Welcome everybody! We wish you a Happy Easter. We are going to explain some principles related to this sacred day. A lot has been written and disseminated on the internet regarding the pagan roots of this tradition. While here are many beautiful correlations, stories, symbols and narratives, what we hope to convey, by the end of this lecture, is the practicality of these myths, these symbols, these allegories.
To begin, we can discuss some of these correlations to more ancient traditions that precede Christianity. Easter comes from Ostara, the Germanic Goddess of fertility, of spring, the rising sun, from Eostre, which means “East.” You get words from Austre or astral, pertaining to the stars, the heavens, the divine. Basically in a nutshell, the goddess of spring represents the resurrection of life, especially during the spring equinox, which is when the day and night share equal hours, from the Latin equos meaning “equal” and nox meaning nights. We can compare this to the summer and winter solstices, the Latin sol meaning “sun” and sistere meaning “to stand still.” In the winter solstice, we know that there are greater hours of night than there are daylight, and in the summer solstice this is the opposite, in accordance with the axis of the earth and its rotation around the sun. Now the question becomes: why is this the focal point, the fulcrum, upon which pagan mythology and even Christian teachings, gravitates? What is its practical purpose for us as we are striving to become spiritual? ― to aspire towards greater development and wisdom in our lives, to overcome suffering in our daily circumstances? This dynamic in nature parallels our internal life. There is a symbology to this myth of how life returns in the spring and dies in winter and fall. These represent for us something very concrete. While we see how the solar light gives sustenance to all beings without distinction through the processes of nature, we also find that in our own particular development there are periods of growth, resurrection, and even death. This also applies, the process of genesis or birth, life and death, and then rebirth, even to religious traditions and forms, in terms of their progression throughout history. We can say that religions are born, they live, and they die, but more importantly for us in our study of Gnostic Esoteric Christianity, we look to understand the transfiguration of religion: how different religious forms, after their death, have been resuscitated, have been transformed, have become new. This is because divine principles always emerge in relation to a given time, place, culture, language, and identity. The different religious forms that have been given to humanity across time have always been done in accordance with the needs of a given society, in accordance with the level of being of the messengers. The teaching is the same, the essence of rebirth, spiritually, is universal. You find this teaching within all mythologies, without exception. All religions teach a type of death and rebirth. But unfortunately, these forms themselves, through exposure to humanity, to its greed and avarice, its destruction, have corrupted the essential teaching, the practical dimension of how to be born again, to give birth to something truly divine within us. But fortunately for us, even though religious forms and traditions die, they are transmuted in a form of alchemy towards new meanings and new understandings for the different contexts in which this knowledge is now being given. We have the Gnostic teachings, which are an explanation, a transformation, and a transmutation of these different religious forms. We explain what they mean, practically for us. The term transmutation, you might have heard before. The word trans is a prefix for “movement,” “to carry over,” to pass over,” as in transition, transportation. It is a movement and a flow, a redirection. Mutate, as in the term, mutant, is something that changes form, something that fundamentally has a new appearance. This is directly applicable to Christianity in relation to the previous traditions from which it originated. It is because when these traditions die, so to speak, they lose their practical value for how to change fundamentally. They ferment, and from that fermentation different messengers come to humanity to resurrect those essential meanings again. This has happened with Judeo-Christianity and Islam. Even Nietzsche said very infamously that “God is dead.” It is because the core of that teaching within the Judeo-Christian religion had been lost. But now as Nietzsche says, we want the superhuman to live, to resurrect―symbols, allegories, principles, archetypes―but what do they mean? How are they valid? I know a lot of times, people who might have a Christian dispensation may look at the previous religions and traditions with scorn, with derision. This is very unfortunate, because such a perspective fails to take into account how the principle of Christ, the divine, is within those faiths, albeit in a symbolic form that is obviously different to the palate of modern Christians and maybe adverse for them. It is also unfortunate that people who tend to be very materialistic, and also, unfortunately, superficial, we can say, look at religion from a historical perspective, ignoring that there is an experimental dimension to their tradition. We find this evidenced in modern Abrahamic traditions, which reject the different faiths before, primarily due to a misinterpretation of idolatry, an idol, such as thinking the ancients were stupid, and that they worshipped statues and stones, which are not the true faith or true god. It is the purpose of this lecture to emphasize a core teaching within Christianity that applies to all religions without exception, and that we are going to explain the symbols of this mystery that is greatly misunderstood today. In terms of idolatry, we can say that this is a misapprehension of symbols, taking things literally. People like to mistake the symbol for reality, and this is fundamentally mistaken. For example, what do you think of when you look at an American flag? Do you think literally that there are 50 stars somewhere along with its red and white stripes, literally in some place in time, in history? It is absurd. We understand these are representations of something deeper on a conceptual dimension and even a historical definition, in that case. The same thing applies to religious forms. When we literally believe in the iconography of any faith, without understanding its practical application to us, we are committing idolatry. We are worshipping an idea, a statue, a concept in the mind, which tends to make us very petrified, stone-like, rigid. We find this type of mentality amongst many people who have a very strict adherence to a dogma, and who are not able to look at some of the deeper currents that course throughout these traditions. Therefore, why should we venerate the resurrection of Christ from the dead? Is it not true that nature resurrects every spring and that the sun gives us life (s-u-n), but also son, (s-o-n) if we go deeper? This is because even the pagan traditions worshipped Christ. They recognized that the force of life, the sun, is a direct representation and manifestation of a divine truth, and that the Christians reappropriated that symbolism to fit a new context, history, language, culture, and way of being. The forms are not at fault because the principles are within them, because the sun gives life to all traditions. That solar light, which we find in our sun, gives sustenance and equilibrium to everything in every level of our existence. It performs a sacrifice for all beings without distinction, which we find paralleled in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, who was an incarnation of that light, that spiritual effluvia and Being. We even know from quantum mechanics that light has consciousness. Light makes decisions, even on the subatomic level of particles. Light is not an inanimate, lifeless thing. It is the essence of life, and the ancients knew this before our scientists could even verify this. So, the previous cultures of humanity were not as ignorant as we may like to think of them. We are going to explain some archetypes and some principles within the Bible whose genuine roots have been condemned and expunged from public Christianity. However, we are going to demonstrate that there has always existed an Esoteric Christianity, a heart teaching within the Christian faith that is practical. It is born from conscious experience. We are going to explain some of these practical symbols for us, the purpose of divine narrative, not to relate some type of history, but to guide us in our internal development. 
The Real Meaning of Faith
It is important to reflect on what it means to have faith―especially since many people have faith in Christ, Jesus, the physical personality who lived 2000 years ago―and to understand what this word really implies. What does it mean to have faith in the resurrection from the dead?
