The Universal Gnostic Church: Gnostic Lesson 4

[ecosophia]

Here's the fourth Gnostic Lesson, which covers the third of the Universal Gnostic Church's minor orders, the Order of Reader. This should take you another month of work. Yes, the painting's another of Jung's; oddly, he could paint almost anything well except human beings. (That seems to have been a cultural thing in the German-speaking world in his time; Adolf Hitler, who was otherwise quite a gifted watercolorist, couldn't paint a realistic human figure.)

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Gnostic Lesson Four

The Order of Reader

The training of the Reader is dedicated to the analysis of your mental life, and to the sense of sight.  As we become more mentally aware of who we really are, we gain insight into what makes us tick, what drives us to do what we do. This insight leads us to search deeper within ourselves. There we discover peace, love and light—the peace which passeth understanding, the love of the Divine and all that is, and the light, which is the Light of the World and the light which is us.

We use our sense of sight to read the word of man and the Word of the Divine. We use it to see the world of man and the World of the Divine. As we refine our sight, we begin to see what is really there. We see the Love of the Divine in everything, the rocks and mountains, the plants and flowers, the birds and animals, mankind and life. We see the light behind the thing. We begin to see this world as the spiritual world it is.

It's important to begin the process of opening and developing your third eye while serving as a Doorkeeper and learning to become a Reader.  The third eye is part of your subtle body. It is located roughly where, in your physical body, the base of your nose meets your forehead.  The opening of the third eye is a gradual process, beginning with a dim sense of “something present” and developing from there.

Your spiritual growth depends in part upon your being able to perceive and work in the Astral World.  Until your third eye opens you're basically blind in the Astral.  Don't let that bother you.  As you practice the techniques you have already learned, your third eye will open more quickly than you might expect.  The work with the elements you have done in your previous Essene practices, and the three attunements you have received, will help you begin to open the third eye.  Many other spiritual practices do the same thing.

You have already learned that you are more than your material body, and that you are more than your emotions. Now you must learn that you are more than your ideas and thoughts.  Many people identify themselves with their ideas and thoughts, and so the fear that they might be wrong about something cripples their ability to deal with life. We’re all wrong about many things, all the time. As children of the Divine we still have much to learn about the universe and about ourselves, and that means that right now we’re still wrong about a lot of things. Get used to it. We have all eternity to learn and grow into the truth that will set us free.

In ancient times just as in the present, the Reader of a church or temple has always had an important place.  It was his work to read the sacred narratives aloud, so that others present were instructed and inspired. In the same way, you must learn to communicate the wisdom teachings of the world to yourself and to others through study, reading, and most important, through the way you live your life. Teaching by example is always the most effective way of education.

The Office of Reader is associated with the faculty of sight.  As a Reader it is your task to see clearly what is written, whether in books, or in the faces or hearts of other people, or in the Unseen. You may find it useful from this point on to put more time and effort into developing your own intuitive talents.

While serving as Readers, you are expected to thoroughly examine your thinking and address any weaknesses you find.  None of us can know everything there is to be known, nor can we be sure of thinking clearly and coming to accurate conclusions in every case, but we can work toward those goals. Reading books that make you think is one very good way to help yourself grow mentally.  Journaling is another way:  by letting ourselves write down our thoughts freely, without suppressing or editing anything, we learn more about how we think and can identify ways in which we can improve our thinking.

Most of the time, if we have trouble thinking clearly about something, the trouble is rooted in our feelings. Most of the time, in turn, problems with our feelings are rooted in our habitual thoughts and beliefs!  If we believe we are inadequate, for example, that belief becomes the anchor for feelings of depression and misery, and these in turn help feed the belief that we are inadequate.

The work of the Octagon Society, which can be found here, is one way to break this vicious circle. If you have not already taken up that work, you might consider it now. If you have already done the work, this might be a good time to review it and to see if you can release more of the burdens of your past.

We all function as Readers in our lives.  We constantly read our surroundings, the people we encounter, and our own thoughts and feelings and experiences. Sometimes it is appropriate for us to read aloud from those sources of wisdom, for the benefit of others. At other times it is appropriate for us to remain silent. It is said we speak with others with our mouth, but we speak to animals by our actions and with plants with our emotions.  It is further said we speak with the Divine through our thoughts and we listen with our inner ear.  Our inner ear is our intuition.

Your Work as a Doorkeeper

While you prepare yourself to become a Reader, you remain a Doorkeeper as well as a Cleric.  Continue to make prayer a part of your daily life, and to perform the sacraments of blessing and naming whenever you have the opportunity to do so.

