. This is the power that can dominate the ego. The tenth figure dances in a drunken stupor around the man in the center. The drunken, intoxicated man is the soul, nafs, or ego that must be dominated by willpower. The intoxicated man is silently guided by the somewhat stationary, central figure, the Being or sober one. The man in the center has his arms crossed in the Muslim style, with the right arm over the left, demonstrating how the right-hand solar path dominates the left-hand lunar path. He does not show any acquiescence to the drunken man, but is firm, in control, leading the drunken initiate towards submission (Islam) to Him. The Being, the real or sober one, accomplishes this feat through the path of meditation and transmutation. The ten men dancing in the center are the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life. The drunken man is Malkuth, the physical person filled with vices, while the man in the center is Chesed, the spirit. The two men at the sides represent the two pillars of Kabbalah, Jakin and Boaz, which support the entirety of our psychological and spiritual temple. There are other dances depicted in this film, but we don't have time to comment on all of them.
All of this dance is accomplished through the power of sex, symbolized by the movement of creative energy through the runes. No matter how drunk or egotistical the soul is, God is immovable, commanding, as we see in the example of the central dancer. Through exercises like runes (used to develop willpower and control), the consciousness becomes trained for sexual magic. With years of discipline, the fires of intimacy (in sexual alchemy) do not disturb the initiates' concentration, but remain in check, as the wild egotistical mind bows humbly in submission before divinity in this dance.
The Sacred Name of God in Islam
The Arabic name of divinity also hides this mystery. الله Allah signifies “the God.” Illaha signifies goddess. ا Alif, the breath, is the Hebrew א Aleph, prana, wind, spirit, ruh, since both Arabic and Hebrew are Semitic languages bearing the same roots in Kabbalah, the language of the consciousness and of God.
الله Allah begins with ا Alif, which is a separate, elongated straight line, a masculine and phallic letter. This is the sacred fire of Kundalini that rises within the spine. الله Allah ends in ه Ha, a feminine letter in esotericism that references the feminine yoni, the vagina. The yoni is a circle and the phallus is a line, which are easy to see in ا Alif and ه Ha. The two ل lams of the sacred Arabic name of God each represent a person, man and woman, in esoterism. The Hebrew equivalent is ל Lamed, which references the tongue or speech. When man and wife unite in the sexual act to transmute, pronounce mantras, to recite the sacred verb, they are working with الله Allah, Elohim, the divine. This is equivalent to the Hebrew אל “El,” the spirit, Chesed in Kabbalah, ruh in Arabic “Elah,” or “Eloah” also means Goddess. El is masculine. Eloah or Elah is feminine. As we've been stating, divinity expresses through the sexual energy. One of the sacred names of divinity in Arabic is Al Wadud (الودود), "the Loving, the Kind One." Likewise we find Al Khaaliq (الخالق), "the Creator." Where else within a human being do we find the possibilities for creation through love? It is in sexual union. Alchemical knowledge is included in the sacred name Al Wadud, which contains two ו vavs or و waws. ו Vav or و waw can be pronounced as a vowel, such as an a, o, or u sound. و Waw or ו Vav is a spinal column and brain, represented by the straight line and top point of ו vav, and the circle and curved line of و waw. Ibn 'Arabi states that و waw connects the human being with the angels, the divine. Al Wadud has two و waws, one for man and one for woman, wherein the Kundalini rises and unites the couple with الله Allah. Divine unification is also represented by the two د dals or ד Daleths of Al Wadud, indicating two dervishes or initiates, one man and one woman, entering the doorway of alchemical knowledge: the science of the perfect matrimony, Da'ath or marifah in Arabic. The sexual power of divinity is well reflected within the Qur'an by the following verses: "Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators." —Surah al-Mu'minun, "The Believers," verse 14 After these explanations, it's logical to see, from this verse, that the power of divinity is in sex. While the creative energy can create a physical child, this verse from the Qu'ran teaches about the creation of the solar bodies, the vehicles of the soul, a type of psychic matter or flesh that does not belong to fornication, but to chastity. These vehicles include: the body of liberation (Yesod, the superior aspect of Malkuth), the solar astral (Hod), solar mental (Netzach), and solar causal (Tiphereth); in total, these are the lower five sephiroth of the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah. Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio
To sum up these Sufi and Gnostic teachings, we have the following excerpt from Mozart’s Opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, The Abduction from the Seraglio. Mozart was a Freemason and a master of Major Mysteries who knew Sufism in depth, along with Beethoven and other initiates. These masters knew the mysteries of the occult stone, the Kaaba of Yesod.