The original word for faith, which has been erroneously translated throughout time, is Πίστις pistis. It means to have “faith,” “to trust,” “to have knowledge from observable experience,” derived from Πειθώ peitho, “to prevail,” “to grow in confidence or persuasion” ― such as power like in the term Pistis Sophia, which is the Gnostic Bible, wisdom-power, the power of wisdom. The original Greek term has been mistranslated into belief. The term belief today really does not have much value, if we are honest. Belief is a conviction in the heart and mind based on an idea or a feeling, but without verification from experience. There are many people today who have many beliefs throughout diverse traditions. You find it any conspiracy culture or fringe culture, people believing in flat earth or other ways of thinking, which have been disproven by factual, scientific evidence and even one’s experience. People believe in many things. They have confidence in many things. They are persuaded. They are even eloquent with their language when transmitting certain ideas, but where is the proof? Where are the facts? Upon what do we trust? What do we perceive? Is it not a conviction in the heart of some higher power? Is it a sentiment and emotion? It is true that morality, we can say, having some type of religious values, is useful in its orbit. We can believe in many things, but it does not mean we really know? Of course, the great divide between Gnostic Christianity and public Christianity is based on this. Within the public doctrine there is the belief that one must have faith, in the blind sense of not knowing, in order to be redeemed from pain, to resurrect into a new life. But the hidden Esoteric Gnostic Christianity, which has been underground for millennia and which is now being taught openly today, explains that faith is direct experience of these principles. It is not a belief. It is not thinking something is true or feeling something is true. It is knowing through action. Πίστις Pistis, faith, has been terribly abused. There are many verses in the Bible which help to explain what we are emphasizing. We can say that this lack of distinction between faith and belief―knowledge from experience and assumption and convictions based on a lack of experience―is the failure of modern Christianity, in which many philosophers like Nietzsche critiqued. We can say that one of the main chasms within the Christian tradition especially is the lack of systematic methods for understanding these principles, because those teachings were taken out. They were not conducive for certain power structures that existed in the path, certain types of mentality that did not want to introspect, but sought to externalize religion as a projection of the mind, an idea, but not really looking at reality. Meditation was removed from the Bible even though Jesus meditated for 40 days and 40 days in the wilderness when facing temptations. We can go to confession and believe we are redeemed, and because people do not look within, they do not practically examine themselves for the root of their sufferings, they think that religion is about some external adherence to a program. We can go to confession and beg for forgiveness, but the psychological tendency towards those wrong behaviors will continue to exist in the mind, in our subconsciousness, our unconsciousness, infraconsciousness. There needs to be practical works if our spirituality is going to be effective. We offer many tools and techniques in this tradition so that we can develop genuine faith. I am going to read some verses for you from the Book of James that are very profound and elaborate these points: What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him (or better said, can belief save him)?
There are practices and exercises like meditation that help us to experience what our religion is talking about. These are practical exercises, methods and meditations that allow us to verify what Christ is, what divinity is, how to know from facts, from experience, not beliefs.
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well… ―James 2:19
It is not a bad thing to appreciate that there is a higher power in one's life, a higher force, that there is a higher influence, because this can give us some type of comfort and guidance, and an ethical foundation. However:
…the devils also believe, and tremble (because they know the existence of divinity as well, but they are not working to change).
Here is an example that is interpreted very historically in relation to the founder of Judaism, we can say Abraham, one of the patriarchs of that tradition.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
So, in this myth he was told by divinity to sacrifice his son Isaac but as he was about to draw the knife, filled with terrible pain within himself, an angel stopped him and gave him a goat to sacrifice in his stead as an offering to divinity. This is a symbol of how we need to renounce our attachments, our beliefs, our most craved ideals, our assumptions, our identity, even like a father to his son, to give it up for something superior, for a higher principle, because we have many beliefs, ideas, but they are just that. They are not verified, if we are honest, but because in this story, Abraham was so dedicated to knowing the truth and to practice in himself, to know these things, he was given direct guidance, and instead was given an animal to sacrifice.
What is that animal? It is pride. It is lust. It is anger. It is envy. It is greed. It is jealousy. It is wrath, morbidity, fanaticism, fear, despair―all those qualities that are our lower animal psychological conditioning, and in which keep us trapped in beliefs and ideas, but not really knowing, because fear and these defects and anger cannot know the truth. They are the aspect of our psychology that has to be cleansed and removed if we really want to commune to our divinity. We are going to reference a lot more excerpts that explain this especially. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith (or belief) only (merely thinking or feeling something is true, but actually employing certain conditions and practices that are the preconditions of knowing and accessing the truth)? Energy and Action: The Causes of Faith
Now practically for us, faith is realized through actions, through doing, but what actions do we need to employ, to give birth to something superior in us?
In synthesis, the resurrected Master Morya, who wrote The Dayspring Youth, explained the nature of real faith, but also what is commonly denominated faith or belief. He emphasizes how faith is really our conscious application of energy for a spiritual purpose through techniques. It is not merely by sitting back on the couch and letting life happen to us and thinking, “If I just have my convictions and belief in divinity, then everything is going to be fine.” I will relate to you what he stated: 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… (meaning in relation to our creative energies: the force of life we carry in our body, which really establishes order within our psychology as well) …it means power and energy applied to action. All success in Yoga (from the Sanskrit yug: reunion, the Latin religare, 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 (these are not physical atoms but spiritual, energetic forces). More human wrecks have resulted from the misconception of this quality than man realizes. ―M. The Dayspring of Youth 
The Intimate Christ
It is important that we understand the symbology of the sun. What is solar force? What is the solar light? What is that spiritual atomic energy that can empower our soul, so that it can be reborn through the death of its impurities? We call that energy Christ, and to understand what this holy day is, we have to understand what Christ is.
The term יהשוה Yeshua in Hebrew, read right to left, has many meanings. You can look at the individual letters to understand a deeper comprehension of this symbol or this archetype, this blueprint for some type of creation within us. If you want to learn more about what the individual Hebrew letters signify in a deeper level, you can study the course Alphabet of Kabbalah on glorian.org. We are going to explain a few things today to give you an introduction, and even a correlation with Christian doctrine, because the Jewish religion, the Kabbalah, mysticism of Israel, is the foundation of Christianity, and to study Christianity without a knowledge of Kabbalah is to approach it mistakenly. יהשוה Yeshua is י Iod-ה Hei-ש Shin-ו Vau- ה Hei. You find the same four-lettered of God, י Iod-ה Hei-ו Vau- ה Hei, or יהוה Jehovah in Hebrew. We pronounce it Jah-Chavah. יהשוה Yeshua has an extra letter ש Shin in the middle. If you study the meaning of this term, יהשוה Yeshua, you go deep into what the letters signify. The letter ש Shin is fire. It even looks calligraphically like a three-pointed candle or candelabra, with a diacritical mark on top, on the right hand candle, itself, of this letter. יהשוה Yeshua means “savior” and ש Shin is fire. This is evidenced by the Greek Χρήστος Khrestos, read left to right. Khrestos is the Greek god of fire. So, it is a title. It also means “anointed one.” יהשוה Yeshua Χρήστος Khrestos is the savior fire. It is not a name of one specific individual in history. It is a title given to any individual, any human being who really perfects him or herself, who receives the energy of that solar creative divine force, which as a fire, cleanses everything. It renews one psychological nature. Just as the solar light in nature resurrects all living things in spring, we find that this energy can give a rebirth in us if the impurities of our mind die. We find the term INRI, which is a mantra we can pronounce, a sacred sound we can prolong and meditate upon its vibration within us, because sacred sounds, or the verb, is the creative power of the logos, divine word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ―John 1:1
The verb, the creative expression of our energies, is a solar generative energy. We create with our speech, but unfortunately with us, we tend to take our energies and use them in the wrong way. We do not renew our psychological states with how we tend to communicate in the world, how we use our breath, our force. But when we learn to use sacred sounds in meditation, using our speech in the right way, and by conserving our energy and transforming them within us, we renew our psychological nature profoundly.
The term INRI is an acrostic. From Latin, it has two meanings that are pretty significant:
Ignis Natura Renovatur Integram
There are many verses in the Bible that refer to God as fire. Can you remember the Burning Bush that Moses saw? ― or from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verse 24:
For יהוה thy אֱלֹהִים is a consuming fire, even a jealous God אֵל. ―Deuteronomy 4:24
That fire is a form of life, an energy, an intelligence which permeates and governs all of nature. That light is so jealous for our wellbeing that it sacrifices itself like the sun in order to give life to everything. That energy within us is also very jealous. It wants the integration of all the different parts of our consciousness that are fractured, trapped, conditioned within defects like anger, pride, lust, vanity, and shame. That fire needs to renew us, that force, that power, to give birth to something truly sacred inside.
