Teacher Lesson 6
Oct. 6th, 2022 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
Here's the sixth lesson for the 5° grade of Teacher, with the last of the Minor Orders of the Universal Gnostic Church and a few other things for your contemplation. Those of you who have been copying each post as it appears, take heart: we're almost done. Autumn Equinox Ceremony
This ritual should be performed within 48 hours at most of the moment of the equinox, which you can find online or in any almanac. It is around September 22 in the Northern Hemisphere. The ceremony is performed as follows.
Set up the altar with all four candles on it, place a chair in the west facing the altar, and open the temple in the grade of Seeker with the opening ceremony.
Speak aloud the following words.
“The Autumn Equinox has arrived, and the Sun and Earth renew the bonds that unite them. In this time of balanced powers, I invoke the blessings of the powers of nature upon myself, the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, and the Earth.
“In the world of nature, summer has given way and the Sun sinks from the heights of heaven into the south. The leaves of the trees blaze with orange and red as the fields turn harvest gold. The cries of the geese sound overhead as they begin their long journey toward their winter homes. Squirrels leap from branch to branch as they prepare for the long cold months to come; the sound of clashing antlers rings through the woods as stags test their strength before the watchful eyes of does.
“The ancients knew this season as the harvest time of the year, not only for those who gathered in the sheaves and led the cattle down from summer pastures but also for the wise whose harvest is the lore of past ages and the whispers of the Unseen. They recognized at this time the power of the desire cherished in the heart’s silence and the bonds that reach from person to person like the sea uniting shore with shore; they called down power from the Sun and called up wisdom from the Earth to illuminate their hearts.
“Therefore the work of this season begins from the quarter of water.”
Face west. Say the following words, visualizing the presence of the elements of air and water in their quarters, and feeling the polarity between them: “West; East. water; air. The realm of the Heart; the realm of the Mind. May they enter into the great harmony.”
Say the following words, visualizing the presence of the elements of fire and earth in their quarters, and feeling the polarity between them: “North; South. Earth; Fire. The realm of the Body; the realm of the Spirit. May they enter into the great harmony.”
Visualize the presence of all four elements in their quarters, and feel the complex fourfold relationship among them. Say: “The realm of the Waves; the realm of the Stones; the realm of the Winds; the realm of the Flames. May they enter into the great harmony.”
Face east and say: “By the hawk of May in the heights of morning, I invoke the air and the powers of the air! May their blessings be with all beings during the season to come.” As you say this, imagine a blazing star at the zenith, almost infinitely far above the temple; this is Regulus, the Royal Star governing the ceremony.
Face south and say: “By the white stag of the summer greenwood, I invoke the fire and the powers of the fire! May their blessings be with all beings during the season to come.” As you say this, imagine a ray of light descending from the star to the golden sphere of the Sun, blazing at zenith above the temple, high above but much closer than the star.
Face west and say: “By the salmon of wisdom who dwells in the sacred pool, I invoke the water and the powers of the water! May their blessings be with all beings during the season to come.” As you say this, imagine the ray of light descending further to the sphere of the full Moon standing at zenith above the temple, high above but much closer than the Sun.
Ninth, face north and say: “By the great bear who guards the starry heavens, I invoke the earth and the powers of the earth! May their blessings be with all beings during the season to come.” As you say this, imagine the ray of light descending from the shining Moon all the way to the temple itself. The entire temple is seen to be filled with rainbow-colored light, which radiates outward in all directions.
Face the altar, and say: “In this season of autumn may the Sun send forth his rays of blessing; may the Earth receive that blessing and bring forth her abundance.”
Be seated and enter into meditation, taking the season of autumn as your theme. When you have meditated for a time, cast a divination using any divinatory method you prefer, and take it as a guide for your work during the season ahead. Perform the closing ceremony to finish.
* * * *
At this stage the thirteenth chapter of The Kybalion may be studied with advantage.
