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
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 (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;
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 Bereshit, 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 (because when husband and wife are mantralizing in alchemy, they give birth to the heavens inside themselves, the virtues of the soul).
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 (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.” So אהיה 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!
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
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. 
"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. ―Dhū’l-Nūn Miṣrī in ‘Attār: Tadhkirat, 154-155
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.
“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. ―Lāhījī: Mafātīh, 66
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. ―Lāhījī: Mafātīh, 66
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 BeingAll 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. ―Lāhījī: Mafātīh, 66
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,
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). ―Ibn Ata in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
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. ―Prophet Muhammad, Hadith 
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. ―Qur'an 33:40
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 Bastami 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. ―Bayazid Bastami
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. ―Judges 5:12
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.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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. ―Matthew 7:7-8
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)... ―Ahmad bin Ata in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
...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. ―Ahmad bin Ata in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
This 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. ―Ahmad bin Ata in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
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. ―Ahmad bin Ata in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
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."
O bhikshus and wise men, just as a goldsmith would test his gold by burning, cutting, and rubbing it, so you must examine my words and accept them, but not merely out of reverence for me. ―Buddha, Ghanavyuha Sutra (Sutra of Dense Array)
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) ―Ibn Karbalā’ī, Rawdāt al-janān, II 164
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. ―Ibn Karbalā’ī, Rawdāt al-janān, II 164
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. ―Ibn Karbalā’ī, Rawdāt al-janān, II 164
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. ―Qur'an 2:118
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. ―At-Takathur 1-6
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. ―At-Takathur 7-8
Then, the truth of certainty is represented in Waqi'ah, “The Inevitable.” Again, Waqi'ah, that which is “inevitable,” is Haqiqah, 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. ―Al-Waqi'ah
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. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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 Sufism 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 both the Sufi and even 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 Sufis pronounce this mantra as هُوَ Hu, within the name اللّٰهُ Allahu. هُوَ Hu is spirit, the wind, pronounced as an exhalation or breath. It simply means "He," a reference to our innermost divinity. It's also interesting that etymologically, اللّٰهُ Allah means, "The No," or negation of all existent and created things, being the supreme being, since اللّٰهُ Allahu has the same meaning as the mantra Wu, or "No." The Master Samael 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. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
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."
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. ―Hadith
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 3:7
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?
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, The Perfect Matrimony
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-Waqi'ah, the Inevitable, about the fate of those who transmute their waters: In the Gardens of Pleasure,
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-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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-Qushayri, 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-Qushayri, 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-Qushayri, 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-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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 
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:
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-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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
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.
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 say―"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-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
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-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism 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.
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