You may also find it useful to look for opportunities to open doors for other people and to discover what doors other people are opening for you.  Make it a regular practice to examine the troublesome people in your life.  They trouble you because you have a door to open for them or because they have a door to open for you.  Meditate and ask the Divine to reveal to you what door you need to open for each troublesome person or what you need to do so they will open the door for you.  Pray for Divine guidance in dealing with them.  Try to determine what it is you need to do for all the troublesome people in your life.

Another approach is to ask these people what you can do to serve them, or to help them; ask them what they need from you.  It often happens that when we ask other people how we may help them, the Divine intervenes in their lives to help us identify what we need to do to resolve the current situation.

Opening a door is always providing a service.  Sometimes all we need to do is point these individuals in the right direction because the door is already open.  Other times we need to do something, provide some service for them.  Often times all we need to do is learn how to accept them and forgive them so they can get on with their lives. 

Whatever is required to open the door for them is our responsibility to discover.  It's part of the work we need to do to resolve this situation, to balance the karma.  There's no judgment involved.  You're not a bad person because you have a debt to repay.  The troublesome people in your life are not bad people just because you owe them something, because you need to open the door for them.

The Sacrament of Teaching

Many Christian churches practice the sacrament of Confirmation for people who have been baptized, whether as infants or as adults.  In Confirmation the individual commits to membership in the church and to obedience to its teachings. The Universal Gnostic Church does not do this as we consider that commitment to be a wholly personal matter between the individual and the Divine.

For those individuals who wish to make a public commitment to their faith, we encourage clergy of the Universal Gnostic Church to use the sacrament of naming, which was discussed in the previous lesson and is one of the duties of the Order of Doorkeeper. The ceremony of naming, when used for this purpose, can be expanded by giving the person receiving the sacrament a space to state, to the clergyperson and to anyone else present, the commitments that he or she is making at that time.

The sacrament assigned to the Order of Reader, rather, is the sacrament of teaching. Once you have completed the requirements for this Minor Order and become a Reader, you have the right and duty to perform the sacrament of teaching for other people under the auspices of the Universal Gnostic Church.

The sacrament of teaching may be performed in many ways and there is no set ritual for it. By this stage in your studies you have learned many things that you can teach to others, and it is your place to pass on those teachings to anyone who wants to receive them. Please note, however, that you cannot require anyone to learn from you. No matter how much you think that someone needs to learn what you have to teach, you must give them the freedom to choose otherwise.

In many situations the best way to teach is simply to teach by example. If you live a life of wisdom in harmony with the Divine, those who need what you have to teach and are ready to receive it will be drawn to you. There is an old proverb that says, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”  It is just as true that when the teacher is ready, the student appears.  If no students appear for you, consider the possibility that you are not yet ready to teach them. If this upsets you, you may be trying to teach people as a way to exercise authority over them and to bolster your own ego. This does no good for you or anyone else.

Ceremony of Commitment for a Reader

Once you have put at least a month into the work outlined above you will have completed the traditional requirements to become a Reader 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 Reader 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 the your Cleric and Doorkeeper ceremonies of commitment. You should wear your alb in the ceremony.

The ritual itself consists of seven steps. 

Step One is setting up your temple.  This is done in the same way as in the Cleric ceremony.

Step Two is to establish sacred space around your chair and altar. This can be done in any way you prefer. If you are a student of any magical or esoteric tradition, for example, the opening ceremony you use for that tradition is appropriate for this.

Optional ceremony for sacred space:  If you do not have some other way of establishing sacred space, one option is to provide yourself with lit incense in a burner and a cup of water. Take up the cup, and circle around the outside of the space, dipping your fingers into the water and flicking droplets around the space. When you are finished, say, “May this place be purified in the name of (whatever name you use for the Divine).” Put the cup down, pick up the incense, and circle around the outside of the space, carrying the incense with you and waving the smoke around the space with your free hand. When you are finished, say, “May this place be consecrated in the name of (whatever name you use for the Divine).” This completes the ceremony.

Step Three is to open your ordination 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 Reader. 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 Reader and to serve as a Reader 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 eyelids and on the lips.  In anointing yourself, say something like: "I anoint myself to perform all the duties of a Reader, so help me (name of the Divine being used).”

Step Seven is to close the ceremony.  Say a prayer of thanksgiving, thanking the Divine for the blessings that have been conferred on you.  Then extinguish the candles, put everything away, and go about the rest of your life.

Please note 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 a Reader. 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 Reader.  You are now ready to go forth and do such work as the Divine asks of you.