CHAPTER XIII: Gender
Symbolism:
Grade: 7°, Adept
Emerald Table: “Hence are all wonderful adaptations, of which this is the manner.”
Cabala: Tiphareth to Chesed, the Path of Transformation
Tarot: Arcanum XIII, Death
Geomancy: Amissio—Venus in Taurus
Text:
“Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.”–The Kybalion.
The great Seventh Hermetic Principle–the Principle of Gender–embodies the truth that there is Gender manifested in everything–that the Masculine and Feminine principles are ever present and active in all phases of phenomena, on each and every plane of life. At this point we think it well to call your attention to the fact that Gender, in its Hermetic sense, and Sex in the ordinarily accepted use of the term, are not the same.
The word “Gender” is derived from the Latin root meaning “to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.” A moment’s consideration will show you that the word has a much broader and more general meaning than the term “Sex,” the latter referring to the physical distinctions between male and female living things. Sex is merely a manifestation of Gender on a certain plane of the Great Physical Plane–the plane of organic life. We wish to impress this distinction upon your minds, for the reason that certain writers, who have acquired a smattering of the Hermetic Philosophy, have sought to identify this Seventh Hermetic Principle with wild and fanciful, and often reprehensible, theories and teachings regarding Sex.
The office of Gender is solely that of creating, producing, generating, etc., and its manifestations are visible on every plane of phenomena. It is somewhat difficult to produce proofs of this along scientific lines, for the reason that science has not as yet recognized this Principle as of universal application. But still some proofs are forthcoming from scientific sources. In the first place, we find a distinct manifestation of the Principle of Gender among the corpuscles, ions, or electrons, which constitute the basis of Matter as science now knows the latter, and which by forming certain combinations form the Atom, which until lately was regarded as final and indivisible.
The latest word of science is that the atom is composed of a multitude of corpuscles, electrons, or ions (the various names being applied by different authorities) revolving around each other and vibrating at a high degree and intensity. But the accompanying statement is made that the formation of the atom is really due to the clustering of negative corpuscles around a positive one–the positive corpuscles seeming to exert a certain influence upon the negative corpuscles, causing the latter to assume certain combinations and thus “create” or ”generate” an atom. This is in line with the most ancient Hermetic Teachings, which have always identified the Masculine principle of Gender with the “Positive,” and the Feminine with the “Negative” Poles of Electricity (so-called).
Now a word at this point regarding this identification. The public mind has formed an entirely erroneous impression regarding the qualities of the so-called 'Negative” pole of electrified or magnetized Matter. The terms Positive and Negative are very wrongly applied to this phenomenon by science. The word Positive means something real and strong, as compared with a Negative unreality or weakness. Nothing is further from the real facts of electrical phenomena. The so-called Negative pole of the battery is really the pole in and by which the generation or production of new forms and energies is manifested. There is nothing “negative” about it.
The best scientific authorities now use the word “Cathode” in place of “Negative,” the word Cathode coming from the Greek root meaning “descent; the path of generation, etc.” From the Cathode pole emerge the swarm of electrons or corpuscles; from the same pole emerge those wonderful “rays” which have revolutionized scientific conceptions during the past decade. The Cathode pole is the Mother of all of the strange phenomena which have rendered useless the old text-books, and which have caused many long accepted theories to be relegated to the scrap-pile of scientific speculation. The Cathode, or Negative Pole, is the Mother Principle of Electrical Phenomena, and of the finest forms of matter as yet known to science. So you see we are justified in refusing to use the term “Negative” in our consideration of the subject, and in insisting upon substituting the word “Feminine” for the old term. The facts of the case bears out in this, without taking the Hermetic Teachings into consideration. And so we shall use the word “Feminine” in the place of “Negative” in speaking of that pole of activity.