In this opera, Belmonte, a Spanish nobleman, tries to rescue his betrothed, Konstanze, with his servant Pedrillo. She was captured by pirates at sea and sent to a harem, an Arabic den of prostitution, to be the slave of Bassa Selim, the Pasha or ruler of Seraglio. Konstanze is under watch and supervision from Osmin, a Muslim guard, whom Pedrillo tricks into drinking wine to intoxicate him and lead him to sleep. Once Osmin is asleep, Pedrillo and Belmonte make their escape attempt with Konstanze. All of this is symbolic and invites us to reflect… Konstanze is constancy, chastity, our divine soul trapped within whoredom, within the prostitution of animal ego, lust, desire, nafs. Belmonte is her future husband, whose Spanish name signifies “beautiful mountain,” “Bel-Monte.” He is Tiphereth in Kabbalah, the human soul or warrior who must fight to liberate the trapped consciousness. When he conquers the ego, then he can marry his divine soul. Tiphereth is our will or capacity to climb the beautiful mountain of initiation, which he accomplishes through Pedrillo, his servant. Pedrillo is “little Peter,” or little Pedro, signifying a “stone.” Peter is also slang for a phallus. He is the little power of Yesod, the little stone that David, Tiphereth, used to conquer Goliath, the ego, who is represented in this opera as Osmin, a giant bass whose voice inspires fear. Pedrillo gives Osmin wine to drink, which the guard, being Muslim, first denies. And yet Osmin is tempted by the wine and drinks, ending up drunk and incapacitated, so that Pedrillo, Belmonte, and Konstanze can make their escape. The symbolism of wine we’ve already explained: it is the energy of sex that inebriates the soul and slackens the ego, putting it to sleep, to make it inactive. Osmin, the ego, gets drunk off the wine and falls asleep. That energy, harnessed in meditation, has the power to put our defects to sleep so that the consciousness can escape from its shells and conditioning to experience samadhi, represented by Pedrillo’s tenor singing, the elevation of the soul. Both Pedrillo and Osmin sing about women when praising Bacchus, god of wine, the sexual potency. One can either praise women with chastity or praise women with lust and desire. Both polarities are expressed here in Mozart’s aria, “Vivat Bacchus,” “long live Bacchus!” Osmin praises fornication, but Pedrillo, little Peter, knows how to be chaste. Here we clearly see how sex is the power of liberation or damnation of the soul! Osmin also reminds us of the Rune Os, Othilla, Thelema, the rune of willpower, whereby single practitioners can learn to transmute their creative energies. Min or Minah in Kabbalistic language is sex. Interesting, no? Why would Mozart name Osmin, the ego, after the Rune Os, and the sexual mysteries of sex, Mina, the Menorah? Light is generated through conquering fire, through not giving into temptation in the sexual act, to not eat the forbidden fruit and to not culminate in the orgasm. We must instead conserve that light inside. Temptation is fire. Triumph over temptation is light, virtues, comprehension, cognizance. We must steal the fire from the devil!
The sexual energy, the power of Bacchus-Dionysus, is precisely a drink for the Gods, Elohim. This aria is not just about a man getting a Muslim guard drunk, but symbolizes two paths for using the wine of light. When husband and wife are sexually united, they are a truly divine being. When the couple truly practices chastity, the ego, Osmin, is put to sleep, so husband and wife can enjoy sex with purity, to breathe the aromas of the tree of knowledge without eating its fruit…
Remember that the word Seraglio, the harem or den of prostitution, carries the three vowels I.A.O., Ser-Ah-gl-IO. This is because the power of IAO, Jehovah, is polarized negatively through lust within our mind, which is represented by the harem. Mozart was a great master of Kabbalah, as you can see, which he taught in a synthetic, symbolic and comprehensive way. 