In the Book of Luke, Chapter 12, verse 49, we find: I [Christ] am come to send fire on the earth... ―Luke 12:49
Also in the Book of Acts we find many references to sacred fire, especially within Chapter 2, verses 1 through 4:
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
It is sad that in modern Christianity that they want to divorce their tradition and this symbolism from the Eastern traditions, especially the mystery of the Kundalini, the sacred fire, which is Pentecost, which is in the energy that resides in the base of our spine, within the sepulcher of our body, in order to rise up and eliminate the impurities we carry within, and to illuminate the head and mind. This is the Holy Spirit of the Christians. It is the Christic energy, the fire, which the Eastern mystics call Kundalini.
Of course, there are a lot of misconceptions of what Kundalini is and how to work with it. It is only achievable through the path of initiation, which we are going to elaborate today as well. Pentecost symbolically is initiation. It is the entrance, a beginning into a new way of life, a new way of being, which has its laws and stipulations, codes of conduct and methods, that are written in books like The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor and many of his other books, which teach the science on how to work with this energy. In this symbol, those sounds from heaven that the apostles heard, are internal experiences we can have in meditation, when we control our vital winds, the energies of our breath, which is known in the East as prana, through exercises like alchemy, transmutation, and even pranayama, to a certain degree. 
Speaking in tongues does not mean babble or gibberish, as many modern denominations assume, that the apostles were speaking different languages or even nonsense, gibberish. That is the tower of babel in the Bible. That is not the intelligence of the Holy Ghost, the wisdom of the Christ within oneself, because that is just an intellectual theory, an idea. Instead, that fire of Pentecost is an intelligent wisdom, a balanced, inspirational fire, that allows the individual to have greater wisdom and intelligence in navigating the wilderness of life. It is the capacity for comprehension in a deep way, in a spiritual way, to understand that spirit behind the written word.
We can read any scripture and interpret it with wisdom and understanding. Behind the letter that kills through its literal dogma is the spirit that is hidden within it that vivifies, that gives life. This is why Jesus spoke in parables, in symbols, in archetypes, so that people who were educated and taught within these mysteries, who are conserving their creative energies themselves, could understand it. As stated in the Book of Matthew Chapter 13, verses 10 and 11: And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
So there is an esoteric dimension to Christianity that has not been made public. This is what is implied here. This knowledge was originally given from mouth to ear through a very conservative and highly protected tradition, and only given to those candidates who had proved their worth by entering certain schools of initiations or mysteries, where they could learn the proper application and methods of this science: how to work with that fire of Christ within one's own body, particularly within a marriage, a matrimony.
Christ is Within
Historical narratives encode a divine allegory, parables, symbols. This is the grammar of consciousness―archetypes, stories and narratives that hide deeper truths, a wisdom that is applicable to our daily life, here and now.
Christ is an internal principle. He was a person who lived, a great master who is continuing to guide humanity today in secrecy, who represented for us something very profound, which we need to understand from experience within. This is why in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse 5 we have the following statement: Examine yourselves, whether ye be in πίστις pistis (faith from experience), prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ (יהשוה Yeshua Χρήστος Khrestos) is in you, except ye be reprobates? ―2 Corinthians 13:5
Have we examined our minds in the face of temptations in life? Are we looking at our own desires, which crave and seek pleasure at the expense of our heart, of the happiness of others? Are we looking inside to see our own defects, our anger, our pride, our vanity, our lust? Are we looking at that daily, moment by moment, examining our hidden defects? Faith, πίστις pistis, is confidence born from experience. It does not mean to have conviction without verification. It is what we perceive within our own consciousness. So are we certain that we do not possess defects or elements in our own mind that make us reprobates, reprehensible―we can say―demonic, evil?
It is easy to assume we are very saintly people. It is a belief, but it really does not hold much weight if we examine the facts of our own life and our suffering, that we continue to engage in behaviors that produce suffering for ourselves and others. We can have faith in Christianity, in Christ, to believe that we are going to be saved by following a dogma, and yet there are many verses in the Bible that do not validate this assumption, because so long as we have any defect in our mind, we cannot enter heaven. Here is what is stated in the Book of Matthew by Jesus: Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (obviously, this applies to the opposite sex as well). ―Matthew 5:27-28
What constitutes our level of being, our psychological state? Are we examining ourselves and our states to see what is conditioned and what is free? Do we discriminate our inner perceptions, our thoughts, feelings, and desires to see their roots, to see that we have adultery in our mind? We cannot enter heaven with those faults, which is why it is stated in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 9 and 10:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. ―1 Corinthians 6:9-10
So long as we contain these psychological contaminants, we cannot go to heaven. This is directly from the Bible. People believe that they are going to be saved because they have faith or belief in Christ, that he died for our sins, the literal, historical person. However, the reality is that for most of us if we look inside, we do not find Christ there.
Who is active in our mind, our heart and body in a given moment? Who is behaving and thinking and feeling and doing? ― because God and the devil cannot mix. The Being, Christ, divine principle within us―and our desires, our egos, our defects, or Satan in the Bible―cannot mix. They are incompatible. They are like oil and water. The word Satan in Hebrew means “adversary,” שטן Shaitan. What greater adversary is there within us when we want to fulfill these divine principles of compassion and purity, and yet our mind drives us to commit acts that are truly destructive, truly reprehensible? We have to have a radical honesty with ourselves, to look at that, to examine it. Are we bringing forth beneficial action, or what is detrimental? We have to look! Look inside your internal world. Discover yourself. Look to see if selflessness is there, Christ is there. The truth is we have the potential for Christ to manifest in us, but for most people, that it is not developed. There are many initiatic symbols and stories that relate to the progressive development of that potential and to someone who is capable of incarnating that intelligence. You can study in relation to The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor, the path of initiation, specifically. However, the truth is that for most of us is that we have a seed that can grow into something fully and truly human, like the birth of Jesus in the manger, which are the different animal egos we carry within, our defects. So most of us tend to kill that potential, from even initiating that process, but for that we need to see ourselves for who we are, and that Christ precisely is a type of perception inside, in which there is no self, in which you perceive the inherent emptiness of intrinsic identity, in which you are perceiving life and your psychological states and world, but without any conditioning filter. There is no individual self like anger or pride blocking it, or filtering it, obscuring it. Is it not true that when we are angry, we can only see and think and feel through anger? We do not rationalize. We do not really see reality. We can only see our desire that is frustrated. We feel pain and we want others to feel pain as well. We have to purify ourselves of that, to become like Christ, a perfected being that is luminous and has a brilliant character, an inspiring and noble attitude, a divine philanthropy that really works to act for the benefit of others and not for oneself at all. That is why Jesus stated in Matthew 6:22-23: The eye is the illumination of the soma (the Greek σῶμα sōma literally means body, but it could also indicate the soul or self). If thine eye be singular (if your perception be ἁπλοῦς aplous: clear, simple, uncomplicated, pure), thy whole self (σῶμα sōma) will be full of light. Yet if thine eye be impure (πονηρός ponēros), thy whole self (σῶμα sōma) shall be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. ―Jesus, Matthew 6:22-23
What does it mean that our eye needs to be simple, clear, uncomplicated, pure? It is not a literal eye as many people misinterpret. It is how we perceive psychologically. Your perceptions from your consciousness, which is seeing through your mind, your heart, your body―is perceiving and receiving the impressions of life, but also needs to look inside to see our psychological impressions―that is the eye that can illuminate us. If it is not clear and simple and uncomplicated and pure, it means that we are seeing in the dark.
