Acceptance without understanding?
Over a century ago when Sunday School was a new idea, a little girl managed to memorize one hundred Bible verses. When she was given an award by the Sunday School teacher during a church service, the teacher asked her what was the latest verse she had memorized. Dutifully, she rattled it off. “And can you tell us what that verse means?” asked the teacher. The little girl stood silent for a moment, and then in a voice filled with surprise and wonder responded: “Skip To Ma Lou! Do all them words mean something?” The vast majority of people have very little idea what their religion teaches and few read their scriptures with any degree of interest. They just “believe” and that is that. They seldom think at all about their religion, though they may gossip a lot about religious politics and their fellow religionists.
It should be obvious that believing in a religion out of habit or heritage is undesirable, but the Aquarian Gospel gives us an interesting variant:
“For many days the Grecian masters listened to the clear incisive words that Jesus spoke, and while they could not fully comprehend the things he said, they were delighted and accepted his philosophy” (Aquarian Gospel 45:1).
One sign of a valueless philosophy or religion is its simplistic nature. For example, the beliefs of the church in which I was brought up could have been written in a paragraph of very modest size. Protestants especially love making little short formulas that “even a child can understand”–and that is what is wrong with them. Real religion is for adults with fully developed minds, and it is vast in scope, requiring real thought and a great deal of exploration to just comprehend its general outline. Such religion is a lifetime study. It was because of this that the Greek students of philosophy could accept the teaching of Jesus, realizing that there was a great deal more to it, and to whose pursuit they should devote themselves.
There is another aspect to this, however. It is not legitimate to accept a philosophy simply because its presentation is appealing and it appears logical–“makes sense”–because true religion is beyond intellectualization. It is, though, legitimate to accept a philosophy through genuine spiritual intuition. Some people are able to hear a teacher, read a book, or attend a public gathering and know they are in the presence of truth. Often this is an instant knowing, especially when encountering a truly holy person. I have never figured out that someone was a saint–I always knew at the first sight.
One of the first saints I recognized was a simple little lady who was always silent and made no impression on anyone around her. But even now I can vividly see her walking toward me, smiling as though we were old friends. First I saw the subtle white radiance with which she and her clothes glowed, and then when she got about a dozen feet away I felt the holy fire in her aura. Another time I was in a museum looking at some boring display. “For some reason” I looked up and met the gaze of a woman across the room. I almost took a step back, I was so struck by how conscious she was. When I came out of the building she was waiting for me and took me aside to where no one could hear. There she spoke to me words so amazing that I did not fully understand them until around fifteen years later. Once I saw a man standing completely still with his back to me as I was walking toward him. I stopped and looked, then went forward a few feet and stopped again, just looking and experiencing. Then I knew he must be a great saint I had been told about. And so he was.
This is why meditation is so crucial to our spiritual life. The intuition we develop through meditation is our only worthy guide as we attempt to find our way through the darkness of this world to the Light Beyond.
Called by the oracle
“One day as Jesus and Apollo walked beside the sea, a Delphic courier came in haste and said, Apollo, master, come; the Oracle would speak to you. Apollo said to Jesus, Sir, if you would see the Delphic Oracle, and hear it speak, you may accompany me. And Jesus did accompany him. The masters went in haste; and when they came to Delphi, great excitement reigned” (Aquarian Gospel 45:2-4).
Notice that Apollo and Jesus are referred to as “the masters.” Both were masters, not just Jesus, even though it was Jesus that would eventually become the Christ.
The oracle speaks
“And when Apollo stood before the Oracle it spoke and said: Apollo, sage of Greece, the bell strikes twelve; the midnight of the ages now has come. Within the womb of nature ages are conceived; they gestate and are born in glory with the rising sun, and when the agic sun goes down the age disintegrates and dies. The Delphic age has been an age of glory and renown; the gods have spoken to the sons of men through oracles of wood, and gold, and precious stone. The Delphic sun has set; the Oracle will go into decline; the time is near when men will hear its voice no more.
“The gods will speak to man by man. The living Oracle now stands within these sacred groves; the Logos from on high has come. From henceforth will decrease my wisdom and my power; from henceforth will increase the wisdom and the power of him, Immanuel. Let all the masters stay; let every creature hear and honor him, Immanuel.
“And then the Oracle spoke not again for forty days, and priests and people were amazed. They came from near and far to hear the Living Oracle speak forth the wisdom of the gods. And Jesus and the Grecian sage returned, and in Apollo’s home the Living Oracle spoke forth for forty days” (Aquarian Gospel 45:5-14).
