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ecosophia
And here we are at the last of the Gnostic Lessons, covering the minor order of Acolyte, which in the UGC is the last of the minor orders and the beginning of the transition to the major orders of Priest and Bishop. Next week I'll post a revised version of John Gilbert's recommended reading list for students of the UGC tradition, and after that -- why, then it will be time to post the details for those of you who are interested in potentially proceeding to the Priesthood or Priestesshood. * * * * *
Gnostic Lesson Six
The Order of Acolyte
The training of the Acolyte, the fifth and last of the minor orders, is dedicated to the sense of touch and the soul. Our soul is our true self. It is our soul that lives and experiences life through our physical, mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual bodies. Here's a little story that explains how the soul works:
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 spiritual 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. It’s sessions like this that do 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. 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 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. 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 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.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-25 07:23 am (UTC)I’m finding a lot of interesting ideas in this material that are encouraging the flow of awen. Have you in mind to turn this material into a book? Which will make accessing the information more convenient.
Kind regards
Averagejoe
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-25 06:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-26 01:05 am (UTC)I don't know why I am still astonished at the synchronicity of bits of knowledge that come through you to point my way as I bumble around, but I am.
The glass bead oracle is organized in such a way that one progresses from all beads being reversed (a time between cycles; potential; deep quiet of winter; a time of reflection; need to start over; reset) to earth only (beginning of a new cycle; need to focus on the material world; etc.) to water only, then earth and water together, then fire is brought in first alone, then with earth, then with water, then with both earth and water, and so on up to all beads being upright (completion of a cycle; balance; integration; etc.)
I read the above quote and my jaw dropped. There a whole lot more potential meaning in there than I realized. I keep going.
What do you mean by "Higher Earth/Water/Fire/Air"? As in working up the planes? Wouldn't one then cycle back to earth to go through another round of going higher up?
-Myriam
(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-26 04:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-26 08:20 pm (UTC)