It is a strange and paradoxical principle: if that light be darkness how great is that darkness. Is it not true, as in the example of anger, that if you are filled with rage, you are perceiving life through that condition? It is darkness though. It is pain. It is suffering. Our lives and our way of seeing the world and ourselves tend to be very complicated. We are fractured. We are split. We have many psychological conditions, egos, and defects, which do not make our way of seeing the world clear, simple, pure. We need to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven, to have an innocent attitude, to receive a life in a new way, moment by moment, to perceive without any lens that colors what we are perceiving. That light when it is unconditioned and pure, when it is selfless, when it is perfect, is Christ, in its ultimate sense. Of course, we have to develop that potential where we are at in the beginning, with a lot of care, nurture, and attention, a lot of diligence, because how we perceive is exactly the cause and conditions that produce the pain of the world. Christ said: I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. ―John 8:12
Christ as an energy is compassionate. It is a state of being. Here in the verse, he is talking about how our eye needs to see clearly without conditions, and then he is seeing, “I am the light of the world.” He is that energy of being and perceiving, but for us, we have taken that light and adulterated it. In beings like Jesus of Nazareth, that light is perfect. There is no fault, and is no fault in him, but the truth is that any person can become like him, the Master Jesus, or in his esoteric name, the Master Aberamentho as stated within The Gnostic Bible, his real spiritual name. Anyone can become like that, can resurrect from the dead, of a sterile, painful life, into something very sacred and holy, but it requires training. It requires work.
Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. ―Luke 11:35-36
So light is understanding. It is intuition. It is reconciliation. It is patience. It is insight, which emerges from the fire of life within our body, the fire of Christ, which is in ourselves, not only without. However, as I said, we carry the fire of life, that energy which gives us vitality and the ability to exist, to be―but we abuse it.
The Three Traitors
This is the meaning of the light of the Christ being betrayed. Just as the historical Christ underwent his Passion and Crucifixion, likewise our consciousness must experience the bitterness and solitude of Golgotha, a path and process that is very difficult, because it is not easy to eliminate everything that is wrong about us and within us. Now we have to understand the three traitors in the biblical story of Jesus, because it is too easy to historicize, to merely condemn three people who were the axle upon which this whole drama gravitates.
The three traitors are symbols: Judas, Pilate, Caiaphas. There were apostles and people in history who existed, who represented a drama, a symbol, a story, that applies to us now, not in the past, nor in some remote history, but in our very being. This is why in the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, in a great scripture known as the Zohar, Rabbi Simeon said the following about the Old Testament, which can also apply to any scripture: Rabbi Simeon says: "Woe to the man who says that the Torah came to relate stories, simply and plainly, and simpleton tales about Esau and Laban and the like. If it was so, even at the present day we could produce a Torah from simplistic matters, and perhaps even nicer ones than those. If the Torah came to exemplify worldly matters, even the rulers of the world have among them things that are superior. If so, let us follow them and produce from them a Torah in the same manner. It must be that all items in the Torah are of a superior nature and are uppermost secrets. ―Zohar
Let us explain what these traitors signify for us, primarily because if we wish to understand and experience the resurrection of Christ in us, we have to understand what the death of our faults and defects implies.
We have Pilate, who is a roman governor of the Jews in history who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus, but what does he represent? He is an official, an authority figure, someone who is very respected, who people go to for advice and commands, someone who has a very strong reasoning, deliberation, analytical mind. Pilate is the mind itself. It is the intellect that can either justify or excuse itself with reasons. Many times, we commit mistakes and Pilate in us, that figure that wants to have authority and to command, justify its action with many reasons. It excuses its own culpability and washes its hands clean of the crucifixion of Christ. This is our mind. Our mind justifies many things. We can feel in our heart that we are really suffering from our conscience because we know we did something wrong, and that sentiment is something superior, and profound, and deep. It is the voice of the consciousness. The heart knows from hunches, intuitions, knowledge, without having to reason, but it is the intellect that tends to overpower the heart, much in the same way it is that קַיִן Cain in the Bible killed הֶבֶל Abel. The mind kills the heart. The intellect or desire rationalizes and excuses itself for its wrongdoing, and therefore הֶבֶל Abel, our soul, dies. This is not something in the past, but it is now. We do it every day when we do not follow our conscience, our hunches. There are other figures. We have Caiaphas, who is a high priest that is very devoted to his religion, Judaism, his tradition, his dogma, his faith, at the expense of killing Christ, persecuting that principle in us which can truly revolutionize our way of being. That energy is so transformative and so radical, that the mind and the heart fight, because it is a dethronement or a deposition of a type of mentality and way of being that has been held onto for a long time, a type of conditioning within us. Caiaphas is the heart consumed by fanaticism. This can signify a devotee of any tradition or religion, whose devotion to an ideal or concept blinds him or her to reality. Caiaphas is really evil will. It does not want to do what is right, because it is attached to what others think of it and how others perceive it. It wants to be in power through adherence to a system, a political belief, a religion, a dogma. Even in science you find Caiaphas very strong, where people are not able to see reality because they are attached to their beliefs. Caiaphas is any person of blind adherence to a tradition who does not have any experiential verification or conscious basis. People conform to dead traditions. They despise whatever does not fit into a prescribed dogma. They persecute whatever and whomever does not fit a given paradigm. If you do not believe me, just go and look at social media and look at all the political craziness going on in the world. You find this in religion. You find this in every faith, where that ego sees its tradition as the only authentic one, and therefore everyone else is dammed. You find this within the Gnostic tradition as well. It is very sad to see it, but it happens. It is because of Caiaphas, that tendency. However, who is it that starts this entire process of Christ’s imprisonment? Is it not Judas? Who is Judas? He is a mystical devotee, someone who really loves religion, who loves divinity, who loves God, who loves spirituality, who loves to share spiritual axioms on the internet, forums, and different mediums, who even teaches with a lot of faith and conviction, and yet loves desire more, loves lust, loves fornication, sexual degeneration, more than divinity. Judas is the desire for pleasure, the desire for sensations, for sex, for drugs, for children, for money. This is why Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver, which is a symbol of the opposite of Christ. These are lunar values. What are lunar values or mind? It is all the mechanical ways of being in the world, which keep the world running in the way it is now. The sun, which is creative, gives life. It is original. It provides the substrate of all existing things, the foundation for all life. It is the creative potential that expresses within all the divine masters. Its opposite is mechanical ways of being, the moon. The moon governs many mechanical processes in life, whether menstruation in women, plant life. You find it in crime rates when there are full moons. The moon governs many things in a cyclical way. It is a repetitive cycle, in which people―who are attached to all these negative things like money and drugs and sex, sensations and pleasures―keep repeating those habits, and they prefer that more than to generate something new inside. What is the ultimate betrayal of Christ? It is the desire, to give into pleasure. This is the temptation one faces. If we wish to celebrate the Easter Resurrection, these traitors within us have to die. They cannot exist. They have to be crucified. They have to be eliminated. However, most people do not want to eliminate their tendencies. They want to repeat the same behaviors and merely believe that their devotion, authority, or mysticism is going to save them. These are the three traitors. They blind us to reality. It is important to reflect specifically what penance is, what redemption is, what purification is, because this is the groundwork in which we can really give birth to the spirit inside. 
The Esotericism of Lent: Ishtar’s Descent into the Underworld
The path of purification is mirrored in nature, whereby the fire of the sun descends into hell, symbolized by winter, in order to be born again like the phoenix in spring.