Alchemy and the Garden of Gethsemane
Here we see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with the chalice of redemption, whereby an angel presents him his cross, symbol of the perfect matrimony, before Christ performs his Passion. Here Jesus was praying before his crucifixion, a symbol of the death of desire, the ego, upon the cross of alchemy. Remember also that the chalice is a symbol of the feminine sexual organs, through which the husband extracts the elixir or manna of spiritual life.
The Garden of Gethsemane precisely represents the garden of Eden, bliss, a matrimony. Gethsemane is the garden of Yesod whereby the Lord is betrayed, since Judas, sexual desire, submits him to the Jewish authorities, the different egos, to be tested, contested, and condemned. Jesus represents the human soul, Tiphereth, united with Chokmah, Christ, an alchemical amalgamation known as the Son of Man. Here the master prays before the work of completely annihilating his ego. He states, “Father, if it be possible, pass this cup (representing sexual magic) of bitterness from me. But not my will, but Thine be done.” This path of sexual magic is one of sacrifice of desire. To renounce lust and the orgasm is painful for the ego, but constitutes the intoxication of the soul. It’s obvious then why many people begin but few reach the end. But those who persevere in daily transmutation, death of the ego, and selfless service for others, become constantly inebriated by the divine. They never forget their work because they never forget their Being. Many people cringe when discovering the necessity of compassion, selflessness, and love for humanity. We recommend that students reflect upon the life of Jesus, who when being nailed to the cross, when he was humiliated beyond comprehension, the only thing he said was “Father, forgive them: they know not what they do.” This is a type of compassion we strive and struggle to develop, especially within a marriage, when cultivating the powers of our “garden,” our physicality. This is difficult precisely due to our conditioning, which obscures and prevents us from really accessing this state. But if we learn to see the other person’s point of view, we develop the will and perception of Christ, one who does not react to life, but responds. It is one thing to react egotistically to situations, but another thing to respond with cognizance, compassion, and love, with selflessness, thinking and acting only for the benefit of the other person. In this way, we can still establish boundaries and be firm with others who need it, but not with anger—instead, one uses kindness. This is a more potent force than any ego, any defect. The way that you really develop divine love, the hardest and best way is in a marriage. Despite a couple’s love and affinity, the worst conflicts the disciple faces is upon the cross, during sexual union. Husband and wife must learn to sacrifice their defects to truly love one another. Crucifixion symbolizes the pain one goes through in the alchemical work, in the disintegration of the ego. One can only transcend such pain through comprehension and annihilation of one’s defects in meditation, or, after having comprehended an ego, asking for its annihilation upon the cross, within the sexual act, as explained in The Mystery of the Golden Flower and The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor. "They recited: I’m amazed at someone who says, “I’ve remembered my darling.” Have I ever forgotten (my Being), that I should have to remember? I die (to my ego) remembering You (my Being), then come back to (spiritual) life. Were it not for my good thought of You, I would not have revived. Desire’s object lives (my Being continues) when I die to (egotistical) desire. How many times have I lived for you, how many times died (through the comprehension and disintegration of each of my defects)? I drink love (transmuted water, muhabbah), glass after glass (day after day in alchemy; only once per day in observance of the creative magnetic pause mentioned in The Mystery of the Golden Flower by Samael Aun Weor). The (alchemical) glass (my sexual organs) is not empty (because the seminal matter is always being generated, but transmuted by the alchemists). My (spiritual) thirst is not sated (I will not cease my transmutations, but strive forward)." —Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri Practice
1. Continue to develop your self-observation from moment to moment. At the end of each day, reflect on conscious you were of your three brains (mind, heart, and body).
2. Every day, sit in a comfortable meditation posture (sitting upright either on a meditation bench / cushion, or Western-style: in a chair). Relax your mind, heart, and body. 3. Vocalize the mantras OM MASI PADME HUM to develop divine compassion and to transform the energies of your body into spiritual fire and spiritual light. Pronounce this mantra for thirty minutes or more.
This mantra translates as “Oh my internal God!”
The seven chakras are awakened by this mantra:
Remember that by conserving the waters of love and by pronouncing the sacred word, the mills or chakras awaken. This is even more powerful within a perfect matrimony.
|
The Gnostic Academy of Chicago
Free online courses, lectures, podcasts, and transcriptions. Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