Every two thousand years we enter into a new era or age when the vernal equinox falls in a new zodiacal sign. Jesus was born at the beginning of the Piscean Age when the influence of the prior, Arian Age, was ending. During the last century of an age a great deal of upheaval occurs to prepare for the coming age, and the first century of an age accelerates even more with changes that establish the characteristics of that age. We only entered the Aquarian Age fully in the year 2000.
Despite the desperate attempts of so many to prove that Jesus was not a historical figure, the fact is that many of the ancient oracles, the Sybils, prophesied of Jesus, as did the Druidic oracles. The Greek oracles did the same, some even announcing Jesus’ birth. After the resurrection of Jesus many of the oracles of the Mediterranean world fell silent, most of them giving a last message in which they spoke of Jesus’ bringing in an era where they would not be needed. For example, there was an oracle on the pinnacle of Mount Athos in Greece. When the Virgin Mary came there, the oracle told everyone to go down to the harbor to meet and venerate her. The oracle stated that now there would be no need for it, and that it would not speak again–and it did not. Some of the early persecutions of Christians arose from anger at the silencing of the oracles, even though the oracles themselves urged the people to embrace the new age’s teacher and teaching. That was because the teachings of Christ were of a totally esoteric and mystical character that were a continuation of the ancient wisdom, not a break with it.
Rare knowledge
“One day Apollo said to Jesus as they sat alone, This sacred Delphic Oracle has spoken many a helpful word for Greece. Pray tell me what it is that speaks. Is it an angel, man, or living god?
“And Jesus said, It is not angel, man, nor god that speaks. It is the matchless wisdom of the master minds of Greece, united in a master mind. This giant mind has taken to itself the substances of soul, and thinks, and hears, and speaks. It will remain a living soul while master minds feed it with thought, with wisdom and with faith and hope.
“But when the master minds of Greece shall perish from the land, this giant master mind will cease to be, and then the Delphic Oracle will speak no more” (Aquarian Gospel 45:15-20).
These verses contain knowledge that all should know, for they explain the real nature of many “gods” and suchlike. Many are aware of the existence of thoughtforms–energy fields that are produced by thought or sound. These fields have a basic, characteristic vibration, and do influence people, but that is all. Jesus is telling us that concentrated thought has the capacity to unite and coalesce into a kind of energy robot that, since all energy is fundamentally conscious, can develop a kind of consciousness of its own and assume an independent existence–at least temporarily. This can take place in various ways, some of them intentional and some of them unintentional.
It is literally possible, like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, to create artificial beings that can be directed to perform certain tasks, such as the Golem of Rabbi Lowe which gave rise to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice legend. The Golem was animated matter, whereas Jesus is speaking of energy entities that may or may not be visible to ordinary sight. History has recorded many instances of such beings. Abraham of Cologne supplied King Sigismund of Poland with an army of them that brought him victory. A friend of mine attended a gathering of African princes in Cairo. Some of them told her in confidence that despite all the warring going on in their countries at the time, “you will not find a single widow or orphan.” Then they explained that their shamans had the power to create duplicates of their warriors and that the duplicates were fighting and getting “killed” in battle. Both Dion Fortune and Alexandra David-Neel wrote of their experiences in producing energy entities that got away from their control and became negative.
At many healing shrines throughout history, it has not been the deity or saint who healed, but the mighty thoughtform being created by the faith and intentions of those that came for healing. Many “gods” are this kind of being, which is why they often require sacrifices to replenish the energy expended when they answer prayers.
Paramhansa Yogananda explained that “Satan” is the same kind of being, but of cosmic proportions, drawing its existence and power from negative energies throughout the universe, especially from sentient beings. Hatred, anger, fear, suffering, and negative desires and deeds are the main sources of Satanic being.
There is also a kind of “God-Thing” existing on positive energies, especially faith and good will. Known as the Mahat Tattwa, this was originally brought into being by Ishwara, the Creator, and is a kind of mirror-reflection of Ishwara that is formed of the fundamental creative energies of the cosmos–a kind of energy clone of divinity. This is what usually answers prayers and even speaks and appears to people, for in essence God is pure Spirit and never “does” anything. The Mahat Tattwa is the intermediary, the instrument for all divine contact. Through the Mahat Tattwa God communicates with sentient beings, for no one can “see” God and live (Exodus 33:20). That is why the Apostle John wrote (John 1:18): “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” through the agency of the Mahat Tattwa which is the reflection in creation of his “face.”
Most authentic oracles and prophets really are “channeling” the Mahat Tattwa, but since it is a reflection of God, communications with or from it are ultimately from God. It is like a telephone that is not the person you are speaking with, but relays that person’s words.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: The Real God