In public Christianity, Lent signifies preparation, purification, and penance before Easter Sunday. If you study the holy calendar, the Holy Week, the last week of Lent is obviously Holy Week. It starts with Palm Sunday, or the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Christ celebrated the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and was crucified on Good Friday, undergoing Holy Saturday or the confrontation of Christ in hell, resurrecting on Easter Sunday. It is notable that Christ’s crucifixion occurred on Good Friday, which is the day of Freya amongst the Nordics―Friday, Venus, the goddess of love, who is in Mesopotamian mythology, Ishtar, the Mesopotamian Easter. So how do we conquer desire? How do we conquer the three traitors? We do so through love. I know in the West we do not distinguish between the two, but lust and love are incompatible. You cannot combine them. They are polar opposites. Venus, the force of love, symbolized by Mary, מרים Miriam, the Divine Mother, is very pure. However, we have converted her and our Christic energy into a whore, through desire, through animal pleasure. So, what do we need to do if we want to celebrate Easter? We have to understand what Ishtar signifies, who is the goddess of beauty, love, sex, and even war, because the great spiritual heroes fight against their defects and desires out of love. They sacrifice their animality because they do want to make others suffer. Therefore, they enter their path of the cross, the crucifixion, which is a sexual symbol. 
The vertical beam is the phallus of the man. The horizontal beam is the uterus of a woman. Through their union―performed with love and not lust, by conserving that precious energy of creativity, volatility, of genesis―they give birth to something truly divine. This is the Resurrection, in one degree. There are many levels of resurrection, but we are just giving an overview, a synthesis, what is more practical for us, typically, for beginners. We use that energy to eliminate our faults.
Christ symbolized that path of eliminating defects by descending into hell, our hell realms, which are our defects, our mind―for all practical purposes―our inner psychological iniquities. So the myth of Ishtar is the same narrative of Christ descending into hell, so that through conquering desire, ego, defects, faults, the consciousness can achieve resurrection and rebirth within divinity. In synthesis, she descends into the underworld to confront evil. On the way, she is forced to strip away different articles of clothing each time she approaches an internal gate. There are seven gates, which is very significant. If you study numerology, Kabbalah, you know that seven is a very significant principle, referring to seven different degrees of spiritual initiation. It could also refer to eliminating seven principal defects, but also giving birth to seven principal virtues, seven vices and seven virtues. Ishtar does so until she arrives completely naked before her sister Erishkegal, who is the queen of hell, who attacks Ishtar furiously because Ishtar wanted to end evil. Ishtar is imprisoned and she is afflicted with sixty diseases, which is also very significant, the number six relating to the sixth commandments, “Thou shall not fornicate,” meaning: “Do not waste your creative sexual energy. Do not lose that force,” because you need to give birth, to create on the inside with it. This is symbolized by water. If you study the Bible and many mythologies, water is the source of life, not just physically, but also spiritually. It is a symbol of our creative, Genesiatic, spiritual, sexual energy. It is what can give the potential creation into something actual, realized. Ishtar is imprisoned until Enki, or Ea, the Akkadian god of water, sends an emissary to provide Ishtar with the water of life, with which she is revived, and she returns victoriously back to the world through the infernal gates, and every time she ascends, she is clothed again in a successive order. 
In a symbolic way, the consciousness descends into matter, into different states of being, which are more dense, and have return to the divine source. That return is initiation. It is to enter the path of the Passion, the suffering of facing one errors, to die to them and to resurrect ,and then to ascend. This parable has many levels of meaning.
When we raise the fire of Pentecost―the fire of the Holy Spirit within the spine, within successive octaves, within different internal bodies, we can say, vehicles of the soul, which operate within the different dimensions of the Tree of Life―that energy helps us to crucify our ego, and this is the Kundalini serpent fire which Moses raised upon a staff within the wilderness, the bronze serpent, which is the power of the Holy Spirit. In that way, a person resurrects within fire, that creative energy. When you raise the creative force―if you have studied the writings of Samael Aun Weor extensively and The Perfect Matrimony, especially―you find that that fire gives birth to spiritual bodies, spiritual vehicles, which we can operate with when we physically go to sleep and enter the internal worlds. These are vehicles much in the way a light bulb is a vehicle for expressing light. So, if you wish to express Christ within you, it is good to work with that energy so that you can create those vehicles. We call them solar bodies. These are the vestures or vestments that Ishtar puts on when she ascends out of hell. Solar bodies are vehicles of a Christic force. They are a matter of energy that do not belong to mechanicity. They belong to divinity, and therefore they are able to transmit and transform the power of a sun. 
After Ishtar descends into hell, it is interesting that all sexual activity ceases in the world. Before the Ascension of Christ, he appeared many times to his disciples. When before the holy women, Christ stated:
Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. ―John 20:17
As I said, resurrection occurs in degrees. There are different initiations related to the creation of spiritual vehicles inside. Specifically, Samael Aun Weor, in his book The Seven Words, in that text specifically, gives a very detailed account of what resurrection looks like with the astral body, the Chrestos: a solar vehicle that allows one to navigate within the astral plane with consciousness, lucidity, intentionality, with clarity, and with awareness. In that process of working with that astral body or creating the astral body―which is a form of resurrection and rebirth to that degree―the initiate undergoes a process that is explained in the Bible and in this myth of Ishtar. Samael Aun Weor stated the following:
This is how, before the Ascension, the Initiate has to descend to the submerged worlds in order to destroy the most intimate roots of evil. 
The Resurrection of Our Chrestos: The Solar Astral Body
We will elaborate a few specifics relating to the resurrection of the astral body. Approaching this topic of resurrection, this is perhaps the most introductory and accessible for people who are learning to work with the perfect matrimony and who are seeking to create the solar vehicles themselves.
It is interesting that Samael Aun Weor provides an explanation about the meaning of Lent in relation to Easter, which is very misunderstood. In the creation of the astral body, one has to face temptations within the infernal worlds in the submerged states of the consciousness, in the hell regions known as קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth in Kabbalah. These are the inferior regions of our consciousness and psyche, but also there are levels of nature which are inferior to our own, beneath our physical world within the infernal regions and layers of the earth, but in an internal dimension. I’ll read for you at length what Samael Aun Weor wrote: During these forty days that precede the Ascension [of the Astral Body, the Khrestos] (the vehicle that allows us to fully manifest Christ at that level), the Initiate is totally prohibited from all sexual contact, since he must maintain his aura totally luminous and serene, free of any passionate waves. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Seven Words
As we explained in many different lectures, we work with the perfect matrimony, in which a married couple combines their sexual force with purity and love, transforming it and conserving it and raising it within the spine, in order to give birth to the soul. In the process of conserving and raising that energy―especially within the third octave, within the astral body, because one is working with different levels of initiation, from the physical, vital, and astral, the third initiation, we can say, from the bottom up of the Tree of Life―one is working with that alchemical marriage. In the process of perfecting that initiation, one has to abstain from sexual contact, much in the same way that in the myth of Ishtar when she descended into hell, all sexual activity in the world ceased. It has the same meaning here, the mystery of Lent.
Only after the forty days, can the Initiate continue practicing his rite of Sexual Magic. But during those forty days preceding the Ascension, the Initiate must transmute his sexual energy through the mind. During these forty days preceding the Ascension of our Astral Body, we have to inevitably descend into the abyss in order to definitively cut off all relationships, all roots, all ties with the creatures of evil. 