The latest scientific teachings are that the creative corpuscles or electrons are Feminine (science says “they are composed of negative electricity–we say they are composed of Feminine energy). A Feminine corpuscle becomes detached from, or rather leaves, a Masculine corpuscle, and starts on a new career. It actively seeks a union with a Masculine corpuscle, being urged thereto by the natural impulse to create new forms of Matter or Energy. One writer goes so far as to use the term “it at once seeks, of its own volition, a union,” etc. This detachment and uniting form the basis of the greater part of the activities of the chemical world.
When the Feminine corpuscle unites with a Masculine corpuscle, a certain process is begun. The Feminine particles vibrate rapidly under the influence of the Masculine energy, and circle rapidly around the latter. The result is the birth of a new atom. This new atom is really composed of a union of the Masculine and Feminine electrons, or corpuscles, but when the union is formed the atom is a separate thing, having certain properties, but no longer manifesting the property of free electricity. The process of detachment or separation of the Feminine electrons is called “ionization.” These electrons, or corpuscles, are the most active workers in Nature's field. Arising from their unions, or combinations, manifest the varied phenomena of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, attraction, repulsion, chemical affinity and the reverse, and similar phenomena. And all this arises from the operation of the Principle of Gender on the plane of Energy.
The part of the Masculine principle seems to be that of directing a certain inherent energy toward the Feminine principle, and thus starting into activity the creative processes. But the Feminine principle is the one always doing the active creative work–and this is so on all planes. And yet, each principle is incapable of operative energy without the assistance of the other. In some of the forms of life, the two principles are combined in one organism. For that matter, everything in the organic world manifests both genders–there is always the Masculine present in the Feminine form, and the Feminine form. The Hermetic Teachings include much regarding the operation of the two principles of Gender in the production and manifestation of various forms of energy, etc., but we do not deem it expedient to go into detail regarding the same at this point, because we are unable to back up the same with scientific proof, for the reason that science has not as yet progressed thus far. But the example we have given you of the phenomena of the electrons or corpuscles will show you that science is on the right path, and will also give you a general idea of the underlying principles.
Some leading scientific investigators have announced their belief that in the formation of crystals there was to be found something that corresponded to “sex-activity,” which is another straw showing the direction the scientific winds are blowing. And each year will bring other facts to corroborate the correctness of the Hermetic Principle of Gender. It will be found that Gender is in constant operation and manifestation in the field of inorganic matter, and in the field of Energy or Force. Electricity is now generally regarded as the “Something” into which all other forms of energy seem to melt or dissolve. The “Electrical Theory of the Universe” is the latest scientific doctrine, and is growing rapidly in popularity and general acceptance. And it thus follows that if we are able to discover in the phenomena of electricity–even at the very root and source of its manifestations–a clear and unmistakable evidence of the presence of Gender and its activities, we are justified in asking you to believe that science at last has offered proofs of the existence in all universal phenomena of that great Hermetic Principle–the Principle of Gender.
It is not necessary to take up your time with the well known phenomena of the “attraction and repulsion” of the atoms; chemical affinity; the “loves and hates” of the atomic particles; the attraction or cohesion between the molecules of matter. These facts are too well known to need extended comment from us. But, have you ever considered that all of these things are manifestations of the Gender Principle?
Can you not see that the phenomena is “on all fours” with that of the corpuscles or electrons? And more than this, can you not see the reasonableness of the Hermetic Teachings which assert that the very Law of Gravitation–that strange attraction by reason of which all particles and bodies of matter in the universe tend toward each other–is but another manifestation of the Principle of Gender, which operates in the direction of attracting the Masculine to the Feminine energies, and vice versa? We cannot offer you scientific proof of this at this time–but examine the phenomena in the light of the Hermetic Teachings on the subject, and see if you have not a better working hypothesis than any offered by physical science. Submit all physical phenomena to the test, and you will discern the Principle of Gender ever in evidence.
Let us now pass on to a consideration of the operation of the Principle on the Mental Plane. Many interesting features are there awaiting examination.
* * * *
The following text from the Gnostic Lessons is presented for your reflection, meditation, and study.