Ishtar in Hebrew, Kabbalah, and the Tree of Life
We explained a little about the Tree of Life. In synthesis and relation to the myth of Ishtar, this divine force of life descends from the physical world מלכות Malkuth within the internal worlds, within the subconscious regions of nature, which are the hell realms we just mentioned, infernal states, in order to confront all of our past history within those regions, our past karma, we can say. But we need to re-initiate that journey upward from מלכות Malkuth to כתר Kether and even beyond. These are ten spheres, ten סְפִירוֹת sephiroth, the Hebrew term for “emanations,” which relate to different states of consciousness, qualities and modalities of being.
We are currently in מלכות Malkuth, the physical world. Above that we have יסוד Yesod, the vital energies, the foundation of our spirituality, the sexual creative force. We have הוד Hod, which is the astral vehicle or emotions. You have נצח Netzach relating to the mind, victory. Above that we have more rarefied state of beings, like תפארת Tiphereth, which is our willpower. Beyond we have גבורה Geburah, which is our divine consciousness, our divine soul, and the spirit, חסד Chesed, which is mercy, our inner particular god, אל El in Hebrew. Above that we have the trinity of Christianity and also the trinity of all religions: כתר Kether, חכמה Chokmah, בינה Binah; Father, Son, Holy Spirit; Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva; Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya―many names for these principles. The Tree of Life is a map of our consciousness, but also teaches us the different gradations and levels of nature. If you wish to study more about Kabbalah, we have different courses and materials you can reference, especially Tarot and Kabbalah by Samael Aun Weor. Kabbalah is the basis for interpreting the diverse religious traditions of the world. It is not only the sole patrimony of Judaism but is a map that can explain many mythologies and teachings. 
אישתאר Ishtar is precisely the fire of a man and a woman because the sexual creative energy is the power to create. The word איש Ish in the Bible signifies “fire” or “man,” and אשה Isha is “woman.” In the Book of Genesis, you have man and a woman, who are אדם Adam and חוה Eve, who textually are referred to as איש Ish and אשה Isha, fire of a man and fire of a woman. Together they can create something superior within themselves.
As we mentioned many times, sexual energy is a form of fire. When a man and woman combine their creative sexual fires, taming them through conscious love, you form אישים Ishim. We have a prayer in the Invocation of Solomon the wise that states: אישים Ishim, assist me in the name of אל שׁדי El Shaddai! ―Invocation of Solomon
What is אל שׁדי El Shaddai in Hebrew? Christians are familiar with this term of the Almighty Living God. It is the Holy Spirit, and the strength of שדי אל חי Shaddai El Chai is the Almighty Living God. It is the power that can give life, the power that can create not only physically, but spiritually, more importantly. The word אל El in Hebrew means “God,” and שׁדי Shaddai can mean “devil.” The Hebrew name שָׂדֶה shadeh derives from the word שׁדד shadad meaning to destroy. Likewise, שָׂדֶה shadeh is a field, where the most subtle beast of creation has dwelled, the serpent, in the opening of Genesis, chapter 3.
What is interesting is that שׁדי Shaddai or אל שׁדי El Shaddai means “God, my destroyer,” but why is that? The sexual force is not only the power that can create life, but is also the power that can destroy. It is associated with the serpent, with the devil, of all things. How is that energy of both God and the devil? This is the mystery of sacred sexuality. If we examine sexual behavior in society and humanity, we can find that lust and desire, like prostitution, is the source of great pain. It destroys the potential of spiritual life. Why is the sexual power a destroyer? We know it relates to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that this knowledge or energy can give life of a pure type or an impure type, depending on how we use it. It is enough to look at the news especially to see cases of how people who are addicted to lust, suffer immensely. There was a recent shooting, where a man went into a group of massage parlors and killed many people. Some news outlets reported how the reason why he engaged in that action was because he was frequenting those places to satisfy his desires. He was a sexual addict, and for him, according to his reasoning, to escape from that, he went around and killed many people. It is a terrible tragedy, and the reality is that sexual addiction and desire, attachment to lust and fornication, destroys the mind and psyche. We see in many examples and cases in humanity how this type of action produces pain. But that energy can give something divine or create something divine in us. It is not only the power to destroy, but the power to create life. It is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Bible, the symbol of that. The word שׁדי Shaddai is an acrostic. It hides the phrase: שומר ד'לאט ישראל Shomer D'latot Yisrael, which means “Guardian of the Doors of Israel.” It is a secret science relating to how we use the creative energy of יסוד Yesod, the foundation of spiritual life, because as it states in the Book of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14 Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life (חיה Chaiah), and few there be that find it. ―Matthew 7:14
So both אדם Adam and חוה Eve in the original Hebrew are named איש Ish and אשה Isha. Together they form אישים Ishim: a sacred divine being with the power to create if they control the serpent, symbolically speaking. They do not eat the forbidden fruit, so to speak, which we explain very openly is the orgasm, the expulsion of the blissful energies of sex for a few moments of gratification, which is symbolized as the expulsion from עדן Eden. עדן Eden in Hebrew means “bliss,” “voluptuousness,” “happiness.” There are ways to take this fire, to conserve it and to raise it up within oneself, within its conditioned state, within desire, within hell, so that we can form a new being, to give a form of rebirth.
It is interesting that the word תאר Tar, ת Tav, א Aleph, ר Resh, reading from right to left―you have in the middle א Aleph, י Iod, ש Shin, which is איש Ish, then ת Tav, א Aleph, ר Resh, which means “to describe, to depict, to represent, to narrate.” What does it mean to narrate or to describe with fire? Symbolically speaking, we must learn to inscribe the principles of Christ within us, to speak the Word, to live it, to manifest it within oneself. We have to learn to write these divine archetypes or principles, which are like fiery particles, essence or force within our consciousness, we do so through living the doctrine. Samael Aun Weor mentions many times, “It is written with fiery ember in the book of life.” Even Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra explained (as cited by Samael Aun Weor in The Perfect Matrimony: “The Two Rituals”): Write with blood and you will discover that the blood is spirit. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
We can say that this path of initiation, in which we ascend the different sephiroth towards our heavenly sources, is a form of writing, a form of inscription, in which we encode through our practices, combining sacred sounds with our creative sexual energy within a matrimony, in order to manifest our Being, to express divinity. Samael Aun Weor mentioned in The Perfect Matrimony:
Initiation is your own life. If you want initiation, write it upon a staff. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
There are some other etymologies and meanings here that are particularly interesting and significant, relating to אישתאר Ishtar, how we create spiritually. We find the word תאר Tar or Tartarus within Greek mythology, relating to the hell or infernal worlds. We also find Taurus, the zodiacal sign of the bull, relating to the earth element, and also the planet Venus or the light אור Aur. Our body is a form of earth.
So many times in the Bible, there are references to the earth. This is referring to our body. We need to learn to cultivate our body and its energies in constructive ways. We have many exercises like pranayama, transmutation, mantras, sacred rites of rejuvenation, runes, and prayers that we use to cultivate divine force and use it in a spiritual way. This is how we create light from our earth, Taurus, אור Aur, the light. Of course, that light, that understanding, that intuition, that comprehension emerges when we learn to work and handle the fire well. So light emerges from darkness, the Bible mentions many times. The Easter Resurrection emerges, the light is born in us, when the darkness is conquered, when we comprehend and eliminate our errors. It is interesting the word אישתאר Ishtar contains almost the same letters as בראשית Bereshit, “In wisdom” or “In the beginning,” which is the opening line of Genesis. So אישתאר Ishtar only lacks the letter ב Beth, which signifies a “house” or “wisdom,” which is חכמה Chokmah in the Kabbalah, a symbol of Christ, the second sphere on the top of the Tree of Life. בראשית Bereshit is an interesting acrostic with many meanings. It is very deep. You can study many courses on glorian.org, especially, which unpack the meaning of this phrase. It is really a beautiful code which hides a lot of depth and profundities. In synthesis בראשית Bereshit is the first word of Genesis: בראשית ברא אלהים Bereshit Bara Elohim, “In the beginning Elohim created,” את השמים ואת הארץ At Ha-Shamayim Vayat Ha’aretz: “the heavens and the earth,” which are a symbol of psychological states of being within us, this Tree of Life, the heavenly worlds out of the earth, how we cultivate our physicality. בראשית Bereshit is creation, to give genesis, and relates to the path of initiation itself, how we create life within seven lower sephiroth, the seven lower bodies in which we must raise the fires of Pentecost. בראשית Bereshit can be read as ברית אש Berit Esh, “pact of fire.” This covenant with divinity is the work with the creative, sexual fire, the fires of man and woman, איש Ish and אשה Isha. It is through sexual alchemy that we become angels, for ברית אש ברא אלהים Berit Esh Bara Elohim: “The pact of fire created the gods and goddesses,” the angels. אלהים Elohim has a masculine plural ending, י Iod- ם Mem, but אל El is the singular masculine God, and אלה Eloah the singular feminine goddess. Together, אלהים Elohim forms the gods and goddesses, the perfected masters who are transformed through the perfect matrimony. So, א Aleph and ב Beth―the only difference between בראשית Bereshit and אישתאר Ishtar. What is א Aleph? It is our breath, our vital forces, our energy, our wind, we can say. It is interesting that in the Book of Acts, we find that the mighty wind rushed through the chambers in which the apostles were crowned with serpents of fire. That wind is our breath, that spiritual force or Prana in the East. We can use that prana, that vital wind, that breath, harnessing it within our ב Beth, our physical body, our house, which is a temple of God, in order to regenerate, to perform Easter, Ishtar, but we have to know the wisdom and the science and the methods for that. 
Regeneration: The Narrow Way to Life
To elaborate and finalize some points, we want to really emphasize that this teaching is more than just from one man, as we emphasize the writings of Samael Aun Weor, but we find it in a coded way within the Bible―the work with sexuality. Resurrection is related to rebirth, and we find in the Book of John 3:5-6 a very famous teaching which has been unfortunately very misappropriated.
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That water is your seminal energy, your matter, from which if you conserve it and transform it, you can give birth to something spiritual within you.
Birth is a sexual problem. It is not a matter of believing or thinking or following Jesus in our heart. It is a matter of action, of applying energy, that creative force, to specific endeavors, with purity, love, comprehension. This is how we can give birth to Christ in us. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that πιστεύω (pisteo) in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and πιστεύω (believeth, has faith: pisteo) in me shall never die. ―John 11:25-26
Again, that faith is not a matter of concepts and ideologies, but of working practically with our energetic potential. Unfortunately, many people want to follow beliefs, ignoring that there is a sexual component to the esoteric dimension of Christianity. So, this is the straight and narrow gate, which many do not enter, many do not follow, as indicated by Jesus:
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life (חיה Chaiah), and few there be that find it. ―Matthew 7:13-14
Many people do not even enter the door that leads to life, which is resurrection, because they refuse to die to their defects and really develop compassion, selflessness. So, humanity often detests the path of life, which is the regenerative faculty of our creative sexual expression, to conserve that power inside; to never lose it; to never waste it; to create spiritually, not as animals, so to speak.
In conclusion: Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. ―John 5:28-29
If you are interested in learning more about the practical dimension of resurrection, and how to enter that path, follow its codes and stipulations, its methods, you can study The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor. You can also learn more from the book Christ and the Virgin by the same author.
I hope that with this explanation, you have greater clarity about some of the pagan roots of Easter, but also its essential focus, its direction, which is practical, to learn how to change fundamentally, psychologically, to work with our energies for divine purposes, and to serve others with compassion, with selflessness. Questions and Answers
Question: Earlier you described a quote where God is described as jealous. Can you please explain God’s jealousy? What is that and how does that differ from that vice?
Instructor: The translation of jealousy often is skewed by our own perception of the term. Primarily, our egotistical sense of jealousy, of feeling envious of another person, wanting what they have, perhaps, is very different from the unique description of God as a jealous being. Unfortunately, the tendency in us is to project our ideas, about what God is, onto divinity, onto reality, without really experiencing what that principle really is. Divinity is jealous in the sense that our inner Being demands purity. Our consciousness, as we explained in our lectures on psychology and in different books, is trapped within conditions, which is ego, desires, שטן Shaitan, Satan, the adversary, the enemy of spirituality. Our consciousness is trapped in those different defects; therefore we are not able to act with full capacity, at our highest potential, the highest degree of divine expression within us. Divinity cannot enter and manifest in our actions if we do not eliminate the impurities, because divinity, if we feel a longing and an inspiration to study these types of topics, is pushing to achieve that perfection within us. That is the ultimate longing and goal of divinity, is to fully express within a perfected human being, which is a symbol of Jesus, of Easter, Ishtar. But first you have to descend within hell in order to change, to face and confront your intimate defects and faults, so that we can extract what is pure from the mud and return it to divinity. If divinity was not jealous and did not want to fight over our every single intricate component of our soul that is trapped in defects, we will be lost. Divinity is jealous in the sense that our inner Christ is demanding, wants to achieve perfection of all the different aspects of our psychology within. That is the myth of the Crucifixion, the Passion, of facing all the trials and adversities of our life, all our past mistakes, which in the East is called karma, to fulfill the law so that we can die to all imperfection and resurrect within a higher state. So, it is different from the vice: to be jealous is an ego, that wants something that someone else has and despises the other person for it. But the jealousy of God is the profound will and enthusiasm that divinity has when working on our behalf, pushing us to change, and inspiring us with inquietudes, longing within our heart, to want to inspire towards these mysteries and to experience them. Question: What other stories are there or examples of crucifixion, occurring in other religions who represent Christ, in regards to the symbol of the cross? Instructor: Different mythologies and different religions teach the same principles in different ways. The explicit teaching of dying on the cross was given by Jesus literally with his physical body in the Middle East two thousand years ago. From what I understand, he was really a radical master, Master Aberamentho, to teach that with his life, to sacrifice even his body to demonstrate that drama for us so we can understand a deep message about the narrative. There are different teachings and different faiths relating to the purification of the mind, especially crucifixion. To work with the cross―which is an alchemical symbol of man and woman, working together to overcome their defects and to transform energy―is particularly specific to Christianity, especially with the symbol of the cross. But you do find the cross in many world religions, in Hinduism, Nordic mythologies, the Rune Gibor, so to speak. You find that process mapped out in different ways in Buddhism. You find the Buddha is meditating and comprehending his errors while tempted by Mara while he is meditating beneath the Bodhi Tree, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is the same symbol, using that energy, overcoming temptation, introspecting, manifesting the divine. I think the most profound and elevated message came from Christ, who is a very high master, who really made a great sacrifice, to allow himself to be crucified so we can have that message. It was a great act of compassion and real tremendous sacrifice. If you study The Perfect Matrimony, especially, there are many examples of different traditions that explain the essential mysticism of the death of the ego. Even in Islam you find the war of Prophet Muhammed against the infidels, which is a symbol of working against your own defects. So, they are masked and coded in different ways, maybe not explicitly being crucified on the cross, but there are other examples of meditation and purification that are elaborated within the different traditions. 
Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican Christ, was crucified. You can study sacred texts online, especially. He is another example of a master who carried his cross amongst the streets of the Aztecs, specifically. You can study Aztec Christic Magic by Samael Aun Weor to learn more about the mysteries of Quetzalcoatl. Also, Kabbalah of Mayan Mysteries should have references there too.