GNOSTIC LESSON SIX
The Order of Acolyte
Jack and Jill were called into the office one day. They were told that because of cutbacks they were being laid off. But if they wanted to wear an animal costume, they would not only stay on the payroll, they would receive an increase in salary and a big bonus in one year.
They looked over the options. Jack decided to wear the bear costume and Jill decided to wear the eagle costume. Both costumes fit just fine. The only problem was that they were literally sewn into their costumes and had to wear them 24/7. They could attend to their daily chores, eat and drink, but they were unable to leave their costumes for the duration. Hence the large bonus they both looked forward to receiving.
Neither Jack nor Jill was able to shave but they could brush their teeth and continue to kiss each other among other things. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good arrangement for them except for one little problem. The problem was that after a couple of months Jack considered himself to be a bear and Jill thought she was an eagle. Their minds had shifted from being a human in a costume to being the costume.
So it is with our soul. Our soul decides to incarnate in a physical body, and so it does. The next thing you know, our soul begins to believe it is our body. It forgets it is a soul in a body and it begins to believe it is the body.
Here's the great secret: We are our soul. Our soul is us. We have always been our soul and we still are. In our ignorance we came to believe we are our ego, our personas and our body. But we are still our soul. We're just wearing a costume with many faces.
We are, all of us, a soul walking around in a three-layered costume. The outermost layer is our physical body, brain and our many personas. The next layer is our ego and the emotions and mind that comes with it. Our inner layer is our soul itself. But it turns out this is just a costume worn by our eternal spirit.
In alchemy there are three marriages. The first is when we integrate all our personas and wed the remaining persona to our ego. The second is when we raise up our ego and marry our soul. To raise up our ego really means that we become our soul and recognize we are our ego and we are our soul and they are one and the same thing operating on different levels. Then I bring my ego up to the level of my soul and the marriage is accomplished. Finally, the third alchemical marriage occurs when I am able to become my spirit and raise up my soul to marry my spirit. Then I become fully integrated as the spirit the Divine created but I am more than I was before creating a series of costumes called my soul, ego, personas and body.
In the Tree of Life there are four worlds and they unite to form a higher world step by step. Earth unites with Water to form a Higher Earth and this evolves into Higher Water. Higher Water unites with Fire and evolves into Higher Fire. Higher Fire unites with Air and evolves into Higher Air. Higher Air unites with Spirit and becomes Enlightened Spirit.
These two explanations describe the same process. It all means we become aware of the possibilities, set our intentions and using our faith in ourselves and the Divine, we move ever upward toward the light of true knowledge. This is our spiritual path and we give it many names and describe it in many different ways.
As Acolytes we are to ponder these things.
Your Work as a Healer
By now I hope you don’t need to be reminded that you are still a Cleric, a Doorkeeper, a Reader, and a Healer as you approach your ceremony of commitment as an Acolyte. Daily prayer should be a regular part of your schedule of practices, and the sacraments of blessing, naming, teaching, and anointing should be familiar to you from repeated practice. You can accomplish a great deal of good in the world by continuing to do these things.
As you continue to pray and to perform the sacraments, consider expanding your understanding of healing. Illness in the narrow sense of the word is not the only thing that a Healer can heal through prayer, blessing, and anointment. Any time the world as we experience it falls short of the infinite understanding and bliss that is the nature of the Divine, healing may be called for. Along with sick bodies, many of us have sick hearts, sick minds, and sick souls. Those, too, can be healed by calling on the Divine using the sacramental means you have already learned.
Always remember, however, that consent is essential in healing. Many people do not want to be healed. Sometimes this is appropriate, as when a person realizes on some level that an illness is important as a way of working through difficult karma. Sometimes it has less positive motives. Nonetheless you have neither the right nor the power to heal someone who does not want to be healed. Always ask, always may sure the healing you offer is welcome.
You will also encounter people who say they want to be healed but will do everything in their power to cling to their illness. Here your work is more straightforward. Bless them, anoint them, and pray for them to receive as much healing as they are willing to accept. Silent prayer is usually helpful in such cases!
Each of us can only carry the burden of healing the world so far. Be careful not to exhaust or overload yourself in trying to help others. Healing yourself is also an appropriate use of your healing abilities. Praying for yourself is as important as praying for others. Treat yourself and others with equal kindness and you will help make the world a kinder place. Bless yourself and others equally and you will help make the world a more blessed place.
Life as Sacrament
You have learned and practiced the sacraments of blessing, naming, teaching, and anointing, the four formal sacraments that are assigned to the minor orders of the Universal Gnostic Church. Three other sacraments are reserved to priests, priestesses, and bishops. The sacraments of marriage and of divine service are reserved to the priesthood, and the sacrament of holy orders—the rites that pass on the priesthood of the Universal Gnostic Church—is reserved to bishops.
The custom of reserving the sacrament of marriage to the priesthood is purely legal in its origin, since most jurisdictions require ordination as a priest or priestess in order to officiate at a wedding. In reality, of course, the sacrament of marriage is performed and consecrated by the two people who say “I do,” and the officiant merely ratifies what has already happened in the hearts of those to be married. But the legal forms must be followed.
The custom of reserving the sacrament of divine service to the priesthood has deeper roots. Divine service is our term for the ceremonies and actions by which one person helps others make contact with the Divine. Those ceremonies and actions can take place in a church building on Sunday mornings, though they can equally well happen in other places and at other times. It is one thing to work toward closeness with the Divine oneself, and a much more complex, challenging, and important thing to help make this happen for others. The full training of the Gnostic priesthood is necessary in order to do this effectively, compassionately, and with a clear sense of the possibilities and problems that it entails.
The custom of reserving the ordination of priests to bishops, finally, is a simple reflection of the fact that a priest or priestess must have a complete working knowledge of the traditions of the Universal Gnostic Church in order to fulfill the priestly function. A bishop is an experienced and learned priest or priestess who has mastered the entire body of UGC tradition in theory and practice, and so can supervise the instruction and ordination of priests and priestesses.
The three sacraments just named, therefore, are not among the functions of Acolytes or anyone else holding one or more of the minor orders. Despite what was said above, however, recipients of the minor orders are not limited to the four sacraments of blessing, naming, teaching, and anointing. These are the four formal sacraments assigned to those orders, but the formal sacraments are only one small part of the world of sacramental action.
What is a sacrament? An action, performed with intention, that reconnects the world of ordinary experience with its roots in the Divine.
Any action can be a sacrament. Every action can be a sacrament. As you pursue your studies in preparation for your ceremony of commitment as an Acolyte, see how many activities in your daily life you can perform with intention in order to reconnect your world to the Divine. All of life can become a sacrament. You may not feel ready to make this a goal of yours yet, but be aware of the possibility, and be ready to make your actions function as a sacrament any time you realize that a conscious awareness of the presence of the Divine is needed.
Touch and Intuition
If you've been working with the practices you’ve already learned in these lessons, very likely you're already noticing things you never tasted, smelled, felt, heard or seen before. Your third eye is opening and you're becoming more aware of life. If you haven't noticed these things, continue your practices and you soon will.
Acolytes are assigned the sense of touch. Acolytes are encouraged to become more aware of the texture, temperature and moistness of the objects they touch. Texture can be smooth or rough and everything in-between. Temperature can be hot or cold, and anything in between. Moistness can be wet or extra dry and everything in between.
As you work your way through the Acolyte training, pay attention to the people and things you touch. Pay attention to the feel of the person or thing. Allow your tactile sense to improve and become more sensitive to the things you touch. As you pay attention to your tactile sense, your sense of touch, you'll notice that your senses of taste and smell also continue to improve. As your senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell continue to improve in the physical world, your psychic senses will open and improve as well.