Question: What is the descent into hell look like practically? It seems to imply to tolerate defects to a certain degree in order to gather experience about them. If so, this is a very dangerous matter, is it not? Instructor: Yes, it is. Practically speaking, there are levels to entering hell, so to speak. Obviously, a deep example of that is if you physically go to sleep, you are meditating and awaken consciousness within the internal worlds, you can find yourself within the hell regions, where you are outside your physical body, but are navigating those regions. That is one way where you can descend into hell and actually investigate certain defects of yours. But perhaps for many people who may not be proficient or efficient with astral travel, we enter hell many times in our daily life, in our psychological states. When you have an ordeal in life, a conflict in which you have a tremendous, strong sense of self emerge, a defect that is producing a lot of suffering within you―you are in hell. You are descending. You are facing yourself. The term descent, in terms of the initiatic studies, has to do with confronting and evaluating one's psychological states within a given circumstance, where you face a problem and your reaction to it, and the reaction is what is most compelling. How are you looking at yourself? Are you looking at yourself? Are you examining the intricacies and the subtleties of your mind: Pilate, your heart: Caiaphas, or your desires: Judas? Practically speaking, we descend in hell when we face ourselves, when we confront our own iniquities. Now it is important that in a sense, we have patience with ourselves, because it is difficult to practice. Obviously, if you have a challenge and a painful moment in your life, an ordeal, it can be very hard to transform it, especially if we are not training ourselves well enough. We have to have patience with ourselves, to understand we make mistakes, that we identify to a degree, more or less, with our errors. We need to tolerate ourselves in that regard, but we also have to be very firm and have no tolerance with our ego, and really go to war against it, to fight against it, to make the effort to really see what it is. That is how you gain valuable knowledge and experience―when you extract understanding from the different circumstances of life. This is why we mediate. We are observing ourselves throughout the day. We are shining light within our psychological interior, and we are looking for the dark conditions of the mind, which are lurking in the shadows, our defects, egos, so that we gain knowledge about them, by looking at what they are and how they function, think, feel, and do. It is a very intricate and dangerous matter, because if we identify with and give our energy to our thoughts, feelings and desires―thinking that we are thinking and feeling that we are feeling and acting on a negative impulse―obviously we waste energy. We fall down, so to speak, in the path of the cross, in a manner of speaking, in a psychological sense. It is a very dangerous matter, and we have to be very careful. Question: I have always been saying “אישים Ishim, assist me in the name of שׁדי Shaddai” in the Invocation of Solomon. You said it is אל שׁדי El Shaddai. Is that correct? Instructor: You can say שׁדי Shaddai or אל שׁדי El Shaddai. It really is the same power, that you are invoking the power of the Holy Spirit, the Almighty Living God within sexuality. I personally say אל שׁדי El Shaddai. We might have a more updated translation in one of the more recent publications of the Gnostic Prayer Book. Specifically, you can say אל שׁדי El Shaddai. “אישים Ishim, assist me in the name of שׁדי Shaddai” or אל שׁדי El Shaddai. They are both effective. What matters is that you are praying to that aspect of the Tree of Life and to your inner sephiroth to receive divine aid. Question: Easter has become a celebratory holiday. In light of everything it symbolizes, should it be celebrated? Should it still be a holiday for us? What should we be doing? What can we use this time for in a practical sense, or are we just going about our regular inner work?
Instructor: You can perform the Eucharist in remembrance and recognition of Christ’s sacrifice, the Master Aberamentho, but also, to inspire those divine solar forces within you so that you can charge your heart with Christ, that force. We should celebrate Easter. It is a very sacred day. It is a holy day, which we can follow or adhere to by practicing deep meditation, especially the Eucharist, and deepening our psychological work, because that really is the Essence that determines our spiritual trajectory. Our inner work is based on the work of Christ. The energies of the Eucharist are especially powerful for that. You can perform that in your home. You do not necessarily have to do it in a group. That can really give you a lot of strength and encouragement for change.
Question: In this lecture you referenced the sixth commandment, because the number sixty came up in a reading. It made me wonder: how we can make numerology connections correctly? Also, if there are ten commandments, but the numerological tablets only go up from 1 to 9, how do we differentiate the first commandment from the tenth in the text? Instructor: In terms of numerology, to really be adept at interpreting the numbers within scripture, you have to be very familiar with Kabbalah, but also the sacred arcana of The Eternal Tarot. There are different courses online on The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah and the Twenty-Two Arcana of Hebrew and Tarot, especially, where you can study what these numbers signify. Once you have a very profound knowledge of what those principles mean, it becomes easier when you interpret the scriptures, to understand the correlations and connections. Specifically, the Tarot is the building blocks of the scriptures, from East or West. If you really want to understand what these different scriptures signify, study the synthesis, which is the arcana, the laws of the sacred, eternal tarot. The number six can relate to the sixth commandment, as I said, “Thou shall not fornicate,” which in Hebrew or in Jewish mysticism is very profound. But if you really want to understand in a deeper sense the ten commandments but even the twelve commandments of Moses, there are more than just ten that are commonly propagated in the world. You can go to glorian.org. There is a course about that, The Twelve Commandments of Moses, I believe, where you can study in a very deep way the significance of those laws, which relate to the tarot especially, but also Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, and many forms of mysticism that also complement each other. There are many aspects and layers to this knowledge. I gave a synthesis, but also a brief overview of different myths that relate to numerology and Hebrew and the Tree of Life. In synthesis, it all boils down to your practical work, but if you want to study, you can. These resources will help you to elaborate deeper into the meaning of these numbers’ application to your life. Question: Would you say that נצח Netzach in the Tree of Life is related to Pilate? Can you go into the three traitors and how they relate to the Tree of Life? Is there a polarity of inferior and superior in the sephiroth they represent? Can you please describe their polarities? 
Instructor: Yes, we can relate the Tree of Life to the three traitors, specifically. We say that the Tree of Life relates to the aspects of our Being. The three traitors really belong to hell. They belong to קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth, the subconsciousness, the hell realms, the inferior dimension, the inverted dimension of the Tree of Life. Now our mind is נצח Netzach, which is thought, the mental body, the mental sphere, which in us is abused by Pilate, so to speak, our lunar mind. הוד Hod, the emotions, can relate to the desires of the heart, which, there is correlation to Judas especially, to the moon, because astrologically, הוד Hod is related to the moon, but also to יסוד Yesod, which is desire, sexual energy, sexual force. Judas takes the force of יסוד Yesod and abuses it within hell. Pilate takes the power of the mind within נצח Netzach and abuses it within the inferior worlds. Then Caiaphas, which is our evil will, takes the potential energies of our willpower within תפארת Tiphereth, and conditions and channels them within קְלִיפּוֹת Klipoth, through desire.
While the Tree of Life in itself is pure, in its superior aspects of our Being, we do find those regions reflected within the sephiroth themselves within the infernal planes. You can say נצח Netzach, הוד Hod, יסוד Yesod, and מלכות Malkuth have a polarity, but we use this image of the ten sephiroth and its inversion to arrive at an easier understanding or grasp of what these principles imply. The ten sephiroth above are of the Being, but their inversion is in hell, which is really where the three traitors belong. Yes, they do relate to the sephiroth. They are the shadows of the Tree of Life. They are in Islam known as the tree of زقوم Zaqqum, the tree of death. We find that parallel of hell within all religions specifically. I wish you a Happy Easter, that you enjoy the holiday, in practice and in meditation especially, a reflection upon Christ within you.
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