Your psychic sense of touch can be improved by using it daily. Relax your mind and body, do your meditative practices for a couple of minutes and pick up an object and hold it in your hands. Tune into the object and see what ideas come to your mind. Write them down, date them and forget the session for a couple of weeks. Pick up the same object in a couple of weeks and see what comes to your mind. Then review your previous notes and add to them.
You'll find that for some objects you remember the previous session very well. For these objects you'll pick up additional information. For those objects you don't remember, you'll also pick up additional information. Look for ways to make these two pieces of information come together as smoothly as if you did remember the first session. You'll also find yourself remembering false information when you do your second or later session. This false information will not be recorded and it's very doubtful the object will add more information to this false information. The object will give you additional information about the truth it gave you the first time. Its sessions like this that does more to validate your psychic sense of touch more than anything else.
We encourage you to continue working to develop your psychic senses as you work through the Acolyte training. Work on your senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Continue working daily on improving your physical senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. As these senses become more sensitive, your psychic senses will also improve. As a corollary, the more you work on improving your psychic senses, the more your physical senses will also improve.
As you work with objects, in addition to ideas that come from the object, you'll also pick up feelings from other people. Become aware of these feelings and make a record of them. After a few times, not more than a half-dozen times, it's time for you to work at picking up impressions from other people. Choose objects you know people have handled. Record the feelings you obtain. When it's appropriate to do so, you may even confirm these feelings with the person who left them on the object.
This process is called psychometry and it's the basic psychic sense used when working with other people. All you need is an object the person normally keeps near them, like a set of car keys. But any object with the person's vibration imbued in it will work just fine. Breathe deeply, relax, become centered and pick up the object. Tune into the object and relate the feelings you pick up. Write it down for future reference.
The same process can be used when you know you're going to shake the hand of a person. Breathe deeply and relax. Become centered then approach the person and shake his or her hand. Tune into the vibrations of this individual. Later when you get a few minutes you can tune in more deeply and pick up what you need to know.
Practice the lessons for the Acolyte. Expand your knowledge of these things through your private studies and devotions. When you've completed these requirements for becoming a Acolyte, you may proceed to the next lesson.
The Acolyte is commissioned to continue following the spiritual path he or she has started and to start evaluating ritual. The Acolyte should take it upon him or herself to study various kinds of ritual for various purposes and integrate what he or she finds of value into his or her own ritual practices. The office of Acolyte is an office of the student, and more particularly the student of ritual. All ritual is intended to be a direct link with the One Source for a particular reason. The Acolyte is counseled to discover the reason behind every ritual, to uncover the purpose of the ritual. This is done as a step preparatory to writing one's own rituals for specific purposes. The Acolyte may not be ready to write ritual, but the preliminary steps are now undertaken.
The Acolyte sees his or her alb as a symbol for three things: 1) the mastery of his or her emotions, 2) the rebirth or refining of his or her body, and 3) right thinking. It is by the correct use of our heart and intellect we are able to continue along our own spiritual path. By seeing things as they really are, we are able to honestly evaluate what next needs to be done. As we come to see, hear, taste, smell and touch the Divine in all things, as we come to intellectually understand all of creation, we are able to commune more and more with the Divine.
Ceremony of Commitment for an Acolyte
Once you have put at least a month into the work outlined above you will have completed the traditional requirements to become an Acolyte in the Universal Gnostic Church. This title confers no special privilege upon you. It doesn’t give you the right to tell other people what to do, or to preen yourself on your supposedly superior spiritual status. It simply reflects a commitment on your part to enter into a relationship with the Divine and to bless the world around you.
The ceremony is optional but we suggest it to you as a way of honoring your acceptance of the work before you. It's a ceremony of commitment, which affirms that you understand what it means to be a Acolyte and accept whatever the Divine may ask you to do. In order to perform this ritual, you will need all the same items you used in your previous ceremonies of commitment. The one difference is that you will wear your alb, since you are already a Cleric.
The ritual itself consists of seven steps.
Step One is setting up your temple. As a member of the Grade of Teacher in the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose you should prepare the space for the standard opening ritual.
Step Two is preparing your altar. Again, you should use the altar of the FHR for this purpose. All four candles should be placed on the altar.
Step Three is to open your ordination in an appropriate manner. The opening ritual you have learned should be used for this purpose. Open the temple on the Grade of Teacher. Then follow the opening ceremony with a prayer in which you thank the Divine, using whatever name you prefer, for all the gifts bestowed upon you. Ask for Divine blessings upon this holy space, the holy altar, the holy items placed upon the altar and ourselves. Ask the Divine to be present and to accept you as a Acolyte. You may use a spontaneous prayer, or write out a prayer in advance.
Step Four is to vow to the Divine to uphold the office of Acolyte and to serve as an Acolyte to the best of your ability; and then ask the Divine to assist you in keeping and fulfilling these vows.
Step Five is to purify yourself with holy water. This is done by dipping your fingertips into the water and using them to moisten your eyelids, your ears, your nostrils, and your lips with holy water. Dip your fingers into the water between each of these. While purifying yourself, say something like this: “I purify my senses so that I will be able to perceive the spiritual realms of existence, so help me (name of the Divine being used).”
Step Six is to anoint yourself with holy oil on the crown of your head and the base of your throat. In anointing yourself, say something like: "I anoint myself to perform all the duties of an Acolyte, so help me (name of the Divine being used).”
Step Seven is to close the ceremony. First say a prayer of thanksgiving, thanking the Divine for the blessings that have been conferred on you. Then close the temple in the Teacher Grade with the usual ritual, and go about the rest of your life.
Please note once again that the point of this ritual is not to impress anybody, including yourself. You gain no special status nor any authority over other people by becoming an Acolyte. The point of the ceremony is to humbly and sincerely communicate with the Divine, take your vow, and bless the work the Divine will hereafter ask of you. Having completed the ceremony you are a Acolyte, you are now ready to go forth and do such work as the Divine asks of you.
Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 07:16 pm (UTC)I am curious if the Universal Gnostic Church will be revived and Ordinations made available?
Best Regards,
Ian
Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 07:40 pm (UTC)Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 08:48 pm (UTC)Based on much of your work and comments in your blogs, I would think that as long as your practice had ritual, meditation, and divination as part of a daily practice it might qualify as a preliminary? Well, given that one actually completes it.
I am also very interested in the UGC revival.
Thank you for providing all of this!
Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 08:52 pm (UTC)Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 09:45 pm (UTC)What qualifies as completion of the OSA? As in, is the Order of the Temple of Solomon considered a part of it, or does finishing the OSA lessons posted here count as completion?
Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 09:58 pm (UTC)Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-07 10:59 pm (UTC)Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 08:13 pm (UTC)I know I have a ways to go in the FHR, but put me in the list for the Univeral Gnostic Church. That is my new goal that I am working towards.
Best Regards,
Ian
Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 08:53 pm (UTC)Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 08:57 pm (UTC)I do have the book you wrote on the Celtic Gnostic Church, which I believe is a part of the AODA. Would the Universal Gnostic Church be along similar lines? Would there be Similar requirements (outside of FHR, OSA, etc, Requirement) as outlined there? I know, I am probably putting the cart before the horse here, but this is exciting to me.
Ian
Re: Universal Gnostic Church
Date: 2022-10-06 09:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-09 01:27 am (UTC)I'm one of the ones saving every post-- and compiling them into their own single file, yet!
Looking forward to the Essenes material which you promised after the FHR.
- Cicada Grove
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-09 03:24 am (UTC)I've started formatting and editing the Essene lessons, so that'll be ready when it's time. There's material for 20-odd weekly posts -- less gargantuan than the FHR material!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-09 08:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-09 08:51 pm (UTC)